Sports
NBA Finals: Nikola Jokic’s historic triple-double helps Nuggets take series lead
Nikola Jokic continues to show why he could have, and maybe should have, won his third consecutive MVP Award.
The Joker went for the first 30-20-10 effort in NBA Finals history in the Denver Nuggets’ 109-94 win over the Miami Heat on Wednesday.
With the victory, Denver took a two games to one lead in the NBA Finals, as the franchise vies for their first championship in its history.
No team had a lead beyond five points in the first half, but Denver opened up the third quarter on a 6-0 run to take the first double-digit lead of the night, and they made sure it didn’t relinquish.
They were able to extend that lead up to 19 points in that quarter, and it got as high as 21 in the fourth. Miami went on a late run that cut their deficit to nine, but it was too little too late.
Jokic’s historic night ended with 32 points, 21 rebounds, and 10 assists.
Jamal Murray also posted a triple-double – he led all scorers with 34 points while grabbing 10 rebounds (his 10th with five seconds left) and dishing out 10 assists.
Jokic and Murray are the first teammates in NBA history to have 30-point triple-doubles in the same game, including in the regular season.
SUNS RELEASE VETERAN ALL-STAR CHRIS PAUL AS MORE CHANGES COME TO PHOENIX: REPORT
Only two Heat players were in double-digits. Jimmy Butler finished with 28 points, while Bam Adebayo added 22 points and 17 boards. The rest of the team combined to score just 44 points.
As a team, Denver shot 51.2% from the floor. Miami hit just 37.0% of their shots.
Game 4 is Friday night in Miami.
With a loss, Miami will then try to become the first team since the 2015-16 Cleveland Cavaliers to win the Finals after trailing 3-1 in the series.
Sports
Caitlin Clark struggles in Fever’s loss to Liberty in wake of controversial game
One night after their controversial game against the Chicago Sky, the Indiana Fever got blown out on the road by the New York Liberty, 104-68, on Sunday.
And Caitlin Clark, the subject of the controversy, struggled mightily at Barclays Center during the team’s latest defeat.
Clark scored three points, shooting 1 of 10 from the field, including 1 of 7 from three-point territory. She also collected five assists, two rebounds, two steals and one block.
Meanwhile, the Liberty saw their stars cook up on home court as Breanna Stewart (13 points, six rebounds, five assists), Sabrina Ionescu (16 points, six assists, six rebounds), Jonquel Jones (18 points, 13 rebounds, four assists, two steals) and Betnijah Laney-Hamilton (20 points, five assists, two rebounds, two steals) led the way for New York.
The Fever were fresh off a tough win over the Sky, 71-70, the night before, and it wasn’t even 24 hours since controversy and tension brewed between those two squads.
Sky guard Chennedy Carter was seen hip-checking Clark during the game, and her Sky teammate, Angel Reese, clapped for the hard foul that turned into a flagrant 1 violation after the WNBA reviewed it on Sunday.
SKY’S CHENNEDY CARTER RIPS CAITLIN CLARK AFTER REFUSING TO ANSWER QUESTIONS ABOUT FOUL
After the game, Carter avoided questions about Clark, but her thoughts about the No. 1 overall pick of this year’s draft were confirmed with likes and reposted defenses of her actions on X.
Carter, then, posted on Threads Sunday where she ripped into Clark.
“& that’s that on that cause beside three point shooting what does she bring to the table man,” Carter wrote in reply to a post about her postgame press conference.
In a separate post on Threads, Carter also responded to the clip of Reese celebrating the hard foul on Clark during a timeout, saying, “my dawg fasho, got all my teammates.
Amid news the league was upgrading Carter’s foul to a flagrant, it also fined Reese $1,000 for skipping her postgame press conference. The Sky was also fined $5,000.
Clark was asked about Carter’s foul after the game, and she replied, “I wasn’t expecting it. It is what it is. It’s a physical game. Go make the free throw and execute on offense, and I feel like that’s kind of what we did.”
While Clark took the high road, her GM, Lin Dunn, and head coach Christie Sides spoke their minds.
“There’s a difference between tough defense and unnecessary – targeting actions!” Dunn wrote in a post on X. “It needs to stop! The league needs to ‘cleanup’ (sic) the c–p! That’s NOT who this league is!!”
Sides added, “I’m trying not to get fined. I’m just going to keep sending these possessions to the league and these plays. Hopefully, they’ll start to … take a better look at some of the things we see happening or we think is happening.”
Clark fans have seemed to go after Carter on social media, singling her out for what happened on the floor, though it appeared both of them had words prior to the hip check. But Carter posted on her Instagram Story as well, saying, “I’d rather you hate me then (sic) love me and I mean that on my dead aunt.” She prefaced that by saying “I grew up with all brothers,” so she loves “the hate more than the love.”
Carter also suggested Clark flopped on the play, making the hip check look worse than it was.
Either way, Clark knows there’s a target on her back, and subsequently the Fever, entering her rookie season as she generated tons of hype and new viewership for the WNBA after her illustrious college career at Iowa.
How she responds to “welcome to the show” moments like the one Saturday is what really matters, but it wasn’t her best performance on the back-to-back against the Liberty.
Despite the poor start to the season by the Fever (2-9), Clark is the second player in WNBA history to have at least 100 points, 50 rebounds and 50 assists in their first 10 games, joining Ionescu in that feat. She did so after collecting 11 points, eight rebounds and three assists in the win over Chicago.
Fox News’ Ryan Gaydos contributed to this report.
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Sports
UCLA's season ends in Women's College World Series loss to Stanford
The clock struck midnight on UCLA’s Bruin Magic.
After a season defined by miraculous wins, the No. 6 Bruins came up at least one comeback short, losing 3-1 in a Women’s College World Series elimination game to No. 8 Stanford on Sunday at Devon Park. UCLA returned to Oklahoma City for the eighth time in nine seasons but went out on a whimper with only one run in its last two games.
UCLA (43-12) had 12 wins this season when trailing or tied in the fifth inning or later, but couldn’t muster lucky No. 13 against Stanford ace NiJaree Canady. The USA Softball collegiate player of the year gave up four hits and one run with eight strikeouts in her fifth consecutive complete game.
The Bruins swept Stanford (50-16) during the regular season, eking out two close wins over Canady. UCLA took down the star sophomore 1-0 in nine innings to open the series then won the finale 2-0. The weekend served as a coming-out party for sophomore Taylor Tinsley, who pitched 15-2/3 scoreless innings with 20 strikeouts.
UCLA needed Tinsley to shine again Sunday after she entered in relief in the third inning of a 1-1 game. Stanford chased UCLA starter Kaitlyn Terry with a tying RBI double by Taryn Kern, then Tinsley gave up the go-ahead hit on an RBI single by first baseman Ava Gall. The Cardinal extended their lead in the fifth, leading off with back-to-back bunts and scoring on a sacrifice fly by pinch-hitter Allie Clements to bring home Emily Jones.
Tinsley gave up three hits and one run with one strikeout after Terry’s three-hit, three-strikeout start.
A two-run lead was far from insurmountable for a team that entered the World Series leading the postseason field with 7.8 runs per game in the NCAA tournament. But the Bruins picked the worst time for a dry spell.
After being shut out for the first time since April 7 by Oklahoma on Saturday, UCLA didn’t get a runner into scoring position until in the seventh inning. Savannah Pola was hit by a pitch to keep the Bruins alive with two outs, and Thessa Malau’ulu poked a line-drive single past the Stanford shortstop to get two on for the Bruins. The rowdy UCLA section seated behind the first base line waved their blue and gold pompoms as Ramsey Suarez stepped into the batter’s box. The pinch-hitter grounded out.
Sophomore Megan Grant produced UCLA’s only run with a solo home run to lead off the third inning. Back-to-back Pac-12 player of the year Maya Brady struck out three times, tying her career high and equaling her mark from Saturday’s 1-0 loss to Oklahoma. The fifth-year senior was two for 10 at the plate in the World Series, with no hits in seven appearances in the last two games for the Bruins.
Sports
Tennis players give opinions on wild 3 am finish for Novak Djokovic at French Open: 'It's not healthy'
Marathon tennis matches have been seen throughout history, but the latest finish by French Open defending champion Novak Djokovic has led many to question why a match is allowed to go until 3 a.m.
The exact finishing time for Djokovic was 3:07 a.m. after five sets against Lorenzo Musetti, and as you’d expect, he was absolutely drained. It was the latest finish in the Grand Slam’s history, but it’s a side of history U.S. Open champion Coco Gauff doesn’t think any tennis player should be on.
“I feel like a lot of times people think you’re done, but really at 3 a.m. [you’re] probably not going to bed until 5 a.m. at the earliest, maybe 6 a.m. or 7 a.m.,” Gauff said, via Yahoo Sports.
“I definitely think it’s not healthy,” Gauff continued.
“It’s not easy to play and it’s not like we’re going to fall asleep one hour after the match,” the top women’s player in the world, Iga Swiatek, added to the conversation.
NOVAK DJOKOVIC SAYS HE WAS NEVER ‘ANTI-VAX’: ‘I WAS ALWAYS PRO-FREEDOM TO CHOOSE’
“[Change] is not up to us. We need to accept anything that is going to come to us.”
Now, the ATP and WTA Tours instituted a new rule earlier this year that states no matches can start after 11 p.m. However, the four Grand Slams – French Open, Australian Open, Wimbledon, and U.S. Open – do not have that rule in their tournaments. Furthermore, men play five sets in Grand Slams, whereas the ATP Tour finishes in best-of-three sets.
So, the French Open saw the decision to put the match between Grigor Dimitrov and Zizou Bergs on the main court, Court Philippe Chatrier, go astray when Alexander Zverev’s and Tallon Griekspoor’s match needed five sets to finish.
Dimitrov and Bergs were rained out on Friday, where the former had a one-set advantage when they finally started playing again. In turn, Djokovic’s match, intended to start at 8:15 p.m. local time, didn’t do so until 10:37 p.m.
Then, with five sets to play, it just went way too long.
“I think some things could have been handled a different way,” Djokovic said after the match, prefacing his comment by saying he didn’t want to get into the scheduling discussion, “but there’s also a beauty in winning a match [so late].”
Djokovic, 37, said his limits were certainly tested in the match. But it’s hard to recover from such a feat.
But he’ll have to do so before facing Francisco Cerundolo, the No. 23 player in the world, in the fourth round on Monday in Paris to keep his chances at repeating alive.
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