New Zealand head coach Scott Robertson has said he wants to see overseas-based players become eligible for the All Blacks after his side laboured to a 29-11 win over Italy. 

The visitors recorded their 18th straight win against Italy to wrap up their autumn series, but Robertson's side were made to work for the victory in Turin in flanker Sam Cane's final Test for the team, ahead of his switch to play club rugby in Japan. 

Speaking after the game, Robertson said he would ask New Zealand Rugby to follow in the footsteps of world champions South Africa and allow those playing outside domestic competitions to be eligible for the national team. 

"We don't want to be a cycle behind or a couple of years behind," Robertson said. 

"Professional rugby is always evolving. Let's keep an open mind and see what's next. I'll definitely be presenting.

"Using South Africa as an example, they get the opportunity to use a lot of experienced players who are looked after and managed well into their 30s so they've got a great balance.

"And they've got big squads, they can have two really quality 15s."

Max Verstappen has said that he is hungry for more success after claiming his fourth consecutive Formula One world title at the Las Vegas Grand Prix. 

The Red Bull driver claimed the title by finishing fifth, ahead of championship rival Lando Norris, in the race which was won by George Russell of Mercedes. 

Verstappen is now behind only Lewis Hamilton (seven), Michael Schumacher (seven) and Juan Manuel Fangio (five) in terms of world titles won, and the Dutchman has said he will aim for a fifth title in 2025. 

"If you look to next year right now, I think it's going to be a proper battle between a lot of cars, but I'm hungry," said Verstappen, who secured the title with two races to spare. 

Giannis Antetokounmpo had 32 points and 11 rebounds and the resurgent Milwaukee Bucks overcame LeMelo Ball’s career-high 50 points in a 125-119 victory over the Charlotte Hornets on Saturday night.

Milwaukee opened the fourth quarter with a 14-5 spurt for a 110-90 lead, but the Hornets got it to 121-119 on Brandon Miller’s 3-pointer with 15 seconds left.

Taurean Prince answered with a pair of free throws for the Bucks to make it a two-possession game, and Charlotte missed a pair of 3-pointers on the ensuing possession. Antetokounmpo hit two free throws with 4.5 seconds left to make it 125-119.

Ball hit 17 of 38 shots, including 6 of 17 from beyond the arc, and 10 of 13 free throws to surpass his previous personal best of 38 points, done twice.

Brandon Miller added 32 points for the Hornets, who have lost five of seven.

Milwaukee, which completed a 4-0 homestand, has won six of its last seven. The only loss in that span was a 115-114 loss to the Hornets on Nov. 16 following a controversial foul call.

Charlotte’s Grant Williams went to the locker room late in the fourth quarter with an apparent leg injury and did not return.

Milwaukee hit four consecutive 3s for a 12-3 run and a 96-83 lead late in the third quarter.

Nuggets use dominant 2nd half to rout Lakers

Nikola Jokic scored 34 points and Michael Porter Jr. added 24 as the Denver Nuggets used a strong second half to beat the Los Angeles Lakers 127-102.

Russell Westbrook had 14 points, 11 assists and seven rebounds for Denver against his former team.

Austin Reaves scored 19 points and LeBron James added 18 for the Lakers, who lost consecutive home games after starting the season 7-0 at home. Rui Hachimura, back in the starting lineup after he missed the previous five games with a left ankle sprain, scored 10 points in 22 minutes.

It was the teams' first meeting since the Nuggets beat the Lakers in the first round of the playoffs earlier this year. Denver also swept them in the Western Conference final the previous year.

Denver trailed by six points at halftime but outscored Los Angeles 37-15 in the third quarter and 70-39 for the second half while dominating inside and outside.

Westbrook had a putback dunk at the end of the third quarter to put the finishing touches on an authoritative quarter and extend the lead to 94-77. Westbrook then twirled his arms around emphatically in celebration as he ran back down the floor.

Magic down Pistons to continue surge

Franz Wagner continued his hot stretch with 30 points, nine rebounds and eight assists and the Orlando Magic defeated the Detroit Pistons 111-100 for their eighth win in nine games.

Wagner, who has scored 30 or more points in five of his last seven games, sat out the fourth quarter while the Magic’s bench stretched Orlando's lead to 22 with 7:19 remaining.

He has averaged 27.7 points in the 11 games since the Magic lost star Paolo Banchero to a torn oblique.

Mo Wagner had 18 points and seven rebounds off the Orlando bench, and Jonathan Isaac added five points, 12 rebounds and three blocks.

Jaden Ivey led the Pistons with 19 points and seven rebounds. Malik Beasley, starting in place of the injured Cade Cunningham, added 18 points.

Orlando remained unbeaten at home (8-0) despite playing without Banchero and Wendell Carter Jr. and losing Jalen Suggs to a sore left hamstring in the first half.

After Beasley’s 3-pointer pulled the Pistons even at 56 at the outset of the second half, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope answered with a 3 and the Magic went off on a 20-9 run that included nine straight Magic points from Franz Wagner.

Wales head coach Warren Gatland did not have answers about his future following their 45-12 defeat to South Africa, their 12th consecutive loss.

The Springboks dominated from the off and were cruising 26-0 just before half-time, after Franco Mostert, Eben Etzebeth, Kurt-Lee Arendse and Elrigh Louw crossed.

Rio Dyer's try before the break ensured Wales did not draw a blank in the first half, but South Africa did not let up as Aphelele Fassi, Gerhard Steenenkamp and Jordan Hendrikse all followed suit.

James Botham's late effort ensured Wales did not suffer their worst-ever home defeat, but they have now gone an entire calendar year without a win for the first time since 1937.

Gatland has come under increasing pressure as the losses pile up, and though his future remains up in the air, he was proud of how his inexperienced side held up against the world champions.

"It's about seeing what the Welsh Rugby Union has to say," he told TNT Sports when asked about his future.

"You don't make a decision straight after a game, it's always tough coming to a press conference straight after a game before you've had time to catch your breath and look at some of the stats and numbers.

"Let's just see what happens over the next few days."

On their recent run of form, he added: "We punched massively above our weight for a number of years, and we've been saying that when the dam bursts it's going to take a little bit of time to put things right.

"The dam has burst, but it's about making sure that, collectively, with the regions we work together.

"I think we need to be in better shape in a conditioning point of view. We will work on that with some of the players over the next couple of months, so when they turn up for the Six Nations, they're ready to go from day one."

South Africa have won each of their last three Tests, building on their wins over Scotland and England earlier in the series.

Captain Siya Kolisi was pleased with their ruthlessness in the game but also sympathised with Gatland's situation.

"It's been a really good tour," he told TNT Sports. "It hasn't been perfect, the first two games we weren't happy - happy we won, but there was so much we could have done better.

"The results are important, but it's how you do things, the standards we set for ourselves. We know we can do a little bit better as a group.

"We were where Wales are a couple of years ago.

"The only thing I can say is you just can't stop believing. If you look at their starting backline, one of our guys had more caps than all of them. You have to be realistic about these things."

Elsewhere, Ireland produced their most convincing win of their series, scoring eight tries as they cruised past Fiji 52-17 in Dublin earlier on Saturday. 

Jannik Sinner's victory over Alex de Minaur clinched Italy's place in another Davis Cup final, with Matteo Berrettini also victorious as the defending champions beat Australia 2-0.

Italy won the Davis Cup for the first time since 1976 last year, and they will have an opportunity to defend their crown against the Netherlands on Sunday.

Former Wimbledon finalist Berrettini got the ball rolling with an entertaining 6-7 (6-8) 6-3 7-5 victory over Thanasi Kokkinakis, not surrendering a break after losing the opener in a tie-break. 

That teed up Sinner to close out Italy's victory, with the world number one overcoming De Minaur 6-3 6-4, the same scoreline he beat the Australian by at the ATP Finals earlier this month.

Speaking after his victory in Malaga, Sinner said: "It means a lot. It was a tough encounter, playing Alex. We know each other quite well now, so I have to be very careful every time.

"It's a very tough challenge for me, so I was looking forward to this one. Obviously, it helped a lot that Matteo won the singles today. He played amazing tennis. It was very high quality. 

"Hopefully, this can give us some confidence for [Sunday]. It's going to be a very difficult and tough day for us and also the Netherlands."

Data Debrief: Back-to-back for Italy

Italy's men are looking to follow in the footsteps of their female counterparts, who won the Billie Jean King Cup earlier this week.

They are just the third nation in history to make back-to-back finals at both the Davis Cup and the Federation/Billie Jean King Cup, after the United States (1963-64, 1978-79, 1981-82 and 1990-91) and Australia (1963-64 and 1964-65).

Novak Djokovic has announced his long-term former rival Andy Murray as his coach for the Australian Open in 2025.

Murray, a three-time Grand Slam winner, announced his retirement earlier this year and played his final match at the Paris Olympics in August.

He will join Djokovic's team in the off-season and coach him through the opening grand slam of the year, which begins on January 12.

This will be Murray's first coaching role since retiring following a 19-year career.

"We played each other since we were boys. 25 years of being rivals, of pushing each other beyond our limits," Djokovic said in a video on social media.

"We had some of the most epic battles in our sport. They called us game changers, risk-takers, history makers.

"I thought our story may be over - turns out it has one final chapter.

"It's time for one of my toughest opponents to step into my corner. Welcome onboard coach, Andy Murray."

Djokovic failed to win a major title for the first time since 2017, though he did clinch a long-awaited Olympic gold medal in Paris.

The Serb is currently level with Margaret Court for the most major singles titles by any player. He has a good record in Australia though, winning 10 times in Melbourne, beating Murray in four of those finals.

Murray, who beat Djokovic to win the US Open title in 2012 and Wimbledon the following year, says he hopes they can achieve success together.

"I'm going to be joining Novak's team in the off-season, helping him to prepare for the Australian Open," Murray said.

"I'm really excited for it and looking forward to spending time on the same side of the net as Novak for a change, helping him to achieve his goals."

Lewis Hamilton believes he should have been starting in pole position at the Las Vegas Grand Prix on Sunday despite qualifying 10th.

The Mercedes driver had finished top in both of Friday’s practice sessions before laying down the fastest time in Q2 as well.

Hamilton locked up during his first run in Q3 before a track limits violation in his second run saw his lap time deleted.

The British driver rued his drop-off in form that saw his team-mate and compatriot George Russell take pole position.

"I should have been on pole but I'm not, so it is what it is. C'est la vie, you live to fight another day," he told Sky Sports.

"It is what it is. It's been a good weekend so far, so I'll give it my best shot tomorrow. Congrats to George.

"The car felt different in Q3, and the stability was not there for some reason. But I had it in all the other sessions.

"But ultimately I didn't put the laps together. I'm really quite far back so I'll just see what I can do from there.”

Elsewhere in the paddock, McLaren’s Lando Norris will start in sixth position on the grid, one place behind his title rival Max Verstappen.

Norris needs to beat the Red Bull driver by at least three points to keep his title aspirations alive and take the championship race to the Qatar Grand Prix next week.

He does not, however, favour his chances against the serial winner.

"I will do everything I can. That's what I'm here to do. I'm not going to give up 'til the end even if chances are extremely thin," Norris said.

 "I'm here to do the best in every race I can whether I'm fighting for a championship or not. We have [Verstappen] just ahead of us. We have a chance to beat him.

 "Whether he wins or not tomorrow, for me it is not going to change anything, he is pretty likely to win the championship.”

Norris currently sits 62 points short of Verstappen who leads the Driver’s Championship on 393 points, though McLaren lead Ferrari by 36 points in the Constructors’ Championship.

"Do I wish it could have gone a bit further? Sure. But the race was lost in the first races of the year, when Max got too far ahead. I am proud and happy with what we’ve done,” Norris added.

"Be optimistic and look ahead to what we can achieve. I don’t expect anything much, for sure."

Jason Kidd hailed the character of his Dallas Mavericks team after their gutsy win over the Denver Nuggets.

The Mavericks overcame Luka Doncic's absence, and a triple-double from returning Nuggets star Nikola Jokic, to win 123-120 in Friday's NBA Cup game.

It also marked the third consecutive game the Mavericks have had seven players hit double figures. 

The Mavericks appeared to be running away with a dominant win after leading by as many as 24 points early in the third quarter, only for the Nuggets to swiftly respond. 

They struck a fierce 28-9 run in an eight-minute span to bring the game within single digits going into the final quarter, but the Mavericks held on for a fourth straight win.

"We were here 10 days ago, we learned from that situation, we kept our composure. This group stayed together," Kidd said.  

"On the defensive end we made stops and on the offensive end we made some big plays.

"We didn't finish the game 10 days ago. But the guys stepped up. Defensively, we did what we had to do. A lot of small things that we cleaned up from the last time we were here.

"This is a character game for us. Again without Luka, on the road, we were just in this situation in Oklahoma City. The games are too close for us to make mistakes late.

"This team has a lot of character, a lot of trust and we're becoming a team - it's still early in the season, we've had some injuries, but it's about the next man up and those guys are stepping up."

Dallas (9-7) improved to 2-1 in West Group C to keep their hopes of being one of eight teams to advance to the knockout round. The Mavericks trail the Golden State Warriors, who improved to 3-0 in Group Play after Friday’s win over the New Orleans Pelicans.

It was also a night to remember for Naji Marshall, who scored a career-high 26 points off the bench. 

After scoring 15 points in the second half of Tuesday’s game against the Pelicans, Marshall scored 16 points in the first half on Friday.

Marshall had only two 15-point halves in his career prior to accomplishing the feat in consecutive halves, with Kidd showering praise for his recent displays. 

"Just the trust. Marshall was playing extremely well for us. With the game on the line, he makes a floater with one second left on the shot clock," Kidd said. 

"The confidence the guys have in him on the offensive end and defensive end [helps]."

George Russell "put it all on the table" to surge to a surprise pole position at the Las Vegas Grand Prix with an impressive qualifying display. 

After Mercedes had topped all three practice sessions on Friday, Russell was able to convert his team's electric practice pace into a fourth career pole. 

The Briton finished 0.098 seconds ahead of the Ferrari of Carlos Sainz, while Alpine's Pierre Gasly built on his podium at Interlagos last time out by finishing third, with Charles Leclerc starting in fourth. 

While it was Russell’s out-going Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton who swept Thursday’s free practice sessions, the seven-time world champion could only manage 10th. 

Asked if pole was expected coming into the weekend, Russell replied: “Honestly, absolutely not. It feels incredible to be back on pole.

“We’ve been so quick all weekend and I just knew coming into that last Q3 lap… that’s going to be the one that counts. It doesn’t matter what happened before then.

"I'm just so happy, and we've got to do some deep diving to understand why we’ve been so quick so far this weekend, because it was a real surprise!”

"Ultimately, you’ve got to put it on the table sometimes. I felt confident in myself – I knew if I did a clean lap, it would be enough to secure a front row, so to get pole position is incredible," Russell said. 

"Ultimately, we’ve had a few good qualifying recently – we need to convert that into a win now."

Max Verstappen will share the third row of the grid with his sole remaining opponent for the title, Lando Norris, after qualifying fifth. 

The Dutchman knows that he must finish ahead of the Briton's McLaren to claim a fourth consecutive world title, putting him level with Alain Prost and Sebastian Vettel.

However, Verstappen believes that Red Bull are "just a bit too slow" after struggling for one-lap performance throughout the course of the weekend's action. 

"We have been struggling to get the tyres to work over a lap, and we are slow on the straights as well, especially in qualifying," Verstappen said. 

"You can see our rear wing, it’s trimmed down quite a lot, around the DRS flap, so when we open DRS we don’t get the gains like others do, so that makes it a bit more complicated around here.

“But that’s our own fault. We know that, that's a compromise we have, but nevertheless, I tried to do the best I could.

"It was quite close for P3, little details that could have been a bit better maybe, but overall I'm happy with the laps, was not much more in it."

The Philadelphia 76ers revealed Joel Embiid missed their victory over the Brooklyn Nets with a knee injury, while the star centre will also be absent from this Sunday's clash with the Los Angeles Clippers.

Philadelphia ended a five-game losing streak with a 113-98 win at Wells Fargo Center, but did so without the services of Embiid.

The centre was not initially listed on the franchise's injury report ahead of the game, but was later added for left knee injury management, having been ruled out 30 minutes before tip-off.

"He was dealing with some swelling in his knee today, got to the arena and was ruled out," 76ers coach Nick Nurse said. "They're going to treat it all weekend, so he'll be out for Sunday as well.

"He had some swelling from the last game. It's something we knew we were going to be dealing with going into the season. They do what they can do to remove that swelling, but it just didn't feel good enough to go.

"We were pretty well aware of that not too much longer after [my pre-match] press conference that he wasn't going to be able to go tonight.

"Then, they obviously looked at it again during the game and half-time, and decided that they needed to treat it this weekend, and go from there.

"Hopefully, on Monday, we'll give you an update on where we're at and, hopefully, he'll be in good shape."

In Embiid's absence, rookie guard Jared McCain stepped up to produce another impressive performance with 30 points, passing the 20-mark for a seventh successive game.

The 20-year-old was heard saying "I'm rookie of the year!" after shooting one of his six three-pointers during the final quarter.

"I did say that," he said after the game. "It was pretty clear. It's one of my goals for the season, obviously, but it was just that competitiveness coming out of me.

"I respect every other rookie in this league, but obviously, I'm a believer in myself."

Tallon Griekspoor produced a thrilling comeback to help the Netherlands reach the Davis Cup final for the very first time after they downed Germany 2-0 in Malaga. 

After losing the opening set to Jan-Lennard Struff, Griekspoor held his nerve to emerge a 4-6 (4-7) 7-5 6-4 victor on an enthralling day of action on Friday. 

Earlier in the day, Botic van de Zandschulp, who beat Rafael Nadal in the final match of the Spaniard's career on Tuesday, put the Dutch 1-0 up with a win over Daniel Altmaier. 

The world number 80 needed 10 match points to wrap up a tense 6-4 6-7 (12-14) 6-3 victory, after Altmaier saved five break points in a second set tie-break.

Griekspoor then stopped the best-of-three tie from going to the deciding doubles, rallying back with a fine display, though Struff let two crucial break points slip in the eighth game of the second set.

“We have been talking about this [moment] for two or three years,” said Griekspoor.

“We came here all the time with unbelievably tough draws, but we believed in ourselves so much. We always felt like this was possible.

"To do it now feels unbelievable. I am so happy for the team, and for Holland.

“I just tried to focus on my own game. I felt like he was playing unbelievable tennis, I didn’t do much wrong in the first set.

"I’m super proud of myself, super proud of the effort and very happy to get the win in the end.”

The Netherlands await either reigning Davis Cup champions Italy or Australia, who face off in the other semi-final on Saturday.

Data Debrief: Dutch delight

After reaching the semi-final stage for only the second time this century, the Netherlands produced arguably their finest display of the tournament against Germany. 

It meant that after 185 ties played at the event across a 104-year timeframe, they had finally reached the showpiece match at the tournament for the first time. 

But their victory was made possible by Griekspoor, who converted both his break points, while fittingly sealing his encounter with his 25th ace of the contest.