Thursday Sports in Brief | Agriculture

It’s the primary time in 31 years that no participant on offense went in the opening 5 picks. So, naturally, the subsequent 5 selections have been on offense. And these saved coming: proper by means of No. 12.

And the theme all through the primary 20 picks was to get guys who may catch the ball — together with Philadelphia buying standout A.J. Brown from the Titans, and Arizona getting veteran Marquise Brown from the Ravens.

No quarterbacks went till twentieth, when Pitt’s Kenny Pickett discovered he can merely swap to a different facet of the observe facility as he joins the Steelers and maybe grow to be Ben Roethlisberger’s successor.

TORONTO (AP) — Joel Embiid had 33 factors and 10 rebounds, James Harden added 22 factors and 15 assists and the Philadelphia 76ers beat the Toronto Raptors 132-97 in Game 6 to finish the first-round sequence Thursday evening.

Philadelphia will face Miami in the second spherical. The top-seeded Heat beat Atlanta in 5 video games.

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Chris Paul went 14 for 14 in the most effective capturing evening in NBA playoff historical past, Devin Booker returned from a hamstring damage to hit a late 3-pointer and the Phoenix Suns beat the New Orleans Pelicans 115-109 on Thursday evening to complete off the first-round sequence in six video games.

Paul had essentially the most discipline objectives and not using a miss in a playoff recreation, hit all 4 of his free throws and had eight assists because the top-seeded Suns overcame a 10-point halftime deficit.

Phoenix will face the Dallas in the second spherical.

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Luka Doncic and Jalen Brunson every scored 24 factors and the Dallas Mavericks beat the Utah Jazz 98-96 on Thursday evening in Game 6 to wrap up the first-round sequence.

After Brunson hit a 3-pointer from the nook, Mike Conley was known as for touring with 5 seconds remaining, and Brunson made one among two free throws with 4.3 seconds to play.

The Jazz acquired an open search for Bojan Bogdanovic on the left wing, however he got here up brief and the Mavericks moved on to face top-seeded Phoenix in the second spherical.

ATLANTA (AP) — Outfielder Ronald Acuña Jr. returns to the Atlanta Braves practically 10 months after a serious knee damage ended his 2021 season.

The Braves had meant to attend one other week earlier than activating one of many recreation’s most dynamic gamers. But Acuña’s robust play throughout a rehab stint at Triple-a Gwinnett moved up the timeline.

The Braves are hoping he can increase a crew that has began out 8-11, falling 5 1/2 video games behind the New York Mets in the NL East.

ST. LOUIS (AP) — Cardinals star Nolan Arenado and pitcher Génesis Cabrera have been suspended for his or her actions throughout a benches-clearing fracas Wednesday towards the New York Mets.

Arenado has been banned two video games and Cabrera one recreation, and each have been fined undisclosed quantities. Their punishments have been introduced Thursday by Michael Hill, Major League Baseball’s senior vp for on-field operations.

Arenado ducked his head out of the best way of a excessive fastball from Mets reliever Yoan López in the eighth inning Wednesday and shouted on the mound. Arenado tossed apart catcher Tomás Nido as gamers from each dugouts rushed onto the sector.

OTTAWA, Ontario (AP) — Carter Verhaeghe scored twice and Spencer Knight stopped 27 photographs for his second profession shutout because the Florida Panthers beat the Ottawa Senators 4-0 on Thursday evening.

With the victory and Nashville’s 5-4 shootout win over Western Conference-leading Colorado (56-18-7), the Panthers (58-17-6) clinched their first Presidents’ Trophy for the most effective report in the common season and residential ice benefit all through the Stanley Cup playoffs.

Sam Reinhart and Sam Bennett additionally scored for Florida, which halted Ottawa’s four-game successful streak.

EL SEGUNDO, Calif. (AP) — Los Angeles Kings ahead Dustin Brown will retire after this season, his 18th with the membership.

The 37-year-old made the announcement Thursday forward of the Kings’ regular-season finale. Los Angeles will face Edmonton in the primary spherical of the Western Conference playoffs.

Brown has performed in a franchise report 1,295 regular-season video games throughout his 18 seasons as a bodily two-way ahead for the Kings. He has 325 objectives and 387 assists in his profession. He has 9 objectives and 19 assists in 63 video games this season for Los Angeles.

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — The males’s and ladies’s Australian Open golf tournaments are set to be performed on the similar time on two sandbelt programs in southeast Melbourne in December.

Golf Australia mentioned Friday the marquee home occasions shall be performed Dec. 1-4 with Victoria Golf Club as the first course and close by Kingston Heath additionally internet hosting play on the primary two days.

The males’s occasion will headline the PGA Tour of Australasia whereas the ladies’s occasion shall be sanctioned by the WPGA Tour of Australasia.

NEW YORK (AP) — Chicago will host the WNBA All-Star Game for the primary time, the league introduced Thursday.

The recreation will coincide with two main youth ladies’ basketball tournaments being performed in Chicago the weekend of July 10. The league will host a two-day “WNBA Live” occasion that weekend.

On July 9, the 2 All-Star groups can have observe indoors with members from the Nike Nationals match in attendance. Later that day, the annual 3-point contest and expertise problem may even happen.

USA Track and Field has signed on to make use of expertise that may give athletes a further technique to anonymously report sexual abuse and different types of misconduct.

The group introduced a deal Thursday with RealResponse, an organization that serves round 100,000 athletes in practically 1,500 professional, faculty, Olympic and grassroots sports activities organizations. USATF is one among 4 nationwide governing our bodies in the U.S. Olympic area to signal on; USA Gymnastics additionally has a take care of RealResponse.

RealResponse permits customers to report misconduct anonymously with a textual content after which permits organizations to simply comply with up on studies with out compromising the anonymity of the reporter. It skips consumption kinds and drop-down menus that populate many reporting apps.

LIVERPOOL, England (AP) — Liverpool supervisor Jürgen Klopp has signed a two-year contract extension to maintain him on the Premier League membership till 2026.

If he sees out the deal introduced on Thursday, Klopp can have been at Liverpool for greater than a decade after becoming a member of in October 2015.

Klopp’s earlier deal was set to run out in 2024.