Sports
The Los Angeles Clippers Were Finished Until Kawhi Leonard Took Over
The hottest team in the NBA was left for dead around the holidays, looking old and slow with a window as a contender seemingly closed.
Barely a month later, the Clippers have managed to become the comeback story of the year. And yet getting that revival to complete feel-good status remains a work in progress.
Drama enveloped the Clippers early. In October, the NBA began to investigate a report that the team had circumvented the salary cap by compensating star forward Kawhi Leonard through an outside sponsorship deal. The investigation continues.
By early December, their reunion with former star Chris Paul soured and he was sent home from a road trip with the team no longer having a use for his services. Paul’s locker remains but sits empty each game night.
On the court, it was even more embarrassing. The Clippers won just six times over their first 27 games, with 10 of those games coming without Leonard because of more injury issues. While knee pain has railroaded Leonard in recent years, he was slowed by foot and ankle pain this year.
When the Clippers lost 121-101 at Oklahoma City on Dec. 18, they were on a five-game losing streak with losses in 10 of their last 11 games. What followed next was improbable.
On Dec. 20, Clippers blogger and podcaster Robert Flom was at his wit’s end. “If they go 15-3 in any stretch this season I will print and eat this tweet,” Flom posted to X.
Leonard has said he didn’t know anything about the tweet, even as fans in the rowdy “The Wall” section of the two-year-old Intuit Dome chanted “Eat the tweet” last week. But Leonard sure played like a man on a mission.
Starting with their 103-88 victory over the cross-town Los Angeles Lakers shortly after the tweet appeared, the Clippers not only went on a 15-3 run — they added a 16th victory in the stretch with a 115-103 win at Utah on Tuesday.
Once desperate for victories, Tuesday’s triumph over the Jazz was about revenge. After all, the Clippers’ early-season mess started with an uncompetitive 129-108 loss at Utah on opening night.
From hopeless to vengeful, all in a short period of time, is the arc of cinema.
A 6-21 start seemed like the signal to tank and maximize their first-round draft pick. But the Clippers did not have that option. The champion Thunder own L.A.’s first-round pick following the unfulfilling Paul George trade before the 2019-20 season.
Making matters worse is that Shai Gilgeous-Alexander also went to the Thunder in the deal.
This season, the Clippers actually have nothing to lose for.
With Leonard back to full strength, the game plan from head coach Tyronn Lue was to lean into the six-time All-Star like never before. On defense, a frenetic new approach — while playing without big man Ivica Zubac for a stretch — awakened the team.
Leonard’s game has always operated with a team-wide approach. Sure, he scored, but he was just as inclined to get others involved. Even with the Clippers, while playing alongside James Harden and Zubac, Leonard had been just as willing to pass as to score.
A quicker tempo on offense now has Leonard leading the charge. His 8.6 attempts from three-point range over the team’s recent run of success is well above his 4.3 career mark and his 6.0 number over his first 17 games of the season.
Since Dec. 20, Leonard is scoring 31.1 points per game. It has him up to 27.9 on the season, ahead of his 27.1 mark in 2019-20 when he first joined the Clippers and his 21.2 mark in 2015-16 with the San Antonio Spurs, when he finished second in MVP voting.
Harden has settled into 19.3 points per game since Dec. 20 as the team’s secondary scoring threat. It is below his season average of 25.4 points. He has also improved to 3.3 turnovers a game during the run, as opposed to 3.9 over his first 25 games.
Now comes the hard part. The Clippers are not young. Only recently have fresh faces like Jordan Miller, Kobe Sanders and Yanic Konan Niederhauser been asked to make significant contributions. Young energy has been refreshing.
But the veterans make it go. Can Leonard, at 34, keep delivering with a heavy load? Can Harden, at 36, continue to run the offense? Zubac is still 28, but three-point threat Nico Batum is 37.
Almost at .500 for the first time this season, the Clippers will continue to press their luck and step on the gas. They have no other choice.
And for the record, Flom printed the tweet and ate it Monday during an episode of the Clips N Dip podcast, even after Leonard doubted the health benefits.
Sports
Reports: Padres, OF Nick Castellanos agree to 1-year deal
Oct 8, 2025; Los Angeles, California, USA; Philadelphia Phillies right fielder Nick Castellanos (8) celebrates after scoring a run during the eighth inning against the Los Angeles Dodgers during game three of the NLDS round for the 2025 MLB playoffs at Dodger Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jayne Kamin-Oncea-Imagn Images Outfielder Nick Castellanos has agreed to a one-year contract with the San Diego Padres, multiple media outlets reported Saturday.
The New York Post initially reported the news, which comes two days after Castellanos was released by the Philadelphia Phillies.
Castellanos, who turns 34 on March 4, was cut by Philadelphia this week with one season remaining on his five-year, $100 million contract. Per MLB.com, the Padres will pay Castellanos the MLB minimum of $780,000 with the Phillies being on the hook for the balance of his salary for the 2026 season.
Castellanos fell out of favor in Philadelphia last season, and he found himself in a platoon role after being admonished for insubordination in June.
Castellanos was benched on June 17, one day after reportedly making an “inappropriate” comment to manager Rob Thomson.
Thomson removed Castellanos from the outfield in favor of Johan Rojas as a defensive replacement in the eighth inning of a 5-2 victory over the Miami Marlins. That’s what prompted Castellanos to say something to Thomson that the manager deemed out of order.
Castellanos, however, noted during an Instagram post on Thursday that he was benched for the following game after bringing a beer into the dugout after his removal from the game for defensive purposes.
Castellanos batted .250 with 17 home runs and 72 RBIs in 147 games last season, his fourth with Philadelphia.
A two-time All-Star, Castellanos is a career .272 hitter with 250 homers and 920 RBIs in 1,688 games with the Detroit Tigers, Chicago Cubs, Cincinnati Reds and Phillies.
–Field Level Media
Sports
Brazil's Lucas Pinheiro Braathen makes history with giant slalom gold
Lucas Pinheiro Braathen of Brazil in action in the second run of the men’s giant slalom on Saturday at the Milan Cortina Olympics. BORMIO, Italy — Brazil’s Lucas Pinheiro Braathen made South American sporting history with a stunning Olympic giant slalom gold medal in a driving blizzard on Saturday.
No athlete from the continent had ever won a medal of any color at the Winter Games, but the 25-year-old put that right with two incredible runs down the Stelvio course to hold off Swiss great Marco Odermatt by 0.58 seconds.
“I’m not even able to grasp reality,” said Pinheiro Braathen, who switched allegiance from Norway after briefly quitting the sport in 2023.
“I am just trying to get some sort of emotion here and translate it into words, though it’s absolutely impossible.”
Strains of the classic song “Mas Que Nada” rang out across the finish area as Pinheiro Braathen was serenaded by the Brazilians in the grandstand and wedged alongside the slope.
Down on the beaches of Rio de Janeiro, too, the caipirinhas would surely be flowing for the soccer-mad country’s latest, and most unlikely, sporting hero.
“This unprecedented result shows that Brazilian sport has no limits,” Brazil President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva posted on X.
The skier was born to a Norwegian father and Brazilian mother. Once his parents divorced, he lived first with his mother in Brazil and later with his father in Norway.
Pinheiro Braathen has hardly emerged from nowhere.
He was the World Cup slalom champion in 2023 and is currently second in the overall standings behind Odermatt.
But no one envisioned the Brazilian opening a massive 0.95-second lead over Odermatt from bib No. 1 in a masterful first run that left his rivals scratching their heads and only seven of them within two seconds of him.
Barring a crash or an extraordinary Odermatt surge, it looked like nothing could deny him a history-making gold in the second as the weather closed in.
Odermatt, giant slalom champion in Beijing in 2022, duly cranked up the pressure with a searing second run to take the lead, leaving last man Pinheiro Braathen 54 gates from glory.
Pushing out of the start hut in his distinctive silver helmet, he leaked away some of his advantage with a few ragged turns, but with his eyes fixed on gold, the Brazilian avoided any calamities.
After crossing the line, Pinheiro Braathen collapsed to the snow before getting up and holding his skis aloft to the roaring grandstand.
He then sought out his father, Bjorn, who introduced him to the sport as a young boy, for an emotional embrace before breaking into his trademark samba celebration.
After climbing on the podium he punched the air as the Brazil anthem rang out for the first time ever at the Winter Olympics and the tears of joy began to flow.
Only three years ago, Pinheiro Braathen stunned those in his sport by quitting after being crowned World Cup champion in slalom that year following a fallout with the Norway federation, saying he could no longer express his vibrant personality.
Opening up in a documentary “Lucas Pinheiro Braathen: On My Terms”, he said skiing was making him miserable.
But he rediscovered the joy after returning to Brazil in 2024, and this season became Brazil’s first winner of a World Cup race.
All that is insignificant compared with what he achieved on Saturday, however, four years after failing to finish either of his events in his Olympic debut.
Pinheiro Braathen’s victory also stopped a Swiss sweep after all three of the gold medals so far in the men’s Alpine program had gone to Franjo von Allmen.
The Brazilian will have another shot at gold on Monday in the slalom.
–Reuters, special to Field Level Media
Sports
World Curling takes action after Sweden accuses Canada of cheating
Ben Hebert, Marc Kennedy and Brett Gallant of Canada in action during their match against Sweden at the Cortina Curling Olympic Stadium on Friday. CORTINA D’AMPEZZO, Italy — World Curling said on Saturday that it would have officials monitoring for rule violations during the rest of the competition at the Olympics after Sweden’s men’s team accused Canada of cheating in a tense round-robin game.
Tensions boiled over on Friday when Brad Jacobs’ Canada entry beat Sweden 8-6, with Niklas Edin’s rink alleging their opponents were double touching the stone during the contest.
World Curling has introduced electronic handles on stones at the Games, which flash red if players are still making contact with the stone beyond the hog line — the point where curlers must let go during delivery.
However, the sensor for detecting violations is in the handle, with Sweden claiming Canada’s players were touching the granite, where there are no sensors.
“It is not possible for World Curling to have game umpires positioned to observe all hog lines for every stone delivery,” World Curling said in a statement.
“However, beginning with the Saturday (Feb. 14) afternoon session, two officials will move between all four sheets and observe deliveries.”
World Curling also clarified its rules on deliveries, saying: “During forward motion, touching the granite of the stone is not allowed. This will result in the stone being removed from play.”
After Sweden and Canada asked officials to keep an eye on their opponents’ deliveries early on, there was a heated exchange between the teams’ thirds Marc Kennedy and Oskar Eriksson toward the end of the game.
Eriksson told Kennedy he would show him a video replay of him touching the stone repeatedly. The Canadian responded with an expletive.
“World Curling spoke with the Canadian officials to issue a verbal warning regarding the language used by a Canadian men’s player during the game,” the sport’s governing body said.
“During that meeting it was made clear to those officials that further inappropriate behavior… would result in additional sanctions.”
Curling Canada CEO Nolan Thiessen said it was a poor choice of words from Kennedy
“I think heat of the moment, I would allow for as well,” Thiessen told reporters.
“Something was said in his ear which got him going. Head games get played in a lot of sports and things get said in competitive sport and I think this was one of those situations. Do I wish Mark didn’t drop an F-bomb? Yeah.”
Swedish media on Friday tore into Kennedy, accusing the 2010 Olympic champion of cheating while also releasing videos and images of him appearing to touch a stone while it was crossing the hog line.
Asked about the video, Thiessen replied: “I was surprised that there was a live video on the hog line outside of OBS (Olympic Broadcasting Services) rules.
“That seems odd to me. But nevertheless, you know, I think they (the Canada team) are concentrating on the game today.”
The Swedish Curling Association did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
–Reuters, Special to Field Level Media
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