Hall named game MVP

GLENDALE, Arizona — Saniyah Hall showed why she is the best high school girls basketball player in the country.

The 6-foot-2 senior from SPIRE Academy (Ohio) was named the MVP at the 25th annual McDonald’s All-All-American Girls Game Tuesday at Desert Diamond Arena.

Hall scored a game-high 21 points, including 13 in the first half, to lead the East to a 91-71 victory.

She is heading to Southern Cal where she will join JuJu Watkins and Jazzy Davidson as the Trojans appear loaded for an NCAA national championship run.

Hall played her freshman and sophomore seasons at Shaker Heights Laurel (Ohio) High School, where she was a finalist for Ohio Ms. Basketball. She helped Laurel defeat Crestview and West Branch.

Lakers will miss Doncic

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Luka Doncic will miss the rest of the Los Angeles Lakers’ regular season with a Grade 2 strain of his left hamstring, the team announced Friday.

Doncic is the NBA’s top scorer and the driving force behind the Lakers’ surge into the third spot in the Western Conference standings, but he injured his leg during Los Angeles’ blowout loss in Oklahoma City on Thursday. An MRI exam revealed the severity of the strain.

The Pacific Division champion Lakers (50-27) have just five games left before the postseason, starting Sunday at Dallas.

Grade 2 hamstring strains sometimes require several weeks of recovery, but Doncic also has prior experience with hamstring issues. He missed four games right before the All-Star break with another left hamstring strain, but returned to the lineup after the break.

Doncic is putting up spectacular numbers in his first full season with the Lakers, who acquired the Slovenian superstar from the Mavericks last season. He is averaging 33.5 points, 8.3 assists and 7.7 rebounds per game for Los Angeles, and he was named the NBA’s Western Conference player of the month for March after racking up 13 consecutive 30-point performances, including seven 40-point games, a 51-point barrage against Chicago and a 60-point masterclass in Miami.

Doncic scored a whopping 600 points in March, becoming only the 10th player in NBA history to hit that mark in one month. While LeBron James and Austin Reaves have also played well down the stretch, the Lakers thoroughly depend on Doncic, who either scored or assisted on 58% of the their total points in March.

Doncic is all but certain to win his second NBA scoring title — but he has played in only 64 games this season, which means he will finish one game shy of the 65-game threshold to be eligible for the NBA’s biggest postseason awards.

He was a lock to be an All-NBA selection, and he had even been making a late run at consideration for the MVP award with his outstanding play down the stretch.

Along with his two absences caused by hamstring injuries and a handful of additional absences for minor medical maintenance early in the season, Doncic missed two games last December while flying to Slovenia for the birth of his second child. He also missed one game last week under suspension for accumulating 16 technical fouls.

Since he sits just shy of the 65-game threshold, Doncic theoretically could challenge the rule by citing the extraordinary circumstances of his daughter’s birth in Europe through the grievance process created for these collectively bargained rules. It’s wholly unclear whether that appeal would have any chance of success.

If Doncic wins the scoring title but doesn’t make the All-NBA teams, he would be only the third scoring champ in league history to fail to do so. Elvin Hayes wasn’t selected when he won the crown as a rookie in 1969, and Bob McAdoo wasn’t chosen for the teams in 1976.

Lakers coach JJ Redick said Doncic was injured in the first half against the Thunder, but was cleared to return to the game while his team was getting plastered by the defending NBA champion Thunder. Doncic lasted only about four minutes before he spun, stopped and went down on the court in pain, leading to his departure.

The loss was only the Lakers’ third in 19 games since Feb. 26, but Doncic’s absence casts a cloud of uncertainty over the rest of their year. Los Angeles only leads fourth-place Denver (49-28) by one game, while sixth-place Minnesota (46-30) is 3 1/2 games back with a game in hand.

The Lakers’ regular-season finale is next Sunday, April 12, at home against Utah. Their first-round playoff series is expected to start the following weekend.

Twins happy at home

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The Minnesota Twins have a lot of work — and winning — to do to begin to win back their fan base.

This unusual home opener, culminating in a 10-4 comeback victory over the Tampa Bay Rays, was a good start.

With the tarp covering the infield during a drizzle-altered batting practice session on Friday, the ballpark suddenly went quiet when Target Field and the surrounding downtown area lost power. The outage resulted in a delayed start by nearly an hour.

But the crowd, later announced at about 94% capacity at 36,042, didn’t seem to mind even despite the 38-degree afternoon temperature. The pregame happy-hour special — $2 beers, $2 hot dogs, $2 selected snacks — that was supposed to end at first pitch was extended through the second inning after the lack of power prevented concession sales. The fans roared after each bank of lights came back on during the ramp-up period.

“We can sell all the $2 beers we want. We can have all the concerts we want. But people want to see a winner. The product we put on the field is ultimately what is going to drive hope within our fan base,” executive chair Tom Pohlad said in an interview session with reporters in the home dugout before the power outage.

Pohlad, who assumed control of the club about four months ago from his younger brother in one of many significant leadership changes the organization has recently undergone, has aggressively begun an attempt to repair the relationship between the Twins and their fans.

From winter phone calls to fans who hadn’t renewed season tickets to in-person meetings with current star players and minor league prospects, Pohlad has immersed himself in both the business and baseball operations. He never before had a formal role with the franchise while running the other family companies.

“I am living and dying on every single inning and out. I did not expect how seriously I was going to take every single game,” Pohlad said.

After winning a playoff series in 2023 for the first time in 21 years, the Twins cut payroll and have not recovered on the field or in the public eye. The dynamics around Major League Baseball, the media landscape, the Pohlad family and the Twin Cities area are far more complex, but that’s the basic problem.

“I know there’s skepticism outside these walls. But I can tell you the feeling in this stadium is very positive and hopeful about where we’re going,” Pohlad said. “It’s nearly impossible to sell patience given where we’re at, which is why what happens on the field is the only thing that’s going to matter at the end of the day.”

Which is why beating the Rays 10-4 on the strength of a seven-run seventh inning behind a grand slam by Tristan Gray was so important, especially in such inclement weather after the hour delay. The game finished in hard rain, with some lightning and thunder in the ninth inning.

The outage was caused by equipment failure along the main line serving the ballpark, Xcel Energy announced in a news release that included an apology to the two teams and the fans for the impact on the game.

“To stick with us through opening day, it means a lot,” center fielder Byron Buxton said. “There is a lot more that goes into it than just them being in the stands. I just wanted to let them know it did not go unnoticed. Having them cheer us all nine innings, that definitely carried us.”