Sports
Clippers vow to keep fighting for playoffs post-trades, visit Rockets
Feb 4, 2026; Inglewood, California, USA; Los Angeles Clippers guard Bogdan Bogdanovic (10), Los Angeles Clippers forward Kawhi Leonard (2) and Los Angeles Clippers forward John Collins (20) sit on the bench in the fourth quarter the Cleveland Cavaliers at Intuit Dome. Mandatory Credit: Jayne Kamin-Oncea-Imagn Images The Los Angeles Clippers’ impressive climb up the Western Conference standings, from 15 games below .500 to a spot squarely in the play-in tournament, outwardly seemed undone by the jettisoning of James Harden and Ivica Zubac at last week’s trade deadline.
Clippers forward Kawhi Leonard and his unyielding teammates appear to believe otherwise.
Behind another sensational performance from Leonard, the Clippers thumped the Minnesota Timberwolves 115-96 on Sunday despite the absences of Harden and Zubac, as well as the players they received back in those separate trades.
The Clippers anticipate Darius Garland, Bennedict Mathurin and Isaiah Jackson will make their debuts Tuesday in the first of back-to-back road games against the Houston Rockets.
Leonard posted 41 points, eight rebounds and four steals in the road victory over Minnesota, marking his career-best fourth 40-point game this season. Despite being short-handed and presumably disinclined to make a playoff push following the departures of Harden and Zubac, the Clippers proved they have plenty of fight remaining for the stretch run of the regular season.
“We’re always ready to go,” Clippers forward John Collins said. “We’ve got great guys ready to step up and take advantage of their opportunity, as well as Kawhi Leonard. What more can I say?”
A sweep of the two-game set in Houston would lift the Clippers to a .500 record at the All-Star break. Such a mark seemed improbable in mid-December, but moxie is difficult to measure.
“We’ve got a good group,” Leonard said. “Guys are levelheaded, they love to play basketball, so we’re just going out and competing every night. That’s all we’re doing.”
The Rockets are also seeking to carry momentum into the break. After dropping consecutive home games to the Boston Celtics and Charlotte Hornets last week, Houston rallied to claim the finale of a three-game season series with the Oklahoma City Thunder 112-106 on Saturday.
The Rockets have displayed a tendency to play to the level of their competition this season, often saving their best for their most challenging opponents. Houston has labored against inconsistency, with vacillating effort and intensity addressed during last week’s back-to-back.
“That was the message even before the Charlotte game,” Rockets coach Ime Udoka said. “We wanted to play well these last five, didn’t do so in those first two, but it was good to get back to playing with the effort and intensity it takes to win a game against Oklahoma City.
“And that’s the case with the Clippers. We want to finish on a good note. We got two days off to recover really quickly, get this back-to-back in, and obviously, it’s a race to the finish, those 29 games. Good to get us into the All-Star break on the right foot and then build off of that.”
Against the Thunder, the Rockets received critical contributions from Tari Eason and Jabari Smith Jr., who combined for 48 points and 18 rebounds in support of the All-Star tandem of Kevin Durant and Alperen Sengun.
If the Rockets are to meet their lofty preseason expectations, they will require similar efforts from their role players during the closing sprint to the playoffs.
“We’re going to have to deal with that throughout the rest of the season,” Durant said of the attention opposing defenses focus on himself and Sengun. “It was a good test for us.”
–Field Level Media
Sports
Joy Dunne leads US women's hockey to rout of Switzerland
Joy Dunne of the United States celebrates with Tessa Janecke and Laila Edwards after scoring the team’s second goal of its game against Switzerland in the Milan Cortina Olympics Caroline Harvey and Joy Dunne each collected a goal and two assists and Gwyneth Philips made 20 saves, fueling the United States to a 5-0 victory over Switzerland on Monday at the Milan Cortina Olympics.
Alex Carpenter scored for the third time in as many games and added an assist for the Americans (3-0-0), who have outscored the Group A competition by a 15-1 margin in the preliminary round.
The U.S. will look for revenge against Canada on Tuesday in a rematch of the gold-medal game from the 2022 Beijing Olympics.
Haley Winn and Hannah Bilka each scored a goal and team captain Hilary Knight notched two assists to boost her Olympic total to 31 points, one shy of tying Jenny Potter as the all-time U.S. leader.
Ava McNaughton relieved Philips late in the third period and made one save.
Andrea Braendli turned aside 45 shots for Switzerland (1-2-0), which has dropped two straight following a 4-3 shootout win over Czechia on Friday.
Braendli denied Taylor Heise on a breakaway early in the first period before the Americans solved her at 6:04 of the session.
Harvey skated in from the left-wing wall and wired a centering feed that Winn directed home from the doorstep.
Dunne doubled the advantage with 5:52 remaining in the second period after a brilliant individual effort.
Dunne forechecked a Swiss defender off the puck in the corner before backhanding a shot that caromed off a skate and into the net for an unassisted goal.
Bilka accepted a feed from Heise in front of the net and swept the puck past Braendli to give the Americans a 3-0 lead at 1:17 of the third period.
Carpenter converted a breakaway before Harvey used a brilliant deke on Braendli to cap the scoring.
–Field Level Media
Sports
Defending champ Amanda Anisimova bows out of Qatar opener
Jan 28, 2026; Melbourne, Victoria, Australia; Amanda Anisimova of United States in action against Jessica Pegula of United States in the quarterfinals of the women’s singles at the Australian Open at Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne Park. Mandatory Credit: Mike Frey-Imagn Images Amanda Anisimova, the No. 3 seed and reigning champion at the Qatar TotalEnergies Open 2026, was forced to retire due to illness in the third set of her opening match against Karolina Pliskova on Monday in Doha.
Anisimova fared well against her Czech opponent, splitting the first two sets 7-5, 6-7 (3), but trailed 4-1 in the third set when she packed it in.
“I was really happy to be back and excited to play,” Anisimova said in a statement afterward. “I got sick here, so I wasn’t feeling my best, but I thought it was a good match regardless. I feel we both played really well. Congrats to her, it’s good to see her back playing.”
Pliskova is also familiar with Qatar, winning there in 2017. She had seven aces and saved 6 of 10 break points on Monday.
“It feels great to be back,” Pliskova said in her on-court interview after missing a year with an ankle injury. “I missed (the fans) as well, last year. As you know, I won here, so I have great memories. Two years ago, I played the semifinals. So I just enjoy this place so much.”
Anisimova was not the only player to fall victim to illness in Qatar. Great Britain’s Emma Raducanu also retired in the third set of her opener Monday.
Raducanu was coming off a 6-0, 6-2 loss in the final of the Transylvania Open on Saturday, when she used a medical timeout and admitted afterward that she did not have her best effort. Her health was in question again Monday in her match against Colombia’s Camila Osorio; during a third-set timeout she saw a doctor who took her blood pressure, something that also occurred Saturday.
Osorio advanced out of the Round of 64, 2-6, 6-4, 2-0 (retired).
The Pliskova-Anisimova match was a Round of 32 affair, as was Russian No. 5 seed Mirra Andreeva’s 7-6 (0), 6-1 win over Poland’s Magda Linette. Andreeva saved 10 of 11 break points in the one-hour, 43-minute battle.
The rest of Monday’s matches were Round of 64 fixtures.
Czech ninth seed Linda Noskova breezed past Australian Maya Joint 6-4, 6-0 in 65 minutes. No. 12 Emma Navarro defeated Germany’s Tatjana Maria 7-5, 6-1, while Katerina Siniakova of the Czech Republic upset No. 11 Clara Tauson of Denmark, 6-4, 6-1.
Indonesia’s Janice Tjen stuffed Brazil’s Beatriz Haddad Maia 6-0, 6-1 in 69 minutes, while Russian Anna Kalinskaya prevailed 6-2, 6-1 over Span’s Jessica Bouzas Maneiro in 67 minutes. Other winners included China’s Xinyu Wang and Qinwen Zheng, Maria Sakkari of Greece, Latvia’s Jelena Ostapenko, Ukraine’s Dayana Yastremska and the Czech Republic’s Tereza Valentova.
–Field Level Media
Sports
New French duo Fournier Beaudry, Cizeron lead after short dance
Feb 6, 2026; Milan, Italy; Guillaume Cizeron and Laurence Fournier Beaudry of France compete in ice dance rhythm dance during the Milano Cortina 2026 Olympic Winter Games at Milano Ice Skating Arena. Mandatory Credit: James Lang-Imagn Images MILAN — Laurence Fournier Beaudry and Guillaume Cizeron of France continued one of figure skating’s most compelling revivals on Monday night, winning the rhythm dance at the Milan Cortina Olympics in only their fifth international event.
The duo, who teamed up last March, kept up their breakneck speed to the top of the ice dance world by scoring 90.18 points — their best ever — for their sleek fashion-runway-meets-ice-dance take on Madonna’s “Vogue.”
In a showdown that felt like the sharpening of a rivalry, they edged triple world champions Madison Chock and Evan Bates of the United States, who delivered a high-octane rhythm dance powered by rock and roll swagger for 89.72 points.
Canadians Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier were third with 86.18.
The free dance is on Wednesday.
Cizeron had said last week that his partnership with Fournier Beaudry is “bonus time” for both skaters after they had believed their respective careers were over.
Cizeron’s former partner Gabriella Papadakis retired after the Beijing Olympics, while Fournier Beaudry’s partner Nikolaj Sorensen received a six-year suspension in 2024 for sexual maltreatment, although the suspension has been overturned on jurisdictional grounds.
After teaming up last spring, Fournier Beaudry, a Canadian, received her French citizenship in November to pave her way to the Olympics. They made an immediate impact on international ice, winning both their Grand Prix assignments before being edged by Chock and Bates at the Final in December.
–Reuters, special to Field Level Media
Joy Dunne leads US women's hockey to rout of Switzerland
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