The New Orleans Pelicans on Thursday boosted their hopes of securing an automatic playoff berth with a 135-123 road victory over the Sacramento Kings.
In a crucial Western Conference battle in northern California, Zion Williamson and C.J. McCollum both finished with 31 points as the Pelicans completed an impressive wire-to-wire win.
The result means New Orleans would clinch sixth place in the West — and avoid the play-in tournament — if they win their final two games, at Golden State yesterday and against the Los Angeles Lakers at home tomorrow.
Photo: Sergio Estrada-USA Today
The Pelicans were always in control after a devastating first-quarter performance where they raced into a 34-11 lead after an 18-0 run.
“Throw the first punch to the last punch, and go out on our shield,” McCollum said of New Orleans’ aggressive first-quarter approach. “Understand the work, understand the preparation, have fun with it and just enjoy the blessing of being able to play this game at a high level.”
Sacramento’s defeat left them in eighth place in the West on 45-35 — an identical record to ninth-placed Golden State and the 10th-placed Lakers, meaning the final standings are likely to go down to the wire.
Golden State improved to 45-35 after laboring past the eliminated Portland Trail Blazers 100-92 in Oregon.
Stephen Curry led the Warriors scoring with 22 points and Jonathan Kuminga added 19.
Eastern Conference top seeds Boston slumped to their second straight loss with a 118-109 home defeat to the New York Knicks at the TD Garden in Massachusetts.
Knicks star Jalen Brunson finished with 39 points to continue his dazzling run recent form. The Knicks guard has now scored 35 points or more in his past five outings.
Brunson’s latest virtuoso effort included six three-pointers in a 15-of-23 shooting performance from the field.
The Knicks are third in the Eastern Conference with a 48-32 record, one game behind second-placed Milwaukee (49-31) with two games of the regular season remaining.
Boston (62-18) were subjected to a smattering of boos from their home fans at the final buzzer, and Celtics center Kristaps Porzingis had no complaints with the crowd’s response.
“We got booed at the end for a reason,” Porzingis said. “This was not the team that our fans love, but best believe we’re going to show up when we need to. We’ve got a week of work now ahead of us, a couple of games to bounce back and time to get going on all cylinders.”
Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla shrugged off his team’s second straight loss, saying that a drop-off in intensity was inevitable once Boston had secured the top seeding in the post-season.
“I actually don’t mind the result of the last two games,” Mazzulla said. “Going into the post-season with a bunch of wins and feeling good about yourself isn’t necessarily any better than going in with a bloody lip.”
Elsewhere, the Chicago Bulls romped past the Detroit Pistons 127-105 after 39 points from DeMar DeRozan and 27 points from Nikola Vucevic, ensuring they would face the Atlanta Hawks in the first round of the play-in tournament next week.
In the day’s other fixture between two eliminated teams, the Utah Jazz defeated the Houston Rockets 124-121.
Shohei Ohtani and Clayton Kershaw on Friday joined their Los Angeles Dodgers teammates in sticking their fists out to show off their glittering World Series rings at a ceremony. “There’s just a lot of excitement, probably more than I can ever recall with the Dodger fan base and our players,” manager Dave Roberts said before Los Angeles rallied to beat the Detroit Tigers 8-5 in 10 innings. “What a way to cap off the first two days of celebrations,” Roberts said afterward. “By far the best opening week I’ve ever experienced. I just couldn’t have scripted it any better.” A choir in the
The famously raucous Hong Kong Sevens are to start today in a big test for a shiny new stadium at the heart of a major US$3.85 billion sports park in the territory. Officials are keeping their fingers crossed that the premier event in Hong Kong’s sporting and social calendar goes off without a hitch at the 50,000-seat Kai Tak Stadium. They hope to entice major European soccer teams to visit in the next few months, with reports in December last year saying that Liverpool were in talks about a pre-season tour. Coldplay are to perform there next month, all part of Hong Kong’s
Shohei Ohtani, Teoscar Hernandez and Tommy Edman on Thursday smashed home runs to give the reigning World Series champions the Los Angeles Dodgers a 5-4 victory over Detroit on the MLB’s opening day in the US. The Dodgers, who won two season-opening games in Tokyo last week, raised their championship banner on a day when 28 clubs launched the season in the US. Dodgers manager Dave Roberts shuffled his batting lineup with all four leadoff hitters finally healthy as Ohtani was followed by Mookie Betts, then Hernandez and Freddie Freeman in the cleanup spot, switching places with Hernandez. “There’s a Teoscar tax to
Matvei Michkov did not score on Monday, but the Philadelphia rookie had a hand in both goals as hosts the Flyers earned a 2-1 victory over the Nashville Predators. Ryan Poehling and Jamie Drysdale got the goals for the Flyers (31-36-9, 71 points), who won their third straight. Michkov and Travis Konecny assisted on both. Ivan Fedotov stopped 28 shots to earn his first win since March 1, ending a personal six-game losing streak. Zachary L’Heureux got the lone goal for Nashville. Michael McCarron and Brady Skjei got the assists for the Predators (27-39-8, 62 points), who have just four goals in their