MIAMI -- As Jimmy Butler walked to the podium following the Miami Heat's 116-99 loss to the Boston Celtics in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference finals Tuesday night, he was singing.

It was Alicia Keys' 2007 song "No One." But the specific verse he closed with was, "Everything's gonna be alright."

While Butler and the 8-seed Heat lamented that they couldn't close out the Celtics and earn their second trip to the NBA Finals in four seasons, there remained an air of confidence within the group that it could go back to Boston for Thursday night's Game 5 and find a way to win one more.

"If anything, it will build momentum for us knowing that we have to play with a lot more energy," Butler said. "We've got to play like our backs are against the wall. But I think all year long, we've been better when we've had to do things the hard way."

Butler scored 29 points while grabbing nine rebounds and dishing out five assists, but he was still frustrated with the way he performed with so much at stake for a Heat squad that came into Game 4 hoping to complete the sweep. The Celtics narrowed the series deficit to 3-1.

Despite the setback, Miami coach Erik Spoelstra said he didn't get the feeling his team might suffer a letdown after failing to finish the series at home and get rested for a Finals matchup against the Denver Nuggets.

"I didn't sense any of that," Spoelstra said. "At some point, this is great competition. You know, sometimes it can get skewed, because, whatever, the 3-0. But we have great respect for Boston, what they are capable of. They are a dynamic offensive team that takes extraordinary efforts and commitment to get the job done. Our guys really want this ...

"A lot of what we've done this year has been the hard way. We've been able to figure out ways to win, even if teams are playing well, if we are not in a perfect flow. And they got us tonight. You have to give them credit for that."

Heat guard Caleb Martin echoed a similar sentiment, acknowledging the bitterness of the loss but remaining positive about what's ahead for Miami.

"It's definitely disappointing," Martin said. "That would have been a perfect world, perfect situation. But as we know and everybody else knows, we don't typically get things the easy way over here. So like I said, this is right up our alley. This is the way it goes for us and guys like us. Again, I think it's only going to prepare us for the long run. This could be good for us."

That is what Butler is hoping, as well. He said he didn't feel the need to say anything to the group as it prepares for a difficult challenge on Thursday against a Celtics team that finally appears to have woken up.

"The only thing I'm going to say is we'll be OK," Butler said. "Let's get back to doing what we've always done to get us to this point: Continually have belief in one another, knowing that we are going to win, and we will. We've just got to play harder.

"There's not too much to say with this group because we already know. So we've just got to go out there and execute."

MIAMI -- At shootaround Tuesday morning ahead of Game 4 of the Eastern Conference finals, Marcus Smart had a message for the Miami Heat:

"Don't let us get one," Smart said. "Just don't let us get one."

It was quite a statement to make, given that the Celtics entered Game 4 in a 3-0 hole in this best-of-seven series -- a deficit that 150 teams have faced over the course of NBA history and not one of them has successfully recovered from.

But, a few hours later, Smart and the Celtics followed through on their part of the bargain, claiming a 116-99 victory over Miami, sending this series back to Boston for Game 5 on Thursday with the Celtics now three more victories away from history.

"Now we've just got to go win another one," Smart said after finishing with 11 points and six assists in 35 minutes. "That's all that matters. We take it one game at a time. We understand the odds are stacked against us, but we're a team that believes in us no matter what, and we've just got to keep going, and all that matters is the next game."

Boston found itself in a 3-0 hole coming into Game 4 because it repeatedly failed to survive adverse situations. The Celtics collapsed down the stretch in Games 1 and 2, then were blown out of Kaseya Center in Game 3.

Game 4, though, was a totally different story. Boston was down nine late in the first quarter after a Caleb Martin 3-pointer. The Celtics were down nine again after a Max Strus 3-pointer 90 seconds into the second half. And then, after the Celtics missed their first four shots and committed three fouls in the first 2:19 of the fourth quarter, coach Joe Mazzulla called a quick timeout with Boston leading 88-83 and the game teetering on the knife's edge.

But in each of those situations, the Celtics responded. They went on a 17-5 run after the Martin triple to take a lead early in the second quarter. Boston went on an 18-0 run over more than four minutes in the third after the Strus 3-pointer. And, after that Mazzulla timeout early in the fourth, Boston got a Jayson Tatum basket on the play following it -- Tatum's first fourth-quarter field goal of the series -- to kick-start a 12-0 run that put the game away for good.

"I think just that poise, the trust in each other, the connectivity I think just throughout a game regardless of how the game was going, that stuff never waned," Mazzulla said. "Listen, when the stakes are really high and you're trying to achieve what we are trying to achieve, it's easy to lose those things because the guys are playing as hard as they can.

"I just thought regardless of the result, the guys just stuck together."

Part of the reason Boston was able to stick together, according to Jaylen Brown, was from conversations the team had as a group together during the day Monday in the wake of a demoralizing blowout loss in Game 3 to send the Celtics to the verge of elimination.

"Just coming together, talking it out," Brown said. "And like a lot of times when you get to this point down 3-0, you see locker rooms and teams start to go in the other direction. We want to make sure that we stayed together. We wanted to make sure that we looked each other in the eye and came out today and put our best foot forward, and I'm proud of our group for doing that because you see teams with their back against the wall and you see they just collapse.

"You didn't see that tonight. You seen us come together, play defense, make the right plays, and I feel like that shows a lot about our character, especially in a game where everything is on the line and everything has went wrong in the last couple of games.".

It also didn't hurt that the Celtics -- and specifically Tatum -- knocked down some shots. Boston had come into this game shooting 31-for-106 (29.2%) from 3-point range over the first three games, compared with 44-for-92 (47.8%) for Miami.

"I still think we can shoot the ball a lot better," said Brown, who had 16 points despite again struggling from deep, going 1-for-5 from behind the arc. "I think I had some good shots that didn't go in, but tomorrow, next game is a new game. I feel like as we continue to build confidence, if we keep seeing the ball go through the net, I think we're going to feel good about ourselves."

Tatum, meanwhile, went 11-for-15 from the field in the second half, scoring 25 points and committing just one turnover after having eight points and four turnovers in the first half.

Tatum had 14 of Boston's 38 points in the third, helping the Celtics outscore the Heat 38-23 in the frame to flip what had been a six-point halftime deficit into a nine-point lead. He then came back into the game after that early fourth quarter timeout and kick-started a game-deciding Boston run with an elbow jumper.

"They were playing zone, and quite frankly we kind of struggled against the zone the first couple games," Tatum said of Miami's defense at the start of the fourth quarter, when the Heat held the Celtics scoreless for over two minutes with him on the bench. "So, it kind of had us stagnant. So, when I came back in, he just drew up a play to get some movement, finding open space, and then make the right play."

Now, as this series shifts back to Boston, the Celtics have at least taken the first step toward making history.

The next one will require another 48 minutes like this one Thursday in Boston.

"We want to come back to Miami," Brown said.

NEW YORK -- Michael King makes his living by dotting the corners with 94-95 mph sinkers.

But when the New York Yankees' reliever tried to toss his PitchCom device into the dugout, he couldn't even keep it from sailing into the stands.

"I'm not used to throwing a rectangular little piece of electronics," King said with a smile.

Working in the ninth inning of a one-run game Tuesday night against the Baltimore Orioles, the right-hander was having trouble getting onto the same page with catcher Ben Rortvedt when it came to their PitchCom signals.

"The one that I got didn't work. I don't know if it just wasn't activated or what," King said. "It just happened where I was hitting slider at the same time that Ben was hitting sinker. So every time I hit a slider, it was coming through as sinker."

After striking out Ryan McKenna leading off the inning, King decided to ditch his PitchCom device. He took it off his belt and threw it toward the Yankees' bench, but it ended up being snagged by a woman in the seats between the dugout and home plate.

"I got nervous 'cause I know you can call time for PitchCom, but I didn't know if you could do it for a transmitter malfunction. So I just took it off and chucked it," King said. "I thought it was definitely going to land in front of our dugout, and then it kind of took off like a Frisbee and I saw it floating. And then I saw it almost hit a fan. And then apparently they were hitting the button. Luckily, it wasn't working."

A security guard or usher retrieved the device and walked it across the front row before giving it to someone in the New York dugout.

"We did get it back," manager Aaron Boone said.

King went on to work two hitless innings, striking out three in his first victory of the season as the Yankees rallied to win 6-5 in 10 innings.

Little did he know that a Major League Baseball memo in April 2022 informed teams that "Clubs are responsible for their PitchCom devices. Any Club that loses a transmitter or receiver will be charged a replacement fee of $5,000 per unit."

"I had no idea," King said.

Would the Yankees have sent him the bill if a replacement were required?

"I would hope not," King said with a grin. "I'm very happy that [we got it] back then."

ANAHEIM, Calif. -- Mike Trout is going to tie and pass many greats on his climb up the home run list. Yet, there is something special when for a couple days you can say you are tied with the Yankee Clipper.

Trout's two-run shot in the eighth inning of Tuesday night's 4-0 win over the Boston Red Sox is the 361st home run of his career, which ties him with Hall of Famer Joe DiMaggio for 85th.

The three-time AL MVP said he didn't know he tied DiMaggio until teammate Mickey Moniak told him in the Angels' clubhouse after the game.

"It means a lot. Anytime you pass or tie a great or even just be in the same conversation with a great, it's really special, especially another center fielder," Trout said.

After Taylor Ward got aboard with a double in the eighth inning, Trout hit an 84 mph changeup from Joely Rodriguez into the third row of the stands in right-center for his 11th home run of the season.

It is the third time in his past six games that Trout has gone deep, but he has felt like his timing has been off.

His .275 average is tied for his lowest through his 46 games and his 27.3% strikeout rate is the second-highest in his 13-year career.

"When I'm not on time, I don't see and recognize pitches. I check swing and swing at a lot of balls in the dirt," he said. "When I'm early or on time I recognize pitches, put good swings on balls and good things happen."

Trout is one of 11 players in the AL tied for sixth with 11 home runs this season. Texas' Adolis Garcia and the Yankees' Aaron Judge are tied for the league lead with 14.

One was expected, one was a surprise, but both Wake Forest and Southern California earned their place in the final of the NCAA DI Women’s Golf Championships at Grayhawk Golf Club in Scottsdale, Arizona.

The third-seeded Demon Deacons handled the seventh-seeded Texas A&M Aggies in convincing fashion, winning three matches in Tuesday's semifinals to advance.

Wake's Emilia Migliaccio put the first point on the board when she beat A&M's Zoe Slaughter, 2 and 1, the highlight coming with a hole-out eagle at the par-4 sixth. Then it was senior Rachel Kuehn's turn against Aggie grad student Hailee Cooper. After an early back and forth, Kuehn was able to close things out at the par-3 16th, winning 4 and 2.

With just one more point needed, the Demon Deacons were in a favorable position to advance, it was just a question of who would secure the final blow. Ultimately, Mimi Rhodes was able to stave off Blanca Fernandez Garcia-Poggio, who was unable to birdie the final hole to keep the match alive.

It was a grueling match for the Wake junior as she needed an IV on Monday night and once again became overheated and dehydrated on the back nine Tuesday evening. After clinching the semifinal win, Rhodes said she was dizzy but happy to have won for her team.

“These young ladies, from the perseverance they had from the morning matches to the afternoon matches, overcoming some of the adversity and finishing it off with the wins that we did, to make it to the next day, it's just an unbelievable feeling for myself, my team and for Wake Forest," Demon Deacons head coach Kim Lewellen said.

The four semifinal teams all advanced by winning quarterfinal matches earlier on Tuesday.

The surprise of the day came in the second semifinal between top-seeded Stanford and fifth-seeded Southern California.

The two teams tossed leads back and forth in four of the five matches for much of the afternoon, but the match between the world No. 1 amateur, Stanford sophomore Rose Zhang, and USC junior Brianna Navarrosa was the clincher. Navarrosa went 1 up on Zhang after the latter double bogeyed the par-4 first, and Navarrosa never relinquished the lead.

Stanford freshman Kelly Xu was able draw first blood against Catherine Park, winning 2 and 1, but USC followed with three-straight points from Cindy Kou (2 and 1 vs. Megha Ganne), Christine Wang (2 and 1 vs. Brooke Seay) and, finally, Navarrosa (2 and 1 vs. Zhang).

While it wasn't a perfect day for the Trojans, the putts seemed to be dropping when they needed to, and Navarrosa was the star in an upset of the top-ranked defending champions and back-to-back individual champion.

“Christine Wang, who we've subbed in, subbed out and subbed back in today, gets a win. Brianna (Navarrosa) holds off the greatest amateur golfer of all time (Rose Zhang), and then Cindy Kou goes out and puts up a great round," USC head coach Justin Silverstein said after the win. "This is a long day; everyone told me how tiring this day was, and now I believe them. We have to get this group some rest and come back tomorrow."

Wake Forest is making its second championship appearance and eyeing its first national title in school history after the Deacons finished runner-up in 2019. Three-time champion USC returns to the team final for the first time since finishing runner-up in 2014.

The national championship will be decided Wednesday, with live coverage on Golf Channel beginning at 5 p.m. ET.

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. – If women’s college golf had a wish list at the beginning of the season, written at the top, in bold, would’ve been an NCAA Championship final between Stanford and Wake Forest. And for much of the season the two national powers appeared to be on a collision course, ranked Nos. 1 and 2, respectively, and combining for 13 wins.

On Tuesday at Grayhawk Golf Club, the Demon Deacons delivered on their end, not dropping a point in a 3-0-2 victory over Texas A&M in the first semifinal of the afternoon.

But the Cardinal? USC had other plans. The ninth-ranked Trojans, a decade removed from winning their last national championship, took down two-time NCAA individual champ Rose Zhang thanks to junior Brianna Navarrosa, who put away the world No. 1 amateur on the penultimate hole for the deciding point in a 3-2 win.

It might not be the dream matchup many expected, but whatever winning story is written on Wednesday, it will surely be one of redemption. Both Wake and USC had struggled on the punishing, desert layout in the past, the Trojans missing the 54-hole cut two years ago and the Demon Deacons doing the same last year. And prior to this week, neither had advanced to match play at this championship, on this course.

“We’ve had the right game plan the last couple years,” USC head coach Justin Silverstein said. “But we needed a good draw, which we got, and a little bit of luck, and we got that, too.”

Oh, and a lot of toughness.

Perhaps no one exemplified that quality on Tuesday more than Wake Forest junior Mimi Rhodes. In the emergency room on Monday night receiving an IV for dehydration, Rhodes again battled the extreme heat in her semifinal matchup against Blanca Fernandez Garcia-Poggio. On the par-4 12^th hole, Rhodes was hit by what she described as a “wave,” her head light and her body overheating.

“Mimi felt miserable,” Wake head coach Kim Lewellen said. “There was a moment where I thought I was going to have to do a 10-minute medical just to see if she was OK.”

As Lewellen poured ice water all over Rhodes, placed wet towels around her neck and filled her up with fluids, she asked the junior if she wanted to withdraw.

“She asked me, ‘Are you going to be able to finish this?’” Rhodes recalled. “And I said, ‘This is what we’ve worked for our whole year.’ I just had to make it to the 18^th hole. We only needed one more match.”

After wins by seniors Emilia Migliaccio and Rachel Kuehn, that third Wake point could’ve been posted by any one of three players – Carolina Chacarra, Lauren Walsh or Rhodes, who entering the season was probably the least likely to deliver on this stage. But before the team’s first tournament, Rhodes popped in Lewellen’s office and said, point blank, “Help me get better.”

It took a semester, but after changing her practice routine, switching out her driver (and later her putter prior to ACCs) and fixing a few flaws in her swing, Rhodes started to produce the results – five straight top-25s, including a pair of top-10s, before a respectable T-31 showing in stroke play at Grayhawk. And her once shaky short game? It was darn near indestructible down the stretch on Tuesday.

“There were so many great up-and-downs,” Rhodes said.

Once a range rat, Rhodes spends more time in the chipping area and on the practice green these days. After dropping the 12^th hole to let Fernandez tie up their match, Rhodes short-sided herself at the par-3 13^th before holing an 8-footer for par to go back to 1 up. On the next hole, she drained a 10-footer for another up-and-down par. At the par-3 16^th, she chunked her tee shot – “I couldn’t even feel my arms,” she said – before rolling in yet another clutch par, this time from 15 feet. And finally, there was the touchy chip from behind the green at the par-4 17^th hole.

“I don’t know how I did it,” said Rhodes, who dodged a nearly miraculous up-and-down birdie at the par-5 finishing hole by Fernandez, who missed an 8-footer after finding desert off the tee and then a fairway bunker some 80 yards out.

Added Lewellen: “All that hard work is paying off, and in the toughest conditions.”

When it comes to taking down arguably the greatest women’s college player ever, no one was more equipped, in Silverstein’s eyes, than Navarrosa.

Sure, the junior got subbed out for Christine Wang after rounds of 72-78 at Pac-12s and missed the first 36 holes at the NCAA Pullman Regional, but Silverstein knew he’d need Navarrosa at Grayhawk, so he inserted her into the lineup for the final round of regionals, and she posted a bogey-free, 5-under 67. She then won a team qualifier to earn the start for nationals.

So, how did a player who finished T-49 or worse five times this season, including this week, take down Zhang, an eight-time winner this season?

“The only way to beat Rose on a place that requires tons of discipline is to have someone run the table on the greens, and Bri gave us the best chance of that,” Silverstein said. “Bri goes on weeks stretches of gaining a lot … and she loves these greens.”

Even after another disappointing stroke-play performance, Navarrosa entered her bout with Zhang armed with a message from Silverstein taped to the back of her phone. The note read: Trust all the work.

If Navarrosa believed in her game, she had the ability to pull off the upset.

“Going into the match, I just saw her as another competitor,” Navarrosa said.

And early on, Zhang was exactly that, doubling the first hole of the anchor match, shooting 5-over 41 on the front and falling 3 down at the turn. But give Navarrosa the credit, she made the plays when needed, none more important than her 10-foot sliding birdie make at No. 16, which matched a tight tee shot by Zhang and kept the Stanford star 2 down in what by that time was the deciding match.

“I was like, I gotta make this, and I usually don’t tell myself that,” Navarrosa said of the putt. “But I was like, I’ll make it.”

And on the next hole, she closed out Zhang, who after winning back-to-back NCAA individual titles is now tasked with deciding whether she will return to Stanford for a third year or turn professional.

USC and Wake, meanwhile, will play on.

It’s not No. 1 vs. No. 2, but this championship matchup still has tons of sizzle.

Both teams have supreme talent.

Both teams have something to prove.

And both teams, though they haven’t seen each other a ton during the past few regular seasons, are very familiar with each other. Silverstein and Wake assistant Ryan Potter are best friends, talking at least every other day.

“One of us is going to win, and if it’s not going to be us, I’d love to see him and Kim get one,” Silverstein said. “I’m happy they’re in this spot, but we’re pretty good, too. Unfortunately, I think some people forgot that the past couple years. We’d been the standard for a while, and I’m happy to have us back in this spot to try and get one.”

Wake, of course, will have something to say about that.

“This team wants this so bad,” Lewellen said.

So, rip the wish list into a million pieces and throw it away. It doesn’t matter if it’s Stanford on the opposing side or not, Wake Forest is one win away from NCAA glory.

Relegation-threatened Real Valladolid snatched a 3-1 win at home against champions Barcelona on Tuesday as the hosts secured a crucial victory in their battle to remain in LaLiga.

The win moved Valladolid up one place to 17th and out of the relegation zone, before the club owned by former Real Madrid and Brazil forward Ronaldo face Almeria and Getafe, who are also battling to avoid the drop, in their remaining two games.

- Stream on ESPN+: LaLiga, Bundesliga, more (U.S.)

Barcelona, who sealed their 27th LaLiga title earlier this month, fell behind when defender Andreas Christensen scored an own goal, heading past his own keeper in the second minute while trying to clear a cross into the box.

Valladolid were awarded a penalty for Eric Garcia's tackle on Gonzalo Plata shortly after and Cyle Larin finished from the spot before Plata made it 3-0 in the 73rd minute, with the goal awarded after a VAR check for a potential offside.

Despite having already clinched the title for the first time since 2019, Raphinha was disappointed with his team's effort and suggested it was their duty to play the remaining games of the season at a higher level.

"This can't happen, without taking anything away from Valladolid," Raphinha said. "We lacked a lot tonight, I would say mainly character was missing. We have to change things because there are two games left still. We have to honour the club in these remaining games and step up."

Raphinha showed a message of support for Vinicius Junior, his teammate with Brazil who was the target of racist abuse from Valencia supporters during Real Madrid's 1-0 loss at Mestalla on Sunday. The message was on Raphinha's undershirt and was revealed when he removed his jersey after being substituted in the second half. It read: "As long as the color of the skin is more important than the glow of the eyes, there will be war" and "Vini, I'm with you."

Players from both teams held a banner before the match with the words "racists out of football," which is one of the slogans of a campaign against racism launched jointly by the Spanish league, Spanish federation and the government's top sports authority.

Anti-racism slogans were also shown during the national and international broadcast of the game.

Robert Lewandowski did manage to pull one back for Barcelona six minutes from time as LaLiga's top scorer lifted his tally to 23 goals this season, with manager Xavi Hernandez admitting it was hard to find the proper motivation at this point in such a long season.

"I have to understand that the players have made a huge effort this season," Xavi said. "Many were also at the World Cup midseason and it takes its toll. We have hit our targets, winning LaLiga and the Super Cup, but these games also count and we wanted to show up, which we didn't tonight.

"I don't like losing and that is two defeats in a row. On Sunday, in front of our fans, we have to get back to our best."

Earlier on Tuesday fourth-placed Real Sociedad beat Almeria 1-0 and the Basque side can secure a Champions League spot for next season on Wednesday if Villarreal, in fifth, drop points at home against Cadiz.

DALLAS -- The Dallas Stars had a disastrous start to Game 3 of the Western Conference final on Tuesday night, leading to a 4-0 loss and a 3-0 series deficit to the Vegas Golden Knights.

Stars captain Jamie Benn was ejected just 1:53 into the game for a cross-check to the neck of Golden Knights captain Mark Stone.

With the Golden Knights up 1-0 on a goal by Jonathan Marchessault just 1:11 into the game, Benn knocked Stone to the ice with a check. With Stone on his back, Benn drove his stick down into Stone's neck area.

The on-ice officials gave the Stars winger a match penalty for cross-checking. They reviewed the play and determined the call was correct.

Per NHL Rule 59, a cross-checking match penalty can be assessed if the referee believes a player "attempted to or deliberately injured his opponent by cross-checking."

Benn will be eligible for supplemental discipline from the NHL's department of player safety. George Parros, director of player safety for the league, was in attendance for the game.

Ivan Barbashev made it 2-0 on the ensuing five-minute major power play, scoring at 5:57 of the first period. William Carrier scored an even-strength goal 1:13 after that to make it 3-0 and chase Dallas goalie Jake Oettinger after just 7:10 of ice time.

Backup goaltender Scott Wedgewood, who last played May 13 against the Seattle Kraken, entered the game and allowed another goal.

While the Stars struggle in net, Vegas has all the answers on the other side. Adin Hill made 34 saves en route to the shutout.