Basket Ball / Sports

Devin Booker’s triple-double lifts Phoenix past Los Angeles in Game 1

While the story entering the game may have been focused on the players who were unavailable, Chris Paul and Kawhi Leonard, the story coming out of Game 1 will be the back and forth battle between Devin Booker and Paul George as the two went at it all day long in the Suns’ 120-114 victory.

Booker finished the win with the Suns’ first playoff triple-double since Steve Nash accomplished the feat in 2005. The All-Star guard was masterful on the offensive end recording 40 points to go along with 13 rebounds and 11 assists as he seemingly made the right play whenever Phoenix needed it. On the other side, George led the charge for the Clippers finishing the game with 34 points, five assists and four rebounds but, in the end, it wasn’t enough to overcome Booker and the rest of the Suns.

With the win, the Suns grab the early momentum in this series as they look to defend their home floor and put themselves in a position to advance to the NBA Finals. These two teams will meet again on Tuesday night with the opening tip scheduled for 9 p.m. ET.

Here are three main takeaways from Game 1.

1. The Devin Booker show

With the Suns up two points with 22 seconds left, Booker got the ball on an after-timeout-play, noticed there wasn’t a single Clippers player within spitting distance of him and drove to the rim for a two-handed dunk. The crowd roared and Booker just polished off a 40-point triple-double to carry the Suns to a Game 1 win. It was an exclamation mark on what Booker did over the course of the game, where he went toe-to-toe with each L.A. defender put in front of him and continuously just kept knocking down shots. The magic in it though is the fact that he was getting to his spots with ease.

They ran a high screen and roll, and Booker got to his spot at the elbow and knocked down mid-range jumpers left and right. …

Athletics / Sports

Okagbare runs world lead 10.63 seconds at national trials in Lagos

Team Nigeria’s preparation for the Tokyo Olympics Games recorded a positive result yesterday, as U.S.-based sprinter, Blessing Okagbare, ran 10.63 seconds, the fastest time by any woman in the world this year. It was aided by wind 2.7.

 

 

Unofficially, Okagbare’s time was recorded as 10.62 seconds.

She won the 100m event of the National Trials at the Yaba College of Technology ahead of Rosemary Chukwuma of Team Delta, who posted a time of 11.07 seconds. Another Delta athlete, Grace Nwokocha, ran 11.11 seconds to place third.

Earlier this year, Okagbare ran 10.90 seconds to finish second behind her Jamaican rival, Shelly-Ann Praser-Pryce, who ran 10.60 seconds. Some weeks later, the Jamaican ran 10.63 seconds at Kingston National stadium.

On sighting the record time of 10.62 seconds at the end of the race yesterday, Okagbare fell flat on the track, rolled several times in celebration.…

Basket Ball / Sports

Khris Middleton helps Milwaukee force a Game 7

We have another Game 7 on our hands. The Milwaukee Bucks led wire-to-wire to defeat the Brooklyn Nets 104-89 to keep their championship hopes alive.

Kevin Durant put up big numbers again as he finished the loss with 32 points and 11 rebounds to lead the way for the Nets. His standout effort wasn’t enough though as Milwaukee’s big three of Giannis Antetokounmpo, Khris Middleton and Jrue Holiday combined for 89 points, 35 rebounds and 13 assists to avoid being eliminated on their home floor.

With the win, the Bucks and Nets will now face off in a winner take all Game 7 matchup at Barclays Center on Saturday. The time of that showdown has yet to be determined. For now, here are the three most important takeaways from Game 6.

1. Giannis, the center

Remember when Giannis Antetokounmpo attempted eight 3-pointers in Game 3? Yea, he doesn’t either. For the first time all postseason, the two-time MVP did not attempt a 3-pointer. In fact, only five of his 20 shot attempts came outside of the paint. In the early portion of this series, the Nets somehow tricked Giannis into playing like a guard. That’s not who he is. He’s a center, and the Bucks are at their best when he plays like one.

Aside from a game in which Antetokounmpo got injured 46 seconds in, he had only played two other games this season without attempting a 3. The Game 6 win pushed Milwaukee to 3-0 when he doesn’t, with a point-differential of plus-63. They went undefeated when he didn’t try a 3 last season as well. In fact, excluding games in which he got injured, the Bucks have now won their last 10 games in which he did not try a 3-pointer. The last time they lost under those circumstances? April 24, 2018. The Bucks need Giannis in attack mode, and he was on Thursday.

That being said, they greased the wheels a bit with their lineup choices as well. In the first five games of the series, …

Sports / Tennis

Rafael Nadal pulls out of Wimbledon and the Olympics

World number three Rafael Nadal has pulled out of this month’s Wimbledon and the Tokyo Olympic Games.

The 20-time Grand Slam champion, who won the Wimbledon titles in 2008 and 2010, says he needs to “recuperate after a long clay-court season”.

“It’s never an easy decision but after listening to my body and discussing it with my team I understand that it is the right decision,” said the Spaniard.

“The goal is to prolong my career and continue to do what makes me happy.”

The 35-year-old added: “That is to compete at the highest level and keep fighting for those professional and personal goals at the maximum level of competition.

Nadal hinted at the decision after his defeat by Serbia’s world number one Novak Djokovic in the French Open semi-finals last week.

If defending champion Djokovic wins the title at the All England Club, it will move him level with the record shared by Nadal and Switzerland’s Roger Federer of 20 men’s major singles titles.

Nadal said the shorter turnaround between the French Open and Wimbledon was a key factor in his decision.

This year, there are only two weeks between the French Open finishing on the clay and Wimbledon starting on the grass. Usually, there are three weeks between the two majors.

The French Open was pushed back a week by Roland Garros organisers in order to start the tournament with fewer of the country’s coronavirus restrictions in place – including allowing fans in to watch.

“The fact that there has only been two weeks between Roland Garros and Wimbledon didn’t make it easier on my body to recuperate after the always demanding clay-court season,” Nadal said in a Twitter post announcing the news.

“They have been two months of great effort and the decision I take is focused looking at the mid and long term.”

Nadal struggled with a back injury earlier this year, playing only the Australian Open – where he lost in the quarter-finals – before the clay-court season started in mid-April.

On his favourite surface …

Football / Sports

Italy cruise into Euro 2020 last 16 as Wales close on knockouts

Italy became the first team to reach the knockout stage of Euro 2020 as midfielder Manuel Locatelli scored twice in a 3-0 win over Switzerland in Rome on Wednesday, while Wales moved to the brink of joining them by beating Turkey.

 

The Azzurri, now unbeaten in 29 matches and having won their last 10 games without conceding a goal, sit first in Group A and are guaranteed a top-two finish and last-16 berth.

“We played well, we wanted to win at all costs,” Italy coach Roberto Mancini told RAI.

“They started well, it was not easy to win a second game in five days.”

Mancini’s men, looking to win Italy a second European title after their sole success in 1968, host Wales in their final group game on Sunday, with top spot up for grabs.

A new star shone for Italy at the Stadio Olimpico, where they had brushed aside Turkey 3-0 in the tournament’s opening match last week, as Sassuolo’s Locatelli scored twice before Ciro Immobile’s late third.

Captain Giorgio Chiellini had an early effort ruled out by VAR for handball, before the 36-year-old defender was forced off with what appeared to be a thigh injury.

But the hosts always looked the more dangerous side and took the lead in the 26th minute.

Locatelli played a wonderful volleyed pass to his Sassuolo teammate Domenico Berardi on the wing, who powered to the byline and picked out Locatelli for a simple tap-in.

The three points and a place in the knockout phase for the fourth straight European Championship were all but secured less than seven minutes after the interval, when a flowing move ended with Locatelli driving a left-footed shot into the bottom corner from outside the box.

Immobile had wasted a couple of earlier chances but did grab his second goal of the tournament in the 89th minute, curling a low effort past Swiss goalkeeper Yann Sommer.

Switzerland will now likely have to beat Turkey in Baku on Sunday to reach the next round.

Impressive Wales see off …

Basket Ball / Sports

Paul George rallies The Clippers to Game 5 win over Jazz

Once stunned into silence on a night where the expected outcome had not come to pass, the 18,007 inside the arena had begun to regain their belief, and volume, as Clippers teammate Paul George made free throws to push their lead to seven with three minutes remaining. And as he shot, Beverley waved his arms, signaling for more before the Clippers’ finished an improbable 119-111 victory over the Utah Jazz.

Consider his position: It was hard for the noise to get any louder than what the Clippers had already heard Wednesday, long before tipoff. In the hours after All-Star Kawhi Leonard was ruled out for Game 5 of this second-round series because of a strained right knee that could sideline him the rest of this series, if not beyond depending on the injury’s still-unknown severity, gambling odds tilted toward the Jazz.

A sports-talk radio host in Los Angeles described himself as thankful that order had seemingly been restored — a twisted end to a promising Clippers season. If Phoenix, awaiting the winner of this matchup in the Western Conference finals, had fired up film of the Jazz, it might have been understandable.

Leonard, the all-NBA force who had averaged more than 30 points in this postseason, has been that valuable for the Clippers. But removing him from the lineup did not remove the unshakeable confidence this roster forged through short-handed February nights, a May comeback against Dallas and this June encore against the Jazz. Only seconds after George’s free throws, Terrance Mann drove the baseline against 7-foot Rudy Gobert and dunked over the outreached arm of the three-time defensive player of the year.

The victory stakes the Clippers to a 3-2 lead entering Game 6 Friday in Los Angeles and was as loud as any postseason statement the franchise has made in its recent history. Without Leonard, George led the Clippers in points (37), rebounds (16) and assists (5) to push the franchise one victory away from their first conference final berth and, personally, push back after his …

Basket Ball / Sports

Durant scores 49 as Brooklyn Nets take 3-2 series lead against Milwaukee Bucks

Kevin Durant scored 49 points as the Brooklyn Nets beat the Milwaukee Bucks 114-108 to take a 3-2 lead in their Eastern Conference semi-final series.

Durant also came up with 17 rebounds and 10 assists to inspire victory after the Nets were 17 points down in the third quarter.

He hit a three-pointer and three free throws late on to seal the win.

Nets coach Steve Nash said Durant’s display “makes him one of the all-time greats”.

Milwaukee’s two-time NBA Most Valuable Player Giannis Antetokounmpo, who top-scored for the Bucks with 34 points, called Durant “the best player in the world right now”.

LeBron James, widely regarded as one of basketball’s finest players of all time, also praised Durant on social media.

In what Nets coach Nash said would go down as one of Durant’s “signature” games, the power forward played all 48 minutes, shot 16-of-23 from the floor and finished just shy of his play-off career high of 50 points.

It did, however, set a franchise record for points in a play-off game, surpassing Vince Carter’s mark of 43 points set 15 years ago.

He also posted his second career post-season triple-double and joined Hall of Famers Oscar Robertson, Charles Barkley and Dallas Mavericks guard Luka Doncic as the fourth player with at least 40 points, 15 rebounds and 10 assists in a play-off game.

The Nets relied heavily on Durant in game five of their best-of-seven series after Kyrie Irving was injured in the previous game and James Harden had a quiet night on his return from injury.…

Football / Sports

Aaron Ramsdale after Dean Henderson withdraws with hip injury

Dean Henderson has been forced to withdraw from England’s Euro 2020 squad due to a hip injury, and has been replaced by Aaron Ramsdale.

Henderson sat out training for a second time on Monday due to his hip issue, and it was deemed the problem would have continued to hamper his ability to train throughout the tournament.

The 24-year-old will now return to Manchester United for further assessment and rehabilitation ahead of the 2021/22 season.

His replacement Ramsdale was originally a member of Gareth Southgate’s 33-man pre-tournament group for friendlies in Middlesbrough, but was one of the seven players to be left out of the 26-man squad for the Euros.

England and Sheffield United goalkeeper Aaron Ramsdale

The 23-year-old will have to pass through standard Covid testing protocols before he is allowed to enter England’s training camp.

Ramsdale was an ever-present for Sheffield United last season following his move from Bournemouth, but was unable to prevent them from being relegated from the Premier League.

…
Boxing / Sports

Alexander Povetkin announces retirement from boxing aged 41

Alexander Povetkin had 36 wins during his professional career; the heavyweight’s manager said earlier this year that he was concerned over his health and urged the Russian to stop competing Povetkin had 36 wins, three losses and one draw in his professional career, including 25 knockouts.

 

…

Basket Ball / Sports

Kawhi Leonard, Paul George rise to occasion, and L.A. has found its blueprint

The Los Angeles Clippers are living dangerously in these playoffs, falling behind 2-0 in each of their first two series. Yet, here they are wrestling back control in the nick of time again, defeating the Jazz 118-104 on Monday night to even their second-round series 2-2, just as they did against the Mavericks in the first round.

Game 5 is Wednesday night in Utah.

It feels like all the momentum has swung the Clippers’ way. Kawhi Leonard, who has arguably been the best player in this postseason, was fantastic on both ends, finishing with 31 points. And what can you say about Paul George?

We’re going to need to bring this P.G. roast to an end. The man is playing terrific, and quietly has been through most of this postseason, and he has for most of his career. He brought on much of the mocking with the self-proclaimed nickname and the whole “that’s a bad shot” routine, but a few high-profile stinkers aside, there is no way you don’t want this on your team.

George finished with 31 points, nine rebounds and four assists. He was 4 for 10 from beyond the arc. He’s attacking with force and shooting with confidence, and the impressiveness of that cannot be understated given the spotlight that is on him. It feels like all of social media is just waiting for him to fail, and he’s aware of it. He has to be. It would be so easy for him to get hesitant. And yet he’s playing as though he is oblivious to it all. When he was subbed out for the last time in the fourth quarter, he left to a standing ovation. He deserved it. Good for him.

And good for the Clippers, who have seemingly dialed in their championship formula. That doesn’t mean they’re going to win it, but this is what gives them their best chance: Leonard and George play like stars and the defense suffocates with switches, aggressive rotations and ball pressure.

On Monday, the first half decided the …

Basket Ball / Sports

Trae Young, Atlanta even series with Philly after comeback win in Game 4

The Atlanta Hawks and the Philadelphia 76ers provided fans with an exciting playoff game on Monday night as the lower-seeded team picked up the 103-100 win they needed to even the series at 2-2.

After getting off to a slow start, Hawks All-Star Trae Young finished the win with a game-high 25 points to go along with 18 assists and four rebounds. Atlanta needed their star player to be dominant and he was just that in a game that the Hawks had to have.

On the other side, the 76ers saw all five of their starters score in double figures but, in the end, it was not enough to get the job done. As a result, the setting will shift back to Philadelphia on Wednesday night for what is now, essentially, a best-of-three series.

Here are three key takeaways from the game:

1. Hawks use 18-point comeback to tie the series

After stealing Game 1 on the road, the Hawks lost the next two games by double digits, and it seemed like the Sixers had figured things out. That was reinforced when the Sixers quickly took control in Game 4 and built an 18-point lead in the second quarter, before going into the halftime break up by 13.

The Hawks were in serious trouble at that point, and it honestly wouldn’t have been surprising if the Sixers had cruised to victory. But the Hawks weren’t ready to go home, and slowly but surely worked their way back into the game. It wasn’t always pretty, but they showed the kind of effort and fight that would make any team proud.

However, with just a few minutes remaining in the fourth quarter, they still trailed by four and needed a response. That’s when Trae Young stepped up and used his playmaking and scoring to key a 7-0 run that put the Hawks in front for good. Now, the series is all tied up at 2-2, and the Hawks still have a chance to advance to their first Eastern Conference finals since 2015.…

Basket Ball / Sports

Chris Paul, Phoenix take down Denver in Game 3 of series

The Phoenix Suns are one win away from a spot in the Western Conference finals. Following their 116-102 win over the Denver Nuggets on Friday night, Chris Paul and company are now on the verge of being one of the four teams left with a shot at the NBA title.

With the win, the Suns now move to a 3-0 lead in their series against the Nuggets and will have the chance to close things out on Sunday night when these two teams meet again in Game 4.

 …

Basket Ball / Sports

Joel Embiid, Philly steal home-court back with Game 3 win over Atlanta

The Philadelphia 76ers have reclaimed home-court advantage in their best-of-seven series with the Atlanta Hawks following their 127-111 win in Game 3 on Friday night.

As he has been throughout the series, Joel Embiid was masterful for the Sixers as he finished the win with a team-high 27 points. He had plenty of help though as Philadelphia had five other players also score in double figures with Tobias Harris leading the way with 22 points to help Embiid’s cause. On the other side, Trae Young led the Hawks with 28 points but, in the end, his contributions combined with the 59 points that John Collins, Bogdan Bogdanovic and Danilo Gallinari totaled weren’t enough to come away with the win at State Farm Arena.

Philadelphia now has an opportunity to push Atlanta’s backs against the wall if they’re able to pick up another win in Game 4 on Monday night.

Here are three key takeaways from the game:

1. Embiid dominates again

If you didn’t know that Joel Embiid had suffered a small meniscus tear in the first round, you would never be able to tell by the way he’s played against the Hawks. He put up 39 points and nine rebounds in Game 1.He followed that up with 40 points and 13 rebounds in Game 2, and then recorded 27 points, nine rebounds, eight assists and three blocks on Friday night in Game 3.

The Hawks have no answer for him, and he’s showing exactly why he finished second in MVP voting this season. He’s become such a gifted offensive player that opponents often have no choice but to foul him. He got to the line a whopping 16 times in Game 3 and has now earned free throws on 24.5 percent of his offensive possessions in the playoffs, per Synergy Sports.

Of course, he’s no slouch on the defensive end either, and was especially strong in Game 3. Just take this possession for example. He sprints across the lane to show help on Danilo Gallinari, recovers to his man, …

Basket Ball / Sports

Bucks Take Game 3 to keep the fight going

Mike Budenholzer could probably feel his job security hanging in the air for three scoreless minutes.

Kevin Durant could taste the thievery of a third game when a 30-footer left his hand, looking on line.

Giannis Antetokounmpo and Khris Middleton could remember the frustration of humble beginnings, both arriving in Milwaukee eight years ago and combining to do just enough to stave off extinction.

The Fiserv Forum crowd went from the obscene to a wild scene, fearful Thursday night would be a cruel conclusion: Grand opening, grand closing.

The tension was palpable as the Milwaukee Bucks weren’t just dealing with a “win or go home” situation, but “win or start over,” avoiding disaster and a 3-0 deficit to the Brooklyn Nets with an ugly 86-83 win.

It seemed the Bucks were begging to be put out of their own misery, unable to put the Nets away after a start that gave the impression they would return the favor from absorbing a Game 2 thrashing.

But the despair was in the air whenever Antetokounmpo launched one of his eight stress-inducing 3-pointers, continuing his woeful trend. It’s somewhat of a mind game with him, wanting to make Blake Griffin and the Nets pay for giving him that much space — all the while ignoring the interior hell he unleashed early before Middleton and Jrue Holiday saved them late.

This infatuation with the perimeter seems to parallel his hesitance at the foul line, where he missed five of his nine attempts and was called for a 10-second (actually 13-second) violation. It’s the worst time to fall in love with a shot you can’t make because of shots you don’t want to take, two patterns that are unlikely to change in this series.

Budenholzer said it would be a test of Milwaukee’s character, considering they were smarting after two losses in Brooklyn. Nobody questioned their competitiveness, but nobody expected a throwback game to the ugliest part of the ’90s either.

Brook Lopez blocked six shots and P.J. Tucker riled things up by getting …

Basket Ball / Sports

Chris Paul helps Phoenix dominate Denver in Game 2, take 2-0 series lead

The Phoenix Suns pulled out a dominant 123-98 victory over the Denver Nuggets in Game 2 on Wednesday night to take a 2-0 lead in the second-round series. The victory was the fifth straight for Phoenix this postseason. Chris Paul led the way for the Suns with 17 points, 15 assists and zero turnovers. Paul’s assist-to-turnover ratio in the series is now a staggering 26-1. Devin Booker also added 18 points and 10 rebounds for the surging Suns.

Phoenix appeared to be a step faster than Denver on both ends of the floor in the second game, as it got virtually whatever it wanted on the offensive end while simultaneously making things difficult defensively for Denver. All five Suns starters scored in double figures,  compared to only two for the Nuggets’ first five. Freshly minted MVP Nikola Jokic paced the Nuggets with 24 points, 13 rebounds and six assists, but his production wasn’t nearly enough, especially with minimal help from the guys around him. Moving forward, Nuggets coach Mike Malone is going to have to figure out a way to get his team going, particularly Aaron Gordon and Michael Porter Jr., who combined for just 17 points on 6-of-20 shooting in Game 2.

The only good news for the Nuggets right now is that the series if about to shift to Denver for Games 3 and 4. There, the Nuggets will obviously look to play better than they were able to do in Phoenix. Unfortunately for Denver, the math isn’t on its side. A total of 430 playoff series have started 2-0, and only 28 times has the team that gained the early advantage failed to win the series, per Land of Basketball. That’s less than seven percent of the time. The most recent example of this occurred in the first round this year, as the Los Angeles Clippers bested the Dallas Mavericks in seven games after dropping the first two games of the series. So, it’s not an impossible feat, but it is an unlikely one. The Nuggets …

Boxing / Sports

‘Shut the f*** up’: Paul breaks silence over $100m Mayweather conspiracy theory

Logan Paul has one message for internet critics claiming Floyd Mayweather covered up a knockout in Sunday night’s fight.

“Yo, I’m seeing this narrative going around that there’s one part of the fight where Floyd punched me and I kind of leaned on him a little bit and it looks like I kinda went limp,” Paul said in a series of Instagram Stories on Monday. “And people are trying to spin it and say he knocked me out and caught me and kept me up to keep the fight going till the eighth round.

…

Sports / Tennis

French Open: Rafael Nadal dismisses Jannik Sinner to reach quarter-finals

The 13-time French Open champion will meet Diego Schwartzman in the last eight; he goes into the contest having won his last 35 sets in succession at Roland Garros

Against Sinner, Nadal weathered a spot of early pressure. He found himself 5-3 down in the opening set, before easing into a higher gear and never looking back.

Once Nadal had fully settled, he overpowered his teenage opponent and had the right answer to every question that Sinner posed.

The 35-year-old finished the contest having won 81 per cent of points on his first serve and forced Sinner into making 40 unforced errors.

The world No 10 Schwartzman awaits Nadal next, before a potential semi-final contest with Novak Djokovic, if he overcomes Matteo Berrettini.

Nadal and Schwartzman have met 11 times previously, including in the semi-finals last year, and despite the Spaniard holding a 10-1 record, he’s not underestimating the 28-year-old.

“Against him I need to play well,” Nadal said. “I think I am [playing well] but of course he’s coming to it with confidence after playing some great matches here.…

Football / Sports

Super Eagles’ Austria winless jinx continues, hold Indomitable Lions to goalless draw

Super Eagles’ search for their first victory in Vienna, Austria, continued yesterday, as they could only manage a goalless draw with the Indomitable Lions of Cameroon in a friendly match. It was the fifth time the Nigerian senior national team would fail to secure a win in that country.

 

The coach Gernot Rohr-led team lost 0-1 to Cameroon on Friday at the same venue, and Nigerians were looking forward to something different in their second friendly match yesterday.

The Super Eagles search for victory in Austria dated back to May 2008, when they were forced to a 1-1 draw by the host country, Austria, at the UPC Arena in Graz.

In October 2020, Nigeria played two matches against Algeria and Tunisia, losing 1-0 to the Desert Foxes and drawing 1-1 with the Carthage Eagles.

In their last 13 friendly matches dating back to November 2017, the Super Eagles have won only three times: Against Argentina (4-2 in Krasnodar, Russia), Egypt (1-0 in Asaba) and Poland (1-0 in Stadion Miejski, Wrocław). They lost four of the friendly matches and drew the remaining six.

While Friday’s encounter was action-packed with the Eagles having more scoring chances than the Lions, who, however, won 1-0, yesterday’s game was a dour affair.

Super Eagles Coach, Gernot Rohr, tweaked his side with Terem Moffi, Abraham Marcus and Valentine Ozornwafor getting opportunities to show the gaffer what they can do.

While Nigeria lacked the urgency required of a team seeking revenge in the first half, they had a few scoring chances in the second half, but Kelechi Iheanacho and Terem Moffi could not make hay.

Speaking after the game, Rohr said his boys played under difficult conditions, adding, however, that the team is gradually taking a shape.

Nigeria’s next match will happen in the United States on July 4 when they face Mexico, perhaps, with the full complement of first-team stars available.

The team played without Leon Balogun, Kenneth Omeruo, Joe Aribo, Victor Osimhen, Simi Nwankwo and Sodiq Umar, who missed the matches because of club …

Basket Ball / Sports

Mitchell Drops 45 points to over-come the Clippers

The Los Angeles Clippers earned the right to take on the top-seeded Utah Jazz by beating the Dallas Mavericks in a Game 7 on Sunday afternoon. While Kawhi Leonard and company are certainly riding the momentum from that win into this series, nothing will come easy against Donovan Mitchell and the Jazz as Utah was the Western Conference’s top seed for a reason. As we enter the fourth quarter, we have a game on our hands as the Clippers and Jazz are all tied up.

Both of these teams have something to prove. The Clippers were bounced in the second round a year ago after they fell well short of their championship expectations. The Jazz made an even earlier exit in the postseason, losing in the first round to the Denver Nuggets, who went on to beat the Clippers in the next round after coming back from a 3-1 hole. Both of these teams will be hungry to prove that last season’s early playoff exits were just a blip in the grand scheme of things, but at the end of the day only one team can advance.

Rudy

For more on the NBA playoffs, we’ve got you covered with an in-depth look at the Clippers-Jazz series, the round-by-round playoff schedule, a breakdown of our expert predictions for both the second round and the entire postseason. Follow below for all the real-time updates throughout Game 1 between Los Angeles and Utah.…

Basket Ball / Sports

Chris Paul, Phoenix dominate second half in Game 1 win over Denver

Game 1 between the Phoenix Suns and the Denver Nuggets was truly a tale of two halves. The teams played as competitive of a first half as any fan could have asked for but, then, Chris Paul and the Suns took control during the third quarter and never looked back as they came away with a 122-105 win.

All five of Phoenix’s starters scored in double figures, with four eclipsing the 20-point plateau, on their way to victory. Paul was fantastic, finishing the win with 21 points, 11 assists and six rebounds. He had plenty of help though as Devin Booker, Mikal Bridges and Deandre Ayton combined for 64 points, 19 rebounds and 13 assists to help contribute to the Suns’ Game 1 win. On the other side, Nikola Jokic led the Nuggets with 22 points and nine rebounds but, in the end, his performance wasn’t enough to keep this game competitive down the stretch.

These two teams will meet again on Wednesday night as the opening tip of Game 2 is scheduled for 9:30 p.m. ET with TNT handling the broadcast.

Here are the three biggest takeaways from Phoenix’s Game 1 win.

1. He’s back

Yes, Chris Paul looked great in Game 4 of Phoenix’s first-round series against the Lakers, but his next two games were discouraging. He scored only 17 combined points on 33.3 percent shooting as the Suns closed out the Lakers, so there was no telling how he’d handle a more difficult test against a healthier Nuggets team. After scoring only five first-half points, it looked like his shoulder was still at considerably less than 100 percent.

Well, the second half should clear up any concerns. Chris Paul is healthy. He scored 14 points in the fourth quarter alone, showing off his typical mid-range mastery after continuously managing to find the matchup he wanted (either Michael Porter Jr. or a big man) through pick-and-roll switch-hunting. He fired high-velocity passes all over the court and even looked faster than he did in the Lakers series. This was …