Waldman has little love for Texas
ISLANDERS DEVILS 3
The Texas Rangers, always willing to play fast and loose with COVID, are busting it wide open next month: 40,000 fans in their hideous new stadium for Opening Day. (Texas, along with several other states, lifted all virus restrictions earlier this month.)
Yankees radio announcer John Sterling brought it up during Wednesday night’s game against the
Pirates. His partner, Suzyn Waldman, was not ready to yuk it up.
“Suzyn, just to talk about Texas, they’ve said for Opening Day, they’re gonna open up the ballpark,” Sterling said. “They’ll fill it.”
“I’m glad I’m not there,” Waldman said twice while chuckling in disbelief. “Stupid.”
A trip to Irving Island is usually solo and fruitless. That’s because a trip to said island means a one-onone date with Kyrie Irving, one of the league’s most gifted isolation scorers, who dazzled for 40 points with only eight missed shots in the Nets’ 121-109 win over the Celtics on Thursday.
It was yet another revenge game for Irving, who has lit it up scoring in both games against Boston this season. These are the only games he’s played against his former team since leaving Boston for Brooklyn two summers ago, though Irving downplayed the notion he had extra juice for his old teammates.
“I know a lot of people in the league well. It’s my former team. I think I’ll let the casual NBA fans talk about what it could mean in terms of a special night,” Irving said, “but I’m just waiting for the main stage (in the playoffs), playing in front of millions of people and it actually mattering in terms of win or lose or go home. I’m looking forward to that.”
When Irving has it going, there are few teams, let alone players, who can slow him down. Jaylen Brown is, by all accounts, Boston’s best defender, but Irving left him in the dust, driving right, then spinning back left for a fade-away shot on one play. Marcus Smart is, by all accounts, Boston’s second-best defender, but also stood no chance against Irving’s barrage of behindthe-back crossovers before another mid-range pull-up.
Picking up a scorer outside the three-point line is usually the best way to stop him from getting into a rhythm, but Irving beat that defense, too, pulling up for a three just a few steps inside the halfcourt Nets logo.
For Irving, revenge is a dish served red-hot. He scored 37 points in the Nets’ Christmas Day win over the Celtics, then one ... no, two ... no, three-upped himself with a 40-ball against his former team
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CELTICS
on Thursday.
“Ky’s as likely to give anyone else in the league 40 as he is the Celtics,” Nets coach Steve Nash said.
The win, though, didn’t come from Irving alone.
James Harden struggled from the field, shooting just 6-of-16, but reserve sharpshooter Landry Shamet exploded for 18 points off the bench. He made his first four threes and finished six-of-nine from downtown, with head coach Steve Nash closing the game with Shamet on the floor.
Veteran forward Jeff Green also came off the bench and scored 11, hitting a pair of threes. The Celtics didn’t make it easy. Boston built an early 11-point lead before Irving got it going. Then he took over and the Celtics didn’t have an answer for him.
“I think any time you play, owe a team, there’s an added sense of whatever,” said Shamet, who has been traded twice in his career, first from the Sixers to the Clippers, then from the Clippers to the Nets. “Whether he says it or not, whether anybody says it or not, that’s always there I think. I know for me it is. It gives you a little extra juice. Wasn’t surprised at all. He does it on a night to night basis too, but tonight was pretty special.” The Nets built a lead as big as 12 at one point, but the Celtics stayed in the game, one flurry of baskets after another. Jayson Tatum scored 31 points on 13-of-22 shooting, matching Irving’s aggression on offense, but Brown shot just 5-of-23 in 40 minutes on the floor. Kemba Walker, the Bronx native who replaced Irving in Boston’s lineup, shot just 1-of-7 from three-point range and finished with 11 points.
The Nets picked up where they left off before the All-Star break and are now winners of 11 of their last 12 games. While it was Harden who captained the Nets to a near perfect streak entering the break, it was Irving’s dazzling play that sustained their momentum in the second half of the season.
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INDIANAPOLIS — Ron Harper Jr. and Jacob Young scored 13 points each as Rutgers knocked tenth-seeded Indiana out in the second round of the Big Ten Tournament on Thursday, 61-50.
Rutgers (15-10) was seeded seventh into the tournament, its highest seed ever, and will square off against second-seeded, and No. 3-ranked, Illinois (20-6) in today’s quarterfinal. Rutgers beat the Illini, 91-88, in their only meeting this season.
The Hoosiers (12-15) led by as many as 10 in the first half, and Rutgers needed to close on a 14-4 pace in order to lead at the break, 33-32, on Geo Baker’s dunk.
Trayce Jackson-Davis scored 19 points to lead Indiana, but six came after halftime. He threw down consecutive dunks midway through the second half, each time cutting the Rutgers lead to three, and he also blocked two shots down the stretch.
Matt Martin and Adam Pelech scored first-period goals, rookie Ilya Sorokin stopped 19 shots and the Islanders welcomed fans back to Nassau Coliseum by beating the Devils, 5-3, on Thursday night for their seventh straight win.
The first-place Islanders are 12-0-2 at the arena this year, and this win came with 1,000 frontline workers in the stands. They were the first fans at Nassau Coliseum since March 7, 2020, five days before last season was suspended due to the pandemic.
Noah Dobson, Josh Bailey and Brock Nelson also scored for the Islanders. Sorokin won for the fifth time.
The Devils scored three times in the third period. Janne Kuokkanen and Mikhail Maltsev tallied 40 seconds apart, and Jack
Hughes scored his sixth goal of the season at 15:52. Mackenzie Blackwood stopped 29 shots.
Martin opened the scoring at 3:15 of the first when his shot from just inside the blue line eluded Blackwood for his fifth goal of the season.
Pelech made it 2-0 at 9:54 when his shot from the left point found the net.
Anders Lee had to leave the game shortly after that goal when he became entangled with Pavel Zacha of the Devils in front of the Islanders net. Lee kept weight off his right leg as he was helped off the ice. The Islanders captain was playing his 294th consecutive game dating to January 2017, the third-longest streak in team history behind Bob Nystrom and Billy Harris.
Dobson extended the lead to 3-0 at 14:05 of the second period with his third goal of the season.
All six defenseman for the Islanders registered points, with Ryan Pulock notching two assists and Nick Leddy, Andy Greene and Scott Mayfield getting one each in addition to the goals by Dobson and Pelech.