TORONTO — Tropicana Field was all fun for a 10-year-old Bo Bichette.
Sitting in the stands for a 2008 American League Championship Series game between the Boston Red Sox and Tampa Bay Rays, Bichette felt the full crowd. As cownose stingrays swam in the right field tank, cowbells rang out each time Carl Crawford or Evan Longoria reached base. But when Bichette first played at the Trop during his rookie season, 11 years later, it wasn’t the same.
“The vibe was different,” Bichette said. “Obviously there wasn’t a lot of fans, it was a little darker in there. It just didn’t feel much like a ballpark.”
For the Toronto Blue Jays, the different vibe of Tropicana Field spilled over onto the scoreboard. Since Bichette’s 2019 debut, the Blue Jays are 18-32 when visiting the Rays. Toronto’s franchise is 92-144 all-time at Tropicana Field, a winning percentage of just .390.
The Jays won’t have a shot to improve that record this season — and they’re not exactly heartbroken about it. Instead of another date at what’s been a house of horrors, the Blue Jays open a three-game set against the Rays on Friday across the bay at George M. Steinbrenner Field. Because Hurricane Milton tore the fiberglass roof membrane off Tropicana Field last October, the Rays are playing all home games at the New York Yankees’ spring training facility this year. With a season away from the stadium, and Tropicana’s long-term future uncertain, Blue Jays players reflected on what made the ballpark unique — and difficult.
“I don’t even know if there’s a word to describe it,” Daulton Varsho said. “It’s just … different.”
The cream-coloured roof tormented outfielders like Varsho. There are specific ground rules governing balls hit into catwalks below the ceiling, but the hardest part of fielding at the Trop is the baseball-toned facing. For Varsho, it’s like every fly ball is hit directly into the sun.
“I just remember a couple balls that went up into the ceiling,” Varsho said. “And you’re like ‘where did it go?’ And then you’re just running to a spot and hoping it comes out.”
The colour of the ceiling at Tropicana Field, pictured in 2023, frequently caused confusion on the field below. (Mike Ehrmann / Getty Images)
Chris Bassitt, who has made five career appearances at Tropicana, called it “playing in a tent.” He’s lost fly balls in the roof and scaffolding, but Bassitt’s real struggle with the Trop is the mound. Major League Baseball mounds are regularly measured and required to be a uniform height, exactly 10 inches tall, but Bassitt claims Tropicana Field’s pitching bump feels much taller. Other pitchers around the league have made similar observations.
If you know how to use it, Bassitt said, the higher mound enhances the spin on pitches. While Bassitt’s release point at Tropicana Field wasn’t higher than normal in 2024, two of the righty’s five highest spin pitches came at Tampa Bay.
Closer Jeff Hoffman agreed the Trop’s mound is “massive.” It’s his favorite pitching bump in baseball, he said, because it increases the induced vertical break on his four-seam fastball.
But it’s the consequences of that raised rubber Bassitt worries about, as he feels it temporarily messes up his pitching mechanics. Over the last three seasons, Bassitt has a 6.19 ERA in starts immediately after pitching in Tropicana Field. Kevin Gausman and José Berríos also have post-Trop ERAs over 5.00.
“The way that you’re pitching, the way you’re landing, where your body’s reacting,” Bassitt said, “is completely different than I would say normal. So, yeah, I think you definitely had a lot of ‘all right, I gotta figure out my mechanics again’ and make sure they’re lined up for a normal mound, so to speak.”
Tropicana Field is hard on the Blue Jays’ bats, too. During the previous five years, Toronto hit just .234 at Tampa Bay, with a .385 slugging percentage. At every other park, those marks were .256 and .423.
Multiple Toronto batters cited Tampa Bay’s consistently great pitching for those offensive struggles, but Bichette and Varsho also mentioned the ballpark’s dark lighting as another offensive roadblock. Per Baseball Savant’s park factors, pitchers at Tropicana have produced above-average strikeouts each of the last 18 years.
“You just didn’t see it as well,” Varsho said. “From a hitter’s perspective.”
Maybe Steinbrenner Field will be kinder, though there are aspects of Tropicana Field the Blue Jays will miss. Varsho praised the new turf installed before the 2024 season. Bichette enjoys playing at the venue, he said, as it’s close to home. Ernie Clement, who leads active Toronto hitters with a .281 average at the Trop, enjoys the stadium’s “relaxing vibe.” Clement also noted it was one of the best dirt infields in baseball — never a bad hop.
But the Blue Jays’ record there doesn’t lie: Tropicana Field isn’t their venue.
“I’m not too sad that it’s gone,” Bassitt said.
(Top photo of Tropicana Field on March, 28, 2024: Mike Ehrmann / Getty Images)
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lee Zeldin got into a shouting match over agency grant cancellations during a Senate hearing Wednesday.
Whitehouse was questioning Zeldin over whether the EPA conducted individual reviews of the grants it had canceled amid sweeping funding cuts across the government under President Trump.
The Rhode Island Democrat said the testimony of agency officials and statements made in court by government lawyers contradict the administration’s comments about the thoroughness of the reviews.
Specifically, he pointed to a court document where EPA official Travis Voyles stated, “On February 25, 2025, I conducted an individualized review of EPA grant programs,” as well as Zeldin’s own comments that the administrator himself had conducted a grant review.
Whitehouse also said that “On May 16, DOJ [Justice Department] career lawyers … filed a pleading in federal court that conceded that you had not done individualized, grant-by-grant reviews.”
“The problem with your assertion here today is that it is belied by your own employees’ sworn statements in court and by the decision of the Department of Justice to admit that what you say isn’t true,” Whitehouse told Zeldin.
“No, you’re not grasping the fact that we would have multiple employees looking at these grants. That concept just escapes you,” Zeldin fired back.
After a back-and-forth, Zeldin said, “We’re not going to waste dollars just because you insist on EPA lighting taxpayer dollars on fire.”
“The American taxpayers, they put President Trump in office because of people like you. They have Republicans in charge of the House and Senate because of people like you, because you don’t care about 99 percent of this story,” he continued.
In response, Whitehouse said what he actually wants is for Zeldin to “explain why the Department of Justice lawyers representing EPA in court, under a duty of candor, have said that everything you’ve just said isn’t true.”
Zeldin also entered into a tense exchange with Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) over the agency’s environmental rollbacks and a particular grant.
Schiff opened his remarks by rattling off rollbacks at the Trump EPA and saying “if you’re successful in eliminating half of our efforts to clean our water and our air, your legacy will be more lung cancer, it’ll be more bladder cancer, it’ll be more head and neck cancer, it’ll be more breast cancer, it’ll be more leukemia and pancreatic cancer, more liver cancer, more skin cancer, more kidney cancer, more testicular cancer, more colorectal cancer, more rare cancers of innumerable varieties.”
He also asked about a specific grant related to preventing lead poisoning in children in Santa Ana, Calif.
As he appeared to be looking through a list for that specific grant, Zeldin retorted, “With that wind up, by the way, I understand that you are an aspiring fiction writer. I see why.”
“I understand your view that you can cut half of the agency, and it won’t affect people’s health or their water, their air. That, to me, is a big fiction. Mr. Zeldin,” Schiff replied.
“If your children were drinking water in Santa Ana, Mr. Zeldin, maybe you wouldn’t be so cavalier about whether there was lead in their water,” he continued. “You could give a rat’s ass about how much cancer your agency causes.”
Exposure to lead can cause brain damage in children.
The agency has also indicated that it plans to loosen restrictions on various pollutants, including some that cause cancer.
—Updated at 3:42 p.m. EDT
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine is getting a surprise Master Crafted Edition, launching June 10 on PC and Xbox Series X and S, and straight into Game Pass.
No PlayStation 5 version was mentioned by publisher Sega, which retains the rights to the Relic Entertainment-developed original third-person shooter.
This is described as the “definitive edition” of Captain Titus and the Ultramarines’ fight against the Ork hordes. Space Marine was first published by THQ back in 2011 for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and PC. The Master Crafted Edition was developed by SneakyBox, and has a 4K resolution, modernized controls, an interface overhaul, improved character models, and remastered audio, which includes over 100 new voice lines for the Orks.
“Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine – Master Crafted Edition isn’t just a technical upgrade — it’s a thoughtful restoration,” said producer Vaidas Mikelskas from SneakyBox. “We aimed to preserve the spirit of the original while modernizing the experience for today’s players.
“This is more than just Master Crafted Edition, it’s a respectful dialogue between past and present, preserving what made the original special while making it shine for a new generation of players.”
Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine – Master Crafted Edition gameplay features:
Storm Into Battle: Experience 40,000 years of combat, evolved. Step fearlessly into the heart of combat as Captain Titus, an unstoppable Space Marine. Titus will not hide and does not cower, as he purges all that stands.
Unleash A Devastating Arsenal: Deal death from a distance with high-caliber ranged weapons and stand toe-to-toe with the enemy with the brutal chainsword, all the while protected by your Ceramite armor.
Define Your Class: In Multiplayer mode unlock and upgrade weapons, armor and abilities to further empower combat options and personalise your Space Marine to match your preferred playstyle. Experiment and explore all of the options provided by the Imperium.
Updated Ork Identity: The Ork horde’s identity is fully aligned with the latest Warhammer 40,000 lore, benefitting from new character models and over 100 new voice lines.
Modernised UI and Control Scheme: Take the fight to Ork horde with reworked and improved UI and control options, updated for a new generation of players.
Take The Fight Online: Form a squad or warband to face off in 8 vs 8 online matches. Earn experience and unlock new weapons and armor to customize the Devastator, Assault, and Tactical Marine classes.
Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine – Master Crafted Edition Screenshots
Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine – Master Crafted Edition technical enhancements:
4K Resolution: Available on PC and Xbox X
Greatly Improved Textures: For enhanced environmental depth and fidelity
Graphics Engine Overhaul: Rewritten for the modernisation of 3D models and visual effects
New User Interface: Original Flash-based UI replaced with a more modern, user-friendly for improved player experience
Remastered Audio: Features additional enemy voice-over lines and improved support for modern audio systems
32-bit to 64-bit System Upgrade: Providing improved and more stable gameplay
Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine eventually got its sequel, the smash hit that was 2024’s Space Marine 2. That game got an announcement of its own, a new Siege mode coming to test players’ resolve. Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War – Definitive Edition was announced during the Warhammer Skulls 2025 broadcast. In case you missed it, check out all the announcements and trailers from the show.
Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
Happy Friday, Dallas Cowboys Nation. We’ve wrapped up the first few days of OTAs, and as we enter the weekend, there are a lot of things to be excited about.
One of the biggest storylines from players during OTAs has been the “energy” of head coach Brian Schottenheimer and the culture he is building in the team’s locker room.
MORE: Cowboys RB Jaydon Blue makes bold prediction for rookie campaign
That’s what you like to see from a new head coach entering his first NFL season leading a team.
Dallas Cowboys Head Coach Brian Schottenheimer reacts while speaking to the media at a press conference at The Star. / Tim Heitman-Imagn Images
For years, fans and players have openly spoken about the team’s culture, and now it seems like the man leading the locker room can finally deliver.
While we wait to see what is next for the Cowboys, let’s check out some headlines making waves around the web and on social media.
Dallas Cowboys quarterback Will Grier rolls out in the second quarter against the Las Vegas Raiders. / Tim Heitman-Imagn Images
The Cowboys’ backup quarterback battle is going to be interesting to watch, with Will Grier being a schematic fit in a West Coast Offense while Joe Milton has the upside and untapped potential. Blogging the Boys takes a look at what to watch for.
Dallas Cowboys offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer during training camp at the River Ridge Playing Fields in Oxnard, California. / Jason Parkhurst-Imagn Images
DallasCowboys.com gave an interesting look into the question of whether a head coach should also call offensive or defensive plays, or simply oversea and delegate to his coordinators.
Analyst says Cowboys did little to address ‘primary concern’ this offseason… Micah Parsons, DaRon Bland top Cowboys ‘top trade assets list’… Potential Trevon Diggs trade price would fleece Dallas Cowboys… Cowboys secondary shuffle could highlight All-Pro CB in new position… Cowboys ‘dangerous’ UDFA predicted to make 53-man roster… Surprising Cowboys player predicted to be ‘best rookie on team’… Brian Schottenheimer praises new Cowboys QB Joe Milton’s work ethic… Cowboys’ George Pickens sets record straight on ‘official’ social media account.
— Enjoy free coverage of the Cowboys from Dallas Cowboys on SI —
The four-tonne, 6ft brick wall came with a mural by one of the world’s most famous artists, a New York-style graffiti battle and a heartwarming backstory.
But when Banksy’s Battle to Survive a Broken Heart went up for auction in New York on Wednesday night with a high pre-sale estimate of $3 million, it did not elicit a single bid.
Experts said the failure underscored the tepid demand in the high-end art market amid broader economic uncertainty. Plus, there was the size and weight of the artwork and the lack of Banksy’s own seal of approval.
Only a few years ago, billionaire trophy-hunters and collectors flush with disposable cash pushed the art market to record highs, and authenticated Banksy pieces sold well above their pre-sale estimates.
The mural was displayed at a Downtown shopping mall
SPENCER PLATT/GETTY IMAGES
SPENCER PLATT/GETTY IMAGES
In 2021, Love is in the Bin broke Banksy’s record sale price when it sold at auction for $25 million (£18.6 million) at Sotheby’s in London.
The artwork, originally named Girl with Balloon, became infamous after it was partially destroyed by a built-in shredder when it was sold at auction for the first time in 2018.
The half-shredded Banksy “Love is in the Bin”, 2018
BEN STANSALL/AFP
“In 2020 and 2021 you saw a lot of auction records, particularly for Banksy and his signed works and canvases,” said Jasper Tordoff, a Banksy specialist with the London trading platform My Art Broker. “An awful lot of these were selling well above the high estimates. Since then, we’ve seen a considerable pullback.”
In the broader market, high-end sales have slumped, works by leading artists have been pulled at the last minute and in New York there has been a wave of gallery closures and layoffs.
During the spring auction season this month, New York’s three big houses — Christie’s, Sotheby’s and Phillips — sold a combined $838 million worth of art excluding buyer’s premiums, well short of their estimates for $1.2 billion to $1.6 billion.
Among the high-profile casualties were Tall Thin Head, a sculpture by the Swiss-Italian artist Alberto Giacometti, which was passed in without a single bid as collectors were spooked by the $70 million asking price.
Andy Warhol’s Big Electric Chair was pulled mid-sale on May 12 after its asking price was set at $30 million.
Alberto Giacometti’s Tall Thin Head
JOHN ANGELILLO/ALAMY
Andy Warhol’s Big Electric Chair
KYLIE COOPER/REUTERS
Banksy, the famously elusive guerrilla artist, painted Battle to Survive a Broken Heart on the side of a Brooklyn warehouse in 2013 after a chance encounter with its owner, Vassilios Georgiadis.
Georgiadis was standing outside smoking a cigarette when he noticed a dark van parked down the block. He told the driver that it was in danger of being struck by trucks turning at the intersection and for him to pull into his driveway.
The driver, who wore sunglasses and a wide-brimmed fisherman’s hat, and spoke in a distinctive English accent, took up his offer while he went to a convenience store for cigarettes and coffee. He returned that evening to spray-paint a heart-shaped balloon covered with Band-Aids on a brick wall of the nondescript building.
The mural, painted during a month-long Banksy residency in New York, quickly drew large crowds. It also caught the attention of taggers, with one brazenly spray-painting the words “Omar NYC” in red beside the balloon.
The graffiti battle intensified when a tagger scrawled “Shane” in purple spray paint. Sensing they had a valuable work of art on their hands, Georgiadis’s family hired security guards to protect the site round-the-clock.
The following evening, a third tag appeared. Someone, believed to be Banksy, had clandestinely stencilled “is a little girl” in white and pink beside the prior tags along with the words “I remember MY first tag” in black. Banksy’s crown-like signature also appeared in the bottom right-hand corner of the wall.
Georgiadis died of a heart attack in 2021 aged 67, and his family decided to sell Battle to Survive a Broken Heart and donate a percentage of the proceedings to the American Heart Association. It was wheeled out of its climate-controlled warehouse a month ago, and tens of thousands came to view it on display at the Winter Garden mall in downtown New York.
It went under the hammer at the shopping centre on Wednesday with a pre-sale estimate of between $1 million and $3 million. The bidding began at $500,000 and quickly fell to $300,000 — then $250,000.
“It’s worth many, many times that,” Arlan Ettinger, president of Guernsey’s auction house in New York, assured wary bidders. “If it won’t fit in your home, donate it to a museum for an enormous tax write-off,” he pleaded, before calling a halt to the auction. He told The Times afterwards: “Something like this object is so unpredictable.”
The failure to attract a bid underlined the caution being exercised at auction by wealthy art collectors amid broader economic uncertainty. Another factor weighing against the sale of the mural was the lack of the artist’s certificate of authenticity.
Banksy established a “pest control office” in 2009 to authenticate genuine pieces and prevent fakes from circulating in the secondary art market. But he endorses only artworks that were produced for commercial sale, and rarely gives his stamp of approval to street art.
“For our collectors, they really wouldn’t have considered this just because the reselling opportunities are quite slender,” Tordoff said.
Georgiadis’s son Anastasios said that while he was disappointed the artwork had failed to sell, he felt his father was not ready to let it go. “It’s really the last piece of him that we have,” Anastasios, 37, said. “We wanted to see it go to somebody who would appreciate and take care of it while raising money and awareness for a very important cause.”
Ettinger said he was speaking to several interested parties and hoped to sell the piece in the coming days — or failing that, at a gala for the heart association in June. “It was disappointing last night,” he said. “But I think it will have a happy ending.”
Zach Kram is a national NBA writer for ESPN.com, specializing in short- and long-term trends across the league’s analytics landscape. He previously worked at The Ringer covering the NBA and MLB. You can follow Zach on X via @zachkram.
The Minnesota Timberwolves were reeling at the end of February.
They’d just lost to the league’s worst team, the Utah Jazz, in a game in which Anthony Edwards was suspended for exceeding the NBA’s technical foul limit. They were stuck with a 32-29 record, ninth in the West, and their big offseason trade of Karl-Anthony Towns for Julius Randle and Donte DiVincenzo looked like a bust.
In sum, Minnesota had seemingly regressed from upstart conference finalist to also-ran, and the franchise was dealing with an ongoing ownership dispute for good measure.
But in March, a switch flipped inside the Target Center. Over the rest of the regular season, the Timberwolves went 17-4, rising out of the play-in morass to the No. 6 seed. They beat the Los Angeles Lakers and Golden State Warriors in five games apiece — eliminating LeBron James, Luka Doncic, Jimmy Butler III and the injured Stephen Curry along the way — to return to the Western Conference finals. They even resolved their long-simmering ownership fracas.
And although the Timberwolves lost Game 1 of the conference finals in a blowout against the No. 1 seed Oklahoma City Thunder, they’ve proved they aren’t your average No. 6 seed. Instead, they have a solid chance to become just the third No. 6 seed in NBA history to reach the championship round, joining the 1995 Houston Rockets, who won the Finals, and the 1981 Rockets, who lost there.
Ahead of Game 2 of the West finals (8:30 p.m. ET, ESPN), let’s examine how the Timberwolves turned their season around, the stars who have stepped up and how exactly the top-seeded Thunder took it all away.
A new strength emerges
From March 1, the Timberwolves had the second-best record (17-4) and point differential (plus-11.4) in the NBA.
To be fair, they benefited from an easy schedule. According to ESPN Analytics, Minnesota had the league’s second-easiest schedule in March and April, and the average team would’ve been expected to post a plus-2.6 point differential in that stretch.
Still, Minnesota’s plus-8.8 schedule-adjusted point differential over that span (11.4 minus 2.6) would have rated near the top of the league. The Timberwolves’ late-season surge was more a reflection of their strengths than their opponents’ weaknesses.
The fuel that powered that surge was a surprise, though. Since trading for Rudy Gobert in 2022, the Timberwolves have generally embraced a defensive identity; last season, they led the league in defensive rating, but ranked just 17th on offense. So when their defense declined from elite to merely good this season, the team tumbled in the standings.
Minnesota’s defense didn’t change much during the hot streak: It ranked sixth through February and seventh in March and April. But the team’s offensive rank rose from 13th at the end of February to second in March and April; only the Thunder scored more efficiently than Minnesota over that span.
The Timberwolves’ offense improved in large part because of success at the rim. During their 21-game surge, the Timberwolves took the fewest midrange shots in the league, per Cleaning the Glass, as they made a more concerted effort to attack the basket.
That approach has carried over to the playoffs, where Minnesota ranks second in rim rate (behind the Detroit Pistons) and last in midrange frequency. Through the first two rounds of the playoffs, the Timberwolves generated the most points per 100 possessions off drives, according to GeniusIQ, signaling their aggression inside the paint.
They also improved on their finishing once they arrived at the rim. The Timberwolves ranked 21st in field goal percentage on dunks and layups before March, per GeniusIQ, but they’re up to sixth place since then.
A surging star: Randle finds his groove
No player symbolizes the Timberwolves’ rise better than Randle, who spent most of his debut season in Minnesota struggling to fill the void left by Towns’ departure.
Although Randle entered the season with a terrible playoff résumé — across two postseason runs as a Knick, he shot 34% from the field and had more turnovers than assists — he had always been a reliable regular-season presence. In his last four seasons in New York, Randle made three All-Star teams and received two All-NBA nods.
But he’s not a one-for-one replacement for Towns; Randle is a better playmaker than the 7-footer, but a much worse shooter who’s more methodical on the ball. Until March, he struggled to mesh that novel skill set within Minnesota’s existing offensive infrastructure, which typically deferred to Edwards and Mike Conley to initiate actions.
Yet by the time he returned from a right adductor strain at the start of March, Randle had enough reps to fit in better. And he employed the classic, time-tested “shoot better” strategy, dramatically improving from both 2- and 3-point range. His hot streak has continued in the playoffs.
Before March, Randle was averaging 0.92 points per isolation, per GeniusIQ, which ranked 53rd out of 64 players with at least 150 isolations. But since then, Randle is averaging 1.12 points per isolation, which ranks sixth among 21 players with at least 150 plays and places him next to star scorers like Jalen Brunson, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Giannis Antetokounmpo.
The other former Knick who joined Randle in the trade also found his legs as the season went on. Through his first 25 games in Minnesota, DiVincenzo had made just 32% of his 3-pointers, and though he rose to 37% by mid-January, a toe strain kept him out of the lineup for more than a month.
But after DiVincenzo returned, he made a scorching 45% of his 3-point tries, which was even better than the Timberwolves expected when they added him to their perimeter rotation last fall. All of a sudden, a once-rotten trade looked splendid, as all the key parts were flourishing for their new teams.
How OKC neutralizes the Wolves’ offense
play
0:39
Anthony Edwards confident Wolves will bounce back in Game 2
Anthony Edwards breaks down the Thunder’s defense and says the Timberwolves will be ready for Game 2.
Here’s the bad news for Minnesota, which has been the second-best team in the NBA since March. The team with the best metrics since March? The Thunder, of course, with a 20-3 record and plus-13.3 point differential to close the regular season, while playing a much tougher schedule than Minnesota.
That comparison underscores the difficult matchup the Timberwolves face in the conference finals — even at their best, they still couldn’t quite keep pace.
In Game 1 in the conference finals, Randle kept up his end of the bargain, scoring a team-high 28 points on stellar 9-for-13 shooting. (One assist versus five turnovers hurt his overall stat line, however.)
The Thunder shut off everything else that had powered Minnesota’s offense over the past two-plus months. The Timberwolves scored just 20 points in the paint in Game 1, which is less than half their previous low in the postseason, and is tied for the lowest output for any team in a playoff game since 2016-17, according to NBA Advanced Stats.
Because Oklahoma City’s perimeter defenders are better than their counterparts on the Lakers and Warriors, the Thunder can stick with the Timberwolves’ drivers, forcing awkward passes back out to the perimeter instead of high-percentage attempts at the rim.
“They clogged the paint,” Edwards said after the game. “That’s what they do. They don’t got much size down there, so they bank on us not making shots, I guess. Because every time I go to the rim, it’s like four people in the paint.”
The Thunder are happy to surrender 3-pointers, ranking 28th in opponent 3-point rate in the regular season, per Cleaning the Glass. And the Timberwolves are happy to take them, putting up 51 3 triples in Game 1. Whether the Timberwolves can come back to upset the No. 1 seed may hinge on whether they can make the Thunder pay for that approach.
Unfortunately, most of their shooters have gone cold at the wrong time. Even in series wins against the Lakers and Warriors, Minnesota won despite its poor 3-point shooting. The five Timberwolves who take 3s other than Edwards and Randle — DiVincenzo, Conley, Jaden McDaniels, Naz Reid and Nickeil Alexander-Walker — shot a collective 38% from distance in the regular season but have declined to 32% in the playoffs. Out of 48 players who have attempted at least 40 3-pointers in the playoffs, Conley ranks 43rd, Alexander-Walker ranks 46th and DiVincenzo ranks 48th in quantified shot making, per GeniusIQ, which measures a player’s actual shot accuracy compared to his expected accuracy.
In theory, their luck should regress to the norm soon, meaning more made 3s are on the way. But that backcourt trio combined to go just 6-for-26 from distance in Game 1 against the Thunder, who were content to wall off the paint and, as Edwards said, bank on Minnesota’s ice-cold shooters staying that way.
For Minnesota to score enough to beat the Thunder and reach the first Finals in franchise history, they must check three boxes:
Randle must keep playing the best high-stakes basketball of his career.
The role players must start shooting more like they did in the regular season.
Edwards must fulfill his role as the leading star on this team.
The Thunder present a rough matchup for him, however — and not just because, with Luguentz Dort, Cason Wallace, Jalen Williams and Alex Caruso, they’re well equipped to shadow his every move with multiple all-world defenders.
Edwards took a major step forward beyond the arc this season, as he led the league in total 3-pointers with 320 and made 39.5% of his attempts, up from 35.3% before this year. But curiously, he struggled to convert his 2-point attempts. According to GeniusIQ data, combining regular season and playoff stats, Edwards’ accuracy ranks in the 27th percentile or worse in the restricted area, the key and the midrange.
The Thunder already have the best interior defense in the league: They allowed the lowest opposing field goal percentage at the rim this season and the fewest points in the paint. And if Edwards can’t crack that shell, he won’t be able to score enough to threaten them.
Edwards expressed optimism after Game 1, despite scoring only 18 points on 5-for-13 shooting in a game his team lost by 26. “I definitely got to shoot more,” he said. “I only took 13 f—ing shots. … Got to go watch some film and pick it apart. We’ll figure it out.”
The Timberwolves have a chance to do so; it’s no fluke that they had the NBA’s second-best offense for such a long stretch. But the Thunder have one of the best defenses in NBA history, and nobody has figured out how to beat it yet.
Ciaran Doyle provides the latest injury updates for Tigers 2B Gleyber Torres who left Thursday’s game vs. the Guardians.
UPDATE: Torres has been diagnosed with a lower right leg injury.
After playing the first three innings of Thursday’s game vs. the Guardians, 2B Gleyber Torres exited the game. There is no mention yet of what happened or why he left. Torres was replaced by Andy Ibanez. Before exiting, he recorded no stats in two at-bats.
Gleyber Torres is out of the game. Andy Ibanez in to play second base. Torres lined out to CF to end the third. Didn’t see anything weird
In just two months, the Cowboys will start their 2025 training camp. Some players are already locked into their roles, but many will be in fights for their place on the depth chart, roster, or practice squad. For backup quarterbacks Will Grier and Joe Milton III, there’s a wide range of possibilities for their eventual landing spots.
Grier and Milton come into this competition from very different places in their careers. Grier is a 30-year-old, sixth-year veteran who’s bounced around the league for a while. He was a third-round pick in 2019 by the Panthers but never found traction there, partially due to a coaching change in 2020. But despite consistently staying employed at the bottom of various rosters and on practice squads, Grier’s last regular-season snap came in his rookie season.
Milton, a sixth-round pick just last year by New England, has obviously spent much less time in the league. But his 61 snaps from the one game he appeared in last season aren’t much less than Grier’s 87 from 2019. So while Grier does have valuable experience from many more training camps, preseasons, and other learning opportunities than Milton, they’re fairly even on actual real-game work.
While Grier does have experience with the Cowboys from 2021-2022, that was before Brian Schottenheimer’s arrival as offensive coordinator. So even there, his experience edge is limited. Grier was on the practice squad for the last two months of 2024, but that has minimal value now that Schottenheimer is head coach and nearly all of the assistants have changed.
A more meaningful difference between them is Dallas’ level of investment. Unsurprisingly, they were able to retain Grier this offseason with the league minimum. But after Milton’s bright flash in the 2024 season finale, the Cowboys sent one of their fifth-round picks this year to New England for the player and a seventh. That may not sound like much on the surface, but Dallas hasn’t typically used much draft capital on the quarterback position. They essentially made Milton one of their fifth-round picks this year, which is the most they’ve invested since making Dak Prescott a fourth-round pick in 2016.
Another key difference is playing style and how that fits into what Schottenheimer and Klayton Adams are looking to do offensively. Grier is your prototypical West Coast QB, a scrambler who can throw well on the run but without a big arm. Milton has all the arm strength you could want and plenty of athleticism to boot, but has always been knocked for his lack of accuracy. That looked better in his one game last year for New England, but it was a small sample size in a glorified preseason game during Week 18.
If the Cowboys offense is about to get more focused on the run and play-action, which the coaching changes and the drafting of G Tyler Booker indicate, then how these QBs do at throwing on the move will be a major factor in the competition. But more than anything, as we saw from Cooper Rush over the last four years, who can just grab his helmet and keep the offense moving when called upon? It’s one thing to go into a game knowing you’re starting, but who can keep his head on straight when QB1 just got helped off the field? That’s arguably the most important factor in who wins the backup job.
Right now, it feels pretty even between Will Grier and Joe Milton. Grier has the experience edge, both in total and with the team, while Milton’s athleticism and upside make him the better investment. And if another year of development has improved his accuracy and honed other skills, Milton can mitigate that experience gap easily. This will be one of the bubble battles to watch for training camp and the preseason.
CHEYENNE, Wyo. — The city of Cheyenne has announced its schedule for sanitation services, as well as facility schedules for Memorial Day on Monday.
That’s according to a release from the city of Cheyenne, which states that city offices will be closed on May 6. The City Council will still meet on Tuesday, May 27 at 6 p.m.
As for sanitation services, residential pickups will move forward one day during Memorial Day Week — Monday pickups will be on Tuesday, Tuesday pickups will be on Wednesday and so on.
The Solid Waste Transfer Station and Happy Jack Landfill will be closed on Monday, May 26. So, too, will the Compost Facility and Household Hazardous Waste, which will also be closed Tuesday, May 27.
The Sanitation Division office will be closed in line with other city offices.
“Residents should remember to keep recycling unbagged; break down boxes cut to 2’ by 2’; and bag all trash to prevent it blowing out of containers and the landfill,” the release states.
Cheyenne Transit program offices will be closed on Monday, May 26 and buses will not run.
The Cheyenne Botanic Gardens and the Paul Smith Children’s Village will be closed on Monday, May 26 as part of their regular schedule.
The Cheyenne Aquatic Center will be open, as will the Cheyenne Ice and Events Center.
The Best Recreation Center will be closed on Monday, May 26. The Airport Golf Course and Kingham Prairie View Golf Course will be open.
