🏀 We Are All Witnesses

Happy Monday! This is a Monday you’re actually allowed to smile on because it’s early March and that means college basketball madness is in the air! The regular season is finishing up this week with conference tournaments tipping off in a few days. Speaking of college ball, we have a new all-time leading scorer for both the men and women, and at this point you know her name. The NHL featured a heavyweight matchup, not in terms of teams, but fists. The Warriors helped the Celtics make history and are the Clippers the best team in the West? Let’s dive in and find out!

WTF Stat: Over an active 11-game win streak, the Celtics have a 22.1-point margin of victory, the highest point differential in NBA history over a win streak of 10+ games.

🏀 Iowa G Caitlin Clark dropped 35 points vs. No. 2 Ohio State on Sunday evening to break the DI men’s and women’s all-time career scoring record with 3,685 total points passing the legendary Pete Maravich - ‘Pistol’ Pete’s 3,667-point record stood for more than 54 years and now ‘Ponytail Pete’ owns the throne, a nickname Caitlin coined herself

🏀 Los Angeles Lakers F LeBron James became the first NBA player to ever pass 40,000 career points scoring 26 points in a loss to the Nuggets Saturday - yes, the subject line was meant to highlight Clark, but it’s also an ode to the King’s famous Nike campaign

🏀 New York Knicks G Jalen Brunson limped off the court with a non-contact injury to his left knee in the first minute of a win against the Cavs last night - Brunson averages 27 PPG and made his first All-Star game this season

🏈 ESPN NFL Analyst Chris Mortenson has passed away at the age of 72 - Mort joined the ‘Worldwide Leader in Sports’ in 1991 and will be missed

🥎 Oklahoma Softball lost to Louisiana, a subpar 10-12 team, ending their NCAA D1 record winning streak at 71 games - the Sooners have won three straight National Championships and are the odds favorite to complete the four-peat

🥊 YouTuber Jake Paul improved his boxing record to 9-1 after knocking out 35-year-old Ryan Bourland in the first round - does anybody actually care?

NHL - Top Games

• Toronto Maple Leafs 4, New York Rangers 3 (SO): The hockey world got what they were waiting for Saturday night as longtime NHL goon Ryan Reaves went gloves off against the newcomer in the heavyweight division Matt Rempe in a much-anticipated scrap. Oh, pretty good hockey game too as the Leafs secured the home win in a shootout surviving a late goal from Rangers’ Vincent Trocheck to force OT

• Los Angeles Kings 5, New Jersey Devils 1: Jersey opened up with a goal 15 seconds into the game Sunday but went downhill from there as Phillip Danault buried an empty netter to cap off a hat trick - bad weekend in Cali for the Devils as superstar Jack Hughes fumbled a penalty shot with 2 seconds left in regulation losing to the Ducks Friday night

See the full NHL scoreboard here and the current standings here.

College Basketball - Top Games

• NCAAM | #3 UConn 91, Seton Hall 61: The Huskies flipped the script on the Pirates, who actually beat UConn by 15 in December, and won their first Big East regular season title in 18 years - hard to imagine given they are defending NCAA Champs…

• NCAAM | #1 Houston 87, Oklahoma 85: The top team in the AP Poll survived a Sooners scare as the Cougars top player Jamal Shead came to the rescue hitting a jumper with 0.4 seconds to take the lead

• NCAAM | #12 Creighton 89, #5 Marquette 75: Another top 5 upset at home for Creighton with Big East Player of the Year hopeful Baylor Scheierman scoring 26 points to lead the way - make note of the Bluejays for your March Madness brackets

• NCAAW | #9 LSU 77, Kentucky 56: The Tigers have repeat on their minds and Angel Reese (22 PTS, 14 REB) is a force to be reckoned with in the paint

• NCAAW | #1 South Carolina 76, Tennessee 68: It’s a second straight perfect regular season for the Gamecocks finishing 29-0 and have now won 47 straight regular season SEC games

See the full NCAAM scoreboard here and the current rankings here. See the full NCAAW scoreboard here and the current rankings here.

NBA - Top Games

• Boston Celtics 140, Golden State Warriors 88: On Jayson Tatum’s 26th birthday he scored 27 and with help from his All-Star teammate Jaylen Brown (29 PTS) the Celtics grabbed their third largest win in franchise history, and they set a league record with their third win this season by 50+ points (most in NBA history) - starters from both sides came out in the 3rd quarter with Steph Curry scoring a season-low 4 points

• Los Angeles Clippers 89, Minnesota Timberwolves 88: Two of the West’s top teams found themselves in a defensive battle yesterday with Kawhi Leonard (32 PTS, 5 REB) helping the Clips edge out the T-Wolves despite James Harden shooting 0-10 from the field with only 4 total points - there is now a three-way tie for the No. 1 seed in the West between Denver, OKC and Minnesota with the Clips in the No. 4 spot two games behind

See the full NBA scoreboard here and the current standings here.

On March 4, 1927, the New York Yankees made Babe Ruth the highest-paid player in MLB history signing a whopping 3-year, $70,000 per year contract. That is worth a total of $1,240,758 per year in today’s valuation. The new highest-paid player in MLB history Shohei Ohtani is making $700,000,000 over 10 years, crazy how times have changed!

NBA

• Los Angeles Clippers @ Milwaukee Bucks 8:00pm ET, NBA TV

• Oklahoma City Thunder @ Los Angeles Lakers 10:00pm ET, NBA TV

• Full Schedule

NHL

• Boston Bruins @ Toronto Maple Leafs 7:00pm ET, NHLPP / ESPN+

• Chicago Blackhawks @ Colorado Avalanche 9:00pm ET, NHLPP / ESPN+

• Full Schedule

Men’s College Basketball

• #10 Duke @ NC State 7:00pm ET, ESPN

• Texas @ #15 Baylor 9:00pm ET, ESPN

• Full Schedule

Trivia Time Answer

D. Tyrese Haliburton. The budding Indy superstar averages 11.3 helpers per game edging out Trae Young (10.8), the only other player over 10 assists per game.

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