Sports
Wizards pull away from Bucks to earn rare back-to-back wins
Jan 29, 2026; Washington, District of Columbia, USA; Washington Wizards forward Justin Champagnie (9) dunks during the first half against the Milwaukee Bucks at Capital One Arena. Mandatory Credit: Daniel Kucin Jr.-Imagn Images Kyshawn George tallied 23 points, five rebounds and five assists and Alex Sarr recorded 16 points and a career-high 17 rebounds to lead the Washington Wizards to a 109-99 home win over the Milwaukee Bucks on Thursday.
Khris Middleton and Bub Carrington each added 13 points and Justin Champagnie joined Carrington off the Wizards’ bench with 12.
Myles Turner led the way for the Bucks with 21 points, 14 rebounds (a season high) and six blocks. Kyle Kuzma and Bobby Portis each scored 19 points and Ryan Rollins added 17.
Washington has won back-to-back games for the first time since Dec. 31-Jan. 2. Milwaukee is 3-13 without star Giannis Antetokounmpo (calf) in its lineup.
The Wizards led by as many as 13 points in the fourth quarter, but Turner’s 3-pointer cut the lead to 101-99 with 1:30 remaining.
Washington, however, responded by scoring the final eight points. Sarr gave the Wizards a four-point advantage with a floater in the lane and Carrington, Middleton and Bilal Coulibaly each added a pair of free throws to give Washington the win.
In the third quarter, Sarr’s block set up Coulibaly for a breakaway dunk to extend the Wizards’ lead to 70-55 with 6:12 left.
Milwaukee answered with five consecutive point, but as they did all night, the Wizards responded with a run of their own. Sarr and Carrington each knocked down a 3-pointer to give Washington a 76-60 lead with 3:36 left in the third.
The Wizards also used a pair of big runs to create separation in the second quarter.
First, they went on an 11-0 run that began late in the first, capped off by a Champagnie layup in transition to give Washington a 33-23 lead with 10:30 left in the first half.
Later in the quarter, George hit a 30-foot 3-pointer to finish off a 14-2 run that helped the Wizards extend their lead to 52-35 with 3:02 remaining in the half. Those two runs helped the Wizards outscore the Bucks 32-20 in the second quarter and take a 57-43 advantage into halftime.
–Field Level Media
Sports
Kings' Zach LaVine set for season-ending hand surgery
Feb 1, 2026; Washington, District of Columbia, USA; Sacramento Kings guard Zach LaVine (8) looks on during the second half against the Washington Wizards at Capital One Arena. Mandatory Credit: Daniel Kucin Jr.-Imagn Images The Sacramento Kings, leading a tight race to finish with the worst record in the NBA, reportedly will be without their leading scorer for the rest of the season.
Zach LaVine will have right hand surgery following this weekend’s All-Star break, veteran NBA writer Chris Haynes reported on Friday.
LaVine missed the Kings’ past three games due to what was described as a tendon injury to his right pinkie.
The 30-year-old veteran has appeared in 39 games (37 starts) for Sacramento this season, averaging 19.2 points, 2.8 rebounds and 2.3 assists. All of those figures are his lowest in the past eight seasons.
The Kings acquired LaVine from the Chicago Bulls as part of a three-team deal at the February 2025 trade deadline. Sacramento picked up three first-round picks and three second-rounders in that transaction, which saw De’Aaron Fox go from the Kings to the San Antonio Spurs.
Over 12 NBA seasons, LaVine has averages of 20.7 points, 4.0 rebounds and 3.9 assists in 693 games (602 starts) with the Minnesota Timberwolves, Chicago and Sacramento. He was an All-Star for the Bulls in 2020-21 and 2021-22.
The Kings (12-44) are battling with the Washington Wizards (14-39), New Orleans Pelicans (15-41), Indiana Pacers (15-40), Brooklyn Nets (15-38) and Utah Jazz (18-37) at the bottom of the league standings. The Pacers and Jazz were fined by the NBA on Thursday for holding players out of games in an apparent attempt to tank.
Teams reportedly are keen to be in the draft lottery this year with a highly rated class set to enter the NBA.
Sacramento returns from the All-Star break on Thursday with a home game against the Orlando Magic.
–Field Level Media
Sports
Liquid, Yandex charge into BLAST Slam VI semifinals
A Pace Center for Girls Jacksonville student uses a controller to play a video game with police after the Sheriff’s Office’s new mobile gaming center was unveiled at the facility. Team Liquid pulled out a marathon 3-2 win over Team Falcons on Friday to reach the semifinals of the BLAST Slam VI event in Attard, Malta.
In the other quarterfinal match, Team Yandex took down HEROIC 3-1.
The Saturday semifinals will feature Team Liquid vs. OG and then Natus Vincere vs. Team Yandex.
BLAST Slam VI is a 12-team Dota 2 event that pays $300,000 to the winner and $1 million overall. The event opened with three days of group play — a round-robin, best-of-1 format in which each team played each other team once. The top two teams in the standings, Natus Vincere and OG, moved on to the semifinals of the playoffs.
The teams finishing third through eighth in the standings advanced to the play-in round — four best-of-3 matches in which the winners advance to the playoffs and the losers were eliminated. The teams finishing ninth through 12th in group play competed in the last-chance playoff, another best-of-3 format where the winners advanced to the play-in round and the losers went home.
All playoff matches are best-of-5. The championship squad will receive $300,000 plus $100,000 in team earnings, while the runner-up will get $150,000 and $50,000 in team earnings.
On Friday, Team Falcons opened with a 45-minute win on red before Team Liquid posted a 33-minute victory on red and a 35-minute win on green. Team Falcons sent the match to the limit with a 43-minute victory on green before Team Liquid took the decisive fifth map in 38 minutes on red.
Poland’s Michal “Nisha” Jankowski recorded a 46/13/54 kill-death-assist ratio for Team Liquid. Slovakia’s Oliver “skiter” Lepko wound up at 40/17/28 for Team Falcons.
After HEROIC earned a 34-minute win on red, Team Yandex captured three consecutive maps, in 46 minutes on red, 46 minutes on green and 47 minutes on green.
Kazakhstan’s Alimzhan “watson” Islambekov produced a 43/12/43 K/D/A ratio for Team Yandex. Nicaragua’s Yuma “Yuma” Langlet finished at 38/13/30 for HEROIC.
BLAST Slam VI prize pool
1. $300,000 (plus $100,000 in team earnings)
2. $150,000 (plus $50,000)
3-4. $60,000 (plus $29,000)
5-6. $35,000 (plus $15,000) — Team Falcons, HEROIC
7-10. $22,500 (plus $6.250) — Team Spirit, Xtreme Gaming, Tundra Esports, GamerLegion
11-12. $10,000 (plus $2,500) — REKONIX, MOUZ
–Field Level Media
Sports
Reports: Dolphins hiring Mississippi State's Bush Hamdan as QB coach
New Kentucky offensive coordinator Bush Hamdan coaches during practice Friday. August 2, 2024, in Lexington. Hamdan came from Boise State; he’s also coached at Missouri, the Atlanta Falcons and Florida as well. The Miami Dolphins are hiring Mississippi State associate head coach Bush Hamdan as the team’s quarterbacks coach, according to multiple reports Friday.
Hamdan only landed the Mississippi State position in December and also was to coach the team’s wide receivers.
The 40-year-old has 17 years of coaching experience, largely in the college ranks. Most recently, he was the quarterbacks coach at Missouri from 2020-22 and the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at his alma mater, Boise State, in 2023 and moved to Kentucky as OC in 2024.
Hamdan has one year of coaching experience in the NFL, having served as the QBs coach for the Atlanta Falcons in 2017 when Matt Ryan threw for 4,095 yards, 20 touchdowns, and 12 interceptions.
The Hamdan hire was not the Dolphins’ first attempt to fill the quarterbacks coach position.
Miami originally hired former Broncos head coach and Packers offensive assistant Nathaniel Hackett before he took the offensive coordinator position under new Arizona Cardinals’ head coach Mike LaFluer.
The Dolphins also wanted to interview Detroit Lions offensive assistant Bruce Gradkowski for quarterbacks coach position, but the Lions blocked the interview, according to multiple reports.
Hamdan faces an uncertain quarterbacks’ room in Miami, where the future of starter Tua Tagovailoa is still up in the air. Miami general manager Jon-Eric Sullivan said Thursday at a fan event that the Dolphins are “getting close to a decision” on Tagovailoa and that the team would be looking at other quarterbacks in this year’s draft.
Quinn Ewers, a seventh-round pick in last year’s draft, is the other quarterback currently under contract in Miami.
Regardless of the Tagovailoa decision, Sullivan said he expects significant competition among quarterbacks.
“I don’t know what the future holds right now, and I told Tua that. We’re working through some things,” Sullivan said. “What I can tell you is that we’re going to infuse competition into that room, whether Tua is part of the room, whether he’s not part of the room. We’re going to infuse competition into that room, like we will do in every other position,” Sullivan said.
“… You can rest assured that we will add competition to that room, one way or the other, to make it the best that we can.”
–Field Level Media
Kings' Zach LaVine set for season-ending hand surgery
Liquid, Yandex charge into BLAST Slam VI semifinals
