SALT LAKE CITY -- Mike Conley, usually as even-keeled as NBA players come, balled up his fists and hollered back at the roaring home crowd as he ran back down the floor after a couple of buckets early in his breakout third quarter Wednesday night.

Conley uncharacteristically waved his arms, asking for more, as Utah Jazz fans showered their new point guard with a standing ovation and chanted his last name during a timeout after a driving layup punctuated a personal 10-point flurry in a span of just over two minutes.

The first week in a Jazz uniform felt like an eternity for Conley, whose 12-year tenure in Memphis ended with an offseason trade that Utah hoped would elevate its franchise to legitimate contender status. Conley couldn't contain his emotions Wednesday night once he felt like his game finally arrived in Salt Lake City.

"That just kind of tells you where I was at," Conley told ESPN after his 29-point, five-assist performance in the Jazz's 110-96 victory over the LA Clippers. "It's a lonely place where I was the last week or so. Emotionally, you could just feel every shot what I was feeling, because that was a unique stretch that had never happened to me before.

"For it to happen in a new place, where you want to play so well, almost like you're pressing. And it wasn't happening. It was a release. [The emotion] was just built up and just burst out. I wasn't myself there for a little bit."

Conley endured what he considers the worst stretch of his career during his first four games with the Jazz, when he scored a total of only 31 points on 9-of-45 shooting. Entering Wednesday night, he was the only player in the league with at least 40 attempts from the floor and a single-digit field goal total.

Conley's 29 points against the Clippers came on 11-of-17 shooting. He had 18 points on 6-of-8 shooting in the third quarter, the second-highest point total of any quarter in Conley's career, according to ESPN Stats & Information research. Conley was 4-of-4 from 3-point range in the quarter, compared to 3-of-20 in the first four games of the season.

Conley accounted for 22 points, including a couple of assists in the third quarter, more than the Clippers (20), who were without Kawhi Leonard due to load management. The players on the Jazz bench, including star guard Donovan Mitchell, celebrated by dancing on the baseline when Conley hit 3s on consecutive possessions to push Utah's lead to 21.

"Mike's a pretty calm guy, and he was yelling and screaming," said Mitchell, who had 24 points on 10-of-17 shooting. "Once we saw that, we were feeding off that, too."

Jazz coach Quin Snyder downplayed the importance of Conley's breakout performance, implying that too much attention was paid to his early struggles, though he praised the point guard for relaxing and being aggressive while making good reads.

"That's who he is, so I don't want to make too big of a deal out of it," Snyder said. "It's good for him to play well."

Conley, however, acknowledged that the weight of his poor performances was wearing on him. He changed his game-day routine in hopes of breaking his slump, as well as putting up so many shots at the team's practice facility after shootaround that coaches had to shoo him off the court.

Conley, 32, admitted that, despite a dozen-year track record of being a premier point guard, he was battling his own doubts on the heels of Monday's one-point, one-assist, 0-of-7 shooting outing in a one-point win over the Phoenix Suns.

"It started to creep in. It was something that I was not accepting," Conley told ESPN. "I'm missing all these shots, but I'm like, 'This is not who I am. It can't be. I'm just too good to be doing this.'

"I think I got too worried about the outcome, making shots or whatever it was, and it was consuming whether I felt good or bad after the game. Today, I just tried to get back to the smaller details -- shoot the ball with balance, follow through, stuff like that. Shoot the shots that are available. If it goes in, it goes in. If it doesn't, just keep pushing."

NEW YORK -- Kyrie Irving said Wednesday he was not worried about other people's perceptions of him.

After a 10-point loss to the Indiana Pacers that dropped the Brooklyn Nets to 1-3 on the season, Irving split his postgame news conference between pontificating about self-love and dissecting Brooklyn's on-court shortcomings.

"I don't have to be perfect for anyone here, nor do I have to be perfect for the public," Irving said. "I am not here to dispel any perception, I am here to be myself."

His comments came two days after ESPN's Jackie MacMullan, as part of a piece profiling Irving, Kevin Durant and the new culture of the Nets, wrote that even though Irving has been with Brooklyn for only a few months, he has clashed with team personnel. When Irving played for the Boston Celtics, he became a disruptive force in the locker room. MacMullan wrote that in Brooklyn, Irving, among other things, already has refused to participate in a team activity involving wearables that collect biometric data.

Irving was asked about the story Wednesday night but said his concern is being true to himself and the people close to him.

"Who cares what ESPN or anyone says?" Irving said. "I love myself. I love my family. I love my friends. I love playing basketball.

"It is just interesting to watch it unfold to see how it can affect everyone around you, yet no one asked me. Until everyone said something about it. Then they watched it trickle in like a little wild fire, like, 'Who is Kyrie now?'"

Irving had declined to discuss the ESPN story when asked about it Tuesday.

"It is hilarious to me to watch it affect people emotionally," Irving said Wednesday.

At times during his 8-minute deluge, it was hard to follow Irving's logic. He veered from "another route of human struggle is dealing with other people's perceptions" to "they try to tear down some of the most peaceful people in the world."

Locker room turbulence or not, the Nets continue to struggle to jell on the court. Brooklyn finished with 19 turnovers against Indiana on Wednesday. Its 1-3 start is tied for the worst four-game start of Irving's career. The last time a team Irving played for had such a sputtering record to start the season was the 2014-15 Cavaliers.

Irving has been a force offensively, becoming the first player in Nets history to score at least 25 points in each of the Nets' first four games of a season. Still, he has struggled to create for his teammates. He finished with 28 points and six assists Wednesday.

"It is going to take some time," Irving said. "Wins and losses, they come and go. 78 more."

If you don’t know Muni He, you probably don’t spend a lot of time following women’s golf on Instagram.

She is one of the LPGA’s most popular players on that social media platform with 252,000 followers.

She’s also putting up some pretty good numbers at LPGA Q-Series.

With a 7-under 65 in Wednesday’s start of the second week of the final stage of the LPGA Qualifying Tournament, He extended her lead to six shots.

He, who goes by the first name “Lilly,” is at 16-under 340 through five rounds with play moving to Pinehurst (N.C.) Resort’s No. 9 for the second week.

Elizabeth Szokol (67) and Hee Young Park (67) are tied for second at 346.

Yealimi Noh, the 18-year-old who made a couple strong runs at winning LPGA events as non-member this year, shot 67 and is sitting solo fourth.

Haley Moore, the former University of Arizona standout, shot 66 to climb into a tie for eighth.

Q-Series is being contested over 144 holes. The first 72 were played at Pinehurst No. 6. The top 45 and ties will win LPGA status at the end of the competition. There are 98 players in the field with a cut to the low 80 and ties coming after Thursday’s play. Everyone teeing it up this week will earn at least Symetra Tour status.

He’s Instagram following trails Michelle Wie (562,000) and Lexi Thompson (445,000), but it’s more than tour stars Natalie Gulbis (190,000) and Paula Creamer (181,000).

A former USC standout from China, He won on the Symetra Tour last year and then went on to earn an LPGA tour card at the inaugural Q-Series. She made eight cuts as a rookie this year but didn’t make enough money to keep her tour card.

“I think I've just grown and learned so much throughout this year that I feel pretty confident right now, just within myself and my own game,” He said.

Marcus Rashford's superb free kick that fired Manchester United into the Carabao Cup quarterfinals had a Cristiano Ronaldo-esque feel to it, according to Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.

The England forward was in fine form as United stopped resurgent Chelsea in their tracks with a 2-1 victory at Stamford Bridge on Wednesday.

With 73 minutes on the clock and Chelsea beginning to dominate after Michy Batshuayi's equaliser, Rashford lined up a free kick 40 metres out and sent the ball dipping and swerving past a helpless Willy Caballero.

Earlier, Rashford had given a near full-strength United a deserved half-time lead from the penalty spot after Welshman Daniel James had been fouled by Marcos Alonso.

"It's Cristiano-like, isn't it? The boy has got nerves of steel, he takes the penalty no problem. Then he steps up and hits the ball like he does, no problem, and wins us the game," Solskjaer said postmatch.

"He always scores great goals, Marcus. He practises and today he got his reward."

Solskjaer's side held out reasonably comfortably to claim a third successive away victory having previously not won on the road since March.

It was United's second win over Chelsea this season, having beaten them 4-0 on the opening day of the Premier League.

Since then Frank Lampard's youthful Chelsea side have responded superbly and had won their last seven matches in all competitions to move into the Premier League's top four.

United, however, have laboured since but there are encouraging signs that they are beginning to hit their stride and Solskjaer appears to have targeted the Carabao Cup.

He made only four changes to the side that started in the 3-1 win at Norwich City at the weekend, with 19-year-old Brandon Williams the only unfamiliar face.

"We've been leading 1-0 in many games and not kicked on. Today we were excellent, with fast flowing football. That's Manchester United. We're trying to get back to that," Solskjaer said.

Lampard said Rashford's free kick had been a bolt from the blue.

He felt the game was theirs for the taking after Batshuayi, scorer of the winner at Ajax last week, ran from the halfway line before holding off a tackle and coolly dispatching a low shot into the bottom corner.

"No team can stop that," he said. "We weren't at our best in the first half, we were a little slow with our passing, but I loved the first half hour of the second half."

Chelsea have lost three games at Stamford Bridge in all competitions this season, one more than they did in the whole of the 2018-19 campaign. But Lampard was not too downhearted.

"I saw a lot of things that were good for us for the future, a lot of positives," he said. "I hate losing, we all do here, but it's clear there is a big picture and there are a lot of big games for us to come and a busy fixture list.

"Now we move on and focus on what is to come."

The draw for the quarterfinals is on Thursday in which United will be joined by Manchester City, Liverpool, Aston Villa, Leicester City, Everton, Colchester United and Oxford.

ATLANTA, GA -- At the start of the Major League Soccer playoffs, Toronto FC and the Seattle Sounders were not supposed to reach MLS Cup. Even two days ago, they still weren't the favorites. But on Tuesday night, Seattle stunned LAFC 3-1, winning the Western Conference. A day later, TFC, visitors at Atlanta United's Mercedes-Benz Stadium fortress, matched that feat by beating the 2018 cup champions 2-1 courtesy of substitute Nick DeLeon's 78th minute goal.

For Toronto -- who will meet Seattle in a rematch of the 2016 and 2017 MLS Cup on Nov. 10 (3 p.m. ET on ABC) -- the up and down tilt resembled their up and down season.

"If you look at the whole year, I think the night was a microcosm," head coach Greg Vanney said post-game. "Early in the year we battled.

"We went into midseason trying to keep our head above water, got our team back together, and we've been on a run.

"Tonight, look, it was similar. We were missing a couple guys [like Jozy Altidore and Omar Gonzalez], but the guys who were out there battled.

"I don't think anyone outside of our club, our fans, and us thought we could get it done."

In the early going, however, the home side looked unstoppable.

While it took Atlanta United more than half the 2019 MLS season to find their form, it took less than three and a half minutes for manager Frank de Boer's team to prove they could ball in front of Wednesday night's crowd of 44,055. Their opening tally came when Ezequiel Barco, transferred into the club for a reported $15 million before the 2018 season, hit a through-ball to Pity Martinez -- this year's $14 million acquisition -- who slid the ball across to Julian Gressel for a tap in. The pace, the creativity, the joy were all vintage Atlanta United, a callback to last season's Miguel Almiron-Josef Martinez goalfest.

It was been a weird year for United, as well. They lost talisman Almiron to Newcastle and head coach Tata Martino to the Mexico national team before the season started. Ajax-schooled De Boer joined, bringing with him a more disciplined system. Early results in the CONCACAF Champions League were terrible, and while United won five straight in April and May, and eight of 11, the team was limping along.

They got back on track a bit in July, although defender Leandro Gonzalez Pirez spoke out at the All-Star break, saying: "We're working to return to the way it was before and how we characterized through and differentiated us apart from other teams. We're returning to that a little bit, you're seeing a new face to the club, now we have to continue working on that to fortify that."

They did, more or less, earning the second seed in the Eastern Conference and the third seed overall.

Despite Wednesday's loss, De Boer sounded pleased with the progress his group made in 2019.

"We struggled in the beginning [of the season] when to play compact and when to play aggressive forward, one against one," he said. "We did that much better today. To see how Pity played. That's how you want your No. 10 to play.

"When we had the ball, he was every time too fast for [Toronto's Michael] Bradley."

After the early goal, Atlanta should have doubled their lead in the 11th minute, but Quentin Westberg saved Josef Martinez's penalty kick after Pity Martinez -- by far the best player in the opening 45 -- drew a foul from Bradley.

"It's instinct," the goalie said of the save. "I was well prepared. J.C., my goalkeeper coach, obviously had all the PKs from the opposing team.

"I didn't make a choice. I studied them, but in the end I figured it would be instinct."

Two minutes later, Toronto FC drew level on a curling Nicolas Benezet effort off a long crossfield pass from Laurent Ciman. Half-time came and went, and TFC just kept hanging around. Atlanta controlled the play, winning possession 59.5 percent to 40.5 percent and outshooting the visitors 18 to 4 on the night. It didn't matter.

"You can't be the most talented team all the time," Westberg said. "Sometimes the brave team and the strong tam and the resilient team wins."

His coach agreed.

"Sometimes, for myself, I can be ideological about how I want the game to look and how I want the team to play," Vanney said. "From an ideological perspective, that's not how I wanted the game to look like, obviously. But from a practical perspective and what our players did today, they deserved it. And that's real.

"But from a soccer perspective, we probably didn't win very many categories, except for one: 2-1 on the scoreboard."

Which is another way of saying that the point of playoff soccer is to win however you can, ugly if you have to, even if you boast MLS's highest payroll as TFC does.

DeLeon's winner, his fifth career postseason goal, came seemingly out of nowhere, one of those half chances that was true.

"[Alejandro Pozuelo] played it across," DeLeon said while drinking a beer in the locker room after the match. "I intended to hit it first time but it was a little off so I improvised a little. Turned and nobody stepped. I decided to have a go. And fortunately it went in."

He said that it was his favorite goal "so far." Pozuelo admitted he didn't think it was going to go in but then added: "He shoots amazing so I can't say nothing."

Roughly 20 minutes later, referee Alan Kelly blew the final whistle. Pity Martinez and Barco collapsed onto the turf, backs to the ground, eyes facing up at the closed roof. Toronto's subs ran toward the middle of the field where their teammates were celebrating.

"It was a group effort," DeLeon said. "It definitely wasn't the prettiest in the second half but we stuck it out. We got the result.

"We got one more to go. We're going to enjoy this one probably tonight and tomorrow. And we'll focus on Seattle."

Returning West Indies coach Phil Simmons has backed his two captains' ability to get the most of their players, and suggested that Jason Holder will benefit from the decision to hand the white-ball reins to Kieron Pollard.

Speaking to ESPNcricinfo, Simmons said that Pollard - who was appointed captain of the limited-overs teams in September, despite not having played an ODI since 2016 - is capable of "leading from the front" with the bat.

"It showed in the T20Is with India," Simmons said. "He took the reins and led in those. That's what I expect from him: that responsibility of being captain is going to make him want to always be on top of the runs and leading from the front. He is that kind of a leader - even though he asks you to do something, it is not something he wouldn't do or he wouldn't want to do."

Pollard was the leading run-scorer in that series with scores of 58, 8* and 49, and Simmons said that he expected that form to continue.

"I expect a lot of runs to come from him. Hopefully he doesn't get to bat where he's batting much because the top order should be performing now - they have been around for a while in both those two forms [ODIs and T20Is]."

And Simmons pointed to Pollard's career as evidence that he stands up whenever he is under pressure.

"A lot of people write him off," Simmons said. "The pressure always makes him stand up. If you look at his career, every time he's under pressure he stands up and he shows 'look, I've had a blip, but I'm back'.

"His experience in general, and not just the knowledge, but also his ability to involve all the players and his ability to give players challenges but at the same time be on their side - that natural leadership is there. It is something that he will bring a lot to the team."

Pollard takes over as ODI captain after a difficult World Cup, in which Jason Holder's side won just two matches and finished ninth in the ten-team round-robin group stage. That disappointment led Cricket West Indies to set up a task force to revamp their selection process, which recommended replacing Holder as captain, but Simmons thinks that "relaxing a little bit more" in white-ball cricket will allow him to maintain his impressive Test match form.

"It might be [beneficial] but that is something that he has got to answer that question," he said. "He's the No. 1 Test allrounder in the world, so he has shown that he has learned a lot in that format, and he is going to continue to lead this team."

Holder was first appointed captain of the Test side back in 2015 at the age of 23, and Simmons said that his experience in the role meant he could now afford to demand performances of his players.

"With the experience he has now, he should be putting more pressure on a lot of the players to perform. So his role slightly changes, and he gets to relax in the other two formats because sometimes you could see that mind thinking on the field, and then when it comes to batting, the pressure is on.

"Now with him relaxing a little bit more in the other two formats, maybe you'll see a lot more coming from him in the Test matches."

Pollard's first assignment as permanent skipper is a three-match ODI series against Afghanistan in India, followed by three T20Is. Holder will then lead the side in a one-off Test against the same opposition in Lucknow, before they play another white-ball series against India which comprises three T20Is and three ODIs.

A full interview with Phil Simmons will be published on ESPNcricinfo on November 1

The men's T20 World Cup Qualifier, a fixture of the Associate calendar since 2008, could be scrapped as part of the pathway to the 2021 men's T20 World Cup in India. Instead, under consideration currently is a plan that could see as many as 12 teams from the 2020 T20 World Cup gaining qualification and four teams coming through the regional - not global - qualifers.

With the T20 World Cup now taking place two years in a row - the one in India (originally a Champions Trophy) coming just 12 months after Australia - squeezing in a global qualifier in between looks impractical as some of the regional qualifiers that lead into the global qualifiers are unlikely to conclude until April or May 2021.

The hosting of the global qualifiers within a small window has happened once before, in 2010, when it was held just two months prior to the T20 World Cup in the Caribbean. However, the current proposal has found backing from some of the lower-ranked Associates who stand to benefit financially, with the budget set aside for the global qualifiers being equally distributed among members.

The lower-ranked sides, who would have little chance of progressing to the qualifier, could end up outvoting higher-ranked Associates in exchange of a one-off payment.

Under the proposed plan, the Super 12 teams from the 2020 edition would gain automatic entry to the 2021 edition. Eight of those 12 are in the main draw for 2020 based on ICC rankings, while four others - among Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Ireland, PNG, Netherlands, Namibia, Scotland and Oman - will join them from the opening round of the tournament.

The four remaining berths for 2021 would be decided by the winners of four regional finals. But the only wrench in this plan is the presence of five Associate regions. To work around this, it seems most likely that the ICC will give one berth each to Americas, Europe and Asia, with the fourth coming through a play-off final between a team from East-Asia Pacific - traditionally the weakest region, dominated by PNG - and Africa.

This format could mean only one of Netherlands, Scotland or Ireland could qualify for 2021, with several other European teams such as Jersey and Germany in the fray (if none of the European trio progress to the Super 12 stage in Australia).

Likewise, should Oman, Sri Lanka or Bangladesh not make it to the Super 12s, it could mean that they would be fighting with UAE and Nepal as well as Singapore and Hong Kong for one spot in India in 2021.

If PNG or Namibia do not make it into the Super 12s in Australia, they could be facing a showdown with Zimbabwe - who would also have to go through a regional qualifying final after missing the current qualification cycle due to an ICC suspension - along with other African sides such as Kenya, Uganda and Nigeria.

A final decision on qualification for the 2021 T20 World Cup may not be taken until an ICC board meeting in March 2020.

Australian cricket's leadership is open to returning to the option of multi-year contracts for their top players in the wake of the agreement of a groundbreaking coaching deal with Andrew McDonald that will allow him the flexibility to maintain pre-arranged commitments in the IPL and the Hundred.

Earl Eddings, the Cricket Australia chairman, followed his first AGM in charge by agreeing that the rapidly changing cricket world required both better relationships and greater flexibility from administrators, as underlined by the decision to agree to McDonald's preferred terms and so ensure his skills would not be lost to the head coach Justin Langer.

He told ESPNcricinfo that the new dual high performance chiefs Ben Oliver (manager of national teams) and Drew Ginn (manager of high performance) can be expected to look at the option of multi-year deals for top ranked players, a part of the CA contracting system in the first decade of the 21st century but less common following the performance-based recommendations of the Argus review in 2011, and presently a recommendation to the board before the next contract cycle.

"The game has changed so quickly, in terms of the various other options players and coaches both now have, which I think is great for the game," Eddings told ESPNcricinfo. "It gives them an opportunity to show their wares to the rest of the world and Cricket Australia's got to adapt to that as well.

"Have we discussed multiple year contracts? I'm sure our high performance people will be looking at that, and something for them to come back to the board with their recommendations. For Andrew I think it's a great opportunity, as a world class coach, I know he's highly sought after around the world. The fact we've got him as our assistant coach speaks volumes for Cricket Victoria for producing a great coach but also to Andrew for becoming one of the best young coaches in the world."

Pat Cummins, this year's No. 1 ranked CA contracted player, has been a vocal advocate of multi-year deals for the past two years, noting the physical toll on the bodies of fast bowlers in particular that often preclude them from stretching their physiques in search of greater financial returns in the IPL and elsewhere.

"No it didn't happen this year. They just said they weren't offering anyone longer term this year," Cummins told News Corp this week. "I hope [it changes in the future]. You can only ask the question and see what comes of it. Like anyone in your job, you want more than 12 months security always."

The issue is a little more complicated than the players wanting more security and the board wishing only to hand out contractual rewards on a strict year-on-year performance basis. The possibility of players remaining under contract to CA at the end of an MoU period would have been an awkward scenario for the Australian Cricketers Association during the 2017-18 pay dispute, when all players falling out of contract at once played into the union's hands.

Since the Argus review, the offer of multi-year deals to players has become perceived as being used only as a defensive move by CA, as was the case when the former team performance manager Pat Howard offered three-year deals to Steven Smith, David Warner, Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Cummins as the pay dispute was heating up. A different landscape prevailed in the early 2000s, when the likes of Ricky Ponting, Matthew Hayden and Adam Gilchrist enjoyed greater certainty in return for compelling and consistent performances as the world's top team.

Peter Siddle, the most experienced Australian pace bowler currently in national contention, noted that he was given a two-year deal at the outset of his international career in 2008, saying that players would be happy in many cases to enjoy extra financial security in exchange for foregoing additional domestic T20 events overseas.

"We used to have them. I remember my first contract I signed a long time ago, about 11 years ago now, I signed a multi-year deal then," Siddle said. "It was only two years but it did give you at least that second-year sort of guarantee. I think with certain players you could probably look at it. It's definitely something the ACA and Cricket Australia can look to maybe improve on over the coming years because there are players like, especially someone like Patty [James Pattinson], who is in all formats, not just the one format player, you might want to lock him down.

"It gives them the opportunity to keep him out of maybe tours outside of the country, whether it's IPL or other T20 leagues around the world, where they can then control where he goes a bit more. But in saying that the player then wants to be reimbursed a little bit for what he may be missing out on. It is definitely that's something worth discussing. Maybe it's not for everyone. But that's what it comes down to when discussing contracts and deals."