NBA
Jalen Brunson scored 43 points, becoming the fourth player in NBA history with four straight 40-point games in the postseason, and the New York Knicks beat the Indiana Pacers 121-117 in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference semifinals. Brunson had 21 in the fourth quarter, rallying the Knicks after they trailed by nine early in the period. He joined Hall of Famers Jerry West, who had six consecutive 40-point games in the postseason, and Michael Jordan and Bernard King, who both had four. Donte DiVincenzo hit the tiebreaking 3-pointer with 40 seconds remaining and scored 25 for the Knicks. Myles Turner led the Pacers with 23 points. Game two is Wednesday night at 8.
Elsewhere, the Celtics take on the Cavaliers in Boston in game one of their semifinal series tonight at 7.
Another dominant performance by the Minnesota Timberwolves has the reigning but reeling NBA champion Denver Nuggets on the cusp of a stunning early exit from the playoffs. Anthony Edwards and Karl-Anthony Towns led the short-handed Timberwolves to a 106-80 blowout of the Nuggets for a 2-0 lead in their Western Conference semifinal series. Games 3 and 4 are in Minneapolis this weekend. The Timberwolves have won all six of their playoff games. The Nuggets have trailed by large margins in all seven of theirs. They bounced back against the Lakers but haven't cracked the code against Minnesota.
Nuggets guard Jamal Murray lost his cool on the bench and tossed a heat pack onto the court. Denver’s frustration was on full display in the first half of Game 2 against the Minnesota Timberwolves. The Wolves applied pressure and the defending NBA champions lost their temper, trailing by 32 points in a game that got out of hand before halftime. Sitting on the bench, Murray tossed a heat pack toward the court after a layup by Karl-Anthony Towns. There wasn’t a call on Murray, but a warning from the public address announcer to the crowd not to throw objects onto the floor.
Dallas Mavericks coach Jason Kidd has signed a multi-year contract extension with the team. The Mavericks announced the move a day before opening their second-round playoff series at Oklahoma City. Dallas advanced last week by eliminating the Los Angeles Clippers in six games. The hall of fame point guard, who won an NBA title with the Mavericks in 2011, is in his third season coaching Dallas. He guided the Mavs to win the Southwest Division title with a 50-32 record — his second 50-win season with the team. The Mavs did not disclose the length of the contract extension.
Victor Wembanyama is the unanimous winner NBA’s Rookie of the Year award. The Spurs’ star from France was announced as had a year like no rookie in NBA history. Others scored more points, others grabbed more rebounds, others had more blocks, others made more steals. But never had there been a player who, in Year 1 of their career, posted all these averages — at least 21.4 points, 10.6 rebounds, 3.9 assists, 3.6 blocks and 1.2 steals per game. Until now.
NHL
Jeremy Swayman stopped 38 shots, Brandon Carlo scored a goal just a few hours after his wife gave birth to their son and the Boston Bruins topped the Florida Panthers 5-1 in Game 1 of their second-round playoff series last night. Morgan Geekie, Mason Lohrei, Justin Brazeau and Jake DeBrusk also had goals for Boston, which improved to 5-0-0 against the Panthers this season. Matthew Tkachuk had the goal for Florida, which has rallied from a 1-0 deficit to win an NHL playoff series only twice in nine previous opportunities. Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 24 shots for the Panthers. Game two is Wednesday night at 7:30.
The New York Rangers take a 1-0 lead in their second round series against the Hurricanes tonight at 7.
MLB
Brandon Nimmo hit a tiebreaking homer in the seventh inning that sent the New York Mets to a 4-3 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals. Sean Manaea pitched six effective innings and Edwin Díaz rebounded from a blown save Sunday as the Mets bounced back from a weekend sweep at Tampa Bay. Iván Herrera had a two-run double for the Cardinals, who have lost five of six. Díaz worked a 1-2-3 ninth for his fifth save in six opportunities. Manaea allowed three runs and six hits in his first career start against the Cardinals. He became the first Mets starter to earn a win since Luis Severino beat Pittsburgh 9-1 on April 17.
Edward Olivares hit his first career grand slam and Mitch Keller pitched a five-hitter to lead the Pittsburgh Pirates to a 4-1 victory over the Los Angeles Angels. Olivares’ slam came off Tyler Anderson in the third inning to break a scoreless tie as the Pirates went on to their third consecutive victory following a five-game losing streak. The Angels lost for the 14th time in 17 games. Keller (3-3) allowed only one on Zach Neto’s solo shot in the fifth inning and threw 109 pitches in his second career complete game.
Bryce Harper hit a three-run homer and Zack Wheeler struck out 11 in seven innings to help the Philadelphia Phillies complete a four-game sweep of the San Francisco Giants with a 6-1 win. The major league-best Phillies won their sixth straight game and have won 10 of 11 and 17 of 20 overall. They own the best record in the majors at 25-11. The Phillies have won 10 straight games at Citizens Bank Park, just two shy of matching the team record set in 2012. The Phillies also set a franchise record with 11 straight wins against NL West opponents.
Michael Massey homered and Maikel Garcia singled in two runs in a three-run seventh inning as the Kansas City Royals rallied past the Milwaukee Brewers 3-2. The start was moved up a half-hour to 6:10 p.m. CDT to beat predicted thunderstorms, which didn’t arrive before the last out. The Royals did next to nothing against Milwaukee starter Bryse Wilson, who allowed one hit and struck out six in six scoreless innings. But they broke through in the seventh against the Brewers’ bullpen. Cole Ragans allowed two runs on two hits in six innings for the Royals, striking out eight. Reliever Nick Anderson got the win.
José Ramírez hit a solo homer in the sixth inning, breaking Hall of Famer Larry Doby’s franchise record with his 87th career go-ahead blast and lifting the Cleveland Guardians to a 2-1 win over the Detroit Tigers. Ramírez’s drive off Tigers starter Jack Flaherty hit the foul pole in right field, breaking a 1-all tie that had stood since the first. The Guardians have the second-best record in the American League at 23-12. Riley Greene homered on the first pitch of the game for Detroit, which lost its fourth straight. The shot off Triston McKenzie was Greene’s second leadoff homer this season and the third of his three-year career.
Jonny DeLuca continued his hot stretch with a homer and four RBIs, and the Tampa Bay Rays beat Mike Clevinger and the Chicago White Sox 8-2 on Monday night for their fourth consecutive win. DeLuca has driven in 10 runs in four games after being sidelined with a broken right hand all season. DeLuca had a two-run single in a three-run second against Clevinger, and hit a two-run drive off Jared Shuster during a three-run fifth that made it 7-2. Clevinger was recalled from Triple-A Charlotte before the game, and allowed four runs, six hits and four walks over two-plus innings.
Simeon Woods Richardson pitched six shutout innings of one-hit ball and the Minnesota Twins scored twice in the seventh to beat the Seattle Mariners 3-1 in the opener of their four-game series. Minnesota rebounded quickly after its 12-game winning streak was snapped Sunday with a 9-2 loss to Boston. Woods Richardson struck out a career-high eight and walked just one in his fifth major league start. He whiffed five of his first six batters and had seven strikeouts through three innings. The only hit he permitted was a leadoff single by Mitch Garver in the third. Seattle starter Luis Castillo went 6 2/3 innings and struck out seven. He allowed three runs.
Corey Seager hit a three-run homer in the eighth inning and the Texas Rangers rallied past the Oakland Athletics 4-2. The defending World Series champions were trailing 2-0 until Seager drilled a full-count pitch from Lucas Erceg over the right-center wall with two outs. Texas added an insurance run in the ninth on an error by first baseman Tyler Nevin. Kirby Yates got three outs for his sixth save. The A’s, who are leaving Oakland at the end of this season for Sacramento while they await a new stadium in Las Vegas, drew a season-low 2,895 fans at the Coliseum. Texas has won four of five, and tied a season high with its three-game win streak. The A’s have dropped two in a row after winning six straight.
Yu Darvish pitched five scoreless innings, Luis Campusano drove in three runs and the San Diego Padres beat the Chicago Cubs 6-3. Darvish allowed three hits, struck out five and walked one in his second straight win. The Japanese right-hander played for Chicago for three seasons before he was traded to San Diego in December 2020. Campusano, Xander Bogaerts, Jake Cronenworth and Donovan Solano each had two hits as the Padres won for the fifth time in six games. Robert Suarez got five outs for his 11th save in 11 opportunities. Christopher Morel and Yan Gomes homered for the Cubs.
Shohei Ohtani launched his fourth home run in three games and the Los Angeles Dodgers defeated the Miami Marlins 6-3 in Walker Buehler’s first major league start in nearly two years. Ohtani became the first big leaguer to reach 11 homers this season when he crushed an elevated fastball from Roddery Muñoz for a two-run shot in the first inning. Freddie Freeman, James Outman and Teoscar Hernández also went deep as the Dodgers won their fourth straight. Nick Gordon homered as the Marlins lost for the third time in four games on their West Coast trip.
Dylan Cease says his final season with the Chicago White Sox “wasn’t enjoyable in really any way.” The ace right-hander had a tough year, and the team struggled. He’s having a much better time with the San Diego Padres. Cease is back in Chicago this week for a three-game series against the Cubs. The Padres also play the White Sox this season, but the three-game set is at San Diego in September. Cease was traded from the White Sox to the Padres in March. He says he feels as though the White Sox had talent, but the team just wasn't able to put it together.
NCAA
A settlement being discussed in an antitrust lawsuit against the NCAA and major college conferences could cost billions and pave the way for a new compensation model for college athletes. An agreement has not been finalized and questions about how exactly a new system would work remain unanswered. It is also unclear if new rules could withstand further legal scrutiny, but it appears college sports is heading down a revolutionary path with at least some schools directly paying athletes to participate. How much could be heading their way, who gets paid and who and what could stand in the way?
WOMEN’S HOCKEY
The inaugural season of the Professional Women's Hockey League has set one attendance record after another while putting the sport on the map across North America outside the Olympics. Finally having the best players in the world in one league has provided the kind of jump start needed to try to catch up with basketball and soccer in a crowded landscape. The blossoming of the PWHL also comes at the perfect time with heightened interest in women's sports beyond what's become known as the Caitlin Clark effect. It replaced the Premier Hockey Federation, originally known as the National Women’s Hockey League, which folded in 2023.
OLYMPICS
The Ukrainian Olympic Committee says two-time European weightlifting champion Oleksandr Pielieshenko has died on the front line in the war in Ukraine. The committee posted on Telegram that Pielieshenko “died in the war with the enemy” on Sunday. He was 30. He joined Ukraine’s armed forces in the first days of Russia’s invasion, the committee added. Pielieshenko came back from a doping suspension in 2013-15 to win the 2016 European under-85 kilogram division by one kilogram. He successfully retained the title in 2017 in Split. Pielieshenko missed out on an Olympic medal by five kilograms at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games, where he placed fourth.
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