Kevin Durant was excited by the style of basketball on display from his Brooklyn Nets in their 128-86 thumping of the Washington Wizards on Friday.

Durant, in the first game since Kyrie Irving's suspension, was at the center of everything the Nets were doing, finishing with team-highs in points (28), assists (11) and rebounds (nine).

As a team, the Nets dished out a season-high 32 assists, making it the first time they have eclipsed 29 in a game this season.

That unselfishness was at the forefront of Durant's mind when discussing the game during his on-court interview, saying his team felt confident in their game-plan and excelled in their execution of it.

"In shootaround we had some good sets that we drew up, and we knew some of that stuff would work against this team," he said. 

"We just stayed in it and moved the basketball all night – everybody touched it, everybody got into the paint – we were able to generate some good offense, and that's how we want to play moving forward.

"That's the name of the game, playing off each other and being able to compliment one another."

His starring performance was highlighted with an emphatic ankle-breaker as he crossed over Washington's Daniel Gafford, nearly making his defender do the splits.

"I really thought he slipped on some sweat there, so I can't take full credit for it," he said. "But I was glad it was able to get us some momentum and give me some space to do my thing. I'm glad I finished the shot too."

Nets head coach Jacque Vaughn also pointed to his side's team-first playing style when asked in his post-game interview what the key was to the blowout win.

"Offensively, the 32 assists really stand out," he said. "Guys were really moving the basketball.

"Kevin [Durant] was a hub for us tonight. He really put them in a tough bind of double-teaming him, then he was a willing passer, and he capitalised whenever he had the opportunities to."

On Durant's nasty crossover, Vaughn said his inner-fan may have come out in his reaction.

"I hope the camera wasn't on me, to be honest with you," he said. "I enjoy the game of basketball, and [Durant] is a special human being, a special player in this league. He enjoys the game of basketball, and he's fun to watch." 

The win leaves the Nets with a 3-6 record through nine games, although they have now won two of their past three.

Jayson Tatum's 36 points ended up being just enough for the Boston Celtics to overcome the Chicago Bulls 123-119 on Friday.

In front of Boston's home fans, the Celtics used a 37-26 second quarter to fight back from a sluggish start and take a 63-57 lead into the halftime break.

Chicago's DeMar DeRozan would try to will his side back into the contest in the third period, putting up 16 points in the quarter to trim the lead to 88-85 and set up a thrilling final term.

DeRozan added another 11 points in the fourth, going on to finish with a game-high 46 as he lived at the free throw line. He hit 13 of his 23 field goal attempts, and added another 20 points from his 22 free throw attempts.

Tatum put together his big game in a similar fashion, although he was less efficient from the field. He finished eight-of-23, but hit 17-of-20 from the free throw line, and had 11 points of his own in the final quarter to repel the Bulls' late charge.

Tatum's running-mate Jaylen Brown had a quieter game, scoring 16 points on six-of-14 shooting, but Malcolm Brogdon rose to the occasion off the Celtics' bench. 

Brogdon was clearly Boston's second-best player, shooting a hyper-efficient nine-of-10 from the field to put up 25 points and four assists in 29 minutes.

Luka magic leads to eighth straight 30-point performance

Luka Doncic of the Dallas Mavericks is now one of two players to ever score at least 30 points in the first eight games of an NBA season, putting up 35 in a 111-110 win against the Toronto Raptors.

Doncic joins the great Wilt Chamberlain in that honour, with the 'Big Dipper' accomplishing it on two occasions. Chamberlain started the 1959-60 season with eight consecutive 30-point games, before hitting that benchmark in the first 23 games of the 1962-63 season for a record that will likely never be broken.

The 23-year-old Slovenian was 10-of-15 from the field for his 35 points, and he added eight rebounds, six assists, three steals and a block.

O.G. Anunoby was the shining light for the Raptors, putting up 27 points (11-of-21 shooting) with seven rebounds and five steals.

Mathurin shows star potential for the Pacers

Indiana Pacers rookie Bennedict Mathurin flashed some intriguing upside as he scored 23 points off the bench in a 101-99 upset win against the Miami Heat.

Mathurin, the sixth overall pick from this year's NBA Draft, has now scored at least 23 points in four of his nine NBA games, and has only scored fewer than 15 points on one occasion.

The six-foot-six scoring wing was five-of-11 from the field, three-for-seven from long range and 10-of-12 from the free throw line in a well-rounded performance, finishing with a plus/minus of plus four in his 37 minutes.

Bucks win again, remain undefeated

The Milwaukee Bucks, who are still missing All-Star Khris Middleton, continue to look like the best team in the league after moving to 8-0 with a convincing 115-102 victory over the Minnesota Timberwolves.

In a game where two-time MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo was not scoring the ball efficiently, finishing with 26 points on seven-of-17 shooting and a poor 10-of-20 from the free throw line, Jrue Holiday picked up the slack.

To Antetokounmpo's credit, he also added 13 rebounds and 11 assists for a strong triple-double, but Holiday was the star of the show, shooting 50 per cent from the field (12-of-24) for his 29 points, while grabbing eight rebounds, dishing six assists and snatching two steals to round out a terrific performance.

It is the first time in the Bucks' franchise history they have started a season 8-0.

Maria Sakkari had no issues in her last WTA Finals group stage match against Ons Jabeur, cruising through to the final-four with a 6-2 6-3 victory on Friday.

Sakkari needed only 69 minutes for the straight-sets win, making it her third straight-sets triumph in the Nancy Richey Group after also blowing past Aryna Sabalenka and Jessica Pegula.

Greece's Sakkari took advantage of some wastefulness from Jabeur, with the Tunisian posting 19 unforced errors with just eight errors. Her efficiency did not improve in the second set, managing only three winners with 12 unforced errors.

Sakkari's serve was a weapon throughout, landing 70 per cent of her first-serves fair and converting 82 per cent of those chances (27-of-33) into points.

Jabeur could have advanced through to the next round with a win, but instead Aryna Sabalenka will advance with Sakkari out of the Nancy Richey Group.

The only other player yet to lose a set in the tournament is Iga Swiatek in the Tracy Austin Group – who has only played two matches so far.

WINNERS/UNFORCED ERRORS

Sakkari - 11/10

Jabeur - 11/31

ACES/DOUBLE FAULTS

Sakkari - 2/2

Jabeur - 0/3

BREAK POINTS WON

Sakkari - 4/7

Jabeur - 1/2

The New Orleans Saints have plenty of experience playing without Michael Thomas, and they’ll need to draw on that again with the wide receiver scheduled for toe surgery that is expected to wipe out another season. 

Thomas, who hasn’t played since September 25, was placed on injured reserve Thursday because his dislocated toe did not respond well to rehab, Saints coach Dennis Allen said. 

"I’m not going to get into any time frames right now. I don’t know," Allen said. "He’s going to go on IR. I don’t anticipate that he’ll be able to return this year."

After missing just one game in his first four NFL seasons, Thomas was limited to seven games in 2020 and did not play at all in 2021 due to an ankle injury and complications related to surgery in summer 2021. He will have missed most of the past three seasons since his five-year, $96million extension went into effect in 2020.  

"I think Mike worked his tail off and did everything he possibly could to try to rehab it," Allen said. "This is just something that happens from time to time. It didn’t respond the way we wanted it to, so we felt like surgery was the best option to go ahead and repair it and try to get him healthy." 

Thomas had at least 92 receptions in each of his first four seasons and was an All-Pro in 2019, when he set an NFL record with 149 catches and finished that season with 1,725 yards and nine touchdowns. 

His 470 receptions from 2016 to 2019 led the league, with DeAndre Hopkins in second with 393. 

Running back Alvin Kamara strongly defended Thomas. 

"I just saw a couple comments in the media about him," he said. "Basically like, ‘You can't’ trust him, he’s not being honest about his injury, why is he waiting until now to be ruled out?'

"I’m like, man, nobody knows what we go through in here. The masses get to see Sunday. It’s a lot of s--- we’ve got to go through.

"A player like that, that’s fighting to get back, not only for his team, but for the fans and for his city… for people to be talking s---, it’s like, ah, it hurts my soul to see that." 

Through 36 holes at the World Wide Technologies Championship at Mayakoba, Russell Henley has 16 birdies and zero bogeys to sit three strokes clear of the chasing field at 16 under.

Henley closed his opening round with six birdies on the back-nine to seal a 63, and his second time around El Camaleon Golf Club he evenly split his birdies with four on the front and four on the back.

The 33-year-old American has three PGA Tour victories to his name, but none since the 2017 Shell Houston Open. 

Tied for second at 13 under is American duo Sam Ryder and Will Gordon, while compatriot Patton Kizzire is the only player in fourth at 12 under.

Sweden's David Lingmerth is the top international talent, alone in fifth at 11 under, and one further back in a tie for sixth is Harry Higgs, who shot Friday's round-of-the-day with his 62 – including an eagle on the par-four third hole.

Matt Kuchar headlines the group tied for ninth at nine under, while some big names are at eight under, eight strokes off the lead.

Reigning back-to-back champion at this event Viktor Hovland is at that number, and he is joined by Collin Morikawa, Francesco Molinari, Davis Riley and Matthias Schwab.

Last week's winner at the Bermuda Championship, Seamus Power, is at seven under, while world number two Scottie Scheffler is with former Masters champion Danny Willett at six under, and former world number one Jason Day is one stroke inside the cut-line at five under.

The biggest name to miss the cut was world number 14 Tony Finau, who bogeyed the 18th hole to lose his right to play on the weekend.

Aryna Sabalenka kept her hopes of progressing to last four of the WTA Finals alive with a straight-sets win over Jessica Pegula.

Sabalenka claimed her second win in three matches with a 6-3 7-5 triumph against her American opponent in Fort Worth, Texas. 

Having dominated the opening set, Sabalenka twice failed to consolidate a break of serve in the second.

However, she struck for a third and final time to claim a win that means she will go through in second place in Group Nancy Richey if Maria Sakkari, who is already through, wins a set against Ons Jabeur in the final round-robin match. Pegula exits having lost all three of her matches.

"I’m just happy that I was really focused from the beginning to the end and I was able to finish this match in two sets," Sabalenka said afterwards.

Sabalenka struck 31 winners en route to victory, hitting at least 30 for the 16th match this season.

Only Caroline Garcia (18) and Elena Rybakina (17) have had more such matches on the WTA Tour in 2022, indicating that, if Sabalenka does go through, she has the firepower to threaten to claim the trophy.

BREAK POINTS WON

Sabalenka - 6/12

Pegula - 3/5

ACES/DOUBLE FAULTS

Swiatek - 1/3

Kasatkina - 1/1

Liverpool are an example to follow for Tottenham coach Antonio Conte, who has no issues with Jurgen Klopp's disparaging comments on Spurs' style of play.

Spurs host Liverpool on Sunday, with the sides separated by 10 points.

While Conte's team are third, five points adrift of Premier League leaders Arsenal, Liverpool head into the clash on the back of successive defeats to Nottingham Forest and Leeds United, leaving them ninth.

Last season, both league meetings between Liverpool and Spurs finished all square, with a thrilling 2-2 draw at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in December, while the Anfield fixture in May ended 1-1.

After the latter match, in which Spurs had only eight shots to their hosts' 22 but finished with a similar expected goals (xG) value to Liverpool (1.3 to 1.4), Klopp was frustrated by Conte's defensive approach, saying: "I don't like this kind of football... I cannot coach it. I think they are world-class and they should do more for the game – world-class players block all the balls."

Conte shrugged off Klopp's comments, insisting there is no bad blood between himself and the Liverpool manager, though the Italian was quick to note it was a result that ultimately played into the Reds falling short of the title.

He said in a press conference: "Yeah, but if you remember he lost the Premier League for this result.

"I understood his frustration. They lost the title for these two points. But you know, instead we reached the Champions League with that draw.

"It's OK, every coach has to speak for his team – and for every coach it's important to understand the best strategy to reach a good result.

"Honestly, I have seen again the last game we played against Liverpool and, if there was a team that deserved to win, it was Tottenham, not Liverpool.

"But I understand after a game when you felt you lost the Premier League to say something wrong against another team, but he has said sorry because he understood.

"No problem for me. When you are angry, it's very difficult sometimes to control your emotion."

Spurs splashed the cash in order to bolster Conte's squad heading into his first full season in north London - business which seems to be paying off, with Tottenham having also progressed to the last 16 of the Champions League.

And Conte sees Liverpool's model as an ideal one to follow.

"I think that Liverpool have to be proud because in the last five years they were the big, big rivals for Manchester City," Conte said.

"Without Liverpool, I think it could be like Italy with Juventus.

"For this reason, they have to be proud to reach this level and I think they improved a lot in these years. Sure, they spent money, but Klopp has changed Liverpool and the club gave him the possibility to invest.

"We are talking about an important club in the world with the possibility to spend a lot of money, but it's important to spend the money in the right way.

"I think it was really difficult to become the rival to City and you need the important players, you need the players to be really strong if you want to win. Otherwise you have to be honest and say you have other ambitions."

Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp lamented the fact the World Cup will be held in Qatar and said the media should have done more to hold FIFA to account.

The tournament is due to begin on November 20 after Qatar won the right to stage it in controversial circumstances 12 years ago, when FIFA also announced Russia as the 2018 hosts.

Those decisions came under heavy scrutiny amid allegations of corruption within world football's governing body, which has since undergone a reshuffle following the exit of embattled former president Sepp Blatter.

Critics have cited several reasons why Qatar is not a suitable host nation, with its human rights record, treatment of migrant workers and laws against same-sex relationships of particular concern.

For its part, FIFA has urged competing nations to "focus on the football", but that will do little to assuage the fears of the tournament's most impassioned critics, which includes human rights organisations such as Amnesty International.

Klopp felt it was too late to effect any change now and suggested the media should have done more and acted sooner to prevent the situation from unfolding the way it has.

"I watched an old documentary about the whole situation when it got announced that Russia and Qatar are the places for the next two World Cups," he said on Friday.

"I think it was the first time in history that they announced two in one. And the whole situation around it, we all know how it happened and how we still let it happen and no legal thing afterward. It was still hidden everywhere. And you think, wow, how could that all happen?

"It's 12 years ago and now it's here and it's coming. It has nothing to do with Qatar, they won the World Cup and it's now it's there.

"We talk about human rights in a sense of the people who have to work there in circumstances, which are, say it nicely, difficult. So, we couldn't play the World Cup there in the summer, because of the temperature. It's now pretty hot. And there was not one stadium in Qatar or maybe one.

"They have to build stadiums and nobody thought about that. I don't think everybody mentioned it that day. That is what makes you angry. How can it not? Again, I watch it from a football point of view and I don't like the fact that now players from time to time get in a situation where they have now to send a message.

"You are all journalists; you have should have sent a message. You didn't write the most critical article about it or not about it because it's Qatar. 

"Now it's there and I'll let them play the games. Let them just play the games...and don't put Gareth Southgate constantly in a situation where he has to talk about everything. I'm not a politician who has an opinion. And he's not a politician.

"He's the manager of England, let him do that and if you want to write something else about it, then do it but by yourself without asking us and all these kinds of things. And Klopp said and Southgate said, and all these kinds of things as if it will change anything. We all, you more than I, let it happen 12 years ago."

Klopp continued to rail against the lack of intervention when the tournament was first awarded and conceded this would be "different from other World Cups".

"Do you really think that we did enough in the first place? Now making a story of it when it's happened...and getting players under pressure questioning these kinds of things," he said.

"Things are organised by other people and I don't say you let it happen. But we all let it happen. At that time, everything was on the table. Everything was on the table. It was that long ago when we really could have sorted it.

"It's not to say anything about Qatar. They won the World Cup. I can understand for whatever reason, it's fine. I want a lot of things and don't get them and carry on with it. I will watch games, of course. But yes, it is different from other World Cups."

Pep Guardiola issued a sarcastic response to Zlatan Ibrahimovic's claim the Manchester City manager's ego could hold Erling Haaland back, joking he was "jealous" of his striker.

Haaland has scored 17 goals in his first 11 Premier League appearances, making light of suggestions he could struggle to adapt to Guardiola's style of play.

However, Ibrahimovic – who famously failed to connect with Guardiola when working with him at Barcelona – has suggested the City boss would not take kindly to Haaland's incredible exploits.

Speaking to Canal+, Ibrahimovic said: "Can Guardiola make Haaland even stronger? It depends on Guardiola's ego, if he lets him become bigger than him or not. He didn't let me get bigger."

Those comments were put to Guardiola at a press conference looking ahead to Saturday's Premier League meeting with Fulham, provoking a satirical reply from the City boss.

"He's right. He's completely right," Guardiola sarcastically said. "In this club, in this team, my ego is beyond the performance of the players. 

"I don't like it when Erling scores three goals and all the highlights are for him. I'm so jealous, honestly. So jealous. I said afterward: 'Please, Erling, don't score any more goals'. 

"I want The Sun, The Daily Mail to talk about me. He's right. He knows me perfectly."

Novak Djokovic outclassed Lorenzo Musetti to reach the Paris Masters semi-finals after Carlos Alcaraz retired due to an abdominal injury.

Djokovic moved into the last four of a Masters 1000 event for a staggering 74th time with a commanding 6-0 6-3 victory over Musetti on Friday.

The defending champion will do battle with Stefanos Tsitsipas for a place in the final as he eyes a seventh Paris Masters title.

Sixth seed Djokovic made only 10 unforced errors and broke five times, not allowing his Italian opponent to have a game point until early in the second set.

The 21-time grand slam champion only needed 74 minutes to dispatch the unseeded Musetti, moving two victories away from a fifth title of the season.

Meanwhile, world number one Alcaraz's participation in the ATP Finals next week is in doubt after he was injured in his quarter-final against Holger Rune.

Rune won the first set 6-3 and the Dane was 3-1 up in a second-set tie-break when US Open champion Alcaraz brought the match to a premature end.

As Alcaraz prepares to discover whether he can play in the season-ending tournament in Turin, Rune can look forward to facing Felix Auger-Aliassime in his maiden Masters 1000 semi-final.

Auger-Aliassime beat Rune to take the title in Basel last weekend and the Canadian stretched his winning run to 16 matches by beating Frances Tiafoe 6-1 6-4.

Tsitsipas was the last man to seal his place in the semi-finals, getting the better of Tommy Paul, who beat Rafael Nadal earlier in the week, 6-2 6-4.

Brian Cashman strayed away from confirming whether the New York Yankees have held contract talks with Aaron Judge.

Star slugger Judge opted to enter free agency, turning down a seven-year contract with the Yankees before the season started.

His stock has risen since then, with Judge having scored a record-breaking 62 home runs in the regular season and racked up 131 RBIs.

Yankees general manager Cashman on Friday gave little away when asked about the possibility of Judge returning next season.

"When you make these commitments on players, you know he's a fan favourite," Cashman said during a press conference.

"He interacts with our fans extremely well. He's respected within that clubhouse, handles his business as good as you possibly can. He's an elite performer – among the game's best, if not the best player. With all that being said, those are the types of players you want to retain and have as long as you possibly can."

Cashman added: "As George Steinbrenner [the former Yankees owner] said, he puts fannies in the seats. People want to go watch that guy play, and you want to put great teams on the field that they want to come here to watch compete and win.

"Certain individual players transcend the team and everything stops when they're at the bat or they have the ball in their hand. He's one of those types of talents."

Cashman, whose future is also unclear after his contract expired, has no issue with Judge biding his time.

"[Judge is] going to dictate the dance steps to his free agency and he has worked extremely hard to earn this position, so we'll see how this plays out," Cashman said. "It can tie you up a little bit along the way, but he's not the only guy that we're needing to deal with.

"He's the most important, but if he came in here today and said, 'Oh, man, I'm signing up, let's go,' there's still a lot of work to be done."

Aaron Boone spoke to Judge in his office after the Yankees missed out on the World Series when they were subjected to a clean sweep by the Houston Astros.

The Yankees boss reiterated that he hopes Judge will be back to lead the team.

He said: "Of course I hope he's back and a Yankee forever. I can't think of a better guy that you want to be leading your team and leading your organisation, and hopefully that all works out.

"But my conversations with him now are just communicating with him through the winter and hoping that it works out. But obviously, that's above me."

Australia brushed aside minnows Lebanon 48-4 to take their place in the Rugby League World Cup semi-finals.

Inspired by Josh Addo-Carr's five tries, Australia never offered up any chance of an upset at the John Smith's Stadium in Huddersfield.

Not that the reigning world champions were at their very best, though Lebanon – whose coach Michael Cheika will be switching codes to take charge of Argentina against England on Sunday – only managed to capitalise once, with Josh Mansour going over in the second half.

Addo-Carr's 19-minute hat-trick had Australia way ahead, with Latrell Mitchell's try and a double from Cameron Murray nudging Mal Meninga's team to 30-0 up by the interval.

Australia's star man Addo-Carr had his fourth early in the second half, and was on hand to take his tally for the tournament to 11 after Mansour had snatched a consolation for Lebanon.

Liam Martin barged in to round off the scoring for Australia, who were unable to push on and reach the 50-point mark.

Next up for Australia is a last-four encounter with Fiji or New Zealand, convincing winners of Group C, at Elland Road.

The Los Angeles Rams and Tampa Bay Buccaneers meet in Week 9 in a matchup between two preseason NFC favourites who have spectacularly failed to live up to expectations.

Los Angeles and Tampa Bay produced a thrilling NFC Divisional Round playoff game last season, the Rams prevailing in overtime following a furious Bucs comeback en route to winning Super Bowl LVI.

Such excitement has been thin on the ground for both teams in 2022. They are a combined 6-9, with both of their offenses enduring significant struggles. 

Last week, the Rams (3-4) were thrashed 31-14 by their NFC West rivals the San Francisco 49ers, who completed a fourth successive regular-season sweep of Los Angeles.

That defeat marked the fourth time this season the Rams have scored 14 or fewer points and lost by double-digits. From 2017 through 2021 (head coach Sean McVay’s tenure prior to this season), they had six such games. Five of those 10 games have been against San Francisco.

Quarterback Matthew Stafford threw for 187 yards on 33 attempts against San Francisco. It was the 11th time in his career that he has thrown the ball at least 30 times and finished with fewer than 200 passing yards. His teams are 2-9 in those games.

Stafford averaged 4.71 air yards per attempt in the loss to the 49ers, the Rams' offense relying largely on the screen pass and rendered impotent in the second half after San Francisco succeeded in taking that away.

Los Angeles' lack of counterpunches when the Rams cannot get the ball to Cooper Kupp should offer the Tampa Bay defense, which is allowing the fourth-fewest yards per pass play (5.7) in the NFL, confidence it can contain Stafford and Co. as the 49ers did.

The Rams' distinct lack of a running game -- Los Angeles' run success rate of 24.3 per cent is by far the worst in the league -- will only further Tampa Bay's confidence in that regard, and the Buccaneers appeared closer to solving their problems on offense in Week 8.

Though the Buccaneers (3-5) lost for the third consecutive game, suffering a 27-22 defeat to the Baltimore Ravens, Tom Brady threw for 325 yards and zero interceptions. In his career, he is 54-7 when throwing 300 yards and no interceptions but is 1-2 in such games this season.

Still, Tampa Bay's three-game losing streak is their longest such run since the Buccaneers lost four in a row between Week 5 and Week 9 in 2019. In addition, they have scored 28 points just once this season, in a 41-31 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs. The Bucs were 12-0 when reaching that mark last season.

Both offenses appear likely to face plenty of third-and-long situations, and it may be the offense that does a better job of overcoming them that comes out on top.

The Buccaneers are five of 50 (10 per cent) on third down with six or more yards to go. That percentage ranks last in the NFL. The Rams' 17.5 per cent mark (7-for-40) is 28th in the NFL. Last season, the Rams were third at 35.0 per cent while the Bucs were 12th at 25.6 per cent.

It's a tale of two offenses experiencing a substantial downturn, but neither team is dead in the water, with the Buccaneers one game out of the NFC South lead and the Rams a game back in the loss column in the NFC West, which is led by the 5-3 Seattle Seahawks.

But time is running out for these teams to right their respective ships, and the loser of this game will be at significant risk of sinking out of contention even in an open NFC.