GOLF
The best players in the world have gathered again at Augusta National for the Masters. Defending champion Jon Rahm is back alongside Rory McIlroy, Scottie Scheffler, Tiger Woods and the biggest names in golf for the year’s first major. The tournament was supposed to begin this morning at 8:15 but officials have delayed the start until at least 9 a.m. due to rain. Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player and Tom Watson will serve as the honorary starters. The top 50 and ties after Friday’s second round play the weekend. By Sunday night, one player will be slipping into the green jacket. Scheffler is the heavy betting favorite as the world’s No. 1 player, while McIlroy and Rahm are also popular picks to win this year.
NBA
Cam Thomas had 23 points, Dennis Schroder scored 15 of his 21 points in the fourth quarter and the Brooklyn Nets rallied to beat the Toronto Raptors 106-102 on Wednesday night. Nic Claxton added 14 points, 11 rebounds and five blocked shots, and Noah Clowney had 10 points and a career-high seven blocks for the Nets in their final home game of the season. They finished 20-21 at Barclays Center. Immanuel Quickley scored 32 points for Toronto. Gradey Dick added a career-high 24.
Donovan Mitchell scored 29 points, Jarrett Allen had 16 points and 10 rebounds and the Cleveland Cavaliers beat the Memphis Grizzlies 110-98 to move within a victory of wrapping up a playoff spot. All-Star shooting guard Mitchell, who has been bothered by left knee soreness for two months, also had eight assists in just his 10th game since Feb. 15. The Cavaliers have lost 11 of their last 17, but sit fourth in the Eastern Conference. Cleveland would lock up its second straight playoff appearance with a victory Friday over Indiana or a win Sunday over Charlotte. Jake LaRavia scored a career-high 32 and made eight 3-pointers, and GG Jackson II had 22 points for injury-plagued Memphis, which has used an NBA-record 33 players this season.
Miles Bridges made a layup with 3.8 seconds left and the Charlotte Hornets beat Atlanta 115-114 on Wednesday night to spoil Hawks star Trae Young’s return from a finger injury. After missing 23 games because of a torn ligament in his left pinkie, Young had 14 points and 11 assists in 21 minutes while making each of his five shots from the field. He didn’t play in the fourth quarter. Brandon Miller led the Hornets with 27 points. Trent Forrest missed a last-second jumper as the Hawks, 10th in the Eastern Conference, missed an opportunity to move within a half-game of No. 9 Chicago in the race for a home game to open the play-in tournament.
Luka Doncic scored 29 points, Kyrie Irving added 25 and the Dallas Mavericks wrapped up the Southwest Division title by beating the Miami Heat 111-92. Doncic also had nine rebounds and nine assists for Dallas, which will face the Los Angeles Clippers in the first round of the Western Conference playoffs — that series starting either April 20 or 21. Tyler Herro led the Heat with 21 points. Kevin Love had 16 points and 11 rebounds, Caleb Martin scored 14 and Jimmy Butler had 12 for the Heat.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored 26 points in 26 minutes, and the Oklahoma City Thunder rolled past the Victor Wembanyama-less San Antonio Spurs 127-89. Josh Giddey had 20 points, 12 rebounds and seven assists and Gordon Hayward added 18 points for the Thunder. Zach Collins had 20 points for the Spurs. Wembanyama, one of the league’s rising stars as a rookie, was out with an injured right ankle. Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said he was sitting Wembanyama because it was the second game of a back-to-back and he was looking out for his star’s long-term health.
Bobby Portis had 30 points, nine rebounds and a career-high five steals to help the Milwaukee Bucks withstand Giannis Antetokounmpo’s absence and beat the Orlando Magic 117-99. The Bucks played a night after Antetokounmpo left a 104-91 victory over the Boston Celtics because of a strained left calf. The Bucks announced Wednesday that the two-time MVP would miss the final three games of the regular season, though his availability for the start of the playoffs remains uncertain. Damian Lillard had 29 points and nine assists for the Bucks, who improved to 4-3 in games Antetokounmpo has missed this season. Milwaukee is 1 1/2 games ahead of New York and two games ahead of Cleveland in the race for the Eastern Conference’s No. 2 playoff seed.
Nikola Jokic scored 41 points and powered the Denver Nuggets past Minnesota and into sole possession of first place in the tight Western Conference playoff race with a 116-107 win over the Timberwolves. Jokic made 16 of 20 shots against the NBA’s best defense while being guarded most of the night by the league’s top defender, Rudy Gobert. Jamal Murray added 20 points in 27 minutes and Michael Porter Jr. scored 18. Anthony Edwards led Minnesota with 25 points but was a non-factor in the fourth quarter as Denver pulled away.
Devin Booker scored 37 points, Bradley Beal added 26 and the Phoenix Suns rallied in the fourth quarter to beat the Los Angeles Clippers 124-108 on Wednesday night. The victory was payback for the Suns after they were embarrassed in the first quarter the previous night in Phoenix. That’s when the Clippers led 35-4 and went ahead by 37 in the second quarter before the Suns got close only to lose 105-92. The result Wednesday locked Golden State and Los Angeles Lakers into the play-in tournament. The Suns are seventh in the West, a half-game behind New Orleans for the sixth and final guaranteed playoff spot. Bones Hyland scored a career-high 37 points for the Clippers. They had won four in a row.
Jrue Holiday has agreed to terms on a four-year, $135 million contract extension with the Celtics, his agent Jason Glushon confirmed. As part of the deal, Holiday is declining his $37.5 million player option next season. The extension will keep him under contract through the 2027-28 season. Holiday has stepped right into the void created this offseason when the Celtics parted with defensive stalwart Marcus Smart as part of the three-team trade that netted them Kristaps Porzingis. A two-time All-Star, Holiday has seen his scoring average drop to 12.5 points per game, his lowest output since his third season in the league in 2011-12. He's shooting a career-best 43.1% from 3-point range and averaging a career-best 5.4 rebounds.
The Dallas Mavericks had a message Wednesday night: “Pravi MVP.” Translated, that means Real MVP. And because it was coming from the Mavs, it was also pretty easy to figure out what the message on the T-shirts that players, coaches and staff wore before the game against the Miami Heat was. Admittedly biased, Mavs coach Jason Kidd said he thinks Luka Doncic should be the NBA’s MVP this season.
Toronto’s Jontay Porter could face expulsion from the league if the gambling-related accusations against him are found to be true, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said Wednesday. Silver, speaking after a two-day meeting of the league’s Board of Governors, did not reveal any specifics about the investigation surrounding Porter, other than saying the probe is ongoing. Porter has not played since the league said it was looking into betting patterns surrounding his on-court performance.
NHL
Jordan Kyrou scored twice and Robert Thomas had a goal and an assist, and the St. Louis Blues beat the Chicago Blackhawks 5-2. Zack Bolduc had a goal and an assist, Torey Krug also scored and Brayden Schenn had two assists for St. Louis. Joel Hofer made 18 saves as the Blues improved to 8-1-1 in their last 10 home games against the Blackhawks. St. Louis preserved its slim playoff hopes. The Blues began the day trailing Vegas, which has a game in hand, by five points for the final playoff spot in the Western Conference. Philipp Kurashev and Landon Slaggert scored for the Blackhawks. Petr Mrazek was pulled after giving up three goals on three shots over the first 4:37. Arvid Soderblom came on and finished with 21 saves.
Zach Hyman and Leon Draisaitl each had a goal and an assist as the Edmonton Oilers beat the Vegas Golden Knights 5-1 despite the absence of star forward Connor McDavid. Cody Ceci, Mattias Ekholm and Dylan Holloway also scored while Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Ryan McLeod each had two assists for Edmonton, which won its third straight. Stuart Skinner stopped 17 shots. The Oilers hit 100 points in the standings in a third consecutive season. McDavid missed the game with a lower-body injury but is considered day-to-day. The Oilers’ captain is stuck at 99 assists on the season, needing only one to become just the fourth player in NHL history to hit 100. Keegan Kolesar scored for the Golden Knights, who lost a third straight. Adin Hill finished with 20 saves.
Logan Cooley scored 3:50 into overtime and the Arizona Coyotes beat the Vancouver Canucks 4-3. Dylan Guenther — who turned 21 on Wednesday — helped out on the play and finished with a goal and three assists for the Coyotes. Vladislav Kolyachonok had a goal and an assist, Josh Brown also scored, and Connor Ingram finished with 23 saves. Elias Pettersson, Conor Garland and J.T. Miller scored for the Pacific Division-leading Canucks, and Quinn Hughes had three assists. Arturs Silovs made 14 saves. Vancouver saw its lead over Edmonton in the division shrink to four points. Edmonton has two games in hand and will host the Canucks on Saturday.
MLB
Jake Burger hit a three-run homer on his 28th birthday and the Miami Marlins beat the New York Yankees 5-2 for just their second win this season. Ryan Weathers allowed three hits and three walks in five scoreless innings for the Marlins, who at 2-11 had matched the team record for worst 12-game start set in 1998. Weathers got his first big league win in almost a year, since defeating the New York Mets for San Diego on April 11 last year. New York dropped to 10-3 as the Marlins stopped the Yankees’ four-game winning streak.
Jordan Westburg hit a go-ahead homer in the seventh inning and the Baltimore Orioles erased a five-run deficit to beat the Boston Red Sox 7-5. Jackson Holliday, baseball’s top-rated prospect, made his major league debut for the Orioles and went 0 for 4 with two strikeouts and an RBI groundout. The 20-year-old infielder, selected first in the 2022 amateur draft, started at second base and batted ninth. Boston wasted a strong start by Kutter Crawford, who threw five scoreless innings. He allowed two hits and four walks with six strikeouts and a hit batter.
J.T. Realmuto had two hits and scored two runs and Aaron Nola pitched six innings, leading the Philadelphia Phillies to a 4-3 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals. Realmuto was back in the starting lineup, hitting cleanup. He left Tuesday’s game after he was hit in the throat area on a Zack Wheeler wild pitch in the seventh inning. Brandon Marsh and Nick Castellanos each drove in a run in the sixth to break a 2-2 tie.
The Mets’ 7:20 game against the Braves in Atlanta was postponed due to rain. It will be made up at the same time on September 26th.
Edouard Julien homered twice and scored three runs for the Minnesota Twins to spark a slumping lineup and lead a 3-2 victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers. Julien entered the afternoon in a 3-for-28 start to the season. He led off the first and fifth innings with opposite field drives into the bleachers in left for his first career multi-homer game. Max Muncy homered and Teoscar Hernández hit an RBI double for the Dodgers. Their opportunity to tie the game in the sixth was thwarted when Shohei Ohtani was thrown out by Carlos Correa at home to end that inning.
Cal Raleigh hit a two-run home run in the 10th inning and the Seattle Mariners beat the Toronto Blue Jays 6-1 to avoid a three-game sweep. Raleigh connected on the first pitch he saw from Blue Jays left-hander Tim Mayza. Seattle snapped a three-game losing streak and won for the second time in eight games. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. hit his third home run, a 459-foot solo blast, but the Blue Jays left the bases loaded in the bottom of the ninth against Mariners right-hander Andrés Muñoz. Muñoz pitched 1 1/3 innings for the victory.
The Rays wrapped up their road trip with a 4-2 victory over the Los Angeles Angels. Tampa Bay scored two runs on a wild pitch in the first inning, and José Caballero homered in the second. Zack Littell allowed just one run despite giving up six hits and three walks while pitching into the fifth inning for Tampa Bay, which won four of five after losing the first game of the trip at Colorado last week. Jo Adell homered and Zach Neto had an RBI single for the Angels, who have lost three of four. Mike Trout doubled, singled and walked.
Bo Naylor singled home pinch-runner Tyler Freeman from third base with one out in the 10th inning to give the Cleveland Guardians a 7-6 win over the Chicago White Sox. Josh Naylor tied it earlier in the inning with an RBI double before turning it over to his little brother — on National Siblings Day. With the bases loaded, Bo Naylor, who hit a two-run homer earlier — in the same inning his brother connected — singled to right as the Guardians completed a comeback after trailing 5-0. The Guardians improved to 9-3, their best start since 2002. Gavin Sheets had five RBIs as the White Sox fell to 2-10.
Vinnie Pasquantino broke out of an early season slump with a home run and a career-high five RBIs to lead the Kansas City Royals to an 11-2 win over the Houston Astros for their sixth straight victory. Pasquantino went 3 for 3 with a single, double, homer and a walk with two runs scored after entering the game 4 for 37 with four singles and no RBIs. The Royals scored seven times in the third inning. Seth Lugo allowed two runs and seven hits in six innings. The Royals’ six-game winning streak is their longest since last September. Spencer Arrighetti took the loss for Houston in his big league debut.
Cody Bradford struck out seven in another strong start, Adolis García had a two-run single among three hits and the Texas Rangers beat the Oakland Athletics 6-2 to stop a three-game losing streak. Shea Langeliers went 0 for 4 a night after hitting three homers. Jonah Heim had a tiebreaking two-run single for Texas in the first as Oakland’s three-game winning streak ended. Bradford won for the third time in three starts in 2024. Oakland's Darell Hernaiz had his first big league hit.
Nick Ahmed and Tyler Fitzgerald had three hits apiece and Jordan Hicks allowed one run in six innings as the San Francisco Giants avoided a three-game series sweep with a 7-1 win over the Washington Nationals. Hicks has allowed one earned run or less in each of his first three starts this season after signing a $44 million, four-year contract with San Francisco. The 27-year-old right-hander allowed four hits and had two strikeouts. Ahmed drove in two runs and scored three times, while Fitzgerald stole two bases and scored twice. Joey Gallo homered for Washington, his third of the season.
Eugenio Suárez hit a two-out, two-run double in the ninth inning and the Arizona Diamondbacks came back to beat the Colorado Rockies 5-3 on Wednesday to win the series. Lourdes Gurriel Jr. added two hits and two RBIs for the Diamondbacks, including an RBI double to tie it at 3-all. Blaze Alexander homered for Arizona, which has taken five of seven meetings this season against Colorado. Michael Toglia had a two-run homer and Ezequiel Tovar added three hits for the Rockies, who hit double digits in the loss column two weeks into the season.
Christian Yelich hit a two-run homer and Wade Miley came off the injured list to pitch four innings of one-hit ball to lift the Milwaukee Brewers to a 7-2 win over the Cincinnati Reds. The 37-year-old Miley was activated before the game Wednesday and got the nod because so many of Milwaukee’s top pitchers are ailing. Miley, who threw a no-hitter when he was with the Reds in 2021, was limited to 52 pitches and allowed just a run and a hit. Bryse Wilson (1-0) pitched the fifth, sixth and seventh innings to get win.
Dylan Cease pitched six strong innings and Jurickson Profar had a go-ahead double and a two-run homer among his three hits for the San Diego Padres, who beat the Chicago Cubs 10-2 to take two of three in the series. Jake Cronenworth also homered to back Cease, who improved to 1-1. Cease pitched for the Chicago White Sox for five seasons before being traded to the Padres during spring training. He improved to 3-2 against the Cubs. He allowed just two hits and no earned runs while striking out seven and walking two.
After his rapid rise to the majors, Jackson Holliday was given a particularly meaningful number with the Baltimore Orioles. Baseball’s top-ranked prospect made his big league debut Wednesday night at Fenway Park, starting at second base and batting ninth against the Boston Red Sox. He struck out his first time up. The 20-year-old infielder, selected first in the 2022 amateur draft out of high school in Oklahoma, is a son of Matt Holliday, a seven-time All-Star and the 2007 NL batting champion. Holliday will wear No. 7 for Baltimore. His father wore that number during seven seasons with St. Louis and one with Colorado. But it hadn’t been worn by a member of the Orioles since former manager Cal Ripken Sr. was still coaching in 1992.
NFL
Aaron Rodgers acknowledged during a podcast appearance this week he briefly thought his playing career could be over after he tore his left Achilles tendon in the New York Jets’ season opener. The 40-year-old quarterback said during a wide-ranging 2 1/2-hour interview on the “I Can Fly” podcast that he feared for his playing career immediately after he was hurt just four snaps into his Jets debut on Sept. 11. Rodgers was traded to the Jets last offseason after 18 years with the Green Bay Packers. He said his life has changed for the better since the injury and is excited about playing again.
Former NFL linebacker Terrell Suggs has been arrested after allegedly threatening another man and showing a handgun during a dispute in a Starbucks drive-thru line. Scottsdale Police arrested Suggs and charged the former Baltimore Ravens player with threatening and intimidating and disorderly conduct with a weapon. The incident on March 10 began after a black Range Rover driven by Suggs passed the ordering speaker at Starbucks and had to back up to place his order, backing into the other vehicle.
The Naylor brothers turned National Siblings Day into quite a family affair. Josh Naylor and his younger brother, Bo, both hit home runs in the same inning on Wednesday night for the Cleveland Guardians against the Chicago White Sox. And if that wasn't enough, the Naylors came through with RBIs in the 10th inning to give Cleveland a 7-6 win. Josh Naylor connected for a solo homer with one out in the fourth. Bo smashed a two-run shot two batters later. The Naylors also homered in the same inning on July 14 last season at Texas. They are the 13th pair of brothers to homer in the same game as teammates.
WOMEN’S COLLEGE BASKETBALL
Caitlin Clark got a final chance to say goodbye to Iowa fans on Wednesday, and of course there was a big crowd waiting. Clark, who became major college basketball’s all-time leading scorer this season on the way to being the consensus national player of the year, was honored along with her teammates in a celebration at Iowa’s home arena commemorating the Hawkeyes’ second consecutive national runner-up finish in the NCAA tournament. “I would say you’ve all inspired me as much as I inspired you,” Clark said to the approximately 8,000 fans at Iowa’s Carver-Hawkeye Arena.
Tara VanDerveer, the winningest basketball coach in NCAA history, has announced her retirement after 38 seasons leading the Stanford women’s team and 45 years overall. The 70-year-old VanDerveer set the wins record earlier this year. The Hall of Famer departs with 1,216 victories at Idaho, Ohio State and Stanford. VanDerveer began her college playing career at the University at Albany.
SUNYAC
A new team has joined the SUNY Athletic Conference. In a message posted to Facebook, Skidmore College says its men’s ice hockey team will compete as an associate in the SUNY-A-C beginning in the 2025-2026 school year. The Thoroughbreds currently compete in the New England Hockey Conference.
SOCCER
Raphinha scored twice and substitute Andreas Christensen headed the winner as Barcelona won 3-2 at Paris Saint-Germain in the first leg of the Champions League quarterfinals. Christensen met a corner and stooped to head past goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma in the 77th minute of a pulsating match. Raphinha opened the scoring in the 37th and Ousmane Dembélé equalized in the 48th against his former club. Three minutes later, midfielder Vitinha put PSG ahead. Raphinha tied it at 2-2 just past the hour mark. Dembélé hit the post moments before Christensen’s goal. In the other quarterfinal first leg Atlético Madrid beat Borussia Dortmund 2-1 at home.
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