Owls

Sabrina Ionescu channeled her inner &lsquo;mamba mentality&rsquo; to wrestle away Game 3 of the 2024 WNBA Finals from the hands of the Minnesota Lynx, 80-77, on Wednesday night at the Target Center.&nbsp;
With just under 15 seconds left in the game, Ionescu pulled up from 30 feet to drain a tough stepback three point shot to give the New York Liberty the improbable win on the road. The Liberty went up 2-1 in their series against the Lynx, winning back-to-back games after losing Game 1 in New York.&nbsp;
Ionescu finished with 13 points, 5 rebounds, and 6 assists with two huge threes coming in the dying minutes of the 4th quarter. The recently-minted All-WNBA second teamer scored the final 6 points for the Liberty, hitting on a separate three to put New York up by 4 before her incredible game winner.&nbsp;
Minnesota tied the ball game at 77-all after Bridget Carleton&rsquo;s tough layup and Napheesa Collier&rsquo;s two free throws and it set up Ionescu&rsquo;s game winner at the top of the key.
Breanna Stewart led the Liberty with a monster game of her own, racking up 30 points and 11 rebounds as New York moved one win away from the 2024 WNBA title.
Collier led the Lynx with 20 points and 9 rebounds as she played all 40 minutes in the game. Game 4 will still be at Minnesota on Friday night.

Sabrina Ionescu channeled her inner ‘mamba mentality’ to wrestle away Game 3 of the 2024 WNBA Finals from the Minnesota Lynx.

Sabrina Ionescu shoots down Lynx to bring Liberty to one win away from WNBA title

The first round of the 2024 NBA Draft is done and dusted, and the second round will start today at 4 PM Eastern at ESPN&rsquo;s Seaport District Studios in New York. This will be the first time in NBA history that the draft will be separated into two days, with the first round being at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn.&nbsp;
Here are all the first-round selections courtesy of the NBA: (article to be updated with the second-round picks)
<ol>
<li> <a href="https://www.nba.com/draft/2024/prospects/zaccharie-risacher">Zaccharie Risacher</a> (JL Bourg-en-Bresse) to the Atlanta Hawks</li>
<li> <a href="https://www.nba.com/draft/2024/prospects/alexandre-sarr">Alex Sarr</a> (Perth) to the Washington Wizards</li>
<li> <a href="https://www.nba.com/draft/2024/prospects/reed-sheppard">Reed Sheppard</a> (Kentucky) to the Houston Rockets</li>
<li> <a href="https://www.nba.com/draft/2024/prospects/stephon-castle">Stephon Castle</a> (Connecticut) to the San Antonio Spurs</li>
<li> <a href="https://www.nba.com/draft/2024/prospects/ron-holland">Ron Holland II</a> (G League Ignite) to the Detroit Pistons</li>
<li> <a href="https://www.nba.com/draft/2024/prospects/tidjane-salaun">Tidjane Salaun</a> (Cholet Basket) to the Charlotte Hornets</li>
<li> <a href="https://www.nba.com/draft/2024/prospects/donovan-clingan">Donovan Clingan</a> (Connecticut) to the Portland Trail Blazers</li>
<li> <a href="https://www.nba.com/draft/2024/prospects/rob-dillingham">Rob Dillingham</a> (Kentucky) to the San Antonio Spurs &mdash; traded to the Minnesota Timberwolves</li>
<li> <a href="https://www.nba.com/draft/2024/prospects/zach-edey">Zach Edey</a> (Purdue) to the Memphis Grizzlies</li>
<li> <a href="https://www.nba.com/draft/2024/prospects/cody-williams">Cody Williams</a> (Colorado) to the Utah Jazz</li>
<li> <a href="https://www.nba.com/draft/2024/prospects/matas-buzelis">Matas Buzelis</a> (G League Ignite) to the Chicago Bulls</li>
<li> <a href="https://www.nba.com/draft/2024/prospects/nikola-topic">Nikola Topic</a> (KK Crvena Zvezda) to the Oklahoma City Thunder</li>
<li> <a href="https://www.nba.com/draft/2024/prospects/devin-carter">Devin Carter</a> (Providence) to the Sacramento Kings</li>
<li> <a href="https://www.nba.com/draft/2024/prospects/carlton-carrington">Bub Carrington</a> (Pittsburgh) to the Portland Trail Blazers &mdash; traded to Washington Wizards</li>
<li> <a href="https://www.nba.com/draft/2024/prospects/kelel-ware">Kel&rsquo;el Ware</a> (Indiana) to the Miami Heat</li>
<li> <a href="https://www.nba.com/draft/2024/prospects/jared-mccain">Jared McCain</a> (Duke) to the Philadelphia 76ers</li>
<li> <a href="https://www.nba.com/draft/2024/prospects/dalton-knecht">Dalton Knecht</a> (Tennessee) to the Los Angeles Lakers</li>
<li> <a href="https://www.nba.com/draft/2024/prospects/tristan-da-silva">Tristan da Silva</a> (Colorado) to the Orlando Magic</li>
<li> <a href="https://www.nba.com/draft/2024/prospects/jakobe-walter">Ja&rsquo;Kobe Walter</a> (Baylor) to the Toronto Raptors&nbsp;</li>
<li> <a href="https://www.nba.com/draft/2024/prospects/jaylon-tyson">Jaylon Tyson</a> (Cal) to the Cleveland Cavaliers</li>
<li> <a href="https://www.nba.com/draft/2024/prospects/yves-missi">Yves Missi</a> (Baylor) to the New Orleans Pelicans</li>
<li> <a href="https://www.nba.com/draft/2024/prospects/daron-holmes-ii">DaRon Holmes II</a> (Dayton) to the Phoenix Suns &mdash; traded to the Denver Nuggets</li>
<li> <a href="https://www.nba.com/draft/2024/prospects/aj-johnson">AJ Johnson</a> (Illawarra) to the Milwaukee Bucks</li>
<li> <a href="https://www.nba.com/draft/2024/prospects/kyshawn-george">Kyshawn George</a> (Miami) to the New York Knicks &mdash; traded to Washington Wizards</li>
<li> <a href="https://www.nba.com/draft/2024/prospects/pacome-dadiet">Pacome Dadiet</a> (Ratiopharm Ulm) to the New York Knicks</li>
<li> <a href="https://www.nba.com/draft/2024/prospects/dillon-jones">Dillon Jones</a> (Weber State) to the Washington Wizards &mdash; traded to Oklahoma City Thunder (via Knicks)</li>
<li> <a href="https://www.nba.com/draft/2024/prospects/terrence-shannon-jr">Terrence Shannon Jr.</a> (Illinois) to the Minnesota Timberwolves</li>
<li> <a href="https://www.nba.com/draft/2024/prospects/ryan-dunn">Ryan Dunn</a> (Virginia) to the Denver Nuggets &mdash; traded to the Phoenix Suns</li>
<li> <a href="https://www.nba.com/draft/2024/prospects/isaiah-collier">Isaiah Collier</a> (USC) to the Utah Jazz</li>
<li> <a href="https://www.nba.com/draft/2024/prospects/baylor-scheierman-2">Baylor Scheierman</a> (Creighton) to the Boston Celtics</li>
</ol>
&nbsp;
<ol start="31">
<li> <a href="https://www.nba.com/draft/2024/prospects/jonathan-mogbo">Jonathan Mogbo</a> (San Francisco) to the Toronto Raptors</li>
<li> <a href="https://www.nba.com/draft/2024/prospects/kyle-filipowski">Kyle Filipowski</a> (Duke) to the Utah Jazz</li>
<li> <a href="https://www.nba.com/draft/2024/prospects/tyler-smith">Tyler Smith</a> (G League Ignite) to the Milwaukee Bucks</li>
<li> <a href="https://www.nba.com/draft/2024/prospects/tyler-kolek">Tyler Kolek</a> (Marquette) to the Portland Trail Blazers &mdash; traded to the New York Knicks</li>
<li> <a href="https://www.nba.com/draft/2024/prospects/johnny-furphy">Johnny Furphy</a> (Kansas) to the San Antonio Spurs &mdash; traded to the Indiana Pacers</li>
<li> <a href="https://www.nba.com/draft/2024/prospects/juan-nunez">Juan Nunez</a> (Ratiopharm Ulm) to the Indiana Pacers &mdash; traded to San Antonio Spurs</li>
<li> <a href="https://www.nba.com/draft/2024/prospects/bobi-klintman">Bobi Klintman</a> (Cairns) to the Minnesota Timberwolves &mdash; traded to the Detroit Pistons</li>
<li> <a href="https://www.nba.com/draft/2024/prospects/ajay-mitchell">Ajay Mitchell</a> (UC Santa Barbara) to the New York Knicks &mdash; traded to Oklahoma City Thunder</li>
<li> <a href="https://www.nba.com/draft/2024/prospects/jaylen-wells">Jaylen Wells</a> (Washington State) to the Memphis Grizzlies</li>
<li> <a href="https://www.nba.com/draft/2024/prospects/oso-ighodaro">Oso Ighodaro</a> (Marquette) to the Portland Trail Blazers &mdash; traded to the Phoenix Suns (via Knicks)</li>
<li> <a href="https://www.nba.com/draft/2024/prospects/adem-bona">Adem Bona</a> (UCLA) to the Philadelphia 76ers</li>
<li> <a href="https://www.nba.com/draft/2024/prospects/kj-simpson">KJ Simpson</a> (Colorado) to the Charlotte Hornets</li>
<li> <a href="https://www.nba.com/draft/2024/prospects/nikola-djurisic">Nikola Djurisic</a> (KK Mega Basket) to the Miami Heat &mdash; traded to the Atlanta Hawks (via Heat)</li>
<li> <a href="https://www.nba.com/draft/2024/prospects/pelle-larsson">Pelle Larsson</a> (Arizona) to the Houston Rockets &mdash; traded to the Miami Heat (via Rockets)</li>
<li> <a href="https://www.nba.com/draft/2024/prospects/jamal-shead">Jamal Shead</a> (Houston) to the Sacramento Kings &mdash; traded to the Toronto Raptors</li>
<li> <a href="https://www.nba.com/draft/2024/prospects/cam-christie">Cam Christie</a> (Minnesota) to the Los Angeles Clippers</li>
<li> <a href="https://www.nba.com/draft/2024/prospects/antonio-reeves">Antonio Reeves</a> (Kentucky) to the Orlando Magic &mdash; traded to the New Orleans Pelicans</li>
<li> <a href="https://www.nba.com/draft/2024/prospects/harrison-ingram">Harrison Ingram</a> (North Carolina) to the San Antonio Spurs</li>
<li> <a href="https://www.nba.com/draft/2024/prospects/tristen-newton">Tristen Newton</a> (Connecticut) to the Indiana Pacers</li>
<li> <a href="https://www.nba.com/draft/2024/prospects/enrique-freeman">Enrique Freeman</a> (Akron) to the Indiana Pacers</li>
<li> <a href="https://www.nba.com/draft/2024/prospects/melvin-ajinca">Melvin Ajinca</a> (Saint-Quentin Basketball) to the New York Knicks &mdash; traded to the Dallas Mavericks</li>
<li> <a href="https://www.nba.com/draft/2024/prospects/quinten-post">Quinten Post</a> (Boston College) to the Golden State Warriors &mdash; traded to Thunder, then to Blazers, then to Warriors</li>
<li> <a href="https://www.nba.com/draft/2024/prospects/cam-spencer">Cam Spencer</a> (Connecticut) to the Detroit Pistons &mdash; traded to the Memphis Grizzlies (via Timberwolves)</li>
<li> <a href="https://www.nba.com/draft/2024/prospects/anton-watson">Anton Watson</a> (Gonzaga) to the Boston Celtics</li>
<li> <a href="https://www.nba.com/draft/2024/prospects/bronny-james">Bronny James</a> (USC) to the Los Angeles Lakers</li>
<li> <a href="https://www.nba.com/draft/2024/prospects/kevin-mccullar-jr">Kevin McCullar Jr.</a> (Kansas) to the Phoenix Suns &mdash; traded to the New York Knicks</li>
</ol>
&nbsp;

The first round of the 2024 NBA Draft is done and dusted, and the second round will start today at 4 PM Eastern at ESPN’s Seaport District Studios in New York.

2024 NBA Draft: Full results

The NBA announced that 242 players have filed as early-entry candidates for the 2023 NBA Draft. Here is the complete list.

NBA announces 242 early-entry candidates for 2023 NBA Draft

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) &mdash; Jaime Jaquez Jr. scored 17 of his 23 points in the second half and Tyger Campbell added 18 to lift No. 4 UCLA to a 78-71 win over Utah on Thursday night.
&ldquo;Jaime is a big-time player. He&rsquo;s an All-American and a guy that&rsquo;s going to play in the NBA for 10-12 years, so it&rsquo;s not a surprise,&rdquo; UCLA coach Mick Cronin said.
Jaquez, who was UCLA&rsquo;s only effective offensive player in the second half, made a 3-pointer with 1:03 remaining to seal the win just moments after Campbell made a 3 from the corner.
&ldquo;I prepare myself to be in these situations,&rdquo; Jaquez said. &ldquo;My guys have faith in me that I&rsquo;m going to make the right play every time down the stretch.&rdquo;
UCLA (24-4, 15-2 Pac-12) has won seven in a row despite giving up more than 70 points for just the fourth time this season.
&ldquo;The key is number one, taking care of the ball, and two, relying on your defense to get things done, not your offense,&rdquo; Campbell said.
Mike Saunders Jr. came off the bench to score a career-high 25 points for Utah (17-12, 10-8 Pac-12), which has lost three in a row.
&ldquo;Honestly, it felt amazing and it was crazy because I envisioned it,&rdquo; Saunders said. &ldquo;I was just waiting for an opportunity. I feel like my teammates believe in me.&rdquo;
The Utes played without their starting backcourt of Rollie Worster and Gabe Madsen, who are both injured. Utah finally started making 3-pointers in the second half and cut the Bruins lead to 62-59 after Wilguens Exacte and Saunders hit from beyond the arc.
But Jaquez came up with baskets when the Bruins needed them most.
&ldquo;The game was never in jeopardy,&rdquo; Cronin said, despite Utah&rsquo;s late runs. &ldquo;When you have Jaime and Tyger, it&rsquo;s easy to be confident.&rdquo;
Utah held the Bruins without a field goal for more than six minutes in the middle of the second half, highlighted by a couple of thunderous blocks from Branden Carlson and Keba Keita.
&ldquo;It was a heck of an effort. We&rsquo;re not into moral victories but really, really proud of the way they played today,&rdquo; Utah coach Craig Smith said.
Saunders, who only had three points in all of conference play coming into the game, brought a new element of speed to the Utes but made some mistakes characteristic of seldom-used players.
&ldquo;He&rsquo;s going to learn. They were some things tonight he&rsquo;s got to do better, but he really sparked us on the offensive end,&rdquo; Smith said.
UCLA&rsquo;s 15-2 mark through 17 Pac-12 games marks the program&rsquo;s best conference start since the 2007-08 Final Four team with Kevin Love and Russell Westbrook.
Jaquez thinks this team can go even further.
&ldquo;National championship. That&rsquo;s what we got in mind,&rdquo; Jacquez said.
Tyger Campbell scored 10 of his points in the first half and helped manufacture open shots for his teammates while the Bruins held the Utes to 33 percent and 0-for-10 from 3-point range to take a 43-31 lead at halftime.
BIG PICTURE
UCLA: The Bruins took what the Utes gave them, so they consistently scored from the mid-range. Even with their scoring drought, the Bruins took care of the ball with only six turnovers, marking the 27th of 28 games this season they have less giveaways than their opponent.
Utah: The Utes made it difficult at times for the Bruins with a determined effort on the boards and a lot of hustle, but the Utes couldn&rsquo;t shoot. Without their guards, Saunders was a pleasant surprise, but it didn&rsquo;t matter because UCLA shot so well early and held Carlson in check.
POLL IMPLICATIONS
UCLA has been in the Top 10 for the last month and further upward mobility will probably depend on one of the top three losing this weekend.
UP NEXT
UCLA: At Colorado on Sunday.
Utah: Hosts Southern Cal on Saturday.

Jaime Jaquez Jr. scored 17 of his 23 points in the second half and Tyger Campbell added 18 to lift the No. 4 Bruins to a 78-71 win.

Jaime Jaquez Jr. leads No. 4 UCLA to 78-71 win over Utah

Basketball News highlights the reporting, analysis and podcasts that defined a year of basketball in 2022.

Best of Basketball News: Spotlighting our top content from 2022

BOSTON (AP) &mdash; Makai Ashton-Langford had 21 points and seven rebounds, hitting a 3-pointer with 36 seconds left in overtime to clinch a win Wednesday night for Boston College over No. 21 Virginia Tech 70-65.
Devin McGlockton added 18 points and seven rebounds for the Eagles (7-6, 1-1 Atlantic Coast Conference), who have won back-to-back games to snap a four-game losing streak. It was Boston College&rsquo;s first win over a ranked team since 2020, making it the first for second-year coach Earl Grant.
Sean Pedulla and Justyn Mutts had 18 points apiece for Virginia Tech (11-2, 1-1), which had won six in a row.
NO. 1 PURDUE 74, NEW ORLEANS 53
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. (AP) &mdash; Redshirt freshman Trey Kaufman-Renn scored a season-best 24 points to lead Purdue past New Orleans.
Kaufman-Renn hit 8 of 10 shots and 8 of 10 free throws for the Boilermakers (12-0). The only other Boilermaker in double figures was Mason Gillis with 11 points.
The Boilermakers played without 7-foot-4 center Zach Edey, who was sidelined by illness.
Jordan Johnson scored 17 points to lead the Privateers (3-8), who have lost five of their last six games. Tyson Jackson had 14 for New Orleans.
NO. 3 HOUSTON 83, MCNEESE ST. 44
HOUSTON (AP) &mdash; Ja&rsquo;Vier Francis scored a career-high 23 points and had 13 rebounds as Houston routed McNeese State.
Emanuel Sharp added 18 points while going 6 of 9 on 3-pointers for the Cougars (12-1), and Marcus Sasser hit 5 of 10 from long range and scored 17 points. The pair combined to shoot 9 of 14 on 3s in the first half.
Roberts Berze scored 13 points and Christian Shumate added 10 for McNeese State (3-10). The Cowboys lost their fourth straight game.
NO. 7 TEXAS 100, LOUISIANA-LAFAYETTE 72
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) &mdash; Freshman Arterio Morris scored a season-best 25 points in just 18 minutes in Texas&rsquo; victory over Louisiana-Lafayette.
Timmy Allen and Marcus Carr scored 17 apiece for the Longhorns (10-1), whose 100 points were a season-high and their most since a 105-59 victory against Northwestern State on Nov. 10, 2017.
Jordan Brown, a 6-foot-11 forward, led Louisiana-Lafayette (10-2) with 20 points.
NO. 8 TENNESSEE 86, AUSTIN PEAY 44
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (AP) &mdash; Olivier Nkamhoua scored 20 points to lead Tennessee to a victory over Austin Peay.
Santiago Vescovi had 18 points, shooting 5 for 5 on 3-pointers, and Jonas Aidoo set a career high with 10 points and matched his career best with nine rebounds as the Volunteers (10-2) cruised in their final tune-up before the start of Southeastern Conference play next week.
The Governors (6-7) were led by Sean Durugordon and Elijah Hutchins-Everett with 11 points each.
NO. 10 ARKANSAS 85, UNC-ASHEVILLE 51
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. (AP) &mdash; Jalen Graham scored a season-high 16 points and Arkansas breezed past UNC-Asheville.
Graham, who hadn&rsquo;t played more than 11 minutes in a game this season, logged 19 minutes and shot 8 of 10 from the field as the Razorbacks (11-1) shot 53.3% overall.
Arkansas was missing standout freshman Nick Smith Jr.
Taijon Jones led UNC-Asheville (8-5) with 14 points and Jamon Battle scored 10.
NO. 13 UCLA 81, UC DAVIS 54
LOS ANGELES (AP) &mdash; Jaylen Clark had 18 points and 11 rebounds as UCLA returned from a productive East Coast trip to earn a victory over UC Davis.
Tyger Campbell scored 17 points and Jaime Jaquez Jr. added 14 as the Bruins (11-2) won their eighth consecutive game.
Elijah Pepper scored 16 points for the Aggies (7-5), just under his 20-point average per game. Robby Beasley added 14 points and Ty Johnson had 13 points for UC Davis.
NO. 19 KENTUCKY 88, FLORIDA A&amp;M 68
LEXINGTON, Ky. (AP) &mdash; Cason Wallace scored a career-high 27 points to help Kentucky beat Florida A&amp;M.
Wallace scored the first seven points of the second half for the Wildcats (8-3) as they took a 69-48 lead. The Rattlers (2-8) answered with a 14-0 run, cutting the deficit to seven points on Jaylen Bates&rsquo; 3-pointer. Wallace steadied Kentucky with a jumper and an assist on Antonio Reeves&rsquo; dunk.
Bates led the Rattlers with 21 points and Dimingus Stevens added 13 points.
NO. 20 TCU 75, UTAH 71
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) &mdash; Emanuel Miller had 21 points and seven rebounds and TCU beat Utah.
Mike Miles added 18 points for the Horned Frogs (10-1), and center Eddie Lampkin had 10 rebounds in his return from a back injury.
Gabe Madsen made seven 3-pointers and scored 26 points &mdash; both career highs &mdash; for Utah (9-4). Marco Anthony added 15 points and 10 rebounds, and Branden Carlson had 14 points and eight rebounds. The Utes have lost two in a row.
NO. 23 AUBURN 84, WASHINGTON 61
SEATTLE (AP) &mdash; Jaylin Williams scored 14 of his 18 points in the first half, Johni Broome also scored 18, and Auburn ran away in the second half for a win over Washington.
Chris Moore added 12 points and Wendell Green Jr. added 11 for Auburn (10-2), which shot 21 of 29 (72.4%) in the second half and led by as many as 27.
Keion Brooks Jr. led Washington (9-4) with 15 points and Koren Johnson scored 12.
SAN FRANCISCO 97, NO. 25 ARIZONA ST. 60
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) &mdash; Khalil Shabazz scored 26 points and San Francisco routed Arizona State to end the Sun Devils&rsquo; nine game winning streak.
The Sun Devils had entered the AP Top 25 poll on Monday for the first time since their No. 23 ranking on Dec. 7, 2020.
The Dons opened the game on a 24-2 run, had a 27-point advantage at the break and a 47-point lead with about six minutes left.
Isaiah Hawthorne added 19 points for San Francisco (10-4). Tyrell Roberts scored 14 points.
DJ Horne and Duke Brennan scored 12 points apiece for Arizona State (11-2).

A recap of Wednesday night's men's college basketball slate includes the upset-minded Eagles taking down the Hokies.

Boston College beats No. 21 Virginia Tech 70-65 in overtime

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) &mdash; Marcus Carr scored 19 points and made two free throws with 10 seconds left as No. 2 Texas held off No. 7 Creighton&rsquo;s furious late-game rally and beat the Bluejays 72-67 on Thursday night.
Texas led by 11 points in the second half, but Creighton got within three points a few times in the final minutes.
Tyrese Hunter scored 15 points for Texas (6-0), which got its second win over a top 10 opponent in its new arena. The Longhorns beat then-No. 2 Gonzaga on Nov. 16.
Ryan Kalkbrenner had 20 points and 13 rebounds for Creighton (6-2), and Ryan Nembhard scored 17 points. The Bluejays were 4 of 27 on 3-pointers, but found a late shooting touch in the final seconds to stay close.
UTAH 81, NO. 4 ARIZONA 66
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) &mdash; Branden Carlson scored 22 points and Utah handed No. 4 Arizona its first loss of the season in the Pac-12 opener for both teams.
Carlson went 5 of 9 from 3-point range. Rollie Worster had 12 points, 11 rebounds and nine assists for the Utes (6-2), and Gabe Madsen and Ben Carlson scored 11 points apiece.
Oumar Ballo led Arizona (6-1) with 22 points and seven rebounds. Azuolas Tubelis added 20 points for the Wildcats, who trailed wire to wire and didn&rsquo;t resemble the high-flying team that won the Maui Invitational.
The Utes forced 11 turnovers in the first half that they converted into 15 points.
NO. 8 UCONN 74, OKLAHOMA STATE 64
STORRS, Conn. (AP) &mdash; Jordan Hawkins scored a career-high 26 points to lead UConn past Oklahoma State in the Big East-Big 12 Battle.
Adama Sanogo added 20 points and Andre Jackson scored 11 for the Huskies (9-0).
It was the smallest margin of victory for UConn so far this season. The Huskies&rsquo; next closest was an 82-67 win over then-No. 18 Alabama last Friday at the Phil Knight Invitational in Portland, Oregon.
Kalib Boone scored 15 points to lead the Cowboys (5-3). Avery Anderson III added 14.
NO. 9 KANSAS 91, SETON HALL 65
LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) &mdash; Kevin McCullar Jr. returned from an injury to score 17 points and grab 10 rebounds, Jalen Wilson added 15 points and 13 boards, and Kansas rolled past Seton Hall in the big East-Big 12 Battle.
KJ Adams had 11 points, DaJuan Harris Jr. had 10 with seven assists and Ernest Udeh Jr. also scored 10 for the Jayhawks (8-1), who now have more than a week off before visiting bitter rival Missouri for the first time in a decade next Saturday.
Kadary Richmond had 17 points but also turned the ball over seven times for the Pirates (4-4), who were 4 of 19 from the 3-point arc in losing their third straight game. Tyrese Samuel added 16 points.
NO. 21 UCLA 80, STANFORD 66
STANFORD, Calif. (AP) &mdash; Jaime Jaquez Jr. scored 27 points to help UCLA open up Pac-12 play with a win over Stanford.
The Bruins (6-2, 1-0 Pac-12) have won three straight after dropping back-to-back games to No. 6 Baylor and No. 16 Illinois in Las Vegas.
Tyger Campbell had 17 points and was two assists shy of a double-double, while Amari Bailey scored a season high-tying 19 points.
The Cardinal (3-5, 0-1) outscored the Bruins 37-30 in the second half, starting with three straight baskets within 90 seconds from Spencer Jones, who set a season high and led the team with 18 points.&nbsp;

A recap of Thursday night men's college hoops includes a close battle between two top-10 teams in Texas and Creighton.

Carr scores 19 as No. 2 Texas outlasts No. 7 Creighton 72-67

One day before Thanksgiving &mdash; immediately after the New Orleans Pelicans defeated the San Antonio Spurs &mdash; Zion Williamson was asked an innocent question: What is your favorite dish?
&ldquo;You're trying to set me up,&rdquo; Williamson replied. &ldquo;No matter what answer I give, social media is going to clown me. So, no comment."
Williamson was smiling and many people thought the exchange was funny. However, upon reflection, it&rsquo;s a bit sad. Over the years, Williamson has dealt with so many weight-related jokes and barbs that he doesn&rsquo;t even feel comfortable broaching the topic of food.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-theme="dark">
&ldquo;You tryna set me up&hellip;.no matter what I answer I give, social media gonna clown me. So no comment.&rdquo; Zion Williamson refused to say what his favorite Thanksgiving dish is 🤣 <a href="https://t.co/wiOVx0QCOG">pic.twitter.com/wiOVx0QCOG</a>
&mdash; Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) <a href="https://twitter.com/BleacherReport/status/1595777133523017728?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 24, 2022</a></blockquote>

<script src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>

Unfortunately, what Zion said is probably true. Had he answered this question, his mentions likely would&rsquo;ve been full of rude memes and jokes about his weight.&nbsp;
Not only has Williamson&rsquo;s weight been the butt of many jokes online, but media members have also discussed his body a ton. It can&rsquo;t be easy to have so much attention focused on your weight at 22 years old, especially when your earnings are directly tied to your body.
Williamson&rsquo;s contract with the Pelicans features periodic weigh-ins and &ldquo;the sum of his weight and body fat percentage must be below 295,&rdquo; according to <a href="https://www.nola.com/sports/pelicans/article_85296674-00a5-11ed-97cb-ef28af9a5590.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Christian Clark of NOLA.com</a>. If this number is above 295, the team can reduce his guaranteed money. Williamson has hired a private chef and personal trainer to meet his contractual requirements. And it&rsquo;s worth noting that he&rsquo;s not the only NBA player with a weight-related clause in his contract.
Though the Pelicans would argue that they are just trying to keep Zion healthy and protect their superstar asset, there&rsquo;s no question that these weigh-ins (plus the barrage of jokes and negativity) could take a toll on a person and potentially affect their relationship with food.&nbsp;
While there&rsquo;s no evidence that Williamson has dealt with an eating disorder (and I&rsquo;m not suggesting that he has), there are many athletes who do struggle with disordered eating.
Approximately 10 million men in the United States will suffer from an eating disorder during their lifetime, and elite athletes are nearly three times more likely to have an eating disorder, according to a study by the Norwegian University of Sport and Physical Education.
For example, many boxers develop eating disorders &mdash; such as anorexia, bulimia or binge eating &mdash; since they are expected to cut weight and heavily restrict what they eat prior to fights.&nbsp;
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&ldquo;There is a misconception that eating disorders are disorders for females. The reality is that men struggle with eating disorders just like women do,&rdquo; <a href="https://globalsportmatters.com/health/2019/08/28/hidden-figures-male-athlete-eating-disorders-often-overlooked/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> Erin Rubenking, the associate director and clinical care coordinator for the University of Colorado Athletic Department&rsquo;s Psychological Health and Performance program. &ldquo;It often takes men a much longer time to get help because of that.&rdquo;
Several years ago, former New York Knicks center Michael Sweetney <a href="https://hoopshype.com/2017/06/12/after-battling-depression-and-surviving-a-suicide-attempt-mike-sweetney-is-spreading-positivity/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">opened up to me</a> about the harassment he faced about his weight and how it affected his mental health.&nbsp;
&ldquo;When I go talk to kids, I use my life as an example. I tell them, &lsquo;Google my name. All you&rsquo;re going to see is a bunch of fat jokes and bad stuff about me. You won&rsquo;t find anything positive,&rsquo;&rdquo; Sweetney said. &ldquo;A lot of these kids get cyberbullied, so I try to use myself as an example to help them get through it. I tell them what I went through, show them [negative] articles that were written about me and make it clear that everything is going to be okay &mdash; even if they don&rsquo;t understand or believe that right now. And one thing I&rsquo;ve realized is that a lot of the people who cyberbully others are going through something themselves, and are unhappy with themselves, so they pick on other people.&nbsp;
&ldquo;I&rsquo;ll never mention the person&rsquo;s name, but about a year ago, a writer reached out to me. He wrote a really bad article about me a while back &mdash; it was just terrible, going in on me and mocking my weight &ndash; and he found out that I&rsquo;d suffered from depression. He called me to apologize and said that he was suffering from depression too and he felt that picking on other people would make him feel better. I didn&rsquo;t hold any of it against him; in fact, we still keep in contact and we&rsquo;re good friends now. People go through things. But that&rsquo;s where, again, I can point to my own story and tell kids, &lsquo;It&rsquo;s not you. It&rsquo;s more likely that the other person has some issues they&rsquo;re working out.&rsquo; Fortunately, I think my talks have been helping people.&rdquo;
After Sweetney&rsquo;s father died in 2003, his depression got so bad that he attempted suicide during his stint with the Knicks.
&ldquo;I remember the night,&rdquo; Sweetney told me. &ldquo;We were in Cleveland one night and I just took a bunch of pain pills, hoping it would take me out. But I woke up the next morning thinking, &lsquo;Well, it didn&rsquo;t work.&rsquo; That&rsquo;s how bad it was. I didn&rsquo;t like basketball and I just didn&rsquo;t like life at the time... Even after I tried to commit suicide, nobody really knew. I was suffering really bad. I was in New York, battling this while the media was writing [negative] articles about me, and I felt like I had nowhere to go. I just kept digging myself into a deeper hole of depression&hellip;
&ldquo;[I] tell kids my story. You know, &lsquo;Hey, I was the ninth pick in the NBA draft &mdash; the same class as LeBron James and Dwyane Wade &mdash; and people looked at me as being a potential All-Star and whatnot. I didn&rsquo;t live up to that, and a big part of that was because of my depression. I kept digging my hole deeper.&rsquo; I try to tell these kids, &lsquo;At the first sign of depression, get help. Go talk to someone. Don&rsquo;t hold it in.&rsquo; For me, it got to the point where I was holding it in and I gained so much weight that I lost my NBA career.&rdquo;
Pointing to a more recent example, DJ Carton &mdash; who currently plays for the Iowa Wolves of the NBA G League &mdash; has been open about his struggles with disordered eating. While playing at Ohio State, he lost a significant amount of weight while battling an eating disorder and ultimately took a leave of absence, citing mental health issues. After the season, he transferred to Marquette and was able to resume his career.
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Most people don&rsquo;t realize that eating disorders can be deadly. Every 52 minutes, at least one person dies from issues related to an eating disorder, according to the National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders. Each year, 10,200 deaths are the direct result of eating disorders, as they can cause complications such as heart failure, kidney failure, pancreatitis, peptic ulcers, type-II diabetes, gallbladder disease and heart disease. Also, roughly 26% of people who are struggling with disordered eating will attempt suicide at some point.&nbsp;
Fans may think jokes or insults about an athlete&rsquo;s weight are harmless, but these barbs can have serious consequences and take a toll on someone&rsquo;s mental health.

Mocking an athlete's weight can have serious consequences. Alex Kennedy explores the prevalence of eating disorders in pro sports.

Reflecting on weight-related jokes in sports and the harm they cause

In a released statement, Phoenix Suns and Mercury governor Robert Sarver announced that he will be reluctantly <a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/stories/robert-sarver-announces-intentions-to-sell-phoenix-suns-mercury" target="_blank" rel="noopener">selling his portion of the franchise</a>. Simultaneously, he made sure to make the point clear that this was against his wishes, and that he didn&rsquo;t believe any of this was fair to him.&nbsp;
Let&rsquo;s be clear: This isn&rsquo;t a real punishment. Sarver is cashing out, and stands to make around $2 billion when he sells the franchise. But that doesn&rsquo;t appear to be the point for him. No, instead, Sarver has somehow transformed himself into the victim in the situation.
Recently, AndScape senior writer (and frequent guest on ESPN's Around The Horn) David Dennis Jr. <a href="https://archive.wpfwfm.org/mp3/wpfw_220922_100000collision.mp3" target="_blank" rel="noopener">joined my show</a> with Dave Zirin, "The Collision: Where Sports And Politics Collide."
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We asked Dennis to discuss Sarver&rsquo;s unapologetic departure and his possible plans in the near future.
Etan Thomas: David, I want to read <a href="https://twitter.com/DavidDTSS/status/1572641668251389952?s=20&amp;t=3AvIsxxafvOpk7M31VHjsw" target="_blank" rel="noopener">a tweet of yours</a>. I want you just to go a little bit more in-depth. In this tweet, I saw the segment on Around the Horn and I thought it was great; that's the reason I reached out to you. But your tweet said, "Pardon my cynicism here, but Sarver already seems to be planning out his cancel culture tour that is going to make him richer than he was before. And we've seen all of this before." Go into a little more detail about what you meant.
David Dennis Jr.: "Yeah. So, he took an excruciatingly long, what, five days to decide to give up the team? And Sarver has already greased the wheels to start his cancel culture tour, which we've seen so many celebrities do after they're called out for racism, misogyny, sexual misconduct, etc. Instead of owning up to it, they say, 'Well, I was canceled by this woke mob.' Basically, code language that says, 'These Black folks, these women, etc. are out of control and they cost me my career,' and they go on a Fox News tour pushing that false narrative. And Sarver's comments that he made about why he's selling the team were all about that. It was about the fact that he wasn't given a chance to do right, it was the fact that he was basically saying cancel culture without saying that phrase.
"And this is a pathway that so many other people have taken that he now seems ready to take himself. He can write a book about how he was wronged by these NBA players. He can go on Fox News and the Newsmaxes of the world as a business consultant and talk about this. He can go on a worldwide tour, basically talking about how he was the affronted person, because of the fact that he was not allowed to clear himself of all of the racism and misogyny that he was accused of. And we've seen this so many times, and there's so much money to be made in it. Now, as far as the penalty? There&rsquo;s really no penalty for being a terrible person. I mean, he's already going to sell the team for $2 billion, and he has a financial forward-thinking thing that he's already looking forward to."
Dave Zirin: What were your thoughts, David, about the way that Adam Silver handled all of this? Initially, Silver was widely criticized for how he handled this. And then, a school of thought has emerged that said, "Maybe Silver played it correctly because he allowed public opinion to push Sarver out." I frankly wonder if that gives Silver too much credit, but I would love to hear your thoughts.
Dennis: "Yeah. I mean, there's one thing that this country loves to do &mdash; it loves to give white men the benefit of the doubt, especially when it comes to racial reckoning, right? There's always some idea that there is some great master plan. I don't see the master plan. I see a guy who was being paid by the owners to speak out on behalf of the owners, and that's what he did. The other 30 white-men billionaires did not see enough of a problem with what Sarver did to kick him out of the league. Adam Silver got that memo, and he went out there and was the voice box for those people. If the NBA really felt like Sarver did something or felt like they could say something strong about Sarver, the statement that they put out, the investigation would not have said that there is no racial or sexist animus in his actions of saying the N-word or insulting women.
"It was, 'Here's the information, but also, we're going to defend him at the same time.' Adam Silver, probably deep down in his hope of hopes, thought that this wasn't going to happen so that he would get let off the hook and that the NBA would look good in the long run. But the problem with that is he ends up putting the onus on Black folks, Black players, Black fans to protest. But whatever happened to white folks just going out and doing what's right just because it's the right thing to do? Which, we did not see from the other owners."
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-theme="dark">
Pardon my cynicism here but Sarver already seems to be planning out his &ldquo;cancel culture tour&rdquo; and it&rsquo;s going to make him richer than he was before. We&rsquo;ve seen this before. <a href="https://t.co/ZluZo9Zdwn">pic.twitter.com/ZluZo9Zdwn</a>
&mdash; David Dennis Jr. (@DavidDTSS) <a href="https://twitter.com/DavidDTSS/status/1572641668251389952?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 21, 2022</a></blockquote>

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Etan: It's interesting. We had <a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/stories/howard-beck-explains-differences-in-donald-sterling-robert-sarver-cases-" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Sports Illustrated writer Howard Beck on last week</a>, and he made some good points. I asked him the difference between this situation and the Donald Sterling situation, and why they were handled differently. I thought a precedent had been set and this one didn't follow that. But he made some good points. He said some of the differences being No. 1, there was no smoking gun, no actual audio of Sarver saying this that could be repeatedly played throughout the media. The timing of everything, there wasn't the player uproar or the national media uproar, like there was with Sterling.
And he talked about even the press conference, the amount of media that was there, it paled in comparison to that of Sterling. Do you think those are all relevant factors as to why Adam Silver and the governors were reluctant to give Sarver the Sterling treatment? Or do you think those are irrelevant factors?
Dennis: "I do think that those are factors. I think, here's the biggest factor, is that [the] Donald Sterling [incident] happened in what, 2013, 2014? And since then, these white billionaires have learned that if you are in fact caught on tape saying terrible things about people, you can still become the President of the United States. And so, you've learned that there are more people who actually side with you for these things than they thought before. There was a time when Donald Sterling did this that people thought, 'Oh, this is going to be universally panned as wrong.'
"But now, we live in a society where people believe what Robert Sarver did was not wrong, and he has more backers than they originally thought. And billionaires are more likely to stick to their guns because they see that we have a country in which racism and misogyny are more accepted than they once thought it was. If you could be on the Supreme Court or President of the United States or continue to own your companies, then why the hell do I even have to listen to a bunch of Black players, a bunch of Black fans who are just upset? I'm still the one with power. So, I think that is the biggest change. It's not the change in the players or the league. It's society as a whole, that is more accepting in this country of racism, and despite all the cancel culture stuff that they're talking about."
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Zirin: But do you think, David, that there's also been a polarization? I mean, since Donald Sterling, obviously the great societal difference since then has been the growth and expansion through 2020 of the Black Lives Matter movement, the largest demonstrations in the history of the United States. I mean, it makes me wonder if the climate has also produced an environment where if we were coming up on the season, players would not have put up with this either. And I think that might have created a much greater conflict than what we're currently seeing.
Dennis: "Oh yeah. I mean, I agree in saying that there's racism, but I think that they feel like they have more backers behind what Sarver's doing than they once thought before. So, it is a different sort of environment. And players were going to be more vocal and do all those things, but there was also probably enough of what the owners believed that they can put up with than they probably could before. There's more of an appetite for being okay upsetting Black people, I think, than before. And then that's why we end up with this sort of head-on collision.
Etan: You referenced Robert Sarver's statement. I want to read a little bit of so people know exactly what we're talking about. Sarver said in his statement:&nbsp;
<blockquote>
Words that I deeply regret now overshadow nearly two decades of building organizations that brought people together and strengthened the Phoenix area through the unifying power of professional men's and women's basketball. As a man of faith, I believe in atonement and the path to forgiveness, I expected that the commissioner's one year suspension will provide the time for me to focus, make amends and remove my personal controversy from the teams that I, and so many fans love.
But in our current unforgiving climate, it has become painfully clear that this is no longer possible, that whatever good I have done or could still do is outweighed by what I have said in the past and for those reasons, I am in the process of seeking buyers for the Suns and Mercury.
</blockquote>
So, as you said, he doesn't sound very apologetic. He really sounded like he's going to not go away quietly, but we might see him on that Fox News, right-wing Tucker Carlson tour talking about how he was done wrong and unjustly forced to sell his team.
Dennis: "Yes, that's exactly what he is doing. And another thing, he said he wanted a year to atone for this. He had a year; the investigative report came out a year ago. So, these things were already out, and he had a year to fix this and make this right. And we don't even know if those are words he regrets because Robert Sarver's the only person who says that, when he said the N-word, he was repeating it from somebody else. So, we don't even know if he's telling the truth about the origin of why he was saying those words in the first place. Because I do find it hard to believe that he heard another Black person say, 'N-words in the back, white people in the front.' And he just decided to repeat that? So, he had all the time to atone and do all that stuff. This just feels like a defense that he's going to use as fuel for his... whatever campaign that he's going to run going forward."
Etan: But let me jump right in with that. Even with that, people leave out the part about Earl Watson telling him, "Wait a minute, you can't say that word. It means something different when you say it." And then, him ignoring, I guess, what Earl Watson said, or [thinking] "You&rsquo;re beneath me, you can't tell me what I can't say. Why can't I say the N-word too? if Draymond Green could say it, why can't I say it?" So he kept saying the N-word over and over &mdash; the actual word.
And it's just interesting hearing a lot of people, who happen to be white, not understand how that's unacceptable in any way shape or form when you're specifically told that what you were saying is offensive. You know what I mean? I don't understand how so many people don't make that connection.
Dennis: "I think that connection is very clear. I just think they don't care. And that's exactly what Sarver said to Earl Watson. That he doesn't care. And I think that's going to be part of his next thing is why. Can't you see him doing an N-word documentary about why can't white people say this word and Black people can? This is a tale as old as time. Every time a white person gets called out for saying the N-word, we all ask the question of, 'Why can't white people say it?' And I just want to know, why do white people want to say it so badly? It just feels like if I'm in a conversation with somebody and they say, 'Hey, that's offensive,' a decent human being just says, 'Okay, my bad, I apologize.' That&rsquo;s just how human interaction works. But this has literally tormented white folks for decades that they cannot say this one word.
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Zirin: It's really staggering. I mean, I have teenage children who understand why you don't say that word in any context. And yet, these supposedly "masters of the universe," emphasis on the word "masters" in their own mind, can't get it through their own heads about what is, or is not, offensive. And it's because as you said, they're leaning in that direction in the first place and they resent the fact they can't do what their great grandfathers were able to do, I think they say to themselves, "Why am I denied what previous generations of my white forefathers were able to do?" And that, in and of itself, offends them.
Dennis: "Yeah. I mean, and if we want to talk about a very long history, there's a long history of white men having trouble with the word 'no' when it comes to a lot of things. And part of becoming a white billionaire, quite frankly, is not taking no for an answer &mdash; no matter who it harms. And that comes to a head in these situations, and that&rsquo;s exactly what we saw with Robert Sarver."
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David Dennis Jr. speaks on Robert Sarver's poor attempt to spin his selling of the Suns and Mercury into a victim mentality.

Disgraced NBA team governor Robert Sarver blames everyone but himself

LAS VEGAS (AP) &mdash; James Wiseman returned and Jonathan Kuminga had a big night, but the San Antonio Spurs beat the Golden State Warriors 85-84 on Sunday night at the Las Vegas Summer League behind 23 points from Blake Wesley.
Recovering from April 2021 surgery to repair torn cartilage in his right knee, Wiseman didn&rsquo;t play in the NBA this season and appeared in just three G League games in March before being shut down. The 21-year-old Wiseman, a 7-foot center taken with the No. 2 pick in the 2020 draft, had 11 points on 5-of-7 shooting with two blocks in 19 minutes.
Darius Day had 17 points and 13 rebounds, Josh Carlton had 10 points and 11 rebounds &mdash; seven offensive &mdash; and Josh Primo had 10 points or San Antonio. Primo, taken 12th by the Spurs in the 2021 draft, shot just 2 of 15 from the field and 1 of 5 from 3-point range.
Kuminga had 28 points on 10-of-22 shooting with seven rebounds and four assists but made just 1 of 7 from 3-point range and shot 7 of 18 at the free throw line. Mac McClung added 22 points, six rebounds, six assists and three steals.
Moses Moody, who scored 34 points in a loss to the New York Knicks on Friday, did not play for Golden State (0-2).
KINGS 103, PACERS 96
Keegan Murray, picked No. 4 overall by Sacramento in June&rsquo;s draft, scored 23 points and hit four of the Kings&rsquo; 18 3-pointers in their win over Indiana.
Sacramento (1-1) took Murray over Purdue&rsquo;s Jaden Ivey and the 6-foot-8, 225-pound forward out of Iowa is averaging 21.5 points and hitting 40% of his 10 attempts per game from 3-point range in Las Vegas. The 21-year-old Murray averaged 19.7 points, 8.0 rebounds and 1.3 steals while shooting 51.1% from the field and 43.8% from 3-point range in three games at the California Summer League earlier this month.
Terry Taylor had 16 points on 5-of-8 shooting and grabbed seven rebounds. Bennedict Mathurin, the No. 6 pick in last month&rsquo;s draft, had 15 points but made just 6 of 16 from the field for Indiana (1-1).
Sean McDermott hit three 3s and finished with 18 points on 7-of-9 shooting and Frankie Ferrari scored 16 and made 4 of 6 from behind the arc for the Kings.
NETS 91, 76ERS 84
Cam Thomas made 15-of-15 free throws and finished with 26 points and seven assists, David Duke Jr. scored 21 points and Day&rsquo;Ron Sharpe had a double-double to help Brooklyn beat Philadelphia.
Sharpe had 13 points &mdash; including&nbsp;<a class="" href="https://twitter.com/BrooklynNets/status/1546239575709732864" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">dunk</a>&nbsp;while being fouled to open the fourth quarter &mdash; with 11 rebounds, four assists, three steals and two blocks. Kessler Edwards added 10 points for the Nets (1-1).
There were 15 ties and 17 lead changes, the last of which came when Sharpe made a reverse layup with 6:23 to play.
Brooklyn made 28 of 32 (87.5%) from the free-throw line, including 6 of 6 in closing seconds. Duke finished 9 of 10 from the foul line.
Cassius Winston led the 76ers (0-2) with 16 points on 7-of-11 shooting and added five rebounds, seven assists and two steals. Charlie Brown Jr. scored 15 points and Charles Bassey had 11 points and nine rebounds.
KNICKS 101, BULLS 69
Quentin Grimes hit four 3-pointers and finished with 23 points, Jericho Sims scored 11 points on 5-of-6 shooting and grabbed 10 rebounds and New York never trailed against Chicago.
Sims, who played 41 games for the Knicks (2-0) on a two-way contract as a rookie last season, had his second consecutive double-double. The 6-foot-9 center out of Texas signed a three-year contract worth about $6 million.
New York opened the game with a 13-0 run, led by 16 points at the end of the first quarter and scored 32 in the second to make it 59-24 at halftime. The Knicks finished with 42 points in the paint, scored 35 points off 21 Chicago turnovers, and led by as many as 39 points.
Miles McBride added 14 points, six assists and three steals, and DaQuan Jeffries scored 13 points for New York.
Dalen Terry &mdash; picked No. 18 overall in June&rsquo;s draft &mdash; and Carlik Jones scored 13 points apiece for Chicago (1-1). Terry made 3 of 7 from the field, 1 of 6 from 3-point range and committed seven turnovers. Henri Dell added 11 points and three steals.
WIZARDS 97, SUNS 72
Vernon Carey Jr. had 15 points and 11 rebounds, Jaime Echenique scored 12 points and Washington led by double figures for nearly 30 minutes in its win over Phoenix.
Isaiah Todd hit a 3-pointer that gave the Wizards (1-1) a 23-13 lead with 9:31 left in the second quarter and the Suns trailed by at least 10 the rest of the way. Davion Mintz made a step-back 3 to give Washington its biggest lead at 89-56 with 3:55 to play.
Johnny Davis, the No. 10 pick in last month&rsquo;s draft, and Tyler Hall scored 11 points apiece. Davis, a 6-foot-5 guard out of Wisconsin, went 1 for 9 from the field and finished with six points, five rebounds and two assists in Washington&rsquo;s 105-99 loss to Detroit on Friday.
Tyson Carter led the Suns (1-1) with 12 points. Ish Wainright added 11 points and Louis King scored 10.
NUGGETS 84, CAVALIERS 76
Peyton Watson scored 19 points on 7-of-12 shooting and grabbed seven rebounds, and Collin Gillespie added 17 points, seven rebounds and six assists as Denver beat Cleveland.
Christian Braun had 10 points, five assists and three steals, Ismael Kamagate also scored 10 points to go with nine rebounds and Jack White had eight points, 15 rebounds and three blocks for Denver (1-1).
RJ Nembhard Jr. led the Cavaliers (1-1) with 19 points, Cam Young scored 16 and Amar Sylla 11. Ochai Agbaji, who Cleveland picked No. 14 overall in June&rsquo;s draft, had eight points on 3-of-11 shooting with six rebounds, three assists and a steal.
Cleveland Browns All-Pro defensive end Myles Garrett warmed up with the Cavaliers before the game,&nbsp;<a class="" href="https://twitter.com/NBA/status/1546273107631128579?s=20&amp;t=f2i3RbuemsDwOW2Pjb155Q" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">dunking in the layup line while wearing a No. 95 jersey</a>.

James Wiseman returned and Jonathan Kuminga had a big night, but the Spurs beat the Warriors 85-84 on Sunday night.

James Wiseman returns, but Warriors fall to Spurs in NBA Summer League

Over the past few years, nobody has been more vocal about Kyrie Irving than Stephen A. Smith.
&ldquo;Kyrie Irving is saying basketball is not a priority to me&hellip;..Kyrie Irving until you want to play, you should retire," Smith <a href="https://youtu.be/z81VQBtWnYU" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said on ESPN's First Take on Jan. 13, 2021</a>. "Forfeit every penny you make, retire and go do what you wanna do in regard to these issues that are clearly most important to you.&rdquo;&nbsp;
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&ldquo;We are witnessing one of the most delusional athletes in American history," Smith doubled down on April 29. "He&rsquo;s lost&hellip;What it comes down to Kyrie is you don&rsquo;t want to show up to work. You wanna do what you wanna do, when you wanna do it, how you wanna do it, and then you have your hand out for somebody else&rsquo;s money."
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These takes &mdash; which have been repeatedly expressed by Stephen A. and those of his ilk for the past few years &mdash; have sparked a nationwide demonization of Kyrie Irving.&nbsp;
To debate this and the ongoing rift between the NBA players and the media, I sat down with two media giants that I have a great deal of respect for in The Athletic's David Aldridge and Marc Spears of ESPN's Andscape. We discussed the contrast between the old media and new media, what the role of the media should be and what real effects talking heads like Stephen A., Skip Bayless, Nick Wright and those of their ilk have on the entire basketball world.
Although we disagreed for the majority of the discussion, this was a healthy debate with different perspectives presented &mdash; the way discussions/debates should be.
(Editor's Note: Watch the entire exchange below on BasketballNews' YouTube channel and subscribe to Etan's podcast "The Rematch.")
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Etan Thomas: I&rsquo;ll agree with both of you that the majority of the media, whatever bucket you want to include everyone in, does not conduct themselves like Stephen A. Smith, or Skip Bayless or Nick Wright or those of that ilk. But they are the loudest voices. And those are the voices that you hear everyday. And those loud voices drive not only the masses of sports fans, but it also impacts the way that journalists write their articles. 
Marc Spears: "Let me stop you right quick. You mentioned (Fox News) earlier &mdash; they present their misinformation as facts, whereas [Nick] Wright and [Stephen A.] Smith, they&rsquo;re just speaking on sports and giving their opinion."
Etan: But they are presenting their opinions as though they are facts. Honestly, Stephen A. Smith has the same power over the masses that Tucker Carlson has over the Right. They&rsquo;ll say all the time that Tucker Carlson is not a real journalist, he&rsquo;s not a real member of the media, but he still has the same media power over the minds of the masses&nbsp;
Spears: "Stephen A. doesn&rsquo;t conjur racism."
Etan: I&rsquo;m not talking about the topic, I&rsquo;m talking about the level of power and influence.&nbsp;
David Aldridge: "Etan for the sake of the discussion, I&rsquo;ll accept your comparison. If the argument is these people are on TV everyday (and) therefore, they have a lot of power, therefore, their opinions carry weight. But I will come back to again: With who? (Laughing) Who do they carry all of this weight with?"
Etan: With the entire sports world.
Aldridge: "But Etan, I would have to disagree with you because it&rsquo;s not the entire sports world. Because the entire sports world would include team owners, team general managers, head coaches, players. And nobody has gotten more bad criticism as of late than Kyrie. Let&rsquo;s use Kyrie Irving as an example.
"Kyrie just opted in for $37 million, and guess what? When he&rsquo;s a free agent next year, somebody else is going to give him a big contract. Might be Brooklyn, might not be. But somebody is going to give Kyrie some more paper to play."
Etan: You don&rsquo;t think the narrative that has been repeated by those like Stephen A. Smith and those of that ilk has hurt the entire image of Kyrie? Going from this past year, let&rsquo;s examine why he was sitting out. During the pandemic and he didn&rsquo;t want to take the vaccine. He was uncomfortable with the vaccine, which a large portion of the country was as well. I had a different conclusion than he had, but I respect his conclusion. Everybody was ok with it until... he started missing games. Then it was like, 'Wait a minute now, we can&rsquo;t have this.' Then, you had Stephen A Smith saying, 'Oh he doesn&rsquo;t want to play, oh he doesn&rsquo;t respect the game,' and that started creating a narrative where the entire pendulum started to shift completely on Kyrie. 
Aldridge: "Do you believe Etan, if I say I can agree with you on Stephen A. Smith voicing his opinion, do you think nobody on the Brooklyn Nets had the same opinion? Do you think the Brooklyn Nets were saying to themselves, 'Yeah, we would love for Kyrie to play, but we respect his position on the vaccine?'"
Etan: But nobody on the Brooklyn Nets was carrying the narrative publicly that he was abandoning his team. So once you have a Stephen A. Smith, who says that repeatedly, then you have journalists who start repeating what Stephen A Smith said in their articles. Then, you have an entire narrative that permeates throughout the entire country.
Aldridge: "Etan, I will humbly submit to you that there were a lot of people within the Brooklyn organization who had the exact same position."
Etan: I&rsquo;m not talking about that, I&rsquo;m saying they weren&rsquo;t saying it publicly.
Aldridge: "Their focus was they needed Kyrie to win. They were trying to win championships."
Etan: Of course. 
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-theme="dark">
Kyrie Irving is 100% correct and spot on with this and the media members who fall into this category will be quick to take offense because they know it applies directly to them <a href="https://t.co/ItgLF5N0eg">https://t.co/ItgLF5N0eg</a>
&mdash; Etan Thomas (@etanthomas36) <a href="https://twitter.com/etanthomas36/status/1520000279747387392?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 29, 2022</a></blockquote>

<script src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>

Aldridge: "Okay, so that&rsquo;s my point. They didn&rsquo;t want to say it publicly, but that didn&rsquo;t mean they didn&rsquo;t have the opinion. The inference is that only journalists had this opinion (and that) not a lot of people had this opinion. (The talking heads) said it (publicly), yes, but that doesn&rsquo;t mean that other people didn&rsquo;t have the same opinion."
Spears: "A lot of people had the same opinion, I just think Stephen A. was just probably loudest with it."
Aldridge: "So if lots of people had the same opinion..."
Etan: I think you&rsquo;re still discounting the power of the pen, whether it&rsquo;s the power of the pen or the microphone that Stephen A. Smith and those of that ilk have. There is power in it, so when you repeat something over and over again, there is power in it.
Aldridge: "Okay there&rsquo;s power in it; I&rsquo;m saying the impact of the power I believe is far less. And look, we all love sports &mdash; we all make our living in sports, all of us love writing, talking, thinking about sports, we&rsquo;re all fans of sports. But, it&rsquo;s not the same... I don&rsquo;t believe the power of say, the political media, the political press to shape agendas, whereas a legacy media like the New York Times has an outsized influence on the way the rest of the political press covers things, because people still read the New York Times everyday.
"That&rsquo;s way different than, I would suggest, any talking head on one of the sports debate shows. Do they have influence? Yes. Do they have some ephemeral type of power and influence over a certain segment of the population? I would agree. I would again say, 'What is the impact of that power on a player?' I would say, 'Does it help shape perception of a player?' Yes it does. I would agree with you. It does help shape perception of a player."
Etan: But you don&rsquo;t think the perception of a player has any impact on a GM, or a President or a team? That&rsquo;s what you&rsquo;re telling me?
Aldridge: "I would ask you, if you were talking about who has the worst reputation in pro basketball right now &mdash; I don&rsquo;t have an answer, I&rsquo;m asking you. Based on the 'media&rsquo;s' shaping of their perception, who has the worst reputation right now? Kyrie? Maybe it&rsquo;s Kyrie. Let&rsquo;s say for the sake of the discussion it&rsquo;s Kyrie Irving, because of people have killing him because of the vaccine and a lot of other things.
"Let&rsquo;s just say Kyrie has the worst reputation right now in the NBA. He&rsquo;s going to be a free agent next year. I defy you to tell me that he&rsquo;s not going to get paid next year, regardless of this perception of him. If you&rsquo;re gonna tell me that Kyrie is going to have to take the minimum next year, I would tell you that you are incorrect. Kyrie will not be playing for the minimum."
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Etan: That's fair enough, but if you tell me that if he was an unrestricted free agent this year and the narrative that has been created around him wouldn&rsquo;t have impacted what teams sign him for, I would have to respectfully disagree.
Spears: "If he can play, he can play and will get paid period."
Aldridge: "Talent wins out Etan, you know that."
Etan: But listen, Stephen A. Smith has been drumming, 'Only sign him for a year, one year contract, don&rsquo;t sign him long-term, teams beware,' etc. So you&rsquo;re gonna tell me that if Kyrie was an unrestricted free agent after hearing this (hot take) constantly from people like Stephen A Smith, that teams would not be a little more hesitant to sign him for a long-term deal than they would for a year? (Which Stephen A. Smith has been repeating over and over and over again.) That&rsquo;s what you&rsquo;re telling me? It would have no effect whatsoever?
Aldridge: "At some point Etan, the player has to have some responsibility. Yes, it&rsquo;s the vaccine this time, and I&rsquo;m not questioning his motivation or reasoning, but let&rsquo;s be honest: He took off games the year before. He just took games off. Now, maybe he needed to; I&rsquo;m not saying he&rsquo;s wrong to do it. I&rsquo;m just saying in the middle of the season, he said, 'I need to take a few games off.' Okay, that&rsquo;s fine, but there is impact with that Etan."
Etan: But you do understand the double-edged sword here when you have an NBA who is embracing mental health in certain aspects&nbsp;
Aldridge: "I&rsquo;m not saying he was wrong to do it."
Etan: But this is what I&rsquo;m saying: There&rsquo;s a narrative that is created by the media. If the narrative created was that Kyrie was a champion for mental health, and why it&rsquo;s so important to take care of your mental health to continue the longevity of your (career)... if that whole narrative was pushed that way, then the entire perception would&rsquo;ve been different around the games that he took off because he said he needed a break.
Aldridge: "But it works both ways Etan. When Kyrie said that we shouldn&rsquo;t go to the (Orlando) Bubble, I think a lot of people in the media applauded him for that. A lot of journalists applauded him for thinking about something other than basketball. He was saying we should use this platform that we have in the wake of George Floyd, maybe we should use that for something else other than playing games. Now, I&rsquo;m not saying that everyone agreed with that, but a lot of people in 'the media' as you put it, applauded him."
Etan: But also, a lot of people in the media &mdash; and I actually <a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/stories/nba-rumors-boycott-stephen-a-smith-espn-etan-thomas-protest-kyrie-irving-avery-bradley-dwight-howard-charles-barkley" target="_blank" rel="noopener">wrote about this</a> &mdash; but a lot of media talking heads called Kyrie dumb (and) said it was the stupidest thing they ever heard. And this is exactly what the players' issue is when they say 'new media/old media. It&rsquo;s the specific language that is used in order to critique someone.
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The Athletic's David Aldridge and Andscape's Marc Spears and Etan Thomas on the media's perception of Kyrie Irving and its effect.

David Aldridge, Marc Spears, Etan Thomas on Kyrie Irving's demonization

BasketballNews.com's Senior NBA Draft Analyst Matt Babcock presents a series that will peel back the curtain from his time as a sports agent, giving a glimpse at some of his personal experiences working in the sports agency business for over a decade.
In the second entry of the series, Babcock outlines his summer internship at high-powered sports agency Wasserman Media Group before the 2006 NBA Draft. 
When I was 22 years old, I was an intern at Wasserman Media Group's sports agency in Los Angeles, California. The internship not only had me doing typical intern-type tasks, but most importantly to me (because I had ambitions of being a coach), it had me working on the court daily with the company's newest clients &mdash; Shelden Williams, Brandon Roy, JJ Redick (<a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/podcasts/the-dunker-spot/episodes/basketballnews-com-episode-105-young-man-the-three" target="_blank" rel="noopener">who guested on The Dunker Spot this week</a>), Jordan Farmar and Joel Freeland &mdash; as they prepared for the 2006 NBA Draft. It was an exciting summer!
At that time, I was admittedly horrible with basic tasks in the office that were typical responsibilities asked of interns. Besides being a ball boy, working basketball camps and helping out at the NBA Draft Combine a few times, I had never had a real job before, as I'd always been busy being a basketball player. Anyway, my low-point while at Wasserman as an intern was being made responsible to send basketballs via FedEx for the agency's players and designated coaches to use at a pro-day workout in Florida that NBA scouts would attend.
I sent the basketballs out just fine. However, I sent them "ground," and they didn't arrive until days after the workout had happened. Greg Lawrence, who was in charge of managing the interns at Wasserman, had every reason to let me have it on that one, but fortunately for me, he didn't &mdash; thanks, Greg! In all honesty, I had some growing up to do. Luckily I did, eventually.
Despite my challenges in the office, I was right at home on the court, which was the main reason I was there from my perspective. I assisted Dave Joerger in working out and preparing all of Wasserman's new clients for the NBA pre-draft process. (Joerger was a D-League head coach at the time and eventually became the head coach of the Memphis Grizzlies and Sacramento Kings. He's currently an assistant coach for the Philadelphia 76ers).
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Former NBA player and current Wasserman agent BJ Armstrong (<a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/podcasts/the-rex-chapman-show/episodes/basketballnews-com-episode-41-episode-40-bj-armstrong" target="_blank" rel="noopener">who was recently a guest on The Rex Chapman Show</a>) also worked with the players occasionally. Darren Erman volunteered to help us with the workouts as well. (Erman, a corporate lawyer at the time, went on to have a successful career as an NBA assistant coach, and he is currently an assistant coach for the New York Knicks). An impressive group of coaches &mdash; I was lucky to have had the opportunity to work with them.
I worked on the court with the coaches and players a lot, but I spent a lot of quality time with the players off the court too. We routinely had lunches and dinners, and watched NBA playoff games together. I became close with Shelden, "B-Roy," and JJ; I got along with Jordan Farmar too, but because he had already lived in L.A. &mdash; being from there and attending UCLA &mdash; he wasn't around as much as the other guys, so I didn't get to know him quite as well. But, all in all, we had a great group of guys, and we had a good time together.
After 15 seasons in the NBA, JJ concluded a successful career and is now a rising star in the media. But in 2006, his fame was at its peak. A star at Duke, JJ generated a ton of media attention and was even on the cover of Sports Illustrated. He was treated like a rock star anywhere he would goShelden (JJ's teammate at Duke) once told me that fans would regularly avoid getting autographs from him and his teammates if JJ had already signed the item. Supposedly, if anyone else would sign the memorabilia, it would decrease the value. Think about that for a minute. Shelden was a consensus first-team All-American and one of the top NBA prospects in the country while at Duke!
<img style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" src="https://cdn.basketballnews.com/images/story/body/screen-shot-2019-12-12-at-10-01-03-am_lg.png" alt="" width="405" height="536" />
While in Los Angeles, JJ and I had a couple of nights out on the town (with the approval of his agents and my bosses, of course). One night, we went to an exclusive nightclub in Hollywood. We stood in a long line just like ordinary people; me, who was not famous, and JJ, who looked like the typical college frat boy. After standing in a hopeless line, I decided to talk to the bouncer to see if I could somehow get us in; I told him I was with JJ Redick. Within moments, we were taken into the club and seated at a table next to reality TV star Kristin Cavallari and former boxer and heavyweight champion Mike Tyson.
Hanging with JJ was a lot of fun.
After a month or so of us establishing a steady daily routine with the players, agent Thad Foucher let Coach Joerger and I know that he had a client named Joel Freeland from England who would be joining our workouts. Thad decided to have Joel enter his name in that year's draft. We needed to get him polished up for a showcase workout that we would be hosting the following week &mdash; every team in the NBA would be in attendance.
Every player we worked with up to that point was well-known. Joel was from England and played for a small team in Spain, so he was virtually unknown by NBA folks. However, at 6-foot-10, Joel was athletic and skilled for a player his size. After working with him, Coach Joerger and I agreed that he was a worthy prospect. Thad knew this already, of course; he wouldn't have signed him otherwise. We thought Joel might make a big splash at the showcase workout, and he did.
Following the workout in front of the entire NBA, Thad called me into his office and explained that Joel's draft stock had suddenly erupted, and he had more teams wanting to bring him into workout than days left until the draft. Therefore, he needed to be aggressive in organizing his schedule. It was the first time Joel had visited the United States, so Thad asked me to accompany him as he traveled around the country visiting different NBA teams. I essentially served as Joel's manager from that point until draft night. I remember vividly walking out of Thad's office to call my dad to tell him the good news. I was so excited to get that opportunity.
Before I knew it, Joel and I were off to Portland for his first team workout with the Trail Blazers. Joel and I shared a hotel room, and the team gave him per diem to cover his dinner. We ate at the hotel that night and had breakfast there the following day. While Joel was at the Blazers' practice facility for his workout, I stayed at the hotel killing time because the team didn't allow me to attend. Following his workout, we flew back to L.A. for one day so Joel could work out for the Lakers. Altogether, the trip to Portland was pretty uneventful for me. However, our journey was just getting started. Our next stop was Phoenix.
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When we landed in Phoenix, we were greeted by a car service: a gentleman in a black suit and tie with a fancy black car. He took us to the hotel, where Joel and I were given our own rooms at The Ritz Carlton. I felt like I was big time. Upon settling into our hotel rooms, the Suns' director of player personnel at the time (and current executive vice president of basketball operations for the New Orleans Pelicans), David Griffin, called to invite Joel and I to dinner at a steakhouse within walking distance from the hotel. He also asked me to attend the workout the next day. I must say that I am very appreciative of the first-class treatment David and the Suns gave me considering I was just a young guy trying to find my place in the business. "Griff" is undoubtedly a class act.
After a terrific trip to Phoenix, Joel and I continued our hectic travel, making stops in Houston, Dallas and Memphis. Aside from the Suns, no other teams allowed me to attend the workouts. Although it was perhaps a bit overzealous, it didn't stop me from trying.
While we were in Memphis, I casually walked into the practice gym with Joel and quietly took a seat, hoping no one would take too much notice of me where I could watch the workout. Shortly after I sat down, Ryan West, a scout with the Grizzlies and the son of the general manager and Hall-of-Fame player Jerry West, told me he wasn't sure if I'd be able to stay for the workout, but that he'd check.
Ryan and I were friends, and his dad and my uncle Pete had a close relationship, so I thought maybe I'd get the Griff/Suns treatment. The next thing I knew, Jerry was making his way toward me. My heart began to race; it wasn't that big of a deal to me whether I watched the workout or not, but the fact that "The Logo" was about to speak to me &mdash; that was a big deal!
As he approached me, he stuck out his hand and introduced himself; a really classy man with such an incredible presence. I'm not even entirely sure what I did or said. I'm not even sure if I responded at all initially. Ironically, I choked when meeting "Mr. Clutch." Anyway, the rest of our brief conversation went something like this:
Jerry West: Matt, would you like to watch the workout?
Me: Yes, I would like to, but it's not that big of a deal if it's an issue.
Jerry West: Do you speak to your father? (My dad worked for another NBA team).
Me: Well, of course, I do but...
(And before I could finish&hellip;)
Jerry West: It's nice to meet you, but we will have to ask you to wait for Joel in the locker room.
And that was my experience meeting Jerry West.
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Following the Memphis trip, we made our way to New York so Joel could work out for the Knicks the morning of the NBA Draft. Because I planned to pursue coaching jobs for the following season, the NBA Draft was when my internship would wrap up, as I prepared to attend Summer League in Las Vegas to hunt for coaching opportunities in July.&nbsp;
So just like that, my time with Wasserman was suddenly coming to an end &mdash; but first, we needed to see how the draft unfolded.
Although I was just an intern who had only known these players for a few months, we collectively put some real work together and created a bond. I cared about those players &mdash; I was invested. I especially cared for Joel, who quickly became like a little brother to me during our travels together as he chased his dream to play in the NBA.
So, our moment of truth was upon us. NBA Commissioner David Stern approached the podium, and the NBA Draft began. I anxiously watched, waiting to hear our guys' names called. Here's how it played out:
<ul>
<li>Shelden Williams &mdash; drafted No. 5 overall by the Atlanta Hawks</li>
<li>Brandon Roy &mdash; drafted No. 6 overall by the Minnesota Timberwolves and traded to the Portland Trail Blazers</li>
<li>JJ Redick drafted No. 11 overall by the Orlando Magic</li>
<li>Jordan Farmer drafted No. 26 overall by the Los Angeles Lakers</li>
<li>Joel Freeland drafted No. 30 overall by the Portland Trail Blazers</li>
</ul>
All of our players were selected in the first round (yes, even my "little brother," Joel Freeland)! I couldn't have been happier for all of the guys, especially for Joel, who played in the NBA for several years and had an incredibly successful career overseas.
The night of the 2006 NBA Draft, Shelden Williams, Brandon Roy, JJ Redick, Jordan Farmar, Joel Freeland, their families, the Wasserman agents and I celebrated the fruits of our labor. It was undoubtedly a great night and a terrific summer, which I will never forget.&nbsp;
Little did I know at that time that it was just the beginning of my involvement in the sports-agency business.
Stay tuned for the next entry of this series: "My past life as a sports agent: The 2006 NBA Draft." 
<a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/stories/my-past-life-as-a-sports-agent-going-to-california" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Read the last entry of this series</a>: "My past life as a sports agent: "Going to California."
Editor's Note: This article was originally published on <a href="https://www.babcockhoops.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">BabcockHoops.com</a>.
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Matt Babcock recounts his summer internship at high-powered sports agency Wasserman Media Group before the 2006 NBA Draft.

My past life as a sports agent: The 2006 NBA Draft

Led by Fabian White Jr.&rsquo;s 21 point outing, the No. 14 Cougars strengthened their position in the American Conference with a 75-61 win over Southern Methodist. White led all players in scoring while Kendric Davis had a solid game for SMU with 19 points.
SMU (20-7, 11-4 AAC) came into this game as the &ldquo;First Team Out&rsquo; in the latest Bracketology update. Ranked No. 56 in Adjusted Efficiency, the Davis-led Mustangs have climbed their way to No. 2 in the conference. The win against Memphis gave a bit of breathing room from the third spot, but they keep their eye on a top-two seed in the conference tournament.&nbsp;
The Cougars (24-4, 13-2 AAC) entered this one ranked No. 14 nationally thanks to their tremendous efficiency, No. 7 in the nation. After losing to Memphis and this same SMU team earlier this month, they bounced back with three wins in a row. Kyler Edwards and co. need to stay on track down the stretch and in the AAC Tournament if they want to contend for a top-four seed in March.
After an even start, Houston imposed its will for the next 10 minutes of action, grabbing a lead of 27-10 after a 23-6 run. It was a team effort during the run, with buckets coming from numerous Cougars.&nbsp;
The team took a 37-22 lead into the break, with SMU&rsquo;s Davis leading all players with 10 points. Josh Carlton and Edwards each had 8 points to lead the Cougars. Jamal Shead had only 4 points in the first period, but provided 7 assists and 2 steals.&nbsp;
SMU was able to trim the lead in the second half, cutting it to 48-40. An 8-0 run from Houston a few minutes latter re-extended the lead to 63-42, and the Cougars never looked back. With the 75-61 win, barring a total collapse, Houston should roll into the conference tournament as the No. 1 seed.
Carlton ended with 19 points and 8 rebounds. Taze Moore scored 11 points and Shead ended with 11 assists for the Cougars. Micheal Weathers posted 11 points while his brother, Marcus, scored 8 for the Mustangs.&nbsp;
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UPCOMING
Houston hosts Cincinnati on Tuesday night.&nbsp;
SMU hosts Cincinnati on Thursday evening.&nbsp;

The No. 14 Houston Cougars strengthened their conference position with a 75-61 win over Southern Methodist.

No. 14 Houston takes care of business, beats SMU 75-61

Lincoln, NE&nbsp; &mdash;&nbsp; The Wisconsin Badgers took care of business on the road, beating the Nebraska Cornhuskers 73-65 behind Brad Davison&rsquo;s big day. The senior guard posted 21 points, 7 rebounds, 4 assists and 3 steals. Nebraska freshman Bryce McGowens led all players in scoring with 23 points.
Entering this one, the Badgers (16-3, 7-2 Big Ten) had been getting it done. They had rattled off seven consecutive wins before falling to Michigan State at home. Sophomore guard Johnny Davis has positioned himself as a potential top-10 pick in this year&rsquo;s NBA Draft by averaging 22.2 points, 7.4 rebounds, 2.6 assists and 1.4 steals per game &mdash; leading Wisconsin in each category.&nbsp;
While the Cornhuskers (6-13, 0-8 Big Ten) have had a rough year, McGowens has been a bright spot. He leads them in scoring at 15.7 points per game and continues to make his case as a one-and-done prospect in this coming year&rsquo;s draft
The visiting Badgets took a 39-31 lead into the break after shooting 9 of 14 from behind the arc. They also got a big half from Davison, who had 17 points to lead all scorers. Senior guard Alonzo Verge Jr. led Nebraska at the break with 9 points on 4 of 8 from the floor. Freshman Chucky Hepburn also had 9 points for the Badgers, and Davis was held in check with 0 points.&nbsp;
The second half started with 5 quick Wisconsin points from Steven Crowl and a transition dunk from Ben Carlson. McGowens remained aggressive and was able to get to the free-throw line a couple of times, but the deficit still grew to 49-37 at the under-16 TV timeout. Nebraska would go scoreless for nearly five minutes until Verge had a nifty drive and finish to get back on the board.&nbsp;
A 9-0 run by the Huskers cut the lead to 57-48, forcing Wisconsin to take a timeout in hopes of killing momentum. McGowens would add another bucket before Davis answered with a pair of free throws after being fouled on a drive. The Badgers would hold tight to the lead from there for the victory.
Davis ended with 13 points, 9 rebounds, 2 assists and a steal. Hepburn and Crowl also played well for the visitors posting 13 points and 12 points respectively. Verge and Lat Mayen scored 11 points each for Nebraska.
The Huskers continue to struggle, now having lost 12 out of their last 13 contests. Their only win during this stretch was against Kennesaw State in December.&nbsp;
UPCOMING
Wisconsin hosts Minnesota on Sunday afternoon.&nbsp;
Nebraska will host Rutgers on Saturday.&nbsp;
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Wisconsin takes care of business on the road, winning 73-65 behind Brad Davison’s big day.

Davison scores 21 points as No. 11 Wisconsin defeats Nebraska 73-65

At 17 years old, Scoot Henderson is making history. Spencer Davies spoke with the prodigy and those close to him to find out how.

NBA G League star Scoot Henderson's aspirations far exceed the hype

Enes Kanter Freedom opened up to Etan Thomas on "The Rematch" on being a U.S. citizen, his Fox News interview, LeBron and more.

Q&A: Enes Kanter Freedom on U.S. citizenship, Fox interview, LeBron

Enes Freedom, formerly known as Enes Kanter, joined BasketballNews.com's own Etan Thomas on "The Rematch" and was given a chance to clarify some of the comments he made during an interview by Fox News' Tucker Carlson, in which he said:
&ldquo;People should feel really blessed and lucky to be in America. They love to criticize it, but when you live in a country like Turkey or China or somewhere else, you will appreciate the freedoms you have here. I feel like they should just keep their mouth shut and stop criticizing the greatest nation in the world and they should focus on their freedoms and their human rights and democracy.&rdquo;
These comments rubbed many the wrong way, as it came just days after Enes had changed his last name to 'Freedom.' These comments also drew comparisons to Laura Ingraham telling LeBron James to "shut up and dribble" not too long ago, which lit a fire under all athletes across all sports.
On BasketballNews.com's "The Rematch," Freedom was asked about these comments and offered some clarification.
"I stand for freedom. I would never tell an athlete or a human being or a celebrity to not use their platform," he said. "The greatest thing we have is freedom of speech, and the amazing thing we have is the platform."
This is very different from what Freedom said last week, so perhaps he did not mean for what he said last week (or didn't mean for it to come off the way it did). Freedom said he is hoping to meet with LeBron, so he can "educate" him on how to use his platform for good, but James seems uninterested in doing that, as he expressed after the Lakers' loss to the Celtics in Boston a few weeks ago.
"I don't give too many people my energy. He's definitely not someone I would give my energy to," James said. "He's trying to use my name to create an opportunity for himself. I definitely won't comment too much on that. He's always had a word or two to say in my direction, and as a man, if you've got an issue with somebody, you really come up to him. He had his opportunity tonight. I saw him in the hallway, and he walked right by me."
Watch the full conversation between Enes Kanter Freedom and Etan Thomas on "The Rematch" here:
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Enes Kanter Freedom clarified the recent comments he made on Fox News, saying he would never tell athletes not to use their platform.

Enes Kanter Freedom clarifies Fox comments: Athletes should speak out

I was asked to be a guest on Marc Lamont Hill's "Black News Tonight" program to discuss Kyrie Irving&rsquo;s Instagram Live address.
I don&rsquo;t think the conversation went exactly how it was planned, and I know that a lot of people may take issue with the comparisons I made throughout this discussion, but I stand by every word I said.&nbsp;
Watch the full segment of our exchange below:
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Here's the transcription of the conversation in its entirety.
Marc Lamont Hill: The Brooklyn Nets have barred Kyrie Irving from all team activities. This was in response to his unwillingness to take the COVID-19 vaccine. They also will not be extending his contract at the end of the season. The point guard decided to go to Instagram live last night. He had some stuff to say, take a listen.
Kyrie Irving on B-roll: "It's just really about being true to what feels good for me. I'm still uncertain about a lot of things that, and that's okay. If I'm going to be demonized for having more questions and taking my time to make a decision with my life, then that's just what it is."
Joining me now is former NBA player Etan Thomas. He is the author of "We Matter," "Athletes and Activism." Etan, thank you for of joining me. How do you feel about this Kyrie situation? I mean, this is something that obviously has never happened in NBA history before. You got a guy who, maybe at the peak of his powers, helped put together one of the greatest basketball teams ever assembled, and he's not going to play because he doesn't want to get the vaccine. And the NBA is beholden to the New York state laws or New York city laws that say that he can't play unless he gets vaccinated as a New York employee. So he's sitting this one out for so far. What do you make of it?
Etan Thomas: I mean, it's interesting. I've been listening to a lot of commentary and reading articles over the last week or two, discussing Kyrie. And there's a lot with it. It's interesting. I noticed that a lot of the same people who praised athletes for using their platform and using their positions to stand up for what they believe in, now are sounding a little bit like "the right." They sound a little Laura Ingraham-ish. You know what I mean? To be honest with you, a lot like Tucker Carlson almost, in the ridicule part. Now, we don't have to agree with Kyrie, but just the description [of him]... I've been kind of amazed to see the way in which people are using words like stupid and foolish and ignorant and everything. And I'm like, "Wait a minute."
That's what Sean Hannity does; we don't do that. So, that's one of the main things I've seen, I've really been disappointed in. We expect it from the right; that's what they did with Colin Kaepernick. Or they purposely misrepresented what Kyrie Irving's stance was, what Jonathan Isaac's stance was, Bradley Beal &mdash; all the people who said that they were hesitant to take the vaccine. And you heard Kyrie say it in the clip, demonized them. I've got to tell you honestly, Marc, I was kind of disappointed to see that because again, that's what the right does. That's what I expect from Fox News, not from a lot of the people that I heard it from.
Hill: So specifically, the Laura Ingraham reference you're talking about is when she told LeBron to shut up and dribble. And so the idea is: Don't speak about politics, don't talk about anything, just play basketball. And we said, "Oh, wait a minute. That's wrong. Players have a right to use their platform and talk." But to your point, Kyrie's using his platform to talk. We just don't like what he's saying. Some people and myself included, I don't like what he's saying, but I wouldn't call him stupid, I just don&rsquo;t agree with him.
So he goes to IG Live and he says: I'm not going through the media, I'm not going to go call up Stephen A. Smith, I'm not going talk to Jemele Hill. No, I'm going to do my IG Live directly, people are going hear from me. He said, because he's been &ldquo;demonized,&rdquo; he wants to be heard and understood. Did he make his point on IG Live? Did he say the things that needed to be said?
Etan: I mean, he said that he wasn't retiring, which was reported all throughout the media. They said that he was going to quit and hang it up rather than take the vaccine. And he said, no, that's not true. The thing that I like about the players nowadays is &mdash; because it's not like when I was playing, we didn't have social media &mdash; they can go right to their own platform like Kyrie Irving did and say: No, everything that person reported is untrue. All of their anonymous sources, I don't know where they got them from, but that is not how I feel. And that's the part that I respect about this generation, because they're doing this so much more often. Now again, do we have to agree with what Kyrie Irving is saying? No, but do we have to demean him and belittle him and demonize him because of that? That's the part that we can't fall into that category.
And like I said, that's the Laura Ingraham category. That's the Bill O'Reilly category. And I've seen too many... I mean, we expect certain things from Stephen A. Smith. Since you brought him up, you mentioned Stephen A. Smith. We expect certain things from him. He's performative, he's going to talk very loudly. And ESPN is going to pay him even more money to talk even more loudly. That's what he does. But, Stephen A. Smith aside, why would Kyrie Irving go to some of these same reporters who've been demonizing him? I don't see why he would. So now people are saying, "Well, what is his clear message? What is his clear stance?" Well, if you really want to make somebody's stance or what they're saying seem really doubtful or demean them or discredit them, you'll do what is happening a lot in media today, all day on all different talk shows after Kyrie made his statement on Instagram Live. But the point is what he said is: I am not retiring. I'm not anti-vaccine, I'm still working through this process. I would like to play. Those are the main key points that should be the main takeaways out of everything that he said.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-theme="dark">
Former <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NBA?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NBA</a> player and author <a href="https://twitter.com/etanthomas36?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@etanthomas36</a> joins <a href="https://twitter.com/marclamonthill?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@marclamonthill</a> to discuss <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/KyrieIrving?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#KyrieIrving</a>. "A lot of the same people that praised athletes for using their platforms and using their positions to stand up for what they believe in now are sounding a little bit like the right." <a href="https://t.co/0hhPm6NwEi">pic.twitter.com/0hhPm6NwEi</a>
&mdash; Black News Channel (@BNCNews) <a href="https://twitter.com/BNCNews/status/1448847849958133761?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 15, 2021</a></blockquote>

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Hill: So, and again, you raised some important points here, Kyrie Irving absolutely clarified it. He's not retiring. That was something we'd heard if he was going to retire. If he got traded, some people said he was going to retire not to get vaccinated. He took that off the table. He said he is not anti-vaccine, meaning he's open to the possibility of being vaccinated. That's an important point. But there were some other things he said that weren't clear.
He said he was doing his research, he expressed that he was vaccine hesitant, but it's not entirely clear to me. What will lead him to make a different choice? In other words, what does he need to find out in order to feel comfortable getting the vaccine? If he is willing to get one. Wouldn't training camp be the time? Wouldn't the preseason be the time? The season starts in [four] days. If he hasn't gotten it yet, when is he going to get it? These are the types of questions I think he didn't answer very clearly. I mean, did you walk away with a sense of whether or not he's going to get the vaccine or not?
Etan: I walked away thinking that he was still working through the process, like a large portion of this country is still working through it. You look at the vaccination numbers per state, they&rsquo;re somewhere in the 50s, some are in the 60s; we have a large portion of society who are still working through that process. I just think it's interesting that we... okay, so right now the NBA is 95% vaccinated. 95%. So you look at different states all across the country. Nobody's at 95%, but we expect the NBA to be at 100%? Why? Because we want our basketball? The only thing that matters is for NBA games to start and for everybody to be vaccinated, I think that's a little bit of an unfair expectation to have for NBA players. They're working through the vaccine concerns and questions just like the rest of the country.
But one of the things I do want to say Marc, is I want to hear more criticism toward the different people and demonization toward the different groups who are unvaccinated &mdash; like the NYPD, like the LAPD, like the Chicago Police Department. All these police departments all across the country that have said not that they're not working through their research, not that they're working through the process. They said, "We are not getting the vaccine *period*." And those are at high numbers. You have only 60-something percent of the NYPD who are actually vaccinated, but we're worrying about Kyrie? And these are people who literally are coming into contact with Americans every single day, and a lot of them, they don't want to wear masks. So, just to put it into perspective, we're making a lot over, what, one player per team that isn't vaccinated in the NBA? I mean, I know people want basketball, but we got to put it into perspective.
Hill: Well, I think it's about basketball, but it's also about what it means for a public figure and a celebrity to advance a position, or seem to be advancing a position, that some people find troublesome. So I think it's both. I think there's some selfish basketball stuff going on, then I think there's the public platform piece of it. We're going to keep this kind going about Kyrie Irving, about vaccine hesitancy and what it all means for the Black community.
Y'all, Kyrie confuses me. I mean, I'm going to start with you [Amin], since we're bringing you into the convo. In the IG Live, he said that he was being "a voice for the voiceless." Who is the voiceless in this analysis? I'm not disagreeing, this is a sincere question. Who is the voiceless here? What is his thought process? And why is he doing it?
Amin Elhassan: Your guess is as good as mine, as to who the voiceless are. He talks about people who are losing jobs because of a vaccine mandate, but that represents a sliver of the population. Also, when he says I'm a voice for the voiceless, this was a man two weeks ago, who had an opportunity on NBA Media Day; they call it "Media Day" because you have the attention of all the media. And there are questions about his availability, whether he was going to play or not due to this municipal regulation, it's not an NBA regulation. This is a New York City regulation.
And when asked about it several times, his response was, Well, this is a private matter. I don't want to discuss a private matter. Brother, you can't talk about "I didn't have an opportunity to speak for myself. They spoke for me. I didn't say anything," when there was a day dedicated for you to speak on this matter. And you chose to opt-out. You chose to say, I have nothing to say, because this is my own private business, when you knew damn well it wasn't your private business. Regardless of whether everyone else was going through it, we knew the NBA said, "Hey, if your local municipality says you cannot play in these games if you are unvaccinated." Instantly, that ceased to be a private matter and became at the very least an NBA public matter. A matter of the media had a right to ask about, a matter that he had an opportunity to expound upon. He chose not to. So when he chooses several weeks later to dress up this whole, "I really didn't have a chance. And they spoke for me." It kind of screams ingenuous.
Hill: So Etan, what do you say to that? I know you've been somewhat generous in your reading of the Kyrie Irving situation. Whether you agree with him on vaccines is a different issue. You're saying he's being somewhat unfairly assailed. that he's being demonized by folk and that some people on the left have been treating him with the same animus at the right treat black athletes telling him to shut up and dribble. But what Amin is saying is, "Wait a minute, he had an opportunity to talk. He was coy. He was difficult to reach. He bucked at the reporter's questions." He said, It's a private matter. It's a personal matter. Are you going to play? It's a personal matter. Are you going to get vaccinated? It's a personal matter, etc. What do you say to that? Has he been forthcoming? Has he even been a voice for the voiceless?
Etan: Well, I have a little bit of a different take on it. I did see where he said it was a personal matter. And I think he does have the right to be able to say that because they wanted specifics that he was not able to give them at that time, because he was still working through his process or whatever that process was in order to be able to either take the vaccine or not take the vaccine. And that's what he said. He said he was working through that. So when the reporters tried to ask in different ways about a timetable ("When do you think, by training camp?"), he just cut it off and said, It's a personal matter. But I don't think that that gives the media the right to fill in the blanks.
And that's what happened after that. Then, they had anonymous sources that were all incorrect. Then, they had reporters, journalists, commentators saying on-air and writing, "Okay, he's going to retire. He's going to refuse the vaccine. He's anti-vax." Now, I will agree that he didn't specifically answer those questions the first time, but he had to go and correct people this last time because of all of the incorrect reporting that was done. Now, the thing that happens is, when a lot of the media gets called out for reporting something that was incorrect, they immediately take offense. And we don't have to talk about the specific reporters because he was very specific on the people who said that he was going to retire&nbsp; and misreported that over and over again; he made it clear that was incorrect. The people who said that he was anti-vax, and he said that they were incorrect. And so, a lot of times when there's different things coming out and different narratives coming out, then it does kind of muddy the waters. Then, people are like, "Okay, well, where is he then?" Well, he's been where he's always been. He didn't say any of those things. He's just answering the incorrect things that were put out. And for that, I don't fault him at all.
Hill: But, just in fairness as a journalist, I can tell you there's been times where... I've done backgrounds. I've done one-on-ones. I've done off-the-records. I've done all kinds of interviews with athletes, politicians, etc. And they say one thing to me in my face, then they go out to the press conference and say they've been misrepresented, they've been lied on, etc. So I don't want to assume that because Kyrie said he didn't say it, that means he didn't say it. I also don't want to assume that the media's right, because the media also misrepresent the players say all the time.
But I don't want to take Kyrie's word as gospel. Before we go y'all, Stephon Marbury was all up in the comments on the IG. And one of the things he did was compare Kyrie Irving to Muhammad Ali. What do you make of that comparison? Is he doing something bigger than himself? Is he making a sacrifice for the people? Amin, I'll let you answer anytime, and give the last word.
Amin: I'll go real quick on this one. Muhammad Ali fought against an unjust war against other colored people in another country that had nothing to do with him or other people of color in this country, who were treated like trash, who were called all sorts of names and then expected to defend this country on behalf of its stellar background or resume. Kyrie Irving is standing up for people who are scared of science. I mean, even if you have questions about whether or not this vaccine is good or applicable or whatever, the idea that this could be compared to forcing people to go to war against people who have no quarrel with them. To me, that was one of the biggest face-palm moment, that Stephon Marbury would ever compare what Muhammad Ali did to what Kyrie is doing here...
&mdash;
This is what I didn&rsquo;t get a chance to say because we ran out of time.
Kyrie Irving is neither Muhammad Ali nor is he Candace Owens, he is Kyrie Irving. Everyone wants to make him something and lay claim to him, and I get that. The Right is working tirelessly to co-op his message and all of the NBA players' messages. (I wrote <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2021/oct/13/jonathan-isaac-vaccine-covid-nba-orlando-magic-basketball-fox-news" target="_blank" rel="noopener">an open article to Jonathan Isaac</a> a few days ago warning him of this.)
But Kyrie is just Kyrie, and I really wish people would stop trying to turn him into something else. No, we don&rsquo;t have to agree with him, and yes, if there is a mandate &mdash; which there is in New York &mdash; it&rsquo;s either he takes it and plays, or he doesn&rsquo;t take it and doesn&rsquo;t play. Only certain people like the NYPD get exceptions. That&rsquo;s unfortunate, but that is the society we live in.

Etan Thomas joined Marc Lamont Hill on "Black News Tonight" to discuss Kyrie Irving's Instagram Live post and the reaction to it.

Many are sounding Laura Ingraham-ish with criticisms of Kyrie Irving

By this time next week, we&rsquo;ll be down to eight teams. We have 15 as we begin this week, with the Boston Celtics, New York Knicks and Washington Wizards on the precipice of elimination, and the Los Angeles Lakers lurking dangerously close to falling into that same sinkhole. Anthony Davis now has the most watched groin in L.A. since Dirk Diggler.
We are rid of the Miami Heat, and damn... that was fast. Wasn&rsquo;t it just last season that Tyler Herro, Duncan Robinson and Kendrick Nunn were relevant, splashing threes like nobody&rsquo;s business and stunning the basketball world as they went all the way to the Finals in the Bubble?
Pat Riley has some thinking to do, and he may want to start by questioning whether it was worth it to ditch Kelly Olynyk for an ailing Victor Oladipo at the trade deadline. Rafael Stone looks pretty smart today, and when was the last time we could say that about the Houston Rockets general manager?
The Heat made 11 threes, got a triple-double from Jimmy Butler and a 20-point, 14-rebound performance from Bam Adebayo and still got trounced by the Milwaukee Bucks 120-103 on Saturday, so there is really not any blame to be cast in any one particular direction regarding the Heat. They simply did not have enough to compete with this version of the Bucks, who have unleashed Bryn Forbes on an unsuspecting public. Forbes knocked down 16 total threes between Games 2, 3 and 4; maybe we should have seen that coming after he shot 50% or better from deep in 10 of the Bucks&rsquo; final 14 regular season games.
Forbes may be this season&rsquo;s winner of the Playoff Breakout Award, which went last year to Jamal Murray of the Denver Nuggets. The Bucks now get to cool their heels while they await the finish of the Celtics-Nets series, which should happen Tuesday. Brooklyn dropped 141 points on Boston yesterday and all the postgame talk was about a tossed water bottle rather than Kevin Durant&rsquo;s 42 points, Kyrie Irving&rsquo;s 39 points and 11 rebounds and James Harden&rsquo;s 18 assists. That is a scary good offense when the the team's Big Three is all together, and Bucks-Nets has the makings of an instant classic.
In the West, it&rsquo;s all about L.A. right now -- from the Clippers&rsquo; proficiency in coming back from an 0-2 deficit against the Dallas Mavericks, to the Lakers&rsquo; uncertainty after Davis went down with a groin injury and Chris Paul (18 points, nine assists, no turnovers) led the Phoenix Suns to a series-evening victory Sunday that ensures at least two more games of Lakers drama.&nbsp;
LeBron James is not one to go down easily, and the Lakers are still equipped to win if Davis has to miss a game... if Andre Drummond, Marc Gasol and/or Montrezl Harrell are up to the task. What we are learning about the Lakers is that when Alex Caruso is your best guard, there is a roster flaw in which a bunch of very talented big men cannot do everything when an opponent has as formidable of a backcourt as the Suns do.
We will be rid of Russell Westbrook before the day is over -- unless the Wizards unveil SuperGafford tonight in the seemingly <a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/stories/joel-embiid-offensive-showing-for-philadelphia-76ers-has-been-first-class-all-around" target="_blank" rel="noopener">fruitless battle to contain Joel Embiid</a>, who is averaging more than a point per minute and has taken 30 shots in the past two games, making 22 of them, including 6-of-8 from three-point distance.
The bracket gods gifted the Philadelphia 76ers a second-round matchup with the winner of the Hawks-Knicks series; that resumes Wednesday, as Julius Randle has morphed from Most Improved Player into milk carton material. At least &ldquo;Overrated&rdquo; has replaced that other chant we were hearing in Games 1 and 2 at Madison Square Garden, so thank to the folks in Atlanta for keeping it clean. It&rsquo;s on Tom Thibodeau now to find somebody to try to neutralize Atlanta&rsquo;s three-point and rebounding proficiency. Randle has shot only 27.4% in this series, and went a combined 9-for-34 in two games in The A.
Tonight also brings Ja Morant another chance to be the Ja that bowled everyone over in Game 1 of the Jazz-Grizzlies series; it is 2-1 Utah, as the Jazz have welcomed back Donovan Mitchell and put any hurt feelings from his Game 1 last-second precautionary benching behind them. The Jazz got 15 three-pointers from their starters Saturday in a game that was never all that close, and the Grizzlies are clearly overmatched.
If that one ends tonight, Utah will have plenty of time to rest while awaiting the winner of the <a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/stories/nuggets-vs-trail-blazers-is-my-must-watch-first-round-series" target="_blank" rel="noopener">best series nobody is talking enough about</a>: Denver-Portland. Nikola Jokic had his second one-assist game of the playoffs Saturday, a phenomenon that occurred exactly zero times in the regular season. One week ago, if you had the Nuggets living or dying on the strength of how Austin Rivers played, you were on an island with that one; Norman Powell may end up being the biggest trade deadline acquisition of them all. When the surefire MVP is two losses from heading home having been rendered this ineffective, it says something about Terry Stotts&rsquo; coaching abilities at the very least.
We still have more than three weeks until the draft lottery, and the latest possible end date for the NBA Finals is July 22. So remind yourself that we are still just getting started. &nbsp;
Today is Memorial Day in the United States, and it's also the 36th anniversary of the Celtics dropping 148 points on the Lakers in Game 1 of the 1985 Finals. The pandemic has pushed everything back this year, people are out and about with the weather on the upswing, and it remains to be seen whether the NBA will keep us all riveted. The Lakers are in dire straits, the Knicks may no longer be inspiring hope in their followers and Giannis has shown everyone that whoever faces him in the second round is going to have to pay attention to a newer and more improved supporting cast, beginning with Forbes, a Popovich castoff now playing the role of latter-day George Hill.&nbsp;
Let&rsquo;s just hope we can get though this week without another day of having to pay more attention than necessary to some knucklehead who bought a ticket and could not behave. Right, Kyrie?

Chris Sheridan checks into the NBA playoffs, discusses who's looking strong and what teams are next in line to be eliminated.

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Shaq admitted that he's jealous of the lucrative contracts today's NBA players are getting, and explained his criticism of Rudy Gobert.

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