A year ago Kurtis Patterson had completed the high point of his career - a maiden Test century - and looked a more-than-even chance of being part of the Ashes. However, things did not turn out that way and this week in Sydney he will play just his second first-class match of an injury-disrupted season which has seen him slip back into the pack of batsmen-in-waiting.

His Ashes hopes dwindled during a lean Australia A tour of England before the squad was picked and hopes of forcing his way back into the set-up at the beginning of this season were dashed by a quad injury, initially suffered in training before its recurrence during the Sheffield Shield match against Tasmania. The 26-year old has since admitted he was too keen to push his comeback.

Patterson only returned to first-team action in mid-January - for his new BBL side Perth Scorchers - and will now finally have the chance to pull on the whites against Victoria at the SCG.

"I accepted the reality of the situation," he said. "I just had to concentrate on putting all my energy into getting my quad right. It's never nice to miss big chunks of cricket, especially when it feels like you are batting well, so just really stoked to be back playing."

It will take a lot for Patterson to get back in the Test fold any time soon. Australia swept all five home Tests against Pakistan and New Zealand with just two matches in Bangladesh between now and the start of the 2020-21 home summer. There is, perhaps, one middle-order position to play for with Matthew Wade having not nailed down his spot but Patterson is unlikely to figure in the thinking for Bangladesh even if he knows he remains in the selectors' thoughts having been included in a strong Australia A side to face England Lions in Melbourne next week.

"It's a white-ball winter with the T20 World Cup on [next October] with the amount of white-ball cricket the boys are playing in South Africa and England," he said. "To be honest, I'm just happy to be back playing. I've worked on that skill of putting the Australian stuff out of my mind, there's only two Tests and they are in Bangladesh ,so who knows how much this back half of the season with a seaming, swinging Duke ball will count for that? It will just be nice to win some games for New South Wales and hopefully another Shield."

A return to Australia A colours excites Patterson as the selectors continue the recent trend of picking strong sides in what have become Test trials of late. Patterson benefitted from one last season when his twin hundreds against the Sri Lankans in Hobart hastened his Test debut when he had not been in the original squad.

"Lot of credit is due to CA, the feeling among the playing group is certainly that it's a genuine second XI Australian team which wasn't really the case for a few years," he said. "The guys understand they are close, there's a bit of added pressure on those games, it's not just a hit around for the young players of potential. It's always nice to play an English team and potentially leave some scars."

Beyond the latter part of this domestic season, Patterson's plans remain undecided. He has previously spoken about being keen for a county contract but he may put his focus into fitness and the fact he is due to get married.

"Still trying to work that out, I'm getting married on May 16 so, in terms of cricket, that throws a bit of a spanner in the works and obviously with the quad I need to dedicate some time to that in the off season to make sure I get that right going into next summer."

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.

DALLAS -- All-Star point guard Luka Doncic displayed no signs of rust in his return after missing seven games due to a sprained right ankle. Nor did he disrupt the rhythm Kristaps Porzingis established during Doncic's absence.

Doncic had 33 points, 12 rebounds and 8 assists in the Dallas Mavericks' 130-111 victory over the Sacramento Kings on Wednesday night. Porzingis contributed 27 points, 13 rebounds, 5 assists and 3 blocked shots in the blowout victory during the Mavs' finale before the All-Star break.

It was one of the young Dallas franchise cornerstones' best performances as a duo, as Doncic and Porzingis showed the kind of synergy they struggled to form early in the season and then saw interrupted by extended injury absences for each.

"It's great that we both had those nights," said Doncic, who fed Porzingis on five of his eight assists. "We've got to keep working, and we're going to get better and better."

The 20-year-old Doncic, an All-Star starter averaging 28.9 points, 9.5 rebounds and 8.7 assists in his second season, has put up spectacular numbers on a consistent basis when healthy all season. Porzingis, 24, got off to a frustratingly slow start after sitting out the previous season and a half while recovering from a torn ACL in his left knee.

The chemistry between the two was clunky early in the season, while Doncic starred and Porzingis struggled. The Mavs averaged only 101.9 points per 100 possessions with both on the floor in the first 10 games.

As Porzingis accepted a secondary role, often spacing the floor as a weakside 3-point threat, the Dallas offense scored at a historic rate. The Mavs averaged 124.0 points per 100 possessions with Doncic and Porzingis on the floor during a monthlong stretch after those first 10 games, and Dallas went 11-3 during that span. (Dallas' offensive rating of 116.5 this season ranks as the best ever.)

Doncic and Porzingis had played only 160 minutes together over a 30-game span since then entering Wednesday night. Doncic twice sprained his right ankle, causing him to miss a total of 11 games. Between those sprains, Porzingis missed 10 consecutive games due to soreness in his right knee.

If there was a silver lining with Doncic's ankle sprains for the Mavs, it was that Porzingis thrived as the focal point of the offense.

"Maybe in a sense where [I could] get my rhythm a bit more. Maybe in that sense," said Porzingis, who averaged 28.8 points per game on 48.8% shooting during Doncic's recent absence, compared to 18.4 points on 41.6% shooting overall this season. "But I felt like, yeah, right before he got hurt, we were also getting in a pretty good rhythm, we were playing with each other. Tonight was great."

The Mavs shot 56.5% from the floor and 42.5% from 3-point range in the rout of the Kings. Doncic was 10-of-18 from the floor and 3-of-7 from long distance, while Porzingis was 11-of-16 overall and 2-of-5 on 3s.

The dynamic between Dallas' costars has changed since earlier in the season due in part to the season-ending Achilles tendon injury suffered by starting center Dwight Powell, one of the NBA's most efficient pick-and-roll finishers. The 7-foot-3 Porzingis is now utilized much more often in that action with Doncic, and they're developing a feel for each other in those situations.

"They're two great young players that really do a lot to enhance each other's games," Mavs coach Rick Carlisle said. "The playmaking, communication and eye contact between them throughout the game offensively was fantastic. Porzingis mixed rolls and pops, Luka was driving and stepping back, and they were playing great off each other. It's a great thing to see, particularly heading into the break."

Porzingis has spoken openly on several occasions about needing time to get comfortable in a new system, particularly when he was getting a large share of his shots as a spot-up shooter from 3-point range. The Mavs' offense has evolved to mix in more midrange opportunities for Porzingis, an element of his game that he values but wasn't analytics-friendly earlier this season.

"Luka's done a great job communicating to me [about] where I wanna get the ball," Porzingis said. "He's also getting used to playing with me and he's really starting to find me in those spots where I'm comfortable, that midrange area. And slowly these things are starting to click. I think as we keep working, playing together, it's going to get better and better and better."

NEW YORK -- In order for his team to beat the Toronto Raptors, who were riding a formidable winning streak, Nets coach Kenny Atkinson said that Brooklyn's "effort and compete level has got to be two levels higher" than normal.

"We have to pitch close to a perfect game to beat this team," Atkinson said. "That is how good they are."

Well, the Nets fulfilled that nearly perfect metaphoric pitch, defeating the Raptors 101-91 and snapping Toronto's 15-game winning streak on Wednesday night. Brooklyn's win came just four nights after the Nets lost by one point to the Raptors in Scotiabank Arena.

"We were walking zombies," Kyle Lowry said after the game. "We didn't play well tonight, simple as that. We missed shots, we weren't aggressive. And give them credit. They played their butts off, and they beat us. It's only one game."

With Toronto's streak ending at 15 games, Milwaukee still owns the longest winning streak of the season at 18.

Now, the Nets enter All-Star break having won seven of their past 10 games for a 25-28 overall record.

"It's a great win," Jarrett Allen said. "Especially snapping their 15-game win streak. It's a big mark for us."

After the teams traded buckets early on, Brooklyn took control of the game early. At the half, Toronto trailed by 12 points. Through their winning streak, the Raptors had trailed just five times at the break. In Barclays Center, Toronto had just 40 points at halftime. According to ESPN Stats & Information research, that is tied for the second-fewest points in a Raptors first half all season.

The Raptors whittled the Nets' lead down to 10 several times during the third quarter, but they never shaved Brooklyn's advantage down to single digits. A buzzer-beating 3-pointer from Pascal Siakam to end the third quarter left fans' mouths agape and once again cut the Nets' lead to 10.

But in the final period, Brooklyn kept coming. Every time the Raptors would sink a basket, the Nets had an answer.

After the game, Raptors players joked in the locker room and didn't seem too distraught over the streak coming to an end.

"It is what it is, man," Fred VanVleet said. "I just think we didn't have enough juice to overcome some of the things that were going on tonight. We weren't going to win them all. The break has come at a good time."

The Raptors are hoping the All-Star break will allow Marc Gasol and Norman Powell to complete their rehab and return to the team, giving Toronto an added boost.

"I think when you look at it in totality, sitting where we are now, I think we're extremely pleased to get to this point," coach Nick Nurse said. "I think our team really battled with a couple of key guys missing. We've got some growth to do and we need to do it for sure to make a run [at the championship] again."

AUSTIN, Texas – The NTT IndyCar Series concluded its first open test of the season Wednesday with 27 drivers using 25 cars to complete 1,480 laps at Circuit of the Americas.

The field included six former series champions and seven drivers who have yet to start an NTT IndyCar Series race. It was one of those former champs who posted the fastest lap around the 20-turn, 3.41-mile road course that will host the season’s fourth race, the AutoNation IndyCar Challenge on Sunday, April 26.

Will Power, the 2014 NTT IndyCar Series champ, recorded a lap of 1 minute, 46.7603 seconds/114.987 miles per hour that was not far off his pole-winning speed of a year ago at COTA. He was inside 0.8 of a second from his pole effort of 1:46.0177/115.792 mph last March.

“It always feels great, you know,” Power said. “It’s good for all my guys to see we have the pace. We went through as many items as we could. Obviously, it was very rushed at the end there with red flags and everything, so didn’t get everything done, but kind of some of the big stuff that we needed to know, we understand.”

Andretti Autosport’s Alexander Rossi posted the second-fastest lap at 1:46.9999/114.729 mph. Interestingly, he qualified second to Power here last season.

“It was obviously great to finally get back on track,” Rossi said. “It’s been a long offseason. The waiting around for weather was hard, but I think the team did a good job. We got through a lot of our run plan with no dramas, despite the delays.

“The Aeroscreen was tentatively less dramatic than everyone was expecting it to be, and didn’t have any real issues until some slight, reflection issues at the end which we should be able to rectify. So that was positive. We worked through a good test list and found a pretty decent place in adapting the car with the 2020 needs within a half day. Generally, pretty happy.”

Two-time defending Virgin Australia Supercars champion Scott McLaughlin made an immediate impression, recording the third-fastest lap of the session (1:47.2630/114.448 mph). McLaughlin drove Team Penske’s No. 2 Chevrolet, running 62 laps.

“It’s an altogether new feeling,” McLaughlin said. “I’m a race driver. I like going fast, so this is a lot faster. I’m having fun. A lot of grip and it’s tough to drive.

“You turn that pit speed (limiter) off and there’s a lot of power and a lot of braking. I’m just really privileged to drive this car. Roger (Penske) and Team Penske have given me a go. I’m just trying to enjoy it as much as I can with a smile on my face.”

McLaughlin also is enjoying the benefit of working with the accomplished Team Penske trio of two-time and defending NTT IndyCar Series champion Josef Newgarden, 2019 Indianapolis 500 champion and former series champion Simon Pagenaud, and former series champ and Indy 500 winner Power.

“I’m really lucky to have them and privileged,” McLaughlin said. “But I also have Roger and TC, Tim Cindric, and my engineer Jonathan Diuguid, who has been fantastic with me. I’m just trying to soak it all up like a sponge and at the same time, I’m living the dream. I’m having a great time.”

McLaughlin is scheduled to make his series debut with Team Penske on Saturday, May 9 in the GMR Grand Prix on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course. He already is yearning for more after two days in Austin.

“I’d like to explore (the NTT IndyCar Series) more,” he said. “And I’d like to explore more in America. I’d love to get to America one day. That’s my ultimate goal. Whether it’s here or whether it’s anywhere, I just want to try to be here one day. I love the country. I love the people. I love the sport that it is, and we’ll see what happens.”

McLaughlin was followed by Team Penske teammate and defending NTT IndyCar Series champion Josef Newgarden, who was fourth at 1:47.2750/114.435 mph. Colton Herta, last year’s winner at COTA, rounded out the top five (1:47.3672/114.337 mph).

Inclement weather hampered Tuesday’s opening day of the test, with 17 laps being run collectively by the field.

David Pastrnak's MVP-like season continued Wednesday night for the Bruins.

The star right winger needed just two periods to record his fourth hat trick of the season as Boston bested the rival Canadiens at TD Garden, 4-1.

The four hat tricks are the most in a season by a Bruins player since 1974-75, when Bobby Orr and Phil Esposito each had four. Esposito has the club record with seven, done in 1970-71.

It also marked Pastrnak's second hat trick this season against Montreal. He became the first NHL player with multiple regular-season hat tricks against the Canadiens since Gordie Howe in 1951-52, and the first Bruins player ever to do it, according to ESPN Stats & Information research.

Pastrnak put the Bruins ahead with a goal at 6:59 of the first period, then made it 2-0 at 4:16 of the second. Montreal got one back less than a minute later, before Pastrnak made it 3-1 with a power-play tally late in the second period.

That gave him a career-high 41 goals in 58 games this season. He became just the third player in Bruins history to record 40 goals and 40 assists before the team's 60th game, joining Ken Hodge (1973-74) and Esposito (four times).

League-wide, the only players in the past 20 seasons with 40 goals and 40 assists before their team's 60th are Jaromir Jagr (2005-06) and Alex Ovechkin (2009-10).

This season, Pastrnak and Ovechkin are the only players with four hat tricks; prior to that, no player had four hat tricks in a season since 2010-11 (Alexander Semin, Drew Stafford).

With the win, the Bruins (35-11-12) moved three points clear of the Tampa Bay Lightning for best record in the NHL.

The Sheffield Shield returns on Friday after the BBL break. There are four rounds remaining with all six sides still a mathematical possibility to play in the final, with all rounds set to be played with Dukes balls. Australia's Test side is currently very settled after five consecutive wins but there is always a chance to make the selectors take notice. Here are six players for who it could be an important few weeks.

Mitchell Swepson

The Queensland legspinner arguably has the most to gain over the last part of the season. He was added to the Test squad for the Sydney Test against New Zealand and is the frontrunner to be part of the squad to tour Bangladesh in support of Nathan Lyon. Australia played three spinners in one Test on the last tour of Bangladesh in 2017 but Swepson wasn't one of them despite being in the touring party. Swepson's biggest challenge will be getting enough bowling for Queensland. Three of their four matches will be at the Gabba and the WACA with the quicks likely to do the bulk of the bowling with Dukes balls. He will miss one of those matches to play for Australia A against the England Lions at the MCG, which will also be a day-night pink ball fixture. Swepson only played four of the six games prior to the BBL, partly due to conditions, and took 12 wickets at 26.58 including a hat-trick against Victoria. But he and Steve O'Keefe are the only two spinners in the top 25 wicket-takers in the Shield this season.

Moises Henriques

Australia's Test squad is still yearning for an allrounder and Henriques has a golden chance to put himself in a position to return to Test cricket while Mitchell Marsh heads to South Africa for the limited-overs tour. Henriques has had an outstanding season with the bat so far making 453 runs at 56.62 and scoring two centuries. He led the Sydney Sixers to the BBL title and as a result, has been rewarded with the captaincy of the Australia A side to face the England Lions. Henriques has been spoken about for the Bangladesh tour and has experience on the sub-continent having played all four of his Tests in India and Sri Lanka, including two Test half-centuries on debut in Chennai. But the selectors want him bowling more and he only sent down 20 overs in the first six Shield matches of the season, taking two wickets, partly because of the dominance of the New South Wales attack but he has also been a reluctant bowler in recent years.

ALSO READ: Will Pucovski and James Pattinson included in Australia A squad

Marcus Stoinis

The allrounder is out of favour with the Australian selectors at the moment but a big finish to the Shield season could make him too hard to ignore. He produced the most prolific BBL in history scoring 705 runs including a century and six fifties but the fact that he was opening and only bowled two overs for the tournament gave the selectors cause to leave him out of the South Africa limited-overs squads even when a replacement was needed for Glenn Maxwell. He had a very solid first half of the Shield season, without being spectacular, averaging 35.77 with the bat including four half-centuries in 10 innings but was lacking a big score. He averaged 27 with the ball taking 12 wickets from 121 overs in six games. He has been included in the Australia A team and if he can convert a couple of half-centuries into big hundreds and continue to contribute with the ball for Western Australia and Australia A then he could force the selectors' hands.

Kurtis Patterson

The elegant left-hander has become the forgotten man of Australian cricket since he made a Test century against Sri Lanka late last summer. His season-to-date has been ruined by a quad injury that he suffered in the first Shield game of the season. Since then he managed only a club game in Perth and three BBL games for the Perth Scorchers, but he returned to red-ball cricket last week in a 2nd XI game for New South Wales Metro against Tasmania and made 81 in the fourth innings to help his side in a successful chase of 204 in Tasmania. He has also been included in the Australia A side to face the England Lions but will have three Shield matches either side of that plus a potential Shield final to try and put pressure on the selectors to find a place for him in the middle order.

Marcus Harris

Australia's opening pairing of David Warner and Joe Burns looks settled for the moment but Burns appears to constantly be looking over his shoulder given his selection history and some missed opportunities to make big scores during the Test summer. Harris knows he can put pressure on if he can convert his regular starts into bigger tallies. He made a century and two half-centuries from six Shield innings prior to the BBL but failed to really kick on as he did last summer and has been told by the selectors in no uncertain terms that he needs to do so to get back into the frame. He has been selected for Australia A to face the England Lions as he was earlier in the summer against Pakistan. Big scores in that pink ball day-night game, as well as big runs against the Dukes ball in Shield cricket, will certainly capture the selectors' attention.

Cameron Green

The 20-year-old allrounder is a watching brief for the remainder of the summer. He is unable to bowl for the rest of the season due to another hot spot in his lower back. He will play as a specialist batsman for Western Australia after his stunning first half of the Shield season where he made two centuries and a half-century and tallied 401 runs at 66.83. Such was his burst of form there were calls from some former Test greats for his immediate elevation to international cricket but both Green and the Australian selectors calmed the excitement claiming such calls were very premature. The selectors want him back bowling before they elevate him and Green knows he needs more time to develop his body and his game in all facets. However, if he added two more centuries in the last four games, plus a potential final, he would become the first 20-year-old to score four centuries in a Sheffield Shield season since Steve Smith in 2009-10. Such a feat would give the selectors something to think about.

Blazers guard Damian Lillard suffered a right groin strain in the second half of Portland's 111-104 loss to the Grizzlies on Wednesday night and will undergo an MRI on Thursday, coach Terry Stotts said.

After the game, Lillard said he will not compete in the All-Star Game or the 3-point contest because of the injury.

"Obviously that's something you look forward to," Lillard said. "Those festivities and having fun, but my health is first."

Lillard was slated to play Sunday for Team LeBron, after Saturday's 3-point contest. He said he would still attend the game and be part of the weekend, but won't be able to play.

Lillard added that "hopefully Devin Booker, someone like that" will take his place.

"I don't think it makes sense to try and force myself to be out there and doing stuff just so I cannot miss out on it," Lillard said. "I've been there, I've done it all before, and I'm sure I'll have more opportunities to do it, but I wanna make sure that I'm healthy so that when the break is over I'm rested and have done all I can do to be ready as soon as possible."

Lillard appeared to suffer the injury on a drive to the basket with 3:22 left in the game. He attempted a tough shot around Memphis big man Jonas Valanciunas, then landed awkwardly.

He went directly to the locker room and didn't return, finishing with 20 points in 40 minutes.

Due to the All-Star break, Portland doesn't play again until Feb. 21, against the Pelicans.

LOS ANGELES -- Mookie Betts and David Price finally turned up in Dodgers jerseys on Wednesday, completing the journey from Boston to Los Angeles, where they're expected to help end a World Series title drought dating to 1988.

Neither seemed fazed by the trade that dragged out for over a week before it was finalized.

Betts described the waiting game as "fun at times, kind of stressful at times." Price said being moved from one storied franchise to another was "something special."

"It wasn't as easy for us," joked Andrew Friedman, Dodgers president of baseball operations. "It was definitely a roller coaster."

Betts, the 2018 American League MVP, joins current National League MVP Cody Bellinger in the Dodgers' outfield. Price, the 2012 AL Cy Young Award winner, joins three-time NL Cy Young winner Clayton Kershaw in the starting rotation.

"Definitely going to be pretty special," Betts said. "[Bellinger is] going to put on a show, and I'll do my best to keep up with him."

Friedman -- who has been with the club for the past five seasons, a stretch that includes five division titles and two World Series appearances -- said the 2020 Dodgers are "quite possibly our most talented team."

Betts was traded for the first time in his career. The 27-year-old right fielder was drafted by the Red Sox in 2011 and made his big-league debut three years later.

"I have a lot of memories in Boston. The most fun is the World Series," he said, alluding to the 2018 title won by the Red Sox at Dodger Stadium. "That was a great chapter in my life."

Price said, "I know it's tough for Red Sox nation to see Mookie leave."

Friedman first discussed trading for Betts with then-Boston counterpart Dave Dombrowski last July. But then the Red Sox won several games in a row and ended the talks. Things heated up again in the fall.

A casualty of the deal that brought Betts and Price to the Dodgers was another one that would have sent outfielder Joc Pederson and right-hander Ross Stripling to the rival Angels for infielder Luis Rengifo. It didn't happen.

"Our thing was putting ourselves in the best position to acquire the two guys we acquired," Friedman said. "That had a lot of different combinations and a lot of different things that were potentials. The way it ended up playing out we're happy with."

Betts can become a free agent after the season. He brushed off a question on whether he would discuss a contract extension during the season.

"We're hoping that he falls in love with the team, the city, the fans, and wants to be here for a long time," Friedman said.

Friedman has admired Price since he was in Tampa Bay's front office and the team selected the pitcher with the first pick in the 2007 draft.

Friedman joked he has had his eye on Betts from afar for so long he "may want to get a restraining order against me."

"He embodies everything that we really value about a position player -- the impact he has on defense, the instincts on the bases, in the batter's box," Friedman said.

The positive things teammates and those who have dealt with Betts said about him were another big factor. "He would blush if he heard all the nice things," Friedman said.

Both players said they look forward to getting to know their new teammates.

"Those relationships translate to in between the lines, and that's when you see a team really become a team, and that's how you win a World Series," Betts said.

The players were introduced at Dodger Stadium before catching an evening flight to Arizona, where the team opens spring training Thursday. Beyond Betts and Price in center field, construction crews worked on the outfield pavilions where a major renovation project is underway. They were led on a brief tour.

Betts wore a hoodie under his jersey, explaining it protected his head from the winter sun on a 67 degree day.

Betts will keep his No. 50 jersey, a number chosen long ago because "nobody wants it," he said.

"I'd like to celebrate again here in this jersey for sure," he said.