Every wearable these days will tell you how you slept and how well recovered you seem to be for the day’s activities. But it’s rare to get clear guidance or ideas on what you should do based on those scores. Ultrahuman, which makes smart rings, is trying a new approach: serving you different workout videos based on what it thinks you’re up for.
I can appreciate this approach, but I’m also a bit skeptical about letting an app choose a workout for me—what if I feel ready for something else? But I’ve used Garmin’s suggested workouts before, and I find the idea works well as long as you take the recommended workouts as suggestions, not limitations.
What’s in the Les Mills PowerPlug?
This new feature in the Ultrahuman app is available as a PowerPlug. If you use an Ultrahuman ring, you probably know there’s a selection of PowerPlugs available from a store within the app. Some are free, and some have a subscription charge. The Les Mills PowerPlug costs $11.99 per month, $99 per year, or $249 for a lifetime subscription.
Les Mills is a franchise of gym-based fitness classes, which are faithfully replicated in a Les Mills+ app that my colleague Lindsey Ellefson reviewed in detail here. She says the classes have clear instruction with no chit-chat, have original music, and stick to predictable, familiar patterns for each class type.
Each day you’ll get two to three recommended classes, but you can also browse a full catalog if you’d like to do a different workout. For some examples of what may be on offer, Ultrahuman says: “A well-recovered user with elevated heart rate variability and low resting heart rate might see BODYPUMP™ or BODYCOMBAT™ at the top of their feed. On the other hand, a user with accumulated sleep debt, elevated body temperature, increased resting heart rate, or low heart rate variability would be guided toward yoga, BODYBALANCE™, or a gentle mobility session instead.”
If you track your menstrual cycle through the Ultrahuman app, recommendations will take that into account as well. That’s where I have another surge of skepticism—Ultrahuman says “luteal and menstrual phases automatically shift toward recovery-friendly content.” That means you could spend half your month being steered away from hard training, which sounds like it’s at odds with most people’s fitness goals.
After you finish a Les Mills workout through the Ultrahuman app, you’ll find that your workout data, including heart rate, was logged through the ring, the muscles you used were logged, and you’ll get post-workout data like a prediction of your readiness for the next day.
Last week, we debuted the weekly hitter skills and luck factors examination, covering Jordan Walker, Cam Smith and more. To identify the players to discuss, we’ll use the Yahoo player rater for the past two weeks to provide a small sample to choose from. Besides those hot hitters on the player rater, we’ll discuss other hitters generating plenty of buzz throughout the fantasy baseball community.
Most of my analysis focuses on hitter skills, luck factors and other underlying metrics that could be contributing to the player’s outcomes. Our first hitter leaderboard involves bat speed and fast-swing percentage risers. Statcast defines fast swing percentage as the percentage of swings at 75 mph or more. Think of fast swing rate as something similar to hard hit percentage. However, I like that the bat speed metrics provide the inputs for potential exit velocity outputs.
Bat Speed and Fast Swing Percentage Risers
We filtered by hitters with 100 plate appearances in 2025 and 10 plate appearances in 2026 to provide a wider sample. Then we examined hitters who had an above-average bat speed at 73 mph or more, with a 25% fast-swing percentage or higher in 2026. That said, here’s a look at the hitters who met those thresholds while showing a 1 mph bat speed increase in 2026.
Hitters with an increase in bat speed and fast-swing rate in 2026. (Photo by Corbin Young/Yahoo Sports)
Like any leaderboard, there’s a mixture of noisy and notable players. The most fantasy-relevant players include Cam Smith, Colton Cowser, Denzel Clarke, Dominic Canzone, Hunter Goodman, J.T. Realmuto (on the IL), Jackson Merrill, Jeremiah Jackson, Kyle Stowers, Luis García Jr., Luke Raley and Mark Vientos. That doesn’t mean the rest don’t matter, but Amed Rosario, Gabriel Arias, Mitch Garver and others may only be relevant in deeper formats.
Meanwhile, we’ve seen Canzone, Smith, Jackson and Raley raise their stock and roster percentages in most formats.
Let’s examine five hitters who have been performing well and whether they’re legitimate or not based on the skill, luck factors and underlying metrics.
Nico Hoerner (98% Rostered)
Hoerner was a potential player to fade for me earlier in the offseason, but he’s shoved that in my face early on. He’s already hit four home runs in 107 plate appearances; his career high of 10 homers was in 2022. Since April 5, Hoerner has been consistently deployed in the leadoff spot, which surprised us to see more RBI (22) than runs scored (15). Hoerner’s strong plate discipline remained similar to the career norms, but we’re seeing him pull (42.2%) and lift the ball in the air (41% flyball rate) in 2026. For context, Hoerner’s pull and flyball rates in 2026 have been 6-7 percentage points above his career average.
Nico Hoerner’s rolling pull and flyball rates. (Photo by Corbin Young/FanGraphs)
That coincides with Hoerner’s 24.1% pulled air rate in 2026, up from a career average of 14.6%. Though we haven’t seen his bat speed, average exit velocities and barrel rates shift when he pulls the ball and overall, Hoerner showed a 75-76% ideal attack angle on pulled balls over the past two seasons. That’s a nearly 20-point jump in Hoerner’s ideal attack angle overall throughout his career.
A reminder that the ideal attack angle rate is the percentage of swings between 5 and 20 degrees, typically leading to quality outcomes and consistent launch angles.
Unsurprisingly, Hoerner’s pulled batted balls in the air tend to be around 90+ mph in average exit velocity and a 70.1 mph bat speed over the past two seasons. We should continue to see a career-high barrel-per-plate-appearance rate (2.8%), which might only hover near the league average (5%). That matters because league-average power usually means 12-15 home runs as a floor, making Hoerner a massive value, especially if he maintains his 24% stolen base opportunity rate, three points above his career average.
Hoerner’s skills have been consistent across the board, with the most notable being the pulled air rate, potentially leading to a career-high in home runs. That will be a big miss for me, and we’ve seen hitters with good plate discipline add power and bat speed like Brice Turang. Hoerner should also be on track for career-highs in runs and RBI, given the lineup context and lineup spot.
Adding even league-average power increases Hoerner’s value.
Austin Riley (98% Rostered)
There were rumors about Riley stealing more bases with a new baserunning coach, Antoan Richardson, this season. Riley has shown above-average Sprint Speeds in 2025 (73rd percentile) and 2024 (66th percentile), with similar numbers in 2026. In the early 2026 sample, Riley’s stolen base opportunity rate is 8%, compared to a 1% career average. That’s not a significant change in stolen base opportunity rate, but he is on pace to surpass his career high of three.
Stealing bases tends to be a mix of opportunity, coaching decisions and athleticism. Riley has possessed above-average athleticism throughout his career. If Riley’s stolen bases hit double-digits, with consistent skills and outcomes across the board, we could see a peak season from him.
Injuries have been a challenge for Riley over the past two years, so we haven’t seen those peak 30+ home run seasons since 2023. Riley’s plate discipline can also be an issue, evidenced by his 73.2% contact rate, similar to his career average. He still boasts high-end power skills with a 74.9 mph bat speed and 6.8% barrel per plate appearance rate in 2026. Weirdly, Riley’s pulled air rate dipped to 12.9% in 2026, down from 24.2% (2025) and 19.4% (2024). However, that might be fluky since Riley typically taps into his pull-side, flyball approach.
Austin Riley’s xwOBA by zone. (Photo by Corbin Young/MLB.com)
Or, it might be a concerted effort for Riley after having 29.5% of his barrels on pulled batted balls from 2023 to 2025. For context, Riley has one barrel (14.3%) on pulled batted balls in the small 2026 sample. Riley has been taking those pitches on the outside corner and doing damage. It’s a tiny sample of 41 batted ball events, but Riley has a .500 xwOBA, five barrels (23.8%) and a 96.9 mph average exit velocity on pitches on the outside corner. That’s significantly better than Riley’s success against outside pitches in 2025 (.336 xwOBA) and in 2024 (.427 xwOBA).
It looks like an intent to trust his swing and hit the ball to the opposite field. Any time there’s a slight approach change to attack outside pitches, it will impact a hitter’s ability to pull the ball, like we’re seeing with Riley early in 2026. He has the bat speed to turn on inside pitches, and this could unlock another level if he can cover the plate better. That should lead to more contact and loud batted balls.
Hitting more opposite-field batted balls shouldn’t impact Riley’s power significantly. With the potential spike in stolen bases, however, Riley should provide 30+ home runs while pushing toward 10+ steals, making him a value at his draft cost.
Munetaka Murakami (88% Rostered)
Murakami’s calling card was power, and we’ve seen that early in 2026. He already ranks among the top hitters in home runs, showing he belongs in this group. However, Murakami’s 30-grade hit tool was concerning, especially with better competition in MLB. That’s evident in Murakami’s 62-64% contact rate throughout his time in the Nippon Professional Baseball League (NPB), nearly identical to his 60.9% contact rate in the majors.
For context, Murakami’s contact rate would be the sixth-lowest in a season behind Joey Gallo (2017), Keston Hiura (2020), Miguel Sanó (2020), Matt Wallner (2026) and Garrett Mitchell (2026) since 2015. Like Mitchell (24.5%), Murakami has a chase rate below 25% (21.5%) in 2026. Thankfully, Murakami has shown elite power.
The visual below shows the top 20 qualified hitters sorted by Exit Velocity 50, which we’ll explain below as a strong marker for exit velocity numbers.
Top-20 hitters by Exit Velocity 50 (EV50). (Photo by Corbin Young/Yahoo Sports)
As a left-handed hitter, Murakami taps into a pull-heavy (51.1%) and flyball (48.9%) approach. That aligns with Murakami’s near-elite power skills, evidenced by his 74.5 mph bat speed, 50.7% fast swing rate (percentage of swings 75 mph or more), 11.8% barrel per plate appearance rate and 106.1 mph Exit Velocity 50 (EV50). For context, Murakami’s EV50 ranks sixth behind Nick Kurtz, Jordan Walker, Jac Caglianone, James Wood and Oneil Cruz. A reminder that EV50 is the average of the hardest 50% of a player’s batted ball events, as a more reliable stat than average exit velocity.
Like other hitters who have plate discipline issues, Murakami’s expected batting average tends to be higher than his actual batting average because of his near-elite power metrics. The scouting reports mentioned Murakami struggled with high-velocity fastballs. However, he tended to whiff more against non-fastballs like offspeed and breaking pitches.
There’s no denying Murakami’s power, but the low contact rate is scary.
The visual below shows Murakami’s xwOBA and whiff rates by zone to provide an idea of where he hits the ball hard and where he whiffs.
Munetaka Murakami’s whiff percentage and xwOBA by zone. (Photo by Corbin Young/MLB.com)
In the early sample, Murakami has a 13.6% swinging-strike rate against fastballs at 95 mph or harder, which isn’t worrisome. Meanwhile, Murakami struggled against sliders (26.2% swinging-strike rate) and changeups (26% swinging-strike rate) for a combined 26.1% swinging-strike rate. Sweepers have been a challenge for Murakami, given his 19.2% swinging-strike rate in a sample of 26 pitches. Murakami destroys pitches in the middle of the zone, with tons of whiffs on the edges of the zone.
This looks like an opportunity to sell high on Murakami for a hitter or pitcher who might be underperforming their underlying metrics. Of course, it’s fun to watch Murakami destroying baseballs because there’s a chance he can be an outlier.
That said, Murakami hit another home run on Wednesday — just as we’re submitting this piece.
Andy Pages (95% Rostered)
Pages has been one of the best Dodgers’ hitters in 2026, though his .439 BABIP fuels his .353 batting average. After 27 home runs, 14 stolen bases and a .272 batting average in 2025, Pages has been showing the power, speed and batting average in 2026 (5 HR, 4 SB). Pages’s plate discipline (78.6% contact rate), bat speed (73.1 mph) and 5.6% barrel per plate appearance rate have been similar to his career averages. That suggests luck factors like BABIP and home run rate (22.7% HR/F) look favorable for him early in 2026.
Andy Pages’ rolling HR/F and hard-hit percentage. (Photo by Corbin Young/FanGraphs)
Since Pages possesses above-average power skills, he might be able to maintain a higher HR/F, though expect the current number to regress. His current HR/F sits nearly 10 percentage points above his career average (12.9%), indicating home run efficiency. There’s a chance that Pages’ power metrics could lead to a peak season in home runs. That’s especially true since Pages saw his EV50 jump to 102.8 mph (No. 40) in 2026 compared to 99.3 (No. 182) in 2025. Expect Pages to raise his barrel rates, especially since he has been hitting the ball harder in 2026.
Pages converted 66% of his stolen base chances, which was awful in 2025. However, we’ve seen it increase to 80% while maintaining a 15-18% stolen base opportunity rate. If Pages converts a higher rate of steals, 15-20 SBs feels reasonable in 2026, given his high-end Sprint Speed (78th percentile) and defense (Outs Above Average) metrics in the 75th percentile or higher.
Pages looks ready to build on his 2025 to push toward another level, contributing power, speed and batting average as a sneaky five-category producer. There will be some regression in the luck factors (BABIP and HR/F), but the skills support the outcomes.
Dillon Dingler (51% Rostered)
Dingler has been a top-125 player over the past two weeks. Since most Yahoo leagues tend to be one-catcher leagues, Dingler’s roster percentage probably won’t spike too much higher unless teams put him into a utility spot. Dingler had a productive 2025 season, with 13 home runs, 111 runs plus RBI and a .278 batting average. He is already on pace to set a career-best in home runs in 2026, with five in 83 plate appearances.
Dillon Dingler’s rolling contact rate. (Photo by Corbin Young/FanGraphs)
He lowered his strikeout rate by 6.5 percentage points in 2026, mainly by making a three-percentage-point increase in his contact rate. From the right side, Dingler pulled the ball more often (44.8%), over four points higher than in 2025 (40.2%). There was a slight uptick in Dingler’s flyball rate by a few percentage points in 2026, coinciding with his consistently above-average pulled air rate (18-19%) over the past two seasons. That’s notable because the Tigers’ home park ranks 11th in the three-year rolling home run park factors for right-handed hitters.
Dillon Dingler’s xwOBA by pitch type. (Photo by Corbin Young/BaseballSavant)
Dingler has been using a more open stance by five degrees and moved nearly 2.5 inches farther back in the box. That might allow slightly better pitch recognition, specifically against breaking pitches. Dingler performed well against fastballs (.353 wOBA, .373 xwOBA) and offspeed (.435 wOBA, .458 xwOBA) pitches in 2025. With the strong start, we’ve seen Dingler perform well against fastballs and offspeed pitches again. However, there has been a slight improvement in Dingler’s production against breaking pitches (.403 wOBA, .425 xwOBA) in 2026.
Dingler’s ideal attack angle jumped to 61.1% in 2026, compared to his career average (51%). That indicates Dingler’s percentage of swings at those optimal attack angles (5 to 20 degrees), likely leading to greater launch-angle consistency. Theoretically, Dingler’s swing is more consistently leading to optimal launch angles.
All those components of Dingler’s skill set make him a strong-hitting catcher who will produce power and batting average. Dingler’s power skills support the current and future outcomes.
The New York Yankees, ranked first in the AL East with a 15-9 record, face the Boston Red Sox, who are fifth in the AL East with a 9-15 record. The New York Yankees are favored with a -150 moneyline compared to the Boston Red Sox’s +125. Starting pitchers are Cam Schlittler for New York and Payton Tolle for Boston.
The Los Angeles Dodgers, tied for first in the NL West with a 16-8 record, face the San Francisco Giants, who are fourth in the NL West with an 11-13 record. The Los Angeles Dodgers are favored with a -160 moneyline compared to the San Francisco Giants’ +135. Starting pitchers are Tyler Glasnow for the Dodgers, with a 3.24 ERA, and Logan Webb for the Giants, with a 5.10 ERA.
How to watch Los Angeles Dodgers vs. San Francisco Giants
Sometimes we love to hate serial killers, and sometimes we just kinda love ’em—a charming, sexy killer seems to be a contrast that’s too juicy and entertaining for us to pass up. Late-stage capitalism, the climate crisis, and the insurance industry are far more likely to kill us, which is probably why we’d rather face the statistically less-likely threat of a cute and cunning murderer like Penn Badgley’s Joe Goldberg in You, which came to a planned conclusion after five seasons in 2025. But he’s not the only one! Here, we’re on the hunt for series leads who are at least morally ambiguous, if not downright evil.
The Fall (2013 – 2016)
Jamie Dornan’s sexy young serial killer Paul Spector isn’t the protagonist of The Fall, strictly speaking, but he co-leads with Gillian Anderson’s police Superintendent DSU Stella Gibson across all three seasons of this crime drama. Much like Joe, Paul is, outwardly, a normal guy, and a family man, whom you might not suspect of being a stalker and a serial killer of professional women in Belfast. DSU Gibson is sent from London to help with a stalled investigation that leads her on a hunt for the clever Spector through physical dangers, mind-fuckery, and bureaucratic complications. Stream The Fall on Peacock and Prime Video.
Erin Doherty is Becky Green, a complete nobody (at least in her own mind), who becomes obsessed with her estranged childhood friend Chloe, who died, seemingly, by suicide. Lonely Becky comes up with a completely new identity with which to infiltrate Chloe’s friend group, finding her life far more fulfilling than back when she was boring ol’ Becky—even kicking off an affair with Chloe’s widowed husband. Turns out, though, that there was more to Chloe’s life and death than most people knew, and husband Elliot might just be keeping some secrets. Stream Chloe on Prime Video.
The Patricia Highsmith Tom Ripley novels have an impressive record of successful adaptations going back to the ’50s, from René Clément’s Purple Noon to Anthony Minghella’s The Talented Mr. Ripley—which itself inspired Tommy Wiseau’s cult “classic” The Room. Andrew Scott is perfectly cast in this series that doesn’t reinvent the narrative, but gives it room to breathe over eight hours of deliberately paced neo-noir, in sumptuous monochrome, as poor, orphaned, but ambitious, Tom ingratiates himself with the wealthy Dickie Greenleaf (Johnny Flynn) and his girlfriend, Marge (Dakota Fanning). His obsession with the good life soon becomes indistinguishable from his obsession with Marge and Dickie themselves, his studied nonchalance always ready to give way to everything boiling under the surface. Stream Ripley on Netflix.
The show that dares to ask: What if a serial killer were kind of a nice guy who mostly wants to be helpful? Michael C. Hall stars as Dexter Morgan, a Miami-based forensic technician with bloody, murderous impulses. Fortunately (usually), he’s learned to focus those impulses on dismembering baddies rather than the more sympathetic innocents who typically wind up in the crosshairs of this type of killer (looking at you, Joe Goldberg). So lovable is our Dexter that he led eight seasons of this show, popping up again in New Blood, Original Sin, and the ongoing Dexter: Resurrection. Stream Dexter on Paramount+.
By 2013, it really felt as though we’d seen more than enough of Hannibal Lecter and co., a series of Silence of the Lambs spin-offs and sequels having become increasingly tiresome. Still, producer Bryan Fuller went back to the source material here, once again adapting Thomas Harris’s first Lecter novel with grand, operatic style and a visual flair unmatched on network television (you’re still unlikely to find more gorgeously constructed scenes of carnage). What’s more, the deeper, sexier relationship between the Doctor (Mads Mikkelsen) and profiler Will Graham (Hugh Dancy) adds some brilliant subtext as the two work together to hunt serial killers. It ended a bit too early, but the three seasons still make for a satisfying meal. Stream Hannibal on Prime Video.
There are at least a couple of different levels to The Glory, a justifiably well-received South Korean import, rather remarkably holding together despite some wild shifts in tone. Most obviously, it’s a revenge drama, with a relatively simple set-up: Song Hye-kyo plays Moon Dong-eun, an elementary school homeroom teacher who’s playing a very, very long game: her school bullies are grown up now, and their kids (some of them, anyway) are now in Dong-eun’s care. Right where she wants them. Smartly, the show makes clear the extent of the past violence faced by Dong-eun (much of it hard to watch), and the resulting post-traumatic stress that’s consumed her life. The parents of her tormentors were all far too wealthy for the girls to face any consequences for their actions, so Dong-eun feels like she has no choice. It could have been a revenge fantasy, or a straight horror show about a woman carrying out a questionable revenge, but, while it’s hard to get behind Dong-eun, it’s also hard to condemn her completely. Stream The Glory on Netflix.
The real-life Candy Montgomery has been portrayed by Barbara Hershey, Jessica Biel in this Hulu miniseries and, just a year later, by Elizabeth Olsen over on HBO Max. Jessica Biel is so good here, though, that this one earns enough extra points to rise to the top of the Candy heap. In 1980, Montgomery was accused of murdering her neighbor, Betty Gore (Melanie Lynskey), following the woman’s affair with Candy’s husband, Allan (Pablo Schreiber). And with an axe, no less. Was it cold-blooded murder, self-defense, or a surprising combination of both? Stream Candy on Hulu.
Freddie Highmore stars here as Norman Bates, the Robert Bloch character based on Ed Gein, with Vera Farmiga as his mother Norma in her pre-dessicated-corpse days. Like a lot of media spun-off from Alfred Hitchcock’s seminal Psycho, it’s better than it has any right to be, with impressively compelling character development and several surprises, even if we already know more or less where it’s all heading. Stream Bates Motel on Prime Video.
Jessica Raine (Call the Midwife) joins Peter Capaldi (The Thick of It, Doctor Who) for a slightly convoluted but haunting series that throws in just about every horror trope that you can think of while still managing to ground things in the two lead performances. Raine plays a social worker whose life is coming apart on almost every level: She’s caring for her aging mother, her marriage is ending, her son is withdrawn, and she wakes up at exactly 3:33 a.m. every morning. She’s as convincing in the role as Capaldi is absolutely terrifying as a criminal linked to multiple killings (sometimes revealed in flashbacks) who can, seemingly, “remember” the future—shades of Silence of the Lambs, but with supernatural overtones. Stream The Devil’s Hour on Prime Video.
Swinging back around from some of these more morally ambiguous (or at least potentially helpful) protagonists to a pure (charismatic) baddie, The Creep Tapes picks up from the two Patrick Brice-directed Creep found footage films, with writer/star Mark Duplass returning to the role of Josef, or Peachfuzz, or whatever the hell he’s calling himself at any given time. Nearly an anthology, the show finds the charming, funny, forlorn-looking lead giving generally well-meaning people reasons to come and interview him on film, such that they tend to wind up documenting their own deaths. The show maintains the movies’ sense of humor, as well as the constant conviction that we’d very likely be taken in by this compellingly manipulative sad-sack. Stream The Creep Tapes on Shudder.
(Washington, D.C., April 23, 2026) — Today, the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced a reorganization of the Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) to modernize operations, streamline support functions and better align the agency with the nation’s agricultural landscape.
As part of this effort, USDA will establish a new National Food Safety Center (NFSC) in Urbandale, Iowa, which will serve as the primary hub for FSIS administrative, technical and support operations.
(Washington, D.C., April 23, 2026) — The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Research, Education, and Economics (REE) Mission Area today announced a reorganization and leadership restructuring to better align its work with USDA priorities, improve operational efficiency, and deliver results more effectively for American farmers, ranchers, and producers.
In the NBA playoffs, all it takes are a few extra foul calls to determine the outcome of a game. When games are close and everything is on the line, players bristle when a bad call or bad decision by a referee potentially affects a contest.
Phoenix Suns star Devin Booker, however, took things to a whole other level following the team’s 120-107 loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder on Wednesday. Booker called out NBA official James Williams by name after the contest, saying the ref had a “terrible” performance that would lead to fans questioning the “integrity of the sport.”
“In my 11 years, I haven’t called a ref out by name, but James [Williams] was terrible tonight through and through. It’s bad for the sport, bad for the integrity of the sport. People are going to start viewing this as a WWE if they’re not held responsible.
“It just feels disrespectful. I know I haven’t won a championship in this league, but I have been in it for 11 years now. So to get to this point to be treated like that, for me to even be saying something out loud, it’s bad.”
Booker went so far as to invoke WWE, where outcomes are predetermined before wrestlers take the ring, in his criticism. All of that should earn Booker quite the fine once the NBA reviews his comments. The league is unlikely to respond kindly to a player implying — even lightly — that game outcomes are predetermined.
Booker, in particular, took issue with receiving a technical foul in the third quarter of the contest. The foul occurred after Booker was bumped by Thunder defender Jaylin Williams near the edge of the court. As Booker was going out of bounds, he flipped the ball behind him, trying to save it from leaving the court. The ball, however, hit Jaylin Williams, leading to referee J.B. DeRosa calling Booker for a technical foul.
In real time, it didn’t look like a nefarious action by Booker.
Devin Booker receives a technical foul trying to save the ball from going out of bounds. 😳🤔
Booker claimed he never received an explanation for that foul. He also claimed that Thunder guard Alex Caruso told officials to call a technical foul on Booker, which was then granted. After the contest, Booker said, “It’s definitely something that has to be looked into.”
Booker wasn’t the only member of the Suns to call out the officiating following the loss. Team owner Mat Ishbia expressed support for Booker, saying he was “100% behind” Booker in this instance.
Ishbia said the team didn’t lose due to poor officiating, but said referees must be held accountable when they are “missing class and clearly disrespecting players, almost mocking them.” He asked the league to take action against that kind of behavior, saying, “The league needs be far more aggressive about this kind of thing. All players and all fans deserve it.”
Dillon Brooks also called out the officials for not allowing the teams to engage in a physical game. He also criticized Thunder star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander for flopping to get calls, a common complaint of Thunder opponents during the regular season.
“[Gilgeous-Alexander is] a little frail, and that’s what the refs are going to call,” Brooks said. “I used to watch this back when Michael Jordan was playing or whoever else, when LeBron was younger. This is physical basketball. I don’t get why all of the dropping, the falling, the flopping and the flailing, all this stuff, is allowed when we get to the playoffs. For the fans, this is about who is the better team, who is the more winning team. Don’t decide the games on no free throws.”
Gilgeous-Alexander shrugged off those comments after the contest, saying he can’t control what opponents say about games. He added that Brooks’ role is to bring energy and “rile up the game.” Gilgeous-Alexander said Brooks did exactly that Wednesday.
Gilgeous-Alexander got to the free-throw line 17 times in the Thunder’s 119-84 blowout win in Game 1 of the series. Things weren’t as extreme Wednesday, as Gilgeous-Alexander attempted nine free throws in the win. Booker actually attempted one more free throw during the contest.
With the Suns now down 2-0 in the series, there’s pressure on the team to get things turned around immediately. Calling out the refs could be the team’s way of trying to change how games are officiated in the series moving forward, though it’s also going to lead to Booker — and maybe Brooks — taking a significant financial hit for their comments.
The New York Knicks and the Atlanta Hawks are currently tied 1-1 in their NBA playoff series heading into Game 3 this Thursday. The Knicks hosted the first two games and the series now heads to Atlanta – Thursday night’s tipoff at State Farm Arena is scheduled for 7 p.m. ET. You can take an in-depth look at the playoff bracket for every NBA team right here, and check out the schedule for the rest of this week’s games below.
Here’s everything you need to know so you won’t miss Thursday’s game, or any other game in the Knicks vs. Hawks NBA playoff series.
The Oklahoma City Thunder will be without Jalen Williams due to another hamstring injury. The team announced Thursday that he has a Grade 1 hamstring strain and will be re-evaluated on a weekly basis.
Williams went down early in the second half of the Thunder’s 120-107 win over the Phoenix Suns on Wednesday. That victory at the Paycom Center gave the Thunder a 2-0 lead in their opening-round playoff series as it shifts to Phoenix later this week.
Williams missed a layup midway through the third quarter and pulled up awkwardly under the basket as play started moving the other way, immediately looking bothered. He didn’t leave the game right away, but Williams was shaken up and in a significant amount of pain.
After trying to play through a few possessions, Williams eventually subbed himself out and motioned to his left hamstring as he did so.
Williams eventually limped back to the locker room and did not return.
“We think he aggravated his left hamstring,” Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault said after the game. “We’ll take a look at it in the next couple of days, and we’ll update you guys when appropriate.”
Though Williams has missed extensive time this season with a hamstring injury, his injury Wednesday was a new one. Williams missed 49 games largely due to a hamstring strain in his right leg earlier this season. Williams underwent surgery on his wrist in July after helping the Thunder to their NBA Finals win last season, and missed the start of the regular season because of it.
Despite his limited action, Williams averaged 17.1 points and 5.5 assists per game this season and helped the Thunder to the top seed in the Western Conference. He had 22 points and seven rebounds in the Thunder’s 119-84 win in Game 1 of the series.
Williams had 19 points and shot 7-of-11 from the field when he went down Wednesday. Despite his early departure, the Thunder carried a 23-point lead into the final period and held on late and survived one final Phoenix push to grab the 13-point win.
Dillon Brooks led the Suns with 30 points in the loss after he went 5 of 9 from the 3-point line. Devin Booker finished with 22 points and seven rebounds, and Jalen Green had 21 points. The Suns had 21 turnovers.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander led the Thunder with 37 points and nine assists. Chet Holmgren finished with 19 points, 8 rebounds and 4 blocks. Ajay Mitchell added 14 points off the bench.
While the Thunder have not had any real issues so far in the playoffs, losing Williams for a significant amount of time would change the series and open the door a bit for the Suns as they hit their home court for the first time on Saturday. And, based on Williams’ injury history in recent months, it’s hard to imagine the Thunder would be in a hurry to get him back on the floor.
