Sports
Experience vs. Youth: Golden Knights take on Mammoth in 1st-round series
Mar 19, 2026; Las Vegas, Nevada, USA; Utah Mammoth right wing Dylan Guenther (11) slashes the stick of Vegas Golden Knights defenseman Brayden McNabb (3) during the second period at T-Mobile Arena. Mandatory Credit: Stephen R. Sylvanie-Imagn Images Following a topsy-turvy season that saw them fire their head coach with just eight games left in the regular-season, the Vegas Golden Knights appear to be peaking at just the right time.
The Golden Knights (39-26-17, 95 points) sprinted to a 10-game point streak down the stretch to claim their fifth Pacific Division title in nine seasons and will host the Utah Mammoth in the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs beginning Sunday night in Las Vegas.
Vegas didn’t clinch the Pacific Division until it defeated Seattle, 4-1, in its regular-season finale. The Golden Knights, who won the 2023 Stanley Cup under Bruce Cassidy, captured 15 of a possible 16 points (7-0-1) down the stretch under the guidance of John Tortorella, who replaced Cassidy as head coach on March 29.
Before the coaching change, Vegas had won just five times (5-10-2) since the Olympic break and saw a four-point first-place lead disappear, falling to just four points above the Western Conference playoff bubble.
“Kind of a weird year for sure, especially in the Pacific,” defenseman Brayden McNabb said. “A lot of ups and downs. We were on top there for a while, and then we were in third flirting with the wild card. And then we found our game at the right time and were able to win the division. That’s what we wanted to do and we did it.”
Barely. Edmonton, which finished in second place with 93 points, lost four of its last six games (2-2-2), including a 5-1 home loss to the Golden Knights, while Anaheim, which finished third three points behind Vegas with 92 points, lost eight of its final 10 games (2-6-2).
Tortorella, who guided Tampa Bay to the 2004 Stanley Cup title, is credited with rebuilding confidence in a more relaxed locker room that appeared to have tuned out Cassidy.
“All I know is that since I’ve been here, they have played at a level and played as a team, consistently,” Tortorella said.
Utah (43-33-6, 92 points) finished fourth in the rugged Central Division but captured the top Western Conference wild-card spot, the franchise’s first playoff berth since moving from Arizona to Salt Lake City two years ago. Prior to that, the then-Arizona Coyotes last made the playoffs in 2020, losing in five games in the first round to Colorado.
Mammoth defenseman Nate Schmidt was a member of the inaugural “Golden Misfits” Vegas team in 2017-18 that went all the way to the Stanley Cup final before losing in five games to Alex Ovechkin and the Washington Capitals. He believes Utah, which won two of the three regular-season meetings with the Golden Knights, has the potential to do well in its first playoff series.
“I love the idea that our guys are quick, they’re fast, they’re in this time of year for the first time,” Schmidt said. “The youthfulness is going to be something I’m excited to see. When we put pressure on teams and continue to roll over them and roll onto them, get our puck in and kind of let our speed kind of dictate the pace and how we want to play, it makes it really hard to play against us.”
“We did our job getting there, and now it’s on to the next milestone here — getting some wins, getting some experience, and doing what we came here to do,” forward Michael Carcone said.
Tortorella said he’s excited to see how his new team responds to the challenge.
“It’s the most exciting time because everybody’s playing at a different level, and it’s a good test to see how high you can get as a team,” Tortorella said. “Everything is going to be amped up. As each game goes by in the series, it’s going to be harder and harder. So it’s a great challenge for the players.”
–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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