SACRAMENTO, Calif. – De’Aaron Fox finished off a dazzling playoff debut that was years in the making and had one more task to do.

With the home crowd counting down following an exhilarating return to the postseason, Fox pressed the button and lit the ceremonial beam, letting out 17 seasons of frustration for Sacramento.

“Sacramento showed out tonight,” Fox said. “But doing this for the fans, just knowing the way that they support this team through thick and thin – really thin. It’s just a testament to the way they are.”

Fox was the biggest reason why, scoring 38 points to tie for the second highest playoff debut in NBA history to lead the Kings to a 126-123 victory over the defending-champion Golden State Warriors on Saturday night.

Fox scored 29 points in the second half after taking time to adjust to the playoff physicality and hit the 3-pointer that gave Sacramento the lead for good late in the fourth quarter.

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Fox took until his sixth season to reach the postseason stage but announced himself as a star as only Luka Doncic scored more points in a playoff debut with 42 against the Clippers three years ago.

“You need guys like that on your side because they know everything that we’re throwing at them,” coach Mike Brown said. “There’s no secrets. You have to have guys on your team that can go make plays and Foxy went and made plays tonight.”

The first playoff meeting between the Northern California neighbors lived up to the hype and delighted the raucous crowd that had been waiting for a playoff game since 2006.

The inexperienced Kings closed the game strong against a Warriors team that won four titles in the previous eight seasons.

After Stephen Curry hit a corner 3-pointer to give Golden State a 114-112 lead with about four minutes left, the Kings responded with seven in a row starting with a 3-pointer from Fox.

The Warriors didn’t go away and cut the deficit to one on a layup by Curry in the final minute. But Andrew Wiggins missed a corner 3 for the lead in the closing seconds of his first game in more than two months.

“That last one felt amazing,” Wiggins said of the last shot. “Only up from here. … I’m here to compete and I believe in myself.”

Malik Monk made two free throws to make it 126-123 with 2.9 seconds left. Curry missed a runner from 3 at the buzzer, giving the Kings their first playoff win since April 30, 2006, against San Antonio.

“That first game is kind of a feeling out process,” Curry said. “We responded. That’s what we are capable of doing. It was a high energy game from start to finish.”

Monk finished with 32 points off the bench and Domantas Sabonis had 12 points and 16 rebounds.

Curry led the Warriors with 30 points, Klay Thompson added 21 and Wiggins and Poole scored 18 apiece.

It was a festive environment in success-starved Sacramento where fans gathered outside the arena hours before the start of the Kings’ first playoff game following an NBA record 16-year drought.

The arena was deafening starting in pregame warmups with some fans even bringing back the cow bells that were so common during their playoff runs two decades ago.

“It was incredible all night,” forward Harrison Barnes said. “When guys ran out for layup lines with how loud it got in there and I think everyone got chills.”

The excitement appeared to take a toll on the inexperienced Kings, who struggled shooting the ball early. Sacramento shot just 39.2% in the first half and trailed Golden State 61-55 at the half.

The Warriors built the lead to 10 points in the third quarter before Sacramento ended the quarter on a 15-4 run fueled by 10 points from Trey Lyles to take a 91-90 lead into the fourth. 

LONG BEACH, Calif. – Kyle Kirkwood didn’t stay up front all day after his first IndyCar start from pole, but the Andretti Autosport driver finished there.

The second-year driver capped a stellar weekend for Michael Andretti’s program that included a 1-2-4 finish after he jumped Team Penske and Josef Newgarden on the final pit stop sequence of the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach.

Here’s how Kirkwood did it, becoming IndyCar’s initial first-time winner of the 2023 campaign.

Josef Newgarden creeps up with strong start, fast stop

Helio Castroneves brought out the 85-lap race’s first caution, spinning on cold tires coming into Turn 1, but in the few seconds the race was green, Newgarden jumped four cars, going from eighth to fourth. Having started on primary tires at a track that ate up the green alternates all weekend, Newgarden survived subsequent attacks from those around him and bided his time until Lap 19, when he snagged third place from Grosjean.

The next lap, Pato O’Ward dove inside on Scott Dixon, and the pair slammed tires, with Dixon ending up in the Turn 8 tire barrier. A couple of laps after the caution, the pits opened, and all but one car made its first of two planned stops. There, Newgarden leap-frogged Marcus Ericsson for second place and saved almost-certain contact with Kirkwood after fish-tailing out of his pit box.

Newgarden takes the lead on a chaotic restart

On the Lap 26 restart, Juncos Hollinger Racing rookie Agustin Canapino led the field to green, having opted not to pit. His JHR teammate Callum Ilott pulled off of pitlane and blended just in front of his teammate, forcing a stack-up of cars behind him. Castroneves got into Canapino while trying to get around. In that chaos, Canapino got into Kirkwood, giving Newgarden a window to get around them both and surge into the lead ‒ where he’d stay for 27 laps.

At that point, Kirkwood had fallen 1.5 seconds back of Team Penske’s two-time champ and last year’s Long Beach winner, but the young Andretti driver would proceed to slowly close that gap across the next stint, eventually coming within just two-tenths of the leader ahead of the final series of pit stops.

Kyle Kirkwood’s final pit stop

Newgarden kicked off the final series of leader stops on Lap 52. The following lap, Grosjean dipped in from third, and the Swiss-born Frenchman jumped Newgarden on the blend. Kirkwood pitted the following lap (Lap 54), along with Marcus Ericsson, and the Andretti driver’s No. 27 crew got him out of the pits ahead of both Grosjean and Newgarden to retake the lead.

With everyone in the lead pack on primary tires, no one held a significant advantage. Newgarden’s early pit stop forced him to conserve fuel more than the rest. He eventually finished sixth.

After a pair of ‘what could’ve been’ finishes to start the year, Grosjean finished runner-up at Long Beach, with Ericsson taking over the points lead in third place to go with his season-opening win at St. Petersburg. Colton Herta, who won at Long Beach in 2021, finished fourth, and Alex Palou fifth.

One of college football’s top quarterback competitions is seemingly already over. 

Texas coach Steve Sarkisian made it clear Saturday that sophomore Quinn Ewers, not freshman Arch Manning, is the Longhorns’ starting quarterback. 

‘I think it’s pretty clear to say Quinn’s our starting quarterback and we feel very good about that,’ Sarkisian said after Texas’ spring game. 

Sarkisian did not reveal if Manning, the nephew of Peyton and Eli Manning and the top recruit in the Class of 2023, is QB2, or if he is behind redshirt freshman Maalik Murphy. 

‘I don’t have to establish a pecking order right now. That’s the beauty of it. I have another 29 practices to go in fall camp,’ Sarkisian said. 

Ewers, who started 10 games for the Longhorns last season after transferring from Ohio State, completed 16 of his 23 passes for 195 yards and a touchdown in Saturday’s spring game. ‘I thought Quinn was really efficient today,’ Sarkisian said. 

Murphy went 9-for-13 for 165 yards while Manning completed just five of his 13 pass attempts.  

‘I think to be fair to these guys, Maalik, that was his first spring that he ever had. He didn’t get spring a year ago,’ Sarkisian said. ‘Arch, those were his first 15 practices of his life in college. So, sometimes, we can rush to judgment on where guys are at.’ 

Even with Ewers, who was the top overall recruit in the 2021 class, established at the top, Sarkisian is ‘fired up’ about Texas’ QB room. 

‘I don’t ever want to take the stinger of these other guys that they’re not competing for something, that they’re not striving for something, because they’re all talented players,’ Sarkisian said. ‘They’re great teammates with one another. I think they all appreciate how hard each of them work. I think we’re in a very fortunate position to have three quality guys in that room that work the way that they do.’ 

‘I thought Quinn was really efficient today. 

The Boston Bruins finished the regular season with a historic 65 wins and 135 points, making them the odds-on favorite to win the Stanley Cup. But their path won’t be easy: 15 other teams are starting anew this postseason, and that might be the biggest reason for optimism for the rest of the league. The regular season does not matter anymore. Records mean nothing during the unpredictable, chaotic playoff season.

Thus, it would be easy to rank the playoff teams by standings finish and award those odds to their Stanley Cup chances. But the playoffs are not fair and the conference brackets present different challenges.

Here are USA TODAY Sports’ power rankings of each playoff team based on their Stanley Cup chances:

1 – Boston Bruins

Sixty-five wins. 17 losses (five in overtime). League-leading goal differential of +128. The league stood no chance against the Bruins this year. How could they not be No. 1?

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2 – Colorado Avalanche

The defending Stanley Cup champions won 16 of 19 games after March 9. They have two 100-plus-point producers (Nathan MacKinnon and Mikko Rantanen) and one of the best defensemen in the game (Cale Makar). And they’ve been here before.

3 – Edmonton Oilers

Connor McDavid (64 goals, 153 points), somehow, continues to be better than the year before and has consistently carried Edmonton since he entered the league. This year, though, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins gave the Oilers three 100-point players, and their depth has improved, helping them rank fifth in expected goals, according to Money Puck.

4 – Dallas Stars

Dallas led the Western Conference with a plus-67 goal differential, and being in the same division as the Avalanche is the only major cause for concern. Other than that, their mix of veterans and youth, strong defense and physicality and high-end players all over the ice, including in net with Jake Oettinger, should bode well. Jamie Benn has returned to being a force, too.

5 – Toronto Maple Leafs

On talent alone, the Maple Leafs should rank higher. But they will have to go through Boston, and that dings them a touch. Their recent playoff history has not been good – to put it kindly – but eventually the names on the back of the jersey have to mean something, right?

6 – New York Rangers

New York finished fifth in the conference, but it’s hard to not consider it a contender after the additions of Vladimir Tarasenko and Patrick Kane to a lineup that already had Artemi Panarin, Mika Zibanejad and Adam Fox. Thanks to the growth of younger players and trades, their depth is better than the version that reached last year’s Eastern Conference final. Goalie Igor Shesterkin gives them the ability to steal a series, too.

7 – Vegas Golden Knights

Health has not been on the Golden Knights’ side this year and here they are with the most points (111) in the Western Conference. Why aren’t they higher on this list? The top-end talent seems a bit light, and they are relying on Jonathan Quick and Laurent Brossoit in net. 

8 – Tampa Bay Lightning

The Lightning are not as formidable as the group that won the Stanley Cup in 2020 and 2021 and then reached the final last year … but the core of Nikita Kucherov, Brayden Point, Steven Stamkos, Victor Hedman and Andrei Vasilevskiy is still here. And, again, they have reached the final for three consecutive seasons. While it’s impossible to count them out, the conference is a juggernaut and makes their path more difficult.

9 – Carolina Hurricanes

The underlying analytics are always strong, though one wonders whether the Hurricanes’ style can win it all. They have advanced to the playoffs for five consecutive seasons, with ousters in the second round of the last two.

10 – New Jersey Devils

The long rebuild is clearly over: The Devils are coming, and if they aren’t the class of the East now, it could realistically happen next year. Jack Hughes and Timo Meier lead one of the most explosive offenses, especially in transition. The defense has also improved greatly. The big question is whether such a young team’s time is now, and if their goaltending can hold up.

11 – Los Angeles Kings

Anze Kopitar, 35, led the Kings with 74 points, and Adrian Kempe paced with 41 goals. The scoring depth and balance are underrated; they finished with the same number of goals per game as the Rangers. The underlying metrics are strong, too, with a clear strength in limiting chances. Goalie Joonas Korpisalo will be the X-factor, especially against the high-octane Oilers in the first round.

12 – Minnesota Wild

It looked last year that the Wild were in trouble because of some bad contracts, so mark their 103-point season as a surprise. This is the weakest offense in the playoffs: Kirill Kaprizov (75 points, 40 goals in 67 games) was their only point-per-game player this season. Minnesota will win by playing tight games.

13 – Winnipeg Jets

The Jets have the elite talent to match up with the teams in the West, but their Stanley Cup hopes ride on goalie Connor Hellebuyck, who is capable of willing them through series. 

14 – Seattle Kraken

Two years into existence, the Kraken are playoff-bound and will not be an easy out. Thirteen players have notched double-digit goals, including 20-year-old rookie Matty Beniers, who had 24 goals and 57 points. Goaltending is a major deficiency with a team-wide .890 save percentage, third-worst in the league. 

15 – New York Islanders

For a team that in recent years has thrived through concept over star-level individuals, forward Mathew Barzal’s potential return could go a long way to deciding their fate. Goalie Ilya Sorokin will keep them in games.

16 – Florida Panthers

A matchup against the Bruins in the first round with Alex Lyon in net? Better luck next year.  

Max Scherzer will no longer make his originally scheduled Sunday start against the Oakland Athletics as he deals with lingering soreness near his back, New York Mets manager Buck Showalter told reporters on Saturday.

Instead, Scherzer will take the ball on Wednesday against the Los Angeles Dodgers. Jose Butto, who was called up from Triple-A Syracuse on Saturday afternoon, will start in Scherzer’s place.

‘He had a little lingering soreness from his last start,’ Showalter said. ‘We were going to insert a starter anyway, so we thought we’d get that out of the way altogether.’

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Scherzer told reporters that the soreness is similar to an injury that he faced in 2019 and ‘if you give it a little rest, get out of it, it goes away.’ Showalter said the injury is unrelated to the oblique strain that kept Scherzer out roughly a month and a half and resurfaced late into 2022 season.

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In two starts for Triple-A Syracuse this season, Butto is 1-1 with a 1.86 ERA and eight strikeouts in 9⅔ innings. He was the International Pitcher of the Week between July 3 and 9.

The Mets have won the opening two games of the series against the Athletics, getting solo home runs from Pete Alonso and Mark Canha and a go-ahead RBI double from Brandon Nimmo in a 3-2 win on Saturday.

YOKOSUKA, Japan — Shunned by Major League Baseball clubs, Trevor Bauer is trying to find his way in Japan, where fans are drawn by his celebrity status and seem unconcerned by domestic violence allegations against him.

The 2020 Cy Young Award winner pitched his first competitive game in almost two years Sunday and said he is almost ready to debut in Japanese baseball.

Pitching for the Yokohama BayStars’ minor league team in nearby Yokosuka, Japan — the home of the United States Seventh Fleet — Bauer allowed four hits and no runs and struck out six in four innings before 2,600 fans.

The minor league park usually draws a few hundred spectators. The team said streaming views reached 77,000 — 15 times the usual 5,000.

‘I thought the day went really well,’ Bauer said. ‘The stuff was good, the command was good, the health was good. I feel like I’m ready to compete now, but I have to build my pitch count.’

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Bauer, 32, said he was not sure when he would be ready to start for Yokohama. He seems likely to get another minor league start before moving up.

Despite not pitching in a competitive game since 2021, he said it all felt familiar.

‘I’ve stayed ready,’ Bauer said. ‘I didn’t feel like I’d been away at all. The game came to me well. It didn’t speed up on me. I commanded the ball. There really wasn’t any adjustment. Just competitive baseball instead of throwing to hitters in a cage.’

Bauer is in Japan on a one-year deal that could let him prove himself and return to MLB, where he was unable to find work this season after an arbitrator reduced his unprecedented 324-game suspension for violating the league’s domestic violence and sexual assault policy.

MLB commissioner Rob Manfred suspended Bauer in April 2022 after a San Diego woman said he beat and sexually abused her in 2021.

Bauer has maintained he did nothing wrong, saying everything that happened between him and the woman was consensual. He was never charged with a crime.

After joining his hometown Los Angeles Dodgers before the 2021 season, Bauer was 8-5 with a 2.59 ERA in 17 starts before being placed on paid leave. The Dodgers cut him in January but owe him $22.5 million this season.

Fans in Japan don’t seem bothered by Bauer’s past. Hundreds lined up outside the stadium after he pitched, hoping for a glimpse or maybe an autograph. Dozens wore his BayStars jersey with his No. 96, chosen because that’s his goal for his average fastball velocity: 96 mph.

‘I felt like I was pretty close to 100 percent today,’ Bauer said. ‘Obviously, I have to have a couple more outings to get up the pitch count. But I feel 100%.’

An altercation in the stands at Saturday night’s Western Conference playoff game in Sacramento resulted in Bay Area hip-hop legend E-40 being ejected from the arena, an incident he says was a result of ‘racial bias.’

Video shows E-40, whose real name is Earl Stevens, talking to security officials before leaving his courtside seat at Golden 1 Center in the fourth quarter of the series opener between the Sacramento Kings and Golden State Warriors.

In a statement issued Sunday, the rapper says he was ‘subjected to disrespectful heckling’ throughout the game. When he finally turned around to address the comments, he says Kings security officials ‘approached me, assumed I instigated the encounter and proceeded to kick me out of the arena.’

E-40 is an avid Warriors fan who has courtside seats beside the Warriors bench at Golden State’s Chase Center.  But he was in enemy territory in Saturday night’s game in Sacramento, which the Warriors lost 126-123.

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He called the experience ‘humiliating’ and requested the Kings conduct an investigation of the incident.

‘Unfortunately, it was yet another reminder that — despite my success and accolades as a musician and entrepreneur — racial bias remains prevalent,’ he said. ‘Security saw a disagreement between a Black man and a white woman and immediately assumed that I was at fault.’

The Kings released a statement Sunday, saying they are ‘investigating the facts and circumstances regarding the situation, as we do anytime an accusation like this is made.’ 

For as much speculation that has surrounded DeAndre Hopkins this offseason, the Arizona Cardinals wide receiver cleared one thing up.

He isn’t looking for a bump in pay.

The 30-year-old, who has been involved in trade rumors throughout the offseason, tweeted Sunday that ”Hopkins doesn’t want a raise,” citing his nickname ‘Nuk’ as the source of the quote.

In other words, Hopkins told himself he isn’t looking to make more money.

Hopkins, who is due to make $19.45 million in 2023 and $14.915 million in 2024, could have been cheekily responding to those speculating his desire for a trade is cash-motivated. By saying he doesn’t want a raise, Hopkins could have been throwing water on that theory.

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The former first-round pick may also have been illustrating his desire to win as a bigger priority than contract value. Hopkins has only appeared in six career playoff games, never advancing past the second round in any postseason.

It remains to be seen whether Hopkins will be dealt this offseason, but the three-time All-Pro hinted he would prefer to join the Buffalo Bills or Kansas City Chiefs over the New England Patriots or New York Jets.

Hopkins has made five Pro Bowls during his career but posted career-low numbers across the board in 2022 after sitting out eight games due to violating the NFL’s performance-enhancing drugs policy.

Take THAT, Deion Sanders!

The University of Central Florida’s John Rhys Plumlee accomplished something that would make the storied two-sport athlete proud when he starred on both the diamond and the gridiron on Friday.

An outfielder for the UCF baseball team, Plumlee had a pair of hits, including a two-run triple, in the Knights’ 12-3 win over Memphis in the afternoon. Then, he hopped in a golf cart, changed uniforms and seven minutes later, he was at FBC Mortgage Stadium for the Knights’ annual spring football game.

‘That’s got to be a world record, right? Nobody’s ever done it, so it’s a world record. Someone write it down,’ Plumlee joked, according to the Daytona Beach News-Journal. ‘Seven minutes has to be a good time.’

The team’s returning starter at quarterback, Plumlee looked sharp by completing 10-of-17 passes for 230 yards and a pair of touchdowns, one of them coming on a 70-yard bomb. 

 ‘It’s something that I’ll never forget,’ Plumlee said. ‘Coach Malzahn, I remember being on the phone with him when I was in the transfer portal and telling him, ‘Hey, coach, I want to play football but I also want to play baseball.’ He gave me his word. For him to follow through with that, and to go through the lengths he’s gone through — and (UCF baseball coach Greg) Lovelady, too — to give me the opportunity to do what I love to do is really special.’

UCF is preparing for its debut season as a member of the Big 12 conference.