Tag: General News

LOS ANGELES — From the courtside celebrities to the star power in the nationally televised game and tense finish, much of Saturday night’s game felt like a playoff game.

The Warriors and Lakers, projected to play each other in the 9-10 play-in round exactly a month from Saturday’s meeting, lived up to the big-game billing.

Each team appeared to bring their top-level intensity, Warriors coach Steve Kerr trimmed his rotation to a playoff-style nine. The game took on a different tone when Lakers star Anthony Davis suffered a corneal abrasion and didn’t return after the first quarter. And then it turned bizarre at the end, when the shot clock became suddenly fried.

Still, in front of Kim Kardashian, Bad Bunny and Novak Djokovic, Steph Curry, Klay Thompson and Jonathan Kuminga combined for 80 points for a much-needed victory. The defense might not have been up to postseason par, especially with Davis off the court, but the Warriors (35-31) absorbed a playoff-caliber LeBron James performance (40 points, nine assists, eight rebounds) in the 128-121 win.

The Warriors had this game circled for at least a week: their I-5 rivals in enemy territory, with a chance to surpass them in the standings and take a step toward a coveted tie-breaker. Not to mention an individual matchup of LeBron James and Steph Curry, the two defining stars of their generation.

Kerr reminded the team just how consequential this game is at practice at UCLA on Friday.

“I believe in this team, I believe it can make a really good run, and this is obviously a big game if we’re going to make that run,” Kerr said pregame.

Except for the shot clock issues and replay review stoppages that made the final two minutes last 20 and required the public address announcer to manually announce the shot clock, the contest felt like more than a regular season game.

Curry didn’t rush his recovery from the ankle sprain that knocked him out the previous three games, but made note of the point in the season the Warriors find themselves in when discussing his imminent return with reporters. He wasn’t going to miss this game.

On the Crypto.com Arena court pregame, Curry went through a full-speed round of warmups. It took him a few tries, but he nailed a halfcourt shot to end the routine, skipping over to assistant coach Anthony Vereen to celebrate. He took a photo with former MLB superstar Albert Pujols and trotted back to the locker room. Curry, and the entire joyous, spectacular package that comes with him, was back.

But it was Curry’s backcourt partner, Thompson, who carried the Warriors as Curry went scoreless in the first quarter. Thompson dropped 18 in his first eight minutes. He hunted shots from the 3-point arc and midrange and worked the two-man game with Trayce Jackson-Davis for an and-1.

Curry’s first bucket came five minutes into the second quarter. By then, James had registered 16 points and six assists on 6-for-6 shooting. At least on the offensive end, he treated the game like it carried some extra weight.

Golden State surged with Davis in the locker room for the entire second quarter due to an apparent eye injury. When Davis was on the court, especially as Draymond Green rested, the Warriors looked way too small to contend with Los Angeles’ front line.

With Davis unavailable, Curry got going with drives and Green found Jonathan Kuminga on consecutive alley-oop lobs — one from halfcourt and another on the short roll — to earn a halftime lead.

Davis’ absence allowed Golden State to play inside-out. To create a Curry four-point play, every Warrior touched the ball. Then he and Kuminga drove for consecutive layups.

Without Davis protecting the rim, Golden State scored 35 points in the third. James prevented them from sustaining a double-digit lead, sensing the Lakers needed him to take over.

The Warriors matched James’ fourth quarter minutes with Kuminga and Curry’s, hoping to mitigate the 20-time All-Star. But consecutive and-1s from James through Kuminga trimmed Golden State’s 10-point lead to six.

Green guarded James slightly more down the stretch, but James still played bully ball, constantly attacking the rim and either finishing or earning free throws. He drilled a step-back 3 in the corner over Curry, which for a moment inched the Lakers within four but later got negated because he was out of bounds. The replay review might’ve been the biggest swing of the game.

In a strange twist, the game ended with the Lakers’ PA announcer manually informing the arena of the dwindling shot clock. By then, a playoff-level game devolved into a bizarre, embarrassing footnote. One that the Warriors finished off.

PHOENIX — In the shadow of two buttes, Alex Cobb’s four-month odyssey came full circle.

It was here, at the Giants’ Papago Park training complex, that Cobb arrived every morning at 9 a.m. Where every day he went through five to six hours of rehabilitation. And, on Saturday afternoon, where he pitched in his first game since last September, before he underwent surgery on his left hip.

“I put in a lot of sweat in the gym here,” Cobb said, standing to the side of the second of four fields, where he just completed two innings against the A’s Single-A squad. “I started having that feeling when I first got in here to warm up. It was wild to just feel like I was here yesterday rehabbing and we’re already almost at the end of spring.”

With a week left before the Giants break camp, the 36-year-old right-hander is further along than anybody — perhaps except himself — could have envisioned when Dr. Marc Philippon took a knife to his left hip on Oct. 31 in Vail, Colorado. He had five anchors inserted, three bone chips removed and was given a timeline of six months before he would toe a rubber again, let alone do so in a game.

And yet, just after 1 p.m. Saturday at Papago Park’s Field 2, Cobb emerged from the third-base dugout, adjusted his cap and took the mound. He fired his first three pitches for strikes, eventually landing 18 of his 27 pitches in the zone while striking out five of the seven batters he faced. He didn’t allow a hit and didn’t issue a walk, making such quick work of the minor leaguers that after he recorded his final out, they called on an extra batter for him to complete his full scheduled workload.

“From the beginning of the surgery, it was a goal of mine to do that,” Cobb said, so that to him, “it wasn’t that big of a deal.”

“I think if you told me when I had the surgery that I’d be this far ahead, I’d be surprised, but as I’m going through the process, I’m not surprised, just knowing how good I’ve felt everyday.”

To manager Bob Melvin, who has at least one hole to fill in his starting rotation, Cobb’s speedy recovery carries more significance. The group behind Logan Webb was already thin before an aneurysm was discovered in Tristan Beck’s shoulder and Keaton Winn’s elbow started barking.

After a successful minor-league outing, Cobb could now get into a Cactus League game within the next week, Melvin said. He could be an option for the major-league rotation as soon as the end of April, a full two months ahead of the timeline laid out to him in the wake of the operation.

“It would be a big deal,” Melvin said. “With some of the injuries we’ve had, you obviously don’t want to push somebody like that. But the sooner we can have him, the more of an impact it is. And it’s Alex Cobb. So it’s a big deal. … He’s been relentless. We’ve gotten to this point because of his hard work.”

Cobb may be the poster child for the $70 million investment the organization made in the 33-acre training complex, overhauling the A’s former facilities into a state-of-the-art new home for their minor leaguers that opened in 2022. It has proven to be a boon for big leaguers, too.

While rehabbers such as Cobb have a place to do their work under the watchful eyes of trainers, nutritionists and performance coaches, the amenities are enough to attract a large swath of the substantial contingent of players who make their offseason homes nearby.

“Basically starting January 1, it feels like spring training around here,” said farm director Kyle Haines, who oversees the site. “It draws people to want to be here, and we end up with a very heavy presence training. It creates a great environment, too. We’ve got Logan Webb pushing guys. Kyle Harrison pushing guys. Cobb’s pushing the rehab group. It gives us that organizational connection.”

Outfielder Michael Conforto, who lives about 30 minutes away, made regular use of the facility and said of Cobb, “most days I would go in there, he would already be in there. And then most days when I would leave, he would still be there.”

Working closely with Frank Perez, one of the team’s physical therapists, Cobb began with exercises in the swimming pool. Then he progressed to standing on flat ground. Before long, he was back in the weight room. At each step, Cobb seemed to be hitting his milestones earlier and earlier.

“Frank showed up every single day and worked me to the bone,” Cobb said. “I’d be gassed and he wouldn’t feel bad for one second. He just had me hit the next one.”

If it all sounds a bit remarkable for a 36-year-old entering his 13th season, well, it is.

In 2011, he had thoracic outlet surgery, a career-ender for many players. In 2015, he had the ulnar collateral ligament in his elbow repaired, otherwise known as Tommy John surgery. It wasn’t his first hip surgery, either, having undergone a similar procedure on his right hip in 2019.

And yet, at age 35 last season, he was named an All-Star for the first time. (And, he later learned, had been pitching on an impingement in his left hip for about two months at the time.)

“He’s a special human,” said lefty Robbie Ray, 32, who’s recovering from Tommy John and flexor tendon surgeries. “I’m definitely trying to figure out, ‘Hey man, what are you doing?’”

Added the 30-year-old Conforto, pausing to choose his words correctly: “He’s not a 24-year-old young kid, I’m gonna say it as delicately as I can. He doesn’t give off that he’s super old, but he’s been around for a long time. Maybe in some ways that helps.”

Given the six-month timetable, Cobb said he hesitated to have the surgery at all, assuming he would be out until the All-Star break. Immediately following the operation, he began insisting that he would be back ahead of schedule. Webb, his rotation partner and close confidant, thought Cobb was kidding.

Devin Cooley’s introduction to ice skating as a young boy growing up in the South Bay was a bit of a happy accident.

His older brother, Ryan, was a Cub Scout trying to earn a skating badge, so his mom and dad, Heynia Loro-Cooley and Scott Cooley, took their two oldest boys to an outdoor rink in Palo Alto. Devin, then 5, saw everyone on the ice and wanted to get out there as well, and Heynia obliged by putting skates on him, too.

“He’d never skated before,” Heynia said. “So, I put skates on the kid and he took off. He was better than his older brother.”

Cooley hasn’t stopped since.

Cooley, now 26 and in his fourth professional season, will make his NHL debut Sunday night when the San Jose Sharks play the Chicago Blackhawks at United Center. A Los Gatos native, Cooley will become just the fourth player from Santa Clara County to suit up for an NHL game, and the first to do it in a Sharks uniform.

Cooley’s parents were ecstatic to hear their son had been acquired by the Sharks from the Buffalo Sabres on March 8. Devin Cooley played for the Jr. Sharks for years and attended dozens of games at the Tank before he moved away from home eight years ago to further his career.

“So having it come full circle and seeing him play for the Sharks,” Scott Cooley, Devin’s dad, said, “it’s just nothing short of a miracle.”

Besides seeing him quickly adapt to the ice, Scott and Heynia knew there was little doubt that Devin wanted to be a goalie.

When Cooley first began playing, teams at that age level would have everyone play a variety of positions. Once Cooley began playing goalie at age 6, though, he found his calling.

“It was maybe his second year,” Scott Cooley said, “and they said ‘Hey, Devin, do you want to try it?’ So they threw him in, and he just loved it and never looked back.”

While some kids enjoyed scoring goals or playing with the puck in the offensive zone, Cooley loved being the one stopping those shots and playing the most important position on the ice.

“Whether you win or lose, so much is dependent on the goalie,” Scott Cooley said. “I think he liked that position that he could make his fate.

“Just having that ability to kind of set your path and really excel at something without having to be completely dependent on the team, even though he is to a certain extent. But he’s an independent kind of guy.”

Devin Cooley was around 16 years old and playing at the AAA level in San Jose when his parents started to think their son could have a future in hockey past the youth level. Like other special players his age, there were opportunities to go to a more traditional hockey environment with better competition.

Heynia said a conversation took place where Devin needed to decide to go all in on hockey or start thinking about a Plan B past high school. Devin, naturally, wanted to see how far he could go in the sport.

“He decided, ‘I want to take this to the next level,’” she said.

Devin Cooley remained with the Jr. Sharks and graduated with his class at Los Gatos High School in 2015.

Undrafted, Cooley, now at 6-foot-5 after a late growth spurt, moved to Muskegon, Michigan to play at the USHL level and the next season, split time between the Springfield Jr. Blues of the NAHL and Wenatchee Wild of the BCHL before he began a three-year career at the University of Denver in 2017.

In his sophomore year with the Pioneers, Cooley had a .934 save percentage in 20 games, still the second-highest single-season mark in program history.

Cooley went 15-9-4 with a 1.93 GAA, .927 save percentage, and six shutouts in three seasons with Denver and signed an entry-level contract with the Nashville Predators in Sept. 2020.

“Denver doesn’t have a football team, and it doesn’t have another team that is front and center like their hockey team,” Scott Cooley said. “So at 6-foot-5, you really stand out. Him walking around the campus, he was like the hometown hero in Denver.”

Cooley spent most of his first full pro season in the ECHL and has spent most of the last three years in the AHL in the Predators and Sabres organizations without getting the chance to play in an NHL game. With the Milwaukee Admirals, he backed up Connor Ingram, now with the Arizona Coyotes, in 2021-2022, and top Predators prospect Yaroslav Askarov in 2022-2023.

Down on the Sabres’ depth chart, too, there were times when Cooley, according to his mom, wasn’t sure whether he’d get a chance to play in the NHL.

“He’s had a lot sitting on the bench,” Heynia said. “A lot of having to just show up every day at practice and be the very best that he can, knowing that he’s not going to get the playing time. That wears on you after a while and you start to question yourself and doubt yourself.

“So we’ve had lots of conversations about really truly believing that you are in the right place at the right time and that you are aligned with what’s supposed to happen at this moment. If you go too far forward with your thinking, you’re going to make yourself crazy.”

Cooley was acquired by the Sharks from the Sabres for a 2025 seventh-round pick and as a pending unrestricted free agent, his time in the organization might be brief. The Sharks for next season already have goalies Mackenzie Blackwood, Vitek Vanacek, Magnus Chrona, and Georgi Romanov under contract, with Eetu Makiniemi a restricted free agent.