Sports
Sparks snap eight-game losing streak with thrilling overtime win against Aces
When the Sparks’ 10-point lead started to drift away in the fourth quarter Friday night, it seemed like deja vu of Tuesday’s loss. What were once deafening cheers from the stands became a quiet lull as the 13,840 fans at Crypto.com Arena watched the Las Vegas Aces come barreling back.
But the Sparks would not, could not, let Tuesday’s fiasco happen again.
It took 45 minutes, but the Sparks forced overtime and ultimately prevail over the Aces on Friday night to snap an eight-game losing streak with a 98-93 overtime victory. It is their second win over Las Vegas this season after beating them in another close game in early June.
The game featured 15 ties and 17 lead changes, but the Sparks held on to win just their fifth game of the season.
“They had their runs and we expected that but the difference from tonight and Tuesday is we stayed together,” Aari McDonald said. “We minimized their stops while also executing and scoring.”
Dearica Hamby led the Sparks with 28 points, 14 rebounds and four assists, posting her 13th double-double of the season. Aari McDonald had a career high 23 points while adding five rebounds and three assists. The Sparks shot 32 for 86 from the field but struggled from the free-throw line, hitting 23 of 32.
A’ja Wilson led the Aces with 35 points, 12 rebounds and three assists and Kelsey Plum contributed 21 points and four rebounds. Las Vegas shot 32 of 67 from the field to keep the game close.
Hamby is fired up every time she faces the Aces. She won a championship with Las Vegas before filing a discrimination lawsuit against the franchise, claiming she was bullied by Aces coach Becky Hammon after disclosing her pregnancy. Hamby was traded to the Sparks and following a league investigation, Hammond served a two-game suspension and the Aces lost their 2025 first-round draft pick.
“My teammates show up for me every time we play the Aces and it means a lot to me,” Hamby said during a postgame interview on Ion. “They know how much this game means to me.”
Las Vegas Aces guard Kelsey Plum celebrates during the first half Friday against the Sparks.
(Ryan Sun / Associated Press)
The Aces started out hot with a 7-0 run before the Sparks got on the board on a Hamby layup three minutes into the first quarter. The Sparks fell into foul trouble early on, with four team fouls in the first quarter, but quickly came alive after a Rae Burrell three-pointer. Despite Wilson’s 11 points, the Sparks were able to keep up with the Aces and trailed Las Vegas 24-21 after the first quarter.
Layshia Clarendon tied the score in the opening seconds of the second quarter, but it was back and forth from there, with five more lead changes in the second quarter. The Sparks limited Wilson to two points in the second quarter and ended the half with a monster 9-0 run to lead 46-36 at halftime.
The Aces got into foul trouble in the second quarter, with seven team fouls helping the Sparks.
After Wilson opened the third quarter with points off of a Hamby shooting foul, Stephanie Talbot responded by adding six points in the first two minutes to maintain the Sparks lead. McDonald continued the momentum by scoring five during a 7-0 run to extend the Sparks’ game-high 12-point lead. McDonald scored 10 of her 23 points in the third quarter.
The Aces weren’t fazed, closing the gap in the fourth with a 7-0 run to pull ahead 75-74 with 5:44 left in the contest. The Sparks stayed in the game, however, despite a technical foul on Sparks coach Curt Miller. After Wilson put the Aces up 84-82, Talbot hit a crucial field goal with three seconds left to tie the game 84-84 and force overtime.
Sparks guard Layshia Clarendon, center, drives against Las Vegas Aces guard Tiffany Hayes, left, and center Megan Gustafson during the first half Friday.
(Ryan Sun / Associated Press)
“She is so underrated,” Rickea Jackson said of Talbot. “She’s been playing her butt off since entering the starting lineup. She’s been the glue that we needed keeping us together and staying composed, doing the little things that don’t show up on a stat sheet.”
A Burrell shooting foul gave the Aces the first points of overtime, but it remained a tight game. With the score tied at 90, Clarendon put the Sparks ahead for the first time in overtime and after a missed shot by Gray, Hamby added three points with 24 seconds left to give the Sparks a 95-90 lead.
Las Vegas’ Jackie Young hit a three-pointer with 20 seconds to close the gap at 95-93. After a Kiah Stokes shooting foul, Hamby had the chance to seal the game but missed both free throws. It didn’t matter, however, as McDonald made both of hers off an Alysha Clark foul with eight seconds left.
After a personal foul by Chelsea Gray, Clarendon put the game away by hitting one of two free throws in the final seconds.
“I’m super proud of this group tonight,” Miller said. “They just played with a toughness and grittiness from start to finish. Another fourth quarter lead disappeared but this is what you talk about with a young team, you just have to keep putting them back in that situation. The games don’t stop so it’s back to work tomorrow.”
The Sparks continue their homestand against the Phoenix Mercury on Sunday at Crypto.com Arena.
Sports
Danish soccer star suffers medical scare during match years after on-field cardiac arrest
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Denmark’s Christian Eriksen collapsed during his team’s international friendly match against Ukraine on Sunday.
Eriksen, who has a history of collapsing on the pitch, did so again as help rushed out to meet him near midfield.
Thankfully, the Danish Football Union said in a statement that he was “conscious and feeling well under the circumstances.” The 34-year-old’s incident led to the game being abandoned.
Christian Eriksen of Denmark looks on during the UEFA International Friendly match between DR Congo and Denmark at Stade Maurice Dufrasne in Liege, Belgium, on June 3, 2026. (Ulrik Pedersen/NurPhoto)
Denmark was up, 2-1, on Ukraine in the 61st minute at the time of Eriksen’s collapse.
Eriksen previously starred for Tottenham and Manchester United in the English Premier League. He currently plays for VfL Wolfsburg in 2. Bundesliga.
SOCCER PLAYER DIES AT 21 AFTER COLLISION WITH OPPONENT DURING MATCH
During the European Championship between Denmark and Finland in June 2021, play was suspended after a terrifying scene where Eriksen suffered a cardiac arrest on the pitch in the first half of the game.
Play immediately came to a halt at Parken Stadium in Copenhagen, where Eriksen was lying on the grass unresponsive. CPR was needed to resuscitate him, as medical staff and teammates made a circle around his body in clear distress, hoping for the best.
Denmark’s and Ukraine’s players accompany Christian Eriksen to an ambulance during a friendly match at Odense Stadium in Denmark on June 7, 2026, after he collapsed on the field. (Bo Amstrup/Ritzau Scanpix/AFP via Getty Images)
Eriksen received 10 minutes of medical care and was later taken off the pitch on a stretcher with an oxygen mask around his mouth. Images began to circulate on social media at the time, showing Eriksen awake and having a hand on his forehead.
Eriksen was later transferred to a hospital and was stabilized.
Since that moment, Eriksen was fitted with a heart-starting device called an implantable cardioverter-defibrillator.
Denmark’s team doctor Morten Boesen released a statement via multiple outlets, stating Eriksen’s “pacemaker is responding as it should.”
Christian Eriksen of Denmark looks on during a UEFA international friendly between DR Congo and Denmark at Stade Maurice Dufrasne in Liege, Belgium, on June 3, 2026. (Ulrik Pedersen/NurPhoto)
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“He was briefly unconscious, but regained consciousness very quickly, and we were quickly in contact with him,” Boesen’s statement read.
“He will not undergo further examinations at the hospital to determine what caused the incident. We are in ongoing contact with him and the doctors at the hospital. But Christian is doing well, and he asked me to send his regards to all the players and tell them that he was okay.”
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Sports
Commentary: Dodgers show courage by permanently honoring LGBTQ+ pioneers Glenn Burke and Billy Bean
Let’s go Dodgers. High fives all around.
Because this time, with the newest historical exhibit at Dodger Stadium, the team got it right.
Amid all the historical installations and tributes in the open-air museum that is the Centerfield Plaza, and just a few feet from a Fernando Valenzuela mural, a new display honors Glenn Burke and Billy Bean, two former Dodgers outfielders who were the first and second professional baseball players to come out as gay.
It’s not a fleeting mention on Pride night, it’s a permanent record. A static reminder of progress made — and still to be made. And a much-deserved thank-you.
A wall inside Dodger Stadium honors former Dodgers and LGBTQ+ pioneers Billy Bean and Glenn Burke.
(Ronaldo Bolanos/Los Angeles Times)
“It’ll be here tomorrow, it’ll be here on the weekend and if you come next month, it’ll be here,” said the Dodgers’ team historian Mark Langill, who pointed to a spot just down the hall where in 1976 he was an 11-year-old getting Burke’s autograph.
Baseball is steeped in such history. The personal, the statistical, the societal. And the Dodgers’ is incomplete without their stories — Burke’s and Bean’s.
But the Dodgers have not, of course, always gotten this stuff right.
In 1978, they did Burke wrong, trading him — he believed — after management learned he was gay.
In his three seasons in L.A., Burke had proved himself a capable reserve outfielder who was popular with his teammates.
As far as we know, in 1977, he was the first guy to initiate a high five — spontaneously reaching above his head to slap hands with Dusty Baker after the home run that made Baker the fourth Dodger, along with Ron Cey, Steve Garvey and Reggie Smith, to hit at least 30 home runs that season, a MLB first.
Glenn Burke, left, goes to give a high-five to teammate Dusty Baker after Baker hit a home run in 1977. It is believed to be the first instance a high five was exchanged.
(Los Angeles Times)
There’s a fantastic photo of the historic high five included in the tribute to Burke and Bean, which is situated on a hallway wall beneath the left-field bleachers, beside the “Dodger Dugout” augmented reality photo booth.
Burke was also the first guy in that Dodgers clubhouse to crack a joke when the team needed it, his former teammate Rick Monday said.
“When called upon, he could play really well,” Monday said before the Dodgers took the field against the Angels on Friday, when the Dodgers and many of their rainbow-sporting fans celebrated the team’s 13th annual LGBTQ+ Pride Night. “And when we needed a moment of levity, Glenn was not afraid to come forward and put a smile on people’s face.”
But shortly before he died of AIDS in 1995 at 42, Burke published an autobiography, “Out at Home,” in which he described the team’s management being “afraid of my sexual orientation, even though I never flaunted it. To this day, the Dodgers deny trading me because I was gay. But it was painfully obvious.”
“Oh, what he had to deal with and keep it hid,” said Joyce Burke-Henderson, one of Glenn’s sisters at Friday’s pregame unveiling, where family members of both players gasped and cried and cheered the installation’s reveal.
“But as time went on, people did know. And then I think he came to the point where he just didn’t care and he just told it like it was.”
Joyce Henderson, sister of Glenn Burke, speaks about her brother during a ceremony honoring the former Dodger and LGBTQ+ pioneer at Dodger Stadium Friday.
(Ronaldo Bolanos/Los Angeles Times)
Burke came out in 1982, three years after playing his 225th and final big league game, in an Inside Sports article, “The Double Life of a Gay Dodger.”
“We just appreciate that now people are opening their eyes and just trusting in the Lord,” Burke-Henderson said Friday, “that things will go forward and work out and everybody will be loved regardless of their situation.”
The Dodgers first honored Burke in 2022, at their ninth Pride Night.
The next season, they made a mess of the Pride festivities, inviting and uninviting and then reinviting the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, a group known for its work in support of AIDS patients and whose members dress in drag, as nuns.
In 2023, the Dodgers also invited Bean — who was MLB’s senior vice president for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. He appeared in a pregame ceremony on the field while protesters gathered outside the stadium.
Bean died the next year, at 60, 11 months after being diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia.
Greg Baker, husband of the late Billy Bean, wipes away tears during a tribute honor Bean as a LGBTQ+ pioneer at Dodger Stadium on Friday.
(Ronaldo Bolanos/Los Angeles Times)
Once a Northeast Santa Ana Little Leaguer, Bean became valedictorian at Santa Ana High, played for Loyola Marymount and went on to appear in 272 big-league games — including 51 for the Dodgers in 1989 — before abruptly walking away from baseball in 1995.
It got to be too much, he’d explain later, continuing to hustle to keep his baseball career afloat while keeping his sexuality secret, acutely aware of the blowback he’d get if it got out.
“For nine years,” he told the New York Times, “I felt as though I had one foot in the major leagues and one on a banana peel.”
“When he left baseball suddenly, I knew something was wrong,” Bean’s mother, Linda Kovac, said Friday, pausing to wipe away tears. “He was playing very well, it wasn’t like he was kicked out or anything. And it just didn’t make any sense.”
When Bean finally told his family he was gay, in 1996 — three years before clueing in an unsuspecting public via a Miami Herald article — none of his loved ones blinked. That included his stepfather, Ed Kovac, the homicide cop and former Marine who’d had a partner on the force who was gay.
“He worked with someone that he respected, side by side, on criminal cases,” Linda said. “We’re still friends with that guy.”
Linda and Ed Kovac, parents of Billy Bean, hold hands in front of a tribute dedicated to their son at Dodger Stadium on Friday.
(Ronaldo Bolanos/Los Angeles Times)
Knowing someone — or of someone — who is gay or lesbian has long tended to dispel falsehoods and quell fears that might exist.
“One of the most important things any one of us can do in our community is be out, to be proud,” said Greg Baker, Bean’s husband. “The fact that someone can be out in a world that typically doesn’t have a lot of role models of the same ilk, it’s a brave thing to stick your neck out. It’s also very important.”
And it’s not a surprise, Baker said, that more athletes aren’t out in sports like baseball. Not with Gallup polling released last week telling us that with public acceptance of same-sex marriage and relationships in the U.S. has flattened after two-plus decades of growing support — down from 71% to about 65%.
“I want to thank the Dodgers organization,” Baker said. “It’s brave of them in this day and age to spotlight someone in our community when other organizations are trying to erase us.”
The Dodgers have done the opposite, putting up a permanent marker. A long time coming, a tribute to last.
Sports
Golden Knights beat Hurricanes in double OT Game 3, one of the wildest Stanley Cup Final games of all-time
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The Stanley Cup Final shifted to Las Vegas for Game 3 with the Vegas Golden Knights and Carolina Hurricanes knotted at 1-1 after splitting the opening two games in Raleigh.
And, as you’d expect from the Golden Knights, this one got started with some theatrics, plus a little help from the city’s latest hope at quarterback, who was getting in on the festivities.
That’s right. Who better to put on siren duty than Raiders draft pick and reigning Heisman Trophy winner Fernando Mendoza?
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There was a big surprise when the game got underway: Golden Knights defenseman Brayden McNabb — who took a slapshot straight to the face on Thursday in Game 2 — was in the Vegas lineup, albeit with a full cage.
It goes without saying, but hockey players are just built different.
The first period was physical but ultimately scoreless, with Carolina getting more offensive opportunities, leading Vegas in shots 7-2.
Vegas captain Mark Stone found the back of the net just 36 seconds into the second period; however, it was ruled offside after a Carolina challenge.
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A few minutes later, Golden Knights forward Jack Eichel found the back of the net, but Carolina challenged this goal as well after Vegas’ Ivan Barbashev made contact with Canes goalie Frederik Andersen’s head.
It was another cut-and-dried review that kept a Golden Knights tally off the board.
The first penalty of the night was a self-inflicted one, when the Hurricanes were called for too many men, and it didn’t take long for Tomas Hertl to make them pay.
Then, just moments later — 16 seconds to be exact — Mitch Marner was credited with a goal after Carolina defenseman Sean Walker tipped his shot into the back of his own net.
But, hey, those own goals are no fun; Marner wanted to get one the old-fashioned way, which he did.
What’s that, you want more?
Well, Mitch Marner — who is having the playoffs of his life — had more for you.
That’s right, Marner potted a hat trick in just six minutes and 10 seconds. That’s an NHL record.
Although, I bet The Rocket’s first goal of his lightning-quick hatty wasn’t an own goal, but hey, they count the same.
Vegas star Mitch Marner took over in the second period of Game 3 with a natural hat trick in just six minutes and ten seconds. (Photo by David Becker/NHLI via Getty Images)
What a performance. Maybe he was just doing that so that the next time the team puts him on a rally towel it actually looks like him.
After the second intermission, Andersen was pulled in favor of Brand Bussi, who made his Stanley Cup Playoffs debut.
Carolina was in a state of disarray in the third, and after going on a power play, Sebastian Aho slashed Marner, who was headed to the net on a short-handed breakaway.
Marner was awarded a penalty shot, but Bussi didn’t give him much to shoot at, and Marner missed his attempt on the backhand.
While it may have looked bleak after a dominant second for Vegas, in the third, Carolina dropped the fastest three goals in Stanley Cup Final history to make it a game. (Photo by Josh Lavallee/NHLI via Getty Images))
Carolina’s Jordan Martinook got the Hurricanes on the board a little under halfway through the third period to make it 4-1.
Just moments later, Taylor Hall tacked on another one to cut Vegas’ lead to 4-2.
And, while they’re doing goals, how about you just throw a Jordan Staal tally in there?
Carolina scored those three goals in 39 seconds, the fastest three goals by a single team in Stanley Cup Final history, making what looked like a no-doubt Vegas win into a game once again.
Carolina killed off a delay-of-game penalty, which was crucial for staying in the game.
Then, Vegas’ Shea Theodore airmailed a puck into the stands for delay of game, giving Carolina a late power play.
Then — as if it couldn’t get wilder — Andrei Svechnikov tied the game on the power play and with the goalie pulled.
And with that, it was off to overtime for the second game in a row.
In the extra frame, both teams got their share of chances and opportunities to put a pin in this one and hit the craps tables, but the first overtime period didn’t yield a winner.
In the second overtime, we finally got a winner, and as wild as this game was, it was only fitting that the game-winner would be unbelievable.
That’s the same Shea Theodore, by the way, who skied the puck into the stands to set up the tying goal, and he did it after 39 minutes of ice time.
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Vegas players Brett Howden (21), Shea Theodore (center), and Mitch Marner (93) celebrate the game-winning goal in double overtime. (Lucas Peltier-Imagn Images)
What. A. Game.
I think after this one, Game 4 — which will be on Tuesday in Las Vegas — is officially appointment viewing.
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