NBA
Victor Wembanyama’s first game at Madison Square Garden was one of the worst of his young career, as the No. 1 draft pick managed just one basket in the first three quarters of the New York Knicks’ 126-105 victory over the San Antonio Spurs. The 7-foot-3 Wembanyama missed his first seven shots and had more airballs than field goals through three quarters, when the Knicks led by as much as 30 points. He was in danger of failing to reach double figures for the first time before scoring eight points in the fourth to finish with 14 on 4-for-14 shooting.
Lonnie Walker came off the bench to score 21 points and Day’Ron Sharpe added 11 points and 10 rebounds as the Brooklyn Nets beat the Clippers 100-93 and sent Los Angeles to its fourth road loss. Cam Thomas scored 14 points in the first half for the nets before leaving the game early in the third period with a sprained left ankle. Dorian Finney-Smith added 12 points for the Brooklyn, which snapped a two-game losing streak. Paul George scored 24 points and Kawhi Leonard 17 for the Clippers, who lost their third straight. Ivica Zubac had 10 points and 10 rebounds and James Harden added 12 points and eight rebounds in his second game with Los Angeles.
Joel Embiid had 27 points and 10 rebounds, Tyrese Maxey scored 25 points and the Philadelphia 76ers won their sixth straight game, 106-103 over the Boston Celtics. The 76ers are the only 6-1 team in the Eastern Conference and their lone loss came on opening night. Kristaps Porzingis led the Celtics with 29 points and Derrick White had 19. Porzingis missed a 3 in the final seconds and the Celtics lost their second straight game. Jayson Tatum finished with 16 points. Tobias Harris scored 17 for the Sixers.
Kyle Kuzma scored 33 points and the Washington Wizards made 18 3-pointers to beat the Charlotte Hornets 132-116 on Wednesday night and snap a four-game losing streak. Danilo Gallinari and Delon Wright each added 18 points and Landry Shamet had 15 as Washington’s reserves outscored Charlotte’s 72-23. LaMelo Ball, coming off a 30-point triple-double in a loss to Dallas, had a season-high 34 points for the Hornets. Gordon Hayward added 18 points for Charlotte. Brandon Miller, the No. 2 overall pick this year, had 13 points in his first home start. Both teams are 2-5. They will meet again Friday night in Washington in an NBA In-Season Tournament game.
Aaron Nesmith scored 24 points and Bennedict Mathurin and Myles Turner each added 22 to lead the Indiana Pacers past the Utah Jazz 134-118. Tyrese Haliburton scored all 16 of his points in the second half and finished with 13 assists. Indiana won for the third time in four games and topped the 120-point mark for the fourth straight game. Utah was led by Jordan Clarkson, who had a season-high 33 points. Lauri Markkanen added 24 points and nine rebounds for the Jazz, who lost their fourth in a row and fell to 0-5 on the road this season.
Anthony Edwards scored 26 points and had a season-high eight assists and the Minnesota Timberwolves beat the short-handed New Orleans Pelicans 122-101 on Wednesday night. Karl-Anthony Towns scored 23 points on 9-of-12 shooting and Rudy Gobert had 17 points and 20 rebounds to help Minnesota win its fourth straight game. New Orleans was without its two leading scorers, with Zion Williamson out for personal reasons and CJ McCollum sidelined for the second straight game by a collapsed lung. The Pelicans struggled to fill the void on offense. Brandon Ingram was one of the only Pelicans who produced much offensively in the first half, leading the way with 17 of his team-high 24 points in the first half.
Jalen Green scored 28 points in three quarters and the Houston Rockets never trailed in a 128-94 rout of the Los Angeles Lakers. It’s the fourth straight win for the Rockets after they lost their first three games of the season. They’ve won four in a row for the first time since winning seven consecutive games in late 2021. The Rockets scored the game’s first eight points and led by 21 at halftime. They didn’t let up after the break and were up by 20 midway through the third period before using an 11-5 run to make it 90-64 with 3½ minutes left in the quarter.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander had 43 points and the Oklahoma City Thunder defeated the Cleveland Cavaliers 128-120. Gilgeous-Alexander fell one point short of his career high and scored at least 40 for the eighth time. He also had seven rebounds and six assists. Jalen Williams and Chet Holmgren each added 15 points as Oklahoma City improved to 5-3. Caris LeVert had 29 points and Evan Mobley added 22 for the Cavaliers. Donovan Mitchell scored 20 on 8-of-23 shooting.
Damian Lillard scored 34 points and Bobby Portis added 18 as Milwaukee rallied to beat the Detroit Pistons 120-118 in a game in which Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo was ejected midway through the third quarter. Antetokounmpo was ejected with nine minutes left after picking up his second technical foul for apparently taunting a defender after scoring on a dunk. Antetokounmpo had 15 points on 6-of-16 shooting and a team-leading nine rebounds in 22 minutes when he was tossed. Cade Cunningham scored 33 points and Marcus Sasser 26 for the Pistons, who were missing six players due to illness and injury.
Bam Adebayo had 30 points and 11 rebounds and the Miami Heat held off the Memphis Grizzlies 108-102 on Wednesday night for their first road victory of the season. Adebayo had 16 points in the fourth as Miami weathered a pair of Memphis rallies. The Grizzlies cut it to 105-102 on Santi Aldama’s 3-pointer with 35.5 seconds left, but Miami rookie Jaime Jaquez Jr. countered with a 3 with 18.4 left to seal it. Kyle Lowery had 17 points, 11 rebounds and nine assists for Miami, and Jimmy Butler added 15 points. Jaren Jackson Jr. led Memphis with 28 points.
Jusuf Nurkic powered to the basket for a layup with 7.3 seconds left in overtime and Phoenix outlasted the Chicago Bulls 116-115 in Bradley Beal’s Suns debut. Grayson Allen scored 26 points, hitting a career-high eight 3-pointers, and Kevin Durant added 25 points to help the Suns improve to 4-4 with their second straight straight victory. Nurkic had 20 points. He failed to ice it with a pair of free throws with 0.4 seconds left — missing the first, then missing the rim on the second when he was trying to miss. Beal had 13 points after sitting out the first seven games of the season because of a back injury. Acquired from Washington in June, Beal played 23:33. Nikola Vucevic scored 26 points for Chicago.
Pascal Siakam had 31 points and 12 rebounds, OG Anunoby scored 26 and the Toronto Raptors finished a two-game sweep in Texas with a 127-116 victory over the Dallas Mavericks. Three nights after Toronto rallied from 22 points down for a win at San Antonio, Siakam and Anunoby combined for all the points on an 11-0 run that broke a 73-all tie in the third quarter. Luka Doncic scored 31 points and Kyrie Irving had 22 for the Mavericks. Siakam finished with season highs in points and rebounds in what has been a sluggish start offensively for the two-time All-Star.
An exhausted Nikola Jokic had 35 points and 13 rebounds in more than 36 minutes of action to help the Denver Nuggets hold off the Golden State Warriors 108-105 on Wednesday night. Reggie Jackson, filling in for an injured Jamal Murray, added 20 points to help the defending champion Nuggets improve to an NBA-best 8-1 overall and 6-0 at home. Michael Porter Jr. scored 17 points for Denver, and Aaron Gordon added 14 points and 11 rebounds. Stephen Curry, fresh off winning the Western Conference player of the week award, was hounded all night, mostly by Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, and finished with 23 points for Golden State. Klay Thompson had 15.
Domantas Sabonis had 27 points, 11 rebounds and nine assists, Malik Monk made two critical free throws with 13 seconds left in overtime and the Sacramento Kings rallied after trailing late in the fourth quarter to beat the Portland Trail Blazers 121-118. Monk scored Sacramento’s final nine points in regulation but was scoreless in overtime before getting fouled by Toumani Camara. Monk calmy sank both free throws to put the Kings ahead by three. At the other end, Jerami Grant missed two 3-pointers for Portland before the final buzzer. Monk finished with 23 points and 10 assists to help the Kings snap a three-game skid. Kevin Huerter added 17 points. Grant had a season-high 38 points and nine rebounds for the Blazers.
NHL
Claude Giroux had two goals and an assist as the Ottawa Senators scored three times in the third period to beat the Toronto Maple Leafs 6-3 on Wednesday night and pick up just their second victory in three weeks. Dominik Kubalik also scored twice for Ottawa, while Tim Stutzle had a goal and three assists. Jakob Chychrun scored and set up another for the Senators. Mathieu Joseph added three assists. Joonas Korpisalo made 27 saves. William Nylander, Tyler Bertuzzi and Nicholas Robertson scored for Toronto. Joseph Woll stopped 21 shots.
Sam Reinhart scored 15 seconds into overtime to give the Florida Panthers a 4-3 victory at the Washington Capitals. The defending Eastern Conference champions have won two in a row and three of four. Sergei Bobrovsky made 25 saves and could hardly be blamed for any of the three goals he allowed. Defenseman Oliver Ekman-Larsson and captain Aleksander Barkov also scored for the Panthers. Washington's Alex Ovechkin was again held without a goal and has just two through 11 games this season. The Capitals have lost two of three.
Adrian Kempe had a goal and an assist and the Los Angeles Kings defeated the Vegas Golden Knights 4-1. With the win, the Kings became just the eighth team in league history to win each of their first seven road games to start a season, and the first to accomplish the feat since the Pittsburgh Penguins and New Jersey Devils did it in 2009. After opening the season with points in their first 12 games, the Golden Knights lost for the second straight time in regulation. Trevor Moore, Pierre-Luc Dubois and Anze Kopitar also scored for the Kings. Cam Talbot made 37 saves.
MLB
The Philadelphia Phillies have decided that Bryce Harper is the team’s first baseman of the future, which means the franchise is also moving on from slugger Rhys Hoskins. Phillies president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski said on Tuesday that the front office and manager Rob Thomson came to the conclusion that Harper was the best option at first base. The 31-year-old played the position for much of this season after Hoskins tore his ACL during spring training.
The Los Angeles Angels hired Ron Washington to be their new manager Wednesday, turning to a veteran baseball mind in an attempt to end nearly a decade of losing baseball. The 71-year-old Washington becomes the majors’ oldest current manager and only the second active Black manager, joining the Dodgers’ Dave Roberts. Washington led the Texas Rangers from 2007-14, winning two AL pennants and going 664–611. He spent the past seven seasons as Atlanta’s third base coach, helping the Braves to their 2021 World Series title.
The race to add two-way baseball superstar Shohei Ohtani in a blockbuster free agency deal is off to a clandestine start. There are 30 teams in Major League Baseball so there are 30 general managers in attendance this week at the GM meetings in Scottsdale, Arizona. If there was one question that could produce some universally awkward moments, it was anything about the slowly developing Ohtani sweepstakes, which could cost the winning team $500 million or more. Ohtani is one of the most fascinating cases for baseball’s free agency system ever. He’s 29 years old and just produced one of the best two-way seasons in MLB history, batting .304 with 44 homers while also having a 10-5 record on the mound with a 3.14 ERA.
MAJOR LEAGUE SOCCER
Chris Donovan scored in the 79th minute and goalkeeper Andre Blake recorded his third career playoff clean sheet as the Philadelphia Union beat the 10-man New England Revolution 1-0. Philadelphia (16-9-10) swept the best-of-three series with New England (15-10-10) to advance to the Eastern Conference semifinals against Supporters’ Shield winner Cincinnati. Donovan, who entered in the 67th minute, redirected Jack McGlynn’s free kick for the game winner. Blake made three saves. New England midfielder Mark-Anthony Kaye was given a red card in the 45th minute after stepping on Dániel Gazdag. The decision came after a VAR check for violent conduct. Philadelphia won a road match in the MLS playoffs for the first time in club history.
NFL
The generational shift at quarterback in the NFL reached a new milestone last week. For the first time ever, every player who threw a pass in the NFL in Week 9 was born in 1990 or later, with 15 of the 28 starting quarterbacks last week age 25 or younger. This was the first time since Week 6 of the 2002 season that no quarterback born in the 1980s took the field. There were seven rookie starters last week, raising the total of rookie starting QBs this season to nine, tying the non-replacement record set in 2019.
COLLEGE FOOTBALL
The University of Michigan warned Big Ten Commissioner Tony Petitti about overstepping his authority and rushing to judgement about an alleged sign-stealing scheme, saying he can’t discipline coach Jim Harbaugh under the conference’s sportsmanship policy. Two people who have seen Michigan’s response to the Big Ten’s notification of potential discipline shared some of its contents with The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to share details from the letter. Michigan’s letter states that action can’t be taken by the Big Ten if a formal decision has not been made about whether rules were violated.
An NCAA review has concluded that the officiating in the national championship game between LSU and Iowa fell short of expectations. The review was pushed up to this summer after criticism about the calls in the game. LSU beat Iowa for its first national title. NCAA vice president for women’s basketball Lynn Holzman says officials were graded on the accuracy of their calls and the overall number was lower than it should have been. She says work will be done to improve.
Michigan All-American Blake Corum says he has no business relationship with Connor Stalions, the former Wolverines staffer at the center of an NCAA sign-stealing investigation into the program, and he was unaware of documents filed for a company with his name on them. Wyoming Secretary of State online records show Stalions, Corum and another person listed as organizers for BC2 Housing LLC. The initial filing was made March 28, 2022, and the address listed for the business was in Ann Arbor. Corum was asked Tuesday by reporters about his name being listed on the records. He said the first he had heard of it was a few hours earlier.
FORMULA ONE
General Motors will not break its partnership with Andretti Global to enter Formula One and is not interested in considering other teams to partner with to gain entry to the global motorsports series. The automaker told The Associated Press on Wednesday is committed with bringing the Cadillac brand to F1 with Andretti. The FIA last month approved the Andretti application for expansion of the F1 grid, but the decision now rests with F1 and its commercial rights holder and Andretti has not gained any traction. The AP reported last month that F1 had asked General Motors to consider partnering with another team.
TOP-25 COLLEGE BASKETBALL
Final (10)FAU 75 Loyola Chicago 62
NCAA
Union College’s men’s basketball team won its season and home opener against Mount St. Vincent last night, 76-71, and the women’s team fell 73-66 in its home opener against SUNY Cobleskill last night.
Siena’s Women’s Basketball team tips off the 2023-2024 season at 6:07 tonight in Binghamton.
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