The Golden State Warriors' offense, led by the Splash Brothers, was at its destructive best in Thursday night's 123-110 victory over the Miami Heat.
In a strong four-quarter performance, the Warriors scored between 29 and 32 points in all four periods, led by iconic backcourt duo Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson.
Curry was the game's top-scorer with 33 points on 13-of-22 shooting, hitting seven of his 14 three-point attempts.
Thompson also got up 14 three-point attempts as the Warriors – who play at the fastest pace in the league at 111.7 possessions per game – were determined to let it fly from deep.
The second Splash Brother hit five of his 14 attempts, while going one-of-five from two-point range for 19 points of his own. They were supported strongly by Andrew Wiggins, who grabbed a team-high 10 rebounds to go with his 18 points (five-of-10 shooting).
For the Heat, Jimmy Butler was terrific on both ends, leading his team with 27 points on an incredibly efficient eight-of-13 from the field (four-of-seven from deep, made all seven free throws), while adding eight assists, six rebounds and six steals.
The win means the defending champions are 3-2 through their first five games, while Miami fell to 2-4.
The Baniac delivers again
Memphis Grizzlies wing Desmond Bane is in a rich vein of form, and he led the way with 31 points in a 125-110 win against the Sacramento Kings.
It is the second consecutive game Bane has top-scored for the Grizzlies in a win, after dropping 38 to tie with teammate Ja Morant and set a new franchise record for points by a duo (76) in their victory over the Brooklyn Nets.
Against the Kings, Bane stayed red-hot as he made 11-of-18 field goal attempts, including six-of-eight from long range in a true sharpshooter's performance.
One of the best shooters in the entire NBA, Bane now boasts a career three-point percentage of 43.3 per cent on 5.6 attempts per game.
Thunder collect another win over the Clippers
The Oklahoma City Thunder beat the Los Angeles Clippers for the second time in the past three days with a 118-110 triumph.
Los Angeles were missing stars Kawhi Leonard and Paul George when they rolled into Oklahoma City for a two-game road trip, and were still without Leonard as George returned to the lineup.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (24 points on 10-of-23 shooting) and Luguentz Dort (21 points on nine-of-15) carried the offensive load for the Thunder, while George was much less effective for the Clippers.
George could only muster 10 points on four-of-12 shooting, while center Ivica Zubac grabbed a game-high 18 rebounds with his 12 points. After starting their season with two wins, the Clippers have now lost their past three.
IPL: Gaikwad helps CSK strengthen playoff hopes with victory over Royals
The Chennai Super Kings boosted their Indian Premier League playoff chances as captain Ruturaj Gaikwad top-scored to clinch a five-wicket victory against the Rajasthan Royals.
Off the back of two defeats in their last three outings, the Super Kings needed a victory, and an impressive bowling display allowed them to easily chase down the Royals' total with 10 balls to spare on Sunday.
After the Royals won the toss and opted to bat first, openers Jos Buttler and Yashavi Jaiswal got Rajasthan off to a solid start before the latter was dismissed in the seventh over with 43 runs on the board.
Buttler lost his wicket less than two overs later, and though Sanju Samson and Riyan Parag somewhat steadied the ship, Chennai's bowlers continued to make runs difficult to come by.
Parag top-scored for Rajasthan as he finished unbeaten on 47, but the Royals could only muster 141-5 from their 20-over allocation.
Chennai overcame the loss of opener Rachin Ravindra in the fourth over to set themselves up for victory, despite all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja being dismissed for obstructing the field having added just five runs.
Captain Gaikwad guided his team over the line, finishing with 42 not out from 41 deliveries as Chennai wrapped up the win without needing MS Dhoni, who could have played his last IPL game at Chepauk.
The victory leaves Chennai third with one game remaining against Royal Challengers Bangalore, while Rajasthan miss the chance to go level on points with IPL leaders Kolkata Knight Riders, though their playoff place should still be safe with a four-point gap between them and the fifth-placed Delhi Capitals, who face RCB later on Sunday.
Data debrief: Chennai bowlers shine
The Super Kings had previously come out on the wrong end of the result in their last four meetings with the Royals, but a strong performance from their bowlers allowed them to end that losing streak.
Simarjeet Singh was the pick of the bowlers, finishing with figures of 3-26, while Tushar Deshpande (2-30) also impressed. While Jadeja did not get a wicket, his four overs only amounted to 24 Rajasthan runs.
Sabalenka dominates Yastremska to reach Italian Open fourth round
Aryna Sabalenka dominated Dayana Yastremska to reach the fourth round of the Italian Open on Sunday.
Sabalenka, who claimed Australian Open glory for the second time earlier this year without dropping a set, eased to a 6-4 6-2 victory over Yastremska.
Yastremska headed into the third-round contest having beaten Sabalenka in all three of their previous meetings, but the world number two found a crucial break of serve in the seventh game of the opening set before going on to hold twice more to take the ascendancy.
Yastremska's resolve was broken further in an epic third game of the second set, surviving six break points before Sabalenka finally got over the line to tighten her grip on the match.
Sabalenka didn't look back from there, breaking Yastremska again before going on to seal her place in the fourth round.
Sabalenka will take on either Sara Errani or Anna Kalinskaya in the fourth round as she looks to win the Italian Open for the first time ahead of the French Open later this month, where she will bid to improve on her semi-final appearance last year.
Data debrief
Since 2018, when Sabalenka achieved her first WTA 1000 win, she is now the player with the joint-most wins in such events (90, equalling Iga Swiatek).
Sabalenka may have lost her three previous games against Yastremska, but the last meeting between the pair was in 2020, and the two-time grand slam champion showed how much her game has progressed since then as she won all nine of her service games while breaking her Ukrainian opponent three times on her way to victory.
'We're not here to play around' - Brown praises Celtics reaction
Jaylen Brown praised the Boston Celtics for proving to themselves they are "not here to play around" in their 106-93 victory over the Cleveland Cavaliers in Game 3.
The Celtics' win on Saturday edged them into a 2-1 lead in the Eastern Conference semifinals after losing Game 2 with a defensive performance Brown described as "unacceptable".
At Cleveland, they bounced back - Jayson Tatum had 33 points and 12 rebounds, while Brown added 28 points as the Celtics avoided a second consecutive defeat.
"I think we just need everybody to be on the same page and everybody to come out with the right effort," Brown said.
"That's 85% of the battle right there. We come out, we play hard, and then we're on the same page and the rest will take care of itself. We got enough talent in the locker room to beat teams.
"But if we're not on the same page, and we're not playing hard, those are when we get ourselves in trouble. So making sure, before the game at film and shootaround, talking to everybody, touching everybody, letting everybody know that 'Hey, we're not here to play around.'
"We didn't come to Cleveland for the weather, so let's go.
"It's the playoffs. Anything can happen, especially if you come out flat. We've got to do a better job of that, we can't think like this series is going to go like last series.
"We've got to come out and have the same defensive effort going into Game 4 and that's just the urgency we need to have."
Donovan Mitchell starred for Cleveland, scoring 33 points, but was forced off late in the game due to a knee injury, and despite showing signs of a comeback, they could not find any answers in the fourth quarter.
"I just think we didn't hit the same shots we did [in Game 2]," Mitchell said.
"For us, just being able to finish. We missed a lot of shots at the rim, myself included, missed a lot of shots that I think we just got to make. And also, we didn't really shoot that great from 3, but not a bad per cent, but we didn't shoot that well.
"So I think those are different things, and we got to get our looks and take them, because if we don't, we're driving back into the crowd, and they want us to. So being able to take our shots when they're open."
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