NBA
OAKLAND, Calif. – Golden State Warriors star Kevin Durant is out indefinitely after he sprained the medial collateral ligament in his left knee and bruised a bone in his leg during Tuesday night’s loss at Washington.
Now, the NBA’s top team will push toward the playoffs without its leading scorer and rebounder – for the month of March, at least.
The Warriors said Wednesday that their medical staff hasn’t ruled out a Durant return before the end of the regular season, though nobody is predicting at this stage.
The All-Star forward hyperextended his knee early in the Warriors’ 112-108 loss to the Wizards and later underwent an MRI exam, which revealed a Grade 2 – or moderate – sprain in the knee as well as a bruised tibia.
Durant is scheduled to be re-evaluated in four weeks, so if he were fully healthy then, that would leave about two weeks remaining in the regular season.
NFL
NEW YORK – The NFL salary cap for the upcoming season will be $167 million per team, up more than $12 million over last year.
The league and the NFL Players Association compile the cap from specific revenues, and it has risen annually. It was $143.28 million two years ago.
This is the fourth consecutive year the cap has risen at least $10 million.
Player benefits also are included under the 10-year labor agreement reached to end the 2011 lockout. That comes to $37 million per team, bringing the players’ total compensation package to over $200 million per club for the first time.
Since 2011, the cap has increased by $47 million.
NHL
DENVER – Joe Sakic’s team languishes in last place. His players, though, remain first-rate.
That’s the feeling of the Colorado Avalanche general manager and why he didn’t make any major moves at the trade deadline Wednesday except dealing Jarome Iginla to Los Angeles for possibly one last playoff push.
After all the trade rumors, captain Gabriel Landeskog and forward Matt Duchene remain with the Avalanche – for now, anyway. The offseason may bring a different tune.
Sakic and the Avalanche didn’t completely sit on the sidelines as they sent Andreas Martinsen to Montreal for Sven Andrighetto, a 23-year-old forward who scored two goals in 27 games with the Canadiens.
But the team’s biggest move was intended to help someone win elsewhere: Sakic accommodated Iginla by sending the 39-year-old forward to the Kings for what may be his final chance at a Stanley Cup title. In exchange, the Avalanche received a conditional fourth-round pick in 2018.
Skiing
LAHTI, Finland – Iivo Niskanen won the men’s 15-kilometer classical cross-country race Wednesday at the Nordic world championships.
Niskanen won by 17.9 seconds to give host Finland its first individual gold medal at a major championship since 2011.
Niskanen said he had a plan “not (to) start too hard” and save energy for later in the race.
It was Niskanen’s second world championship medal following bronze in the team sprint last week, and denied Norway a 100th cross-country gold medal in world championship history.
Johannes Rydzek of Germany won his third gold medal of this year’s championships, and fifth of his career, with victory in the Nordic combined large hill event.
Associated Press
