Sports
Phillies 'got to keep fighting' as Braves on verge of sweep
Apr 18, 2026; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA; Atlanta Braves third baseman Austin Riley (27) hits an RBI single against the Philadelphia Phillies during the third inning at Citizens Bank Park. Mandatory Credit: Bill Streicher-Imagn Images Less than one month into the 2026 season, the Atlanta Braves and Philadelphia Phillies are two trains speeding in opposite directions.
The Braves have won eight of their past 10 games and will try to complete a three-game sweep in Philadelphia on Sunday night.
The Phillies have lost eight of 10, including 9-0 and 3-1 defeats in the first two games of this weekend set. Philadelphia had no answers for Chris Sale on Saturday, as the veteran left-hander allowed just one run over seven innings.
“My main focus was really just following his lead and just trying to execute good pitches,” Sale said of his rapport with catcher Jonah Heim, adding he wanted to “make good, quality pitches, because that’s a hell of a lineup.”
The Phillies managed only five hits — including four singles — and struck out 10 times against Sale and a pair of relievers. Philadelphia has a total of seven runs during a current four-game slide.
“It’s frustrating, but we’ve got to keep fighting,” said manager Rob Thomson, whose squad allowed three unearned runs on Saturday. “We’ve got to keep fighting. … But we’ve got to play better.”
The lone offensive highlight for Philadelphia was a home run by Felix Reyes off of Sale. The homer came in the first major-league at-bat for the 25-year-old outfielder.
Another promising Phillies rookie will take center stage Sunday as Andrew Painter (1-0, 3.77 ERA) will start following an unconventional appearance last weekend.
The 23-year-old right-hander was supposed to start last Sunday against the Arizona Diamondbacks, but a migraine led to a late scratch. However, Painter felt well enough to come on in relief, where he allowed one run over five innings, striking out seven and walking one in his team’s 4-3 loss.
“I didn’t know the extent of how long I was going to be able to go out, how good I was feeling,” Painter said. “But I wanted to go out there and at least get a couple innings to take that (workload) off the bullpen.”
Painter has yet to face the Braves in his young career.
Atlanta will counter with Grant Holmes (1-1, 3.32 ERA), who was pulled after allowing three runs in four innings Monday in his team’s 10-4 loss to the Miami Marlins. Braves manager Walt Weiss later noted that Holmes had thrown 99 pitches in his previous outing and that he was looking out for the right-hander’s long-term health.
Still, Holmes wasn’t pleased with his abbreviated performance.
“I started rushing too much and being too quick down the mound,” he said.
Holmes has made four career appearances (one start) against Philadelphia, posting a 1-1 record with a 1.17 ERA. He certainly doesn’t want to let Bryce Harper get going. The Phillies’ slugger had three hits in the series opener but went 0-for-4 with three strikeouts on Saturday.
Philadelphia likely will be without J.T. Realmuto in the series finale after the veteran catcher felt some back tightness on Saturday.
“We’re checking on him now,” Thomson said after Saturday’s game. “I doubt he’ll play (Sunday).”
For Atlanta, Austin Riley has been a pest over the first two games of the series. He has multiple hits in each contest — a pair of opposite-field home runs and four RBIs on Friday and two singles on Saturday.
–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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