Mets left-hander Sean Manaea had a solid second rehab start Tuesday night in Coney Island as he works his way back from an oblique injury.

After allowing four runs (three earned) in 1.2 innings on Friday, Manaea bounced back to deal 2.2 scoreless innings.

Of course, his outing got off to an auspicious start, as he plunked left-handed batting Joseph Sullivan on the second pitch he threw. Manaea allowed a steal of second on his third pitch before getting a flyout to right, but an infield single to first put runners on the corners with one out. A ball in the dirt put two in scoring position, but the Mets’ lefty got a strikeout swinging and a pop-up to right to end the threat.

Manaea got to pitch with a lead after the Cyclones plated two runs in the home half of the first inning, and after retiring the first two of the frame, adding a second strikeout swinging, he issued his first walk of his rehab before recording another strikeout swinging on a nasty breaking pitch.

In his final inning of the night, the lefty sandwiched an infield single to short around another swinging strikeout on a breaking pitch and a pop out to third base.

Manaea threw 46 pitches (31 strikes) to get 10 outs, allowing one hit, one walk, a hit-by-pitch, and striking out four.

Sean Manaea struck out 4 in his rehab outing tonight for Brooklyn

Final line: 2.2 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 4 K, 46 pitches (31 strikes) pic.twitter.com/47iWJncZcB

— SNY Mets (@SNY_Mets) June 10, 2025

INDIANAPOLIS — After spending most of Game 2 of the 2025 NBA Finals searching for any angle of approach, any avenue through which to access the highest-value real estate on the floor, only to come up empty time and again against a suffocating Oklahoma City Thunder defense, the Indiana Pacers knew two things for certain. Tyrese Haliburton, fresh off one of the most frustrating performances of what’s largely been a charmed postseason, laid them both out in his postgame news conference.

First:

“We have to do a better job of getting to the paint,” he said.

And next:

“It’s a lot easier said than done,” he added.

The Pacers scorched the Eastern Conference, scoring 119.7 points per 100 non-garbage-time possessions through the first three rounds of the 2025 NBA playoffs. Through two games in these Finals, though, the Thunder’s league-best defense has held Indiana to just 109.3 points-per-100; that would’ve slotted in between the ghastly Pelicans and Nets for 28th place in the league during the regular season.

The Pacers thrived during the regular season by pressuring the rim, ranking ninth in points scored off drives to the basket and 11th in points in the paint; they largely kept thatup through the first three rounds of the playoffs. Through two games against OKC, though, their interior scoring droppeddramatically — a testament to the Thunder’s penchant for packing the paint and for smothering rotations that turn the key into a no-fly zone.

“It starts with pressuring the ball before it crosses half-court, stopping teams from scoring in transition so we can set our defense,” Thunder big man Chet Holmgren said at Tuesday’s practice session ahead of Wednesday’s Game 3. “Defeating actions — whether it’s screens or slide-outs or whatever — kind of controlling them within those. It makes it harder to get to the paint in the first place.”

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If it was easy to counteract all that pressure and find a through line into the lane, you can believe that Haliburton and Pacers head coach Rick Carlisle would’ve had a roadmap drawn before the series even started. But a truly great defense forces you to dig deep into the bag of tricks, to flip all the way to the back page of the playbook.

“You’ve got to mix things up,” Haliburton said Tuesday. “You can’t give these guys the same dosage, the same look of anything. If you try to run high pick-and-roll all game, they just crawl into you, really pack the paint, nothing is open. There’s got to be a mix of things.”

If Haliburton running the high pick-and-roll is Indiana’s fastball, then its changeup is running offense through Pascal Siakam — a big, quick, lithe, aggressive and active three-level scorer whose surfeit of skills bedeviled the Bucks, Cavaliers and Knicks. Siakam earned recognition as the Most Valuable Player of the Pacers’ Eastern Conference finals victory and entered the series drawing plenty of respect — and, with it, defensive attention — from the Thunder for what reserve stopper Alex Caruso called “the diversity that he brings offensively.”

“You know, he’s been shooting the ball extremely well in the playoffs — catch-and-shoot from 3, off-the-dribble in the midrange,” Caruso said Tuesday. “And then, obviously, he’s 6-8, 6-9, rangy, so if he gets close to the rim, he’s got great touch. And he’s a physical player, so you know, he draws a lot of fouls.”

Indiana forward Obi Toppin said Tuesday, for the most part, the Pacers “don’t try to headhunt anybody” through meticulous switching and cross-matching. (Try telling that to Jalen Brunson.) What differentiates Siakam, though, is that he’ll go into search-and-destroy mode when he sees the opportunity to seize a mismatch and draw it out into deep water.

“He’s one of the few guys on their team that, like, really looks for isolation to score,” Caruso said. “A lot of the other guys, it’s kind of through the flow of their offense and the pace. But he’s a guy that, you know, they run sets for, to get isos. The minutes that I have just kind of match up with him, so [I’m] just trying to make it tough on him.”

Caruso and the rest of the Thunder have found some success on that front. After averaging 24.8 points on 17.5 field-goal attempts per game in the Eastern Conference finals against New York, shooting 52.9% on 2-point tries and 50% from 3-point land, Siakam has had a much rougher go of it against OKC. He’s averaging 17 points on 13 shots per game through two Finals contests, having missed 12 of his 20 attempts inside the arc and four of his six launches from beyond it, and shooting just 37.5% on drives to the basket.

“Yeah, they were super aggressive, which is what they do,” Siakam said after going 3 of 11 from the floor in Game 2. “They are a disruptive kind of team.”

Untrammeled demon Caruso and All-Defensive Team selection Jalen Williams have led the charge in disrupting Siakam, most frequently serving as the All-Star forward’s primary defender … though, as Williams explained Tuesday, that distinction is a bit of a misnomer.

“I don’t really notice having the bulk [of the responsibility for] guarding him, just because defense is so team-oriented,” Williams said. “I can only do my part correctly, which is just make it tough for him. Obviously, there’s some scouting and analytical stuff that goes into playing defense against somebody that good, and somebody that can affect the game with their scoring … I think my team has done a good job just being there for me when I’m beat.”

Williams then smiled and quickly added, “You try not to get beat as much, obviously.”

Siakam has been able to beat Oklahoma City’s swarm at times in this series. The Pacers found some success playing through him in their stunning Game 1 win and for a brief burst in the second quarter of Game 2:

Asked after Game 1 if he was at all concerned about those Siakam bully-ball opportunities against his small-ball-shifted starting lineup, Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault said, “Only if they take advantage of it.”

More often than not, Indiana hasn’t, struggling to feature Siakam in the attack. Siakam averaged 35 total frontcourt touches per game, with 3.8 coming in the post and 4.6 in the paint, during the regular season, according to Second Spectrum tracking. That’s down to 29 frontcourt touches per game against Oklahoma City, with just four total post-ups and five total paint touches through two games.

“Some of it is the cost of doing business, to be able to get perimeter speed on the court, get more switching in the game,” Daigneault said after Game 1. “It’s obviously something that is a tradeoff. … When we’re small, we have to be pressure-oriented and contain the ball.”

The Thunder maintained their pressure in Game 2 while doing a better job of keeping the ball out of the paint, using their quickness and length to front the post, clog passing lanes and generally make it seem unappetizing to try to thread the needle. In Sunday’s loss, multiple Pacers either missed opportunities to get him the ball when he’d drawn a switch onto a smaller defender, were unable to find a good angle to make the entry pass, or both:

“You can’t play too careful against Oklahoma [City], or otherwise you’ll never get a basket,” Carlisle said Tuesday. “You have to be aggressive.”

The combination of Oklahoma City’s increased off-ball activity, Daigneault’s decision to play bigger lineups in Game 2 — no more Ajay Mitchell, no Isiah Joe minutes after halftime, more run for Aaron Wiggins and Kenrich Williams, and a handful of Holmgren-Isaiah Hartenstein double-big minutes — removing some of Siakam’s hunting grounds, and Indiana’s inconsistent reading and feeding mismatches on the rare occasions when they appeared resulted in a quiet night for Siakam … and, perhaps, some frustration.

Just as frustrating: When Siakam did wind up matched up against Shai Gilgeous-Alexander — the closest thing to a weak link in a lot of Thunder lineups — the MVP promptly made a chair-pulls-and-deflected-entry-passes case that he’s not a weak link, actually:

“He’s obviously a really good player — he can attack you in many ways, very versatile,” Gilgeous-Alexander said Tuesday. “We’ve seen it throughout the playoffs: He’s won at a high level, he knows what it takes. Honestly, with guys like that, you just try to make it difficult for them. They can almost check every box.”

Unless, of course, they can’t get the ball.

“They’re smaller defenders, but they swarm the ball,” Pacers center Myles Turner said. “What looks open may not be open the next second. A lot of them are bang-bang plays, and it’s just finding the moment when the moment presents itself.”

To get their offense unstuck, the Pacers might have to manufacture some moments for Siakam against whichever smaller defender he can get his hands on. Too much mismatch hunting can lead to stagnation; not enough, though, could lead to starvation.

“Yeah, you just got to balance it out. … We got to be stronger with the ball, obviously, but also, be decisive,” Siakam said Tuesday. “Whatever we decide to do, just do it.”

At Tuesday’s practice, Daigneault deflected praise for limiting Siakam like a lollipopped entry pass: “I don’t want to, like, make that a foregone conclusion at this point. They’re coming home. He’s going to be very aggressive, Haliburton is going to be very aggressive. They play really well here.” He would allow, though, that his players had done “a decent job, conceptually, against their team in the first two games.”

“I think the strength of their team is they play a certain way that elevates everybody — I think we’ve seen that,” Daigneault said. “You really can’t key on an individual player, an individual thing. You really have to defend them conceptually, because that’s how they’re existing on offense, and just trust that if you do that, it will lower the overall effectiveness of the individual players.”

If the Thunder can once again lower the overall effectiveness of Siakam within Indiana’s ecosystem in Game 3, it’ll dramatically improve their chances of wresting back home-court advantage and regaining control in this best-of-seven sprint to the Larry O’Brien Championship Trophy.

“It’s a hard job,” Gilgeous-Alexander said of guarding up against a threat like Siakam. “But if you want to win, you’ve got to get it done.”

The same holds for Carlisle, whom Haliburton praised Tuesday as “a basketball savant,” and whose creativity and incisiveness are required, now more than ever.

“We’re going to have to adjust and create better situations,” Carlisle said. “We’re going to have to be better.”

Shohei Ohtani was back on the mound Tuesday as he ramps up his return to pitching in an MLB game. 

By most accounts, he looked pretty good. 

Ohtani pitched three simulated innings against live minor-league batters on Tuesday at Petco Park prior to the NL West tilt between his Los Angeles Dodgers and the San Diego Padres. 

Per MLB.com and The Athletic, Ohtani threw 44 pitches. Per The Athletic’s Fabian Ardaya, Ohtani allowed one hit and one walk and threw a wild pitch. He recorded six of his nine outs via strikeout.

Here’s video of a swinging strike to record the final out of his session:

Again, the effort was against minor-league batters during batting practice. But it’s another encouraging sign for the Dodgers and their fans eager to see the two-way superstar pitch in Dodger blue for the first time.

Tuesday’s simulated innings were Ohtani’s first on the mound since a May 31 session that went two innings. It was his third time overall throwing a live batting practice session and the first time he has exceeded two innings.

Ohtani’s pitching work was previously limited to bullpen sessions that didn’t involve batters.

So when will Ohtani actually pitch?

There were no immediate updates from the Dodgers after Ohtani’s session Tuesday. After Ohtani’s May 31 session, manager Dave Roberts said he’ll need to reach “five or six” simulated innings before the Dodgers consider putting him into a game. 

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“[He] used his entire mix, take some hitters up, down and came out of it well, which is most important,” Roberts said May 31. “I think he wishes his command would have been a little bit better. But a really positive day for Shohei.

“You still got to get to five or six innings, so we still got a ways to go. … I didn’t ask what the velocity was, I would think a safe guess is somewhere in the mid-90s.”

Ohtani hasn’t pitched in a game since Aug. 23, 2023, when he was a member of the Los Angeles Angels. A month later, he underwent surgery to repair the ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow for the second time. He previously underwent Tommy John surgery in 2018.

Ohtani signed with the Dodgers the following offseason and earned his third MVP after a historic 50-50 season at the plate. The Dodgers went on to a World Series championship, Ohtani’s first. 

Ohtani’s off to another sensational start at the plate that includes an NL-best 23 home runs through Monday. But his return to the mound is still unclear as his absence approaches the two-year mark. 

A 40-27 Dodgers team leading a tight race in the NL West could certainly use the pitching services of Ohtani, who’s at an All-Star level at his best. Still, don’t expect them to throw caution to the wind. 

They won’t put Ohtani on the mound until they and their medical staff are fully convinced that he’s ready. In the meantime, the Dodgers and their fans can take solace in Ohtani’s quest for a fourth MVP at the plate.  

Shohei Ohtani was back on the mound Tuesday as he ramps up his return to pitching in an MLB game. 

By most accounts, he looked pretty good. 

Ohtani pitched three simulated innings against live minor-league batters on Tuesday at Petco Park prior to the NL West tilt between his Los Angeles Dodgers and the San Diego Padres. 

Per MLB.com and The Athletic, Ohtani threw 44 pitches. Per The Athletic’s Fabian Ardaya, Ohtani allowed one hit and one walk and threw a wild pitch. He recorded six of his nine outs via strikeout.

Here’s video of a swinging strike to record the final out of his session:

Again, the effort was against minor-league batters during batting practice. But it’s another encouraging sign for the Dodgers and their fans eager to see the two-way superstar pitch in Dodger blue for the first time.

Tuesday’s simulated innings were Ohtani’s first on the mound since a May 31 session that went two innings. It was his third time overall throwing a live batting practice session and the first time he has exceeded two innings.

Ohtani’s pitching work was previously limited to bullpen sessions that didn’t involve batters.

So when will Ohtani actually pitch?

There were no immediate updates from the Dodgers after Ohtani’s session Tuesday. After Ohtani’s May 31 session, manager Dave Roberts said he’ll need to reach “five or six” simulated innings before the Dodgers consider putting him into a game. 

ASSOCIATED PRESS

“[He] used his entire mix, take some hitters up, down and came out of it well, which is most important,” Roberts said May 31. “I think he wishes his command would have been a little bit better. But a really positive day for Shohei.

“You still got to get to five or six innings, so we still got a ways to go. … I didn’t ask what the velocity was, I would think a safe guess is somewhere in the mid-90s.”

Ohtani hasn’t pitched in a game since Aug. 23, 2023, when he was a member of the Los Angeles Angels. A month later, he underwent surgery to repair the ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow for the second time. He previously underwent Tommy John surgery in 2018.

Ohtani signed with the Dodgers the following offseason and earned his third MVP after a historic 50-50 season at the plate. The Dodgers went on to a World Series championship, Ohtani’s first. 

Ohtani’s off to another sensational start at the plate that includes an NL-best 23 home runs through Monday. But his return to the mound is still unclear as his absence approaches the two-year mark. 

A 40-27 Dodgers team leading a tight race in the NL West could certainly use the pitching services of Ohtani, who’s at an All-Star level at his best. Still, don’t expect them to throw caution to the wind. 

They won’t put Ohtani on the mound until they and their medical staff are fully convinced that he’s ready. In the meantime, the Dodgers and their fans can take solace in Ohtani’s quest for a fourth MVP at the plate.  

Prior to Tuesday’s series opener against the Royals in Kansas City, Yankees manager Aaron Boone gave updates on a few players…

---

Jake Cousins pulled from rehab assignment

Cousins was on rehab assignment, recovering from a forearm/pectoral injury, when he was suddenly removed by the Yankees due to an elbow issue.

Boone said the assignment was paused because Cousins spoke up after the reliever said he “felt some stuff in his elbow.” The right-hander has undergone an MRI and has met with doctors on Tuesday to get to the bottom of the issue.

Cousins, 30, has yet to pitch for the Yankees this season but was a good bullpen piece a season ago. In 37 appearances in 2024, he pitched to a 2.37 ERA and a 1.05 WHIP. He also had eight holds and one save in one opportunity.

Marcus Stroman’s first rehab start set

On a positive note, the Yankees have set the date for Stroman’s first rehab start. The veteran right-hander will take the mound for Double-A Somerset on Wednesday.

Stroman (knee) has been trying to work his way back to the Yankees rotation after making three starts earlier this season. He’s allowed 12 earned runs in 9.1 innings across those three starts.

Stroman will join teammate Giancarlo Stanton in Somerset. The slugger started his rehab assignment on Tuesday and will likely be in the lineup for Stroman when he takes the mound on Wednesday.

With a crowded rotation, the Yankees will have to make a decision on what to do with Stroman. The logical move would be to move Ryan Yarbrough back into the bullpen and slide Stroman in the rotation with Max Fried, Carlos Rodon, Clarke Schmidt and Will Warren.

On this episode of Good Word with Goodwill, Vince and Sam Amick do a quick recap of Game 2 of the NBA Finals between the Oklahoma City Thunder and Indiana Pacers before previewing Game 3. Vince and Sam also take a look at the performances of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Tyrese Halliburton.

Next, Vince and Sam react to LeBron James clapping back at people saying he has no bag before discussing what team is the best fit for Kevin Durant.

Later, Vince and Sam address Jason Kidd being tied to the New York Knicks and end with some NBA Finals trivia.

(2:01) Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s big Game 2 performance

(6:03) Will Tyrese Halliburton be more aggressive in Game 3?

(10:22) Is the Pacers only chance to be more physical?

(17:07) Name an all-time great defender that could give SGA trouble

(23:16) LeBron spending too much time on social media

(28:34) What will determine where Kevin Durant is traded?

(38:57) How will KD be remembered?

(47:16) Knicks trying to steal Jason Kidd from Mavericks

(55:12) NBA Trivia with Vin

(AP Photo/Kyle Phillips)

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The first wave of invitees to the 2025 NBA Draft is here.

Thirteen players received formal invitations on Tuesday to attend the draft and sit in the green room later this month at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, according to ESPN’s Jonathan Givony. Among that group, obviously, is former Duke star and presumed No. 1 overall pick Copper Flagg.

Also receiving invitations are Dylan Harper, Ace Bailey, VJ Edgecombe, Tre Johnson, Khaman Maluach, Jeremiah Fears, Kon Knueppel, Kasparas Jakučionis, Egor Demin, Carter Bryant, Derik Queen and Asa Newell, per the report. Another 11 invitations are expected to be sent out in the near future.

Players who attend the draft are allowed to invite six people to sit with them at their table, which will be located in front of the NBA Draft podium in the arena. While an invitation is no guarantee by any means, receiving one is generally considered a good sign for a player when it comes to their draft stock. Of the 13 players who have been invited, nine of them are projected to be lottery picks in the latest mock draft from Yahoo Sports’ Kevin O’Connor. All 13 are safely projected to go in the first round.

Flagg has long been considered the favorite to go No. 1 overall in the draft later this month after his lone season with the Blue Devils, where he averaged 19.2 points and 7.5 rebounds while helping them reach the Final Four. The 18-year-old also earned consensus National Player of the Year honors.

The Dallas Mavericks, just months removed from the turmoil that came after trading away star Luka Dončić, won the NBA Draft lottery for the first time in franchise history. They had just a 1.8% chance to do so. The Mavericks and Flagg have a workout set for next week, and neither team has another workout on the books before the draft. All signs are pointing toward the Mavericks selecting Flagg first.

The first round of the NBA Draft is set for June 25. This is the second year that the draft is split up into two days.