The Utah Jazz have continued one of the most torrid stretches in team history. Donovan Mitchell poured in 36 points and had nine assists as the Jazz picked up their fifth straight win, 122-108 over the Celtics. Joe Ingles scored a season-high 24 points and added six assists for the Jazz, while Rudy Gobert chipped in 18 points and 12 rebounds in Utah's 16th victory in 17 games. Ingles and Mitchell combined for three 3-pointers in a game-ending, 14-4 run to help Utah improve to an NBA-best 20-5. Jaylen Brown scored 33 points and Jayson Tatum added 23 in Boston's third loss in four games.
Checking out Tuesday's other NBA action:
Joel Embiid delivered 25 points and 17 rebounds for the 76ers in their sixth win in seven games, 119-111 at Sacramento. Tobias Harris and Seth Curry each added 22 points and the Sixers used a 10-0 run to take control of the game in the fourth quarter.
The Pistons ended a four-game losing streak as Jeremi Grant equaled a career high with 32 points in a 122-111 downing of the Nets. Detroit shot 66.7% from the field in the first quarter and led by 20 in the second.
Jimmy Butler finishing with a game-high 26 points and the Heat beat New York 98-96 to finish off a sweep of a home-and-home series. Bam Adebayo finished with 19 points after he and Butler provided most of Miami's points in the second half.
Stephen Curry scored 32 points and the Warriors snapped the Spurs' three-game winning streak with a 114-91 trouncing at San Antonio. Eric Paschall had 15 points and Andrew Wiggins added 14 in Golden State's first win at San Antonio in six tries.
The Pelicans ran their winning streak to four games as Josh Hart had 20 points and a career-high 17 rebounds in a 130-101 rout of the Rockets. Brandon Ingram scored 22 and Zion Williamson added 20 points, seven assists and five rebounds despite being limited to 20 minutes on the court due to early foul trouble.
Damian Lillard scored 36 points and the Trail Blazers extended their winning streak over the Magic to eight games with a 106-97 victory Tuesday night. Carmelo Anthony added a season-high 23 points for Portland, including five 3-pointers.
In NBA news:
Pilot error has been determined to be the cause of a helicopter crash that killed Kobe Bryant and eight others last year. The National Transportation Safety Board said poor visibility because of thick fog north of Los Angeles probably led pilot Ara Zobayan to become disoriented. The NTSB said Zobayan thought he was climbing when the craft was plunging toward a Southern California hillside. Zobayan frequently flew Bryant. Investigators say he ignored his training and violated federal regulations.
Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban says he decided before this season began not to play the national anthem before the team's home games. The Mavericks played their first 10 regular-season home games without fans. The club had fans for the first time in Monday's 127-122 win over Minnesota. Cuban didn't elaborate on his decision not to play the anthem, saying nobody had noticed.
Timberwolves guard Malik Beasley has been sentenced to 120 days in jail after pleading guilty to a felony charge of threats of violence. He was arrested for pointing a rifle at a family outside his home last fall. The Hennepin County Attorney's Office announced Beasley can serve his stay in the workhouse after the conclusion of his NBA season.
COLLEGE BASKETBALL
In men's college basketball, Syracuse bested NC State 77-68.
In top-25 men's basketball:
No. 11 Alabama was barely able to avoid a second straight SEC loss. John Petty Jr. scored 20 points and Jahvon Quinerly added 13 as the Crimson Tide got past South Carolina, 81-78. Petty also provided a team-high eight rebounds in his first 20-point performance in six games. The Gamecocks had a chance to tie it late, but they settled for Justin Minaya's two-pointer with two seconds left instead of going for a three. AJ Lawson finished with 21 points and Minaya had 15 for South Carolina.
Sean McNeil scored a career-high 26 points and 14th-ranked West Virginia finished a regular-season sweep of No. 7 Texas Tech with an 82-71 victory over the Red Raiders. McBride scored 18 of his 20 points in the second half and the Mountaineers ended a four-game skid at Lubbock.
Andrew Jones scored 24 points and No. 13 Texas snapped a three-game slide by holding off Kansas State, 80-77. Greg Brown added 17 points and Courtney Ramey had 14 for the 12-5 Longhorns.
Christian Bishop scored 17 points and No. 19 Creighton capitalized on Georgetown's worst shooting performance in a decade while rolling to a 63-48 win The Bluejays never trailed and led by as many as 24 points as the Hoyas shot 27% for the game.
In college basketball news:
Big Ten officials have decided to move next month's men's basketball tournament from Chicago to Indianapolis. Games will be played March 10-14 at Lucas Oil Stadium, which also will be the site of this year's Final Four. The Big Ten women's tournament will be held the same week just a few blocks away at Bankers Life Fieldhouse. The conference says the moves were necessary for several reasons surrounding health and safety concerns because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Howard University has canceled the rest of its men's basketball season almost two months since playing just its fifth game. The school said the decision was made out of an abundance of caution because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Howard went 1-4 and last played Dec. 18.
NHL
The Florida Panthers gained some revenge on Tuesday, two days after the Detroit Red Wings pinned them with their first regulation loss of the season. Sergei Bobrovsky made 31 saves and Patric Hornqvist was credited with the eventual winning goal in the Panthers' 2-1 victory over the Red Wings. Hornqvist's winner and came on a power play when a shot by Aaron Ekblad deflected off his shoulder and over the head of Thomas Greiss. Hornqvist also assisted on Alex Wennberg's goal as Florida improved to 7-1-2. Detroit has dropped nine of 10, with the lone win coming Sunday in Florida.
The Lightning have a six-game winning streak after Steven Stamkos furnished two goals and an assist in a 6-1 pounding of the Predators. Mathieu Joseph scored twice and Andrei Vasilevskiy made 32 saves to help Tampa Bay beat Nashville for the fourth time in 11 days.
Zach Whitecloud scored the first game-winning goal of his career late in the third period to lift the Golden Knights over the Ducks, 5-4. Chandler Stephenson had a goal and an assist as Vegas improved to 7-0-1 at home.
The Blackhawks pulled out a 2-1 win over the Stars on Pius Suter's goal 2:15 into overtime. Mattias Janmark also scored for Chicago, which is 6-1-4 in its last 11 games.
Logan Couture scored once in regulation and again in a shootout as the Sharks dumped the Kings, 4-3. Dustin Brown had two goals and an assist for the Kings, who led until Evander Kane tallied with 44.3 seconds left in the third period.
Goals by defensemen Darnell Nurse, Evan Bouchard and Tyson Barrie lifted the Oilers to a 3-2 win against the Senators. The blueliners picked up the scoring slack while Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl each ended 10-game point streaks.
Elias Lindholm scored a power-play goal with 1:42 to go, leading the Flames to a 3-2 win over the Jets. Andrew Mangiapane and Byron Froese also scored to back Jacob Markstrom's 25-save effort.
Coronavirus problems continue to affect NHL teams across the United States. The league postponed last night's Flyers-Capitals game in Washington because of COVID-19-related issues with Philadelphia. It's the 34th game postponed so far this season, which is roughly a quarter of the way through. Philadelphia's upcoming games against New Jersey and Washington's at Buffalo scheduled for Thursday and Saturday were already postponed because of breakouts on the Devils and Sabres.
In NHL news:
The Pittsburgh Penguins are under new management. The team has hired Ron Hextall as general manager and veteran NHL executive Brian Burke as president of hockey operations. Hextall previously was GM of the Flyers. He replaces Hall of Famer Jim Rutherford, who resigned abruptly two weeks ago.
Blue Jackets center Mikko Koivu has decided to retire in the midst of his 16th NHL season, saying he couldn't elevate his level of play. He spent the first 10 days of the season on the COVID-19 list and then had a goal and an assist in seven games with the Blue Jackets.
TENNIS
Serena Williams is looking pretty good at the Australian Open as she seeks her record-tying 24th Grand Slam singles title. Williams has dropped just five games in two matches following a 6-3 6-0 victory over Serbia's Nina Stojanovic. Williams had just 11 unforced errors in beating the 99th-ranked Stojanovic. Other winners in the women's bracket include two-time major champ Garbine Muguruza, American Ann Li and seventh seed Aryna Sabalenka. Two-time Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova has become the second top 10 women's player to fall in the second round. Shortly after eighth-seeded Bianca Andreescu lost to Hsieh Su-wei, the ninth-seeded Kvitova was beaten by Romania's Sorana Cirstea 6-4, 1-6, 6-1.
On the men's side, U.S. Open champion Dominic Thiem has eased through the second round with a 6-4, 6-0, 6-2 win over Dominik Koepfer. The No. 3-ranked Thiem reached his maiden Grand Slam final here in Australia last year before losing to Novak Djokovic. Top seeded Novak Djokovic fended off a spirited challenge from Frances Tiafoe in the second round, beating the young American 6-3, 6-7 (3), 7-6 (2), 6-3 in a 3 1/2-hour match. Eighth seed Diego Schwartzman and Milos Raonic also reached the third round, but No. 17 Stan Wawrinka was ousted in five sets.
NFL
The longtime NFL coach Marty Schottenheimer has died at 77. Family friend and former Kansas City Chiefs publicist Bob Moore says Schottenheimer died Monday night in Charlotte, North Carolina. He was diagnosed with Alzheimer's in 2014 and was moved to a hospice Jan. 30. Schottenheimer won 200 regular-season games with four NFL teams thanks to his "Martyball" brand of smash-mouth football but fell short in the playoffs. He was the eighth-winningest coach in NFL history. He coached for 21 seasons with Cleveland, Kansas City, Washington and San Diego.
In other NFL news:
Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes will have surgery this week on the turf toe injury he suffered in the playoffs. That likely will sideline him for the start of the offseason program but ensure he'll be ready well before training camp.
Sunday's Super Bowl between Tampa Bay and Kansas City had the smallest television audience for the big game since 2006. Nielsen estimated that 92 million people watched and CBS said the total audience swelled to 96.4 million when you add in people who streamed the game. It was nowhere near the 2015 record of 114.4 million viewers.
MLB
Major League Baseball has updated its protocols to quell the coronavirus pandemic. Players, on-field staff and non-playing personnel who require access to ballparks must wear electronic tracing devices from the start of spring training or face discipline for violations. MLB and the union extended last year's experimental use of seven-inning doubleheaders and runners on second base at the start of extra innings. Active rosters will return to 26 from opening day through Aug. 31 and 28 for the rest of the regular season.
In other MLB news:
A person familiar with the negotiations tells The Associated Press that infielder Jonathan Villar has agreed to a one-year, $3.55 million package with the Mets. Villar split last season between Miami and Toronto, batting .232 with two homers and 15 RBIs in 185 at-bats.
Free agent right-hander Chris Archer has finalized a one-year, $6.5 million contract that reunites him with the Tampa Bay Rays. The 32-year-old Archer missed all of the pandemic-shortened 2020 season after surgery to relieve symptoms of neurogenic thoracic outlet syndrome last June. The two-time AL All-Star is 60-80 with a 3.86 ERA in 212 appearances, including 210 starts.
Jordan Zimmermann has inked a minor league deal with the Brewers. Zimmermann pitched in just three games for the Tigers last season due to a forearm injury after going 1-13 with a 6.91 ERA in 2019.
The Angels have signed outfielder Juan Lagares and utilityman Phil Gosselin to minor league deals with invitations to spring training.
GOLF
Ryder Cup captain Padraig Harrington has withdrawn from the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am after testing positive for the coronavirus. The Irishman is the fifth player this year in six PGA Tour events who had to withdraw because of a positive test. That includes Jim Herman, who tested positive in Florida and did not finish his self-isolation in time to travel to Maui for the Sentry Tournament of Champions.
Meanwhile, Dustin Johnson has pulled out of the Pebble Beach Pro-Am. His manager says Johnson felt he would be better served with a week of rest at home before going to Los Angeles for the Genesis Invitational and then a World Golf Championships event in Florida.
Also, Annika Sorenstam is returning to the LPGA Tour, at least for one tournament. The LPGA tweeted that the 50-year-old Sorenstam has committed to play the Gainbridge LPGA in Orlando, Florida, on Feb. 25-28. It would be her first official LPGA event since she retired in 2008, the year she earned the last of her 72 tour victories.
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