Yahoo SportsConfident Danilo Gallinari is a must-start player
Steve Alexander explains why he sees Atlanta Hawks' Danilo Gallinari as a must-start player moving forward for managers.
Steve Alexander explains why he sees Atlanta Hawks' Danilo Gallinari as a must-start player moving forward for managers.
Philonise Floyd thanked Mark Davis for the Raiders' support and called for unity in the fight for social and racial justice.
The championship, scheduled for May 6-16 in Halifax and Truro, N.S., was called off Wednesday, a day before participating countries were to arrive to begin their quarantines.
The league announced Wednesday it plans to kick off the '21 campaign Aug. 5, nearly two months later than originally planned.
Ronda Rousey and her husband Travis Browne announced that they're expecting their first child in September.
The track will be at 40% capacity a year after fans weren't allowed to attend the pandemic-postponed 2020 Indy 500 won by Takuma Sato.
Patrick Marleau broke Gordie Howe's record for most games played in the NHL but what is the legacy of someone who may not make the Hockey Hall of Fame and which long-standing record could fall next?
TV show meme was even shared by Man City centre-back Aymeric Laporte
It all kicked off on Sunday when Lakers fan Josh Toussaint claimed Vivian Flores, his The Laker Point podcast co-host, had gone missing.
Schalke players were confronted by fans upon returning from a loss which confirmed they would drop out of German soccer's top tier for the first time in 30 years.
Brown's representative released a statement saying the wideout and former trainer Britney Taylor have resolved "aggressive litigation" and are moving forward.
Jake Paul has MMA fighters lining up to be his next boxing opponent following his first-round knockout of Ben Askren.
A battle between two London rivals, and two Serie A powers fighting for European qualification highlight this week's slate.
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Kia Nurse isn't just one of Canada's finest female basketball players, she's becoming a popular voice of the game as well. The Canadian national team and WNBA star has drawn rave reviews for her work as an analyst and colour commentator on TSN broadcasts of the Toronto Raptors and NCAA March Madness, impressing with her professionalism and immense knowledge of the game — and her humour. During the Raptors' all-female broadcast on March 24 — the first in NBA history — Nurse dropped a hilarious "Get that GAH-BAGE outta here!" in an impression of legendary broadcaster Jack Armstrong, complete with Brooklyn accent. "Got to pay homage to the OG," Nurse said with a laugh in a phone interview this week. Nurse is carving out her space in a field that remains overwhelmingly male, and she's just 25. She got her start when she was asked to join the broadcast team for March Madness in 2019. "I was home early from (playing) overseas, and it was an opportunity that arose. And so I just said, 'Sure, let's do it.' And it's pretty easy to just sit there and talk about basketball, because it's what I've done my whole life. "The first time was a little bit more nerve-racking, because I felt like I was almost thrown into the fire, straight into doing it. There were probably a lot of 'ums' at that time. As the weeks kind of went on, I started to get the hang of it, and just from seeing other people do it, obviously for their careers and watching sports as much as I had, it kind of just became pretty natural." The plan was to do the same in 2020, but the March Madness tournament was cancelled due to COVID-19. She was a regular on TSN's Raptors broadcasts before leaving for Phoenix last week to prepare for the WNBA season. "Kia's very good. And what she does is she's not trying to be a broadcaster. She's talking basketball. And she comes across really naturally," said longtime Raptors broadcaster Leo Rautins. "(The late Canadian broadcaster) John Saunders used to tell me 'It should be like you and I are talking hoops on a couch where people can happen to hear the conversation.' And that's the way Kia is. "She's not trying to impress you with her knowledge. She's sharing her knowledge. And she enjoys it. She's very good at it. She knows the game, there's no question about that. And she's fun to work with because she's real." She's similarly impressed her big brother, Edmonton Oilers defenceman Darnell Nurse. "Seeing her do it and how well she's been doing it, for me that's a lot of pressure to step in behind that. I don't know if I have the confidence to hop in behind Kia, she's been doing such a great job," Darnell Nurse told reporters with a laugh. "She can do it all. . . it's so cool to see." The Raptors' all-female broadcast drew plenty of praise, including from Toronto point guard Kyle Lowry. Nurse did the colour commentary alongside Meghan McPeak, who did play-by-play. Kayla Grey handled sideline duties while Kate Beirness and Amy Audibert hosted the show. "The great thing about our broadcast is obviously, Kate mentioned it early in the pre-game, was we were excited to be there to make history and to allow young women to see representation of themselves on television in these roles," Nurse said. "But at the same time, we were there to do a job, and we knew we were good at our jobs, and that's all we really had to go out there and do." Nurse isn't sure whether fulltime broadcasting is in her long-term future. "I don't really look that far ahead," she said. "It's great to have this kind of started already, at some point, the ball is going to stop bouncing, and for female athletes, you have to have a Plan B. This is something that wasn't originally on my radar as a Plan B, but it's something that I really love doing, and it's exciting." The television work is a huge help financially. Most WNBA players spend their off-seasons playing overseas, because their WNBA paycheques aren't enough to get them through the year. Television work is a chance for Nurse, a Hamilton native, to stay home between WNBA seasons. "In my eyes, if it's as lucrative as being overseas then I don't have a problem staying home, and so we're able to make it work in that sense," she said. Nurse, a six-foot guard, was traded to the Phoenix Mercury in a three-team deal in February. She was the Liberty’s 10th overall selection in the 2018 WNBA Draft, and averaged 11.6 points, 2.6 rebounds and 2.0 assists per game during her three-year tenure with New York. She led the team in scoring the past two seasons. The WNBA has prided itself for its work off the court as well, so it was no surprise that during a summer of racial unrest across the U.S. and abroad, the league led the way in the Florida bubble — or "wubble," as it was affectionately known. When Raphael Warnock defeated former WNBA owner Kelly Loeffler for Senate, he owed a large part of his victory to WNBA players, who threw their support behind Warnock after Loeffler critiqued their participation in the Black Lives Matter movement, among other issues. Both the WNBA and the women's NCAA basketball tournament drew record numbers of viewers this past season, and Nurse is confident the momentum of the women's game will continue, as will their work on issues such as racial injustice. "We definitely as a league understand that it wasn't just a one-time thing, we knew that this was gonna be a fight for the long haul," Nurse said. "So, for us, it's just continuing to find different ways to create spaces where tough conversations can be had, and education can happen as well." Nurse added that being back in their home markets, and doing work in their own communities, will only increase the momentum. "Because there's 12 teams that are doing that across the country," she said. "We're going to continue to use our voice, we're gonna continue to keep speaking up on things that we believe need more attention, and justice that needs to be served. That's the great part about our league is that it's always about momentum moving forward." The Mercury open their 32-game WNBA season on May 14 against a Minnesota Lynx team that includes Canadians Natalie Achonwa and Bridget Carleton. This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 21, 2021. Lori Ewing, The Canadian Press
Max Scherzer gets Matt Carpenter to strike out and escapes an early bases-loaded jam in the top of the 1st inning
Tejay Antone collects five strikeouts and surrenders zero hits across 3 2/3 scoreless innings in his relief performance
DALLAS — The defending Western Conference champion Dallas Stars have quite a road to get back in the post-season. After winning four in a row at home to get within a point of the final playoff spot in the Central Division, the Stars now will end the regular season playing nine of their last 11 games on the road. They will travel to five different cities in a 20-day stretch. "We’ve known all along it was coming,” coach Rick Bowness said. “The most important thing is step by step get back in the hunt. We’re back in the hunt, and now we've got to manage it the best that we can.” Joe Pavelski, the 36-year-old centre and leading scorer with 19 goals and 42 points, said the Stars just have to keep playing good hockey and know that they aren't going to have to play all of those games at once. “We've got to stay focused on what we're doing,” Pavelski said. The Stars have earned points in a season-best eight games in a row (6-0-2). At 50 points, they went into an off day Wednesday one point behind fourth-place Nashville and three ahead of Chicago before those teams played the second of three consecutive games against each other. Dallas will have three games in hand over the Predators, and two over the Blackhawks, after that. “We’re a team that likes to play meaningful hockey, so all these games mean a lot for us,” forward Jason Dickinson said. “I expect us to keep rising and keep pushing.” The Stars likely wouldn’t be scrambling for a playoff spot if they had taken advantage of all the extra time they have had on the ice. Their 61 minutes of overtime is the most in the NHL, as are their 12 overtime losses. A 3-2 shootout victory over Detroit on Monday was only the third time all season, and first in more than a month, where Dallas got a second point after finishing regulation tied. Dallas is in the middle of playing the same team four times in a row during a regular season for the first time in team history. The Stars beat the Red Wings on back-to-back nights at home Monday and Tuesday, and play in Detroit on Thursday and Saturday. That unprecedented four-game span was part of the the Stars' initial 56-game schedule, reduced again from the usual 82 games because of the pandemic while playing only division opponents. But they were supposed to start the season with four consecutive road games, and finish it the same way. Those first four scheduled road games were instead postponed after 17 Dallas players tested positive in January for COVID-19, even though most were asymptomatic, and the Stars opened at home a week after every other team had already started the season. Then four consecutive home games in mid-February got put off because of extreme winter weather in North Texas that made their arena unavailable because of a power emergency. With all the schedule reshuffling, the Stars will play their last seven games on the road after hosting division-leading Carolina next Monday and Tuesday, when there is a chance six-time All-Star forward Tyler Seguin could play for the first time since off-season hip surgery. Bowness said Seguin was travelling to Detroit and “will continue to skate with the team as much as he can.” General manager Jim Nill previously indicated the Carolina series as a potential target for Seguin's comeback. Dallas has one game left against the Predators, on May 1 in Nashville, and ends the regular season with two games at Chicago. There are three games left at Tampa Bay, which beat the Stars in a six-game Stanley Cup Final in the NHL's bubble in Canada last summer before they became division foes in the pandemic-altered NHL setup. Dallas is 1-3-1 against the Lightning this season. “Away games are always tougher. We’ve just got to bring the grind mentality,” defenceman Andrej Sekera said. “Our strengths, forecheck, play good defence and a patient game. ... We'll try to focus on that and bring our ‘A game’ every night.” ___ More AP NHL coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/NHL and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports Stephen Hawkins, The Associated Press
Joey Votto hits a double on a line drive to right field, scoring Mark Payton and Jesse Winker in the bottom of the 5th
MIAMI — Rookie Trevor Rogers didn't allow a runner past second base while pitching a career-high seven innings in his 11th major league start, and the Miami Marlins earned a split of their two-game series against Baltimore by winning 3-0 Wednesday. Jesús Aguilar broke a 0-0 tie with a two-out, two-run double in the fifth. Rogers (2-1) allowed four hits and one walk while striking out eight, lowering his ERA to 1.64 as he gained his third career win. The other two came against two-time Cy Young Award winner Jacob deGrom. Yimi García completed the four-hitter by pitching a perfect ninth for his fourth save in as many chances. The last nine Orioles went down in order. Bruce Zimmermann (1-2) allowed three runs in 4 2/3 innings. Miami catcher Sandy León gave the offence a spark with two hits and went from first to third on a sacrifice bunt before scoring the game's first run on Aguilar's double. León was called up before the game to make his season debut. Adam Duvall drove in Miami's other run with a single and ranks among the NL leaders with 14 RBIs. The Orioles fell to 3-14 in Miami. THE NL EAST Marlins general manager Kim Ng said her team's division is baseball's best, and not just because of the Atlanta Braves. “I'm not sure there is going to be a clear runaway winner of this thing, because the quality of the entire division from top to bottom is very good,” Ng said. “That means we’re all going to beat up on each other all year long.” ROSTER MOVES Before the game, the Marlins placed C Jorge Alfaro (left hamstring strain) on the 10-day injured list, and selected León's contract from the alternate training site. They optioned RHP Nick Neidert to the alternate training site. UP NEXT Orioles: They begin a homestand Friday when RHP Jorge López (1-2, 8.56) starts against Oakland. Marlins: LHP Daniel Castano (0-0, 1.80) is scheduled to start Thursday to begin a four-game series at San Francisco. ___ More AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/MLB and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports ___ Follow Steven Wine on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Steve_Wine Steven Wine, The Associated Press
Marwin Gonzalez gives the Red Sox the lead once again with a solo home run in the bottom of the 8th inning to make it 4-3