Fiebich and Sabally lose their first WNBA final game
The German national basketball players Leonie Fiebich and Nyara Sabally narrowly lost the first final game for the championship in the WNBA. Your team, the New York Liberty, lost to the Minnesota Lynx 93:95 (84:84, 44:36) after overtime despite home advantage and a long, high lead. With five minutes left in regulation time, the Liberty led by 15 points.
Fiebich was in the starting lineup and scored 17 points. She particularly shone from the three-point line with five converted throws. The 24-year-old, who was named to the All-Rookie team in her first season in the WNBA, also recorded six rebounds and four assists. Sabally had four points and three rebounds in six minutes off the bench. The Liberty’s best thrower was Jonquel Jones with 24 points.
On the other side, a trio led the Lynx’s comeback: Napheesa Collier scored the decisive basket just ten seconds before the end of overtime and scored 21 points, Courtney Williams scored 23 and Kayla McBride scored 22.
NFL: Seahawks also lose to 49ers
After a strong start to the season in the US football league NFL, the Seattle Seahawks are now suffering a series of defeats. The team around quarterback Geno Smith lost the division duel against the San Francisco 49ers 24:36 and suffered their third defeat in a row. The two rivals are now tied at the top of the NFC West with a record of three wins and three losses each.
49ers quarterback Brock Purdy scored three touchdown passes and managed a total of 255 passing yards. The match winner for San Francisco was tight end George Kittle with two touchdowns in the second half. Seattle came back from a 20-point deficit at the start of the second half, but an interception by Smith stopped the comeback midway through the final quarter.
NHL: Stützle scores twice at the start of the season
National ice hockey player Tim Stützle started the new NHL season with a brace. The 22-year-old scored the first (6th) and last (59th) goal of the encounter in his Ottawa Senators’ 3-1 win against champions Florida Panthers. He also gave the new coach Travis Green a perfect debut.
Stützle, who had missed part of the preparation due to injury, took Florida center Aleksander Barkow out of the game shortly before the end with a hard check. “I hope he’s not injured,” said Stützle after the duel for the puck, which ended for his opponent in the boards: “That was just an unfortunate move.”
Defender Moritz Seider, on the other hand, started the season with a defeat, and he recorded at least one assist in the Detroit Red Wings’ 3:6 win against the Pittsburgh Penguins.
NBA will probably play games in China again in the future
The North American professional basketball league NBA will probably play games in China again in the future. On the sidelines of a sports management conference at Columbia University, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver confirmed Thursday that he expects this to happen again “at some point.” The media had previously reported about a possible return.
In 2019, the world’s best basketball league last played games in China before then-General Manager of the Houston Rockets, Daryl Morey, made a controversial tweet in support of freedom for Hong Kong. Thereafter, no more games took place in the country. The NBA lost hundreds of millions of dollars because it was no longer shown on Chinese television until 2022.
“We had a well-known tweet incident there before the pandemic, and the Chinese government banned us from broadcasting for a period of time,” Silver explained. “We accepted that. We stood by our values.”
The NBA has been growing globally for years; it played preseason games in Abu Dhabi at the beginning of October. There will also be a game in Paris again in the 2024/25 season. It was decided “that it would be positive if we expanded our game internationally,” said the 62-year-old. This probably also applies to China again.
