LeBron James revealed the Los Angeles Lakers performed as he expected on opening night despite a disappointing defeat to the Golden State Warriors.
Tuesday's game was always likely to be a tough one for the Lakers, who missed the playoffs last season as the Warriors won the title.
And so it proved, with a dominant third quarter seeing the Warriors ease to a 123-109 victory.
James, entering his 20th season, led the Lakers with 31 points but acknowledged the team will need time at the start of the year working with new coach Darvin Ham.
"For us, I think we are what I expected from tonight," James said.
"Some great moments, some not so good moments, and that just comes from a team that's coming together for the first time. There's a lot of new pieces, a whole new system, coaching staff.
"But I loved the way we competed. Obviously with the turnovers, we're not going to win ball games like that, but once we start getting on the same page and know where guys are going to be, start going through in our system how we want to perform, that will get better with time.
"It was what I expected. We had some good times, and some other times were not as good as we would like."
The Lakers had 21 turnovers to the Warriors' 18, including 12 from their 'big three' of James, Anthony Davis and Russell Westbrook, which the four-time MVP said was "not acceptable".
That was not the only area in which the Lakers struggled, however, as they were a miserable 25.0 per cent from three-point range, making just 10 of 40 attempts.
The Lakers ranked 22nd in the NBA in three-point shooting last year (34.7 per cent), and James suggested the Warriors – 35.6 per cent on Tuesday and 36.4 per cent in 2021-22 – were letting their opponents shoot.
"We're getting great looks, but it also could be teams giving us great looks," James said.
"To be completely honest, we're not a team that's constructed of great shooting. That's just the truth of the matter. It's not like we're sitting here with a lot of lasers on our team.
"That doesn't deter us from trying to get great shots, and when we get those opportunities, we take them. But we're not sitting here with a load of 40-plus career three-point shooting guys."
The Lakers have still not won on opening night since 2016.
'It's time for a magical night at home,' says Vinicius ahead of Bayern Munich second leg
Vinicius Junior is eyeing "a magical night at home" when Real Madrid welcome Bayern Munich for their Champions League semi-final second leg next week.
The two European heavyweights shared a 2-2 draw in a pulsating first leg at the Allianz Arena, setting up a grandstand climax when the battle resumes at Santiago Bernabeu.
Vinicius opened the scoring in the 24th minute, but Madrid found themselves 2-1 behind in the second half after Leroy Sane levelled and Harry Kane slotted home from the penalty spot.
However, the Brazil international was also on target from the penalty spot to ensure a share of the spoils with his 31st direct goal involvement in the Champions League since the start of the 2021-22 season - more than any other player in that time.
"We always want to win, but we know that this competition is like that, you can't give away balls because teams score the chances they have," he said, as reported by Reuters.
"We have to keep our heads calm, rest until next week, and we know that we and the fans are going to leave everything at the Santiago Bernabeu to qualify.
"Now it's time for a magical night at home to win and secure our place in the final."
Vinicius' first goal saw him calmly slide home from Toni Kroos' delicious throughball, with the latter playing 15 line-breaking passes in the first half - at least 10 more than any other player on the pitch.
Rodrygo, who was fouled by Kim Min-jae for the penalty that led to Madrid's second goal, paid tribute to the 34-year-old.
"We all keep telling him to keep on playing for not just one more season, but many seasons to come yet," he told Movistar. "He's genuinely a maestro with talent which people love to watch, and we all love to play with.
"If we couldn't win, we were determined not to lose. Given what went on, a draw's a good result. We know the Champions League. We're accustomed to matches like this.
"I believe that teams think they've killed us off, and that's when we are at our most dangerous."
NBA: Maxey, 76ers stun Knicks with late rally for OT win in Game 5
Tyrese Maxey scored seven points in the final 25 seconds of regulation to save Philadelphia’s season and finished with a playoff career-high 46 as the 76ers staved off elimination in their Eastern Conference first-round series with an unlikely 112-106 victory over the New York Knicks on Tuesday.
Down six with 28 seconds left in regulation, Maxey converted the rare four-point play with 25 seconds to play, and after Josh Hart’s free throw, hit a 35-foot 3-pointer to tie it at 97 with 8.1 seconds remaining in front of a stunned Madison Square Garden crowd.
Joel Embiid had 19 points, 16 rebounds, 10 assists and nine turnovers for the 76ers, who will host Game 6 on Thursday.
Maxey added nine assists and was 7 of 12 from 3-point range.
Brunson scored 40 points and Hart had 18 with nine rebounds for the Knicks, who were tantalisingly close to reaching the Eastern Conference semifinals for the second straight season.
Brunson scored the first five points of overtime but Maxey's 3 triggered a 9-0 run that Embiid capped with a 3-point play with 1:40 left for a 106-102 lead. Brunson tied it with a 3 but Kelly Oubre Jr. made the tiebreaking basket with 62 seconds to play, and Tobias Harris sealed it with two free throws.
Short-handed Bucks stay alive
Khris Middleton had 29 points and 12 rebounds and Bobby Portis added 29 with 10 boards as the Milwaukee Bucks stayed alive with a 115-92 win over the Indiana Pacers in Game 5 despite missing leading scorers Giannis Antetokounmpo and Damian Lillard.
Portis had the highest point total of his playoff career and made amends after he was ejected from a Game 4 loss. Middleton had his third straight game with at least 25 points.
Tyrese Haliburton scored 16 points and Myles Turner added 13 for the Pacers, who still lead the series 3-2 and will try to close it out at home in Game 6 on Thursday. Indiana hasn’t advanced past the first round since 2014.
The Bucks got a balanced effort without Antetokounmpo and Lillard, as every starter scored in double figures. Antetokounmpo has missed the entire series and hasn’t played since straining his left calf on April 9. Lillard sat out a second consecutive game after injuring his Achilles tendon in Game 3 on Friday.
Cavs edge Magic for 3-2 lead
Donovan Mitchell scored 28 points and Evan Mobley came up with a huge block in the final seconds to lift the Cleveland Cavaliers to a 104-103 win over the Orlando Magic to take a 3-2 lead in their Eastern Conference series.
After Mitchell missed a jumper with 15.7 seconds left, Franz Wagner drove the left side for a potential game-tying layup but was denied at the rim by Mobley with six seconds left.
Mitchell, who had 14 fourth-quarter points, was then fouled and made two free throws with 3.2 seconds remaining to up Cleveland’s lead to 104-100. Paolo Banchero made a 3-pointer in the final second for the final margin.
The Cavs bounced back at home after losing two road games and can finish off the Magic in Orlando in Game 6 on Friday.
Max Strus scored 16 points to help Cleveland offset the loss of starting center Jarrett Allen (bruised rib) and Mobley added 14 points and 13 rebounds.
Banchero scored 16 of his 39 points in the fourth quarter and grabbed eight rebounds, but the next closest Magic player was Wagner with 14 points.
Champions League success does not define Bayern move, says Kane
Harry Kane refuted suggestions Champions League glory this season will decide the success of his Bayern Munich move, after Tuesday's 2-2 draw with Real Madrid in the semi-final first leg.
Kane scored from the penalty spot to make it 2-1 to Bayern early in the second half, just four minutes after Leroy Sane had levelled with a thunderous finish at Allianz Arena.
Having finished with his usual ease from 12 yards, Kane became the first English player to be directly involved in 11 goals in a single Champions League campaign.
Kane is the joint-top scorer across Europe's big five leagues in all competitions this season (43 – level with Kylian Mbappe), while the England captain now has the most combined goals and assists of any player (54 – 43 goals and 11 assists).
Regardless of whether Bayern can overcome Madrid in the second leg next week and go all the way in the final, Kane insists his move to Germany is a long-term mission, rather than a one-year aim for success.
When asked on TNT Sports if winning the Champions League would define his Bayern move as a success, Kane responded: "I don't think so.
"I'm here for many years, it's not just a one-off year that I've come for. Of course, the expectation at the start of the year was to win trophies and it hasn't gone our way in the Bundesliga or the cup, but the Champions League is the biggest one of them all.
"If we can somehow get our hands on that one, it'll be an amazing season, but there is a long way to go.
"These are the big games under the lights [that I'm here for]. The atmosphere was incredible. I'm sure at the Bernabeu it'll be the same. It's exactly why I’ve come, I wanted to play in these big games, these big moments, and it's no bigger than next week.
"It'll be tough, we know their history in the competition, but we can take a lot of positives from today. There's a couple of small details that we need to get right because we can get punished in a couple of quick moments, but we can take a lot from this game."
Kane now has 401 goals for club and country, having moved past the quadruple-century mark with his double against Eintracht Frankfurt on Saturday.
Including his well-taken penalty against Madrid, the former Tottenham striker now has a personal-best 43 goals in all competitions this season as well.
Yet his focus remains solely on the next game, with Stuttgart to come on Saturday before the return visit to Madrid.
"It's been a good season [personally] so far, but it's always about the next game, the next big game, and it's next week, away from home against Real Madrid," he added.
"Everything we're fighting for this year is in this competition, so we've got to find a way to get it done. It's going to be tough, the Bernabeu, Real Madrid in the Champions League, but we go there with full belief, it's 0-0 and we go there for the win."
Kane's second-half strike on Tuesday came after Sane had cancelled out an opener from Vinicius Junior, whose late penalty then ensured the shares were spoiled at Allianz Arena.
With the pressure on Bayern's spot-kick, Madrid's Jude Bellingham appeared to offer Kane a few words of advice – though the Bayern striker was in his own space preparing to face Andriy Lunin.
"I don't know what he was saying," Kane added on his England team-mate's quiet word. "I saw him there, mumbling something, but I'll have to ask him what he said.
"Once I'm in that zone I'm just trying to block everything out – I'm sure he was saying something to try and put me off. Thankfully it didn't do anything."
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