The injury-plagued Golden State Warriors again lacked the firepower to finish off an opponent, with Victor Oladipo scoring 24 points in the Indiana Pacers’ 92-81 victory over the defending champions on Tuesday night.
Nick Young scored 12 points as Golden State, playing without their four All-Stars for a second straight game, lost back-to-back contests for only the ninth time during coach Steve Kerr’s four seasons.
Draymond Green had been set to return, but was still feeling ill, while NBA Finals Most Valuable Player Kevin Durant is likely to be back from a rib injury today against Milwaukee.
Stephen Curry could be out through the first round of the playoffs with a left knee injury, while Splash Brother Klay Thompson is recovering from a fractured right thumb.
Rookie Jordan Bell sprained his right ankle in the third, had it re-taped and returned.
Thaddeus Young and Bojan Bogdanovic scored 17 points apiece for playoff-bound Indiana, who won their third straight and fourth in five.
Pacers reserve forward Trevor Booker headed to the locker room with 33.5 seconds remaining in the opening quarter with a sprained right ankle and did not return.
Kevon Looney grabbed a career-best 11 boards off the bench as the Warriors outrebounded Indiana 51-38, but Golden State only managed to shoot nine free throws.
The teams played for the first time, marking the latest the Warriors ever faced an opponent for the first time in a season — their 74th game.
Kerr said Green still was not feeling well after sweating through shootaround.
Durant, who has fractured rib cartilage, had hoped to play on Tuesday.
“He’s doing great, he wanted to play tonight, but we didn’t let him. We’ll probably let him play Thursday,” Kerr said. “Draymond was scheduled to play tonight, but still wasn’t feeling well. He came to shootaround this morning and got a good sweat in, but still was reporting a lot of discomfort.”
“He hasn’t been healthy in terms of keeping food down, so the illness is still lingering. It made no sense for him to play,” Kerr added. “He wanted to play, but we didn’t let him either. We’re not very nice.”
The Warriors need one victory to reach 55 wins for a fourth straight season — marking the 15th time in NBA history a team has done so. The Spurs were the last, for five seasons from 2012-2017.
A sumo star was born in Japan on Sunday when 24-year-old Takerufuji became the first wrestler in 110 years to win a top-division tournament on his debut, triumphing at the 15-day Spring Grand Sumo Tournament in Osaka despite injuring his ankle on the penultimate day. Takerufuji, whose injury had left him in a wheelchair outside the ring, shoved out the higher-ranked Gonoyama at the Edion Arena Osaka to the delight of the crowd, giving him an unassailable record of 13 wins and two losses to claim the Emperor’s Cup. “I did it just through willpower. I didn’t really know what was going
The US’ Ilia Malinin on Saturday produced six scintillating quadruple jumps, including a quadruple Axel, in the men’s free skate to capture his first figure skating world title. The 19-year-old nicknamed the “Quad god,” who is the only skater to land a quadruple Axel in competition, dazzled with an array of breathtakingly executed jumps starting with his quad Axel and including a quadruple Lutz in combination with a triple flip and a quadruple toe loop in combination with a triple toe. He added an unexpected triple-triple combination at the end to earn a world-record 227.79 in the free program for a championship
Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter is being criminally investigated by the IRS, and the attorney for his alleged bookmaker said Thursday that the ex-Los Angeles Dodgers employee placed bets on international soccer — but not baseball. The IRS confirmed Thursday that interpreter Ippei Mizuhara and Mathew Bowyer, the alleged illegal bookmaker, are under criminal investigation through the agency’s Los Angeles Field Office. IRS Criminal Investigation spokesperson Scott Villiard said he could not provide additional details. Mizuhara, 39, was fired by the Dodgers on Wednesday following reports from the Los Angeles Times and ESPN about his alleged ties to an illegal bookmaker and debts well
MLB on Friday announced a formal investigation into the scandal swirling around Shohei Ohtani and his former interpreter amid charges that the Los Angeles Dodgers superstar was the victim of “massive theft.” The Dodgers on Wednesday fired Ippei Mizuhara, Ohtani’s long-time interpreter and close friend, after Ohtani’s representatives alleged that the Japanese two-way star had been the victim of theft, which was reported to involve millions of dollars and link Mizuhara to a suspected illegal bookmaker in California. “Major League Baseball has been gathering information since we learned about the allegations involving Shohei Ohtani and Ippei Mizuhara from the news media,” MLB