MLB

Gerrit Cole was a unanimous winner of his first American League Cy Young Award, and Blake Snell took the National League honor in becoming the seventh hurler to earn baseball’s top pitching prize in both leagues. Runner-up twice before, Cole easily finished on top this time with the ace right-hander receiving all 30 first-place votes in balloting by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America. Cole allowed no more than two runs in 26 of his 33 starts — best in the majors. He went 15-4 with 222 strikeouts while leading the AL in ERA (2.63) and innings (209). He became the sixth Yankees winner and first since Roger Clemens in 2001. He finished with a flourish, too, throwing a two-hit shutout at Toronto in his final outing. Snell was the National League winner after leading the majors with a 2.25 ERA for the San Diego Padres. The free-agent lefty was picked first on 28 of 30 ballots.

Major League Baseball owners are set to vote on the proposed relocation of the Oakland Athletics to Las Vegas at the end of their league-wide meeting Thursday. Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred is presenting his recommendation to the 30 owners during the three-day meeting. It comes about six months after the A’s reached a tentative agreement for a new stadium in Las Vegas after being unable to reach a deal for one in Oakland. Any recommendation for a move would require a vote from at least 23 owners for approval. MLB hasn’t had a team relocate since the Montreal Expos became the Washington Nationals in 2005.

NATIONAL BASKETBALL ASSOCIATION

Jalen Brunson scored 24 points, including a pull-up jumper with 18.8 seconds remaining, and the New York Knicks held on for a 116-114 victory over the Atlanta Hawks. Julius Randle led the Knicks with 29 points, while the Hawks didn’t get much out of their guard duo of Trae Young and Dejounte Murray. Young had 15 points and Murray was held to 13. Young had a chance to tie it for the Hawks, but he missed the second of two free throws. Brunson came the other way and calmly knocked down the shot that gave New York some breathing room. Bogdan Bogdanovic led the Hawks with 28 points.

Derrick White scored 14 of his 27 points in the fourth quarter to lead the Boston Celtics to a 117-107 win over the Philadelphia 76ers on Wednesday night in a matchup of the early pacesetters in the Eastern Conference. Jayson Tatum scored a game-high 29 points and Jrue Holiday added 18 points, 10 rebounds and three assists for the Celtics (9-2), who were missing Jaylen Brown (non-COVID illness) and Kristaps Porzingis (right knee contusion). Philadelphia (8-3), playing its second game in a back-to-back and third game in four nights, got 20 points apiece from Joel Embiid and Tyrese Maxey. That total was well below the season scoring average for both.

Luka Doncic scored 26 points and had 10 assists as the Dallas Mavericks eased to a 130-117 victory over the Washington Wizards. Tim Hardaway Jr. scored 31 points and sank seven 3-pointers for the Mavericks on a night point guard Kyrie Irving sat out with a sprained left foot. Derrick Jones Jr. had 20 points and Dereck Lively II had 17 on 7-of-8 shooting. Kyle Kuzma scored 22 points to lead the Wizards, who lost their fourth straight two nights after giving back a double-digit lead in a loss at Toronto.

Damian Lillard had 37 points and a season-high 13 assists, Malik Beasley scored a season-high 30 points and the Milwaukee Bucks overcame Giannis Antetokounmpo’s absence to beat the Toronto Raptors 128-112. He missed his first game of the season after playing the first 10, sitting out because of a strained right calf. Bobby Portis scored 18 points for Milwaukee and Cameron Payne had 13. The Bucks finished 20 for 39 from long range, matching a season-high for made 3-pointers. Beasley shot 8 for 11 from deep while Lillard made 4 of 10. Scottie Barnes scored 29 points for the Raptors. Jakob Poeltl had 13 points and 11 rebounds.

Paolo Banchero nailed a turnaround jumper with one second remaining, and the Orlando Magic beat the Chicago Bulls 96-94. The Magic led by as much as 19 in the third quarter, only to have Chicago tie it in the closing seconds of the game on a 3-pointer by Zach LaVine. Banchero then got the ball down low following a timeout and buried a fadeaway shot to give Orlando a wild win. Banchero led Orlando with 17 points and Goga Bitadze had 15 points and 11 rebounds. LaVine scored 19 for the Bulls, who were without fellow star DeMar DeRozan, who missed the game for personal reasons.

Devin Booker scored 31 points in his return from a calf injury, Kevin Durant also scored 31 and the Phoenix Suns cruised past the Minnesota Timberwolves 133-115 on Wednesday night. The Timberwolves had their seven-game winning streak snapped. Booker returned after missing five games with a strained right calf. Booker shot 12 of 22 from the field, adding five assists and four rebounds. Durant made 11 of 15 shots. Karl Anthony-Towns led the Timberwolves with 25 points on his 28th birthday. Mike Conley had 14 points while Anthony Edwards, Naz Reid and Jaden McDaniels both scored 13.

Donovan Mitchell had 34 points and the Cleveland Cavaliers handed the Portland Trail Blazers their fifth straight loss with a 109-95 victory on Wednesday night. Evan Mobley added 21 points and 12 rebounds, and the Cavaliers finished 2-2 on their western road trip. Jerami Grant led shorthanded Portland with 17 points and Duop Reath, a center on a two-way contract, came of the bench to score 16 points.

The Sacramento Kings overcame LeBron James’ 108th career triple-double and the Lakers’ fourth-quarter comeback for their fourth straight victory, 125-110. Domantas Sabonis had 29 points and 16 rebounds, and De’Aaron Fox and Kevin Huerter scored 28 points apiece. James had 28 points, 11 assists and 10 rebounds in his first triple-double of his 21st NBA season, breaking his tie with Jason Kidd for the fifth-most in NBA history. D’Angelo Russell had 28 points for the Lakers, who lost at home for the first time in six games this season.

Philadelphia police said Wednesday they have yet to find any videotape evidence of an alleged hit-and-run accident involving 76ers guard Kelly Oubre, and coach Nick Nurse is standing by his player. In an email to The Associated Press, Officer Miguel Torres said there was no update and an investigation is ongoing into the report that the 27-year-old Oubre was struck by a car while crossing a street on Saturday night in downtown Philadelphia, leaving the player with a broken rib, cuts and lacerations. Asked about the report and the validity of Oubre’s story before Wednesday night’s game against the Boston Celtics, Nurse said that Oubre was at the team’s practice facility in Camden, New Jersey, both Tuesday and Wednesday and he backed his player.

The NBA has suspended Golden State’s Draymond Green for five games for grabbing Minnesota’s Rudy Gobert around the neck “in an unsportsmanlike and dangerous manner.” Also penalized by the league for their roles in the incident, which happened early in Tuesday’s game between the Timberwolves and Warriors, were Gobert, his Minnesota teammate Jaden McDaniels and Golden State guard Klay Thompson — all fined $25,000 by the league. McDaniels and Thompson were both ejected from the game, as was Green. But Green will pay the biggest price, both in terms of games missed and money lost. The suspension will cause him to forfeit $769,704 in salary.

Golden State’s Draymond Green is probably going to be enshrined in the Basketball Hall of Fame one day, even with career averages of around 9 points, 7 rebounds and 6 assists per game. He’ll have, at minimum, four NBA championships and two Olympic gold medals when he’s all done. He’ll also have baggage. Maybe too much baggage. The latest addition to that pile came Wednesday when the NBA handed Green a five-game suspension, one that’ll cost him almost $770,000 in missed salary and won’t help a Warriors team that is already without an injured Stephen Curry and not off to the hottest of starts with six wins in 12 games

NHL

Quinn Hughes scored at 2:36 of overtime as the Vancouver Canucks overcame a two-goal deficit to beat the New York Islanders 4-3. J.T. Miller and Brock Boeser each had a goal and two assists, and Filip Hronek also scored for Vancouver, winners of 10 of 12 (10-1-1). Hughes also had two assists and Thatcher Demko stopped 30 shots. Brock Nelson, Bo Horvat and Pierre Engvall scored for New York, and Mathew Barzal had two assists. Ilya Sorokin finished with 39 saves as the Islanders squandered a two-goal lead and lost their sixth straight (0-4-2).   

Owen Tippett, Travis Konecny and Ryan Poehling scored to lead the Philadelphia Flyers to a 3-1 victory over the Carolina Hurricanes. The Flyers scored early goals in the first and second periods to earn their third straight road win and hand the Hurricanes their first loss in five home games this season. Stefan Noesen scored for Carolina. Philadelphia goalie Carter Hart made his first start since Nov. 1 and stopped 31 shots for his second road win of the season. Hart missed the previous two games after a bout with food poisoning and the three games before that with a mid-body injury.

Evander Kane scored the tying goals in the third period and then completed his seventh career hat trick 2:57 into overtime, rallying the Edmonton Oilers to a 4-3 win over the Seattle Kraken. Connor McDavid also scored, Evan Bouchard had three assists and Leon Draisaitl had two as the Oilers came back from two goals down to win their third straight. Stuart Skinner had 33 saves. Jared McCann, Alex Wennberg and Pierre-Edouard Bellemare all scored in the second period to give Seattle a 3-1 lead. Joey Daccord finished with 28 saves as the Kraken lost for the fifth time in six games (1-3-2).

Joel Kiviranta and Andrew Cogliano scored 21 seconds apart in a five-goal third period, and the Colorado Avalanche beat the Anaheim Ducks 8-2.Kiviranta, signed to a two-way contract earlier this week, added two assists. Valeri Nichushkin had two goals, Samuel Girard and Devon Toews had a goal and an assist each and Fredrik Olofsson and Ross Colton also scored for Colorado.Max Jones and Sam Carrick scored and Lukas Dostal stopped 30 shots for Anaheim, which was playing the second game of a back-to-back.

NFL

Giving Deshaun Watson a fully guaranteed $230 million contract has turned into another disaster for the Cleveland Browns. It’s the biggest one yet for a franchise known for its failures. Watson will miss the rest of the season with a shoulder injury that requires surgery, a devastating blow for a 6-3 team with a stingy defense and playoff hopes. The ramifications of the injury extend far beyond this season, too. Watson is owed $46 million each of the next three years with a cap hit of almost $64 million per season.

Aaron Rodgers will have the final call on whether he plays again this season for the New York Jets if and when he gets medical clearance. Coach Robert Saleh said Wednesday the team will defer to the four-time NFL MVP, who’s rehabilitating from a torn left Achilles tendon four snaps into his debut with the Jets on Sept. 11. Rodgers turns 40 on Dec. 2 and has repeatedly said his goal is to return late this season. But Rodgers has also said the Jets would need to be in the playoff hunt at that point for him to come back.

COLLEGE BASKETBALL

Seton Hall 96 UAlbany men 71
Bethune-Coleman 74 Iona women 72

Final (19)Texas 80 Rice 64

AP REPORTER

Terry R. Taylor, who in two trailblazing decades as the first female sports editor of The Associated Press transformed the news agency’s emphasis into multilayered coverage of rigorous reporting, entertaining enterprise and edgy analysis, died Tuesday at her home in Paoli, Pennsylvania, according to her husband, Tony Rentschler. She was 71. She was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2013 that metastasized three years later, and she stopped chemotherapy treatment last December when the side effects became intolerable. Taylor ran the AP sports department from 1992 until 2013, leading AP’s coverage of 14 Olympics.

EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIP

A European Championship qualifying game between Switzerland and Israel ended with a 1-1 draw on Wednesday. It was a match that brought the Israeli team to Hungary after all scheduled games in Tel Aviv were postponed due to the Israel-Hamas war. The match was one of two “home games” Israel is hosting in Felcsut, a Hungarian village of around 1,900 people, as it chases a qualifying place in the Euro 2024 continental championship. If the team qualifies, it will be its first time since joining the European soccer federation in 1994. Israel’s next match against Romania will be held in Felcsut on Saturday.

FORMULA ONE

Formula One has arrived in Las Vegas for a week of parties, concerts, celebrity-packed events and eventually Saturday night’s race. F1’s first trip to Las Vegas in 41 years promises to be nothing like any other race on the 24-event calendar. The casinos, clubs and restaurants have packaged fan experiences catered toward F1 for fans looking for something to do while waiting for the cars to hit the track late each night beginning Thursday. There’s no shortage of F1-centric events and the drivers have been impressed by the opulence of the week.

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