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Who's number one in 2021?
The FFL crew explains which players to grab with the first pick in 2021 fantasy drafts.
The FFL crew explains which players to grab with the first pick in 2021 fantasy drafts.
Monday night's game was called off at the last minute, as neither the Spurs nor the Pelicans have enough players to compete.
Canadiens GM Marc Bergevin has hit on all his acquisitions — at least so far.
The CFL team with no name now doesn't have a head coach.
Cole Beasley missed Week 17, but played in all three Bills playoff games.
The Yankees are sending reliever Adam Ottavino to the Red Sox in the clubs' second deal of the millennium.
It's not clear when Leonard and George will be able to return to the court.
“We’re just representative of 25 million Americans who have had this stuff so far."
Budweiser, Coke and Pepsi are among the major companies not running Super Bowl ads this year.
Anthony Davis was miserable during his final months with the Pelicans, but playing for the Lakers helped him find both joy and balance.
The Kirill Kaprizov Show is here to stay, but there are also several other rookies worth monitoring in fantasy hockey.
The Toronto Argonauts have signed former Pittsburgh Steelers and Oakland Raiders wide receiver Martavis Bryant.
A player with the Kamloops Blazers has suffered what the league describes as "life-altering injuries" following a weekend snowboarding accident in Saskatchewan.
Alex Len was sent packing less than a month into the season, joining a legendary list of players who dropped by and put on a Raptors uniform for fewer than 15 games.
INDIANAPOLIS — Malcolm Brogdon scored a career-high 36 points and Myles Turner scored 11 of his 21 in the final 8 1/2 minutes Monday night to help the Indiana Pacers pull away for a 129-114 victory over the Toronto Raptors. Brogdon also had nine assists and seven rebounds, a day after his poorest game of the season. Jeremy Lamb matched his season-high with 22 points as Indiana earned a split in the two-game set against the Raptors. The Pacers won this one despite losing All-Star forward Damontis Sabonis to a bruised left knee in the first half. Toronto was led by Fred VanVleet's 25 points and six rebounds. Norman Powell scored 24 points. The Raptors rallied from a 70-60 halftime deficit and tied the score at 86-all in the third quarter. They eventually took a 102-100 lead on Kyle Lowry's go-ahead dunk with 9:46 to go in the fourth. It didn't last long. Goga Bitadze tied the score on Indiana's next possession, Turner broke the tie by making 1 of 2 free throws and then fueled a decisive 12-4 run with his late scoring flurry. Brogdon sealed the win with late free throws TIP-INS Raptors: Lowry scored 12 points before he was ejected in the waning moments. He needs two points to join DeMar DeRozan and Chris Bosh as the only players in franchise history to score 10,000. ... VanVleet made three 3-pointers to extend his franchise-record for consecutive games with a 3 to 49. .... OG Anunoby had 10 points and reached double figures for a career-best ninth consecutive game. ... All-Star Pascal Siakam missed his second straight game with swelling in his left knee. Pacers: Turner finished with 10 rebounds and three blocks despite playing with a fractured right hand. ... Bitadze and Aaron Holiday each scored 10 points. ... Lamb added seven rebounds. ... First-year coach Nate Bjorkgren, who was previously an assistant with Toronto, got his first NBA win against Raptors coach Nick Nurse. Bjorkgren's head-to-head record against Nurse is 4-5 including seven matchups in the G League. DOUBLE TROUBLE Sabonis' franchise-record streak of 16 consecutive double-doubles to open the season ended unceremoniously after he had 11 points, three rebounds and two assists in the first 11 minutes. He didn't return after hurting his knee. The All-Star is one of just six players since the ABA-NBA merger to start the season with 15 straight double-doubles and his absence — with T.J. Warren (left foot surgery) and newly-acquired swingman Caris LeVert (kidney mass) already out — left Indiana short-handed. UP NEXT Raptors: Begin a three-game homestand Wednesday against Milwaukee. Pacers: Play the first of two games in Charlotte on Wednesday. ___ More AP NBA: https://apnews.com/NBA and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports Michael Marot, The Associated Press
Health and safety amid the COVID-19 pandemic might point toward delaying the season. But it doesn't seem like MLB and the players are talking about that.
DETROIT — Delon Wright scored a career-high 28 points and Wayne Ellington had another impressive shooting night for Detroit, leading the Pistons to a 119-104 victory over the Eastern Conference-leading Philadelphia 76ers on Monday. Jerami Grant scored 25 points for the Pistons (4-13), who still have the NBA's worst record but took advantage of Joel Embiid's absence. The Philadelphia star was out with back tightness. Detroit acquitted itself well in this two-game mini-series with the 76ers. Philadelphia needed a big game from Embiid to prevail 114-110 on Saturday night. The Pistons never trailed in the rematch. Ellington scored 20 points, shooting 6 of 9 from 3-point range. It was his fifth straight game with at least four 3s, tying a team record set by Joe Dumars in 1998-99. Ellington is 30 of 50 from beyond the arc in his last six games. Tobias Harris led Philadelphia with 25 points, but the 76ers (12-6) never made much of a run after the Pistons controlled the early going. Detroit's Josh Jackson was ejected in the fourth quarter, but Philadelphia couldn't take advantage. There were five technical fouls in the game. Detroit took an early 17-4 lead and was still ahead 64-50 at halftime. The third quarter came and went without the lead getting any tighter than seven, and it was never closer than nine in the fourth. TIP-INS 76ers: Coach Doc Rivers and C Dwight Howard received technical fouls in the second quarter. Pistons: Derrick Rose (left knee) missed the game. ... Detroit came in averaging a league-high 44.1 bench points per game. The Pistons had only 29 on Monday. UP NEXT 76ers: Host the Los Angeles Lakers on Wednesday night in what could be a matchup between conference leaders. Pistons: Visit the Cleveland Cavaliers on Wednesday night. Detroit lost to Cleveland 128-119 in double overtime Dec. 26. ___ Follow Noah Trister at https://twitter.com/noahtrister ___ More AP NBA: https://apnews.com/NBA and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports Noah Trister, The Associated Press
A "coalition" of Michigan athletes pushed back against the decision to shut down athletic activities due to a "super-spreader strain" of COVID-19 on campus.
With more female referees now in the NBA than ever before, it was only a matter of time before two women would be scheduled to work the same game. And Monday was that day. Natalie Sago and Jenna Schroeder make up two-thirds of the crew assigned to the Charlotte at Orlando game, the first time in NBA history that two women were assigned to work a regular-season contest together. Sean Wright was picked to be crew chief, Sago the referee and Schroeder the umpire. Sago and Schroeder have worked games together before; they were part of three-woman crews in the G League. But at the NBA level, it’s a first — and it’s a game they’ve been looking forward to since they saw it on the internally distributed schedule a month ago. The crews for games are not announced publicly until 9 a.m. Eastern on game days. “This is a big deal,” Schroeder said. “It’s like my feminist dreams come true, that like my personal values are colliding with my professional values and it’s awesome.” The NBA has used 76 officials so far this season; seven are women, already the most to work games during any season in league history. Lauren Holtkamp-Sterling, Ashley Moyer-Gleich, Simone Jelks, Danielle Scott, Dannica Mosher, Sago and Schroeder are all working games this season; Scott and Mosher are non-staff, the other five are members of the full-time NBA officiating roster. “It's so cool," Sago said. “All of us, we're so happy and excited to work together. We just have a good group of females, we're all close, we have great relationships and we share these moments." The original schedule called for another crew with two women for a game later this week. That lineup has since been switched, but Sago is certain this game won't be the NBA's last with multiple female refs. “It’s amazing,” Sago said. “I’m just proud to be part of an organization that promotes people to do the job based on our abilities, not on our gender, race, ethnicity, those types of things.” It’s not lost on Sago or Schroeder that this game comes amid a flurry of historic days for women, in the sports world and otherwise. Kamala Harris was sworn in last week as the first female Vice-President of the United States. Sarah Thomas will be the first woman to be on a Super Bowl officiating crew when she works the Tampa Bay-Kansas City game in Tampa next month. Sarah Fuller made headlines this past college football season as a kicker for Vanderbilt. “I wish my daughter was here to see this," Schroeder said. ___ More AP NBA: https://apnews.com/NBA and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports Tim Reynolds, The Associated Press
Sabrina Ionescu said after Kobe's death she was going to live out his legacy.
Major League Soccer has provided the when for its 2021 season. The where for Canadian teams remains unanswered, however. The regular season will run April 3 through Nov. 7 with the MLS Cup final scheduled for Dec. 11, the league announced Monday. The league had previously said it was targeting a mid-March start to the 2021 campaign. In 2020, the regular season opened Feb. 29. Matches continued for two weeks before the league halted play due to the COVID-19 global pandemic. It resumed in July with the MLS is Back Tournament in Orlando with Columbus Crew SC eventually winning the MLS Cup final — originally slated for Nov. 7 — on Dec. 12 after an on-again, off-again season. In announcing the 2021 dates, the league said it is continuing to work with CF Montreal, Toronto FC and the Vancouver Whitecaps on the issue of travel restrictions between Canada and the U.S. due to the pandemic. MLS said more details on the Canadian teams will be announced in the "near future."' Last season, Toronto made its pandemic home away from home in East Hartford, Conn. Montreal played out of Harrison, N.J., while Vancouver was based out of Portland. Toronto played just four of its 23 regular-season games at BMO Field — and none after Sept. 1. The Whitecaps had four games at B.C. Place Stadium while Montreal had one at Olympic Stadium and three at Stade Saputo. Toronto president Bill Manning confirmed that his club is looking at options south of the border in the event it can't host U.S. teams at BMO Field. The 2021 calendar already looks to be a busy one with World Cup and Olympic qualifying set to begin in March for Canada with the Gold Cup to follow in July. Should Canadian internationals on Canadian MLS teams have to relocate south of the border again for league play, it will make for another extended absence from family and friends. While the pandemic continues to hang over the sports scene, another cloud has emerged over the MLS future — a labour impasse resulting from the league's decision to invoke a "force majeure" clause that obligates the league and the MLS Players Association to negotiate modifications to the existing Collective bargaining agreement in good faith for 30 days. The MLSPA says it won't be rushed into a decision on proposed changes to the CBA. "Although no agreement has been reached, MLS is committed to meet as many times as necessary with the MLSPA in the coming days to finalize an agreement," the league said in its statement Monday. Each of the 27 teams — the league is up a club with the addition of expansion Austin FC — will play a 34-match regular-season schedule before the playoffs kick off Nov. 19. The league is planning an all-star game for late summer. Clubs can open pre-season training on Feb. 22, six weeks ahead of the season's opening weekend. The league says players will have to quarantine and conduct individual training upon reporting back to their clubs. During the regular season, all players, technical staff and essential club staff will be tested for COVID-19 every other day, including the day before each match day. Clubs will take chartered flights for all road trips. NOTES: The Seattle Sounders have signed head coach Brian Schmetzer to a multi-year contract extension. The Seattle native has led the Sounders to four MLS Cup appearances and two titles — both in wins over Toronto — since taking over in the summer of 2016, amassing a record of 67-37-34 in the regular season and 15-4-2 in the playoffs ... D.C. United has signed former Montreal and Vancouver midfielder Felipe Martins to a one-year contract extension. The deal contains an option for the 2022 season. KEY DATES — MLS 2021 SEASON Feb. 22: Pre-season training begins (6 weeks) Apr. 3-4: Opening Weekend 2021 Nov. 7: Regular season finale Nov. 19: MLS Cup playoffs begin Dec. 11: MLS Cup final --- Follow @NeilMDavidson on Twitter This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 25, 2021 Neil Davidson, The Canadian Press