NBA
Jaden Ivey scored 34 points and Cade Cunningham had 32 points and 11 assists to lead the Detroit Pistons to their first home win since January, 118-112 over the Brooklyn Nets. Detroit had lost nine of 10 and hadn’t won a home game since a 120-104 victory over the Oklahoma City Thunder on Jan. 28. Dennis Schroder had a season-high 31 points for Brooklyn, which had won three of four before Thursday night. Lonnie Walker IV scored 21.
Nikola Jokic had 32 points, 12 rebounds and 11 assists in leading the Denver Nuggets to a 115-109 win over Boston and a season sweep of the Celtics. It was Jokic's 20th triple-double of the season. Jaylen Brown led Boston with a season-best 41 points but the NBA-best Celtics lost back-to-back games for the first time since early November. The Nuggets improved to 7-1 after the All-Star break. Jamal Murray added 19 points and eight assists for Denver. Boston's Kristaps Porzingis scored 24 points.
Anthony Edwards matched his season high with 44 points, made a tiebreaking 3-pointer with 1:11 remaining and came up with a spectacular block at the buzzer to give the short-handed Minnesota Timberwolves a 113-111 victory over the Indiana Pacers. Edwards soared to reject a last-second layup by the Pacers’ Aaron Nesmith, hitting his head on the rim as the buzzer sounded. Rudy Gobert added 18 points and 14 rebounds for the Timberwolves, who played without All-Star Karl-Anthony Towns. Minnesota moved into the top spot in the Western Conference, one-half game ahead of Oklahoma City. Pascal Siakam scored 24 points for the Pacers.
Luka Doncic had 35 points, 11 rebounds and 11 assists to become the second NBA player to record five consecutive 30-point triple-doubles, and the Dallas Mavericks rallied past the Miami Heat 114-108. Doncic matched Russell Westbrook, who had five consecutive 30-point triple-doubles in 2017 for Oklahoma City. The All-Star also became the first player in history with four straight 35-point triple-doubles. Doncic shot 12 of 24 overall and 7 of 13 on 3-pointers in 40 minutes. Kyrie Irving added 23 points for Dallas, which snapped a three-game skid. Terry Rozier had 27 points and 11 assists for Miami, his highest-scoring game since being acquired from Charlotte in late January.
Kevin Durant scored 35 points, Grayson Allen added 26 and the Phoenix Suns beat the Toronto Raptors 120-113 on Thursday night. Bradley Beal had 20 points and eight assists for the Suns, who never trailed. Durant shot 11 of 19 from the field while Allen did all of his scoring in the first half, setting a franchise record with seven 3-pointers in the first quarter. Gary Trent Jr. led Toronto with 30 points while RJ Barrett scored 23. Immanuel Quickley added 21 points and 17 assists.
Domantas Sabonis scored 31 points, including the go-ahead dunk with 7.7 seconds remaining, and the Sacramento Kings beat the San Antonio Spurs 131-129. Sabonis added 17 rebounds and nine assists, posting his 45th straight double-double. De’Aaron Fox scored 17 of his 33 points in the fourth quarter before fouling out in the final minute. The Spurs were without leading scorer Victor Wembanyama due to a sprained right ankle. The star rookie is expected to also miss Saturday’s game at Golden State. San Antonio fell to 0-7 without Wembanyama this season.
DeMar DeRozan converted a three-point play with 26 seconds left after hitting a key jumper at the 43-second mark on his way to 33 points, and the Chicago Bulls beat the Golden State Warriors 125-122 after Stephen Curry limped off and went to the locker room in the closing minutes. Klay Thompson put the Warriors ahead on a 3-pointer with 40 seconds left before DeRozan delivered again in Chicago’s third straight win. Curry exited with 3:51 to play having scored 15 points, while Thompson finished with 25 points.
The Phoenix Suns will host the 2027 NBA All-Star game, giving owner Mat Ishbia a marquee event for the city roughly one year after he purchased the franchise. This will be the fourth time Phoenix has hosted the All-Star game and first since 2009. The Suns also hosted in 1975 and 1995. Ishbia agreed to buy the Suns and WNBA’s Phoenix Mercury from the embattled Robert Sarver for about $4 billion in December 2022. The 2025 All-Star Game will be in San Francisco while the 2026 game will be in Inglewood, California. The NBA announced the 2027 host on Thursday.
Warriors star Stephen Curry injured his troublesome right ankle again, though the severity wasn’t immediately known. Coach Steve Kerr had yet to speak with Golden State’s medical staff immediately after a 125-122 loss to the Chicago Bulls but said the two-time MVP had his ankle in a bucket of ice. Curry rolled the ankle driving to the basket then quickly limped off while exiting and headed to the locker room with 3:51 to play having scored 15 points.
Minnesota’s Karl-Anthony Towns will have surgery next week to address a meniscus tear in his left knee. The team announced the injury Thursday night, saying Towns will miss at least four weeks. That means the All-Star will be sidelined for at least 13 more games. That's the majority of Minnesota's remaining regular-season schedule. The Wolves sit atop the Western Conference. Towns didn't play in the Wolves’ win at Indiana on Thursday night. The team revealed after the game that an MRI exam, performed Wednesday, showed the meniscus tear.
NHL
Bo Horvat opened New York’s four-goal, second-period burst with his 25th goal and the Islanders routed the San Jose Sharks 7-2 on Thursday night. Kyle McLean, Matthew Barzal and Sebastian Aho also struck in the second period, with the goals coming in a 5:01 span. Noah Dobson, Alexander Romanov and Anders Lee also scored for the Islanders, and Ilya Sorokin made 23 saves. Horvat also had two assists, and Brock Nelson finished with three. The Islanders, beginning a four-game trip, are two points out of the final wild card in the Eastern Conference. Thomas Bordeleau and Mike Hoffman scored for San Jose in its ninth straight loss. Magnus Chrona had 26 saves in his third career start.
Filip Forsberg scored three goals for his ninth career hat trick to lead the Nashville Predators to a 4-2 victory over the Buffalo Sabres. Luke Evangelista also scored and Juuse Saros made 26 saves for Nashville, which is 9-0-1 in its last 10. Gustav Nyquist had three assists. Bowen Byram scored and added an assist, Owen Power also had a goal and Eric Comrie made 21 saves for Buffalo, which has lost three straight.
Jeremy Swayman made 28 saves and the Boston Bruins beat the weary Toronto Maple Leafs 4-1 on Thursday night. David Pastrnak, Trent Frederic, Morgan Geekie and Brandon Carlo scored to help Boston win for the 20th time at home this season. At 37-13-15, the Bruins trail Atlantic Division rival Florida by a point for the NHL lead. Mitch Marner scored for Toronto, and Joseph Wall made 22 saves. The Maple Leafs were coming off a 2-1 overtime victory over Buffalo at home on Wednesday night. They are 10-3-0 in their last 13 — and 36-19-8 overall. Boston extended its winning streak to seven games against Toronto. The teams met Monday night in Toronto, with Boston also winning 4-1.
Timo Meier scored three goals and added an assist on an empty-net goal by Erik Haula and the Devils beat the St. Louis Blues 4-1, giving New Jersey interim coach Travis Green his first win since replacing Lindy Ruff earlier this week. Linemates Nico Hischier and Ondrej Palat each had two assists as the underperforming Devils snapped a three-game losing streak. Nico Daws made 23 saves for New Jersey. Brandon Saad scored for the Blues, who have lost two straight and remain outside a wild-card position in the Western Conference. Jordan Binnington had 29 saves.
Garnet Hathaway scored off a rebound with 22 seconds left to give the Philadelphia Flyers a 2-1 victory over the NHL-leading Florida Panthers on Thursday night. Ryan Poehling also scored for Philadelphia. Samuel Ersson made 29 saves. Gustav Forsling scored for Florida, and Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 24 shots. The Panthers had won six in a row. Poehling opened the scoring at 10 seconds of the second period. Forsling tied it at 7:12 of the second, scoring hours after finalizing a four-year contract extension. Vladimir Tarasenko made his Florida debut after coming over from Ottawa in a trade Wednesday.
Tom Wilson scored just hours after the death of grandfather, Alex Ovechkin scored his 840th career goal and added an assist and the Washington Capitals drilled the reeling Pittsburgh Penguins 6-0. Ovechkin’s two points moved him past Hall of Fame defenseman Paul Coffey and into 15th on the NHL’s career scoring list. He has 1,532 career points. Nick Jensen, Sonny Milano and rookies Hendrix Lapierre and Ivan Miroshnichenko also scored for the Capitals. Charlie Lindgren stopped 39 shots. The Penguins have dropped four of five and were shut out for the fourth time this season. After the game it was announced they had traded star forward Jake Guentzel to Carolina.
Matthew Olivier, Alex Nylander and Dmitri Vornkov scored in the first period and the Columbus Blue Jackets snapped the Edmonton Oilers’ five-game winning streak with a 4-2 victory. Jack Roslovic added an empty-netter and Daniil Tarasov stopped 29 shots for Columbus, which has won three of its last four but remains last in the Metropolitan Division. Connor McDavid got his 100th point of the season, Zach Hyman and Corey Perry scored and Calvin Pickard stopped 30 for the Oilers, who are second in the Pacific Division behind the Vancouver Canucks.
Yegor Sharangovich had two goals and two assists, Jacob Markstrom made 19 saves and the Calgary Flames won for the sixth time in seven games, beating the Tampa Bay Lightning 6-3. Dryden Hunt, Jakob Pelletier, Blake Coleman and Andrew Mangiapane also scored for the Flames. Conor Sheary, Anthony Cirelli and Michael Eyssimont scored for Tampa Bay. Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 18 shots as the Lightning dropped 1-4-1 over their last six home games.
The Carolina Hurricanes made the biggest splash in the league on the eve of the NHL trade deadline. Carolina acquired two-time 40-goal scorer Jake Guentzel in a blockbuster deal finalized Thursday night with the Pittsburgh Penguins. Guentzel was considered the top player available at the deadline. The Hurricanes became the latest Stanley Cup contender to make a major acquisition prior to 3 p.m. Eastern Friday deadline. Colorado added two more forwards in Brandon Duhaime and Yakov Trenin, while the Oilers and Maple Leafs each acquired a defenseman with Troy Stecher going to Edmonton and Joel Edmundson to Toronto.
Joel Eriksson Ek broke a third-period tie with his 29th goal, Marc-Andre Fleury made 23 saves and the Minnesota Wild beat the Arizona Coyotes 5-2 on Thursday night. After Zach Bogosian pulled the Wild even at 2 two minutes into the third period, Ek beat goalie Karel Vejmelka with a wrist shot from the left circle at 7:16. Kirill Kaprizov had his 30th goal, Brock Faber and Connor Seward added empty-netters and Mats Zuccarello had three assists. Fleury had his second victory in three weeks at 4,600-seat Mullett Arena. Clayton Keller and Michael Carcone scored seven seconds apart in the first 1:28 of the third to give Arizona a 2-1 lead The Coyotes have lost two in a row and 16 of 18.
J.T. Miller scored on a power play 1:36 into overtime, and the Vancouver Canucks beat the Los Angeles Kings 2-1. Miller scored from the right faceoff circle on a slap shot for his 31st of the season. Vancouver earned its second straight win and remained on top of the Western Conference. Elias Pettersson, who signed an eight-year extension with the Canucks on Saturday, scored in the second period. Thatcher Demko stopped 23 shots and picked up his NHL-leading 32nd win. Trevor Moore scored for Los Angeles, and Cam Talbot made 29 saves.
Kevin Fiala scored in overtime to give the Los Angeles Kings a 4-3 win over the Ottawa Senators. Fiala scored on a spinning backhand two minutes into the extra session to give the Kings their third win in four games. Jacob Moverare scored his first career goal, Quinton Byfield and Pierre-Luc Dubois each had a goal, and Cam Talbot made 28 saves for the Kings. Drake Batherson had a goal late in the third period to tie the game at 3-all, Dominik Kubalik scored on the power play, and Brady Tkachuk had a goal for the Senators. Joonas Korpisalo made 31 saves.
The Carolina Hurricanes made the biggest splash in the league on the eve of the NHL trade deadline. Carolina acquired two-time 40-goal scorer Jake Guentzel in a blockbuster deal finalized Thursday night with the Pittsburgh Penguins. Guentzel was considered the top player available at the deadline. The Hurricanes became the latest Stanley Cup contender to make a major acquisition prior to 3 p.m. Eastern Friday deadline. Colorado added two more forwards in Brandon Duhaime and Yakov Trenin, while the Oilers and Maple Leafs each acquired a defenseman with Troy Stecher going to Edmonton and Joel Edmundson to Toronto.
MLB
Young right-hander Brayan Bello and the Boston Red Sox have agreed to a $55 million, six-year contract. Bello’s deal includes a $21 million team option for 2030 with a $1 million buyout that if exercised would make the agreement worth $75 million over seven seasons. Bello turns 25 in May and was signed by the Red Sox from the Dominican Republic in 2017 for $28,000. He would have been eligible for arbitration after the 2025 season and for free agency following the 2028 season. He had a $729,500 salary last year.
The Oakland Athletics return to Las Vegas this weekend for exhibition games against Milwaukee, their first appearance since announcing the relocation to what the team envisions as its future home city. The games at Las Vegas Ballpark, home of the franchise’s Triple-A Aviators, feature an A’s team planning a new regular-season ballpark on the Strip it hopes will open in 2028. The Nevada Legislature enacted $380 million in funding for a $1.5 billion stadium and baseball owners unanimously approved the relocation in November. Close to a sellout crowd is expected in the 10,000 capacity ballpark for the Saturday afternoon game.
NFL
Another NFL free agency period is about to begin but buyers should beware that signing other teams' veterans comes with plenty of risk. Some veterans will test the open market only to come back and re-sign with their old team. Every general manager in the league has a topflight player or two that he wants to keep from calling the moving trucks.
SOCCER
Luis Suárez scored in stoppage time and Lionel Messi also scored after halftime to help Inter Miami tie Nashville 2-2 in the CONCACAF Champions Cup. The teams will meet Wednesday in Florida for the second leg of the home-and-home, total-goals series in the round of 16. Suárez tied it up by scoring in the fifth minute of stoppage time with a header off a cross from former Barcelona teammate Sergio Busquets. Messi got Inter Miami on the board with his first CONCACAF goal in the 52nd minute. Jacob Shaffelburg scored twice to put Nashville up 2-0.
GOLF
Shane Lowry knows he's playing good golf. He also knows he has a horrible record at Bay Hill. Good golf mattered more in the Arnold Palmer Invitational. Lowry opened with a 66 on Thursday and has a one-shot lead. That not only is his best score at Bay Hill, he had never broken 70 the previous five times he played. Lowry had a share of the 54-hole lead last week, so he knows his form is good. He leads by one shot over Hideki Matsuyama and Justin Lower. Jordan Spieth had another wild day of bogeys and birdies and shot 69.
Venus Williams has played a match on tour for the first time in about six months. The 43-year-old owner of seven Grand Slam titles gave away the lead and the last 10 games in a 2-6, 6-3, 6-0 loss to qualifier Nao Hibino at the BNP Paribas Open. Thursday was Williams' first competition since a first-round exit at the U.S. Open on Aug. 29. When the defeat ended with Williams getting broken for the seventh time in 12 service games, she walked to the net to congratulate Hibino, then left the court with a smile and a wave as much of the sparse crowd stood to applaud. Thursday's winners included Naomi Osaka.
MEN’S COLLEGE BASKETBALL
Niagara 66 Siena 59
Manhattan 77 Iona 60
Quinnipiac 73 Marist 64
KJ Lewis scored 18 points, Caleb Love added 17 and No. 5 Arizona routed UCLA 88-65. The Wildcats clinched the Pac-12 regular-season title in their final season in the league. Arizona improved to 24-6 overall and 15-4 in conference games. The Wildcats got some help with Washington's win over second-place Washington State. The Wildcats had five players in double figures in their fourth straight victory. The Bruins were led by Lazar Stefanovic with 20 points. UCLA fell to 14-16 and 9-10 while losing its season-worst fifth in a row. Arizona is headed to the Big 12 next season, while the Bruins are bound for the Big Ten.
The University of Massachusetts Amherst has confirmed it's changing sports conferences, leaving the Atlantic 10 conference for the Mid-American Conference. The university says it will join the MAC as a full member, effective July 1st, 2025, with most all of its programs remaining in the Atlantic 10 for the 2024-25 academic year. Its football program competed in the MAC a decade ago. Athletic Director Ryan Bamford says the new conference gives the Minutemen and women a real chance to thrive:
"We're not just gonna go in and think that it's time to relax, or rest, or be content, but it's time to accelerate, and it's time to do more, and it's time to be better and it's time to be great. And that is what has me excited about what is ahead for our athletics program.”
The MAC will grow to 13 members, including Akron, Buffalo, and Bowling Green. UMass hockey will remain in the Hockey East Association.
WOMEN’S COLLEGE BASKETBALL
Siena 77 Rider 40
Quinnipiac 72 Iona 68
Marist 49 Manhattan 48
Duquesne 81 UMass 57
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