CNN
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The New York Knicks fought back from a 20-point third-quarter deficit for the second straight game against the Boston Celtics to open up a 2-0 series lead in the Eastern Conference semifinals.

Jalen Brunson made two clutch free throws with 12.7 seconds remaining to give the Knicks a one-point lead, before Mikal Bridges made another game-winning steal, this time on Jayson Tatum, to secure a huge 91-90 win at TD Garden.

Teams that win the first two games of a playoff series on the road advance to the next round 85.7% of the time, per the Associated Press. The defending champions are now in real danger of being eliminated with the next two games at a raucous Madison Square Garden.

“Two games we’re up 20 points (and) somehow end up not with wins is inexcusable,” Boston star Jaylen Brown, who was the victim of Bridges’ game-winning steal in the series opener, told reporters. “Obviously, being down two, it sucks.

“It’s an opportunity to show what we’re made of,” Brown added. “Obviously, we wouldn’t like to be in this position, but we’re here now, so we got to respond.”

No team in the history of the NBA has shot more three-pointers than this version of the Celtics, but it has been their undoing so far in this series, going a combined 25-of-100 from deep across Games 1 and 2 – including missing a league playoff-record 45 triples in the opener.

The Celtics offense crumbled in the fourth quarter, missing 14 of its final 15 shots that included an incredible run of more than eight minutes without a bucket.

It has been a remarkable start to the series for a Knicks team that finished 10 games back from the No. 1 seed Celtics and got swept 4-0 in the teams’ regular season matchups.

Josh Hart finished with a game-high 23 points for the Knicks, while Karl-Anthony Towns had 21 points and 17 rebounds.

Brunson, the 2024-25 Clutch Player of the Year, had 17 points – including the Knicks’ last six of the game – and seven assists. After shooting 0-for-8 through the first three quarters, Bridges scored all 14 of his points in the fourth before his crucial steal at the end.

Bridges said after the game that the team is “just finding ways to win.”

For the Celtics, Derrick White and Brown had 20 points, but it was a tough night for Tatum who finished with 13 points on 5-of-19 shooting.

Game 3 is at Madison Square Garden in New York on Saturday.

The Oklahoma City Thunder demolished the Denver Nuggets 149-106 on Wednesday to level the series at 1-1.

Oklahoma set a new NBA playoff record for points scored in a half, dropping a staggering 87 in the first half against the Nuggets.

Denver, who fired longtime head coach Michael Malone just before the playoffs, snatched a win in Game 1 with a late Aaron Gordon three-pointer, but Game 2 was never even a contest as the Thunder raced out to a 24-point, first-quarter lead.

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander had a game-high 34 points for the Thunder to go with eight assists and four rebounds, while Chet Holmgren posted a double-double with 15 points and 11 rebounds.

All five Thunder starters, plus three players off the bench, hit double figures in the rout.

Nikola Jokić, Gilgeous-Alexander’s rival for the MVP award, scored just 17 points and fouled out in the third quarter. The three-time MVP had a historic 42-point, 22-rebound performance in Game 1.

Game 3 is in Denver on Saturday.

CNN
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A Norwegian bartered five kilograms (roughly 11 pounds) of semi-dried fish for a ticket to Thursday’s semifinal clash between Bodø/Glimt and Tottenham Hotspur in the Arctic Circle, as the hosts aim to become the first Norwegian club to reach a European final.

Some 50,000 fans were vying for just 480 tickets to the second leg of the Bodø/Glimt Europa League semifinal.

After missing out, Torbjørn Eide, a production manager at a fish farm in Senja, offered five kilos of boknafisk, a Norwegian delicacy worth nearly 2,500 Norwegian crowns ($243), in exchange for a ticket.

“We produce Norway’s best boknafisk, and you probably can’t get it in Bodø city. So I thought maybe someone would want it,” Eide told Norway’s state-run broadcaster NRK on Tuesday.

Øystein Aanes, who had a spare ticket because his brother couldn’t make the game, took the bait. “It was just a fun thing,” Aanes told NRK.

Inspired by the deal, Nils Erik Oskal decided to try his luck with five kilos of reindeer meat.
“Someone took the bait. It didn’t take long,” he said.

Oskal’s trade could be worth about 1,000 Norwegian crowns ($97). “But that doesn’t matter, I get to experience something huge,” Oskal said.

There are two words Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta has used frequently since his team’s 1-0 defeat to PSG in the first leg: “Small margins.”

While many on the outside were critical of Arsenal’s performance at the Emirates last Tuesday, Arteta was the calmest person in the room in his post-match press conference.

It was his firm belief that there was very little between the two teams and that the result could have gone Arsenal’s way if it were not for the “small margins.”

He reiterated that notion again in his pre-match press conference ahead of Wednesday’s second leg and said he’s seen a “huge enthusiasm” and “huge energy” from his players in training this week as they aim to become just the third team to reach the Champions League final after losing the first semifinal leg at home.

“We are a win away from being in the Champions League (final),” Arteta told reporters. “We are in one of the most beautiful cities in the world against a great opponent – it doesn’t get much better than that. We are here to make history, and we have a big opportunity tomorrow.

“We bring a result that gives us so much clarity about what we have to do. A lot of learning from the first leg as well and how small the margins are between the two teams.

“The result, in my opinion, should have been very different to that one. So (Wednesday night), another opportunity to prove that and earn the right to be in the final.”

Speaking to TNT Sports ahead of the match, Arteta said this is Arsenal’s biggest game “for a long time” and – unsurprisingly – again used his favorite phrase when talking about the first leg.

“It’s not just where we want to be; we want to make the final,” he said. “We are very close.