LIVERPOOL, England: Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp was handed a two-match ban on Thursday for questioning the integrity of a Premier League referee, with his poor disciplinary record and failure to heed previous conduct warnings counting against him.
Klopp, who was also fined 75,000 pounds ($93,000), will not be in the technical area for Liverpool’s next-to-last game of the season — at home to Aston Villa on Saturday — but the second match of his punishment has been suspended until the end of next season.
LOS ANGELES: Jimmy Butler’s 35 points and a scorching third quarter propelled the eighth-seeded Miami Heat to a 123-116 victory over the Celtics on Wednesday in Game 1 of the NBA Eastern Conference finals in Boston.
The Heat erased a 13-point second-quarter deficit to snatch home-court advantage from the Celtics, outscoring Boston 46-25 in the third period to seize control.
MIDDLESBROUGH, England: Coventry are one game away from returning to the Premier League for the first time since 2001.
Gustavo Hamer scored the only goal in the 57th minute to give Coventry a 1-0 win over Middlesbrough in the second leg of the Championship playoff semifinals on Wednesday. That was enough to put the visitors through the playoff final against Luton at Wembley on May 27, often dubbed the world’s most lucrative one-off soccer game because of guaranteed earnings the winner will get for reaching the Premier League.
ROME: Novak Djokovic sees a bit of himself in Holger Rune.
The 20-year-old Danish player is solid in nearly every area: A great mover and super fit physically, he’s strong off both his forehand and backhand, has good hands and is an aggressive returner.
Perhaps that’s why Rune has now recorded two victories over Djokovic in little more than six months, beating the 22-time Grand Slam champion 6-2, 4-6, 6-2 Wednesday to reach the Italian Open semifinals.
LEVERKUSEN, Germany: Coach Xabi Alonso is concentrating on Bayer Leverkusen and has dismissed speculation linking him with some of Europe’s biggest clubs.
The 41-year-old Alonso has enjoyed a successful start to his first senior coaching job after turning Leverkusen’s fortunes around and he said Wednesday he’s not finished yet.
“I’m very happy with the team and the club. I’m not thinking at all about my future,” Alonso said before Thursday’s Europa League semifinal match against Roma.
NEWCASTLE: Eddie Howe insists Newcastle United are not seeing themselves as the “hunted” despite Liverpool’s end-of-season run putting their own Champions League hopes at risk.
Instead, head coach Howe prefers to see the top-four race as a battle between Newcastle and themselves, not Liverpool, as is being widely discussed.
A remarkable end-of-campaign run of victories has seen the Reds close a nine-point gap, and now trail Newcastle by just one, as the Magpies prepare to take on fellow top-four chasers Brighton and Hove Albion at St James’ Park on Thursday evening.
DENVER: Nikola Jokic recorded his sixth triple-double of these playoffs with 34 points, 21 rebounds and 14 assists, powering the Denver Nuggets to a 132-126 win over the Los Angeles Lakers in the opener of the Western Conference finals on Tuesday night.
Behind Jokic’s sizzling start and strong finish, and Jamal Murray’s 31 points, Denver beat the Lakers in the opener of the West finals for the first time ever.