Quick Hitters
USA Basketball plays first scrimmage in advance of World Cup
LAS VEGAS — The first order of business for USA Basketball on Friday night was thanking its fans, so Donovan Mitchell grabbed a microphone to deliver the pregame message. He got right to the point. “We look forward to going out to China, representing the USA, and winning the gold,” Mitchell said.
And now, the first step of getting ready for an unprecedented third straight Basketball World Cup title is complete.
USA Basketball held its BlueWhite game to wrap up a week of training camp in Las Vegas, and the Blue squad — the national team candidates, for the most part — had little trouble in beating the White squad composed mostly of young up-and-coming NBA players, 97-78. Jayson Tatum scored 17 points for the Blue, which got 14 from Kemba Walker and 12 from De’Aaron Fox.
Everybody who was supposed to play did, new U.S. coach Gregg Popovich got to tinker with a lot of combinations and no one got seriously hurt — thankfully, there was no reprise of the scene like the one five years ago during a USA Basketball exhibition game in Las Vegas, when Paul George suffered a horrible lower leg injury.
In short, that made the night a success. Everything else was just details.
Derrick White — who plays for Popovich in San Antonio, and was getting coached up by him a bit during Friday’s scrimmage as well — finished with 12 points and seven assists for the White team, coached by Jeff Van Gundy. John Collins also scored 12 and Jonathan Isaac added 11 points for the White squad.
Popovich and his staff will have to move quickly over the next few days to figure out which 12 players to take to China for the World Cup, which starts Aug. 31. The Americans open group play on Sept. 1 against the Czech Republic in Shanghai.
Popovich started Mitchell, Walker, Jaylen Brown, Myles Turner and Khris Middleton. The next five into the game was Tatum, Fox, Brook Lopez, Joe Harris and Kyle Kuzma.
From there, Harrison Barnes, P.J. Tucker, Mason Plumlee, Bam Adebayo and Thaddeus Young eventually got worked in.
The Blue led by as many as 30.
Mets rally for 4 in 9th, rock Nats for 7th win in row
NEW YORK — Todd Frazier clobbered a tying, three-run homer and Michael Conforto then lined a game-ending single as the New York Mets stormed back in the ninth inning to stun the Washington Nationals 7-6 Friday night for their seventh straight win.
Trailing 6-3, the Mets rallied against closer Sean Doolittle to win for the 14th time in 15 games at pulsating Citi Field. The Nationals hold the top spot in the NL wild-card race, the Mets are 1 ½ games behind them.
Mets rookie Pete Alonso homered in his fourth straight game, hitting his 38th of the season off Stephen Strasburg. J.D. Davis also connected.
Davis and Wilson Ramos led off the ninth with hits off Doolittle and Frazier sent a drive into the second deck in left, sending the fans into a frenzy.
Newly signed Joe Panik followed with a single and was wiped out by a fielder’s choice. After Jeff McNeil was retired, Amed Rosario singled. Conforto followed with a hard liner over the head of right fielder Adam Eaton, scoring Juan Lagares for the victory with his first career walk-off hit.
LOS ANGELES — Carson Kelly hit a tying tworun homer in the ninth inning and a tiebreaking solo shot in the 11th, propelling the Arizona Diamondbacks to a 3-2 comeback victory over the major league-leading Los Angeles Dodgers on Friday night.
Both benches cleared after the final out when Archie Bradley shouted and pointed at the Dodgers’ dugout after completing his third save.