USA SMOKES SERBIA BEHIND STEPH CURRY, DOMINANT DEFENSE
Team USA ran away from Serbia for a 105-79 exhibition game victory on Wednesday in Abu Dhabi to improve to 3-0 on the team’s pre-Olympics tour.
Bam Adebayo scored at will — inside and out — and helped Anthony Davis make life difficult for Serbian star and three-time NBA MVP Nikola Jokic. Davis had six blocks, including a pin off the glass at the 8-minute mark in the fourth quarter that preceded a standing ovation.
Adebayo had 17 points and eight rebounds, while Steph Curry had 18 points in the first half and finished with six 3s and 24 points.
Team USA made 16 of 36 shots from 3-point range.
Jokic was 6-of-19 shooting and finished with 16 points.
Curry corralled a loose ball and with a lightning release from the left wing, splashed his fifth 3-pointer of the game to inflate the US advantage to 90-61.
LeBron James then emphatically stamped a right-handed slam off a lob from Adebayo.
The next possession was a highlight reel of dribbling and passing that ended with another Curry 3, followed by James getting downhill and powering for a lefty finish and 31-point lead.
Jokic touched the ball on nearly every possession and implored teammates to dig in defensively to no avail. He spent the fourth quarter seated, with Serbia and the US to meet again in the first Pool C game for both countries in the Olympics on July 28.
Shooting and depth stood out as the US gathered around Jokic on the defensive end and spread the ball around with extra passes. Adebayo drained a 3 from the top of the key to push the lead to 81-55 late in the third quarter.
Team USA ended the first half with a finishing kick sparked by high-energy defense and led 59-45 thanks to the bench outscoring the starters, 30-29.
Curry rattled off a solo run of nine consecutive points at the midpoint of the second quarter and Anthony Edwards nailed a 3 to give the US a 47-40 edge with 4:14 left in the half.
Adebayo polished off a 13-2 run with consecutive baskets bookended by a pair of Davis rejections in the lane. After Davis altered another Jokic shot to start the break, Edwards flushed one to extend the lead to 56-42.
Team USA plays two more games before the Olympics begin with pool play this month, with South Sudan up next Saturday in London.
WIZARDS C ALEXANDRE SARR GOES 0-FOR-15 IN SUMMER LEAGUE GAME
Washington Wizards center Alexandre Sarr, the No. 2 overall pick in this year’s draft, went through some growing pains on Tuesday night in a Las Vegas Summer League game against the Portland Trail Blazers.
Sarr didn’t score in 30 minutes of action, going 0-for-15 from the field and 0-for-7 from 3-point range. ESPN Stats & Information discovered it was the most field-goal attempts without a basket in Summer League action since at least 2017. He also shot 0-for-2 at the foul line.
Despite the putrid shooting display, Sarr did haul in nine rebounds while dishing out three assists and blocking three shots in Washington’s 82-80 loss.
In three Summer League games, Sarr has averaged 6.7 points, 6.7 rebounds, 3.0 assists and 3.0 blocks. He is shooting just 19.5 percent overall and 11.8 percent from deep.
The Wizards are 1-2 in Las Vegas.
REPORT: GARY TRENT JR. AGREES TO 1-YEAR DEAL WITH BUCKS
Free agent guard Gary Trent Jr. has agreed to a one-year deal with the Milwaukee Bucks, ESPN reported Tuesday.
Financial terms of the contract were not reported.
Trent, 25, spent last season with the Toronto Raptors, averaging 13.7 points and 2.6 rebounds in 71 games (41 starts). He shot 39.3 percent from 3-point range.
In 341 career games (201 starts) with the Portland Trail Blazers (2018-21) and Raptors (2021-24), Trent has averaged 14.3 points, 2.4 rebounds and 1.5 assists. He has connected on 38.6 percent of his attempts from deep in his six NBA seasons.
Trent, a second-round pick by the Sacramento Kings in the 2018 draft, will once again be playing with Damian Lillard, the Milwaukee star who spent the first 11 seasons of his career in Portland.
Lillard is headed into his second season with the Bucks.
MAGIC CO-FOUNDER PAT WILLIAMS DIES AT 84
Pat Williams, Orlando Magic co-founder and basketball Hall of Famer, died on Wednesday. He was 84.
Williams died of complications from viral pneumonia, the Magic said in a release.
Along with businessman Jimmy Hewitt, Williams started to work toward getting Orlando an NBA franchise back in 1986. A year later, the NBA Board of Governors gave an expansion franchise to the city, and on Dec. 22, 1988, the Magic sold their 10,000th ticket to officially bring the team to the league.
That was just a sliver of Williams’ NBA career, which lasted 51 years and included over 30 with the Magic.
“Pat Williams simply brought magic to Orlando,” Magic chairman Dan DeVos and CEO Alex Martins said in a joint statement. “His accomplishments will always be remembered. Armed with his ever-present optimism and unparalleled energy, he was an incredible visionary who helped transform the world of sports in multiple ways.
“From bringing the Magic to Orlando, to transforming sports marketing and promotions, he was always ahead of the curve. Pat forever changed the sports landscape in Orlando. He shined a light on what those who called Orlando home already knew — that Central Florida was a fabulous place to live, work and play.”
After serving as the 76ers’ business manager in 1968, Williams ended up being general manager of the Chicago Bulls and Atlanta Hawks before returning to Philadelphia — where he spent 12 years as the Sixers’ GM.
With Williams’ help, the 76ers won a championship in 1983. Williams moved on from Philadelphia three years later to begin his endeavors with the Magic.
“He loved a challenge, and when he moved our family to Orlando to start the Magic, he was full of excitement and energy that he displayed every day,” Williams’ family said in a statement. “We all grew up believing that anything is possible because of his unwavering enthusiasm for what he was passionate about.
“Those who attended the games, saw him at church or spent time with him in a social setting know that he never met a stranger and was always quick with an encouraging word. He was a giver, a teacher, the ultimate cheerleader, and he was a life-long learner.”
Before his success in basketball, Williams put together a memorable career in baseball, starting with his time at Wake Forest. Williams got a scholarship to attend the university, and he was a three-year letterman as a catcher for the Demon Deacons.
In addition to being a member of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Mass., Williams is also in the Wake Forest Sports Hall of Fame.
The Philadelphia Phillies signed Williams in 1962. The catcher spent two seasons with the Miami Marlins, who were a Class A club in the Florida State League. Williams eventually joined their front office in 1964 as business manager, later taking over as general manager of the Spartanburg (S.C.) Phillies in 1965.
Outside the sporting world, Williams was an author, writing over 100 books.
Williams also ran 58 marathons from 1996 to 2011, finishing the Boston Marathon 13 times.
REPORT: BUCKS’ KHRIS MIDDLETON HAS SURGERY ON BOTH ANKLES
Milwaukee Bucks forward Khris Middleton is recovering from arthroscopic surgeries on both ankles this offseason, The Athletic reported Wednesday.
The three-time All-Star is expected to be ready for the start of the 2024-25 season, per the report.
Injuries limited the 32-year-old veteran to 55 games last season after he appeared in only 33 contests in 2022-23.
Middleton averaged 15.1 points, 5.3 assists and 4.7 rebounds in 2023-24.
Through 12 seasons, Middleton has career averages of 16.9 points, 4.8 rebounds, 3.9 assists and 1.2 steals in 739 games (650 starts) with the Detroit Pistons (2012-13) and Bucks.
Detroit drafted Middleton in the second round (39th overall) in 2012. Traded to Milwaukee in July 2013, he helped the Bucks win the NBA championship in 2020-21.
WNBA NEWS
CAITLIN CLARK SETS WNBA SINGLE-GAME ASSISTS RECORD
Rookie guard Caitlin Clark dished out a WNBA-record 19 assists for the Indiana Fever in their 101-93 loss to the Dallas Wings on Wednesday in Arlington, Texas.
Clark surpassed Courtney Vandersloot’s previous single-game assist record of 18. Vandersloot, who currently plays for the New York Liberty, set the mark on Aug. 31, 2020, as a member of the Chicago Sky.
Clark’s record-breaking assist provided the Fever’s final points on Wednesday. With Indiana trailing 93-90, Clark drove the lane before she stopped and found Kelsey Mitchell on the left wing for a game-tying 3-pointer with 2:22 remaining in the fourth quarter.
Dallas (6-19) scored the game’s final eight points to snap a three-game skid.
Aside from her record assist total, Clark supplied 24 points and six rebounds. She also had six turnovers as the Fever (11-15) saw their two-game winning streak come to an end.
Clark, 22, is averaging 17.1 points, 5.8 rebounds and 8.2 assists per game in her first WNBA season after being selected first overall out of Iowa in April’s draft.
Clark’s career high in assists in college came on Jan. 25, 2022, when she had 18 in the Hawkeyes’ 107-79 win against Penn State.
KAYLA MCBRIDE, LYNX HAND DREAM EIGHTH STRAIGHT LOSS
Kayla McBride scored 30 points to lead the host Minnesota Lynx over the Atlanta Dream 86-79 on Wednesday afternoon in Minneapolis in their final game before the WNBA’s All-Star and Olympic break.
Natisha Hiedeman was key for Minnesota (17-8), scoring a season-high 18 points, all off the bench. Alanna Smith contributed 13 points and 10 rebounds, while Courtney Williams added eight points and nine assists.
Atlanta (7-17) received a boost from Rhyne Howard, who returned from an ankle sprain to score 15 points in the loss. Cheyenne Parker-Tyus led the Dream with 16 points, shooting 5-for-5 from the floor and 6-for-6 from the free-throw line. Tina Charles added 12 points and All-Star Allisha Gray scored seven points, below her team-leading 15.9 points per game average entering Wednesday.
It looked like the Dream might put their seven-game losing streak behind them with a four-point lead heading into the final quarter, but they couldn’t handle the Lynx. Specifically, the play of Hiedeman, who took over in the final 10 minutes.
Hiedeman scored 16 points and added an assist in the fourth, accounting for more points than the Dream until late in the quarter.
Her scoring run started with two 3-point shots and a mid-range jumper to help the Lynx tie the game with 6:38 remaining. After the Atlanta lead disappeared, the Minnesota advantage began. The Lynx outscored Atlanta 30-19 in the fourth — the most points in a quarter this season for the Lynx – in the victory.
Minnesota and Atlanta went back-and-forth for four quarters, with 13 lead changes and 15 ties. Neither team had more than a two-possession advantage until the final quarter.
The win comes despite Atlanta outshooting the Lynx 49.2 percent to 37.8 percent and outscoring Minnesota 52-20 off the bench. Atlanta’s turnovers kept Minnesota in the game, as the Dream gave away more (16-7), resulting in 15 points off turnovers for the Lynx.
Minnesota beat Atlanta for the third time this season. The two teams play their final regular-season game on Sept. 10 in Atlanta.
REPORT: WNBA AGREES TO $2.2B FOR MEDIA RIGHTS IN 11-YEAR DEAL
WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert actually set her sights too low in April when she said she wanted the league to double its current national media rights fees.
The current national media contracts, though the 2025 season, average about $50 million annually. The WNBA’s new deal with ESPN, Amazon and NBC, approved Tuesday, will pay the league about $2.2 billion over the next 11 years for an average of $200 million a year — and it could be even more lucrative, The Athletic reported.
Call it part of the Caitlin Clark Effect. Engelbert made her comment in anticipation of a huge growth in popularity for the WNBA on the eve of the league draft, when the Indiana Fever made the college phenom out of Iowa the No. 1 pick.
The WNBA partnered with the NBA, which negotiated the contracts as part of its own rights talks resulting in an agreement with Disney, NBC and Amazon on approximately $75 billion over 11 years. The NBA’s board of governors approved the new terms, which are still pending.
The WNBA’s current media partners are Disney, Ion, CBS and Amazon. The Athletic reported that in addition to the next deal, the WNBA could negotiate with new partners on two other separate rights packages to total another $60 million annually.
That new total could pay the WNBA more than six times its current fees. The league and its media partners also have agreed to revisit the rights contracts in three years to measure the value against the league’s growth, The Athletic reported.
SUN LAND G MARINA MABREY IN TRADE WITH SKY
The Connecticut Sun acquired veteran guard Marina Mabrey and a 2025 second-round draft pick on Wednesday in a trade with the Chicago Sky.
The Sky will receive guards Rachel Banham and Moriah Jefferson and a first-round draft pick in 2025. Chicago also has the right to swap first-round draft picks with Connecticut in 2026.
Mabrey, 27, has averaged 14.0 points with career highs of 4.9 rebounds and 4.5 assists in 24 games, all starts, this season. In six WNBA seasons, she has averaged 11.9 points with 3.4 rebounds and 3.0 assists in 179 games (115 starts) for the Los Angeles Sparks (2019), Dallas Wings (2020-22) and Sky.
Banham, 31, has averaged 4.8 points with 1.2 rebounds in 21 games off the bench this season. In nine seasons, she has averaged 5.2 points and 1.1 rebounds in 243 games (12 starts) for the Sun (2016-19, 2024) and Minnesota Lynx (2020-23).
Jefferson, 30, has averaged 2.1 points in nine games off the bench this season. In eight WNBA seasons, the runner-up for the 2016 Rookie of the Year Award has averaged 9.1 points with 2.0 rebounds and 3.5 assists in 188 games (143 starts) for the San Antonio Stars (2016-17), Las Vegas Aces (2018), Wings (2020-22), Lynx (2022), Phoenix Mercury (2023) and Sun.