Sports
Thunder out to remain perfect, win 13th straight over Blazers
Oct 27, 2024; Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, USA; Oklahoma City Thunder forward Chet Holmgren (7) celebrates after dunking against the Atlanta Hawks during the second half at Paycom Center. Mandatory Credit: Alonzo Adams-Imagn Images The Oklahoma City Thunder have dominated the Portland Trail Blazers in recent seasons, including a historic 62-point victory last January.
The Thunder strive to keep the success going and increase their winning streak over Portland to 13 games when they visit the Trail Blazers on Friday night.
The 139-77 victory on Jan. 11 tied for the fifth-largest defeat in NBA history and is the second-worst loss in Trail Blazers’ history. Portland shot 27.7 percent from the field.
That wasn’t the lone massive beatdown during the Thunder’s four victories last season. Oklahoma City also posted a 134-91 road win on Nov. 19, 2023.
Portland’s most recent victory in the series was a 133-85 home rout on April 3, 2021, when Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum were still the Trail Blazers’ starting backcourt.
Oklahoma City, of course, is a much different team 3 1/2 seasons later and has won its first four games this season by an average of 17.5 points. The Thunder are the lone undefeated team in the Western Conference. The Cleveland Cavaliers in the East are also unbeaten.
The Thunder kept their strong start going Wednesday with a 105-93 home victory over the San Antonio Spurs. Oklahoma City big man Chet Holmgren decidedly won his matchup with San Antonio’s Victor Wembanyama.
Holmgren had 19 points on 7-of-10 shooting while Wembanyama had just six points on 1-of-5 shooting.
Holmgren wasn’t moved by his domination, saying hype about the matchup is fueled by the NBA’s promotion arm. Wembanyama won NBA Rookie of the Year honors last season while Holmgren was the runner-up.
“Because the NBA is a business, and the league has been built around players playing basketball,” Holmgren said. “It’s about getting people to come and watch the games. That’s one of the ways they do it: by advertising the players. I just see it as a form of advertisement. It doesn’t change what our mission is. We’re trying to win the basketball games. The NBA is gonna handle the business around it.”
Holmgren is averaging 22.5 points, 11 rebounds and 3.5 blocks through four games.
Oklahoma City star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who averaged more than 30 points per game each of the past two seasons, is averaging a team-leading 26 through four games. He is also contributing 7.5 rebounds, 6.0 assists, 2.5 steals and 1.5 blocks.
Jalen Williams is also off to a strong start with averages of 17 points, seven rebounds and six assists.
The contest is the first of a road back-to-back for the Thunder. They visit the Los Angeles Clippers on Saturday night.
Portland faced the Clippers on the road Wednesday and nabbed a 106-105 victory.
Anfernee Simons scored 25 points for his third 20-point outing of the season. He is averaging a team-best 20.6 points and is second with five assists per game.
Big man Deandre Ayton had 15 points and 12 rebounds and also made a key steal by intercepting a last-second lob toward the Clippers’ Ivica Zubac.
“There’s no better way to win a game than with your defense, in my opinion,” Trail Blazers coach Chauncey Billups said.
Ayton has recorded five straight double-doubles to start the season.
“When D.A. is playing like that, it helps us out so much,” Simons said. “He was playing with a lot of energy, rolling to the basket and getting easy putbacks off misses and that’s what we need from him every night.”
Jerami Grant has experienced back-to-back poor efforts after averaging 26 points over his first three games. He had just seven points on 3-of-12 shooting in a 111-98 road loss to the Sacramento Kings on Monday and eight points on 3-of-14 shooting against the Clippers.
–Field Level Media
Sports
Knicks and Nuggets Blow Big Leads: What Went Wrong in Game 2?
Roughly 5,000 feet of elevation separate Denver and New York City.
Still, gravity works the same regardless of where one stands. Just ask the NBA teams in both towns.
“You get too high, and you get, I don’t want to say cocky, but feeling yourself,” Nuggets guard Tim Hardaway Jr. said.
That sensation went south on either side of the country Monday night.
After squandering sizable leads that would have cemented commanding 2-0 advantages in their respective first-round playoff series, the Nuggets and Knicks now find themselves bracing for a fight.
Should their opponents ultimately have their number, Denver and New York will look back with disdain on 19 and 14. Those were the Game 2 cushions the teams coughed up as the No. 3 seeds in the Eastern and Western Conference.
“It’s a game we should’ve won,” Knicks guard Josh Hart said. “In the playoffs, we can’t give away games.”
Be that as it may, the Knicks did just that against the Atlanta Hawks. They controlled the outcome for much of the night and took a 12-point edge into the fourth quarter after leading by as many as 14.
Then New York shot 5-for-22 from the floor in the final 12 minutes compared to 10-for-15 for Atlanta. Fighting through vulgar chants from the Madison Square Garden faithful, Hawks star CJ McCullom scored six straight points down the stretch during one key sequence on the way to a game-high 32.
“In that fourth quarter, you could tell [the Hawks] were playing with a level of desperation,” Knicks coach Mike Brown said. “There were four 50-50 balls, and they got three of the four. We always use that stat to gauge the level of aggression in a game. In that fourth quarter, their aggression stepped up.”
New York’s melted at the same time. How many late possessions saw the Knicks pass or hold the ball around the perimeter before settling for subpar looks from 3-point range? The Knicks went 3-for-11 from deep as part of their flop.
Denver led the Minnesota Timberwolves by 19 points early in the second quarter before crumbling. The Nuggets still were ahead by three points to start the fourth quarter but a combined 2-for-12 shooting effort from pillars Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray in the final 12 minutes took a toll.
“I feel like we had the game in hand, and then we just didn’t make our shots,” Murray said.
As with the Knicks and Hawks, the reversal of fortunes stemmed both from the hosts’ miscues and an outstanding effort from a visiting player, as Minnesota’s Anthony Edwards had 30 points.
“Great leadership, positive,” Timberwolves coach Chris Finch said. “He recognized he needed to get into attack mode and get downhill a little bit more. He did that.”
The Knicks and Nuggets no doubt sensed the need to amp up their own urgency as things started slipping away Monday.
That neither could act upon it didn’t signal the end for either New York or Denver, of course. But now there’s unnecessary added weight for the climb back to the top.
Sports
Pistons seek return to identity vs. Magic after Game 1 shocker
Apr 19, 2026; Detroit, Michigan, USA; Detroit Pistons forward Tobias Harris (12) is defended by Orlando Magic guard Desmond Bane (3) in the second half during the 2026 NBA Playoffs at Little Caesars Arena. Mandatory Credit: Rick Osentoski-Imagn Images After an exceptional regular season, this wasn’t the start to the NBA playoffs that the Detroit Pistons envisioned.
Reeling from a stunning Game 1 loss in which only two players reached double figures, the Eastern Conference’s top seed heads into Game 2 Wednesday against the visiting Orlando Magic facing early pressure to reset the best-of-seven series.
The eighth-seeded Magic controlled the opener from the start, never trailing and leaning on a balanced offensive attack. Paolo Banchero led the way with 23 points while Franz Wagner scored 11 of his 19 in the fourth quarter to help close out the 112-101 win.
For Detroit, the issue wasn’t just the loss — it was how it happened. The Pistons never established their defensive identity and struggled to find consistent offense beyond star guard Cade Cunningham, two areas that will be central entering Game 2.
“It starts, always, with us defensively,” said Pistons coach J.B. Bickerstaff. “When you go back and watch the film of that (game), we weren’t ourselves defensively. The telling tale is typically when we play them, they go to the free-throw line a ton.
“… We went 38 (times) but they went 19. So that means we weren’t playing our brand of basketball, being physical, being handsy, being aggressive. That kind of sets the tone for us.”
Offensively, the Pistons leaned on Cunningham, who scored 39 points, but got little other support — scoring their fewest points in nearly three months, since a loss to the Phoenix Suns on Jan. 29. Detroit will need more help from All-Star center Jalen Duren, who was held to just eight points and seven rebounds in Game 1.
“They came out ready from the jump,” Duren said. “We didn’t really meet their intensity. They’ve been playing with their backs against the walls the last few weeks, so they were already kind of already rolling. I think we just got to do a better job meeting that intensity.”
Duren said the Pistons remain confident despite the loss, which extended their home playoff losing streak to 11 games, the longest in NBA history.
“We know the type of team we are,” Duren said. “We feel like we’re the better team. We know that we’ve just got to make adjustments and come out smarter, come out playing harder.”
Orlando coach Jamahl Mosley said he has talked to his team about not becoming too overconfident coming off Sunday’s win.
“It’s one game at a time,” Mosley said of his message to the team. “It’s the reality that, yeah, you did get the Game 1 win, but now you have to go and figure out how to get a Game 2 (win). There’s going to be, obviously, the positive talk about what you’ve done, and thinking there’s reasons to celebrate, but at the end of the day, it’s one game, and that’s the most important piece that we’ve talked about: just taking it one game at a time.”
Banchero said the team has received the message, and he believes the key for the Magic is to play defense like they did in the opener.
“I thought we were on a string, just communicating, talking out coverages,” Banchero said. “I think it’s just going to continue to take that, being aggressive, being the aggressors on defense and just not trying to give them much. Obviously they’re going to make shots, but just not trying to give them any free looks.”
–Field Level Media
Sports
Lynx star Napheesa Collier (ankle) targets June for on-court work
Mar 2, 2026; Brooklyn, NY, USA; Unrivaled Co-founder Napheesa Collier at Barclay’s Center. Mandatory Credit: Wendell Cruz-Imagn Images The Minnesota Lynx said Tuesday that star forward Napheesa Collier’s rehab from left ankle surgery is “progressing as expected,” and she could resume on-court activities in early June.
The team plans to release updates on Collier’s progress when available.
The timeline means Collier will miss, at minimum, the first month of the WNBA season, which begins May 10 for the Lynx.
Collier underwent surgery on her ankle on March 24 after sustaining a severe injury during the 2025 playoffs. Per reports at the time, she sustained a Grade 2 tear of three ligaments in the ankle and a muscle in her left shin on a collision during Game 3 of the playoff semifinal series vs. Phoenix.
Collier, 29, averaged a career-high 22.9 points and shot 40.3% from 3-point range to go with 7.3 rebounds, 3.2 assists, 1.6 steals and 1.5 blocks per game last year. The back-to-back WNBA Most Valuable Player runner-up, Collier is a five-time All-Star and earned MVP honors in the 2024 Commissioner’s Cup final and the 2025 All-Star Game.
–Field Level Media
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