The Dallas Mavericks cannot afford any more injuries, let alone to a player as significant as Kyrie Irving, so they’re going to have to hold their breath and hope that the knee injury that Irving suffered in Monday night’s loss to the Kings isn’t as bad as it looked.
Late in the first quarter, Irving drove down the middle of the lane and appeared to bang knees with big man Jonas Valančiūnas, but the concerning part of the play was Irving’s next step where you can see his left knee buckle backward.
After Irving stayed in the game to shoot his two free throws — hobbling his way to the line with the help of Anthony Davis and a Mavericks staffer after staying down on the court for several minutes — he headed straight to the locker room and was quickly ruled out for the remainder of the game with a left knee sprain.
This is all too reminiscent of Kobe Bryant limping to the free-throw line with a ruptured Achilles in 2013. The Mavericks and their fans can only hope that the initial diagnosis of a sprain is accurate, but even that could be a big problem for an already hobbled Dallas team as it fights for postseason positioning over the last five weeks of the season. Monday’s loss dropped the Mavericks to 32-30, putting them in the No. 10 spot in the West.
After the game, Dallas coach Jason Kidd did not have much of an update other than hoping it’s not serious.
“Just unlucky. I hope that he’s healthy and it’s not serious,” Kidd said. “The injuries that we’ve had this season, guys are trying to hold it together to get other bodies back. And it just seems every time we’re getting close to getting somebody back, someone goes down. We’re running out of bodies here, but guys keep fighting.”
Knee sprains can keep a player out for a wide range of timelines, depending on the severity and the exact type of sprain. The Mavericks cannot afford an extended absence from Irving, a nine-time All-Star who is averaging 25 points per game. They’re already without the services of Davis, who was acquired in the blockbuster Luka Dončić trade, as well as Daniel Gafford and Dereck Lively II.
In addition, PJ Washington exited Saturday’s game vs. Milwaukee with an ankle injury and didn’t play on Monday. Caleb Martin, who the Mavericks acquired almost a month ago at the trade deadline, hasn’t even suited up for the team yet due to a hip injury.
The Mavericks are hoping for good news this week as Davis, Lively and Gafford are all set to be reevaluated on Thursday. Davis left the only game he played with the Mavericks on Feb. 8 because of a groin injury.
There’s hope that Davis could be back soon, but if he’s returning just as Irving is going out for his own injury absence, it sort of defeats the purpose of the Dončić trade … not that there was even a smidge of justification for that trade to begin with.
🏀 Good morning to all, but especially to … SHAI GILGEOUS-ALEXANDER
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is the favorite to win MVP, and if he keeps putting up numbers like he did last night, no one is going to be able to catch him. The Thunder superstar scored 51 points in a 137-128 win over the Rockets.
It’s Gilgeous-Alexander’s fourth 50-point game this season, the most in the NBA. He also leads the league in 40-point games (nine), 30-point games (37) and 20-point games (59). All four of Gilgeous-Alexander’s 50-point outings have come in his last 19 games. But it’s not just the huge explosions. It’s the consistency: He has scored at least 20 points in 56 straight games. The next-longest active streak in the NBA is Jalen Brunson with seven games. Oh, and speaking of 50s, the Thunder picked up their 50th win of the season. Oklahoma City has consecutive 50-win seasons for the first time since 2012-14. 😃 Honorable mentions Cooper Flagg scored 28 points to lead No. 2 Duke over Wake Forest in what was likely his last game at Cameron Indoor Stadium. The Blue Devils are a near lock to be a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament. Ronald Acuña Jr. is targeting a May return from his ACL injury. The Brewers signed José Quintana, meaning just two of R.J. Anderson’s top 50 free agents remain unsigned. Matt Snyder ranked the top 10 MLB bullpens, and, hey, finally a list the Dodgers aren’t No. 1! (They’re close, though.) Bill Belichick introduced his coaching staff. Serena Williams joined the Toronto Tempo ownership group. St. John’s has its best men’s basketball AP Top 25 ranking since 1990-91. Here’s the Coaches Poll, too. Texas remains atop the women’s basketball AP Top 25. Here’s a look at NHL trade deadline buyers and sellers. I enjoyed Brandon Marcello’s 25 college football storylines for 2025 as spring nears. (And, yes, we need this as spring games disappear.) Florida State and Clemson are set to settle their ACC lawsuits, which could be good for the conference. 🤕 And not such a good morning for … untitled-design-2025-03-03t230624-753.png Getty Images KYRIE IRVING AND THE DALLAS MAVERICKS
The Luka Dončić trade remains indefensible from the Mavericks’ side, but if you wanted to really try to reconcile with it and take Dallas GM Nico Harrison’s point of view, maybe you could see the Mavericks being considerably better defensively with Anthony Davis while still having the backcourt scoring exploits of Kyrie Irving. Again, I’m trying to be nice here.
But then Davis left his Dallas debut in on Feb. 8 with a groin injury and hasn’t logged a minute since, and Monday, Irving left with a scary-looking knee sprain and had to be helped to the locker room, though not until after he hit two free throws.
It’s not clear how much more strain the 32-30 Mavericks, currently the 10 seed (aka the final play-in spot) in the West, can take.
They were already down their top three bigs — Davis, Dereck Lively II (ankle) and Daniel Gafford (knee) — with significant injuries. PJ Washington hurt his ankle over the weekend and didn’t play last night, and Caleb Martin (hip) hasn’t played since being acquired near the trade deadline. Davis, Lively and Gafford will be reevaluated Thursday. But, as Brad Botkin writes, “There’s hope that Davis could be back soon, but if he’s returning just as Irving is going out for his own injury absence, it sort of defeats the purpose of the Dončić trade … not that there was even a smidge of justification for that trade to begin with.” Adding insult to injury, the Mavericks announced they’re increasing ticket prices next season. As if fans couldn’t be mad/sad enough.
😟 Not so honorable mentions No, MLB should not reinstate Pete Rose, Matt writes. Luis Gil (lat strain) will miss at least six weeks. Sean Murphy (cracked rib) will miss Opening Day. Flau’Jae Johnson (shin inflammation) is out through the SEC Tournament. The 4 Nations Face-Off was awesome. Matthew Tkachuk missing the rest of the regular season due to a groin injury suffered at the 4 Nations Face-Off is not. 🏈 Sam Darnold not expected to get franchise tag, Tee Higgins gets tagged tee-higgins-cbs.jpg USATSI Tag, Tee Higgins is it (again). Sam Darnold, apparently, will not be “it” … at all. The Bengals franchise-tagged Higgins for the second straight year, and the Vikings reportedly will not use the tag on Darnold.
These are significant moves, but not the be-all, end-all.
By tagging Higgins, the Bengals ensure he doesn’t hit free agency — the negotiating period begins Monday — and it gives them until July 15 to work on a long-term deal. If they can’t agree to a deal, he’ll make $26.2 million in 2025. It’s disappointing for Higgins, who wanted an extension last year, too. He may have fetched more than $26.2 million per year if he had hit free agency, and he would have gotten long-term security, too. Remember, the Bengals also want to pay Ja’Marr Chase and Trey Hendrickson. They aren’t close on the Chase deal. My advice? Just pay the guys. But the Bengals have a very conservative front office. They did cut Alex Cappa. Minnesota will attempt to re-sign Darnold, but he’ll have plenty of suitors; two teams in particular are seen as frontrunners. The franchise tag deadline is today at 4 p.m. Here’s our tracker. As for more news regarding veterans …
The Jets will release Davante Adams if they can’t trade him. Here’s where he could land. The Eagles released Darius Slay. Here’s where he could land, and here’s Philadelphia’s plan at cornerback. Sean McVay says the Rams were never close to trading Matthew Stafford. 🏈 NFL mock draft post-combine, plus latest on what Titans will do at No. 1 getty-cam-ward-miami.jpg Getty Images The NFL combine has come and gone. We covered a lot of it yesterday, but our excellent team just keeps pumping out draft content, with Josh Edwards’ winners and losers and Chris Trapasso’s grades for the top 25 prospects.
Ryan Wilson has digested everything we’ve got and produced his first post-combine mock draft. Here’s the top five:
Titans: QB Cam Ward, Miami Browns: EDGE Abdul Carter, Penn State Giants: CB/WR Travis Hunter Patriots: OT Kelvin Banks Jr., Texas Jaguars: DL Mason Graham, Michigan A few things jump out.
The Titans go Ward at No. 1. He’s among four potential top picks Tennessee is bringing in for official visits. The Giants don’t select a quarterback. Jordan Dajani ranked the Giants’ potential options at quarterback through either the draft or free agency. Shedeur Sanders isn’t in the top five. Is he in the first round? I won’t spoil it, but what I will tell you is this guy could unseat him as QB2. ⚽ UEFA Champions League round of 16 predictions Real Madrid CF v Atletico Madrid – Super Copa de España Semi-Final Getty Images UEFA Champions League action is back with the round of 16 beginning today. Just like the knockout round, each matchup consists of two legs (one home, one away), so while no one will advance this week, teams can get one foot into the quarterfinals.
Here are today’s games:
Club Brugge vs. Aston Villa | 12:45 p.m. on Paramount+ | Preview Real Madrid vs. Atletico Madrid | 3 p.m. on Paramount+ | Preview PSV vs. Arsenal | 3 p.m. on Paramount+ | Preview Borussia Dortmund vs. Lille | 3 p.m. on CBS Sports Network, Paramount+ What a lineup! That Madrid derby should be tons of fun, and Pardeep Cattry predicts …
Cattry: “Real Madrid 1, Atletico Madrid 1 — Real Madrid have been unable to beat their crosstown rivals in two previous meetings this season, and things are trending in the right direction for another draw between these two. Both sides boast impressive goal scorers and even if the reigning champions have not exactly had the best of seasons, they still have that uncanny ability to come out of bad games mostly unscathed.” Here are all of our expert picks, best bets and much more. Our experts also picked their brackets, now that those are set — there are three different champs among the five predictions — and James Benge has bold predictions for the first legs.
📺 What we’re watching Tuesday ⚽ We’re watching the UEFA Champions League. Here’s how. 🏀 Warriors at Knicks, 7:30 p.m. on TNT 🏀 No. 1 Auburn at No. 22 Texas A&M (M), 9 p.m. on ESPN 🏀 No. 23 BYU at No. 10 Iowa State (M), 9 p.m. on ESPN2 🏀 Clippers at Suns, 10 p.m. on TNT/truTV
Welcome to the NBA Hater Report: A breakdown of some of the players, teams and trends around the league that are drawing the ire of yours truly. If you’re not a fellow pessimist, proceed with caution.
Luka laying bricks for Lakers Look, the Lakers have won five straight with Luka in the lineup, 12 of 14 overall, and the defense has been off the charts as they’ve rocket-shot all the way into the West’s No. 2 seed, so let’s keep this all in proper perspective. But … have you seen Dončić’s shooting numbers since he arrived in L.A.?
Through eight games with the Lakers, Dončić is shooting 27% from 3 and 39% overall. Last Thursday, he made just one of his nine 3s against the Timberwolves and even that was a prayer.
LUKA WHAT A SHOT 😱🪄
Even his dad couldn’t believe it pic.twitter.com/2je2IgbADA
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) February 28, 2025 Dončić wasn’t having a great shooting season with the Mavericks and that has continued with the Lakers. He’s clearly finding his footing, though. He’s making some unbelievable passes and has meshed almost perfectly next to LeBron James, who is taking advantage of a lighter playmaking burden to tick up what anyone would already call a pretty impressive defensive season. The Lakers have won Luka’s 254 total minutes by 43 points (more than five point per game). So again, let’s keep this in perspective.
But it’s something to watch as the Lakers are now entering into honest title-contending conversations, and at that level, everything gets scrutinized. Dončić is awesome even when he’s not shooting hyper efficiently, and the good news is he’s working his way to the free-throw line over eight times a night. Still, sub-30% from 3 isn’t going to cut it in the playoffs, let alone in the deep rounds. Let’s hope he gets this on track.
The invisible Jimmy Butler Jimmy Butler famously rations his scoring, often saving his bursts for late in games. Since he’s been with the Warriors, he has overtly deferred to Stephen Curry. Early on, Butler was ramping up his aggression in the non-Curry minutes and late in games, and even when he wasn’t shooting he was consistently forcing the defense to react to his cuts and drives.
Recently, however, Butler has turned way too invisible for the guy who’s supposed to be Curry’s superstar wingman. Over his last three games, Butler has averaged eight points on eight shots, down from 20 PPG over his first five with the team. The Warriors needed 56 points from Curry on Thursday to beat the Magic because Butler only had five.
And again, it’s not just the scoring. It’s the overall aggression, or lack thereof. Through his first six outings with Golden State, Butler averaged 12.2 drives per game. Over the last three, that number has been cut nearly in half to 7.5 per game, with his total frontcourt touches dipping by 10 from 43 to 33 per game.
That matches the eye test, as there have been way too many possessions going by without Butler having any sort of impact on them. Just his presence is worth something, no doubt, as it’s an occupied defender at all times at least, and you can’t ignore the steadying effect he has on a previously chaotic offense even when it seems like he’s not doing much. But that’s not enough. Whether Steve Kerr needs to design some more stuff to get the ball to Butler in his go zones, or Butler simply needs to pump up his own initiative, the Warriors need more from him if they’re going to truly compete in the playoffs.
Suns are embarrassing Kevin Durant said the Suns “embarrassed ourselves” after a 116-98 loss to the Timberwolves on Sunday, but let’s be honest: The Suns, given the highest payroll in the league, have been embarrassing themselves for quite some time now. They’ve lost 11 of their last 14 games and are four games back of the final play-in spot.
Kevin Durant on tonight’s loss: “It’s tough, man. That’s a shitty game. We didn’t play up to our standards at all. We embarrassed the fans, we embarrassed ourselves the way we played, and I want us to be better.” pic.twitter.com/lpmFWvySHu
— Gerald Bourguet (@GeraldBourguet) March 3, 2025 Barring a minor miracle over these last five weeks, the Suns are headed to the lottery without a lottery pick. In fact, the Suns don’t fully control any of their own first-round picks through 2031 (they’re all swaps for the rest of the decade and no pick in 2031).
Durant feels like a good bet to be traded this summer, so the Suns should be able to restock at least some of their future-draft cupboard, but that’s a loss-cutting move in itself. Phoenix gave up Mikal Bridges, Cam Johnson and five first-round picks (one swap) to get him in the first place. There is no way they are going to come close to bringing that much value back for a soon-to-be-37-year-old Durant this summer.
In the meantime, Devin Booker is saying the Suns don’t talk enough while his coach, reportedly, is saying that Booker talks too much. This was supposed to be an honest superteam, and instead it’s gone up in flames in just about every way imaginable.
Tatum too quick to taunt Cavs Jayson Tatum got a little ahead of himself in Boston’s showdown with the Cavaliers on Friday, when he decided to taunt the team with the best record in the league with a “get the f–k outta here” gesture early in the first quarter.
Tatum when Celtics were up 25-3: “Get the f–k outta here, man.”
— Underdog (@UnderdogFantasy) March 1, 2025 Tatum, as you can see in the clip, was feeling himself because he had just buried a corner 3-pointer to put the Celtics up 25-3 barely four minutes into the game, and one would be safe to deduce that his message ran deeper than this particular game.
He was telling the Cavs that the fun is over, that they’ve had their little regular-season run but now that the serious stuff is starting, they do not belong — not in Boston’s arena, not in Boston’s class, and certainly not in the top-tier title conversation.
The Cavs outscored the Celtics by 29 points from that moment forward and won the game 123-116 to all but lock up the East’s No. 1 seed. With just over 20 games remaining for each team, the Cavaliers own an eight-game lead over Boston in the loss column.
Of course, Boston is only concerned about the postseason, where, if seeds hold, it will meet Cleveland in the conference finals. Perhaps Tatum will think twice next time about trying to upstage, or outright dismiss, its most threatening conference opponent.
Paul George keeps killing Sixers With Joel Embiid officially out for the season, the Philadelphia 76ers officially have just one thing to play for over the next five weeks: a top-six draft pick. Why? Because if their 2025 first-round pick lands outside the top six, they lose it to Oklahoma City. Entering play on Tuesday, the Sixers have the league’s seventh-worst record, meaning, if the ping pong balls bounce as they statistically should, they would currently forfeit the pick.
This is a long way of saying the Sixers have no incentive to win games from here on out, which made it all the more amusing that they ended a nine-game losing streak by beating the Warriors on Saturday, and the clinching mid-range bucket came from Paul George with 44 seconds to play.
I just find it so funny, or at least ironic, that when the Sixers have needed George to play well all season in an effort to win games he’s been a massive disappointment relative to the max contract the Sixers handed him (which is looking like a potentially catastrophic decision on the part of Daryl Morey), but now that they need to lose games George suddenly decided to make the shot that potentially kept them from doing that recently as well.
Warriors just let Paul George cook them up and score the dagger on Draymond’s head, maybe quitting podcasting was right 😂 pic.twitter.com/to2zlLBqmI
— SM Highlights (@SMHighlights1) March 2, 2025 George finished with 17 points in this game, right about his average for the season, so he was typically underwhelming overall; it was Quentin Grimes with 44 points and Guerschon Yabusele with five 3-pointers who did the bulk of the damage. But again, George could’ve missed that shot and at least kept a Philly loss in play.
It isn’t to suggest he should’ve missed the shot. Players play to win even when organizations prefer to lose. It’s just funny that George made the shot that the Sixers certainly wouldn’t have minded him missing when he’s missed so many shots this season they would’ve loved for him to make.
