Dallas Mavericks, Detroit Pistons set to play regular-season game in Mexico City on Nov. 1
The voice of the Dallas Mavericks on draft lottery and expected #1 pick Cooper Flagg
The voice of the Dallas Mavericks on draft lottery and expected #1 pick Cooper Flagg
The voice of the Dallas Mavericks on draft lottery and expected #1 pick Cooper Flagg
The NBA is going back to Mexico City next season, with the Dallas Mavericks and Detroit Pistons set to play a regular-season game there on Nov. 1.
It will be the NBA's 34th game in Mexico since 1992.
"We take significant pride in the fact that the Mavericks organization and our supporters reflect the increased globalization of basketball and the NBA," Mavericks CEO Rick Welts said. "The vibrancy of Mexico City and the passion of its fans make it the perfect place to host these Global Games."
The full NBA schedule for next season isn't likely to be released until late summer. The league typically announces some international games ahead of that.
"Playing a regular-season game in Mexico City will be a great experience for our players and coaches," Pistons president of basketball operations Trajan Langdon said. "And we look forward to showcasing Detroit basketball to an international audience and a passionate, growing NBA fanbase."
The Mavericks currently have the No. 1 pick in this month's draft and are expected to select Duke's Cooper Flagg. This season, the Pistons made a huge improvement and reached the Eastern Conference playoffs.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Associated Press
10 minutes ago
- Associated Press
Mexico wins CONCACAF Gold Cup group after 0-0 draw against Costa Rica
LAS VEGAS (AP) — Mexico tied Costa Rica 0-0 on Sunday night to win Group A of the CONCACAF Gold Cup and will play Saudi Arabia in the quarterfinals. Mexico's Santiago Giménez appeared to score on a bicycle kick in the fourth minute of second-half stoppage time but the goal was disallowed by Guatemalan referee Mario Escobar following a video review. Giménez appeared to be offside when Carlos Rodríguez lofted the ball into the penalty area following a free kick. Orlando Galo's headed clearance attempt went in front of the goal to Giménez. Mexico, unbeaten in 10 Gold Cup matches against Costa Rica, finished even with the Ticos at seven points but won the group on goal difference. El Tri, which defeated the Dominican Republic and Suriname in their first two matches, will play Saudi Arabia next weekend while the Costa Ricans will face the United States. Costa Rica will be missing four regular starters. Forward Manfred Ugalde, who has three goals in the tournament, and midfielder Carlos Mora are suspended for yellow-card accumulation. Defender Ariel Lassiter has a fractured left hand and forward Warren Madrigal a broken left leg. ___ AP soccer:
USA Today
16 minutes ago
- USA Today
Oklahoma City Thunder are NBA champions. They might just be getting started.
An earthquake that rattled Las Vegas on July 5, 2019 suspended play for the night at NBA Summer League. Hours later, another seismic event altered the direction of the NBA in ways that were not immediately recognized. The Oklahoma City Thunder traded Paul George to the Los Angeles Clippers for Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, and the focus of the deal was George joining Kawhi Leonard on the Clippers. Gilgeous-Alexander had just finished an encouraging rookie season and, as part of the deal, the Thunder acquired multiple first-round picks, including the Clippers' 2022 first-round pick that turned into Thunder All-Star Jalen Williams. Six years after the Thunder acquired Gilgeous-Alexander and three years after they selected Williams with the No. 12 overall pick in the 2022 draft, the Thunder are NBA champions with Gilgeous-Alexander and Williams excelling throughout the regular season, playoffs and NBA Finals. The Thunder defeated the Indiana Pacers 103-91 in Game 7 on Sunday, June 22, putting their historical mark on a season that included 68 regular-season victories, 16 playoff victories and the Thunder's first NBA title since moving to Oklahoma City from Seattle in 2008. Gilgeous-Alexander was named Finals MVP going for 29 points, 12 assists and five rebounds in Game 7 and averaging 30.3 points, 5.6 assists, 4.6 rebounds and 1.9 steals in the Finals. Gilgeous-Alexander is the first player since LeBron James in 2013 to win a title, regular-season MVP and Finals MVP in the same season. Williams, who in each Finals game gained more confidence in his ability to score from where he wanted, averaged 23.6 points against the Pacers and scored 40 in Game 5 and 20 in Game 7. The team was meticulously assembled by Thunder executive vice president and general manager Sam Presti. The Thunder feature two All-Stars, talented young players, savvy veterans – they're a team that has offensive and defensive versatility. Presti brought in a then-early-30s-something and open-minded assistant head coach named Mark Daigneault from the Florida Gators men's basketball team to coach Oklahoma City's G League team in 2014. He became the Thunder's head coach in 2020. Oklahoma City is the second-youngest team to win a championship in the past 70 seasons, with an average age of 25.6 years old. The Thunder were No. 1 defensively and No. 3 defensively during the regular season and that carried over to the playoffs. This is the vision Presti had when he started a rebuild. Already one of the game's premier executives – he was named 2024-25 NBA Executive of the Year – Presti wanted a team that can compete for a championship season after season. The Thunder have been building toward this moment for years. In Daigneault's first season in 2020-21, the Thunder went 22-50, then 24-58, 40-42, 57-25, and 68-14 this season. "There were very early flickers," Daigneault said. "Even in those early years, those were challenging years at different times. Certainly they looked like challenging years on paper. How it felt every day was not a reflection of our record or where our standing was in the league. You could feel that something was starting to simmer. You could feel that some of the seeds we were planting were going to be flowering at some point. There were very early indications of that even in those seasons. "We were confident, even back then, not necessarily that we'd be in the Finals right now. You never know the timing of when things come together. But we were confident that we were building something special and something that had the ability to sustain." It came together this season. For a group that had not advanced beyond the second round, the Thunder earned their title. They trailed the Denver Nuggets 1-0 in the Western Conference semifinals and needed to win Game 7 to reach the conference finals, where they handled the Minnesota Timberwolves in five games. Oklahoma City dropped Game 1 to the Pacers and Game 3. It trailed 2-1 in the series and won the next two games. It fell in Game 6 but won another winner-take-all contest at home. "We've gone through a lot of new experiences together. Haven't pretended that we're more experienced than we are," Daigneault said. "We've tried to lean on the things that we know have made us successful and put us in this position." It helps to lean on Gilgeous-Alexander and Williams, two of the league's best young players. Gilgeous-Alexander's 72 points through the first two games against the Pacers were the most ever by a player in his first two career Finals games. In Game 4, Gilgeous-Alexander scored 15 of his 35 points in the final five minutes of the fourth quarter – the most points in the final five minutes of regulation of an NBA Finals game since 1971. In Game 5, he became the first player to have at least 30 points, 10 assists and four blocks in a Finals game since blocks became an official stat in 1973-74. "It comes down to the moments and who is willing to make winning plays on both ends of the floor," the 26-year-old Gilgeous-Alexander said. "I relish those moments, love the moments, good or bad. When I was a kid shooting at my driveway, I'd count down the clock for those moments. Now I get to live it. It's a blessing, it's fun, and I relish it." Williams, 24, was an All-Star and All-NBA selection for the first time in his three-year career. He improved and became more difficult to defend as the series progressed. He had 40 points, six rebounds and four assists in Game 5 – the fifth-youngest player to score 40 or more in a Finals game behind Magic Johnson, Rick Barry, Russell Westbrook and Jerry West. "My biggest thing is just stepping into the moment, success or fail, just kind of living with the results," Williams said. "I put a lot of work into my game, so I just go out there and play. I just don't want to ever play a game and look back where I wasn't aggressive, afraid to do a move." The Thunder are not a two-man show and that was by design. Chet Holmgren, Lu Dort, Isaiah Hartenstein, Alex Caruso, Cason Wallace, Aaron Wiggins, Kenrich Williams and Isaiah Joe provided the Thunder with what Daigneault called "optionality." In Game 2, Gilgeous-Alexander, Caruso, Williams, Wiggins and Holmgren became the first set of five teammates since the 2019 Raptors to score at least 15 points each in a Finals game. Caruso, in Game 4, was the first player to record at least 20 points and five steals in a Finals game since steals became an official stat in 1973-74. Time and time again, the Thunder had a player deliver when necessary. Wiggins' five 3-pointers in Game 2, Holmgren's 14 points and 15 rebounds in Game 4, Wallace's three 3s in Game 5 and Dort's relentless defense for the entire series. Holmgren added 18 points, eight rebounds and five blocks in the series finale. "If you followed our team throughout the season, I think you know that flexibility and adaptability is the only constant," Daigneault said. "We're never staying the same. … Our rotation night to night in these series has been incredibly variant. We think that's a strength of our team." And the Thunder should be championship contenders for the next several seasons. Yes, the league changes quickly, and there hasn't been a repeat champion since Golden State in 2017-18. That's seven different champions in seven seasons in this new era of competitive balance in the NBA. But the Thunder can have the same roster back next season, and with savvy financial planning, they can keep Gilgeous-Alexander, Williams, Holmgren, Caruso, Wiggins and Wallace through at least 2027-28 and possibly for a few seasons after that. Plus, they have a stockpile of first-round draft picks available for roster improvements. It is difficult to build a dynasty in today's NBA. The roster restrictions and financial penalties limit what teams can do. Surveying the NBA landscape, the Thunder are in position to make it happen.
Indianapolis Star
17 minutes ago
- Indianapolis Star
ESPN writer on Tyrese Haliburton injury: 'I just feel sick about it... I've never felt that way about watching a game before'
ESPN's Brian Windhorst said he felt "sick" watching Tyrese Haliburton on the floor in pain in the first quarter of Game 7 of the NBA Finals and will wonder what if the Pacers star point guard hadn't got hurt. Would Indianapolis be celebrating the Pacers' first NBA championship without the injury? We'll never know, but the longtime NBA writer said, "I don't know in 23 years if I've ever felt more personally affected by seeing something on the floor..." Haliburton had hit three 3-pointers midway through the first quarter and looked like he was ready to put the Pacers on his back at Paycom Arena. But Haliburton, who was nursing a strained calf from Game 5, suffered what his dad confirmed was an Achilles injury that will likely require a lengthy absence. 'I feel sick," Windhorst told Scott Van Pelt on 'SportsCenter.' "And I'm not recovered from seeing the slow motion of his calf, and even, they won the game in the third quarter with a classic Thunder run, with turnovers and the flurry and everything. But as the fourth quarter is happening and I'm watching the Thunder go through this dry spell... the Pacers get it down to 10, I'm thinking if they had Haliburton that this is going to go down to it. "I just feel sick about it... I hate it when anybody puts an asterisk on it because this is a celebration of not only tonight but the entire season, the full build and I really want to put a hard period, then a paragraph. But I don't know in 23 years if I've ever felt more personally affected by seeing something on the floor... 'The (Kevin) Durant injury was terrible. He was a two-time champion. He had gone to the mountain top. Paul George, I was in Vegas that night, I felt horrible about that. He was able to recover. I was in the building this year when (Jayson) Tatum got hurt. I was in the building for all of those. I felt different about this one. This was visceral. In all honesty, the air came out of the building. The Thunder's intensity level dropped.' Van Pelt added: 'Unless you're a fan in order, the Bucks, the Cavs or the Knicks, then the guy took fans on a joy ride with what he did and I understand if you're fans in Milwaukee, Cleveland or New York, you say, 'Maybe not so much us,' but to love the game, I don't know how you couldn't love the man who did it…' 'Scott, they were ahead at the half," Windhorst responded. "I feel like, first off, I just feel terrible for Tyrese and his family because he knew in that exact moment, you saw, he said, 'No, no, no' because he knew exactly what happened. He looks behind him for the person that kicked him like we see everybody that this happens to, and he knows what happens and he can't believe this risk. "He was tasting his moment. He's hit three 3-pointers, they've got the lead. He's having the moment of his life, and it comes with the worst moment of his life because the risk that he's taken. And so it's absolutely gutting, and I can't get past it right now. I'm not over it as somebody who watches the game. I have no skin in the game, and I can't get over it right now. The whole rest of the first half, my stomach is in knots. I've never felt that way about watching a game before, so I have a very mixed feeling about this, and I don't want to take anything away from the Thunder. They just need to be celebrated, they deserve to be celebrated.' "You feel cheated once you got to this stage of the competition that it wasn't all our good vs. all of your good," Van Pelt said. Windhorst added he's not sure, even if Haliburton hadn't been injured, if the Pacers make it back to the NBA Finals, and that made the injury even more devastating in his eyes. This was their moment, and they had it taken away.
