HOUSTON -- Middle linebackers vs. volleyball players.

That's how Steve Kerr described Houston Rockets-Golden State Warriors games. It was an unexpected but quite effective comparison: a bruising team that looks for contact and spends lots of time on the floor against a long, lean squad that uses teamwork and finesse to build toward power spikes.

Call it whatever you want, but this Western Conference semifinal turned into a terrific series during the two games in Houston, the type of matchup the league and its fans had been anticipating for a year.

The over-the-top complaining about the officiating has gone away after the Warriors' two victories in Oakland, at least for now. James Harden's vision has cleared up, and his game has roared back to its MVP level. Kevin Durant is still playing terrifically, and his back-and-forth with Harden is maturing toward historic duel territory. The pressure on Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson is ramping up. The entire basketball world is gaining a new appreciation for PJ Tucker.

Simply, you can feel the intensity building with each skin-tight game. The level of shot-making, execution and gamesmanship is the bedrock of the current popularity of the league.

With the Rockets' 112-108 victory on Monday in Game 4, which followed their gritty Game 3 overtime win, it's now 2-2, and this has another seven-game series written all over it. And the combatants are totally into it.

"We love it," Curry said.

"This is fun," Chris Paul said.

"I love this, I do," Kerr said.

"It's the playoffs," Thompson said.

The edge you'd expect with this situation -- this is the fourth postseason meeting in five seasons, and there has been consequence to every game these teams have played over the past two years -- is roaring to life.

Draymond Green and Paul have been in each other's faces. Durant and Paul have been in each other's faces. Durant even had words with Harden's mother in her courtside seat during Monday's game.

The bruises are piling up. Green has poked Harden in the eye. Durant has elbowed Harden in the head. Harden has nailed Green in the head. A bunch of other guys have gone down, many of them on flops, but some have surely been legitimate. Everyone is sore. The fatigue is starting to take hold. It's an unfolding classic.

For a second straight game, Durant and Harden battled in a tremendous shot-for-shot slugfest. After Harden answered Durant's 46 points with 41 of his own Saturday night, they were pouring in shots on top of each other Monday too -- as Harden scored 20 of his 38 in the second half, with Durant scoring 22 of his 34.

The slump that was weighing Harden down early in the series has vanished as his floater game has returned, giving him the inside-out action that is the basis for his offensive greatness. He had been 8-of-29 on floaters through his first seven playoff games, but he is 5-of-9 over the past two, according to ESPN Stats & Information.

Meanwhile, the coaches are locked in a tactical battle. Kerr caught Mike D'Antoni off guard in Game 1 when he put Andre Iguodala into the starting lineup for the first time all season, moving Green to center. D'Antoni has countered, rolling out lineups with Tucker at center that have even more shooting than the Warriors' lineups, believe it or not.

The Warriors have claimed success by largely defanging Clint Capela.

But the Rockets have hit back with their shooters; they have a breathtaking 26 more 3-pointers in the series than Golden State. They made nine more 3-pointers than the Warriors on Monday, the second-worst 3-point differential for Golden State in its postseason history.

Eric Gordon already has made 16 3-pointers in the series and is averaging 23 points a game. Tucker and Austin Rivers have combined to make 14 3-pointers and are shooting 48 percent collectively on them. Meanwhile, Thompson is just 8-of-26, and Curry already has missed 34 treys, the most in a four-game span in his playoff career.

"It's intense and every possession matters," said Paul, who had 13 points in Game 4. "If you love to hoop, then you want that challenge to try to stop some of the best players to ever play."

The moods of the teams are so telling. Both are absolutely convinced they're going to win. Harden, his eye still red and a bump on his head, practically floated out of the building he was so energized by his play. The Warriors pointed out that they feel much better than after Game 4 last season because they're healthier and feel like the Rockets are barely beating them, even with Curry and Thompson now the ones struggling.

Some playoff series, even close ones, feel like a slog toward what can seem an eventuality. This is the joyous inverse. There's unknown, and that is a space that will probably be filled with the kind of performances that will help define many of these players' legacies.

There very well might be a few historic moments coming here from a load of future Hall of Famers. Ten years from now, you might be watching a 30 for 30 documentary about what's about to go down over the next few games. And it sure does feel like there's going to be three more of them.

The players feel it too. And they can't wait.

"We're excited for Game 5, just like I'm sure they are," Durant said. "It's going to be a great basketball game."

Reliever Carl Edwards Jr. is back with the Chicago Cubs after spending the past month at Triple-A Iowa, a demotion the right-hander called "very humbling" on Monday.

Right-hander Dillon Maples was optioned to Iowa in a corresponding move.

Edwards had a 32.40 ERA at the time of his demotion and was 0-1 in four appearances. He received racist Instagram messages after his early struggles, prompting an investigation by Major League Baseball.

He revamped his delivery this past offseason but, by the end of spring training, it was deemed illegal, as Edwards was touching the ground twice with his right foot before releasing the ball.

After being demoted, Edwards was 2-0 with a 2.16 ERA in seven appearances with Iowa. He said Monday his father "played a huge role" in helping him regain his confidence.

Cubs manager Joe Maddon told reporters that he hopes to ease Edwards back into the fold.

Edwards, 27, was 3-2 with a 2.60 ERA in 58 appearances last season for the Cubs and has a 3.36 ERA in five major league seasons with the club.

ESPN's Jesse Rogers contributed to this report.

COLUMBUS -- The Columbus Blue Jackets shocked the NHL this season by doing something few teams do: they went all-in.

Instead of selling off soon-to-be unrestricted free agents like goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky and winger Artemi Panarin, the Blue Jackets kept both players on the roster as their own "rentals." They also loaded up, adding center Matt Duchene, defenseman Adam McQuaid, winger Ryan Dzingel and backup goalie Keith Kinkaid at the trade deadline.

It all culminated with the Blue Jackets making it further than they ever had in franchise history -- past the first round. But it didn't end with a Stanley Cup, as Columbus was eliminated by the Bruins in the second round after a 3-0 loss in Game 6. And now the team is wondering, what's next?

"You never know what's going to happen this summer, who is going to stay who is going to go," veteran winger Cam Atkinson said. "We had the group to do it this year, that's for sure."

Chief among concerns are Panarin and Bobrovsky, two of the most talented players in franchise history. The club tried to work out extensions with both players; Panarin expressed an interest in testing unrestricted free agency while Bobrovsky and the team were too far away on money and term that talks broke off.

General manager Jarmo Kekalainen was characteristically blunt when talking to local reporters.

"Guys that want to be here are going to be here," Kekalainen said. "Guys that don't want to be here, it's, well, 'Good luck.'"

Bobrovsky, a two time Vezina winner, spent seven seasons in Columbus. He said it was too early to talk about his future because "it's a big decision, it's a lifetime decision."

"I'm definitely thankful for everything I had here," Bobrovsky said.

Bobrovsky was somber as he spoke and repeatedly thanked fans for their support. Just as the Blue Jackets did, Bobrovsky rewrote his own narrative this postseason. Bobrovsky was always known as a terrific regular-season goaltender who had a tendency to crumble in the playoffs.

Between 2011 and 2018, Bobrovsky went 5-14 in the playoffs, with a 3.49 goals-against average and .891 save percentage. According to ESPN Stats & Information, Bobrovsky allowed at least three goals in 79 percent of his postseason appearances in that span, by far the most of any goalie with at least 10 appearances.

Bobrovsky was spectacular in the first-round sweep against the Tampa Bay Lightning, posting a .932 save percentage, and had some strong performances against the Bruins, too.

"We went through some good times, some tough times," Bobrovsky said. "We've been together seven years, so that's a long time. It was special."

Panarin was in his second season with the team after being traded from the Chicago Blackhawks. He set a new Columbus franchise record for points and became a fan favorite.

Panarin, who like Bobrovsky is Russian, rarely does media interviews but on Monday night spoke through an interpreter for a large media scrum.

"We just lost the game, that's all I think," Panarin said through the interpreter. When asked if he would return to Columbus, Panarin looked at the reporter, laughed, and shrugged a couple times. "Nobody knows," he said in English.

The Blue Jackets will likely try to re-sign Duchene, a No. 1 center in free agency, though he will have other suitors. Duchene was not made available after the game.

"I think it's important moving forward that we have the guys that are proud to be Blue Jackets and proud to be living in Columbus and loving it here," Kekalainen said. "That's really important, that hey bleed blue or whatever you want to call it."

As each NHL team is eliminated from the postseason, we'll take a look at why its quest for the Stanley Cup fell short in 2018-19, three keys to its offseason, and impact prospects for 2019-20, concluding by offering a way-too-early prediction for what next season will hold.

What went wrong

Did the Columbus Blue Jackets create a new NHL trend this season? Will we be using saying a team "pulled a Columbus" to describe GMs who decide to go all-in, hoarding their own rentals at the deadline in order to make one splashy run? It sure could happen.

It was mostly effective for the Blue Jackets, who went further than they ever had in franchise history, winning a stunning first-round series against a historically good Tampa Bay Lightning team. Ultimately, though, the Blue Jackets didn't have enough potency to get past the Boston Bruins in the second round.

Columbus stifled Boston early in the series by clogging lanes and blocking shots -- hallmarks of a John Tortorella-coached team in the playoffs. Goalie Sergei Bobrovsky was as locked-in as he's ever been in the playoffs, rewriting his own narrative. But as the second-round series wore on, the Bruins' dynamic top line woke up and became a force that the Blue Jackets were unable to contain. Columbus took too many penalties, which slowed the Blue Jackets' momentum, and they got quality chances, but weren't able to capture their scoring touch.

It was an unceremonious, if appropriate, end to the Blue Jacket tenures of Bobrovsky and Artemi Panarin, two of the most exciting players in franchise history (unless there's a change of heart and one or both return). And it will lead to some major roster reconstruction this summer.

Bruins put away Blue Jackets to advance to conference finals

Tuukka Rask made 39 saves and recorded his sixth career playoff shutout as the Boston Bruins beat the Columbus Blue Jackets 3-0 Monday night to clinch their second-round series and advance to the Eastern Conference final.

LIVERPOOL, England -- Luis Suarez said he is expecting a warm welcome at Anfield on Tuesday, and has pledged not celebrate at his former home ground in the same way he did after opening the scoring in Barcelona's 3-0 win against Liverpool at Camp Nou last week.

Suarez, 32, drew criticism from Liverpool supporters for the way he reacted to opening the scoring at Camp Nou. The Uruguayan had spent three-and-a-half years at the Premier League club before moving to Barca in 2014, scoring 82 goals in 133 appearances.

Barca go into this week's Champions League semifinal second leg meeting between the two teams in a commanding position thanks to their first-leg win. A goal from Suarez, who hasn't scored on the road in Europe since 2015, a run spanning 17 games, would leave Liverpool needing to score five to reach the final.

However, he says even if he scores the goal which books Barca a spot in the final in Madrid in June, he will not celebrate out of respect for Liverpool.

"People in football know the importance of scoring a goal in the semifinal of the Champions League," he said in defence of his Camp Nou celebration. "I have a lot of respect for Liverpool and I apologised [to the Liverpool fans after the celebration].

"I'm grateful to Liverpool and obviously if I score tomorrow I won't celebrate like I did at Camp Nou, just as I didn't when I returned to other teams I have played for in my career."

Suarez believes he will be well-received by the Anfield faithful on Tuesday after helping Liverpool return to the Champions League in 2014 and taking them to the brink of the Premier League title.

"I think because of all the hard work I did here, there will be more applause than whistles," he added. "The supporters know what I did here. Maybe there will be some people unhappy [with me] but I am grateful to the club.

"It's really special to be back. Liverpool gave me a lot. They helped me to improve, to become more professional and more mature in many aspects. I improved at Ajax, but more here playing with players with a lot of experience. Captaining Liverpool was a unique moment in my career, I was very proud. If I am playing for Barcelona, with football's elite, it's thanks to how Liverpool made me as a player."

Suarez's opener at Camp Nou was followed by two Lionel Messi goals to leave Barca on the verge of a first European final in four years. But, even though Liverpool are without the injured Mohamed Salah and Roberto Firmino, Suarez is not taking anything for granted.

"We're aware of the threat Liverpool pose," he said. "We have to be careful of that. We played one of our best games of the season last week, even though they had some opportunities. Now we have to play better as we will face a really difficult atmosphere in which to play in.

"I was never not up for games here. The fans push you on. You'd play at Anfield against a team in the fifth division, and the atmosphere would motivate you. It would still be full and that would motivate you."

Barca also have the unwanted precedent of last season. They beat Roma 4-1 in their quarterfinal first leg last season only to lose 3-0 in Italy to make a surprise exit from the competition.

"It hurt a lot," Suarez admitted. "We don't want that feeling again. You learn a lot from errors. Last year we were a little bit too relaxed. If you switch off for one minute, or even 30 seconds, they can score a goal and that warms up the fans. We have to make sure it doesn't happen again."

Barcelona boss Ernesto Valverde said his side still has their work ahead of them at Anfield on Tuesday, and must avoid complacency against the Premier League challengers.

"Everything is still to be played for. We know there will be a great atmosphere here. There also was at Old Trafford, at the San Siro," he said. "But the team has always stepped up in those environments. We will have to be at our best for this game."

He added: "Obviously every team has their own style and what you want is for the game to be played on your terms. There are times when the opposition attack and press you back. In those situations it can seem like the ball never stops moving.

"But we're not interested in having the sensation that we're in control. We have to attack. If we think about having control, it would be a mistake. We have to attack. We have to go out to attack."

The Blaugrana will be without winger Ousmane Dembele for the match, and Valverde hinted he could be sidelined at least until the Copa del Rey final on May 25.

"We have not spoken about it but I think it will be tough for him to be back in time for the Copa del Rey final," he said.

MANCHESTER, England -- Vincent Kompany admitted he ignored the advice of his teammates to score the winning goal that kept Manchester City's title challenge on track.

City were struggling to find the breakthrough against Leicester City when the veteran City captain hit a stunning 30-yard strike to secure a 1-0 victory and keep their Premier League hopes in their own hands.

"I could hear people saying: 'Don't shoot, don't shoot!'" the 33-year-old said. "I've not come this far in my career to have young players tell me when to shoot! For 15 years, I've told people I'll score one like that.

MANCHESTER, England -- Vincent Kompany obviously wasn't going to score from there. His teammates knew it, his manager knew it, and, crucially, Leicester City's players seemed to know it as well.

There were 20 minutes remaining in a match of cloying tension on Monday at the Etihad Stadium when Aymeric Laporte squared the ball to Kompany midway inside the Leicester half. This is where Manchester City were. Their centre-backs camped on the halfway line, their forward players clustering ineffectively around the opposition penalty area, they had thrown everything at Leicester and were rapidly hurtling toward last-roll-of-the-dice territory.

In the run of 12 straight wins that preceded this game, Pep Guardiola's side had taken the lead no later than the 63rd minute. This was unfamiliar and uncomfortable terrain.

Kompany pushed the ball a few feet in front of him. Leicester had been in their opponents' faces throughout the game, but here, no doubt lulled into a false sense of security by the identity of the player in possession, they backed off. Wilfred Ndidi and Hamza Choudhury continued to jog across the edge of the penalty area. James Maddison stood off. So Kompany took another touch. Then he let fly.

The camera angle from behind Kompany told the story best. He hit across the ball with the laces of his right boot, the effort of the strike lifting both of his feet clean off the ground. The ball arrowed high toward goal, beyond the despairing hands of Kasper Schmeichel, and hit the top-right corner as squarely as it is possible for the top-right corner to be hit.

It was a wonder goal, a one-in-a-million strike, and the more you unpicked it, the more absurd it became. It was Kompany's first goal in more than a year, and it gave him a first Premier League goal from outside the box at the 37th attempt. He had not hit even the target from outside the box since December 2013.

In its significance and its tension-popping explosivity, Kompany's goal recalled the header at the other end of the pitch against Manchester United in April 2012 that provided the spur for City to go on and win their first title in the Premier League era. He celebrated this goal with the same kind of abandon, leaping into the air beside the corner flag in the stadium's northeast corner before sprawling himself on his back and allowing himself to be smothered with kisses by Bernardo Silva.

In the stands, there was an explosion of joy and relief. When the television cameras landed on Guardiola, he was in an almost messianic pose, standing on the touchline with his open-palmed hands in the air, a sea of limbs behind him.

What had he been thinking as Kompany lined up his shot, Guardiola was asked afterward. "Don't shoot, Vinny," he replied. A clip of a postmatch exchange between Kompany and Sergio Aguero revealed that the Argentinian had been thinking exactly the same thing. It was, Guardiola said, "an incredible goal."

Kompany's goal -- the 100th City have scored in front of their home fans this season -- was his reward for a characteristically influential performance. Aside from a wild challenge on Maddison, for which he was booked, he defended with carefully controlled aggression, keeping City's back four high up the pitch and preventing the dangerous Jamie Vardy from turning with the ball and running at him. Not for nothing, he has successfully supplanted John Stones from City's starting XI on knife-edge nights such as this.

The home side came within inches of taking the lead shortly after the half hour, when Aguero's header bounced down off the crossbar and was clawed off the line by Schmeichel, but as the game wore on, the tension swelled. Early in the second half, Guardiola could be seen scurrying in front of a bemused ball boy to retrieve the ball for a quick throw-in. The home fans alternated between anxious silence and howls of desperation. Then Kompany delivered them.

On a night of multiple parallels, Brendan Rodgers found himself with a second chance to win the title for Liverpool after his agonising near-miss as Reds manager in 2014. The Liverpool fans nervously watching on TV could not have faulted the Leicester manager or his side for their efforts.

The 72nd minute almost provided the ultimate moment of déjà vu when Kompany slipped while in possession in a manner that recalled Steven Gerrard's fateful tumble against Chelsea in 2014, but to a soundtrack of gasps around the ground, he recovered the situation, and City were able to clear.

There was one last scare when Leicester substitute Kelechi Iheanacho, a City old boy, wastefully squandered a clear sight of goal with three minutes remaining. His shot from Choudhury's pass trundled apologetically wide of Ederson's goal, and Liverpool's title hopes probably went along with it.

Such has been City's superiority over their opponents that their title surge has been almost totally devoid of dramatic moments, but Kompany's goal was an instant classic. If he goes on to lift the Premier League trophy after City's final game at Brighton and Hove Albion on Sunday, as he surely will, it will become an emblem for the whole campaign.

Kompany, who turned 33 last month, looked tearful after the game as his children joined him on the pitch for a lap of appreciation. The Belgium international is out of contract at the end of the season, and both he and Guardiola were coy when asked if he will be at the Etihad next season.

If this was goodbye, he could not have penned a more beautiful farewell note.

Australia Day, January 26, will be devoid of an international fixture for the first time in 26 years as part of the schedule unveiled by Cricket Australia on Tuesday.

Not since Allan Border's final season in 1994, when the concluding final of the World Series Cup on January 25 was followed by the start of a Test against South Africa in Adelaide on January 28, has the national day passed by without a major match, either a Test generally played at Adelaide Oval or a limited overs game, occasionally elsewhere.

The slot is expected to be filled by the Big Bash, which will take up a great deal of the slack left by a major gap in Australian men's team fixtures between the end of the New Zealand Test series in early January and the Black Caps return for an ODI bout in late March.

"What we've found over the last few years is the composition of the Australian summer of cricket has changed and from a fan perspective I don't think the fan necessarily differentiates between international [or] domestic," CA's executive for events and leagues Anthony Everard said. "We put on a variety of forms of cricket for every fan right around the country and what we've found is from an attendance perspective, it's generally split around 50/50 in terms of attendees to BBL and international cricket.

"Australia Day presents a really great opportunity for cricket. Going back a few years now with the Adelaide Test match and then that transitioned into an ODI, we've got a great opportunity this year to schedule in some respects a celebration of cricket all around the country. It's a long weekend and we've got a variety of BBL games we can schedule, not just in one market but right around the country, and that's an opportunity for us as somewhat of a crescendo to the BBL season."

One side-effect of the India tour taking place in mid-January and also the shuffling of a Test tour to Bangladesh until June 2020 is that Australia's top players will be available for the pointy end of the BBL, as was the case last summer when the likes of Pat Cummins, Aaron Finch, Nathan Lyon and Glenn Maxwell all turned out for their clubs. At the same time, clubs are eagerly pursuing the likes of AB de Villiers and Andre Russell to help restock a league that has lost Shane Watson and Brendon McCullum among others this year.

"It's something we're really aiming towards," Everard said. "We want to make sure the BBL finals is an appropriate crescendo to that tournament. We saw this year the impact of having the likes of Glenn Maxwell and Aaron Finch available for the final and what that did in terms of the quality of the cricket played, so yes that is a focus for us and we're confident that this year in the BBL we will have Australian players available for the back end of the season.

"Something we've really been focusing on irrespective of the Australian team going to India, we're buoyed by some conversations that some of the clubs are having and it's been reported some of the big names potentially coming out. The success of the BBL has always been predicated on a combination of marketable overseas players, some young up and coming stars and the foundation of the Australian domestic players."

CA had originally been under the impression that they would be playing a game on January 26 in India, also known as Republic Day, as part of a bilateral tour. However, the BCCI has pushed the series forward to games on January 12, 15 and 17, leaving the Australian team to return in time for BBL commitments but without any international opponent. The other assignment for Australia's men between January and March is an ODI series in South Africa.

"Scheduling international cricket is challenging in that nine of the ten major cricketing countries have seasons similar to ours, so working with them to find space in the calendar to fulfil our obligations to the ICC Future Tours Program is a juggling act," CA head of cricket operations Peter Roach said.

"Cricket Australia took the position that while January was our preference for these [New Zealand] ODI matches, there are times we need to honour our commitments to work in the greater context of international cricket scheduling. We evaluated different options for an alternative and saw the most value in the March opportunity to extend our window in the traditional cricket season.

Sri Lanka, Pakistan and New Zealand will all be touring Australia during the men's international program, while the national women's team will host Sri Lanka, India and England ahead of the T20 World Cup in Australia in February and March.

As for the provision of a day-night Test match for Perth's new stadium, CA has been working at trying to provide more attractive time slots for cities other than Melbourne and Sydney. "We think day-night Test cricket has a really important role to play in the summer of cricket but it's not a one size fits all," Everard said.

"Clearly the Melbourne and Sydney Tests are scheduled at a time of the summer when our fans have the most discretionary leisure time available, so I don't see any time soon when those fixtures will move to day-night, but once you get out of that peak holiday period it is really important to be able to schedule our games in a way that they're as accessible as possible to our fans."

(All times local)

Women's T20s v Sri Lanka

September 29 North Sydney Oval, 2.30pm
September 30 North Sydney Oval, 7pm
October 2 North Sydney Oval, 2pm

Women's ODIs v Sri Lanka

October 5 Allan Border Field (Brisbane), 10am
October 7 Allan Border Field, 10am
October 9 Allan Border Field, 10am

Men's T20s v Sri Lanka

October 27 Adelaide Oval, 2pm
October 30 Gabba, 6.10pm
November 1 MCG, 7.10pm

Men's T20s v Pakistan

November 3 SCG, 2.30pm
November 5 Manuka Oval, 7.10pm
November 8 Perth Stadium, 4.30pm

Men's Test series v Pakistan

November 21-25 Gabba, 10am
November 29-December 3 Adelaide Oval, 2pm (D/N)

Men's Test series v New Zealand

December 12-16 Perth Stadium, 1pm (D/N)
December 26-30 MCG, 10.30am
January 3-7 SCG, 10.30am

Women's T20 tri-series

January 31 India v England, Manuka Oval, 2.10pm
February 1 Australia v England, Manuka Oval, 2.10pm
February 2 Australia v India, Manuka Oval, 2.10pm
February 7 India v England, Junction Oval (Melbourne), 2.10pm
February 8 Australia v India, Junction Oval, 2.10pm
February 9 Australia v England, Junction Oval, 2.10pm
February 12 Tri-series Final, Junction Oval, 1.40pm

Women's T20 World Cup

February 21-March 8 Full fixtures here

Men's ODIs v New Zealand

March 13 SCG, 2.30pm (D/N)
March 15 SCG, 10.30am
March 20 Blundstone Arena (Hobart), 2.30pm (D/N)