Category: Sports

  • Heat and Grizzlies take final spots in the NBA playoffs

    Heat and Grizzlies take final spots in the NBA playoffs

    Tyler Herro scored 30 points as the Miami Heat reached the NBA playoffs with a thrilling 123-114 overtime defeat of the Atlanta Hawks in their Eastern Conference play-in clash on Friday.

    The Heat, which recovered from a 10-game losing streak in March to reach the play-in, will now face top-seeded Cleveland Cavaliers in the opening round of the playoffs.

    Miami become the first tenth-seed to reach the NBA playoffs via the play-in and they did so via two wins on the road, having also won in Chicago on Wednesday.

    In Atlanta, Miami dominated the opening half, leading by 17 points before going in 62-53 up at the interval. But the Hawks fought back superbly, taking the lead 91-88 with 7:36 left.

    Atlanta then opened up a 98-92 advantage before Miami came back again only for Trae Young to level the game with 1.1 seconds remaining after a driving lay-up.

    But the Heat saved their best for last with Davion Mitchell making three three-pointers in overtime and Herro adding two more.

    “Two competitive teams, fighting for the last spot in the playoffs. That was exactly what you saw. Both teams were deserving. I loved how my team fought,” said Herro.

    “Every single run that they made, we answered. And I feel like this entire season has really built us up for this point.

    The Cavaliers will start as heavy favourites in the best-of-seven series which gets underway in Cleveland on Sunday.

    Young top-scored for Atlanta with 29 points while Onyeka Okongwu scored 28 and grabbed 12 rebounds.

    The final spot in the Western Conference playoffs was secured by the Memphis Grizzlies which beat the Dallas Mavericks 120-106.

    Despite dealing with an ankle problem, Ja Morant scored 22 points and made nine assists for the Grizzlies  who will face the first seeded Oklahoma City Thunder in the first round.

    For Dallas, the defeat concludes a miserable season which included the departure of star Luka Doncic to the Los Angeles Lakers.

    Anthony Davis, who moved to Dallas in that controversial trade, received medical treatment for injury problems throughout the game but led the team with 40 points and nine rebounds.

    Memphis led by 15 points at the end of the first quarter and although Dallas fought back in the third, they never truly threatened the Grizzlies.

    Morant indicated that the painkillers had worked for his sprained ankle.

    “I couldn’t feel it. That’s why I was out there,” he told ESPN.

    “(We are) the underdogs. Obviously, we go on to face a tough team in OKC, but we have all the confidence in ourselves and (are) ready to go Sunday.

    “It’s a big challenge. Obviously, you know, we all have seen them, you know, over this season. Very well-rounded team. We have to be very sound defensively. Very disciplined and just play our type of basketball,” he added.

  • Ancelotti to discuss Real Madrid future at ‘end of season’

    Ancelotti to discuss Real Madrid future at ‘end of season’

    Carlo Ancelotti will discuss his future with Real Madrid at the end of the season, the coach said Saturday, following the Champions League holders’ elimination by Arsenal.

    After the record 15-time winners lost on Wednesday in the quarter-finals, thrashed 5-1 on aggregate, speculation grew that Madrid would dismiss the Italian coach in the coming weeks.

    “At the end of the season we will speak about (my future) with the club,” Ancelotti told a news conference, batting away various questions on a similar theme.

    Ancelotti’s contract is due to end in 2026.

    “I have spoken with the players and the club, we all agree, we have to fight for the titles there are on the line,” continued the 65-year-old, ahead of Sunday’s clash with Athletic Bilbao in La Liga.

    Spanish champions Real Madrid trail leaders Barcelona by four points and will also face the Catalans in the Copa del Rey final on April 26.

    “Obviously we are all hurt, and the fans, after going out of maybe the most important competition, or at least the one Madrid has had the most success in, in recent years,” said Ancelotti.

    “We are all in the same boat, in the good and the bad times… the president (Florentino Perez) has always shown me the most affection in these moments than in the moments when we have won.”

    Ancelotti has been linked with coaching the Brazilian national team after Dorival Junior was sacked following a heavy defeat by Argentina.

    “I don’t have to say anything at all, as I said already, at the end of the season we will speak about this,” said Ancelotti.

    The coach said he did not know whether the “end of the season” came before or after the Club World Cup, which Madrid are participating in from June 14 in the United States.

  • ‘I wanted to slap him!’ – Arteta reveals reaction to Saka’s penalty miss

    ‘I wanted to slap him!’ – Arteta reveals reaction to Saka’s penalty miss

    Mikel Arteta joked he wanted to “slap” Bukayo Saka after his early penalty miss against Real Madrid but praised the winger’s quick recovery in Arsenal’s dramatic 2-1 win at the Bernabeu.

    Leading 3-0 from the first leg, Arsenal had a chance to strike early in the return leg when awarded a 13th-minute penalty. But Saka’s chipped Panenka was easily saved by Thibaut Courtois.

    “I didn’t want to die but maybe I wanted to slap him,” Arteta said.

    “He made that decision, he was bold enough to do it and he missed. I was more concerned about the emotional part. What it could do for us.”

    Saka soon made up for it, however, giving Arsenal the lead with a composed lofted finish after a pass from Mikel Merino.

    Real Madrid hit back two minutes later through Vinicius Jr, capitalizing on a William Saliba error.

    But Gabriel Martinelli sealed a memorable win in stoppage time, again assisted by Merino, sending Arsenal to their first Champions League semi-final since 2009.

    “The personality he showed at his age, in the first time he played in this stadium, incredible,” Arteta added.

    Arsenal also became the first English club to win twice at the Bernabeu. They now face PSG in the semi-finals, with Barcelona or Inter Milan potentially awaiting in the final.

  • Ancelotti set to leave Real Madrid after Copa del Rey final

    Ancelotti set to leave Real Madrid after Copa del Rey final

    Carlo Ancelotti’s second spell at Real Madrid is reportedly coming to an end, with the Italian manager expected to depart in the coming weeks.

    Following Real Madrid’s recent Champions League exit at the hands of Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal, the pressure has mounted.

    Sources from Sky Sport UK suggest that Ancelotti’s departure is all but confirmed.

    Club president Florentino Perez is said to be planning a respectful farewell for the veteran coach, likely to take place after the Copa del Rey final on April 26.

    Meanwhile, Roma have emerged as a potential destination for Ancelotti.

    The Serie A side has been repeatedly linked with him in recent months, viewing the experienced tactician as a possible successor to Claudio Ranieri.

  • Nottingham Forest still in control of Champions League chase – Coach

    Nottingham Forest still in control of Champions League chase – Coach

    Nuno Espirito Santo says Nottingham Forest’s Champions League qualification bid is still “in our hands” despite back to back Premier League defeats.

    Losses to Aston Villa and Everton over the past two weeks have allowed Newcastle to leapfrog Forest into third place with just six games to go — four points behind second-placed Arsenal.

    Just five points separate Newcastle (59) from Villa, in seventh spot.

    Newcastle, Manchester City and Villa are all hitting form as they chase a top-five finish that would guarantee qualification for Europe’s elite club competition next season, with Chelsea also in the mix.

    Two-time European champions Forest could be sixth in the table by the time they play at Tottenham on Monday.

    Nuno, whose side has occupied a top-four spot since November, said at his pre-match press conference on Thursday that his men would not go quietly.

    “Nothing has changed since last week — it is up to us, it’s in our hands, we can’t control other teams, we can’t control the results,” he said.

    “We have to focus, and it’s about improvement. Now it’s about reacting and improving.

    “The expectation around us started the moment we were able to perform and get results.

    “We embrace the challenges, we are not stepping back. We are stepping in. We want to embrace it. We want to try and get it.”

    Forest have not played in Europe’s elite competition since the 1980/81 season, when they were two-time defending champions under former manager Brian Clough.

    Liverpool are on the brink of winning a record-equalling 20th English top-flight title.

  • Virgil van Dijk signs new two-year deal with Liverpool

    Virgil van Dijk signs new two-year deal with Liverpool

    Liverpool captain Virgil van Dijk has committed his future to the Premier League club by signing a new two-year contract on Thursday.

    The Dutch centre-back follows Mohamed Salah in ending months of speculation by extending his stay at Anfield.

  • No cuts to Afghanistan Cricket Board funding planned by ICC

    No cuts to Afghanistan Cricket Board funding planned by ICC

    The Afghanistan Cricket Board will not see any of its funding from the International Cricket Council cut or diverted to its exiled women’s cricketers.

    An initiative to support the displaced Afghan players was announced by the ICC following its board meeting in Zimbabwe last weekend.

    However, as reported by ESPN Cricinfo,, external cricket’s global governing body will not reduce or siphon off money earmarked for the ACB, even though part of the criteria for full membership of the ICC is to support women’s cricket.

    The ICC will support the Afghan women through a separate funding mechanism, while the ACB will continue to receive a payment believed to be in the region of £13m per year.

    All of that funding will go towards men’s cricket in Afghanistan, with women’s sport outlawed in the country since the Taliban returned to power in 2021.

    The ACB is the only full ICC member not to field a women’s team.

    Instead, Afghanistan’s women’s cricketers will be funded by the ICC in conjunction with the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB), Cricket Australia and the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI).

    An Afghanistan Women’s XI played an exhibition match in Melbourne in January and want to be recognised as a refugee team.

    But the ICC is understood to have acknowledged that the prospect of Afghanistan’s women playing official international matches in the near future is a distant one as it would need to be sanctioned by the ACB.

    Afghanistan’s women have been promised a robust high-performance programme offering “advanced coaching, world-class facilities and tailored mentorship” which the ICC hopes will “help them reach their full potential”.

    Afghanistan’s men’s team have retained their Test status, reached the semi-finals of last year’s T20 World Cup and participated in the Champions Trophy earlier this year.

    BBC Sport has approached the ACB for comment.

  • Heat knock out Bulls as Mavs set up Grizzlies tie

    Heat knock out Bulls as Mavs set up Grizzlies tie

    The Miami Heat eliminated the Chicago Bulls to progress in the NBA play-in tournament – beating the six-time Championship winners 109-90.

    Tyler Herro scored 38 points as the Heat set up a game against the Atlanta Hawks, with the winner earning the right to take on top-seeded Cleveland Cavaliers in the first round of the Eastern Conference play-offs.

    The Heat’s victory came after three regular season defeats by the Bulls.

    “Chicago humbled us this year,” Miami coach Erik Spoelstra said.

    “They have a unique style of play, the way they play with that pace, and they score.

    “They had two games where we felt like we were in control of the game both times in the fourth quarter and they came storming back and had some impressive scoring quarters. Our guys really respected how much they could score.”

    Should Miami beat the Hawks, they would achieve a franchise record of reaching the play-offs for a sixth consecutive season.

    Mavs to face Grizzlies

    In the Western Conference, the Dallas Mavericks beat the Sacramento Kings 120-106 to set-up a play-in tie against the Memphis Grizzlies.

    Klay Thompson scored 23 points – 16 of which came in the second quarter alone – to advance against the Grizzlies.

    The winner of that tie will take on top-seeded Oklahoma City in the opening play-off game.

    NBA acknowledge officiating errors

    The play-in tournament features the teams who finished in seventh to 10th in both Conferences.

    They face off to determine who fills the final two spots in their Conference play-offs.

    Under the play-in format, seventh play eighth – with the winners going straight into the play-offs. The loser gets a second chance against the winners of an eliminator between ninth and 10th.

    The Grizzlies, who finished eighth in the Western Conference, go into the ‘second chance’ game against the Mavericks having lost their first play-in tie, to the seventh-placed Golden State Warriors, in controversial circumstances.

    The Warriors secured their play-off spot following a late flurry against the Grizzlies.

    However, the NBA has since acknowledged officiating errors in the final moments of the match.

    With the Warriors leading 117-116, the NBA’s Last Two Minute Report said the Grizzlies should have been awarded the ball with 7.6 seconds left after Stephen Curry got the last contact on an out-of-bounds play.

    It was Curry that then sank two free throws to give the Warriors a 119-116 lead.

  • Wilson to face Lei, O’Sullivan v Carter at World Championship

    Wilson to face Lei, O’Sullivan v Carter at World Championship

    Defending champion Kyren Wilson will play Lei Peifan with Ronnie O’Sullivan set to face Ali Carter in the first round of the World Championship as he bids for a record eighth title in the modern era.

    O’Sullivan, 49, who is yet to confirm if he will participate, has not played competitively since snapping his cue at the Championship League in January.

    His prospective meeting with Carter is a repeat of the 2008 and 2012 finals, which were both won by ‘The Rocket’.

    World number one Judd Trump will take on Zhou Yuelong, while Masters winner Shaun Murphy will play debutant Daniel Wells.

    Four-time world champion Mark Selby will meet qualifier Ben Woollaston, who is appearing in the televised stages of the competition for the first time since 2013.

    John Higgins, who has also won four world crowns, will play Joe O’Connor, while 2024 finalist Jak Jones faces a difficult assignment against former UK champion Zhao Xintong, who is competing as an amateur having served a ban for breaching betting regulations.

    Zhao is one of a record 10 Chinese players to reach this stage of the tournament with Ding Junhui facing another man making his debut in Zak Surety and Si Jiahui, who reached the last four two years ago, playing David Gilbert, a semi-finalist in 2024.

    There are a number of other intriguing encounters in the draw, with 2010 champion Neil Robertson facing Chris Wakelin, Mark Allen taking on Fan Zhengyi, and Barry Hawkins playing Hossein Vafaei.

    The tournament begins on Saturday at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, with live coverage across the TodayPriceNG

    First-round draw

    Kyren Wilson v Lei Peifan

    Jak Jones v Zhao Xintong

    Neil Robertson v Chris Wakelin

    Mark Allen v Fan Zhengyi

    Ronnie O’Sullivan v Ali Carter

    Zhang Anda v Pang Junxu

    Si Jiahui v David Gilbert

    Mark Selby v Ben Woollaston

    John Higgins v Joe O’Connor

    Xiao Guodong v Matthew Selt

    Barry Hawkins v Hossein Vafaei

    Mark Williams v Wu Yize

    Luca Brecel v Ryan Day

    Ding Junhui v Zak Surety

    Shaun Murphy v Daniel Wells

    Judd Trump v Zhou Yuelong

    Analysis – ‘It’s a horrible draw’ for O’Sullivan

    Mark Selby, four-time world champion on BBC Radio 5 Live

    I don’t think either of them [Ronnie O’Sullivan or Ali Carter] will be happy with that draw. It is great Ronnie is in the competition, we’ve not seen him since January. I want him to play and as it stands at the minute it seems like he is playing which is fantastic for the game.

    Carter is one of the toughest qualifiers to get drawn against. It is a horrible draw.

  • Commonwealth Games official’s ‘uncomfortable behaviour’ with volunteer

    Commonwealth Games official’s ‘uncomfortable behaviour’ with volunteer

    A “prominent” Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) official has been found to have breached its ethics code after a claim that they “spent an inordinate amount of time with a volunteer of the opposite sex” at a social event related to CGF business.

    In a decision published on the CGF’s website, the chair of an ethics commission panel states that the unnamed individual admitted allegations that they “failed to act with the highest standards of integrity”.

    The official – referred to only as ‘AB’ – is also said to have accepted acting “in such a way as to give the appearance of impropriety [and] to have the potential to bring the Commonwealth Games into disrepute”.

    As a result, it has been decided that, the reprimanded individual must be accompanied or met by a safeguarding officer, law enforcement official or a senior CGF figure when travelling overseas on CGF business, and undergo training “to further educate [them] in ethical conduct”.

    What’s the background?

    The CGF revealed that in October 2024, a senior CGF figure received a report that ‘AB’ “may not have acted with the appropriate level of ethical conduct whilst performing a CGF related role”.

    An investigation was then conducted by an unnamed London-based lawyer, referred to in the published decision as ‘CD’, who acted as an ethics officer in the case, and charged the official in February.

    Their report “included a summary and analysis of a first-person witness to the alleged unethical conduct”.

    “The report documents that AB, while at a social event related to CGF business, spent an inordinate amount of time with a volunteer of the opposite sex,” the CGF added.

    “The first-person witnesses were uncomfortable with AB’s behaviour…It is clear these witnesses had concerns about the potential to bring the CGF and/or CGF Officials into disrepute, to the extent that they took photographs of AB with the volunteer.”

    The ethics commission chair noted that the official insisted “nothing inappropriate happened at the event”, and “states that they have agreed to the allegations and acceded to the proposed sanction to allow the Ethics Commission to hear the matter with a chair as a single person panel”.

    However, the chair also concluded that “the evidence before me indicates that AB’s actions denigrated the perception of the integrity, of the potential for the appearance of impropriety, and the possibility of bringing the image of the Commonwealth Games into disrepute”.

    The chair added: “The appearance of unethical conduct by a Commonwealth Games Federation official, which raised concerns by others who were present is like the proverb, ‘Caesar’s wife must be above suspicion’. Not only do Commonwealth Games Federation officials need to have integrity; they need to be examples of integrity and ethical conduct and avoid negative scrutiny or attention.”

    ‘Highly inappropriate’

    In an intriguing twist, the panel chair also claimed that the lawyer acted inappropriately by proposing modified sanctions in March after the charges were initially delivered, giving the official “opinions or advice that goes well beyond the Ethics Officer role of providing information”.

    “I have further determined that CD has, in effect, conducted what would be characterised as plea bargaining with AB, after AB had received the Notice of Charge” said the chair. “I find this to be highly inappropriate.

    “CD should not have made any modifications to the charges or the sanctions, as that is in the sole purview of the Ethic Commission at a hearing, and only after a hearing is requested by the covered person.”

    ‘Reputational risk’

    The chair also revealed that they rejected a suggestion by the reprimanded official to not publicly disclose the outcome of the case, stating that “not disclosing the decision could create a reputational risk for the CGF and possibly subject it to allegations of cover up.”

    However, the chair said that they have chosen not to reveal the individual’s identity because based on the investigation, “no harm was done to any person, there does not appear to be any risk of harm towards any person or persons”.

    They also noted that “AB is not the subject of a provisional or sanctioned suspension or expulsion where their identity must be provided in order to ensure compliance; and that the sanctions proposed by CD and accepted by AB are on the less severe end of sanctions spectrum”.

    It is also noted that the decision “shall be posted on the Commonwealth Games Website under the relevant section concerning the Ethics Commission, and shall not be posted on the ‘News’ feed. The decision will be posted for a period of 28 days only”.

    The CGF has declined to comment further on the matter.