Germany edges past UK as Europe’s leading market for NFL KD, Nets ‘rout’ Knicks after making Vaughn head coach
LeBron injured in Lakers loss to Clippers
NEW YORK, Nov 10, (AP): Kevin Durant had 29 points, 12 rebounds and 12 assists, becoming the first player since Michael Jordan to score at least 25 points in his team’s first 12 games, and the Brooklyn Nets routed the New York Knicks 112-85 on Wednesday night after making Jacque Vaughn their head coach.
Durant beat the Knicks for the 13th straight time, and he’s had triple-doubles in the last two. His rebounds and assists were both season highs, and his usual scoring extended a streak that is the longest since Jordan opened the 1988-89 season with 16 consecutive games of 25 points.
Clippers 114, Lakers 101
In Los Angeles, LeBron James scored 30 points before leaving the court with pain in his left leg late in the Los Angeles Lakers’ loss to the Clippers.
James felt discomfort in his leg and groin shortly after he backed down Paul George to draw a foul in the paint with less than five minutes to play. James sat out Monday at Utah to rest the persistent pain in his left foot, but was having one of his best games this season before his latest
Celtics 128, Pistons 112
In Boston, Jayson Tatum had 31 points and five assists as Boston beat Detroit for its fourth straight victory.
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Jaylen Brown had 30 points and seven rebounds. Sam Hauser added a career-high 24 points off the bench for the Celtics, led by 24 in the fourth quarter.
Jazz 125, Hawks 119
In Atlanta, Lauri Markkanen scored a season-high 32 points and Utah recovered after blowing a 15-point lead to beat Atlanta.
Jordan Clarkson had 23 points, his fifth straight game with at least 20, to give the Western Conference-leading Jazz (10-3) their fourth straight win.
Nuggets 122, Pacers 119
In Indianapolis, Nikola Jokic scored 24 points in 21 minutes to help Denver erase an 18-point deficit in the second half against Indiana.
Jokic was in foul trouble most of the night and sat from the 11:02 mark of the third quarter until early in the fourth with five fouls. But when the Nuggets needed him most, the twotime NBA MVP pulled them through.
Raptors 116, Rockets 109
In Toronto, Fred VanVleet scored 12 of his season-high 32 points in the fourth quarter to lead Toronto past Houston.
O.G. Anunoby matched his season best with 27 points and added 10 rebounds for the Raptors. Otto Porter Jr. scored 14 points, Scottie Barnes had 13 and Gary Trent Jr. 11 as Toronto improved to 5-1 at home.
Trail Blazers 105, Hornets 95
In Charlotte, Damian Lillard overcame a slow start to finish with 26 points, including six 3-pointers, and Portland handed Charlotte its sixth straight loss.
Anfernee Simons scored 19 points and Shaedon Sharpe had 17 off the bench for the Trail Blazers. They shot 53.3% and rallied from a 12-point deficit in the third quarter to improve to 3-1 on their six-game trip.
Magic 94, Mavericks 87
In Orlando, Franz Wagner scored 22 points and Orlando held Dallas star Luka Doncic under 30 points for the first time this season.
Doncic, the NBA’s leading scorer, finished with 24 points after scoring 30 or more in each of the Mavericks’ first nine games. He shot 9 for 29 overall and 2 of 11 from 3-point range.
Pelicans 115, Bulls 111
In Chicago, Brandon Ingram scored 18 of his 22 points in the second half, including seven straight late in the fourth quarter, and New Orleans pulled out a victory over Chicago.
Ingram hit a 3-pointer that gave the Pelicans a 109-107 lead. DeMar DeRozan’s dunk tied it, but Ingram countered with a mid-range basket and the Bulls committed a turnover with 17.4 seconds left.
Grizzlies 124, Spurs 122, OT
In San Antonio, Ja Morant and Desmond Bane scored 32 points apiece as Memphis defeated San Antonio in overtime.
The Grizzlies handed the Spurs their fifth consecutive loss and won their seventh straight over San Antonio.
MUNICH, Nov 10, (AP): Seattle Seahawks fan Lukas Spiess was shocked at what he noticed while at a Stuttgart soccer game a few weeks ago.
“This elderly gentleman a few rows in front of me was playing fantasy football on his phone,” said Spiess, president of the German Sea Hawkers fan club. “That’s not something I would have expected.”
The NFL has arrived in Germany. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers will play the Seahawks at Allianz Arena in Munich on Sunday in the first-ever regular-season NFL game in Germany. Over the next three seasons, Munich will host another one and Frankfurt two.
More broadly, Germany has now surpassed Britain as the NFL’s largest market in Europe.
“Game Pass has more subscribers, consumer products sell more in Germany than in the UK, Madden video game sells more, TV rights are comparative,” Brett Gosper, NFL Head of U.K. and Europe, told The Associated Press in an interview.
The U.K. and Germany each have 3.3 million “avid fans” of the NFL in a category that’s been growing quickly for both, but Germany has slightly more “casual” fans 17 million, Gosper said. London has been hosting regular-season games since 2007.
Germany edged past Britain in the past 12 months, Gosper told a recent sports marketing conference in Düsseldorf.
With Europe’s largest economy, Germany was a no-brainer for the NFL and the country has supported American football in the past. NFL Europe ultimately failed, but in its final season in 2007, five of the six teams were German. The Frankfurt Galaxy and Rhein Fire in particular drew good crowds.
Interest really took off after 2015, when games became easily accessible to viewers on a prominent free-to-air channel.
“I feel like it’s accelerating exponentially,” said Spiess, a 31-year-old software engineer. ”Through the help of social media, too, there’s this whole buzz around it. Being an American football fan is cool now.”
Gosper acknowledged the NFL is “probably a little late” coming to Germany and said adding a 17th game to the schedule was key.
“Having that (extra game) enabled us to move into Germany, but it probably was a market that was ready to see an NFL game here a lot earlier,” Gosper said at the SPOBIS conference in late September.
Alexander Steinforth, the NFL’s general manager for Germany, acknowledged it’s “super helpful” to have seven-time Super Bowl-winning quarterback Tom Brady headline the league’s debut game in Germany.
But he said interest in the league trumps any one star.
“The excitement is so big that you could almost put out any team to play in Germany and people would love to attend the game,” Steinforth said.
The online queue when tickets went on sale in July hit 770,000, though it’s not clear if some were bots or if that number of people were on devices. In any case, the
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demand was more than double the London games, which typically sell out quickly.
“I was trying on three different devices,” said Spiess, who struck out but then landed tickets through a friend in Seattle. “A lot of people are still desperately hoping to be able to find a couple of leftover tickets.”
A lot of German fans are coming to Munich even without tickets, he said, “to get as much of the experience as they can.”
Allianz Arena, home of soccer club Bayern Munich, can hold 75,000 fans.
The Bucs are one of four teams that have international marketing rights in Germany. The others are the Carolina Panthers, Kansas City Chiefs and New England Patriots. That means they can cultivate fans and commercial deals in the country.
The Bucs will get a boost from hosting, but the other three are all holding events in Munich this week, as well, to scoop up as many “undecided” fans as possible.
“Not only is it a big pool, but the demographic of that pool is very valuable,” Chiefs president Mark Donovan said, citing the 18-to-34 age range. “A big portion of that demo have already indicated a desire to be involved in the NFL. They follow the NFL in some way shape or form - players, teams, league - and they’re undecided.”
The NFL and the Bundesliga recently agreed to collaborate on fan acquisition and broadcast technology.
England’s Alex Hales celebrates after scoring 50 runs during the T20 World Cup cricket semifinal between England and India in Adelaide, Australia. (AP)