Category: Bay Area

Observations and other notes of interest from Saturday night’s 126-114 overtime loss to the Orlando Magic: – Yes, Jimmy Butler is a one-man band. – Which says plenty about Jimmy Butler since the All-Star break. – He also has to feel lonely at the top of the scoring sheet. – The supporting cast is well paid, or at least will be when Tyler Herro’s extension kicks in next season to join Bam Adebayo on his extension. – But it’s as if there is nothing there when Butler isn’t in there. – And the man certainly deserves his rest. – With this one the second night of a back-to-back. – With three more Heat back-to-back sets to follow. – Kyle Lowry was supposed to be the sidekick in stardom. – That never happened. – Adebayo was trending that way. – Then came the All-Star break. – As for Herro, the ultimate streak-scoring element, perhaps. – But not necessarily a No. 2 on an elite team. – So Butler or bust. – Attacking. – Relentlessly. – With all of it needed. – And still not enough. –

Three days after blowing out the best team in the Western Conference, the Chicago Bulls gritted out a win over the worst team in the West, erasing a double-digit deficit for a 119-111 win over the Houston Rockets on Saturday night. Neither the Rockets nor Bulls are prolific 3-point shooting teams — but for the second time this season, that didn’t matter when they faced off. The Rockets average only 32.5 attempts — and 10.6 makes — from 3-point range. But in their December meeting, they went 17-44 from behind the arc to blow out the Bulls 133-118. The Rockets repeated the high-volume shooting performance on their home court Saturday, going 9-for-16 from 3-point range in the opening half while the Bulls kept pace at 8-for-18. Both teams were on track to finish well above their averages after the third quarter — the Rockets went 15-for-23 and the Bulls 13-for-26. But the game was ultimately decided from inside the arc. The teams took only 15 combined shots from behind the arc in the final quarter as the game opened up in transition. Patrick Beverley made

The Orlando Magic are hoping the return of their starting big man will lead to better defensive performances. Saturday’s 126-114 overtime win over the Miami Heat at Amway Center was a step in the right direction. Wendell Carter Jr. was back in the lineup after missing the previous three games — losses to the Portland Trail Blazers, Milwaukee Bucks and Utah Jazz — because of hip pain. “He does so many little things,” coach Jamahl Mosley said pregame. “Like his ability to when to roll and where to roll in pick-and-rolls. It’s why he and Franz [Wagner] have such a great connection in the pick-and-roll. “Defensively, that early talk, that early help with the guards; helping them navigate through screens and being in the right position if something breaks down — those are the things that you don’t really pick up on because he’s covering it so fast.” The Magic’s defensive efficiency tanked without Carter in the previous three games. They recorded a combined defensive rating (points allowed per 100 possessions) of 125.8 in the aforementioned losses. Orlando had a defensive rating of 119.6 or

SAN JOSE — Nobody will deny the greatness of the Archbishop Mitty girls basketball program. Under legendary coach Sue Phillips, the San Jose school has achieved just about everything there is to attain in the sport. The one trophy missing from Mitty’s case, the one championship that has somehow alluded the program for the past decade, was there for the taking in the fourth quarter Saturday night at Golden 1 Center. And Mitty went for it. But the Monarchs were unable to protect a late lead and Etiwanda’s Jada Sanders put back a missed jump shot at the buzzer to lift the Southern California school to a 69-67 victory in the Open Division state final. The ending was bitterly cruel for the San Jose school, given that Kennedy Smith’s jumper from just inside the 3-point line hit off the backboard and made two complete spins around the rim before falling out. Sanders, a 5-foot-11 junior who had zero rebounds to that point, grabbed the ball as it came down and immediately went back up with the shot. It went in. And when it did, Etiwanda

SAN FRANCISCO — The Warriors were down eight points and on the verge of dropping their fourth straight game with about two minutes left in regulation Saturday night. But Stephen Curry did everything in his power to ensure that wouldn’t happen. Curry scored 13 of his game-high 36 points in the fourth, blocked a Bucks shot to force overtime, where he scored another nine points to lead the Warriors to a 125-116 victory over the Milwaukee Bucks. Curry knocked down a trio of 3s and made a breakaway finger-roll layup over the last two minutes of regulation to tie the game at 111. As the game clock wound down, Curry denied Jrue Holiday’s layup attempt to put the ball in the Warriors’ hands with 1.9 seconds left. After a timeout, what would’ve been a go-ahead 3-pointer by Draymond Green rimmed out at the buzzer, sending the game into overtime. Curry scored another nine points in the extra period as the Warriors snapped the East-leading Bucks’ three-game win streak. Saturday was another slow burn for the Warriors. The only thing that kept them in the game

In a season of bad losses, add one more to the Miami Heat’s ledger. A particularly painful loss. Both emotionally. And in the standings. Recovering from a 15-point fourth-quarter deficit to force overtime on a twisting Jimmy Butler 3-pointer at the regulation buzzer, the Heat nonetheless found a way to lose Saturday night to a team that entered the night 27-40. Perhaps fittingly, it ended with Butler walking off the court before the 126-114 overtime loss to the Orlando Magic at Amway Center was over, with the Heat assessed a technical foul for only having four players on the court. Butler seemingly could not have done more on his 38-point night, matching his regular-season high as a member of the Heat. Butler’s teammates could not do nearly enough otherwise, no other Heat player scoring more than 14. “Usually you’d have that kind of effort and that kind of performance,” coach Erik Spoelstra said, “your team, you find a way to figure it out and get a win. I think we all thought once he hit that one to send it into overtime, we felt that

A man was shot Saturday morning at an Antioch apartment complex and suffered serious injuries, police said. The Antioch Police Department received several calls at 11:24 a.m. that an adult male suffered one gunshot wound at Twin Creek Apartments on the 1100 block of James Donlan Boulevard. He was transported to a local hospital and is in stable condition. Officers later learned the victim’s car was stolen by the suspect after the shooting. Police are asking residents of Twin Creek Apartments to check their security cameras around 11:24 a.m. for anything “unusual or suspicious.” Anyone with information can contact Detective Gragg at (925) 481-8494 or email rgragg@antiochca.gov. Tips can also be sent anonymously by texting ANTIOCH to 274637.

CIF state basketball championships At Golden 1 Center in Sacramento Boys Open Division Saturday’s state final St. Joseph-Santa Maria (28-6) vs. Harvard-Westlake (32-2) at Golden 1 Center in Sacramento, 8 p.m. Division I Friday’s state final Notre Dame-Sherman Oaks 67, Granada 58 Division II Saturday’s state final San Joaquin Memorial 58, Pacific Christian/Orange County 47 Division III Friday’s state final Oakland 59, Buena-Ventura 43 Division IV Saturday’s state final Valencia 89, Half Moon Bay 59 Division V Friday’s state final Lynwood 89, Sierra 58 Girls Open Division Saturday’s state final Archbishop Mitty (28-2) vs. Etiwanda (31-3) at Golden 1 Center in Sacramento, 6 p.m. Division I Friday’s state final Oakland Tech 75, Santiago-Corona 52 Division II Saturday’s state final Central-Fresno 52, Bonita Vista 41 Related Articles High School Sports | CIF state basketball championships: What’s up with those Lakers-style uniforms? High School Sports | Underdog’s pain: Half Moon Bay fades in Division IV state final after star player’s injury High School Sports | Not its night: Granada falls to Notre Dame-Sherman Oaks in Division I state final High School Sports | Mission accomplished: Oakland Tech

SAN FRANCISCO —  Andrew Wiggins has missed 11 games following his absence from the Warriors’ game against Milwaukee on Saturday due to personal reasons. There’s no timetable for Wiggins’ return, though head coach Steve Kerr said it’s the team’s “hope” that he will return sometime before the regular season ends. “There’s nothing to report on,” Kerr said before the game. “We’re giving him space, as we’ve talked about, as he deals with something that’s way more important than the game. If he’s able to come back then that would be great. If not, that’s the case. Whatever happens, we handle it accordingly.” Few details have been made public surrounding Wiggins’ extended absence except that he’s dealing with a family matter. The 28-year-old hasn’t played since a strong 29-point game against the Washington Wizards on Feb. 13, shortly before the All-Star break. Several members of the Warriors and coaching staff, including Kerr, have kept in touch with Wiggins throughout his absence including close friend Jordan Poole. “Wiggs is my brother,” Poole told reporters in Oklahoma City. “We’re giving him strength and all of the support that

WASHINGTON — Finally, there is a peace deal of sorts in the Middle East. Not between Israel and the Arabs, but between Saudi Arabia and Iran, which have been at each other’s throats for decades. And brokered not by the United States but by China. This is among the topsiest and turviest of developments anyone could have imagined, a shift that left heads spinning in capitals around the globe. Alliances and rivalries that have governed diplomacy for generations have, for the moment at least, been upended. The Americans, who have been the central actors in the Middle East for the past three-quarters of a century, almost always the ones in the room where it happened, now find themselves on the sidelines during a moment of significant change. The Chinese, who for years played only a secondary role in the region, have suddenly transformed themselves into the new power player. And the Israelis, who have been courting the Saudis against their mutual adversaries in Iran, now wonder where it leaves them. “There is no way around it — this is a big deal,” said Amy Hawthorne

Julius Randle lost his cool. It was a flashback to last season, when Jalen Brunson wasn’t around and Randle’s quick-triggered anger contributed to an ugly and spiraling season. But Randle seemed to get that under control as he re-emerged as a 2023 All-Star. Until Saturday in Los Angeles. Randle picked up a technical foul at the end of the third quarter after clobbering the Clippers’ Mason Plumlee in the chest with an elbow. After the whistle, Randle went after the referees and appeared upset with a Knicks security guard near the team bench. It was an ugly scene and impossible not to correlate with Randle’s terrible basketball performance. With Brunson injured and in street clothes, Randle missed 19 of his 24 shots as the Knicks lost their third straight Saturday, 106-95, falling from fifth to sixth in the Eastern Conference behind the Brooklyn Nets. “There was definitely a physicality to the game. It is what it is,” coach Tom Thibodeau said. “Just heat of the battle. Sometimes you can get frustrated. But it’s an emotional game. Just keep playing.” Randle’s tantrum was a critical point.

SACRAMENTO — There is no truth that the Lakers were on the Golden 1 Center court. But there is a fun story behind Valencia’s purple-and-gold road uniforms that looked quite a bit like the ones worn by the storied NBA franchise during the Magic Johnson showtime era. Let’s give Valencia coach Bill Bedgood the floor to tell how it happened. First, he needs to stop laughing. “I’m going to be so completely honest about this one, these guys do not like these uniforms,” Bedgood said after his team defeated Half Moon Bay 89-59 on Saturday for the Division IV state title. “It is my design. I am going to take full credit or responsibility, depending on how you look at it. “I thought it was the coolest thing ever and the looks on their faces when we handed them out were like, ‘Are you kidding me? Everyone’s going to make fun of us.’ That’s what they kept saying. “I go, ‘No, no, no. It’s cool. It’ll be awesome.’ I think everybody above the age of 27 is like, ‘Oh, those uniforms are awesome.’ Everyone else

The Mets’ uneventful spring training finally hit a few road bumps this week. The latest concerning development had Buck Showalter’s club scratching Kodai Senga from his scheduled start against the Washington Nationals on Saturday night due to discomfort at the base of his right index finger, the team announced. The Japanese right-hander, who signed a five-year, $75 million contract to make the jump to the Major Leagues this winter, will undergo imaging on the finger. Righty John Curtiss got the start in Senga’s place. One of the major adjustments Senga and Japanese pitchers have to make when coming to Major League Baseball is the slightly larger and less sticky baseballs. There is no indication as of yet that this contributed to Senga’s discomfort. Senga, 30, made his Grapefruit League debut last Sunday against the Cardinals and allowed one earned run on one hit, one strikeout and two walks. “Nothing, in particular, was that great,” Senga said after that outing through a translator. “But it’s something to work on for next time.” Now it’s unclear when ‘next time’ will be. Senga comes to the Mets after

The Chicago Bulls are starting small to close the regular season — and it’s exactly the style of play that defensive specialist Alex Caruso prefers. Caruso moved into a smaller starting lineup after the Bulls signed fellow defensive guard Patrick Beverley on Feb. 21. The pair displaced second-year point guard Ayo Dosunmu and third-year power forward Patrick Williams, who held down a lengthier starting lineup for the opening two-thirds of the season. At the time, coach Billy Donovan ascribed the change as a necessity to start games with experience and defensive versatility. And Caruso believes the lineup has allowed him and Beverley to set an immediate defensive pace for the Bulls. “I like it just because I get to have a little impact right away on the game,” Caruso said. “I’m able to set the tone in that way.” It’s rare for defensive specialists such as Caruso and Beverley to play on the court at the same time as a player so uniquely similar to themselves. Both are used to being the singular risk taker, leaping into passing lanes and poking the ball out of

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Alex Cobb, who was once taken off the field on a stretcher, knows something about the worst that can happen on the pitcher’s mound. For about 10 seconds Saturday, during the Giants’ Cactus League exhibition with the Dodgers, he thought it had happened again. Cobb collapsed to the ground and began writhing in pain after the first batter of the fourth inning, Miguel Vargas, lined a hard-hit comebacker that struck Cobb on the inner portion of his left knee. He felt a shooting pain through his foot, and he thought it was broken. “Every thought that you can have goes through your mind there while you’re down,” Cobb said, about an hour later, after tests revealed no more damage to his knee than a bad bruise and serious swelling. “I was just thinking all these extreme thoughts of what is this going to lead to? Am I going to miss the season with a broken knee? … Fortunately, as of right now, it doesn’t seem like it’s that bad.” Scary moment in Scottsdale, as Alex Cobb took a hard-hit comebacker off what

By JILL LAWLESS (Associated Press) LONDON (AP) — The BBC was forced to scrap much of its weekend sports programming as the network scrambled to stem an escalating crisis over its suspension of soccer host Gary Lineker for comments criticizing the British government’s new asylum policy. As a growing number of English Premier League players and BBC presenters rallied to Lineker’s support and refused to appear on the airwaves on Saturday, Britain’s national broadcaster faced allegations of political bias and suppressing free speech, as well as praise from some Conservative politicians. The broadcaster said it would air only “limited sport programming” this weekend after hosts of many of its popular sports shows declined to appear, in solidarity with Lineker. The former England captain was suspended from “Match of the Day,” a popular soccer highlights show, over a Twitter post that compared lawmakers’ language about migrants to that used in Nazi Germany. Instead of blanket coverage on Saturday of the most popular league in the world, the BBC had no preview shows on radio or TV and no early evening summary of the final scores of

Miami Dolphins speedster Tyreek Hill ran 6.70 seconds in the 60-meter dash at the USA Track and Field Masters Indoor Championships on Saturday in Louisville, Kentucky. The time ranks Hill, who was competing in the 25-29 age group, outside the top 200 men in the world this year in the event. “Never racing again had me out there looking wild,” tweeted the seven-time Pro Bowl wide receiver shortly after his performance. Earlier this week, Hill posted a video on social media of him practicing a block start on a track at the University of Miami, with the caption, “Felt good to put the spikes back on !!!”. Hill, 29, a world-class sprinter in high school, was participating in his first track meet since 2014, when he ran a 6.64 in the 60-meter dash. Hill, nicknamed “Cheetah” for being widely considered the fastest player in the NFL, qualified for the 2012 Olympic Trials. He and teammate Jaylen Waddle have formed one of the fastest receiver tandems in the NFL. “To have two guys like that, with that kind of talent and that kind of speed, just

The timing is largely coincidental, with the Miami Heat for over a week having targeted Saturday’s road game against the Orlando Magic as the return date for Kyle Lowry from the knee issue that has had him out since the start of February. The fact that it comes in the wake of the Heat committing 20 or more turnovers in two of their last four games makes it all the more heartening. “That’s my brother,” forward Jimmy Butler said. “I’m glad to have him back. He’s going to change the game in so many ways for this team. He’s going to help us get in a groove, he’s going to help us win some games down the stretch moving into the most important part of the season.” The Heat largely had downplayed the timetable, not confirming until after Friday night’s home victory over the Cleveland Cavaliers that Lowry would be traveling, and not upgrading Lowry to questionable until midday Saturday. But even with Lowry, 36, in the midst of an uneven season, the sense in the locker room had been that the Heat could not

In just two days, the Santa Clara-based bank that served nearly half of US tech and healthcare startups came rapidly unglued, leaving its high-powered customers and investors in limbo. Silicon Valley Bank, facing a sudden bank run and capital crisis, collapsed Friday morning and was taken over by federal regulators. It was the largest failure of a US bank since Washington Mutual in 2008 and the second-biggest bank collapse in US history. Here’s what we know about the bank’s downfall, and what might come next. What is SVB? Founded in 1983, SVB specialized in banking for tech startups. It provided financing for almost half of US venture-backed technology and health care companies. While relatively unknown outside of Silicon Valley, SVB was among the top 20 American commercial banks, with $209 billion in total assets at the end of last year, according to the FDIC. Why did it fail? In short, SVB encountered a classic run on the bank. The longer version is a bit more complicated. Several forces collided to take down the banker. First, there was the Federal Reserve, which began raising interest rates

OAKLAND — A 23-year-old man was shot to death early Saturday in his bed at a long-term care facility in Adams Point, according to authorities. Two gunmen are being sought, police said. Police have not released the man’s name, but said he was an Oakland resident. Police also have not yet said how long the man had been at the facility, which is open to patients of all ages. The shooting happened at the 53-bed facility, located on the 300 block of MacArthur Boulevard, at around 12:53 a.m. on Saturday. Police said two men entered the building and shot the man in his room. It was not known if the man was awake or asleep when the shooting happened. He was pronounced dead at the scene, and the suspects fled before police arrived. No staff or other patients were injured, authorities said. A motive for the shooting has not been determined yet. The Mercury News reached out to the care facility for more information, but did not immediately receive a response. The killing is the 20th homicide investigated by Oakland police this year. The California

The Pac-12’s late-season salvage operation appears to have worked as college basketball prepares for the most anticipated day of the year. During stretches of a decidedly subpar season, the conference looked like it might send just two teams (UCLA and Arizona) to the NCAA Tournament. But solid finishes by USC and Arizona State have improved the outlook for Selection Sunday, with at least one of those teams — and perhaps both — sneaking into the 68-team field. Not that four bids would be a source of pride. But it’s exponentially better than three. Before we dive into the at-large locks and contenders, three reminders about the NCAA selection committee’s process: — Overall record, conference affiliation and conference record are irrelevant. — The committee uses both subjective and objective criteria, with the latter focused on NET ranking, quality wins, bad losses, non-conference strength of schedule and performance away from home. — Teams are evaluated against each other in clusters of four, six and eight in the resume scrubbing process. Those not voted into the at-large field are held over for consideration against another group of candidates