New York Knicks forward Julius Randle didn’t mince words when asked about his thumbs-down gesture during Thursday’s win over the Celtics, saying it was meant to shush fans at Madison Square Garden who were booing him.
Ime Udoka called out his team for a “lack of mental toughness” after the Celtics blew a lead of at least 19 points for the fourth time this season.
The NBA is requiring non-boosted players to undergo daily coronavirus testing through the All-Star break and is restricting those players’ attendance at large indoor gatherings, bars and clubs.
KAPALUA, Hawaii — KAPALUA, Hawaii — All it took was one round for the new year to feel like the end of last season on the PGA TOUR. RELATED: Full leaderboard | Viktor Hovland reunited with clubs just in time in Maui Cameron Smith of Australia opened the Sentry Tournament of Champions with a pair of long eagle putts and to offset an early bogey for an 8-under 65 and a one-shot lead at Kapalua. For the rest of the warm, gorgeous afternoon, the focus quickly shifted to the two players golf hasn’t seen in quite some time. Patrick Cantlay, who last competed on Sunday at the Ryder Cup on Sept. 26, seized on the scoring holes and the soft conditions and started running off birdies and one eagle. He had to settle for par on the par-5 18th hole and posted a 7-under 66. Not bad for his first competition in 102 days. Jon Rahm, who was in dire need of a break from a chaotic 16 months of majors and parenthood and COVID-19, was bogey-free and still mildly irritated by the pair of birdie putts he left short on the par 5s. He also had 66. They were the leading contenders for the FedExCup last year, when Cantlay closed with a superb 6-iron for birdie on the final hole and a one-shot win at the TOUR Championship, giving him the $15 million and ultimately PGA TOUR player of the year. They will be paired Friday. “Again,” Cantlay said with a smile. There was plenty of good golf, and attribute that to day in paradise that felt and looked like one. The sun was blazing. A few humpback whales were breaching. The wind was not raging. The Plantation Course was soft from rain. Scoring was simply ideal. Twenty-two players from the 38-man field of PGA TOUR winners broke 70. Justin Thomas, Patrick Reed and Lucas Glover, all at 74, were the only players over par. But while everyone had a holiday break — that meant more fishing than golf for Smith while at his U.S. base in north Florida — Cantlay and Rahm seemed to have been gone forever. It just didn’t look that way. “I still think I’m a little rusty and I saw that in my start,” said Cantlay, who missed the first green and saw his chip run with the grain some 12 feet by the hole. “I got away with a couple of loose swings and one flier on the sixth hole where I was able to make a par, but maybe shouldn’t have.” His shot sailed well over the green, some 40 yards away. He chopped that out to 8 feet for an unlikely par, had a two-putt par from 70 feet, saved par from the rough on the par-3 eighth. He was holding it together. And then really got on a roll on the back nine,” Cantlay said. It started with the 13th hole and a birdie, and while Cantlay missed a good chance at birdie on the 18th that would have tied Smith for the lead, he still played the final six holes in 6-under par. The big shot was a 35-foot eagle putt on No. 15. The most pleasing was a full pitching wedge over the ravine to a front pin on the picturesque 17th. Rahm was a lot cleaner, playing bogey-free. He ran off three straight birdies on the front nine and then got hot, as Cantlay did, on the closing six holes. Rahm finished with a long two-putt birdie in his first round in 83 days. “You can always expect a little bit of rust,” Rahm said. “I took time off, but I wasn’t on the couch doing nothing. I was still working out. I was still practicing as if I was still in the season. I took maybe three weeks off of golf, which were very needed. But even though I was home, I was practicing. “Again, not that I’m surprised that I played good, but it’s really good to come out and start the year off the right way.” Throw Daniel Berger into that category. He joined Cantlay and Rahm just one shot off the lead. Berger, who had to reconfigure a caddie’s clubs to practice earlier in the week when his golf bag was delayed two days, also opened with a 66. Berger also went missing after the Ryder Cup, turning up in the Bahamas with plenty of rust and no lack of belief. He practiced a little bit more in the week before Kapalua, only to show up on Maui with his golf clubs nowhere to be found. He had them two days later — Berger borrowed the clubs of caddie Brett Waldman, and even took the liberty of changing the lies and lofts on the irons — and didn’t miss a beat. His only lapse was a long three-putt that was down the slope but into the grain on the 17th, though he atoned for that with a birdie on the last. Players could reach the 663-yard closing hole with a long iron in fast conditions last year. Berger couldn’t get home with a 3-wood. He was no less pleased and it was hard for anyone to be terribly upset given the location. Never mind that he still isn’t sure which island is Lanai and which is Molokai as he gazes out toward the ocean. “I’m not good with islands. There’s too many of them,” Berger said. “I know we’re in Maui.”
The annual Champions Tree Planting Ceremony for the Sentry Tournament of Champions took place on Wednesday, January 5 at The Plantation Course at Kapalua. The ceremonial tree planting tradition was implemented during the 2020 Sentry Tournament of Champions to mark the beginning of the Champions Garden located within the Pu’u Kukui Watershed Preserve on Maui. The ceremony included 2021 defending champion, Harris English, and Ritz-Carlton, Maui Kapalua Cultural Advisor, Clifford Naeole, who performed a Hawaiian blessing during the ceremony before the tree was taken to Pu’u Kukui to be planted in the Champions Garden. The Pu’u Kukui Watershed Preserve is the largest private nature preserve in the state of Hawai’i. Extending more than 9,000 acres on Maui’s West side, the pristine area is home to some of the rarest endangered flora and fauna in the islands and a vital water source for Maui’s community as well as one of the wettest spots on earth with over 400” per year. “Learning about the tree and the community and what it means to everyone that this tournament comes here, and for Sentry to be part of this is amazing,” said English following the ceremony. “I can come here for years and years and hopefully bring my kids or grandkids and get to see the tree and just be a part of this community.” A small team of conservationists are passionate about preserving Hawai’i’s precious ecosystems and ensuring the safety of the water source. These ongoing preservation efforts, including the Sentry Tournament of Champions annual tree planting ceremony, ensure the continued health and safety of these precious natural resources for generations to come.
Rudy Gobert joined teammate Joe Ingles in the NBA’s health and safety protocols before Thursday’s game against the Raptors.
