LOS ANGELES: The top-seeded Philadelphia 76ers and Utah Jazz were left on the brink of elimination from the NBA playoffs on Wednesday as the Atlanta Hawks and Los Angeles Clippers notched against-the-odds victories on the road.
In Philadelphia, Trae Young scored 39 points as Atlanta overturned a 26-point second-half deficit to lead the Hawks to a 109-106 defeat of the Sixers in their Eastern Conference semifinal clash.
The Clippers — rocked by an injury to star Kawhi Leonard earlier Wednesday — then toppled the Utah Jazz in Salt Lake City by 119-111 to seize a 3-2 lead in their best-of-seven Western Conference series.
The results left the Sixers and Jazz one defeat away from elimination as they prepare to travel to Atlanta and Los Angeles for their respective game sixes.
Encouraged by a raucous home crowd, the Sixers appeared to be poised to claim a 3-2 advantage against the Hawks as they raced into a big lead in the second half.
But a magnificent Atlanta offensive performance led by Young saw the Hawks steadily chip away at the deficit.
Young nailed a floater to cut the Sixers’ lead to 104-102 before drawing a foul to earn three free throws which he promptly drained to give the Hawks their first lead of the game at 105-104 with 1:26 remaining.
Danilo Gallinari’s fadeaway put Atlanta 107-104 ahead and the Sixers’ fate was sealed when Joel Embiid missed two late free throws that could have put Philadelphia back within striking distance.
The Hawks can clinch a series victory in front of their home fans on Friday when game six heads back to Georgia.
“We just kept fighting,” Young said afterwards. “We have confidence in each other. We’re a great group, good to be around.
“We all love you to each other’s company and it shows on the court and we never stopped believing until the final buzzer.”That belief has left the fifth-seeded Hawks now on the brink of a place in the Eastern Conference finals, a remarkable turnaround for a team that axed head coach Lloyd Pierce on March 1.
Philadelphia, who piled on 38 points in the first quarter alone, were led by Embiid with 37 points while Seth Curry had 36 points. No other Philadelphia player made double figures.
“We struggled down the stretch,” Sixers coach Doc Rivers said.
“We scored 19 points, and gave up 40. It’s on us, it’s on all of us, it’s on me. We have to figure out how to get back up — which we will — and bring this series back here for a game seven.”
In Salt Lake City, Paul George was the hero as the Clippers stunned the Jazz to move within one win of the Western Conference finals.
The Clippers’ day began with news that Kawhi Leonard faces missing the remainder of the series — and possibly the postseason — after suffering a knee injury in game four.
But George responded with a masterful 37-point display which included 16 rebounds and five assists. Marcus Morris added 25 points while Reggie Jackson chipped in with 21.
“This was the biggest game of the postseason, especially being down our best player,” George said afterwards.
“We knew coming into this, we had to play together, we had to step up. We did a great job playing collectively.”
George praised his teammates for soaking up an early barrage from Utah, who opened up a 10-point lead in the second quarter.
“We didn’t overreact,” George said. “They came out hot. Good thing about it was we were able to weather the storm.”
The series now returns to Los Angeles on Friday, where a win for the Clippers will see Utah eliminated.
“We just got to go into it with the mindset that we don’t want to come back to Utah,” George said.
Bojan Bogdanovic led Utah’s scorers with 32 points, while Donovan Mitchell was held to 21, making just four from 14 attempts from three-point range.
Top-seeded Sixers, Jazz on brink after Hawks, Clippers win
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Top-seeded Sixers, Jazz on brink after Hawks, Clippers win
- Atlanta Hawks overturn 26-point second-half deficit but not enough to beat the Sixers in their Eastern Conference semifinal clash
- Despite Kawhi Leonard's injury, Clippers toppled Utah Jazz 119-111 to seize a 3-2 lead in their Western Conference series
Hussein Ammouta U-turn leaves Iraq still without a coach as big games loom
- 7 candidates in the running to be in charge when World Cup qualifiers resume in 5 weeks
AMSTERDAM: No coaching carousel spins faster than those in West Asia.
Since World Cup qualification began in October 2023 all 12 Arab nations in the Asian Football Confederation have changed managers.
The latest tactician to be given his marching orders was Jesus Casas who recently left the Iraq post after two years and five months at the helm.
It was widely tipped that the Iraq Football Association would bring in a big name to replace Casas and lead the team to the World Cup finals for the first time since 1986.
A leading candidate quickly emerged — Al-Jazira manager Hussein Ammouta who earned plaudits by leading Jordan to the 2023 Asian Cup final.
The Moroccan has strong links to the country’s top brass.
The IFA’s President Adnan Dirjal coached Ammouta at Al-Sadd in the late 1990s. And when Ammouta became manager of the club a decade-and-a-half later he recruited the IFA’s Vice President Younis Mahmoud to lead the line for the Qatari powerhouse.
Everything was set to unveil the 55-year-old this week, according to the Iraqi media and Twitterati. Then it was off, leaving the Lions of Mesopotamia without a manager with less than five weeks before their next World Cup qualifier.
Addressing the media in the aftermath, Mahmoud said there were seven candidates, amongst them three foreigners. He was coy about the details and played up the virtues of having an Iraqi in the role.
“We are still in negotiations and we will announce in the coming days. It could be Ammouta. I don’t know anything about what has been said, I leave these details to (president) Adnan (Dirjal) as he is a former manager and knows more than me.”
It was not supposed to be like this for Iraq. A new board at the IFA led by Dirjal had wanted to put in place a process and foster stability. They had turned to former Spain assistant Casas to overhaul the team.
In spite of his early departure, Casas has the third-longest tenure as Iraqi manager, with only Ammo Baba and Srecko Katenac lasting longer. This indicates why this football-mad nation has underachieved since lifting the 2007 AFC Asian Cup title.
Early success brought the Andalucian time. Winning the Gulf Cup on home soil and ending a 35-year drought won the fans over. A year later, when Iraq was eliminated at the hands of Jordan at the 2023 AFC Asian Cup, Casas was spared criticism due to the controversial decision by referee Alireza Faghani to send off Aymen Hussein in the final quarter of the match.
The Spaniard also won plaudits due to the team’s expansive style which generated a famous win against Japan at the tournament.
Ten goals in four games at the continental showpiece papered over the fact that The Lions of Mesopotamia did not keep a single clean sheet and conceded an average of two goals a game.
That lack of control precipitated a change of thinking on the bench. Casas’ Iraq reemerged in qualification intent to assert control even if it meant boring supporters to death.
It was effective.
Iraq kept a clean sheet in eight of the 10 World Cup qualifiers contested in 2024. They breezed into round three, collecting 16 of 18 points on offer in a group comprising Indonesia, Vietnam and the Philippines.
When round three started, the results kept coming in the form of binary scorelines, with only a 3-2 loss away to Korea Republic breaking up the string of 0-0 draws, and 1-0 wins against Kuwait, Jordan, Oman and Palestine.
Iraq sat in sole possession of second place, and an automatic World Cup berth, at the conclusion of Matchday Six in November.
That is when Iraq’s momentum came to a screeching halt. A pitiful defense of their Gulf Cup title in December was a harbinger of things to come.
Team selections became ever more unpredictable, as if Casas was trying to address critics vis-a-vis his lineups. In goal, sometimes Ahmed Bassil would start and others would be excluded from the squad altogether.
Equally bizarre was the chopping and changing of center-backs and midfielders.
Ahmed Yasin and Saad Abdulameer returned from extended international exile to captain the side against Oman and Jordan only to be dropped once again. In defense, Rebin Sulaka has started with seven different center-backs in the space of 12 months.
In a desperate attempt to solve the riddle of who should anchor his defense and pull the strings in attack, Casas changed his formation in what would prove to be his last match at the helm.
Hussein’s 34th minute goal gave Iraq a lead and a switch to a 3-4-3 seemed to be vindicated. Iraq’s defensive frailty however could not be masked like it was in the three other 1-0 wins they had registered in round three.
Palestine pushed and when the equalizer came in the 88th minute so did a mental collapse similar to the one suffered at the hands of Jordan in the Asian Cup Round of 16 encounter.
Following the 2-1 loss, Casas blamed the defeat on a “lack of character” and an inability to see out a result. Whether or not a coaching change will remedy those problems for Iraq is very much an open question.
Casas might have a point about the mental aspect of Iraq’s game. The players, administrators, and media have been engaged in a battle against a perceived conspiracy against them.
Hussein’s first words to the media following the loss to Palestine were used to complain about Amman as a neutral venue and the number of fans in the stands.
Perhaps the favorite tag proved too much for the team and a full embrace of the underdog role while eschewing victimhood is needed.
Iraq can draw on the 2007 Asian Cup win for inspiration when a team led by an interim coach shocked the world.
How Matthias Jaissle weathered a storm to take Al-Ahli to the AFC Champions League Elite final
- The German coach looked on his way out in January when famous journalist touted Massimiliano Allegri for his job
- Al-Ahli stunned rival Al-Hilal with a 3-1 win to reach their third final of Asia’s top club competition
AUSTRALIA: Fabrizio Romano is rarely wrong.
The gold standard on reporting on football’s off-field wheeling and dealing, when Romano says something is happening it is usually just a matter of when, not if.
So when, on Jan. 17, he posted that Al-Ahli had agreed “in principle” to appoint Massimiliano Allegri, and Gabriele Cioffi as interim coach until June, it seemed certain that incumbent Matthias Jaissle would go.
This came on the back of a disappointing start to the season in which they won just three of their first nine games, to all but end their title hopes before the season had even reached the one-third mark.
But at the point of Romano’s postings, Al-Ahli managed to turn their form around, going on to win seven out of nine and surging up the table.
But it seemed like it was too little, too late for the 37-year-old German.
This story, however, has another twist. The Al-Ahli faithful were having none of it. For them, the failings were with those above Jaissle.
So when word came out he was to be moved on, they mobilized to support him. Diehard fans picketed outside Al-Ahli’s training ground, with one banner directed at senior management reading: “Enough failure … LEAVE!”
Within two days of Romano’s tweet, Al-Ahli confirmed that Jaissle would remain as head coach “with full support from the management to achieve the club’s aspirations and future ambitions.”
It was quite an about-face, but one that showed the positive power fans can have when they mobilize in the right way.
Just over three months on from that saga, it is hard to imagine this Al-Ahli side without the German at the helm.
He has guided them to the final of the AFC Champions League Elite courtesy of a demolition of Al-Hilal, the standard bearers of Asian club football, in the semifinal on Tuesday night.
The scoreline was 3-1 but make no mistake this was a demolition and a vindication for the fans and Jaissle.
When he demanded the club sign a left-winger in the summer to replace Allan Saint-Maximin, the club instead signed a striker, in this case Ivan Toney.
Jaissle made his frustrations known through the media, and reiterated his desires ahead of the winter window in January
Twelve days after his position was assured, the club signed Brazilian winger Galeno from FC Porto, which has transformed their season.
Prior to Galeno’s arrival, Al-Ahli had scored 32 goals in 18 games at about 1.78 per game on average. Since the Brazilian’s arrival, they have netted 28 in just 11 games at 2.55 a game.
Galeno gave the squad more balance and structure, and transformed their attacking threat. It is no coincidence that Toney has scored 12 of his 19 goals this season since Galeno’s arrival.
It is what the German knew would happen all along, but his demands to those above him were falling on deaf ears.
Their performance at the King Abdullah Sports City Stadium on Tuesday night was about as close to perfection as Jaissle could have imagined.
Right from the opening whistle, spurred on by the very fans who had saved his job months earlier, Al-Ahli took control.
Their forward pressure was relentless, which was not a surprise coming from a coach schooled in the Red Bull philosophy. Riyad Mahrez pulled the strings as always, and Galeno buzzed about creating havoc.
And Roberto Firmino, consigned to playing in just the ACL Elite after not being registered for the league after Galeno’s arrival, looked every bit the motivational leader wearing the captain’s armband.
At the back, meanwhile, Merih Demiral and Ibanez were ferocious in defense and closed down the spaces in which Al-Hilal’s attacking threats normally like to operate.
While it finished 3-1, it could easily have been more after Al-Ahli hit the woodwork three times, had two goals disallowed and saw a penalty save, all in the second half.
This was a humbling for Al-Hilal who only days earlier had dished out a similar lesson to Gwangju FC in the quarterfinal.
“It was a fantastic evening. I’m so, so proud,” Jaissle told reporters after the game.
“The performance from each player, the team, and the unit — and by unit I also mean the fans in the stadium — it was a totally deserved win.
“These games are usually decided by details. There are some strengths and weaknesses in each team. We tried to identify the best ways to exploit them and they worked perfectly.
“We handled it marvelously and everybody did it in a brilliant way and we managed to achieve a great result. I’m really happy with the way the goals were scored.
“Now we focus on the final. Now we are there and we have to make the final step successful as well.”
As Jaissle and the Al-Ahli faithful celebrated wildly after the game, the dramas of January felt like another lifetime.
Timberwolves beat Lakers to end James’s latest NBA playoffs run
- The sixth-seeded Timberwolves completed a 4-1 victory in the best-of-seven first-round series over Lakers
LOS ANGELES, United States: NBA superstar LeBron James’s bid for a fifth title in his 22nd season ended Wednesday as his Los Angeles Lakers fell 103-96 to the Minnesota Timberwolves in game five of their Western Conference playoff series.
The sixth-seeded Timberwolves, led by 27 points from Rudy Gobert, completed a 4-1 victory in the best-of-seven first-round series over a Lakers team that had surged to the third seed in the West after the stunning acquisition of Luka Doncic in February.
Scorching 1,500m return for Olympic great Ledecky in Florida
- Ledecky, who won her first Olympic title at the 2012 London Games, has already indicated she plans to extend her career to the Los Angeles Olympics in 2028
- Ledecky now owns the 22 fastest times ever in the 1,500m freestyle, and has not been beaten in the event since she lost a race in Maryland way back in 2010 when she was just 13 years old
FORT LAUDERDALE, Florida: Nine-time Olympic gold medalist Katie Ledecky made a blistering return to the swimming pool on Wednesday, clocking the second fastest 1,500m freestyle in history in heats at the TYR Pro Series meeting in Florida.
The 28-year-old American star, who has not raced in an elite event since last year’s Paris Olympics, touched the wall in Fort Lauderdale in a time of 15min 24.51sec.
That was just outside her own world record of 15:20.48 set in Indianapolis in 2018, and some 39.62sec faster than her next fastest rival, Jillian Cox.
“I’m pretty fired up,” Ledecky said. “I’ve been training really well and feeling good going into this meet, but you never know.
“It’s not like it’s the biggest meet of the year or anything, I just wanted (my time) to be a season best, which would have been 15:36. I’m pretty ecstatic.”
Ledecky now owns the 22 fastest times ever in the 1,500m freestyle, and has not been beaten in the event since she lost a race in Maryland way back in 2010 when she was just 13 years old.
Ledecky, who won her first Olympic title at the 2012 London Games, has already indicated she plans to extend her career to the Los Angeles Olympics in 2028.
Her time on Wednesday was around five seconds quicker than her winning time in the 1,500m final in Paris last August.
“I don’t feel like I’m close to being finished in the sport yet,” Ledecky said of her plans for the future after her win in Paris last year.
“I think all the US athletes are thinking about how cool that could be in Los Angeles having the home crowd. So that would be amazing to be able to compete there.”
Barca fight back against Inter in sensational semifinal draw
BARCELONA: Barcelona and Inter Milan shared a compelling 3-3 draw in a high-octane Champions League semifinal first leg clash on Wednesday.
The Italian side raced into a two-goal lead with superb strikes from Marcus Thuram and Denzel Dumfries, before the unstoppable Lamine Yamal pulled Barca back into it with a sublime solo effort.
Ferran Torres levelled for the five-time champions and although Inter nosed ahead through Dumfries again, a Yann Sommer own goal left the tie on a knife-edge at the halfway stage.
Inter were desperately hoping Thuram would be fit to play after a thigh injury and he showed precisely why, scoring the fastest ever Champions League semifinal goal after 30 seconds.
Barcelona’s Copa del Rey final winning goalscorer Jules Kounde hacked a poor clearance to the edge of the box, and Inter capitalized.
Dutch wide man Dumfries aimed a low cross toward Thuram and Inigo Martinez slipped at just the wrong time, allowing the France striker room to finish with an impudent back-heel flick.
Quadruple-chasing Barcelona seized control and pushed forward, roared on by a nervous 50,000 strong Olympic stadium crowd.
Yamal, on his 100th Barcelona appearance, appealed for a penalty after he was shoved by Alessandro Bastoni and then set up Torres, who fired wide.
The Spaniard, standing in for Barca’s injured top goalscorer Robert Lewandowski, lashed a volley narrowly off target.
Against the run of play Inter, whose treble hopes crumbled after three consecutive domestic defeats prior, scored their second, with another fine finish.
Francesco Acerbi nodded on a corner and Dumfries reached the dropping ball first to score with a stunning acrobatic effort.
Barcelona teams over the past few years may have crumbled but Hansi Flick’s youthful side are not burdened by the series of European failures since they last won the competition in 2015.
Least of all teenage wizard Yamal, who pulled Barcelona back into the game just three minutes later with a wonderful individual goal that made him the youngest player ever to score in the semis.
On the eve of the game the Spaniard rejected comparisons to all-time Barca great Lionel Messi, but his goal was straight from the Argentine’s playbook.
Yamal shook off Thuram, floated inside from the right flank and past Henrikh Mkhitaryan into the box, drawing defenders toward him but before they could stop him, stroked an inch-perfect shot in off the left post.
Minutes later Yamal nearly repeated the trick. This time he darted outside, pausing to let Federico Dimarco lunge past him and off the pitch.
From a tight angle the youngster flashed a shot that Sommer tipped onto the crossbar.
High on confidence Yamal set up further chances for Torres and Dani Olmo that went begging, before Barca pulled level.
Pedri hooked a ball into the area for Raphinha to head across goal and Torres to convert from close range after 38 breathless minutes.
Kounde limped off before half-time in a blow for Barca, who also replaced the inexperienced Gerard Martin with Ronald Araujo at the break.
Dimarco hammered over early in the second half before Simone Inzaghi hooked him, after a torrid night up against the relentless Yamal.
Inter took the sting out of the game early in the second half and then sucker-punched Barca, scoring from another corner, with Dumfries’ header bouncing in off Olmo.
Barcelona equalized within two minutes, with Yamal stepping over a corner on the edge of the box, allowing it to run to Raphinha.
The Brazilian’s rasping effort smashed against the crossbar and then in, off the back of the unfortunate diving Sommer’s head.
Pau Cubarsi made a vital recovery tackle to stop Thuram after he got in behind Barcelona’s high line, and Mkhitaryan had a goal ruled out for an extremely tight offside.
Yamal looped a second strike onto the crossbar late on but the sides could not be separated.
The second leg takes place in Milan next Tuesday, with the winner to face Paris Saint-Germain or Arsenal on May 31 in the Munich final.
