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DALASUS – Clay Thompson has rejoined the Warriors on Wednesday in Texas after missing the previous two games due to illness. Although he was named as controversial for Thursday’s game against the Mavericks, Thompson was clear that he came to Lone Star State for one reason.

“I play,” the Warriors guard told reporters after training, through Anthony Slater of The Athletic. “I didn’t come all the way to Dallas to watch.”

The Warriors lost both games with Thompson out of the squad. They conceded a 21-point lead over Mavericks on Sunday in San Francisco and remained tied with a 129-115 loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves on Tuesday.

Thompson said he started to feel bad after the Warriors’ victory over the Portland Trail Blazers last Thursday, but he finally felt better.

“I had a severe headache after Thursday night’s game,” Thompson said. “I just got really sick. It sucks. Maybe you want to keep your distance, to be honest. These things suck.”

RELATED: Poole tries to “play” the changing role of Warriors

Thompson watched the Warriors take the lead over Dallas and find themselves relatively uncompetitive against the T-Wolves in Minnesota. After he and Draymond Green left, Thompson realized that the weight on Steph Curry’s shoulder was increasing tenfold.

“He will see a lot of double teams and a lot of attention,” said Thompson. “I hate that feeling because you want to be able to help your team. We have not yet seen our full team. It has a silver lining. ”

After a 941-day absence from the court, Thompson was disappointed to miss more time, especially as the Warriors entered a brutal part of the schedule, playing with eight teams for the playoffs or a 13-day caliber game.

“It sucks when you look, man,” Thompson said. “I’ve watched a lot in the last few years and you just feel helpless. I hate this.”

Thompson slowly settled into his furrow after returning from a torn ACL and a torn Achilles. In his last seven games, Thompson has averaged 19.3 points per game, while shooting 44.8 percent off the field and 45.6 percent off distance with a true shooting rate of 60.0.

Finally in one stream, Thompson is eager to upgrade this recent stretch when he came out on the court on Thursday.

With the Warriors slipping and Curry having to take on a huge burden, Thompson’s return will be a welcome sight for a team that is still looking for ways to get out of the downturn that has engulfed them for most of the 2022 calendar year.

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2022 MEN’S CHAMPIONSHIP PAC-12

As we announced earlier, the Pac-12 Championship in 2022 will be a solid race between the 4-time reigning champions Cal, Stanford and ASU. Technically, the match started last week, when diving competitions were held, in which Cal scored 0 points.

Stanford is currently leading with 131 points from the jump, while ASU is 131 behind with 31, and Cal has yet to score. However, the swimming competition will start tonight with 200 mixed relays and 800 freestyle – giving Cal a chance to take some preliminary points.

Heat sheets

Men’s 200 Mixed Relay

• NCAA Record: 1: 21.54 – Texas (2017)
• Pac-12 record: 1: 21.82 – USC (2018)
• Pac-12 Championship record: 1: 22.16 – Cal (2020)
• NCAA Standard A – 1: 24.22
• NCAA Standard “B” – 1: 24.83

Top 3:

1. Stanford – 1: 22.74
2. ASU – 1: 22.95
3. Cal – 1: 23.26

The men from Stanford won the first Pac-12 swimming title of the match with a 1: 22.74 victory in the 200 mixed men’s relay. Leon McAllister started things for them with a split 21.03 back, lagging behind Cal Daniel Carr which opened with 20.97 and Arizona state Jack Dolan, who threw 20.96.

After McAllister, Ron Polonsky was 23.40 on the breaststroke, leading Stanford to ASU. However, the division of the competition came from Andrey Minakov who scored a 19.49 butterfly leg to put Stanford in first place, hitting the wall for 1: 03.92.

This split by Minakov is the 3rd fastest split in history Joseph School19.36 and 19.45 are separated from his time in Texas. He replaces Dalton Lowe of Louisville as the number two man in history. Lowe swims to split earlier this season in the ACCs.

TOP 50 FOR ALL TIME RELAYS OF THE FLY

1. 19.36 – Joe Schooling – 2016
2. 19.45 – Joe Schooling – 2017
3. 19.49 – Andrey Minakov – 2022
4. 19.50 – Dalton Lowe – 2022
5. 19.52 – Blaise Vera – 2021
6. 19.57 – Luke Urlando – 2022

Lowe’s swim to Louisville contributed to their 1: 21.84 in the match, which is currently the best time in the country this season. Stanford is now a №7 team with their 1: 22.74.

The state of Arizona came in with 1: 22.95 for the silver, and Cal did not lag behind with 1: 23.26 for the bronze medal. It should be noted that all 6 teams competing here fell under the NCAA rankings A of 1: 24.22, as the USC finished 4th with 1: 23.76, Utah was 5th with 1: 23.87, and Arizona rounded out the top 6 with 1: 24.10.

Men’s 800 Freestyle Relay

• NCAA Record: 6: 05.08 – Texas (2019)
• Pac-12 record: 6: 07.31 – Cal (2019)
• Pac-12 Championship record: 6: 10.94 – Cal (2019)
• NCAA Standard A – 6: 16.80
• NCAA “B” Standard – 6: 21.32

Top 3:

1. ASU – 6: 07.51
2. Stanford – 6: 08.73
3. Cal – 6: 09.98

The ASU men rose to victory in the second relay of the evening with 6: 07.51, breaking the Pac-12 championship record by more than 3 seconds. ASU made the fastest swim in the history of this match, beating Cal’s 2019 swim by 6: 10.94.

Grant House was first here for ASU, setting a solid time of 1: 30.54, which is the 8th fastest swim in NCAA history and # 2 this season. He replaces Shine Casas‘1: 30.59 and now he’s sitting right in the back Drew KiblerIt’s # 7 time of 1: 30.39 from last year’s NCAA Championship.

The leader in the whole country for 2021-2022 Kieran Smith with his 1: 30.42 from the SEC Championships, while Matt Sates is already 3rd with his 1: 31.16. House also set a new school record here, beating Cameron Craig 1: 31.71 in 2017. House’s previous PB of 1: 31.73 was ASU’s number 2 before that.

After House Carter Swift came out 1: 33.61, Julian Hill 1: 32.20 and Leon Marchand 1: 31.16 to give ASU a total time of 6: 07.51. ASU is not №1 in the nation this season, replacing 6: 08.00 Florida by the SEC.

The next Stanford took second place with 6: 08.73 with the kind assistance of Luke Maurer (1: 32.99 lead), Leon McAllister (1: 33.09), Ron Polonsky (1: 31.50) and Preston Forst (1 : 31.15). Both McAllister and Polonsky swam in both the 200m medley and the 800 freestyle relays for Stanford, both setting new school records for the team.

Cal finished second in the evening here, reaching 6: 09.98, while the University of Arizona finished 4th in 6: 14.43. This means that 4 of the fastest teams were in the NCAA rankings A of 6: 16.80, while USC and Utah finished with their respective times of 6: 17.03 and 6: 26.63.

Team results after day 1

1. Stanford – 207 points
2. Utah – 183 points
3. Arizona – 148 points
4. USC – 137 points
5. ASU – 105 points
6. Cal – 64 points

One of the great television lines in history comes from The Wire, when Omar reminds Wee-Bey: “Come to the King, you better not miss.” Luka Doncic went to the King on Tuesday night. There was some context in the decision to change the hunt and isolate LeBron, which we will consider. But in the end Luke went to the King. And he didn’t miss it.

Doncic, by his standards, did not have a great night in the Mavericks’ 109-104 victory over the Lakers. He finished with 25 points, but shot only 9-for-21 and missed all five of his 3 points. But Doncic took the time to make money, and LeBron could do nothing about it.

Here Doncic calls a ball from Dorian Feeney-Smith to get James involved. Doncic obviously wants a one-on-one match, and although LeBron is doing well with Doncic’s strengths, cutting off the paint and forcing him to leave, Luca hits him with a nasty fading of one leg, making LeBron helpless.

Thirty seconds later, Doncic chased LeBron again, who again played a pretty decent defense, even initially disrupting Luca’s dribble. But he can only stay with him that long, and Doncic eventually defeats LeBron down, launching the domino effect of weak assistant Stanley Johnson, who must step up, leaving Dwight Powell wide open behind his forehead.

Less than a minute later, Doncic called on the screen again to direct LeBron to him. Again, LeBron made it difficult for Luca to cut off his path with a physical blow, but Doncic did not worry. The big, physical player himself, he just bounces off LeBron, turns the corner and launches a high arc shot, which is not as easy a shot as it seems.

When you hear the “switch hunt” in today’s NBA language, the implication is that it is a weak defender. A man like Luke calls out a screen from the most vulnerable defender, gets the switch, and then prepares the sitting duck.

But in this case, isolating Doncic to LeBron is probably more about eliminating James as an assistant defender. It was actually a compliment. Or at least a blow to the other Lakers defenders. Malik Monk, Russell Westbrook, Stanley Johnson and Tallon Horton-Tucker are not the same threat that comes to disrupt Doncic’s creative endeavors.

If LeBron – a smart, overtaking defender – stays out of the ball, he is more likely to miss the pass or double Doncic late and affect his shot. Since LeBron is keeping the Doncic heads-up, Luca knows that help is a less important factor and he can at least play one on one. Even against a better individual defender, Luca rightly likes his chances of isolation to create a lever for his own strike or for a teammate. And he was right.

When Dallas hired Jason Kidd as its head coach, assessments began to be made of how bad the decision was. Kidd had not shown in previous stops that he was capable of creating advanced Xs and Os advantages. In fact, he often did things to the detriment of his team. But it’s time to pay tribute to Kidd for his role in building a defensive culture in Dallas, and this strategy against LeBron and the Lakers was another sensible move.

Kidd did not make Luca chase LeBron throughout the game. He waited until the score was in balance, then devised a strategy when the Lakers did not expect it, and it won the Mavericks three decisive passes in a section of play that could have developed in any way. Coaching matters. Not so much as having great players like Luca and LeBron, but it matters. Dallas looks more and more in better hands than we thought.

Even Red Panda was out of the game on Wednesday night.

Alabama fell apart in the second half with an insensitive last 20 minutes of an 87-71 loss at the sleepy Coleman Coliseum. It never got stronger than the halftime show, when he rode a unicycle, a spinning bowl, a Red Panda stopped in Tuscaloosa, but drop in the grand final heralds the flop of the second half of the home team.

Texas A&M led by 16 several times at the end of the game, while Alabama wasted some momentum from the end of the season to focus on the post-season game.

The team and coaches stayed in the locker room much longer than usual, before the players left 51 minutes after the signal to talk to reporters. Nate Oates described a ceremonial scene after the game in the locker room when he addressed the team.

“They didn’t say anything tonight,” Oates said of his players. “They may have said some things before I went in there. I was hoping they would say something. Nobody wanted to say anything. I think they are ashamed too. I am ashamed. They are ashamed. “

This series of two wins is now over, Crimson Tide (19-11, 9-8) heading to LSU for the regular season finale at 11 a.m. CT Saturday.

Unlike the Red Panda, which managed to redeem himself the last act, Alabama, would not change as fans went out at the start of the final at home.

Texas A&M (19-11, 8-9 SEC) won its third straight victory after being eliminated eight in a row earlier in the conference game. He took advantage of Alabama’s 19 turnovers to overtake Tide by 29-18 in hand points.

Aggies beat Alabama 50-31 after halftime, scoring the first eight break points to set the tone that will continue throughout.

“Our defense was a disaster in the second half,” Oates said.

Alabama won 13 of 15 home games before Wednesday, both against the top 10 teams in Kentucky and Auburn. Texas A&M entered number NET.

Jaden Shackleford led Alabama with 16 points, followed by 14 by Javon Quinnerley and 13 by Keon Ellis.

“We had to be a little tighter,” Shackleford said. “We knew Texas A&M was a tough team, the top three in the country for turning people over. We knew we had to be tougher on that and take care of the ball. “

Texas A&M surpassed Tide 33-24 and finished 13-2 with a second chance point.

Oates mentioned the effort several times – a consistent theme of his third Alabama team – and his disappointment at failing to reach that group.

“The end will come quickly if this is the effort we make,” Oates said in a statement to the locker room. “We are as good as our efforts and it would be really disappointing for some of these guys to end their careers here in Alabama with this type of loss.”

No team was able to split much in the first half with seven draws and eight changes in the lead. Alabama’s biggest lead was 40-34 in a goal by Juvan Gary, a possession after JD Davison’s strike.

Both teams had nine turnovers in the first half and both scored 14 points from these possessions, but were stable with a touch touch when holding the ball. Alabama was 51.7% of the field (15 vs. 29), while A&M made half of its 28 shots. They both finished with 20 points in the first half.

Michael Casagrande is a reporter for the Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @ByCasagrande or on Facebook.

LAS VEGAS – Colby Covington is blowing up the promotion for perhaps the biggest fight of his MMA career, but it looks like he won’t get any pay points for watching his main match.

The former UFC light heavyweight title contender faces Jorge Masvidal in the headliner of Saturday’s UFC 272. The event takes place at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

Covington (16-3 MMA, 11-3 UFC) and Masvidal (35-15 MMA, 12-8 UFC) were former friends and teammates, but after an argument over alleged unfulfilled payments by Covington to the Masvidal coach, the two became angry enemies. Their enmity has become one of the biggest rivalries in martial arts today.

A big battle leading a pay-per-view event to the UFC usually means a big paycheck, but Covington has revealed that he won’t get part of the pay-per-sale sales cut.

“I gave up paying to watch,” Covington told reporters on Wednesday’s media day. “I don’t care about paying for this match. This is a personal battle. I want to come and do a UFC show and show that I deserve to be a UFC fighter for life. ”

The vast majority of those paid to watch the UFC are led by championship fights. Very few battles in the past have led to a pay-per-view event. These rare exceptions include very limited fighters such as MMA stars Connor McGregor and Nate Diaz. Covington v. Masvidal are now joining this select group that led the UFC pay-per-view while the titleless match.

After losing the title fight to champion Kamaru Usman, Covington says he has reduced his salary for this match against Masvidal. The “chaos” is along with the reduction of pay and the lack of pay points for watching due to the bad blood with Masvidal and his desire to enter the octagon with him.

“It’s just a personal rivalry, it’s not about the money,” Covington said. “I did not come here to fight for money. I reduced my salary, I was not interested in the money for this battle. It is about settling a blood feud.

“It was a long time. This person keeps it as long as he can, until there is no chance or no other option. This was the greatest opportunity he could get to pay his child support and pay child support, so of course he had to come and get his lost salary.

Connected

Like Russia’s attack on Ukraine continues, Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich announced on Wednesday that he was selling the Chelsea football club. Abramovich said the sale “will not be quick, but a proper procedure will follow” and that net proceeds will go to victims in Ukraine.

“It was never about business or money for me, but about pure passion for the game and the club,” he said.

Forbes estimated Abramovich’s net worth at $ 12.4 billion as of Wednesday afternoon, while Chelsea was worth about $ 3.2 billion in 2021. The 55-year-old man, once Russia’s richest man, said he would set up a foundation where net sales will be donated.

“The foundation will benefit all victims of the war in Ukraine,” he said. “This includes providing critical resources for the urgent and urgent needs of victims, as well as supporting long-term recovery work.”

He also said he would not demand repayment of any of his loans, alluding to a reported $ 2 billion loan he had given to the club.

The announcement comes after Abramovich said on Saturday that he was giving direct control of the club to trustees of the Chelsea Charitable Foundation. One day later, the team lost to Liverpool in the EFL Cup.

With other Russian oligarchs already sanctioned, the threat still looms over Abramovich and his assets. One day before Abramovich was announced, British MP Chris Bryant said that Abramovich would “sell everything until we get to his sanction”, according to CBS Sports.

Meanwhile, British Labor leader Keir Starmer on Wednesday called on Prime Minister Boris Johnson to impose sanctions on Abramovich for his “ties to the Russian state” and his “links to corruption and practices”, according to the BBC. Johnson said he would not comment on individual cases, but said “the order is being tightened on the Putin regime”.

Abramovich has denied ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin, going so far as to file a defamation lawsuit over allegations that he bought the club in 2003 on instructions from the president, according to CBS Sports.

Abramovich said on Wednesday that he was making the sale in the team’s best interest.

“Please know that this was an incredibly difficult decision to make and it hurts me to part with the club this way,” he said.

You know what’s coming now.

worse.

Worse offers. Worse bitterness. Worse results.

And not just for players and owners.

You can start imagining anyone working in a big or spring training league, wondering what to do next and how much it affects every subsidiary business around these sites (think of bars, restaurants, clothing, etc.). ). We already have the roadmap that owners will not just lose money without mitigating the consequences. Thus, how far we are from hearing terms like “leave” and “layoffs” for club employees again due to widespread work disruptions during the worst of the 2020 pandemic.

And players love to play baseball. They don’t do that. They will miss more than salaries. Lost games will affect the potential for career achievements, which are more limited than almost everyone in the country. How many thirty players are on the ice right now who don’t know – but will soon – that their careers are over because organizations just won’t spend the time or money to introduce them at a glance once they consolidate is spring preparation starting?

That should be part of the calculation here, let’s move on – how long is it worth staying away from the players. This will cost them not only 2022 salaries, but will also tighten the notion of the owners about what will be spent on the current class of free agents with hundreds in it? If you get another $ 300 million in discounts and that costs current players $ 300 million, I’m not much into math, but that’s not a profit.

This is all about why MLB and the union need to get back on the table – and now. Time is the enemy and the walls not only surround the owners and players, although the near and long term will also be miserable for them.

The weather will allow the hawks in each camp to be heard louder and it will be easier to consolidate coalitions. There are already owners who are wondering if management should accept all the short-term pain and stay out long enough to get players to accept a salary cap like the NBA, NFL and NHL have. There are owners who want to do it to crush the union, but others actually think that achieving a 50-50 partnership with the players would be better for both parties financially, because together they could solve problems, increase the game. (and mutual revenues) and that the promise is worth the short-term cataclysm.

There are certainly votes on the part of players who do not want to surrender until the luxury tax thresholds rise to the same percentages as sports income. Quite a reasonable question, except that Commissioner Rob Manfred never gets the votes he needs. So we can sit long enough not to wonder about Aaron Judge’s viability as a free agent compared to his AARP eligibility.

Manfred is currently deleting the first two series off the regular season. This only adds to the problems, such as service time will be credited to players for lost games at a time when the parties are unable to make a deal with the current package of problems. Want to see how much worse it is with 12 games, 24, 36?

If you support the sport, your hope is that both sides acknowledge that they have reached at least a third base in negotiations that lasted more than a week in Jupiter, Florida, and are trying to get back on the table quickly to regain some momentum to try to go home. Both sides (of course) have different interpretations of how close they were on Monday night.

Players believe that MLB overestimates closeness as a two-point tactic: 1) use the sense of accomplishment to motivate players to the finish line, and 2) make players look bad if they explode. I don’t put anything next to the owners. They have been moving too slowly in both negotiations and offers. But I will say that I have spoken to half a dozen team employees over the last two days who insist that they went to bed on Monday night, informed to prepare that the deal is on the doorstep. So, if MLB was pulling the wrong target, the league would attract it to its people to make the charade more believable. And I asked all these club employees directly, and no one thought it was a charade. If I’m being lied to, I think we should add an Oscar for Best Fake Office.

However, it is not a mistake that the parties have moved towards each other. Most of the extras for players at the moment are for redistributing dollars to players before the arbitration. Maybe this will lead to some higher overall costs. The key issue, as it always would be, is the luxury tax.

Players rightly see that it acts as a de facto salary cap, and if you want to challenge “rightly”, then know that the threshold was $ 210 million last year and five teams – Yankees, Mets, Phyllis, Red Sox and Astros – there were salaries for these purposes between 206.6 million and 209.4 million dollars. If you think this is a coincidence that is not on the doorstep, I have a loose team in the small league to sell you.

So raising the thresholds is vital for the players, if nothing else to do where the teams will put a higher amount of breaks. MLB’s latest offer was the first threshold to be $ 220 million for the first three seasons of a five-year deal and $ 230 million for the latter. An interested observer (OK, me) wonders if it started at $ 230 million and ended at $ 240 million, if that could motivate a deal.

This interested observer knows that the right place to ask these questions is at the negotiating table. No next meeting was scheduled for Wednesday afternoon. The greater the distance between Tuesday’s next negotiating session and the next, the more devastating it becomes. Time is now the enemy, leading to more lost money and acquired rage.

Return to the table.