David Menuisier is keeping his fingers crossed that Migration can recapture his old sparkle when bidding for back-to-back wins in the Lincoln at Doncaster on Saturday.
The veteran gelding finished strongly up the stands’ rail to storm past well-fancied duo Awaal and Baradar 12 months ago, scoring at 18-1.
He struggled to reproduce that form thereafter, trailing in well beaten on three subsequent outings, but they were all hot contests.
Migration stepped up to Group Three company in the Brigadier Gerard at Sandown, had to carry over 10st in the Balmoral Handicap at Ascot and signed off his season in a Listed contest at Saint-Cloud.
The handicapper has thrown him a lifeline by dropping his mark to 4lb above last year’s Lincoln triumph and Menuisier is hoping the fire still burns as brightly at the age of eight.
“Obviously, it’s a hard task but he is well, we know he likes the course and he likes to run fresh and he always runs well at this time of the year, so fingers crossed that the stars can align again,” said the trainer.
“He kind of lost his form late on last season, so it’s hard to predict what’s happening with those older horses.
“He stayed in the yard all winter, I didn’t give him a holiday this time around because he had a long break last summer, so we tried to keep him up to his work a bit more.
“We’ll see if it makes a difference. The ground will probably be very similar and maybe we just need a bit of luck.”
Awaal is the ante-post favourite to go one better this term after 56 entries stood their ground for the one-mile contest.
Simon and Ed Crisford’s five-year-old is back on the same mark after also going on to be placed in the Royal Hunt Cup at Ascot and Newmarket’s Bunbury Cup before faltering in the second half of the season.
September course and distance winner Liberty Lane is also prominent in the betting for Karl Burke after being gelded over the winter.
John and Thady Gosden will seek to strike for the second time in four years via Mostabshir, while Jack Channon will bid to match the exploits of his father Mick with 2022 hero Johan.
“Awaal had to settle for second place behind Migration 12 months ago but Simon and Ed Crisford’s runner is being well backed to go one place better this time in the opening major handicap of the Flat season,” said Coral’s John Hill.
Paddy Power spokesman Paul Binfield added: “Last year’s runner-up Awaal, who has been our best-backed horse ante post, remains in the reckoning at the five-day stage and sits proudly at the front of the market as favourite for the Flat turf season’s traditional pipe-opener.”
Jeremy Scott’s Golden Ace has a handful of options after providing the trainer with a first Cheltenham Festival winner last week.
The six-year-old was second to Dysart Enos in an incredibly deep renewal of the Grade Two mares’ bumper at Aintree last season and was an instant success over hurdles this term.
After winning two Taunton contests in good style she headed for the Ryanair Mares’ Novices’ Hurdle at the Festival, where she was a 10-1 chance as Gordon Elliott’s Brighterdaysahead led the market.
Under Lorcan Williams the bay took little notice of those predictions, however, and prevailed over the latter horse by a length and three quarters to give Scott his first ever winner at the meeting.
“It was just the best. I never thought it would work out like that but it was just fantastic,” Scott said of the performance.
Golden Ace, who is by Golden Horn and out of a Dubawi mare, could now head to Kelso for the Herring Queen Series Final, or alternatively there are options over both two miles and two and a half miles at Aintree’s Grand National meeting.
“She’s all good, she came out of the race really well,” Scott.
“We will see what mark we’ve been given, we’ve got the Herring Queen series at Kelso as an option, otherwise I imagine it’ll be Aintree.
“We’ll probably enter both races and see what the ground is like, there’s two miles and two and a half.
“She’s bred to stay so her trip should be around about two and a half, everything being well we’d want to aim her next year at the mares’ race at Cheltenham.”
Scott also provided an update on Dashel Drasher, who finished eighth in the Stayers’ Hurdle and is unlikely to run again this term as the ground dries up into the spring.
He said: “He’s grand, I suspect he won’t run again this season. There’s nothing really for him, the ground always seems to be wrong at Aintree.
“We’ll keep an open mind but unless it keeps raining I imagine we won’t run him at Aintree, but he’s come out of the race very well.”
Danny Care will take stock before deciding on his international future after contributing to an encouraging Guinness Six Nations for England.
Care won his 101st cap as a replacement in Saturday’s agonising defeat by France in Lyon that saw a long-range penalty by Thomas Ramos seize victory for Les Bleus in the final minute.
The 37-year-old provided cover for Alex Mitchell throughout the championship and deputised in the starting XV when England’s first-choice scrum-half was injured for the defeat by Scotland in round three.
Now one of the most exciting players in English rugby is facing a crossroads moment as he nears the end of his Test career while yet to agree a new contract for next season with Harlequins.
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“It’s 101 and still not out at the moment! I’m going to go home and assess and speak to the family. I’ve not made any big decisions yet,” Care said.
“But I’ve loved being a part of this team. I genuinely have. The past year yes, but particularly the past seven weeks in this Six Nations have been some of my favourite times in an England shirt.
“The result against Ireland was an unbelievable feeling, I thought we were going to do it again and maybe surpass it against France.
“The icing on the cake would have been another win but it wasn’t to be. But I’ve never been prouder to wear an England shirt.”
Care’s international career appeared to be over following a disagreement with Eddie Jones in 2018, but his irrepressible form for Harlequins resulted in a recall under the Australian and he has remained in favour under Steve Borthwick.
“If it had all finished a couple of years ago it would have been a bit meh, a bit rubbish, so I’m delighted with how the last year has gone,” he said.
“I owe Steve and the coaching staff an awful lot for giving me another opportunity for doing what I love doing the best.
“I’ve had an amazing time and this team is going to go in one direction, I’m sure of it. Whether I’m a part of that or not, I’ll be the happiest person to be a part of it or watching it.”
England finished only third in the tournament yet will embark on their summer tour to Japan and New Zealand with a sense of excitement having toppled champions Ireland and pushed France so close – all while playing pulsating rugby.
“The aim going into this tournament was to win the whole thing. Obviously we haven’t done that but the team has taken huge strides in the right direction of where it wants to go,” Care said.
“I’ve got no doubt that this team is going to hit some massive heights. If I were an England supporter right now, I’d be really excited by what I’m seeing.
“Everyone better watch out because when this team is on fire, they’ll be very hard to stop.”
Kyrie Irving's Dallas Mavericks team-mates heaped praise upon the eight-time All-Star after his incredible buzzer-beater downed the Denver Nuggets on Sunday, with center Daniel Gafford describing him as a "magician".
With just 0.4 seconds remaining in a back-and-forth contest, Irving hit a dramatic floating shot with his left hand to stun the reigning NBA champions and end their five-game winning streak.
Taking an in-bounds pass from Maxi Kleber after Jamal Murray had misfired at the other end, Irving dribbled to just behind the free-throw line before sinking his stunning left-handed runner.
That lifted the Mavs to their fifth win in their last six games, improving them to 39-29 as they battle for a playoff spot.
Irving finished with 24 points in support of Luka Doncic, who had 37 on his return from a hamstring injury, meaning the duo accounted for over half of the Mavs' total.
Asked about Irving's buzzer-beater, Doncic said: "That shot was unbelievable, man. I couldn't believe it."
Gafford added: "He's a magician. He is a very crafty finisher, but finishing somewhere that far around the basket?
"I don't know if he works on something like that, but I know he works on his left hand. It went in and then we just got crazy."
Irving himself, meanwhile, was himself taken aback when watching replays of the shot, saying it was pure instinct.
"I thought I got a little closer in the paint, but I looked at it after the game and I was pretty far out…" he said. "The majority of it is instinctual and comes from preparation for hours that no one sees.
"I saw [Nikola] Jokic taking away my pull-up going left. I knew that he was going to come up, but I didn't know he was going to commit like that, so he was forcing me inside the 3-point line.
"As soon as I felt him kind of behind me, I was like, 'oh, I have my left hand. It's wide open, so why not go to it?'"
Harry Fry has paid tribute to the admirable mare Love Envoi after her retirement at the Cheltenham Festival.
The bay provided connections with an unforgettable day at the meeting in 2022 when landing the Ryanair Mares’ Novices’ Hurdle, the highlight of an excellent season where she won five successive contests.
The following year, she returned to take on Honeysuckle in the Grade One Close Brothers Mares’ Hurdle and though it was Henry de Bromhead’s superstar who came out on top, Love Envoi was a tough and gallant second when going down by a length and a half.
This term, she began her season with second-placed runs in both the Fighting Fifth Hurdle and the Unibet Hurdle, after which she headed back to Cheltenham for the Mares’ Hurdle as a 14-1 chance.
In a field of 11, the eight-year-old came home a respectable fifth behind the exciting Lossiemouth, and that run will be her last, as she is now set to retire to become a broodmare.
“She’s been a star. She was our second Festival winner and she’s been really consistent, running in some top races over the last couple of seasons,” Fry said.
“It wasn’t quite the swansong we were hoping for, she was still in there with every chance turning in, but younger and fresher legs told.
“Now she will go off to start her second career.
“We won’t be able to replace her, the likes of her don’t come around too often, but they are wonderful memories that she provided us with.”
National female track cyclist Dahlia Palmer and national para-cyclist Marloe Rodman are set to compete on the world stage in the coming days, for a chance of qualifying for the Olympic Games in Paris later this year.
Palmer will continue her quest to amass points towards her world ranking in her pet event, the keirin, at the Nations Cup in Hong Kong China this weekend. Dahlia performed exceptionally well at the Pan Am Games in Chile last November, earning the nation’s first ever medal in the keirin event at that level, with a bronze.
Marloe, who is the first para-cyclist to stand a very good chance of qualifying for the Olympic games will be participating in the Para-cycling Track World Championships in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil on March 21, 2024.
Jamaica’s only Olympic medal outside of track and field was won by Cyclist David Weller in the individual time trial event in the 1980 Olympics in Moscow.
Dame Laura Kenny’s retirement from cycling means she will not add to her five Olympic gold medals and ends the record-breaking run she shared with her husband Sir Jason Kenny.
Here, the PA news agency looks at the pair’s achievements on the biggest stage.
Laura Kenny
Kenny won the team pursuit and omnium double at both London 2012 and Rio 2016, under her maiden name Laura Trott, and when she and Katie Archibald won the Madison at Tokyo 2020 she became the first British woman to win gold at three separate Games.
Silver in the team pursuit also meant she won multiple medals at three successive Games, a feat matched by only Charlotte Dujardin among British women – the equestrian star has three gold, a silver and two bronze to her name.
That team pursuit was, remarkably, the first time Kenny had entered an Olympic event and not won gold. A subsequent sixth place in the omnium and the decision not to continue to Paris this summer leaves her final medal count at five golds and one silver.
She ends her career with seven World Championship, 13 European Championship and two Commonwealth Games gold medals, and 42 total medals across those events and the Olympics.
Jason Kenny
If Laura Kenny is Britain’s highest-achieving female Olympian, her husband holds the overall national record.
Jason Kenny won gold in the team sprint at three straight Olympics, from Beijing 2008 through to Rio. He doubled up with the individual sprint in London and made it a treble in Rio with the keirin.
Winning the latter event in Tokyo gave him a British-record seventh gold, taking him ahead of his long-time sprint team-mate Sir Chris Hoy.
Silver in the individual sprint in Beijing and the team event in Tokyo gives him nine Olympic medals in total – one ahead of Sir Bradley Wiggins as the leading Briton, with Hoy on seven.
Jason Kenny won 28 major medals in total, with three additional golds at the World Championships and one at the European Championships.
Ryan Baird was determined to savour Ireland’s latest Guinness Six Nations title success following inspiration from a framed Maro Itoje jersey and the motivational words of his mother.
The Leinster forward struggled to fully embrace last year’s triumph due to preoccupation with analysing his own performance in the immediate aftermath of the Grand Slam clincher against England.
Baird took home the match shirt of rival star Itoje following that memorable 29-16 St Patrick’s weekend win in Dublin.
In the wake of last weekend’s last-gasp loss at Twickenham, the souvenir provided a timely reminder of the magnitude of championship glory ahead of Saturday’s decisive 17-13 victory over Scotland.
“I struggled to enjoy it last year because I was so frustrated about some of the mistakes I made and it kind of ruined it for me,” said Baird.
“Only when we lost last week and I was back home, my mum for Christmas had framed my jersey with the Maro Itoje jersey for me and she was like, ‘just remember how special that was and how hard they are to win’.
“So when the final whistle went, I’d made a few mistakes in the game but I put that aside.
“I remember being on the ground as the ball was being kicked out and I thought ‘you know what, appreciate the last eight weeks of hard work you have put in, appreciate the time you spent with your team-mates’.
“It didn’t give me a crazy high, it just gave me a satisfaction. I worked hard, we all worked hard.”
Baird, who can operate at lock or flanker, made his Test debut during the 2021 Six Nations.
The 24-year-old has patiently awaited opportunities but could benefit from the potential retirement of captain Peter O’Mahony.
Baird idolises O’Mahony and feels “privileged to be led” by the veteran Munster flanker, who is contemplating his international future after leading his country to silverware.
“He epitomises what it is to be an Irish rugby player,” said Baird, who featured in each of Ireland’s tournament fixtures but only started the round-two win over Italy.
“I said to him before the game how much I look up to him and I said it to him after. Yeah, I idolise him.
“I’m so fortunate to play with him as well, the way he carries himself. He’s such good fun off the pitch and such a hard worker on the pitch.
“You can see it is everything to him and I’m privileged to be led by him.”
Ireland face a two-match summer tour of South Africa before autumn clashes with New Zealand, Argentina, Fiji and Australia.
Baird hopes to add to his 20 caps – 14 of which have come as a replacement – against the top southern hemisphere sides.
“I just want to fulfil my potential and I feel very fortunate to be in this group,” he said.
“I’m not representing me, I’m representing family and friends and the big thing we always say is we want to inspire the nation.
“As I get older I’m realising more that I am less selfish in my views as to why I am doing this.
“I do it first because I love playing rugby and I love representing this country and what this gives others when we do this and when we win.
“I’m starting to appreciate that more and I guess it’s why I’m more fond of this one (Six Nations title).”
Andy Murray has revealed he is still unsure exactly when this summer he will retire as a tennis player.
Murray, 36, said last month that he “did not plan on playing much past this summer” and in an interview with The Times he explained why he cannot be more specific about when he hangs up his racket.
He said: “I would love the chance to play in another Olympics, but also genuinely only if I felt like there was a chance of winning a medal.
“I’m also very conscious that because of how amazing my experiences at the Olympics have been, I would want to be there by right and not just take one of the other guys’ spots, because it is a brilliant opportunity.
“We have top doubles players (Joe Salisbury and Neal Skupski are ranked inside the world’s top 10) and also Jack (Draper), Cam (Norrie) and Evo (Dan Evans) in singles as well.”
Murray, a three-time grand slam winner, who held the number one spot in the men’s singles rankings for a total of 41 weeks in the same era as Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic, could focus on the doubles at the Paris Olympics, which will be played on his least favourite surface, clay.
He reached the quarter-finals in partnership with Salisbury at Tokyo 2020 and added: “When I played with Joe, I had the conversation beforehand with him that my feeling was there was a greater chance of me winning a medal in doubles than singles.”
Murray said he was “bored” of being questioned about when he will retire, saying: “It’s been happening since Wimbledon last year in most weeks. It’s something that I’ve had to talk about and entertain.
“Obviously at some stage the end will come. It’s not an easy decision to know exactly when that will be or when it should be.”
The Los Angeles Clippers need to discover their identity, so said Paul George after a loss to the Atlanta Hawks made it four defeats from five games.
Los Angeles slipped to a 110-93 defeat to the Hawks on Sunday, leaving them just one game ahead of the surging New Orleans Pelicans in the tussle for the number four seed in the Western Conference.
Kawhi Leonard led the Clippers with 28 points while George added 26, though James Harden contributed just nine, albeit while laying on as many assists.
But the Clippers' veterans did not have enough to drag Tyronn Lue's team over the line.
When asked if the Clippers were resembling a team of stars who though they could switch their game on at ease, George replied: "I mean that's what we're appearing to look like, which is not good.
"We want to be a team that's consistent and we want to establish an identity. I've always spoken about having an identity and I think it's extremely important.
"Right now, I don't think we have an identity."
Leonard suggested the Clippers' mentality has to change.
"It's between the ears with us," he said. "We've got to go out and do it.
"Just seeing what we want to do. That's it. What type of team we want to be.
"If everybody's saying they want to be one of the last teams standing, then we got to go out and do it."
Coach Lue is searching for answers.
"When they do it, it works," he said. "When you have so much talent and you have guys that can do it so easily, they don't understand that your talent is great, but the talent's got to be for the team as well.
"Maybe it's me. Maybe I've got to do something a little different to make sure that we're doing what we're supposed to do. [But] I'll never really overreact because I know we're a good team.
"If you want to win, I know what it looks like. I've been there, I've seen it."
Dame Laura Kenny has always been able to light up any room she steps into, and never more than when she is in a velodrome.
Bright and bubbly, she became the face of British Cycling’s more than decade-long dominance on the track from the moment Kenny, then Trott, announced her talent to the wider world at London 2012.
The two Olympic gold medals she won barely 20 miles from her childhood home in Cheshunt, Hertfordshire, were the first of five that made her Britain’s most successful female Olympian, and the most successful female Olympic cyclist on the planet.
But on Monday she announced it will be five and out, calling time on her decorated career at the age of 31, ending outside chances she may ride at the Paris Games.
Already in a hurry, Laura Trott was born a month prematurely with a collapsed lung. Diagnosed with asthma, she was advised to take up sport to regulate her breathing.
She started trampolining but switched to cycling after mum Glenda began riding to lose weight. Laura and her sister Emma went along – and both made careers out of it, Emma as a road rider and coach, and Laura as one of the greatest track stars the sport has ever seen.
She started winning races at her local track, Welwyn, aged eight, and got hooked on success. A world junior omnium title earned her a place on Britain’s senior roster and aged only 18 she was part of the team pursuit squad that won European gold.
Having set herself a goal of making the Rio Games in 2016, Kenny was on her way to the London Olympics.
There was an inevitability to winning team pursuit gold – the world record was broken all six times Trott teamed up with Joanna Rowsell and Dani King (nee Rowe). Two days later, Kenny came from behind to claim omnium gold as well.
That made her Britain’s second double champion of the Games after Jason Kenny. A day later the pair were seen kissing as they sat behind David Beckham at the beach volleyball. Cycling had its new golden couple.
After they replicated their London success in Rio – Laura winning two golds and Jason three – they got married close to home in Cheshire.
They say opposites attract, and if Jason is a self-professed “miserable sod”, Laura is the charismatic marketer’s dream with the success to match. “It was just like yin and yang,” Laura said.
Thoughts like this tumble out of Kenny every time she sits down for an interview. She might want to talk about her love of Bruce Springsteen’s music, or how she once saw her grandmother’s ghost, or how she and Jason ended up adopting a family of ducks that came into their garden.
But she is just as open about the challenges she has faced, and recent years have been an emotional rollercoaster.
A year after Rio, Laura gave birth to son Albie. While Jason quietly retired – a decision he reversed before even announcing it – Laura was clear she intended to return in time for Tokyo.
She did so, but perhaps needed the Covid-enforced postponement of the Games to recover from a string of injuries suffered in early 2020. In Tokyo, Britain’s dominance in the velodrome came under increasing threat, and they settled for silver in the team pursuit.
Kenny’s fifth gold came alongside Katie Archibald in the first ever women’s Madison at an Olympics, but she lost her omnium crown after a heavy crash in the scratch race.
That disappointment was nothing compared to the trauma that was to come. In November, Kenny suffered a miscarriage. Then in January she had an ectopic pregnancy and lost a fallopian tube during emergency surgery.
She did not reveal either until she had just won team pursuit silver at the Nations Cup in Glasgow, but in characteristic fashion she spoke openly of the impact – how she questioned her future in the sport but used cycling as a her safety blanket.
She surprised herself with Commonwealth Gold in the summer of 2022 before the healthy arrival of a second son, Monty, in 2023 gave Kenny the sign she needed to know it was time to retire.
Dame Laura Kenny has announced her retirement from cycling.
The 31-year-old leaves the scene as Britain’s most successful female Olympian, and the most successful female cyclist in Olympic history.
She was also the first British woman to win golds at three consecutive Games after her titles at the 2012, 2016 and 2020 Olympics.
Here, the PA news agency looks at Kenny’s five Olympic golds.
Team Pursuit – London 2012
There was something inevitable about Great Britain’s win in the women’s team pursuit. Including pre-Olympic races and the event itself, in the six times Kenny, then Trott, had joined Joanna Rowsell and Dani King (now Rowe) in riding the event, they broke the world record six times. They lowered the bar to three minutes 15.669 seconds in qualifying, shaved off another second in the first round, and then won gold in a time of 3:14.051.
Omnium – London 2012
A day after the team pursuit, Trott was back on track for the first three events of the omnium. She led after day one, having won both the flying lap and elimination race, but was worried 10th place in the points race would cost her. “I messaged my dad halfway through the omnium saying, ‘I can’t do this, I’ve messed this up’,” she later said. “He is always that person that keeps me calm.” Whatever he said in reply, it worked. Although American Sarah Hammer nosed in front after the individual pursuit and doubled her advantage in the scratch race, Trott won the closing time trial to claim gold.
Team Pursuit – Rio 2016
The women’s team pursuit was expanded from three riders per team and three kilometres to four riders and four kilometres in Rio, but there was no change at the top of the standings as Trott and Rowsell Shand teamed up with Katie Archibald and Elinor Barker to retain Britain’s title. And there was a familiar pattern too as they broke the world record in all three rounds, eventually winning in a time of four minutes 10.236 seconds.
Omnium – Rio 2016
After her tense battle with Hammer in London, Trott left absolutely no doubt about who would win omnium gold in Rio. She was either first or second in the opening five events, and so went into the closing points race with a 24-point cushion over her American rival which would never be threatened. “To do what I did in London and to come here and do it again, honestly I cannot believe it,” she said.
Madison – Tokyo 2020
The Tokyo Olympics were a very different affair for Kenny for many different reasons. She gave birth to son Albie a year after Rio, returning to competition in 2018. But she suffered a string of crashes in the run up to the Games, and had they not been postponed for a year amid the pandemic, it is not clear she would have made it. Britain’s dominance was under threat and they had to settle for silver in the team pursuit. But Kenny and team-mate Katie Archibald had done their homework for the first women’s Madison to be staged at an Olympics and bossed the race, winning the first three sprints and then extending their advantage after the Dutch pair of Kirsten Wild and Amy Pieters, reigning world champions, were caught in a crash with 70 laps remaining.
Dame Laura Kenny, Britain’s most successful female Olympic athlete, has announced her cycling retirement.
The 31-year-old has won five Olympic gold medals in her decorated career and had been expected to compete at the Paris Games this summer, but she told the BBC it was time to stop.
Speaking to BBC Breakfast, Kenny said: “I always knew deep down I would know when was the right time. I have had an absolute blast but now is the time for me to hang that bike up.”
Kenny and her husband, Sir Jason Kenny – Britain’s most decorated Olympian – last year welcomed a second son to their family and she said spending time at home was proving more and more alluring to her.
“It’s been in my head a little while, the sacrifices of leaving the children and your family at home is really quite big and it really is a big decision to make,” she added.
“More and more, I was struggling to do that. More people asking me what races was I doing, what training camps was I going on – I didn’t want to go ultimately and that’s what it came down to.
“I knew the minute I was getting those feelings. Once I said to Jase, ‘I don’t think I want to ride a bike anymore’, I started to feel relief.”
Rachael Blackmore became the first female jockey to ride a Gold Cup winner with her victory on A Plus Tard on this day in 2022.
A year after her trailblazing success in the Grand National, the Irish rider grabbed another slice of history at Cheltenham on the 3-1 favourite.
Blackmore had finished second on the same horse a year earlier, unable to get past stablemate Henry de Bromhead-trained Minella Indo.
This time she turned the result on its head, biding her time to come from four lengths behind into the penultimate fence to chase down Indo and sprint clear.
“I just can’t believe it. I’m so lucky to be getting to ride all these kind of horses,” she said in the aftermath.
“You can’t do this without the horses and being attached to Henry’s yard is just absolutely phenomenal. To give me this horse is unbelievable. I don’t know what to say.
“I’ve had so many special days. I wouldn’t swap the Grand National for anything, but this is the Gold Cup!
“You have all these plans about how things are going to work out. Racing doesn’t let that happen all the time and for some reason it’s happened to me today. I just can’t explain how lucky I feel.”
De Bromhead put it down to more than luck, adding: “Rachael was so brave, the way she went about
it, it was brilliant.”
Kyrie Irving hit a dramatic floating shot with 0.4 seconds left to play that gave the Dallas Mavericks a thrilling 107-105 victory over the Denver Nuggets on Sunday, a result that halted the reigning NBA champions' five-game winning streak.
Irving took an in-bounds pass from Maxi Kleber and dribbled to just behind the free-throw line before sinking a left-handed runner that lifted the Mavericks to their fifth win in six games. Dallas scored the contest's final five points after the Nuggets fought back from a 13-point fourth-quarter deficit to take a late 105-102 lead.
Denver trailed 98-85 with 6:50 remaining before briefly moving ahead with a 20-4 run. After Nikola Jokić's jumper with 1:05 to go tied the game at 102-102, Jamal Murray capped the spurt with a go-ahead 3-pointer with 27.7 seconds left.
Luka Dončić answered with a 3-pointer on Dallas' ensuing possession, however, and Murray misfired on the Nuggets' next trip down the court to set up Irving's heroics.
Doncic finished with 37 points and nine rebounds, while Irving had 24 points and nine assists as the star guard duo accounted for over half of the Mavericks' scoring total.
Muray had 12 of his 23 points in the fourth quarter to help bring the Nuggets back, while Michael Porter Jr. recorded 20 points and Jokic compiled 16 points, 11 rebounds and seven assists.
Hot-shooting Bucks outscore Suns despite Antetokounmpo's absence
On a day in which they were without Giannis Antetokounmpo, the Milwaukee Bucks got big performances from Damian Lillard and Bobby Porits and a season-high 24 3-pointers to come through with a 140-129 win over the Phoenix Suns.
Portis went 5 of 5 from beyond the arc while amassing 31 points and 10 rebounds off the bench, while Lillard also had 31 points while matching a career high with 16 assists as Milwaukee prevailed despite Antetokounmpo sitting out with a sore hamstring.
The Bucks got plenty of other contributors while connecting on 58.5 per cent of their 3-point attempts for the game. Khris Middleton poured in 22 points in 25 minutes in his return from a 16-game absence, while Malik Beasley finished 5 of 8 from 3-point range in a 17-point effort.
Phoenix closed out a 2-2 road trip on a down note despite shooting 58.6 per cent from the field, including an 11-of-15 outing from Bradley Beal in which he tallied 28 points.
Former Buck Grayson Allen added 25 points while making 6 of 11 of his 3-point tries, but Milwaukee held Suns star Kevin Durant to a season-low 11 points.
The Bucks seized control with a big second quarter in which they outscored Phoenix by a 43-24 margin to extend a 39-36 first-quarter lead into a commanding 82-60 advantage at half-time. Portis led the way with 25 points on 10-of-13 shooting over the first two periods.
Phoenix cut its deficit down to 100-94 late in the third quarter, but the Bucks ended the period on a 9-0 run capped by a Lillard 3 that gave them a 109-94 lead into the fourth.
Milwaukee maintained a lead of at least seven points the rest of the way.
Hawks halt three-game skid with key win over Clippers
Dejounte Murray totalled 21 points and 10 assists as the Atlanta Hawks got back on track with a 110-93 victory over the slumping Los Angeles Clippers.
De'Andre Hunter added 20 points on 8-of-13 shooting off the bench to help the Hawks snap a three-game losing streak and hand the Pacific Division-leading Clippers a fourth defeat in five games.
Murray hit 5 of 10 attempts from 3-point range as Atlanta shot 50 per cent (17 of 34) from beyond the arc compared to 30.6 per cent for Los Angeles, which struggled to get any complementary scoring beyond stars Kawhi Leonard and Paul George.
Leonard finished with 28 points and George had 26, but no other Los Angeles player reached double figures despite James Harden's return from a two-game absence caused by a strained left shoulder.
Harden dished out nine assists but had just nine points on 3-of-10 shooting in 36 minutes.
The Clippers particularly struggled during a second quarter in which they were outscored by a 30-15 margin by Atlanta, which opened up the period on an 8-0 run to build a 39-29 lead just over two minutes in.
Atlanta later scored 12 consecutive points to extend its advantage to 61-40 with two minutes remaining before half-time, and the Hawks' margin grew to as many as 29 points early in the fourth quarter.
The New York Rangers registered three second-period goals en route to a 5-2 victory over the New York Islanders on Sunday that extended their cross-town rival's recent struggles.
Mika Zibanejad, Will Cuylle and Jonny Brodzinski all scored during the Rangers' big second period, with Brodzinski's tally snapping a 2-2 tie with 4:59 left in the frame.
The Rangers withstood two goals from the Islanders' Bo Horvat, including a short-handed marker in the first period, to record their fifth win in six games and maintain a four-point edge over Carolina for first place in the Metropolitan Division. The Hurricanes posted a 7-2 win over the Ottawa Senators on Sunday.
On the other side, the Islanders have now lost four straight (0-3-1) and remain one point behind in the race for the Eastern Conference's final wild-card spot.
Zibanejad scored 27 seconds into the second to tie the game at 1-1 before Cuylle put the Rangers ahead midway through the period. Horvat tied the contest just 3:41 afterward, but Brodzinski answered just over a minute later to give the Rangers a 3-2 edge.
The Rangers then put the game out of reach with goals by Kaapo Kakko and Alexis Lafreniere in the third period.
Igor Shesterkin finished with 25 saves for the Rangers, while counterpart Ilya Sorokin had 26 for the Islanders.
Crosby helps Penguins garner needed win over Red Wings
Sidney Crosby had one of three first-period goals for the Pittsburgh Penguins, who gained some ground in the East's play-off race with a key 6-3 win over the Detroit Red Wings.
Crosby added an assist in addition to ending an 11-game goal drought to help the Penguins close within five points of Detroit for the conference's final wild-card spot.
Reilly Smith, Valtteri Puustinen and Lars Eller also had a goal and an assist for Pittsburgh to aid a 25-save effort from Alex Nedeljkovic.
Smith opened the scoring midway through the first period, though the Red Wings quickly got back even on Lucas Raymond's first of two goals of the game.
Crosby then swatted a rebound past Detroit goaltender Alex Lyon to put Pittsburgh back ahead with 1:07 to go in the first, and Puustinen followed a mere 23 seconds later for a 3–1 Penguins' lead.
Crosby's goal was the 583rd of his career, tying fellow great Wayne Gretzky (Edmonton Oilers) for the seventh-most by any player with one franchise in NHL history.
Pittsburgh further extended the margin on Michael Bunting's goal midway through the second period. The Red Wings would close within 4-2 when Christian Fischer one-timed a feed from Michael Rasmussen past Nedeljkovic with 2:25 left in the frame, but Eller restored the Penguins' three-goal advantage with a power-play tally shortly before the second intermission.
Raymond scored on a power play with 2:23 remaining to cut Pittsburgh's lead to 5-3, but the Red Wings could not get closer and the Penguins' Drew O'Connor sealed the outcome with an empty-net goal with 26 seconds left.
Detroit, which halted a seven-game losing streak with Saturday's 4-1 win over the Buffalo Sabres, received 32 saves from Lyon on 37 chances.
Eichel nets game-winner as Golden Knights top Devils
Jack Eichel scored the go-ahead goal with 8:54 remaining as the Vegas Golden Knights rallied in the third period to earn a 3-1 victory over the New Jersey Devils.
The defending Stanley Cup champions scored three times in the final 18 minutes to erase a 1-0 deficit and solidify their hold on a play-off spot with their third win in four games. Vegas is tied with the Los Angeles Kings for third place in the Pacific Division and stayed four points in front of St. Louis for the Western Conference's final wild card.
The Blues kept pace with Sunday's 4-2 win over the Anaheim Ducks.
Despite Vegas owning a 24-14 shot advantage over the Devils through the first two periods, the teams remained deadlocked in a scoreless tie until New Jersey's Nico Hischier ended the stalemate 38 seconds into the third.
The Golden Knights finally got on the board when William Carrier scored 2:57 into the final period, then went ahead when Eichel ripped a shot past New Jersey goaltender Jake Allen just past the 11-minute mark.
Allen was pulled for an extra attacker with under two minutes left, but Logan Thompson came up with three key late saves before William Karlsson scored into the Devils' empty net in the final seconds to seal the outcome.
Thompson finished with 20 saves while Allen stopped 34 of 36 shots for New Jersey, which fell to 2-7-0 in March.
Carlos Alcaraz defeated Russia’s Daniil Medvedev 7-6 (5) 6-1 on Sunday to win his second-straight BNP Paribas Open title at Indian Wells.
The world number two took only one hour and 42 minutes to claim victory, marking Alcaraz’s first title since his triumph at Wimbledon last year.
The 20-year-old Spaniard began the Indian Wells tournament with a 6-3 record on the season and an injured ankle, which he sustained during his latest outing in Rio de Janeiro.
Medvedev started strong in the match’s opening rounds, establishing a 3-0 lead as Alcaraz’s errors began to pile up.
It did not take long for Alcaraz to find his feet though, breaking back before matching the world number four to force a tie-break.
He almost let an early lead in the tie-break slip by, but recovered again to take the first set in just over an hour.
Once he had broken out in front, the world number two was barely troubled in the second set en route to retaining his Indian Wells title.
He told reporters on-court after the match that the win had bolstered his confidence following his Rio injury scare.
“Winning this tournament means a lot to me because the week before it began, I had a lot of doubts about my ankle,” Alcaraz said.
“I remember my first practice here was just 30 minutes with no movement, and probably the first practice with really good tennis players was really tough for me because I thought I was not going to play my best.”
He added: “I was not feeling well with my ankle, so a lot of doubts for me. But once I stepped on the court, the first round, I started to feel better.”
Andy Farrell is relishing a shot at the world’s best as Ireland pursue perfection after continuing their northern hemisphere domination with another Guinness Six Nations title.
Ireland turn their attention to a two-match summer tour of South Africa having retained the championship crown following last year’s Grand Slam by beating Scotland 17-13 in Dublin.
Many pundits feel Farrell’s in-form side are already Test rugby’s leading nation, an opinion understandably disputed in the Springbok camp following their back-to-back Rugby World Cup successes.
While Ireland have won their last three clashes with the Webb Ellis Cup holders, they have only once achieved that feat on South African soil – a 26-20 Cape Town triumph under Joe Schmidt in 2016.
“It doesn’t get any more difficult, does it, or any more exciting than that,” Farrell said of the July fixtures in Pretoria and Durban.
“All you want is an opportunity to put yourself out there against the best and South Africa are 100 per cent the best.
“Being able to go out there and test ourselves over there – we’ve managed to win one game over there before – will be great for our development going forward.”
Ireland have won 33 of their last 37 Tests stretching back to 2021 following a memorable St Patrick’s weekend.
Defeat by France in 2022, a pair of losses against New Zealand, including in the quarter-finals of last year’s World Cup, and last weekend’s last-gasp 23-22 reverse against England are the only blemishes on the remarkable record.
Ireland’s latest Six Nations success came following the retirements of long-serving stars Johnny Sexton and Keith Earls, while outstanding wing Mack Hansen was among those unavailable due to injury.
Head coach Farrell, whose side also have autumn appointments with the All Blacks, Argentina, Fiji and Australia on the horizon, wants to keep raising the bar.
“To be consistently at your best is probably impossible but that is what we’re going after,” said the Englishman.
“But when class players drop out of the squad, it’s always going to take time to build back up and if you can do that winning, or learning from the experiences like at Twickenham or whatever, then that’s all well and good.
“But the reality is that there’s plenty more in us and there has to be for what’s coming for the rest of the year.”
Ireland captain Peter O’Mahony feels a responsibility to keep building on the foundations laid by former team-mates such as Sexton.
“You always represent the past players,” said the Munster flanker, who is contemplating his own retirement.
“They’re a huge part, and even Johnny popping into the hotel last week, it’s something that we should probably make a bit more regular.
“They’ve been there for a long, long time and Johnny has been a huge part of where we are now and Earlsy is, like everyone who has put a huge amount of effort into the group.
“Every time you pull it on (Ireland’s shirt) it’s for lots of those people as well and you’d like to think that they’re proud sitting at home, the people who can’t take the field any more.”
Munster fly-half Jack Crowley, who has filled the void left by Sexton, and Leinster lock Joe McCarthy are part of the new generation tasked with maintaining high standards.
Farrell has urged the rookie pair to ignore the hype surrounding their standout Six Nations performances.
“Jack’s a realist,” said Farrell. “And do you know what? I’ve been hard on him.
“Jack will tell you that because it’s easy to read the press and get carried away that, ‘I’m doing it and I am doing really well’.
“But we’ve kept his feet on the ground and Joe McCarthy as well because there has to be a realisation that’s not what we’re chasing.
“We’re chasing something better than that and as long as we can continue to do that we’ll continue to grow as a group.”
Dillian Whyte made a winning return to the ring with a three-round victory over Christian Hammer in Ireland.
The former WBC interim heavyweight champion, fighting for the first time since clearing his name of doping offences, proved too strong for his Romanian-born opponent in Castlebar, County Mayo.
Hammer failed to get up from his stool for the fourth round, forcing the referee to stop the bout and hand Whyte his 30th professional victory.
The 35-year-old Briton had not fought since his victory over Jermaine Franklin at Wembley in November 2022.
He had been lined up to face Anthony Joshua last August but the proposed match-up never happened after Whyte tested positive for a banned substance.
Whyte protested his innocence and was cleared to resume his career after it was accepted he had consumed a contaminated supplement.
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