SAN FRANCISCO — Jimmy Butler had 21 points, five rebounds and five assists, Stephen Curry added 19 points and eight assists, and the Golden State Warriors beat the Clippers 98-79 on Tuesday night.
Curry shot 7 for 15 a night after four Warriors players scored 20 or more points to beat Memphis — but it marked just the sixth time in Curry’s 17 seasons he wasn’t one of them.
Butler and Moses Moody each hit three-pointers late in the third quarter as the Warriors used a 10-2 burst over the final 2:07 to go ahead 78-63 starting the fourth.
Brandin Podziemski followed up a 23-point performance against the Grizzlies with 12 points, while Quinten Post had 12 points on four three-pointers and eight rebounds.
James Harden scored all 20 of his points by halftime while Kawhi Leonard added 18 points and five rebounds in a game featuring a 13-point second quarter by Golden State followed by the Clippers’ 14-point third.
Harden’s three with 41 seconds left in the first half gave the Clippers their first lead heading into halftime ahead 49-46 after ending the second quarter on a 24-6 run.
Ivica Zubac contributed 14 points and a season-best 13 rebounds for the cold-shooting Clippers, who went 6 for 33 from long range and 30 of 82 overall (36.6%).
The CLippers had won the last seven in the series and three in a row at Chase Center, where the Warriors improved to 3-0 so far.
Al Horford was back for the Warriors against the tall, physical Clippers team featuring the 7-foot Zubac after sitting out the front end of the back-to-back to manage a left toe injury.
The Clippers began six for 20 and one for eight on threes to fall behind 27-14 on a night they missed Bradley Beal for a second consecutive game because of back soreness.
The Lakers were not whole for their season opener and that meant Luka Doncic had a heavier load to carry while LeBron James sat on the bench injured in this game against rivals Stephen Curry and the Golden State Warriors.
So, the question while James recovers from sciatica injury on his right side, is who will fill his void and help Doncic navigate the stretch his running mate is out.
The Lakers didn’t get that complete answer Tuesday night, falling 119-109 to the Warriors at Crypto.com Arena despite Doncic’s impressive performance of a near triple-double with 43 points, 12 rebounds and nine assists.
James is entering an NBA-record 23rd season, but it was the first time over his career that he has missed a season opener.
He sat on the end of the Lakers’ bench dressed in a double-breasted suit, cheering his teammates on, offering words of encouragement when necessary, knowing that was the only way he could help until returns to the court in mid-November.
“It’s hard to forget about LeBron, (but) the reality is, when you’re focused on the group that you have, you’ve got to make the group work,” said coach JJ Redick afterward. “Sometimes you can just be like, ‘Oh my God, we’re gonna get LeBron back at some point.’ Like it’s awesome, but you are focused. I’ll be honest with you, I did have one moment in that first half when we had a few possessions when we couldn’t score against the zone and I thought, ‘It’d be great to have LeBron.”
Lakers guard Austin Reaves gets past Warriors guard Gary Payton II for a layup during the second half Friday night.
(Eric Thayer / Los Angeles Times)
When the Lakers went inside to center Deandre Ayton, he didn’t overpower the small Warriors. Ayton got seven touches, scored 10 points and grabbed six rebounds.
But he had four turnovers. One of the other issues was his teammates trying to get the ball inside to Ayton. The lobs just weren’t working, a big reason why the Lakers had 19 turnovers.
“Yeah, today, I was realizing I’m probably a confusing big (center), whether I can roll and stand in the pocket, probably gets a little difficult for them sometimes,” Ayton said. “I’m so used to the league having that low man on me. Sometimes I can’t even finish a roll, and I tiny bit linger around the free-throw area just to be available for him.”’
Austin Reaves showed he was up to the task with James out, producing 26 points, nine rebounds and five assists.
But he had a team-high five turnovers and picked up five fouls by the third quarter.
“We haven’t had a lot of time together as a complete group,” Reaves said. “Obviously, we’re still not complete, but we’re just gonna continue to build, get better, and learn how to play alongside one another. I mean, I had five turnovers tonight, and I don’t think a couple of them are just dumb. But a couple of them were just miscommunications on where I needed to throw a pass to DA (Deandre Ayton). It wasn’t the wrong read. It was the wrong pass at the right time, basically. So it’s just like learning those little things, and you learn those on the fly.”
The Warriors, meanwhile, had four players score in double-figures and that was a big difference in the game. Jimmy Butler led the Warriors with 31 points, Stephen Curry had 23 and Jonathan Kuminga and Buddy Hield each had 17.
The Lakers fell into a hole in the third quarter, going down by 17 points, putting them in catch-up mode.
They were outscored 35-25 in the third. They allowed the Warriors to make 60% of their shots, 50% (five-for-10) of their three-pointers.
Even with the Lakers cutting that deficit to six points in the fourth, their poor play in the third doomed them again.
“The trend I see is that we continue to be a terrible third-quarter team to start,” Redick said. “That was last year. That was the preseason. Gotta rethink some things and it’s, you know, a two-way thing with the guys. What do they need at halftime to make sure they’re ready to play? They’re not ready to play to start the third quarter.”
Etc.
The Lakers picked up the rookie option on Dalton Knecht for $4.2 million for the 2026-27 season, according to people not authorized to speak publicly on the matter. … The Lakers said that forward/center Maxi Kleber has an oblique strain and will be reevaluated in two to three weeks.
We could hear the band before we saw it: a group of retirement home residents with trumpets and drums waiting to greet us as we approached. Others using wheelchairs waved homemade flags. As we swarmed into the building and up the staircase, a bottleneck formed. I slowed down as a nurse put a stamp on my sweaty arm, then I jogged off down the corridor.
Running through a retirement home is just one of the many surreal moments that participants signing up for the Nîmes Urban Trail (NUT) get to experience on this 24km race around the city, which takes place each February. Not only does the route give you a whistlestop sightseeing tour, taking you past the town’s impressive Roman monuments and landmarks, it also grants you access to places that would normally be off limits to outsiders.
Earlier in the day, I’d cantered through the lobby and bar of a five-star hotel, a Michelin-starred restaurant, the hôtel de ville (city hall), a barracks, a chapel and an olive grove. I even ran through a nightclub – easily the most wholesome sweat I’d ever worked up there. The school classrooms were particularly fascinating: I moved to France aged 28 so I’d never seen the inside of a French primary school. The retro maps pasted to the walls were the same pink as French toilet paper.
The Nîmes Urban Trail gives runners access to areas that would otherwise be off limits. Photograph: Cyrille Quintard/Yeswerun
Crowds had gathered to cheer us on at various points along the route, but nowhere was the welcome more enthusiastic than at the retirement homes where the residents and carers had spent weeks preparing for our arrival. As I left the building, I realised my cheeks were damp – but not from sweat. This was the first time a running race had moved me to tears.
Europe’s first organised urban trail run was in my home city, Lyon, in 2008. I’ve participated in the Lyon Urban Trail for the last three years, pounding up and down stairs, helter-skeltering down the muddy slope of the city’s former ski piste, la Sarra, and jogging through the grounds of old forts. It’s enormous fun, and now there are more than 100 urban trail runs in France, but none quite like Nîmes.
Many runners’ fancy dress outfits have a Nîmois theme. Photograph: Cyrille Quintard/Yeswerun
At the starting line I checked out my fellow competitors. I was sandwiched between Queen Elizabeth II and a couple of gladiators. Many of the fancy dress outfits had a Nîmois theme. Nîmes became part of the Roman empire around the first-century BCE, when it was known as Colonia Nemausus, and alongside the emperors and gladiators, I saw crocodiles and palm trees. Crocodiles may be about as native to Nîmes as lions and unicorns are to Great Britain, but they’ve become the symbol of the city. In the 16th century, a Roman coin showing a crocodile and a palm frond, to depict Roman victory over Egypt, was unearthed here. Now the Nîmois crocodile appears on paving stones and fountains, and there are even four stuffed ones hanging from the ceiling of the hôtel de ville.
Although my running attire was relatively dull, the race promised to be anything but. The people running the full marathon had been released into the (urban) wild half an hour earlier; I, surrounded by gladiators and crocodiles, was about to tackle the shorter, but still hilly, 24km race. After us would come runners participating in the 16km and 10km races, and finally the 10km hikers (breaking into a trot was strictly forbidden), so there’s something for all fitness levels and abilities.
When he co-founded the NUT 10 years ago, Benoît Goiset was clear he wanted to create something more than just a calf-buster. He envisioned a run that broke down social barriers and got the whole city involved.
The Nîmois crocodile appears on paving stones and fountains around the city. Photograph: ZUMA Press, Inc./Alamy
The route changes each year, with new and unusual sites being added. “After the pandemic we were seeing an epidemic of loneliness, so I added in the EHPADs [retirement homes],” said Goiset. “The five-star hotels and Michelin-starred restaurants were [included] because so few people get to experience them, particularly people who live in Nîmes. I didn’t want anywhere to be off limits.”
At the end of the race, we burst into the Roman arena with a rush of pride, feeling like warriors, to be greeted by trestle tables loaded with snacks and beer and lemonade. This had been my first full day in Nîmes, and I’ve never had such a complete introduction to a city. Not only had I seen all the Roman sites – the arena, Tour Magne (watchtower), the Temple of Diana and even the Musée de la Romanité (we ran across the roof terrace) – I’d also had a glimpse of “the real Nîmes”, behind closed doors. I’d seen where children go to school, where soldiers train, and where some of the city’s older residents spend their later years. The tiered Jardins de la Fontaine, an 18th-century park full of stone fountains set over canals, was so beautiful that as soon as my legs had recovered that afternoon, I went back again.
At the risk of sounding like so many obnoxious yogis, who told me the reason I don’t like yoga is that I haven’t found the right class, if you don’t like running, perhaps you haven’t found the right race.
Registration is open for the next Nîmes Urban Trail, which takes place on 15 February 2026. Prices vary depending on distance, but the 24km trail run is €38pp. Appart’City is opposite the race start line, with double rooms from €105 (room only).
The two best sides in the Super League lock horns at Old Trafford for the second year running as the Robins take on the Warriors for the Super League title.
The two best sides in the Super League lock horns at Old Trafford for the second year running as the Robins take on the Warriors for the Super League title.
Tanya Arnold is joined by Kevin Brown to present highlights of the ‘Big Dance’, as Hull KR Robins go for a historic treble and the Wigan Warriors look to end their season on a high, having already seen Hull KR take their league leaders shield and Challenge Cup trophy this season.
Commentary comes from Matt Newsum and Robbie Hunter-Paul.
Whereas the 2024 final was a tense and a low scoring affair, Hull KR flipped that script on its head with this year’s war of attrition.
Gone was the caginess of last year. And nerves? What nerves? This was a side made for the occasion, that knew they were on the cusp of greatness and took their opportunity.
Yet it might not have been that way as they were off the pace in the opening stages, and were lucky not to fall behind when they failed to pick up French on the turnover prior to his score being chalked off.
Other than that if they seemed unnerved by the occasion, knowing they were 80 minutes from a history-making treble, they did not seem to show it.
Much had been said in the build-up to the game about Hull KR’s recent and distant past – whether that is relegation in the Million Pound Game in 2016 or finishing bottom of Super League in 2020.
Indeed, outside of some second-tier honours, you had to go back 40 years to the last time the Robins reigned supreme.
Bolstered by the retiring Waerea-Hargreaves – who almost missed the game through suspension prior to KR’s successful appeal this week – and Micky McIlorum, they soon carved open Wigan and never looked back.
Robins talisman Lewis has gone from strength to strength in recent seasons but, much like his team, this feels like the moment in his career where he truly came alive.
But this was a team performance. It was not won by individual moments of brilliance.
It was a display befitting a treble-winning side and masterminded by an elite coach in Willie Peters.
Hull KR have got better every season under Peters’ tutelage and, on this evidence, it makes you wonder if they could be even more formidable in 2026.
SAN FRANCISCO — The Lakers entered training camp with hopes of finally establishing chemistry between stars Luka Doncic, LeBron James and Austin Reaves. But the trio have yet to see the court together. On Sunday, they all stayed on the bench during the Lakers’ 111-103 loss to the Golden State Warriors at Chase Center.
With Doncic (rest) and James (glute) already out, Reaves was rested Sunday after an already full first week of training camp. The fifth-year guard had the highest workload on the team entering the first preseason game that took place after three days of practice. He scored 20 points against the Phoenix Suns as one of the few offensive bright spots in Friday’s blowout loss.
Without their top offensive playmakers, the Lakers got a lift from guard Gabe Vincent, who made his preseason debut after nursing a knee injury. He had 16 points and five assists while center Deandre Ayton, who scored just one point on two shots in Friday’s preseason game, scored seven points, all in the first quarter, with seven rebounds.
“We came with more intention,” Vincent said compared to the Lakers’ 103-81 loss to the Suns on Friday. “We were more focused. Obviously it’s different with those three not playing. They’re a huge part of our team and everything that we do. But next man up.”
After their first two preseason games, the Lakers have one week of practice until their first home preseason game against the Warriors on Oct. 12. Coach JJ Redick said that although Doncic was scheduled to rest for the first two preseason games after he played in EuroBasket with his national team, the Slovenian superstar is still expected to play before the team officially opens its season on Oct. 21. The Lakers have four preseason games remaining.
Whether James, who was held out of early training camp practices because of nerve irritation in his glute, will play in the preseason remains to be seen. Entering an unprecedented 23rd NBA season, James is on a slower ramp-up schedule than previous years, Redick said.
The Warriors took a similarly cautious approach with their aging superstars as Stephen Curry, Draymond Green, Jimmy Butler III and Al Horford were all limited to one half. The 37-year-old Curry still scored 14 points in 15 minutes, draining five of seven shots from the field and drawing loud cheers from a nearly full Chase Center crowd when he laid up an acrobatic shot through contact and pointed two finger guns into the ESPN baseline camera.
Redick called it a challenge to get a proper evaluation of his team in a 48-minute preseason game when his top three stars are out, but after Friday’s preseason opener, he was looking for better organization on offense early in the shot clock, playing with pace and more physicality.
“We’ve got to be more physical getting open,” Redick said before the game. “We’ve got to be more physical with our screening. That doesn’t change based on who’s in the lineup, so that habit, we can build that.”
“Championship habits” is one of three pillars Redick has preached relentlessly during training camp, along with championship communication and championship shape. He said he would judge the latter in part by whether players are sprinting back on defense.
The Lakers were outscored 23-5 in transition Sunday and 42-11 through two preseason games.
With the exception of a 10-0 Warriors run to end the second quarter and a nearly six-minute stretch to begin the third quarter during which Golden State pushed a seven-point halftime lead into a 23-point rout, Redick said the overall competitiveness was “much better” than against Phoenix. But the next challenge will be to put forth that effort consistently.
It follows a recent theme Redick introduced to the team: Kaizen, the Japanese word for improvement.
“It’s just getting 1% better each day,” said forward Jake LaRavia, who had 10 points and three assists. “And that goes along with just winning the day. We thought when we played Phoenix, we didn’t. Today, we thought we did a good amount better, obviously, still not the result that we wanted, but we’re working in the right direction.”
Wigan said: “At 10.37pm on Tuesday 30 September, our club was informed in writing by Derek Beaumont of Leigh Leopards that they do not intend to fulfil Friday’s scheduled semi-final fixture.
“We can confirm that Leigh Leopards were offered the choice of 4,600 unreserved seats or 5,400 reserved seats in the North Stand.”
Wigan said the allocation had been determined by the independent Safety Advisory Group and the club’s Ground Safety Officer, following consultation with the police.
They said Super League had “sought separate safety advice” and had “fully endorsed this approach”.
Wigan added that the allocation offered was almost double the 10% minimum required for away supporters.
“While we regret that Leigh Leopards found this arrangement unacceptable, our club is legally, and professionally, bound to comply with the directions of our Ground Safety Officer and the conditions of our Ground Safety Certificate,” Wigan’s statement added.
“The safety and welfare of all supporters must come first. This is not open to negotiation and underpins every decision we make.
“We continue to prepare for Friday’s semi-final and will release further information as the situation develops.”
Wigan finished one place and three points above Leigh in the regular season and the winner of Friday’s scheduled match will face either Hull KR or St Helens in the Grand Final at Old Trafford on Saturday, 11 October.
