NBA
James Harden had 29 points, six rebounds and six assists, Kawhi Leonard scored 27 points and the Los Angeles Clippers prevented the New York Knicks from clinching a playoff berth with a 126-113 victory. Norman Powell added 19 points and Ivica Zubac finished with 18 points and 10 rebounds for the Clippers, who improved to 41-31 and tied Golden State for sixth place in the Western Conference, the final guaranteed postseason spot. Karl-Anthony Towns had 34 points and 13 rebounds for the Knicks, who were looking to follow Cleveland and Boston and become the third team to wrap up a spot in the East.
Orlando Robinson had 23 points on 10-of-14 shooting and added 12 rebounds to help the Toronto Raptors rout the Brooklyn Nets 116-86 on Wednesday night. Eleventh in the Eastern Conference, the Raptors won their second straight game and handed the 12th-place Nets their fifth straight loss. Jonathan Mogbo added 15 points and RJ Barrett and Scottie Barnes each had 15. The Raptors won at Washington on Monday night to snap a four-game losing streak. Nic Claxton led Brooklyn with 22 points and 11 rebounds. Ziaire Williams added 13 points.
Kristaps Porzingis scored 30 points, Jaylen Brown added 24 and the Boston Celtics blew past the Phoenix Suns 132-102 on Wednesday night for their seventh straight win. The Suns had a four-game winning streak snapped. Phoenix still has possession of the final spot in the Western Conference play-in tournament with nine regular season games remaining. Boston took control late in the second quarter, using a 27-6 run to take a 73-54 lead into halftime. The Celtics — playing without injured star Jayson Tatum — hit 10 3-pointers in the first quarter. Phoenix was led by Kevin Durant’s 30 points on 11 of 16 shooting. Devin Booker added 14 points and 10 assists.
Alex Sarr scored 24 points and had seven rebounds to lead the Washington Wizards to a 119-114 victory over the Philadelphia 76ers that snapped a five-game skid. Justin Champagnie added 18 points while shooting 4 for 6 from 3-point range and had 10 rebounds for the Wizards, who won for the third time in their last 10 games. Quentin Grimes scored 22 points for the 76ers, who dropped their sixth straight. Guerschon Yabusele added 21 points and eight rebounds.
LeBron James started the fourth quarter Wednesday in danger of failing to extend his NBA record for consecutive double-digit scoring games. He finished it with yet another crowning achievement. The 40-year-old James scored the last of his 13 points on a buzzer-beating tip-in to give the Los Angeles Lakers a 120-119 victory over the Indiana Pacers, barely extending his double-digit scoring streak to 1,283. Not that James was counting.
Nikola Jokic had 39 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists in his first game back in nearly two weeks to lead the Denver Nuggets to a 127-117 victory against the Milwaukee Bucks. The triple-double was Jokic’s NBA-leading 30th of the season. The reigning NBA MVP missed the team’s previous five games with an injured left ankle. Michael Porter Jr. added 23 points for the Nuggets. It was the Bucks’ first game since it was announced star guard Damian Lillard had been diagnosed with blood clots in his right calf. Milwaukee was also without two-time MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo, who was sidelined with a sprained left foot. Brook Lopez had 26 points for the Bucks.
NHL
Kiefer Sherwood had two goals and one assist, Thatcher Demko finished with 26 saves and the Vancouver Canucks beat the New York Islanders 5-2. Aatu Raty, Derek Forbort and Teddy Blueger also scored for Vancouver. Casey Cizikas and Tony DeAngelo scored for New York and Ilya Sorokin made 15 saves before getting pulled early in the third period. Marcus Hogberg had five saves in relief. The Canucks scored three times in a 7:06 stretch to take a 4-2 lead after the Islanders took a 2-1 lead midway through the second period.
Leo Carlsson scored twice, Jackson LaCombe had a goal and an assist and the Anaheim Ducks beat Boston 6-2, extending the Bruins winless streak to seven games. Nikita Nesterenko, Cutter Gauthier and Mason McTavish also scored for the Ducks, Alex Killorn had a pair of assists and John Gibson made 23 saves. David Pastrnak and Morgan Geekie had goals for Boston while Joonas Korpisalo had 31 stops. Carlsson scored the Ducks’ second short-handed goal of the season late in the first period to give Anaheim a 1-0 lead. Alex Killorn got his 300th NHL assist on the goal.
Luke Hughes had three assists, Jesper Bratt chipped in with two and the New Jersey Devils ended their three-game losing streak with a 5-3 win over the Chicago Blackhawks on Wednesday night. Nathan Bastian, Timo Meier, Ondrej Palat, Dawson Mercer and Stefan Noesen scored for the Devils. Bratt has four assists in his last three games and a career-high 84 points this season. Jacob Markstrom made 21 saves. Nico Hischier extended his point streak to eight games with an assist on Noesen’s empty-net goal. Hischier has four goals and five assists since March 11. Tyler Bertuzzi, Ilya Mikheyev and Frank Nazar scored for Chicago, which has lost eight of their last 10. Spencer Knight stopped 15 shots.
Jason Robertson had a natural hat trick in the second period and the Dallas Stars held off the short-handed Edmonton Oilers 4-3 on Wednesday night. Edmonton stars Connor McDavid (lower-body injury) and Leon Draisaitl (undisclosed) sat out for the second straight game. The Oilers then lost goalie Stuart Skinner in the third period after he was inadvertently kneed in the head by Mikko Rantanen. Robertson had his second hat trick of the season and fifth of his career. Wyatt Johnston also scored as the Stars raced to a 4-0 lead. Roope Hintz assisted on Robertson’s three goals and Jake Oettinger stopped 42 shots. Corey Perry, Adam Henrique and Zach Hyman scored for Edmonton in a late comeback attempt after Skinner was hit in the head.
Raised in Moscow within the Soviet sports system by parents who were accomplished athletes, Alex Ovechkin was given every chance to succeed at hockey and along the way showed he didn’t need special treatment. He became a superstar on the ice and the top NHL draft pick by the Washington Capitals in 2004, and was known as a fun-loving person off the ice. He is now a Stanley Cup champion, a husband, father and a beloved teammate. He has become reflective on his career accomplishments — the next of which will be breaking Wayne Gretzky's career goals record.
MLB
It's domestic Opening Day for the 2025 Major League Baseball season. A week after the defending champion Los Angeles Dodgers swept the Tokyo Series against the Cubs, the Milwaukee Brewers and New York Yankees will kick off the action at 3:05 this afternoon in the Bronx. The Red Sox are on the road to start the season, playing the Texas Rangers at 4:05 this afternoon in Arlington, while The Mets are in Houston, playing the Astros at 4:10 this afternoon, and the Phillies are in D.C. playing the Nationals at 4:05.
Juan Soto, Blake Snell and Clay Holmes debut for new teams. Paul Skenes makes his first opening-day start at age 22 and Sandy Alcántara returns from Tommy John surgery. A week after the defending champion Los Angeles Dodgers swept an opening two-game series over the Chicago Cubs in Tokyo, 26 other teams get underway Thursday on opening day in the U.S. and Canada. One day later the Rays and Rockies become the final clubs to take the field, given extra time while Tampa Bay moved into the New York Yankees’ Steinbrenner Field, its temporary home this season after Hurricane Milton destroyed Tropicana Field’s roof.
NFL
The NFL competition committee is recommending making the dynamic kickoff rule permanent and moving touchbacks to the 35-yard line in hopes of generating even more returns. The competition committee released several potential rule changes for 2025 on Wednesday, including an expansion of instant replay that will be considered next week at the league meetings. Any rule change must be approved by 24 out of 32 team owners. Teams submitted several proposals last week that also could be voted on at the league meetings, including banning the “tush push” and changing playoff seeding rules.
COLLEGE BASKETBALL
In an NCAA Tournament sorely lacking in Cinderella stories, coach John Calipari has the unusual role of being the closest thing to it. After routinely taking powerhouse teams in his first decade at Kentucky to the Sweet 16 and beyond, Calipari has surprisingly done the same in his first season at Arkansas with the 10th-seeded Razorbacks set to take on No. 3 seed Texas Tech in the West Region semifinals on Thursday night as the only double-digit seed remaining in the tournament. Top-seeded Florida will take on No. 4 seed Maryland in the other Sweet 16 game in San Francisco.
TENNIS
Iga Swiatek has been given extra security protection at the Miami Open after being verbally attacked during a practice session by a man who had sent the five-time Grand Slam champion harassing messages via social media. Swiatek's team confirmed what happened in a statement Wednesday after the episode was first reported by BBC Sport. This comes a little more than a month after a stalker was removed from a match being played by 2021 U.S. Open champion Emma Raducanu in Dubai. The No. 2-seeded Swiatek lost to Alexandra Eala in the quarterfinals in Miami on Wednesday.
COLLEGE BASKETBALL
Today's men's college basketball tournament schedule:
NCAA Sweet 16
We are down to 16 teams remaining in the 2025 NCAA Tournament after Saturday and Sunday's second-round games.
After the Sweet 16 games today, March 27, and Friday, March 28, there will only be eight teams remaining for the Elite Eight round games on Saturday, March 29 and Sunday, March 30.
The Final Four is scheduled for Saturday, April 5.
EAST at Prudential Center
BYU vs Alabama 7:09 p.m.
Arizona vs Duke 9:39 p.m.
WEST at Chase Center
Maryland vs Florida 7:39 p.m.
Arkansas vs Texas Tech 10:09 p.m.
UConn coach Dan Hurley acknowledged there are things that “I wish I didn’t do” as he expressed regret over making profane comments about the officiating after the Huskies’ NCAA Tournament loss to Florida. Hurley was caught on camera making those remarks as he walked off the floor and toward the locker room after UConn’s bid for a third straight national title ended with a 77-75 defeat in the NCAA Tournament’s round of 32 on Sunday.
If there’s a single player Duke or any of its fans would love to not run into when the stakes are this high, Caleb Love would be that player. Love used to play for Duke’s biggest rival, North Carolina. Now he plays for Duke’s next opponent, Arizona. They meet Thursday in the Sweet 16, with Love, now a fifth-year senior averaging 16.8 points a game for the fourth-seeded Wildcats, trying to wreck another season for the top-seeded Blue Devils. In 2022, Love was key to handing Duke's legendary coach, Mike Krzyzewski, a pair of losses, including the one at the Final Four that ended his career.
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