Lots of players rest and lots of playoff seeds are locked up on a 15-game Friday in the NBA

The Oklahoma City-Denver game could have starred the NBA's two most recent MVPs: the reigning one in Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and a three-time winner in Nuggets forward Nikola Jokic.

Mavericks Spurs Basketball

Except they both sat out. They weren't alone.

All the other regular starters for the Thunder and Nuggets were ruled out, too. And around the league, no fewer than 168 players — including 14 members of the Memphis Grizzlies, who used only six players ina blowout loss at Utah— were held out on Friday night because of injuries or illnesses.

Every team in the league was playing game 81 — the next-to-last game — of their seasons on Friday night. They're all off Saturday, and then all teams play again Sunday to close the regular season.

Some teams had something to play for Friday. Some did not. Sometimes, that didn't seem to matter.

“If we didn’t clinch (the No. 1 overall seed) coming into tonight, everybody would be playing,” Thunder coach Mark Daigneault told reporters before the game. “We’ve earned the right through 80 games to manage their bodies and stuff like that.”

Oklahoma City already had the No. 1 seed for the entirety of the postseason wrapped up, so rest and health appear to be the priority for the Thunder.

The Nuggets entered Friday still having seeding to play for, and in Jokic's case,there's still award eligibility to obtain.He needs to play in one more game, which would have to be Sunday if he's going to get on the ballot for MVP, All-NBA and other awards.

“We're all aware of that,” Nuggets coach David Adelman told reporters before the game, then said postgame that “an adult conversation” would be had on Saturday about the best course of action.

Some players got to award eligibility with a few extra minutes to spare.

San Antonio's Victor Wembanyama, needing to play 20 minutes to reach the 65-game standard and be eligible for postseason awards, was taken out after hitting exactly that number of minutes — then went back into the game, evidently having persuaded the Spurs that he needed a bit more on-court work.

He finished with 40 points, 13 rebounds and five assistsin 26 minutes.

“If I had 65 (games) before, I for sure wouldn't have played,” Wembanyama said.

Said Spurs coach Mitch Johnson: “We need as much on-the-job training, on-the-court experience together as we can. That's what we're trying to do without overdoing it.”

There was also a record shooting effort on Friday.Boston made 29 3-pointers,tying the record for 3s in a game. It was the fourth time in NBA history a team made 29, and the second time this week after Memphis did it on Monday in a loss to Cleveland.

“Hopefully, we didn't use them all up in one game,” Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla said.

Play-in dress rehearsal for Warriors?

Not everybody was resting for the playoffs.

Golden State was building for the postseason — or, at least, what it hopes will be a playoff run. The Warriors are going to the play-in tournament and tuned up by getting Stephen Curry, Draymond Green and Kristaps Porzingis in the starting lineup together for the first time this season.

“We’ll just take a look at that tonight,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said before Golden State played Sacramento. “We have a season full of data and film on some of the combinations. But some of decisions we have to make, there’s no data. It’s just kind of a hunch so we have give some of that a look tonight.”

Jazz and Grizzlies combine to use 13 players

Utah — a team that seems to have spent the season ensuring it would have a bottom-four record to guarantee a top-eight draft pick — used seven players in its 147-101 win over Memphis, and was the deeper team.

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Memphis had only six players.

It wasn't the game of the year, to put it mildly.

“Congrats to the Jazz,” Memphis coach Tuomas Iisalo said. “They played a really good game. Shot the ball really well. We knew we had limited bodies going into this game. Guys gave everything they had, but you could see they were extremely fatigued.”

Jazz coach Will Hardy called the game a great way to end Utah's home schedule.

“Just a fun night,” Hardy said.

Playoff picture becomes clearer

Atlantabecame the 11th teamto grab one of the 12 guaranteed playoff spots, rolling past a Cleveland team that sat Donovan Mitchell.

“It feels great,” guard CJ McCollum said after the Hawks clinched either the No. 5 or No. 6 spot in the East. “The guys did a great job of rallying together.”

In other playoff-related news:

— Boston secured No. 2 in the East, behind No. 1 Detroit (which had previously clinched).

— New Yorklocked up No. 3in the East.

— Cleveland is certain to be No. 4 in the East after that loss to the Hawks.

— Atlanta knows it will be in the playoffs, either as the No. 5 or No. 6 seed.

— Charlotte will be in the play-in tournament after falling to Detroit.

— Orlando will be in no worse than the 7-vs.-8 play-in game in the East.

— Miami is locked into the 9-vs.-10 play-in game in the East.

— Portland beat the Los Angeles Clippers, giving the Trail Blazers the inside track to the No. 8 seed in the West. The Clippers would have wrapped up No. 8 with a victory, and now need help Sunday to avoid being No. 9. The difference? The teams in the 7-vs.-8 game get two chances to win one game and make the playoffs. The 9-vs.-10 teams have to win two elimination games to advance. “It's a very important win,” Blazers star Deni Avdija said.

AP Sports Writer Josh Dubow contributed to this report.

AP NBA:https://apnews.com/nba

byAlex Forten

in

April 11, 2026

Lots of players rest and lots of playoff seeds are locked up on a 15-game Friday in the NBA

The Oklahoma City-Denver game could have starred the NBA's two most recent MVPs: the reigning one in Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Al...

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Quinta Brunson breaks down Janine and Gregory's relationship cliffhanger on “Abbott Elementary” (exclusive)

Warning: This article contains spoilers fromAbbott Elementaryseason 5, episode 19, "Trip."

Quinta Brunsonknows thatAbbott Elementaryfans will be upset after Wednesday's episode, but she's not making any apologies.

"I don't even want to say I'm sorry," the show's creator and star tellsEntertainment Weekly. "We're all going to go on a nice sun ride with each other [after this], right?"

That remains in question after fans watched Janine (played by Brunson) and Gregory (Tyler James Williams) teeter on the brink of ending their relationship afterseasons of waiting for them to finally get together.

In the episode aptly titled "Trip," the newly cohabitating couple find themselves unexpectedly at odds while planning a couple's trip. Just when they've finally landed on the Outer Banks as their destination, the itinerary proves to be a continuing source of obstacles between them. First, it's the question of whether to stay at a hotel or an Airbnb — which ends with a compromise of sourcing a B'n'B — only for the mode of transportation to prove truly insurmountable.

Although Gregory's inflexibility when it comes to choosing between taking a flight to the Outer Banks versus driving there is expected of the first-grade teacher, it's Janine's refusal to stand down that might be surprising for some fans. But maybe it shouldn't, Brunson reasons.

"This is a girl who has, over the years, learned to stand up for what she wants and to not compromise as much," the Emmy winner points out. "We talked about that a lot in the [writers'] room. Her learning, especially with a trip — there was a trip she wanted to take a few seasons ago and she was going to compromise for the sake of her mother and she learned not to do that. So she's trying to exercise that. She's trying to exercise her wants and getting what she needs."

And who couldn't respect the way Janine confronted Gregory about his less-than-compromising compromise of deciding they should go to Atlantic City instead of the Outer Banks?!

But between Janine's hard-won backbone and Gregory's doggedness, the episode-long back and forth ends with the unthinkable; the argument about their contrasting ideas for vacation ends with Janine suggesting that maybe, in light of their difficultly, they should break up.

This is why they say you should take a vacation before you move in together!

Despite the surety that fans would be sent into a tizzy over that emotional cliffhanger, Brunson shared that the fight was something she and the sitcom writers were excited about seeing played out.

"I think [we were excited] because Jeanine and Gregory are two characters we know very well, and more than anything, two characters wethinkwe know very well. So we think we know their relationship. We feel settled with it," she says. "But I think as with any relationship, the inside has its own dynamics. And I thought that they've been in such an easy ride since they got together, it was interesting to all of us to see some different layers there."

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Brunson says she and the writers posed the question of what could be under the surface of Janine and Gregory's relationship to be unearthed, leading to their trials and tribulations on Wednesday.

"Gregory and Janine haven't had this kind of conflict yet," she adds. "So now it's like, what happens when these two developed characters — who have learned a lot of lessons and have done a lot of growing up — come to this kind of point in their relationship?"

But the actress notes that the fight between Janine and Gregory wasn't created simply for the sake of it; it also served as a "moment of growth" for Gregory. "I think that Gregory is a really solutions-based character, and I feel like he's like, 'I provided the solution. That's it.' And that's not always the case when it comes to our interpersonal relationships," she says. "I think that's true for all relationships, romantic, work relationships, and friendships. You really want to try to find something that actually works for both people, and that's just not always easy to do."

It was also a moment of challenge for Brunson and Williams behind the scenes. "We've been doing this for a long time now and you kind of get used to being able to play certain things with your character," Brunson says. "We're used to playing with the kids, we're used to playing nice and fun, and we're used to playing dramatic in other elements, but this was a new challenge for him and I as actors."

"It's kind of fun," the actress adds, laughing. "It's the stuff that makes you feel like you're back in acting class, your character, a new element throne at it, something new to develop. Who is Gregory in this moment? Who is Janine in this moment? And it's fun, honestly, as actors. This last episode and the one where they move in with each other were both episodes where Tyler and I felt a challenge in how we do these things to make sense."

Brunson shares that the challenge went beyond just her and Williams — even the episode's director and supervising director, Razan Ghalayini and Randall Einhorn, respectively, held "a longer tone meeting than usual."

"We really took the time to be like, how is this going to feel? This is a monumental moment for these two characters, as well as our writer of this episode, Ava Coleman," Brunson says. "I felt like we had a two-part tone meeting, which we very rarely do, because this is a big moment. And then on set, same. We took more time to shoot these scenes than we normally would because we really wanted to feel it out in rehearsal and feel it out in the direction."

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She continues, "There were smaller elements like Razan choosing to shoot farther away rather than in closeups in certain scenes. Sometimes it was like, 'Oh, we need to be a bit further away for this because even our camera crew in the show doesn't feel like they should be this close to this discussion. This is between these two characters.' So it was a fun challenge for all of us."

Hopefully the knowledge that the crew behind the cameras were working hard to bring the drama will make any fans feeling personally victimized by the cliffhanger ending of Wednesday's episode feel better!

Abbott Elementaryairs Wednesdays at 9 p.m. ET onABC.

Read the original article onEntertainment Weekly

byAlex Forten

in

April 10, 2026

Quinta Brunson breaks down Janine and Gregory's relationship cliffhanger on “Abbott Elementary” (exclusive)

Warning: This article contains spoilers fromAbbott Elementaryseason 5, episode 19, "Trip." Quinta Brunsonknows thatAbbo...

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Jayson Tatum scores 24 for Celtics in 1st game at Madison Square Garden since Achilles injury but Knicks win, 112-106

In his first game at Madison Square Garden sincesuffering a torn Achillesin last year’s NBA playoffs, Jayson Tatum scored 24 points in the Boston Celtics’ 112-106 loss over the New York Knicks on Thursday.

The Knicks held a 72-59 lead at the 6:56 mark of the third quarter before Boston surged ahead with a 24-9 run to take a two-point lead into the fourth. The Celtics went ahead 89-83 on consecutive 3-pointers by Baylor Scheierman and Tatum before the Knicks tied the score at 92-92 after scoring seven unanswered points.

From there, Boston took the lead three times and the Knicks tied the score before finally going ahead 99-98 on a Karl-Anthony Towns 3-pointer. The lead changed four more times before New York went up 109-104 on a free throw from Jalen Brunson and 3-pointer by Josh Hart. After Nikola Vučević rebounded in a missed 3 by Peyton Pritchard, Hart followed up with the dagger from long-range for the final margin.

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Hart finished with a game-high 26 points, followed by 25 and 10 assists from Brunson. Towns added 16 points and 12 rebounds for the Knicks, who improved their record to 52-28 to keep hold onthe third seed in the Eastern Conference.

The Celtics played without leading scorer Jaylen Brown, whosat out with tendinitisin his left Achilles tendon with the team playing the first of back-to-back games. Boston hosts the New Orleans Pelicans (26-54) at TD Garden on Friday.

This story will be updated with more information.

byAlex Forten

in

April 10, 2026

Jayson Tatum scores 24 for Celtics in 1st game at Madison Square Garden since Achilles injury but Knicks win, 112-106

In his first game at Madison Square Garden sincesuffering a torn Achillesin last year’s NBA playoffs, Jayson Tatum scored 24 points in ...

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Daniel Hauser, Wisconsin edge North Dakota to reach Frozen Four final

Wisconsin scored twice in a 27-second span in the first period and Daniel Hauser made 21 saves en route to a 2-1 win over No. 2 North Dakota on Thursday in the first Frozen Four semifinal at Las Vegas.

Simon Tassy and Ryan Botterill netted the quick-fire goals for the Badgers (24-12-2), who shrugged off North Dakota's last-minute tally to move within one win of their seventh national championship and first since 2006.

The Badgers will face Denver in the final on Saturday after the Pioneers edged No. 1 Michigan 4-3 in double overtime later Thursday night.

Hauser outdueled North Dakota's Jan Spunar (35 saves) in a battle of freshman goalies, making 12 stops in the second period. Spunar and the Fighting Hawks (29-10-1) shut out both Merrimack and Quinnipiac in the Sioux Falls, S.D., regional to reach the Frozen Four for the first time since 2016.

For North Dakota, Ellis Rickwood broke Hauser's shutout bid with 51.8 seconds left in regulation.

Wisconsin finished with a dominant 37-22 advantage in shots and went 5-for-5 on the penalty kill.

Hauser set the tone for a Wisconsin-dominated first period 4:24 in, stopping North Dakota's first shot on goal of the game when Tyler Young slipped a pass from behind the net to set up a point-blank chance for Cody Croal.

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Denting the scoreboard first at 12:54, Tassy stepped into a wrist shot as he slid down into the right circle and received Vasily Zelenov's feed out of a battle in the corner.

Botterill doubled the Badger lead at 13:21. Defenseman Ben Dexheimer -- whose overtime game-winner was the difference against Michigan State in the Worcester, Mass., regional -- made a diagonal feed out of his own end to Botterill, who broke in at the blue line and beat two defenders for a shot that trickled five-hole on Spunar.

After being outshot 18-4 in the opening stanza, North Dakota pressured out of the first intermission, and Hauser made a key stop on Will Zellers' partial breakaway early in the second.

Wisconsin also killed off a two-man disadvantage for 1:57 before the halfway mark of the second period before the Badgers' Oliver Tulk made up for a defensive-zone turnover with a perfect diving backcheck to disrupt Ollie Josephson's potential try in the final minute.

One of North Dakota's best chances in the third came with 8:30 left and while short-handed, as Cole Reschny cut through two defenders and clanked a backhand shot off the crossbar.

With Spunar pulled for an extra attacker, Dylan James' wraparound attempt found the stick of Rickwood in front for a point-blank wrist shot goal atop the crease, but the Fighting Hawks got no closer than 2-1.

--Field Level Media

byAlex Forten

in

April 10, 2026

Daniel Hauser, Wisconsin edge North Dakota to reach Frozen Four final

Wisconsin scored twice in a 27-second span in the first period and Daniel Hauser made 21 saves en route to a 2-1 win over No. 2 North D...

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Sia Seemingly Mocks Ex-Husband After Custody Settlement

Siaseemingly took a jab after new details surfaced about her custody settlement andchild supportagreement with her estranged husband,Daniel Bernad. The singer famously keeps her private life out of the spotlight, but she took to social media after reports claimed she would pay a large monthly amount for their young son as part of a joint custody deal. On April 8, Sia posted a message on X (formerly Twitter) that many readers interpreted as a swipe at Bernad, writing, “good dads get jobs.”

Sia seemingly reacts to custody settlement update in scathing tweet

After the post,PEOPLEreported that Sia agreed to pay Daniel Bernad $42,500 a month in child support for their 2-year-old son, Somersault “Summi” Wonder Bernard, under a jointcustody settlement. Moreover, the outlet reported that the payments started on April 1 and will go on until the child turns 18, or longer under certain school conditions. Sia will reportedly also cover private school tuition, extracurricular activities, and health insurance.

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Thesingerallegedly filed for divorce from Bernad in March 2025 after getting married in 2022 and welcoming their son the following year. She later added more context in anotherposton X, writing, “I’m a sober working mom trying to buy peace,” and adding, “I have primary custody of our son and since I am the only parent earning income I still have to pay California’s incredibly high child support.” In the same thread, she further described the past year as extremely difficult and ended with, “To err is human, to forgive is divine.”

As perPEOPLE, Bernad asked the court for sole legal and physical custody settlement in October and accused Sia of substance issues. However, the singer denied those claims in court filings and said she had stayed sober. A judge reportedly later denied Bernad’s request for sole custody.

The postSia Seemingly Mocks Ex-Husband After Custody Settlementappeared first onReality Tea.

byAlex Forten

in

April 09, 2026

Sia Seemingly Mocks Ex-Husband After Custody Settlement

Siaseemingly took a jab after new details surfaced about her custody settlement andchild supportagreement with her estranged husband,Daniel...

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North Korea says its latest weapons tests included missiles with cluster-bomb warheads

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea said Thursday its testing spree this week involved various new weapons systems, including ballistic missiles armed with cluster-bomb warheads, as it pushes to expand nuclear-capable forces aimed at rival South Korea.

South Korea Koreas Tensions

The report by North Korean state media came a day after South Korea’s military said it detected North Koreafiring multiple missilesfrom an eastern coastal area in its second round of launches in two days.

North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency said the tests lasted three days starting Monday and also included demonstrations of anti-aircraft weapons, purported electromagnetic weapons systems and carbon-fiber bombs.

South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said the missiles launched Wednesday flew 240 to 700 kilometers (150 to 434 miles) before falling into the sea, and that it also detected at least one projectile launched Tuesday from an area near the North Korean capital of Pyongyang.

Japan’s Defense Ministry said none of the weapons fired Wednesday entered waters within its exclusive economic zone, while the U.S. military said the North Korean launches on Tuesday and Wednesday posed no immediate threat to the United States or its allies.

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KCNA said the latest tests included demonstrations of cluster-munition warhead systems mounted on the nuclear-capable Hwasong-11 ballistic missiles, which resemble Russia’s Iskander missiles in their design for low-altitude, maneuverable flight to evade missile defense systems. The report said the launches confirmed that the short-range missile, when armed with such warheads, “can reduce to ashes any target covering an area of 6.5-7 hectares (16 to 17.2 acres) with the highest-density power.”

Jang Do-young, a spokesperson for South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, said at a briefing that the military was analyzing the launches while sharing information with U.S. and Japanese counterparts, but declined to provide specific assessments about the North’s claims of progress in its military capabilities.

The launches underscored continuing tensions between the Koreas, blunting South Korean hopes for warmer relations.

In a statement Tuesday night, Jang Kum Chol, a first vice minister at Pyongyang’s Foreign Ministry, said South Korea would always remain the North’s “most hostile enemy state” and mocked Seoul’s liberal government for seeking to reviverestore long-stalled dialogue, calling its officials “world-startling fools.”

North Korean leaderKim Jong Unhas suspended virtually all diplomacy with Seoul and Washington since the collapse of his nuclear talks with President Donald Trump in 2019, and has since accelerated the development of nuclear-capable missiles that threaten U.S. allies in Asia as well as the U.S. mainland.

Kim has also pursued closer ties with Russia, China and other countries embroiled in confrontations with the United States as he looks to break out of isolation and strengthen his regional footing. North Korean state media says Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi will arrive in the country on Thursday for a two-day trip in the latest round of diplomacy between the countries.

byAlex Forten

in

April 09, 2026

North Korea says its latest weapons tests included missiles with cluster-bomb warheads

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea said Thursday its testing spree this week involved various new weapons systems, including ballist...

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Arrests of immigrants without criminal convictions rose under Trump, report says

Arrests of immigrants without criminal convictions by ICE have surged 770%, while street arrests saw a more than 1,000% increase during the first year of President Donald Trump’s second term, according to a new analysis released Tuesday.

The analysis by the Deportation Data Projectat UC Berkeley found that ICE arrests more than quadrupled in that period, with transfers from jails and prisons roughly doubling. The much-increased street arrests took place in neighborhoods, at immigration court and at ICE field offices during regular immigration check-ins, the report said.

“Arrests not in jails or prisons at this order of magnitude are a new phenomenon. For both types of arrests, ICE was much less likely to target people with criminal convictions,” according to the analysis by the Deportation Data Project, which is led by a group of academics and lawyers that collect, post and analyze government immigration enforcement data.

The changes in enforcement led to a 770% increase in immigration arrests of people without criminal convictions, according to the analysis.

The project's analysis is based on data obtained through a lawsuit filed under the Freedom of Information Act and covers arrests through March 10, according to the report.

“It’s well known that ICE has been pursuing a campaign of indiscriminate arrests, but it’s less well known that even as ICE has arrested more people who likely could win their cases and stay in the United States, arrests have been ending more often in deportation,” report author David Hausman, co-director of the Deportation Data Project and assistant professor of law at UC Berkeley, said in a statement. “One big factor is that detention causes people to give up on their cases.”

A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said in a statement to NBC News that the Deportation Data Project had “cherry picked” data in order to “peddle a false narrative.”

The spokesperson added: “70% of ICE arrests are criminal illegal aliens. We are continuing to go after the worst of the worst — including gang members, pedophiles, and rapists.”

The DHS spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for data substantiating that 70%. The agency has previously said that 70% of its arrests are of people who have been either convicted or charged with a crime in the U.S.

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The agency added that “every single one of these individuals committed a crime when they came into this country illegally.” Crossing the border without authorization is a federal misdemeanor for a first offense. The administration has also arrested immigrants who entered the country legally.

“The Deportation Data Project relies on information releases that have not been reviewed, audited or given context,” the spokesperson said. “DHS nor ICE have verified the accuracy, methodology or the analysis of the project and its results. The bottom line is that the Deportation Data Project is not accurate.”

In response, the Deportation Data Project said that ICE had sent them its datasets in response to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit and that it posted the original data.

“These are ICE’s own records of who is arrested, detained, and deported,” the project said.

The group also said it documented every step it took in analyzing the original data.

The project’s analysis also found that deportations of people who were already in the U.S. — versus migrants encountered at the border — increased by a factor of five during the first year of Trump’s second term. The report said this change was due to increases in detention space and a decrease of releases.

The administration also more than quadrupled the number of detention beds used for people arrested within the U.S., according to the analysis. That surge was due to both new funding and a decrease in border arrests, the report said.

Graeme Blair, co-director of the Deportation Data Project and professor of political science at UCLA, said in a statement that the analysis showed that arrests did not surge only in Democratic cities where the administration launched immigration enforcement operations, such as Los Angeles, Chicago and Minneapolis.

“In fact, even at the peak of the Minneapolis surge, those arrests accounted for only 15% of nationwide street arrests,” Blair said. “The expansion is truly national.”

The project’s report follows itsprevious analysis of the first nine monthsof the Trump administration, which found that a jump in the number of street arrests led to an increase in the number of deportations of people who were in the U.S. by more than four and a half times.

byAlex Forten

in

April 09, 2026

Arrests of immigrants without criminal convictions rose under Trump, report says

Arrests of immigrants without criminal convictions by ICE have surged 770%, while street arrests saw a more than 1,000% increase during...

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