Liverpool head coach Arne Slot has said his team need to win the Champions League to be considered the best in Europe and insists they must be prepared to "suffer" against Paris Saint-Germain.

Slot's side are currently 13 points clear at the top of the Premier League and also finished top of the Champions League table, with PSG boss Luis Enrique having described them as the best team on the continent.

Liverpool play the French champions in the first leg of their round of 16 tie at the Parc des Princes on Wednesday before hosting the second leg at Anfield next week.

"It's a nice compliment to get, but the best team in Europe has to win the Champions League," Slot said in his pre-match news conference on Tuesday. "We are far away from that, starting with a very difficult game tomorrow and then all the difficult ones that are coming up because we have seen the draw.

"I think the best team in Europe at the moment is still Real Madrid as they won this competition last season. Someone else can say something different but, for us, we first have to win it before we can say it."

Reflecting on the quality of PSG, Slot added: "We could only have [faced] two [teams]: Benfica or PSG. Although I like Benfica a lot, everyone who has watched football in the last few months could have told you that maybe we would have preferred to play Benfica instead of PSG.

"But this is also a great fixture to play. It's a great stadium to play in. If you play at Liverpool, you want to play in big games and this is definitely a big game for us. We have to accept the draw and both teams are facing a very strong opponent.

"They are quite intense in terms of pressing. I think if there is one thing people will tell you about us it's that we are quite intense as well. Maybe not always going man v man all over the pitch like PSG, but we like to press aggressively. It's so difficult to judge before the game.

"Tomorrow, we have to see if they are on top of us and if they are we have to suffer like we did against [Manchester] City, or hopefully we can hold the ball very well and we can play a similar style to how we did in all other games apart from the City one and that's us dominating the ball."

Liverpool must wait to see if forward Cody Gakpo is fit to feature on Wednesday night after he picked up a knock in training earlier this week. The Dutchman returned to action as a substitute in the win over City last month after struggling with an ankle injury.

"He was close to being ready to play again but unfortunately yesterday he had to block a shot, and he felt a bit of pain again," Slot said. "We brought him with us to judge if he can be part of the squad, but it will be a close call."

COLLEGE STATION, Texas -- Auburn coach Bruce Pearl knew exactly why his top-ranked team fell to No. 22 Texas A&M on Tuesday night.

"They just physically dominated us," he said.

The Aggies never trailed in the 83-72 victory, which snapped a season-long four-game skid.

It was Texas A&M's first-ever win over a team ranked No. 1 in the AP Top 25 poll and ends a six-game winning streak for the Tigers, who clinched the Southeastern Conference title with a win over Kentucky on Saturday.

Auburn has held the top spot in the poll for eight straight weeks and was a unanimous No. 1 pick for a second consecutive week.

Pearl denied that Auburn looked past the Aggies after wrapping up the conference championship this weekend. He said their struggles were simply a matter of A&M playing better Tuesday night.

"They physically manhandled us," he said. "And if this team is going to continue to win, we're going to run up against teams like Texas A&M or like Florida or like Duke that are big and physical."

The Aggies entered the game leading the nation in offensive rebounding and Pearl pointed to their 24-9 advantage in this game as evidence of their physicality.

"We have no excuses to allow those guys to get 24 offensive rebounds," he said. "I give Texas A&M all the credit. Our guys were physically dominated. ... So no, I don't excuse our guys at all. We're better than that, but not tonight."

Hearing Pearl's comments about the Aggies meant a lot to Texas A&M coach Buzz Williams, who said physicality and communication are the two most important things he tries to teach.

"We have to play incredibly physical, and I think we have to do a lot of the things that are not necessarily in the stat sheet for us to win," Williams said.

The Tigers were also hurt by an off night from top scorer Johni Broome, who entered the game averaging 18.4 points but managed just eight in his second straight game scoring in single digits. He left the game for a couple of minutes early in the first half with what appeared to be a shoulder injury but played 32 minutes despite the problem.

"It may have affected him," Pearl said. "He obviously had a shoulder injury in December. He had it banged a few times and it he obviously had it banged [Tuesday] and it was bothering him. He tried to play through it."

Along with Broome's struggles Tuesday, the Tigers were also without one of their top defenders in Denver Jones, who sat out with an ankle injury.

"Denver's the best one-on-one cover guy I got," Pearl said. "So obviously missing Denver was a factor."

The win was especially sweet for the Aggies because it was Senior Night at Reed Arena.

"The guys that were on the court have been here from Day 1," said senior guard Wade Taylor IV, who had 16 points. "We built this program from what it was before we got here to what it is now, and Coach wanted to put us out there because he knew that we had a lot to play for, and we came out with the win.

"I'm thankful for those guys. We've been through a lot together -- the ups, the down, the bad, the ugly, and to get this win on Senior Night with our last time playing on this court meant everything."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

LOS ANGELES -- The Lakers' 40-year-old superstar, LeBron James, became the NBA's first 50,000-point man Tuesday night.

James came into the Lakers' game against the New Orleans Pelicans needing a point to reach 50,000 combined points for his career in the regular season and postseason. He reached the milestone on his first shot, connecting on a 3-pointer from the left wing off a Luka Doncic feed to put the Lakers up 13-6 with 8:34 remaining in the first quarter.

During an ensuing timeout, Lakers public address announcer Lawrence Tanter called out the accomplishment, telling the crowd, "Ladies and gentlemen, we all have just witnessed history."

James finished with 34 points, 8 rebounds and 6 assists in Los Angeles' 136-115 win. The Lakers have won 17 of 20 to move into second place in the Western Conference at 39-21.

James is the league's all-time leader in regular-season and postseason scoring -- with 41,871 points in the regular season and 8,162 in the playoffs.

"It's a hell of a lot of points, and I'm super blessed to be able to put that many points up in the best league in the world with the best players in the world over my career," James told Spectrum SportsNet in an on-court interview after the game. "It's pretty special."

In 28 games since turning 40, James is averaging 26.4 points on 54.1% shooting (42.3% from 3), 8.2 rebounds and 8.1 assists.

James recently shared a graphic on Instagram showing how those averages compare favorably to his last MVP season in 2012-13, when he averaged 26.8 points on 56.5% shooting (40.6% from 3), 8.0 rebounds and 7.2 assists for the Miami Heat.

"I've had the opportunity to play the game that I love, and I've always been true to it, so I'm going to always try to give back," James said Tuesday night.

James went 10-of-18 from the floor and 5-of-10 on 3-pointers, shooting better than 50% from the floor for the sixth time in his past seven games. And Doncic had 30 points on 9-of-19 shooting (6-of-13 on 3s), 15 assists and 8 rebounds as he and James became the first pair of Lakers teammates to score 30 apiece with five or more 3s in the same game in franchise history.

"It's amazing," Doncic said of James. "Watching him do this stuff at this age, it's just unbelievable. Like, 50K points, I can't even explain how insane that is. He might get to 70K, you never know."

The 22-year veteran reached the 50,000-point milestone just hours after being named the Western Conference Player of the Month for February. He averaged 29.3 points, 10.5 rebounds and 6.9 assists and L.A. went 10-2.

"We wouldn't be in the position we're in without him playing at the level he's been playing at," Lakers coach JJ Redick said before the Pelicans game. "And that's offensively and defensively."

Redick also admitted the Lakers wouldn't be in the position of celebrating James' 50,000th point Tuesday if the league had properly recorded the points James scored in recent years in some of the new wrinkles to the schedule.

In three play-in tournament games (2021, 2023, 2024), James scored a combined 75 points. Those points have not been added to James' career playoff total. And in the in-season tournament championship game in 2023, James scored 24 points. Those points are not reflected in his regular-season career total, either.

"I have a strong feeling towards the play-in tournament, that those little one-game scenarios are playoff games," Redick said. "I think those games should count, for sure, in the playoffs."

While the 70,000-point bar that Doncic set for James might be out of reach, the Lakers' elder statesmen did discuss what's allowed him to stay competing at the level he's been at for so long.

"Just not falling out of love with the process," James said. "Continuing to fall in love with the process, that's the hardest thing, every single year. You know it's going to be a long season, it's 82 games, 41 of them are on the road. It's a lot of travel. And as you get older, it affects you even differently. If you have a family, it affects you even differently. So, the process. Trying not to fall out of love with the process is the hardest thing."

GOODYEAR, Ariz. -- Cleveland Guardians outfielder Chase DeLauter, widely considered one of the organization's top prospects, had surgery Tuesday to repair a sports hernia and is expected to miss the first couple of months of the season.

The 2022 first-round draft pick hurt his bilateral core muscle during a pregame workout Feb. 28. DeLauter was examined Monday by Dr. William Meyers in Philadelphia, and he confirmed the sports hernia and recommended surgery.

The Guardians said DeLauter, who was likely to start the season at Triple-A Columbus, will return to Arizona this week to begin his rehab. The return-to-play timeframe for similar cases is typically eight to 12 weeks.

DeLauter hit .261 with eight homers and 24 RBIs across three minor league levels last season. That included Columbus, where the former James Madison standout batted .304 with two homers and seven RBIs in 23 at-bats.

In other news, outfielder Will Brennan was taken out of Tuesday's Cactus League game against the Los Angeles Angels during the fifth inning for precautionary reasons. The Guardians said Brennan was experiencing mild low back tightness.

GLENDALE, Ariz. -- More than the fastball that sat at 98 mph or the three shutout innings, the story of Roki Sasaki's debut as a Los Angeles Dodger on Tuesday night was best told through the words of the hitters facing him.

"Nasty," Austin Hays said.

"Heavy," TJ Friedl said.

"Electric," Austin Wynns said.

Sasaki more than earned the praise from the three Cincinnati Reds veterans with 17 combined major league seasons and their future Hall of Fame manager, Terry Francona, who called the 23-year-old's first spring training outing in a Dodgers uniform "impressive."

Sasaki, who signed with the Dodgers in January after a lengthy recruiting process in which he chose them over the San Diego Padres and Toronto Blue Jays, struck out five in the team's 4-2 win at Camelback Ranch. Two weeks before the Dodgers kick off the 2025 MLB season in Japan, where he starred for the past four years with the Chiba Lotte Mariners, Sasaki reinforced why Los Angeles is comfortable starting him in the second game of such a high-profile series.

Beyond his high-octane fastball, which peaked at 99.3 mph, Sasaki unleashed a split-fingered fastball that evaluators believe is among the best in the world -- and generated seven misses on eight swings.

"Some break straight down, some go to the left, some go to the right," Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. "So it is tough to square it up. You just don't know what it's going to do."

Sasaki, who entered the game after a four-inning start by countryman Yoshinobu Yamamoto, shook off a shaky start in which he gave up a hard-hit single to Wynns and followed with a 97 mph fastball to the gut of Stuart Fairchild, who was squaring to bunt. Sasaki then struck out two Reds regulars, Friedl and Matt McLain, staring at splitters.

"The splitter was like two different splitters from what I saw," Friedl said.

Sasaki signed with the Dodgers for a $6.5 million bonus in January -- a fraction of what he would have earned had he waited two more years and come to Major League Baseball as an international free agent -- and has spent spring training trying to fine-tune his stuff, particularly the fastball that has peaked at 102.5 mph but lost oomph last year. Time spent in the Dodgers' pitching lab helped Sasaki with his mechanics. While he said he felt a combination of excitement and nervousness before entering the game Tuesday, he focused once he reached the mound.

"Today's the fruit of all the hard work that I put in during the offseason and the first part of spring training," Sasaki said through an interpreter.

A leadoff double from All-Star shortstop Elly De La Cruz, a walk to Christian Encarnacion-Strand and a wild pitch left Sasaki facing trouble in the sixth, but he induced a popout from Noelvi Marte to conclude the inning. Two more strikeouts in a hitless seventh ended his night on 46 pitches, 26 of which were strikes.

"We're going to continue to learn more from Roki," Roberts said. "And obviously he's pitched in a lot of big games in his career, but you're also in an environment where he's comfortable. This is something that's all new to him. And so he's learning on the fly and we're asking a lot of him, but there's a lot of confidence supporting him."

Roberts called it a "good night for the Dodgers," who added Cy Young winner Blake Snell to a rotation that already included All-Star Tyler Glasnow and will later add future Hall of Famer Clayton Kershaw and Shohei Ohtani, who is returning from his second Tommy John surgery. Surrounded by stars, Sasaki still will get the ball March 19 against the Chicago Cubs, one day after Yamamoto opens the season.

Sasaki will start in his final outing of the spring on March 11, Roberts said, before the highly anticipated series in the Tokyo Dome. He'll do so having found success in his first taste of major league hitters outside of the World Baseball Classic.

"A couple things I noticed with big league hitters: They do hit mistakes, and they do take some splits that I threw," Sasaki said. "But I did feel really good about being able to jam some hitters. As long as I throw quality pitches, I should be able to get these guys out."

The man approached Raducanu near the player hotel in Dubai the day before her second round match with Karolina Muchova.

He gave her a letter and took her photo, which understandably unnerved Raducanu, who had been aware of his presence at tournaments in Singapore, Abu Dhabi and Doha in preceding weeks.

Although she reported it to a member of her team, the information was not passed on to the WTA or the tournament until the following day, leaving security staff with just a few hours to prepare.

"I think they were very emotional weeks, because it had carried on for a few weeks before," said Raducanu.

"It was quite tiring. I took a week break when I got home in England and I then decided to come here."

Raducanu, who shot to worldwide fame when she won the US Open as an 18-year-old in 2021, told the BBC she is unlikely to invest in private security at tournaments, but added she is taking increased precautions.

"I'm always now very aware and not necessarily doing things on my own any more," she added.

"I'm always with someone, and always being watched I would say."

Having decided to make the journey to Indian Wells - one of the biggest events outside of the four majors - Raducanu has been surprised by how much happier she has been feeling since arriving in California.

Raducanu will play Moyuka Uchijima of Japan in the first round on Thursday, with the winner to face American third seed Coco Gauff in round two.

"Since being here in this environment - which is one of my favourite tournaments - I have felt a lot better," she said.

"The allure of Indian Wells was a big part of me coming. I wasn't sure if I was going to come and compete so soon.

"I just wanted to make sure I was ready but since coming here I have surprised myself with how happy I feel here.

"It's probably one of my favourite places on the calendar and I am ready to go."