NBA
Kevin Durant scored 33 points in his return to Brooklyn, leading the Phoenix Suns to a 136-120 victory over the Nets last night. Durant added eight assists in his first game in Brooklyn since being traded to Phoenix nearly a year ago. He got a mixed reception early in the game before helping take the crowd out of it with 11 points in the third quarter, when the Suns outscored the Nets 42-26 after leading by just three at halftime. Jusuf Nurkic added 28 points and 11 rebounds for the Suns, overwhelming an undersized Nets team as the Suns won for the ninth time in 11 games.
Kawhi Leonard scored 31 points, James Harden added 25 and the Los Angeles Clippers pulled away with a big third quarter to beat the Washington Wizards 125-109 on Wednesday night. Los Angeles outscored Washington 40-19 in the third after leading by 10 in the first half. Leonard and Harden each had nine rebounds. And Harden hit five 3-pointers to help the Clippers snap out of a long-range shooting slump on a night they rested eight-time All-Star Paul George because of groin soreness. The Clippers are 3-1 on seven-game trip. Kyle Kuzma scored 23 of his 27 points the first half for Washington. The Wizards are 2-2 under interim coach Brian Keefe after Wes Unseld Jr. was fired last week.
Anfernee Simons scored 24 points, including a key floater with 17.1 seconds left, and the Trail Blazers spoiled former teammate Damian Lillard’s return to Portland with a 119-116 victory over the Milwaukee Bucks. Lillard finished with 25 points for the Bucks in their second straight loss under new coach Doc Rivers. Giannis Antetokounmpo added 25 points and eight rebounds. Deandre Ayton had 20 points and 11 rebounds for the Blazers, who have won two straight.
Coby White scored 35 points, Nikola Vucevic added 22 points and 12 rebounds and the Chicago Bulls outlasted the Charlotte Hornets 117-110. Ayo Dosunmu scored 16 points for the Bulls, who are in ninth place in the Eastern Conference standings. Miles Bridges had 30 points and 15 rebounds for the Hornets, who’ve lost five straight since trading leading scorer Terry Rozier to the Miami Heat for a first-round draft pick and Kyle Lowry. Lowry has not played for the Hornets as the team looks to trade him or buy out his contract.
Donovan Mitchell scored 20 of his 45 points in the fourth quarter, Darius Garland had 19 points in his return from a broken jaw and the Cleveland Cavaliers held off the NBA-worst Detroit Pistons 128-121. Jarrett Allen had 14 points and 11 rebounds for his franchise-record 16th straight double-double and Isaac Okoro added 14 points for the Cavaliers. Cleveland won for the 11th time in 12 games and is an NBA-best 16-4 since Dec. 16. Danilo Gallinari scored 20 points and went 4 of 4 on 3-pointers, and Cade Cunningham had 19 points and seven assists for Detroit, which was seeking its first back-to-back wins since Oct. 27-28.
Jimmy Butler scored 31 points and the Miami Heat snapped a seven-game skid with a 115-106 victory over the Sacramento Kings. The Heat ended their longest losing streak since dropping 15 straight during the 2007-08 season. Josh Richardson finished with a season-high 24 points and Bam Adebayo added 16 points and 11 rebounds. The Heat finished with a season-high 38 assists in their 1,500th regular-season victory. Sacramento’s Domantas Sabonis had 19 points, 17 rebounds and 13 assists for his 13th triple-double of the season. It was also Sabonis’ 29th consecutive game with at least a double-double, two behind Oscar Robertson’s franchise record in 1961. Keegan Murray finished with 33 points.
Karl-Anthony Towns had 29 points and nine rebounds for the Minnesota Timberwolves in a 121-87 win over the depleted Dallas Mavericks, who played without stars Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving. Rudy Gobert scored 17 points for the West-leading Wolves. Towns had 11 points in the third quarter. Doncic was out with a sprained right ankle and Irving had a sprained right thumb. Both sat for the third game this season. The Mavericks have lost all three. Dallas has played without at least one of them 26 times in 48 games. Josh Green had 18 points for the Mavericks.
Paolo Banchero scored 25 points, Franz Wagner added 20 and the Orlando Magic held on to beat the San Antonio Spurs 108-98. Devin Vassell had 26 points and Victor Wembanyama 21 for San Antonio, which has lost its last two. After trailing by 25 points in the final quarter, San Antonio went on a 15-0 run over 3:38 to pull within three at 99-96. But the Spurs had three turnovers in the final three minutes and the Magic staved off the rally. Jeremy Sochan added 18 points and 12 rebounds for San Antonio.
Jonas Valanciunas scored 25 points, Brandon Ingram added 24 and the duo combined for 24 rebounds to help the New Orleans Pelicans snap a three-game skid with a 110-99 win over the Houston Rockets. New Orleans led by five to start the fourth quarter before scoring the next 15 points to make it 99-79 with just under 6 1/2 minutes remaining. Jose Alvarado hit a 3-pointer during that stretch and Valanciunas had six points to help the Pelicans pad their lead. Jalen Green paced the Rockets with 31 points, and Fred VanVleet added 16.
Jonas Valanciunas scored 25 points, Brandon Ingram added 24 and the duo combined for 24 rebounds to help the New Orleans Pelicans snap a three-game skid with a 110-99 win over the Houston Rockets. New Orleans led by five to start the fourth quarter before scoring the next 15 points to make it 99-79 with just under 6 1/2 minutes remaining. Jose Alvarado hit a 3-pointer during that stretch and Valanciunas had six points to help the Pelicans pad their lead. Jalen Green paced the Rockets with 31 points, and Fred VanVleet added 16.
Minnesota Timberwolves guard Anthony Edwards has received a $40,000 fine from the NBA for publicly criticizing the officiating repeatedly. The NBA handed down the fine Wednesday in response to comments Edwards made after the Timberwolves’ 107-101 victory over the Oklahoma City Thunder in a Monday matchup between two of the Western Conference’s top teams.
Joe Dumars went to an NBA game a couple of weeks ago that came down to the very last shot, and he thought it was one of the best games of the season to this point. The final score was Denver 102, Boston 100. It was a reminder that defense still can get played in the NBA. Amid a flurry of big individual performances — Luka Doncic scoring 73, Joel Embiid scoring 70, Devin Booker and Karl-Anthony Towns each scoring 62 — in the last two weeks alone, Dumars said Wednesday that NBA officials aren’t alarmed by such numbers because the league’s scoring average is up only slightly compared to last season.
NHL
Shane Pinto scored on a tip-in at 2:05 of overtime to give the Ottawa Senators a 3-2 victory over the Detroit Red Wings on Wednesday night. Brady Tkachuk and Mark Kastelic scored the regulation goals for the Senators. Joonas Korpisalo made 23saves. Ottawa won the season series, 3-1. Daniel Sprong and Dylan Larkin scored for the Red Wings. Alex Lyon stopped 22 shots for Detroit, which finished the month with a 9-2-2 record.
Alex Turcotte had his first NHL goal and assist and the Los Angeles Kings beat the Nashville Predators 4-2 on Wednesday night to snap a four-game skid in the final game for both teams before the NHL All-Star break. Playing his second NHL game of the season and 14th overall, Turcotte — the fifth overall pick in 2019 — made it 2-0 in the second period and had an assist on Trevor Lewis’ goal with 6:39 left that helped Los Angeles win for just the third time in 17 games. Dave Rittich made 38 saves, Carl Grundstrom also scored and Kevin Fiala added an empty-netter. Filip Forsberg and Philip Tomasino scored for Nashville.
Troy Terry tied it with 1:01 remaining in regulation and assisted on Frank Vatrano’s goal with 52 seconds left in overtime in the Anaheim Ducks 3-2 victory over the San Jose Sharks on Wednesday night. Vatrano, the Ducks representative in the NHL All-Star Game this weekend, put a wrist shot past Kaapo Kahkonen for his 22nd goal of the season and Anaheim’s third win in four games. Terry beat Kahkonen with a wrist shot with plenty of traffic around the net. Isac Lundestrom also scored for Anaheim and John Gibson made 26 saves. Marc-Edouard Vlasic scored for the third straight game for San Jose. Anthony Duclair also scored for the Sharks and Kahkonen stopped 31 shots.
MLB
Cal Ripken Jr. and Grant Hill are part of the investor group that has agreed to buy the Baltimore Orioles. So are former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and former Baltimore Mayor Kurt Schmoke. The group is headed by Baltimore native David Rubenstein. He is co-founder of the Carlyle Group. Additional investors were revealed in a news release announcing the agreement between Rubenstein and the Angelos family, which has run the team for the past three decades. The Angelos family is selling a control stake in the team to Rubenstein for $1.725 billion. The sale is subject to a full vote of Major League Baseball ownership.
NFL
Superstar Taylor Swift and her boyfriend, Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, have become the focus of a raft of false claims and political conspiracy theories on social media this week as the team advances to the Super Bowl on Feb. 11. Baseless posts range from allegations that Swift has played a part in Pentagon psychological operations to the idea that she and Kelce, a two-time Super Bowl champion, are key assets in a secret plot to help President Joe Biden get reelected in 2024, and that the Chiefs’ success was rigged as part of the plan.
The early money is heavily on Kansas City to repeat as Super Bowl champion when the Chiefs face the San Francisco 49ers in the Super Bowl on Feb. 11. That caused sportsbooks to drop the opening number that favored the Niners by 2 or 2 1/2 points to 1 or 1 1/2 points. FanDuel Sportsbook opened the Niners as 2 1/2-point favorites. That number was 1 1/2 on Tuesday night.
NCAA
The attorneys general of Tennessee and Virginia filed an antitrust lawsuit against the NCAA that challenged its ban on the use of name, image and likeness compensation in the recruitment of college athletes. The legal challenge comes in response to the NCAA's investigation of University of Tennessee athletics for potential recruiting infractions. The lawsuit filed in the Eastern District of Tennessee claims the NCAA is enforcing rules that unfairly restrict how athletes can commercially use their name, image and likeness. The NCAA already is facing other antitrust suits challenging transfer rules, employment status for athletes and athlete compensation rules.
PGA TOUR
The PGA Tour is getting a $3 billion investment from Strategic Sports Group. The deal gives players access to more than $1.5 billion as equity owners in the new PGA Tour Enterprises. The launch of PGA Tour Enterprises comes eight months after the PGA Tour signed a framework agreement with the Saudi backers of LIV Golf. That led to private equity groups wanting to join. The tour still is negotiating with the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia. The PIF is not yet part of the new venture. The tour says its partnership with SSG allows for the Saudis to be co-investors.
This is a new version of the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am with a small field and a big purse. What hasn't changed is the weather. Pleasant conditions have given way to extreme wind and rain. The views aren't as pretty. The golf is entertaining. In a practice round on Wednesday, Tony Finau hit driver on the 106-yard seventh hole. This features an 80-man field and the amateurs leaving after two days. The purse is $20 million. Jordan Spieth will miss playing with country singer Jake Owen. But he says the field and Pebble make it feel like a major.
MEN’S COLLEGE BASKETBALL
UConn 74 Providence 65
Roger Williams 80 Hartford 77
WOMEN’S COLLEGE BASKETBALL
Iowa star Caitlin Clark moved into second on the NCAA women’s basketball career scoring list, finishing with 35 points, 10 assists and six rebounds in the No. 3 Hawkeyes’ 110-74 victory over Northwestern. Cheered on by a sellout crowd at Welsh-Ryan Arena filled with Iowa colors and dotted with Clark shirts, the senior guard went 11 for 22 from the field. It was her 13th game this season with at least 30 points. Hannah Stuelke had 17 points and nine rebounds for Iowa, which earned its second straight win since a 100-92 overtime loss at Ohio State on Jan. 21.
La Salle 63 UMass 61
UConn 81 Villanova 60
Roger Williams 61 Hartford 49
COLLEGE SPORTS
Skidmore College senior athletics communications director Bill Jones is retiring after a 40-year career at the college which included eleven team national championships, more than 200 All-Americans and 25 Academic All-Americans, as well as nearly 100 conference titles for the Thoroughbreds.
He also spent more than 30 years on the College Sports Committee’s All-American Committee, including nearly a quarter century as a national coordinator, and is a past president of East-Comm. For his achievements, Jones has been honored with the CSC's Lester Jordan Award in 2021, the Pete Nevins Award in 2011, the Irving T. Marsh College Division Award in 2004, and is a 2018 inductee into the CSC Hall of Fame. The college says Jones’ last day will be March 11.
By way of disclosure, WAMC’s Southern Adirondack Bureau is located on Skidmore’s campus.
HIGH SCHOOL SPORTS
The mayor of Glens Falls says he is disappointed the New York state boy’s basketball championships will not return to the Warren County city next year. The New York State Public High School Athletic Association’s Executive Committee voted to accept Binghamton’s bid to host the tournament from 2025 to 2027. Glens Falls Mayor Bill Collins says the city and its partners look forward to bringing the championships back to the Cool Insuring Arena after 2027.
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