NBA
Mikal Bridges scored 28 points, Josh Hart tied a franchise record with his eighth triple-double this season and the New York Knicks beat Miami 116-95, sending the Heat to their first eight-game losing streak of coach Erik Spoelstra’s career. Karl-Anthony Towns had 23 points for the Knicks, who fell behind 12-0, then completely turned around the game after Towns scored 15 straight in the second quarter. New York won the season series 3-0 for its first sweep of Miami since the 1992-93 season. Duncan Robinson scored 22 points for the Heat, who fell to 29-39.
Jalen Green and Jabari Smith Jr. had 30 points apiece and the Houston Rockets rallied for a 144-137 overtime victory over the Philadelphia 76ers on Monday night, extending their season-best winning streak to seven games. The Rockets trailed by as many as 25 points and never led in regulation before their late rally. Houston was up by six after opening OT with a 9-3 run. Philly’s Quentin Grimes made a 3 to cut the led to 140-137 with less than 2½ minutes left in overtime. But Alperen Sengun made two free throws with just over a minute left before Aaron Holiday added two more with 12.1 seconds to make it 144-137 and secure the win.
Paul George will miss the rest of the season to recover from his injuries, ending a difficult first year in Philadelphia for the nine-time All-Star. The 76ers say George has received injections in his left adductor muscle and left knee, following consultations with specialists. According to the team, he “is medically unable to play and will be out for at least six weeks.” Philadelphia’s last game of the regular season is on April 13. George, who turns 35 on May 2, signed a $212 million, four-year contract in free agency last summer. But his first year in Philly was marred by injuries that resulted in the forward having one of the worst years of his NBA career.
Cade Cunningham had 24 points and eight assists, and the Detroit Pistons routed the New Orleans Pelicans 127-81. Simone Fontecchio scored 23 points for Detroit, which had dropped four of six. Zion Williamson had 30 points for New Orleans, and Yves Missi finished with 12 points, 10 rebounds and two blocks. Williamson also grabbed six rebounds and blocked two shots. The Pelicans lost for the seventh time in eight games. After the game, New Orleans said Trey Murphy III will miss the rest of the season after being diagnosed with a torn labrum and partial tear of the rotator cuff in his right shoulder.
Obi Toppin’s fourth 3-pointer of overtime came with 3.5 seconds left to lift the short-handed Indiana Pacers over Minnesota 132-130 and end the Timberwolves’ eight-game winning streak. Toppin had a season-high 34 points to help the Pacers win without their top six scorers down the stretch. Four starters were out. Andrew Nembhard was ejected in the third quarter, and Bennedict Mathurin fouled out in the fourth. The Timberwolves led by five with a minute left in overtime until Thomas Bryant hit a 3. Anthony Edwards missed from deep, Toppin hit his clutch shot and Julius Randle’s fadeaway fell short at the buzzer.
Coby White scored 26 points and the Chicago Bulls beat Utah 111-97 on Monday night, sending the Jazz to their 10th straight loss. Tre Jones added 18 points, 12 assists and three steals as the Bulls won for the fifth time in six games. Kevin Huerter and Matas Buzelis each scored 17. Dalen Terry chipped in with 11 points as six Bulls scored in double figures. Keyonte George and Lauri Markkanen each scored 16 points for Utah, which last won on Feb. 28, in a 117-116 victory over Minnesota. Jordan Clarkson added 14 points and Brice Sensabaugh 13.
Anfernee Simons scored 30 points and the Portland Trail Blazers beat the Washington Wizards 112-97 for their second consecutive victory following a five-game slide. Shaedon Sharpe added 16 points, and rookie center Donovan Clingan had 11 points and 13 rebounds in 25 minutes. Deni Avdija and Duop Reath both scored 15. Simons shot 10 for 17, including 5 of 11 from 3-point range, and made all five of his free throws. Alex Sarr led the Wizards with 20 points. Tristan Vukcevic had 17 points and eight rebounds. Portland moved within three games of Dallas for the final play-in spot in the Western Conference, with Phoenix in between.
Devin Booker scored 27 points and led a second-quarter surge as the Phoenix Suns routed the Toronto Raptors 129-89 on Monday night. Playing without injured guard Bradley Beal again, the Suns saw seven players score in double figures. Ryan Dunn scored 17 points, Jones had 15 points including four 3-pointers, Kevin Durant had 14, Monte Morris 12 and Nick Richards 10. O’Neale had 11 points and 10 rebounds. Scottie Barnes had 16 points and Immanuel Quickley had 15 points, seven rebounds and seven assists for the Raptors, playing without starters RJ Barrett (illness) and Gradey Dick (right knee bruise) plus center Jakob Poeltl (rest).
Malik Monk had 28 points and seven assists, and the Kings beat the Memphis Grizzlies 132-122 to end a four-game losing streak despite losing center Domantas Sabonis to a pair of injuries Monday night. Sabonis suffered a cut over his left eye and blood trickled down his face after the Kings’ big man was hit in the face by the back of Luke Kennard’s head. Sabonis returned but left for good in the third quarter after rolling his right ankle. DeMar DeRozan had 22 points, six rebounds and nine assists. Keegan Murray added 16 points and 10 rebounds. Desmond Bane scored a season-high 44 points for the Grizzlies. Zach Edey had 12 points and eight rebounds.
Stephen Curry needs a break, and Warriors coach Steve Kerr is going to make it a priority to find some rest for his superstar. Two games after becoming the first player in NBA history to reach 4,000 3-pointers and three days after his 37th birthday, Curry struggled to find his shooting groove in a 114-105 loss to the undermanned Denver Nuggets.
Austin Reaves scored 30 points and Luka Doncic had 21 points, 14 assists and nine rebounds in the Los Angeles Lakers’ 125-109 victory over the San Antonio Spurs. Dorian Finney-Smith added 15 points while hitting four 3-pointers for the Lakers, who extended their home winning streak to eight games with back-to-back victories over Phoenix and San Antonio following four consecutive losses on the road. Stephon Castle had 23 points and Devin Vassell scored 15 of his 17 in the first half for the Spurs, who have lost five of seven.
NHL
Alex Tuch scored a power-play goal with 10.7 seconds left in overtime, and the Buffalo Sabres snapped an eight-game road losing streak with a 3-2 victory over the Boston Bruins on Monday night. Peyton Krebs scored a power-play goal and Owen Power also had a goal for Buffalo. The Sabres’ last road win came on Jan. 21, at Vancouver. Morgan Geekie scored a goal and set up Pavel Zacha’s score for Boston. The Bruins have lost three straight since winning the first two after trading away three key players, including captain Brad Marchand. Krebs took a puck to the face while sitting on the bench when it went straight to the bench off a face-off.
Andrei Vasilevskiy recorded his sixth shutout of the season after stopping 21 shots as the Tampa Bay Lightning defeated the Philadelphia Flyers 2-0 on Monday night. Nikita Kucherov and Jake Guentzel scored for Tampa Bay, which has won eight of the past nine games at home. Ivan Fedotov finished with 21 saves for the Flyers, who have been shutout in back-to-back games. Philadelphia has lost seven of the past eight games.
Timo Meier and Jesper Bratt scored 39 seconds apart in the second period, and the New Jersey Devils beat the Columbus Blue Jackets 2-1. Jake Allen had a season-high 45 saves to improve to 12-13-1 for the Devils. Mathieu Olivier scored for Columbus, and Jet Greaves finished with 18 saves while falling to 2-2-2 in six starts this season.
Auston Matthews scored twice on the power play and added an assist as the Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Calgary Flames 6-2 on Monday night. William Nylander added a goal and two assists for Toronto, which had lost five of its last six games. Max Domi, with a goal and an assist, Nick Robertson and Bobby McMann provided the rest of the offense. Joseph Woll made 24 saves Rasmus Andersson and Kevin Bahl scored for Calgary, which is in a battle for the Western Conference’s second wild-card spot. Dustin Wolf allowed five goals on 26 shots before getting pulled after the second period. Dan Vladar finished with two saves in relief.
Mats Zuccarello scored the tiebreaking power-play goal with 4:38 left and the Minnesota Wild beat the Los Angeles Kings 3-1. Ryan Hartman had a goal and an assist, Marcus Johansson also scored, and Jared Spurgeon had two assists for Minnesota. Filip Gustavsson finished with 28 saves. Adrian Kempe scored for Los Angeles, and Darcy Kuemper — coming off shutouts in his last two starts — had 19 saves.
GOLF
Rory McIlroy has won The Players Championship in a three-hole playoff against J.J. Spaun that lacked any real drama. McIlroy blasted a drive down the 16th fairway to set up a birdie. And then Spaun sailed over the island green on the par-3 17th and into the water for a triple bogey. McIlroy is the eighth multiple winner of the PGA Tour’s premier championship. It’s also the first time in his career he has won twice early in the season before the Masters. It was the first Monday finish in three years because of a four-hour rain delay on Sunday.
SOCCER
A transformation of women’s soccer in Europe is well under way. The elite, big-money clubs already established in the men’s game such as Barcelona, Real Madrid and Chelsea have begun pouring money, resources and extra focus into their women’s teams and are taking over. Umea and Turbine Potsdam, European champions only 20 years ago, are among the unfashionable relics of yesteryear who know they can no longer compete. But they seem OK with that and are adjusting to a new reality in a changing financial landscape as women’s soccer grows. Umea sporting director Jorgen Crovin says “I’m not in the least envious because these clubs are at a different level than we can ever achieve now.”
Lionel Messi will miss Argentina’s World Cup qualifiers against Uruguay and Brazil over the next eight days because of an injury to his adductor. The 37-year-old Messi was not included in the 25-man squad announced on Monday by coach Lionel Scaloni. Later Monday, Inter Miami said Messi — the reigning Major League Soccer MVP — underwent an MRI “to assess the extent of the discomfort in his adductor region,” an injury that the team said occurred in Sunday’s win over Atlanta United. Argentina leads South America and will visit second-place Uruguay on Friday and host fifth-place Brazil four days later in Buenos Aires.
NCAA
The NCAA will abandon a rule that stopped athletes from negotiating potentially lucrative endorsement deals before enrolling in a specific college, Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti says as he announced a proposed settlement in a lawsuit over the policy. Skrmetti announced the deal Monday. He and a handful of attorneys general had sued the NCAA over its name, image and likeness recruiting ban, arguing the rule violated antitrust laws. The settlement must still be approved by a federal judge. The agreement, if approved by the court, will allow college athletes to negotiate compensation for name, image and likeness deals before enrolling in a specific school.
There was concern that attendance and overall interest in women’s college basketball would drop this year with the departure of Caitlin Clark, Angel Reese and other stars for the WNBA. Both took a dip — but only a dip. With JuJu Watkins and Paige Bueckers among those leading the way, attendance across the country was just short of last season’s record numbers. More networks showed more games on TV this season and ratings were strong heading into March Madness.
Reaching the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference tournament championship game over the weekend was not enough to save Iona University’s men’s basketball coach Tobin Anderson’s job. The private school in New Rochelle said today it is firing Anderson after two seasons — as it takes “strategic steps to position the program for sustained success” in the N-I-L era. Anderson took over for Rick Pitino, who rehabbed his coaching career with the Gaels before departing for St. John’s. St. John’s earned a two-seed in this week’s NCAA Tournament.
Trying to prove the real inventor of the March Madness pool seems about as implausible as picking a perfect bracket. Staten Island pub Jody’s Club Forest says it was the first in the late 1970s to design what would become the modern-day bracket. The first winner took home $880. By the time Jody’s Club shut down the pool in 2006, the jackpot hit $1.6 million for the winner. The family of a U.S. Postal Service worker out of Kentucky says he was the first one to create the bracket. His was the more traditional form of picking every game down to the champion.
March Madness tips off with the First Four in Dayton, with a mix of bubble teams who made the cut and smaller schools hoping to be this year’s Cinderella. North Carolina was a controversial selection, but the Tar Heels can silence some skeptics with a win over San Diego State on Tuesday night. Xavier and Texas meet for the fourth time in the NCAA Tournament on Wednesday night. Saint Francis of Pennsylvania, the 19th school to qualify with a losing record, faces Alabama State. Washington D.C. area schools American and Mount St. Mary’s will play for the 71st time.
March Madness is here, and teams from our region have finally learned their opponents. In the women’s NCAA Tournament, 15th-seeded Vermont faces second-seeded North Carolina State at 2 p.m. Saturday. UConn earned a two seed and plays 15th-seeded Arkansas State Saturday at 1 p.m. And Fairfield was seeded 12th in a first-round matchup with fifth-seeded Kansas State Friday at 2:30.
On the men’s side, eighth-seeded UConn, the two-time defending champion, hopes to keep its season going against ninth-seeded Oklahoma Friday at 9:25. Yale, the 13-seeded, drew fourth-seeded Texas A-and-M in a Thursday matchup at 7:25. And St. John’s earned a two-seed and will face 15th-seeded Omaha Thursday at 9:45 p.m.
MLB
The Major League Baseball season is under way. Shohei Ohtani and the defending World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers faced the Chicago Cubs at the Tokyo Dome starting at 6 this morning. It was the first of a two-game series and featured five Japanese players. Ohtani, Yoshinobu Yamamoto and rookie Roki Sasaki pitch for the Dodgers while the Cubs have outfielder Seiya Suzuki and left-handed pitcher Shota Imanaga. The two MLB teams have been in Tokyo for several days, playing exhibition games against two Japanese teams. All four exhibition games had a capacity crowd of roughly 42,000.
© 2025 Associated Press. All rights reserved.
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