Sports

Jockeying for positioning in the Western Conference play-in round hits the home stretch on Friday when the Portland Trail Blazers welcome the Los Angeles Clippers for a crucial showdown.Los Angeles (41-39) heads into its final two games of the regular season with a one-game lead over Portland (40-40) for eighth place in the West. The Clippers overtook the Blazers thanks to Portland's back-to-back losses at Denver and San Antonio on Monday and Wednesday.However, Los Angeles was unable to take a critical two-game lead, falling Wednesday against NBA-leading and reigning league champion Oklahoma City 128-110.The Clippers won two straight heading into Wednesday's contest, routing Sacramento and Dallas to rebound from losses to Portland and San Antonio. Los Angeles coach Tyronn Lue said revisiti...

It’s been three weeks since we last had Premier League action, with the international break and then a crucial FA Cup weekend that has set lay of the land for the rest of the season in Fantasy Premier League.We will have a Blank Gameweek 34 caused by the FA Cup semi-finals, with those postponed fixtures falling the previous midweek to create a Double Gameweek 33 for six teams.This will be the biggest double gameweek of the season, with another probable double for Manchester City and Crystal Palace scheduled to arrive later on, with these two teams having had their Gameweek 31 fixture postponed for the Carabao Cup final last month.For those managers with a Wildcard available, activating it in Gameweek 32 will be a popular strategy to prepare for a crucial period, but who are the players you...

LeBron James and Bronny James continue to share more time on the court together as the Los Angeles Lakers’ regular season comes to a close.The James family set another unique milestone for the league as Bronny was credited with an assist to LeBron on Thursday, April 9, during the Lakers' game against the Golden State Warriors.AdvertisementBronny stole the ball with 51 seconds left in the first quarter and bounced the ball toward LeBron, who then crossed halfcourt and finished the play in transition with an uncontested dunk. It's the first son-to-father assist in NBA history.The Lakers led the Warriors 53-49 at halftime in San Francisco.The father-and-son duo completed a similar milestone on March 27, recording the first father-to-son assist the league has seen.Bronny passed the ball to LeB...

For Wolverhampton Wanderers, the die is cast.Barring the greatest feat of escapology in the history of the Premier League, they will be relegated back to the Championship in the coming weeks. That much has been grimly apparent for most of their 2025-26 season.But what is becoming increasingly clear is that, in the six weeks left of their eight-year stay in the top division, they can also have as big a say as anyone over who joins them in taking the drop down to the second tier.Wolves have seven games remaining of a dismal campaign, fixtures including meetings with four of the five sides immediately above them in the table; the teams scrapping to be outside the bottom three when the full-time whistles blow on the final round of fixtures come May 23.And now, too late to save their own season...

Nashua's Ebuka Okorie, after an incredible freshman year at Stanford, has declared himself eligible for this June's NBA Draft. (File photo) SIGN UP TO CONTINUEPrint Subscriber? Sign Up for Full Access!Please sign up for as low as 36 cents per day to continue viewing our website.Unlimited access to all stories from nashuatelegraph.com on your computer, tablet or smart phone.Access nashuatelegraph.com, view our digital edition or use our Full Access apps.Get more information at nashuatelegraph.com/fullaccessLog In ...

Nottingham Forest boss Vitor Pereira, speaking to TNT Sports: "A good result in my opinion. To face two competitions, we need to play with everyone. The players that started today did good work. In the end, 1-1, the game is open to play at home and decide qualification."Porto, playing at home are a strong team. They have momentum with supporters.. Forest, I try to balance the two competitions, it was very clear we played with nine different players to the last game. I think we did well. The players tried everything. 1-1 is a good result and playing at home we will see what we can do."On Forest's disallowed goal: "It is better to keep the opinion with me."On his squad depth: "The first two subs we did I was thinking about the next game against [Aston] Villa. It's very important for us to ge...

Providence lands commitment from former NBA G League player originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.On Thursday night, the Providence Friars landed a commitment from Dink Pate of the Westchester Knicks of the NBA G League. The affiliate team for the New York Knicks.AdvertisementPate was a part of the 2023 recruiting cycle with players such as Stephon Castle of the San Antonio Spurs, Jared McCain from the Oklahoma City Thunder, and Matas Buzelis of the Chicago Bulls.Although Pate was a top-30 recruit in the class and had over 30 scholarship offers from schools like Alabama, Arizona, and Kansas, he opted to play for the NBA G League Ignite. Following his time with the Ignite, he found himself bouncing around the G League to the M...

Freiburg won a 10th consecutive UEFA Europa League (UEL) home game as they comfortably beat Celta Vigo 3-0 at the Europa-Park Stadion to take control of the quarter-final tie ahead of next week’s second leg.Having reached the quarter-finals of a UEFA competition for the first time in their history courtesy of a 5-2 aggregate victory over Genk in the last round, Freiburg almost got the better of runaway Bundesliga champions Bayern Munich at the weekend before conceding twice in injury time to lose 3-2. They were clearly eager to make up for throwing their advantage away so late versus the Bavarians, dominating their Spanish opponents throughout the first half.Igor Matanovic had the game’s first chance, heading over the crossbar inside two minutes, before a fierce Maximilian Eggestein effort...

The Sacramento Kings found themselves at the center of a tanking controversy this week, but according to ESPN’s Anthony Slater, the reality is far less dramatic than the discourse surrounding it. Appearing on Sactown Sports’ The Drive Guys, Slater made it clear that the NBA’s investigation into the Kings stemmed more from public pressure than actual intent to lose games. As first reported by Slater earlier this week, the NBA was reviewing a late-game situation from Tuesday in Golden State that saw Sacramento commit an intentional foul while in the bonus in a close game with three minutes remaining. Per Slater, team sources insisted the decision to foul Warriors guard Seth Curry late in the fourth quarter was simply a coaching error by Doug Christie—not an intentional tanking move. The cont...

There was a heady atmosphere in Bologna before this match, with flags flying everywhere and the legend “weareone” plastered on the walls of the Stadio Renato Dall’Ara. Into this fervent atmosphere stepped Aston Villa, with warnings against complacency from their manager ringing in their ears. The Premier League side did not play well and were second best for much of the night, but they did stay supremely cool and turned the nervous energy of their hosts back on them to take a two-goal lead home to Birmingham.Ezri Konsa opened the scoring after a gaffe by the goalkeeper Federico Ravaglia, before a second-half double from Ollie Watkins determined the outcome of the match and overwrote Jonathan Rowe’s late goal for the hosts. Bologna’s Englishman, a former Norwich City winger, was likely the ...