Sports briefs
By NewsPress Now
Miami Heat guard
Jimmy Butler will
have MRI Thursday
PHILADELPHIA | Miami guard Jimmy Butler will have an MRI on his right knee Thursday, with the Heat bracing for the strong possibility that he may miss Friday’s elimination play-in game against the Chicago Bulls, a person with knowledge of the situation said.
No final determination will be made until after the MRI is read sometime in the late afternoon, said the person, who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because neither Butler nor the Heat had revealed specific details publicly.
Even if diagnosed with a sprain, the likelihood would be that Butler misses several weeks, at minimum. It only adds to Miami’s major injury issues, with point guard Terry Rozier out with a neck strain and shooting guard Duncan Robinson bothered by a back injury. Robinson was cleared to play Wednesday but did not appear in Miami’s 105-104 loss to Philadelphia.
Butler was hurt late in the first quarter of that game against the 76ers when he tried to fake out Kelly Oubre Jr. on a bucket. His knee buckled and he fell to the court. Oubre appeared to land on the Heat star, who led the franchise last season to the NBA Finals.
“I fell, he landed and my knee just didn’t do well, I guess,” Butler said Wednesday night. “I don’t know. It’s not a good feeling, I can tell you that.”
Butler sank the free throw, exhaled and missed the second one. He remained in the game and scored 19 points, but the Heat wasted what was a 14-point lead and now face Chicago in a win-or-else game on Friday. The winner gets the No. 8 seed and a first-round matchup with the top-seeded Boston Celtics in a series that starts Sunday.
“We just need to get one and then we’ll worry about the next one,” Butler said.
Butler’s agent, Bernie Lee, told Sirius XM NBA on Thursday that there had been no determination yet on the injury’s severity because the MRI had not yet been performed. The Heat landed in Miami around 2 a.m. Thursday after the game in Philadelphia.
“It felt like I couldn’t do too much, which sucks with the timing of the game and everything,” Butler said after the game. “I hope that I’m fine. I hope that I wake up tomorrow and can still stick-and-move. Right now, I can’t stay that’s the case.”
Whether Butler plays or not, the Bulls expect to have a tough time against the Heat.
“Jimmy being out for Miami, they have a culture,” Chicago guard Ayo Dosunmu said. “Whoever steps up in his spot, I know they’re not gonna bring everything he does. He’s an All-Star, a great player in this league, but Miami is one of the teams when you play them, you know what to expect. They play hard. They play physical. They don’t quit. They always keep coming, they keep bringing energy.”
Butler, a former Bull and Sixer, scored 20.8 points in 60 games for the Heat. The 34-year-old Butler said he stayed in the game because he thought the “adrenaline would kick back in” and he would feel healthy enough to play at his usual level.
Butler was 5 of 18 from the floor overall but scored just two points in the fourth, when the Heat collapsed in the quarter.
“It just wasn’t the case,” he said. “I wasn’t able to do anything on either side of the ball. I think I hurt us more than I helped us actually.”
Paris Olympics
opening ceremony on river Seine will last nearly four hours
PARIS | With sunset and moonlight gleaming on the river, the grandiose opening ceremony for the Paris Olympics will last nearly four hours.
A total of 205 delegations will parade on more than 80 boats on the Seine. The ceremony will drift slowly from east to west, bridge to bridge, snaking 3.7 miles from Pont d’Austerlitz to Pont d’Iéna.
Proceedings begin at 3:45 p.m. and finish at 11:15 p.m. local time with artistic performances preceding the athletes’ parade.
The athletes will motor past about 320,000 fans wedged in behind security cordons on upper and lower tiers on the embankments. Others will gaze at giant screens beaming images of the ambitious ceremony.
“For one evening, the Seine will be transformed into a giant open-air ceremony,” Paris Games director of ceremonies Marie-Catherine Ettori said during a media briefing on Thursday.
Once the 10,500 athletes have disembarked from their boats, the final part of the ceremony takes place at the Trocadéro plaza overlooking the Eiffel Tower.
Amid the anticipation of seeing something so unique, there are tensions surrounding the safety of the ceremony heading into the Games starting on July 26.
Late last month, France raised its security readiness to the highest level after a deadly attack at a Russian concert hall and the Islamic State’s claim of responsibility.
French President Emmanuel Macron struck a cautious note this week when he said the unprecedented open-air event, which is expected to bring 100 world leaders to the embankments, could be shifted to a more conventional opening ceremony at the Stade de France, the national stadium, if the security threat is deemed too high.
Without disputing what Macron said, France’s Sports Minister Amélie Oudéa-Castéra and others remained optimistic the show will go on the Seine.
“We are heavily working on plan A which remains the central scenario and the very, very dominant scenario,” Oudéa-Castéra said at a “ 100 Days To Go “ Olympic event on Wednesday. “We keep working on that fantastic ceremony on the River Seine.”
Browns pleased
with Deshaun Watson’s progress after surgery
BEREA, Ohio | While Deshaun Watson’s rehab from right shoulder surgery is on a conservative track, the Cleveland Browns are expecting the quarterback to be ready for their season opener.
“We feel really good about it,” general manager Andrew Berry said Thursday at his annual pre-draft news conference. “I’m not going to make any predictions, just because you just never know. But that’s certainly our expectation.”
Watson suffered a fracture to the glenoid bone in his throwing shoulder and had his second season with Cleveland end after just six starts.
The 28-year-old Watson has played in 12 games since the Browns acquired him in a 2022 trade from Houston and signed him to a fully guaranteed $230 million contract.
Earlier this week, Watson said his recovery is going well. He’s following a rehab regimen prescribed by his surgeon, Dr. Neal ElAttrache, who repaired his glenoid socket and a partially torn labrum on Nov. 21.
Watson, who was in and out of the lineup for several weeks with shoulder issues before an MRI revealed the fracture, said he’s been able to throw at full speed but didn’t provide many other specifics about his physical limitations.
Berry said Watson threw 40-yard passes this week as the Browns began their voluntary offseason conditioning program.
“He’s in a pretty good spot,” Berry said. “I don’t want to put the cart in front of the horse, but he’s progressing as appropriate. We’re really, really pleased with the work that he’s put in and really pleased with how the shoulder’s responding.
“But we’re still in the middle of a rehab process, so we know that it can take different left and right turns, but we’re pretty optimistic in terms of what we’ve seen so far.”
Watson said a decision about whether he participates in OTAs next month hasn’t been made. He also indicated there’s a chance he won’t play in preseason games.
Scoring sensation
Lucy Olsen transferring to Iowa from Villanova
IOWA CITY, Iowa | Iowa added Lucy Olsen, one of the nation’s most productive scorers from last season, to fill the void in the post-Caitlin Clark era.
Olsen, a former Villanova star who entered the transfer portal, wrote on social media on Wednesday that she’s joining the Hawkeyes. The 5-foot-9 guard averaged 23.3 points this season to rank third among women’s Division I scorers.
Clark, the NCAA Division I leading scorer among men and women, became the No. 1 pick in the WNBA Draft on Monday. She scored 3,951 points in her college career while leading Iowa to the NCAA Tournament final the last two seasons.
The Indiana Fever selected her with the top overall pick in the draft. Clark scored a Division I-leading 31.6 points per game this season.
Olsen averaged 4.8 rebounds, 3.8 assists and 1.9 steals while helping Villanova to a 22-13 record. She earned first-team all-Big East honors and was voted the league’s most improved player. The Wildcats lost to Illinois in the championship game of the WBIT.
Olsen, an upcoming senior, has one year of eligibility left. Iowa’s backcourt is losing Clark, Kate Martin, Gabbie Marshall and Molly Davis from a team that went 34-5 this season. Martin went to the Las Vegas Aces with the 18th overall pick in the draft.
Barcelona fined by UEFA for fans making Nazi salutes, monkey gestures
NYON, Switzerland | Barcelona was fined $26,600 by UEFA on Thursday for Nazi salutes and monkey gestures by fans at a Champions League game against Paris Saint-Germain last week.
UEFA said the proven charge of “racist behavior” followed images circulating of misconduct by some fans at Parc des Princes on April 10.
UEFA also deferred a one-game ban on selling tickets to Barcelona fans for an away game in the Champions League next season for a probationary period of one year.
Barcelona also was ordered to compensate PSG for damage to seats by fans and pay additional fines totaling $7,500.
Barcelona won 3-2 in Paris in the first leg of the quarterfinals but was eliminated Tuesday after losing 4-1 in the home leg.
World soccer body FIFA is set to launch a new drive against racism next month at its annual congress meeting, being held in Bangkok, Thailand.
—From AP reports
