The WNBA’s 26th season begins this weekend with hearts and minds on one player who won’t be in uniform: Phoenix Mercury center Brittney Griner, who has been detained in Russia since February. The Mercury and the league will keep her situation in the public eye, but Phoenix also has to figure out how to adjust without one of the franchises mainstays since 2013. And the Mercury will need to do that under a new coach in Vanessa Nygaard.

Some players, such as Minnesota Lynx center Sylvia Fowles and Seattle Storm guard Briann January, have announced this will be their final WNBA season, while that also might be the case for Storm guard Sue Bird. On the other end of the spectrum is a rookie class looking to prove itself, led by No. 1 pick Rhyne Howard of the Atlanta Dream.

Liz Cambage, who joins the Los Angeles Sparks after their rare postseason miss last year, is the biggest name who is in a different place this season. The Washington Mystics, who also missed the 2021 playoffs, hope to have forward/guard Elena Delle Donne for the whole season after she missed 2020 and all but three games last year.

The WNBA will have its All-Star Game for the first time in Chicago, home of the defending champion Chicago Sky, the second version of the Commissioner’s Cup competition and a compact schedule due to the FIBA Women’s Basketball World Cup that begins in September. ESPN’s Kevin Pelton, Alexa Philippou and Mechelle Voepel look at some of the key questions heading into the 2022 WNBA season and make their preseason predictions for the league’s biggest awards and honors.

Connecticut and Las Vegas (both +350) have the best championship odds at Caesars Sportsbook. Based on those odds, which team offers the best value as a title pick?

Pelton: Despite the lowest odds, I’m going with the Sun. Connecticut was the league’s best team in the 2021 regular season with limited contributions from Alyssa Thomas, who played just three games returning from an Achilles rupture. With Thomas healthy and the return of Courtney Williams, the Sun now have four of the five starters from the team that got within a win of the 2019 title. If anything, Connecticut has upgraded on that 2019 group with the subsequent addition of DeWanna Bonner and development of Brionna Jones. To me, the Sun are clearly the league’s best team.

Voepel: The Sun have all the pieces, and they should be very hungry after last season’s semifinal exit. At this point, they are a very good pick to win the franchise’s first championship, and seem more of a favorite than Las Vegas. But it’s also interesting that Seattle and 2021 champion Chicago are next in odds at +500. It’s oft-repeated that the league hasn’t had a repeat champion since Los Angeles in 2001-02. Last year, after going .500 in the regular season, the Sky hit their stride in the playoffs. That, of course, is the key: You don’t have to be the best team all season, just at the end.

If Breanna Stewart stays healthy for the Storm, they also might have a strong chance at the franchise’s fifth title. I’m also not going to write off Minnesota or Phoenix, because both could make a playoff run. And might Washington also rise to the occasion? We always can predict a little better after much of the season plays out and we see, unfortunately, what injuries take their toll. I wouldn’t want to put big money on a specific team to win at this point.

Philippou: Odds aside (sorry, I’m no fun), I’m going with the Storm. First of all, when’s the last time Breanna Stewart hasn’t won a title when healthy? 2017? Jewell Loyd is only getting better and better as the years go by, and everyone is going to want to send Sue Bird off into the sunset with her fifth WNBA title. I also think the free-agency additions of Gabby Williams and Briann January will get this team back on the right foot defensively, especially if Williams’ standout overseas play translates into the W, and this could be a breakout year for Ezi Magbegor.

We’re split on the preseason pick for MVP. What does that say about the talent in the league, and who are you picking?

Pelton: It says the title of best player in the world is up for grabs. We’ve had six different MVPs in the last six seasons and there’s a good chance one of the last four winners — Elena Delle Donne, Jonquel Jones, Breanna Stewart and A’ja Wilson — will claim another one and make a statement in the process. Although Wilson was third on ESPN’s preseason ranking of the league’s best players, she’s my MVP pick because I think she’s better positioned to put up big numbers this season with the Aces moving on from Liz Cambage and emphasizing spacing the floor around Wilson.

Voepel: There are some seasons where one player establishes herself as MVP early on — think Delle Donne in 2019 with Washington — and then other seasons where several players are in the running, and it might be based on which one’s team has the best season. There are multiple candidates this year, but as a preseason pick I don’t think you can go wrong with Stewart. All five of her seasons have been MVP-caliber, including her rookie year. If she had not been out with injury for the 2021 playoffs, who knows how far the Storm would have gone.

Philippou: Only once has a WNBA MVP repeated in back-to-back years (Cynthia Cooper in ’97 and ’98), so maybe picking Jonquel Jones to win again feels like a stretch, but it’s hard to imagine the 6-foot-6 multifaceted threat slowing down anytime soon. Jones’ 2021 campaign — and even her performance overseas mid-WNBA season with the Bosnian national team — helped stake her claim as the best player in the world. With her confidence never higher, old teammate Courtney Williams back into the fold, a bit of a physical and mental break after returning from Russia, and a hunger to win a championship after she and the Sun fell short her last two seasons in the league, Jones might not be ready to give up that mantle anytime soon. Yes, even with a healthy Stewart back in the league. That said, I hope we get a summer (and early fall?) full of Jones-Stewart matchups.

A lot of talented players were released this week as rosters were finalized, with some teams only carrying 11 players due to the hard salary cap. WNBA fans and players tweeted out pleas for the league to find a way to keep rookies as contract players on the roster to develop young talent. What’s the solution?

Voepel: If this is really of utmost importance to WNBA players, they probably should have made it a bigger priority in the negotiations for the 2020 collective bargaining agreement. They wanted larger salaries, and they got those by agreeing to prioritization, which might not work out well for either side. With a hard salary cap and the salaries that top players want to get, teams have to make tough decisions. Those now tend to impact mid-tier level veterans and rookies/young players who have talent but need more time to develop. Spots are difficult enough to get on 12-player rosters, and harder with teams that go with 11 because of the cap.

The solution is the same thing it always is: more money. Where does that come from? The WNBA did a capital raise this year selling equity in the league, and it seems that will largely go toward marketing, which is hoped to lead to expansion. It has been 14 years since the league expanded (in Atlanta), with two franchises relocating in that time (to Tulsa/Dallas and Las Vegas). No one would argue that the league needs to have more teams in order to obtain a better national footprint and to provide more jobs to players who are good enough to be pros. But it has been difficult to find committed new owners.

While we continue to wait for franchise expansion, the idea of roster expansion would require a larger salary cap or maybe something out of the box, such as allowing each team to keep one rookie outside the cap, or perhaps a couple players with limited experience outside of it. This would have to be agreed to by owners and the union, and it has to be paid for. In terms of other forms of player development, maybe there is a chance of partnering in some way with Athletes Unlimited, the league that began earlier this year playing a five-week season in Las Vegas.

Everyone who is involved in or follows the WNBA knows the league is dealing with a math problem when it comes to bringing in new talent. I doubt players in high school and college are as aware of this as they need to be for their futures. For most, their odds of getting a WNBA roster spot are really low. Even All-Americans can get cut.

Pelton: To some extent, I think this problem will ease as teams get more comfortable with the new salary cap. They spent freely in the 2020 and 2021 offseasons without considering the long-term implications as players moved from smaller salaries dating back to the previous collective bargaining agreement to the higher maximum salaries now possible. As teams adjust, I think more will likely keep 12 players. Still, there’s no doubt that expanded rosters will help the league. As Voepel said, it’s really about getting owners behind the need for that investment.

Philippou: Whether the current roster crunch lasts in such an acute manner, the WNBA needs to be looking at ways to allow roster flexibility, regardless of when franchise expansion ultimately occurs. I’d be interested in seeing roster sizes increase from 12 to 15 — yes, I know that would cost more money; I think we all are realistic in knowing that the owners’ level of investment is what’ll make the difference here — and also the incorporation of an injured reserve (the current hardship exemption system is rather unideal). I’m intrigued, too, by the idea of a soft cap with a luxury tax, as Stewart and Sun coach Curt Miller have alluded to, while recognizing that might not be the most realistic alternative at this moment in time.

Of the four teams that missed the playoffs last season, which will be the most improved team this summer?

Pelton: The Los Angeles Sparks. The Sparks spent the offseason betting on talent, adding Chennedy Carter and Katie Lou Samuelson via trade and Cambage and Jordin Canada in free agency. How those pieces will fit in with the existing ones in L.A., including 2016 MVP Nneka Ogwumike, remains to be seen. There’s little doubt, however, that the Sparks are more talented and deeper than they were last season — their first in the lottery since they drafted Ogwumike No. 1 overall in 2012.

Voepel: Los Angeles is a great choice, especially if the Sparks get the best version of Cambage. But I will mention the Washington Mystics. If Delle Donne is healthy — yes, that is the phrase that basically defines the Mystics — all the pieces around her become better. And if Alysha Clark comes back strong, too, after missing last season with a foot injury, we’re looking at another team that could make a playoff run.

As for Indiana and Atlanta, it doesn’t seem like the playoffs are in the cards for either, again, in 2022. But if both can make some tangible progress led by their rookies and other young players, that will be considered success.

Philippou: I have to go with the Sparks, too. Bringing in Cambage from Vegas should help address their rebounding problems from last year. Their offensive rating was also dead last in 2021, but that shouldn’t be as much of a problem this season given their free-agency additions — and as long as they don’t get hit by the injury bug as horribly as they did last year. Derek Fisher told reporters this week that he opted to keep Lexie Brown and Amy Atwell on the team’s opening day roster because of the floor spacing they provide (Atwell went 6-for-6 on 3s in the team’s preseason game last week!). With those two and eventually Samuelson aboard, I’ll be keeping my eye on whether those shooters succeed in giving Cambage and Ogwumike enough space to operate inside.

Preseason predictions

Which player is your preseason pick for MVP?

Kevin Pelton: A’ja Wilson, Las Vegas Aces
Alexa Philippou: Jonquel Jones, Connecticut Sun
Mechelle Voepel: Breanna Stewart, Seattle Storm

Who is your pick for preseason Rookie of the Year?

Pelton: Rhyne Howard, Atlanta Dream
Philippou: Rhyne Howard, Atlanta Dream
Voepel: NaLyssa Smith, Indiana Fever

Who is your preseason Defensive Player of the Year?

Pelton: Jonquel Jones, Connecticut Sun
Philippou: Alyssa Thomas, Connecticut Sun
Voepel: Sylvia Fowles, Minnesota Lynx

Who is your preseason Most Improved Player?

Pelton: Sabrina Ionescu, New York Liberty
Philippou: Chennedy Carter, Los Angeles Sparks
Voepel: Gabby Williams, Seattle Storm

Which five players — two guards, two forwards, one center — will make the All-WNBA First Team?

Pelton: Skylar Diggins-Smith, Arike Ogunbowale, Jonquel Jones, Breanna Stewart, A’ja Wilson
Philippou: Courtney Vandersloot, Jewell Loyd, Jonquel Jones, Breanna Stewart, A’ja Wilson
Voepel: Arike Ogunbowale, Jewell Loyd, Breanna Stewart, Jonquel Jones, A’ja Wilson

Which teams will meet in the WNBA Finals?

Pelton: Connecticut Sun vs. Chicago Sky
Philippou: Connecticut Sun vs. Seattle Storm
Voepel: Connecticut Sun vs. Seattle Storm

Which team will win the 2022 WNBA title?

Pelton: Connecticut Sun
Philippou: Seattle Storm
Voepel: Connecticut Sun

LOS ANGELES — Gold banners hang from the ceiling, one for each of the Los Angeles Lakers‘ 17 world championships. White decals with the jersey numbers of Lakers Hall of Famers line the black walls along the baselines. Abdul-Jabbar. Chamberlain. Bryant. O’Neal. The aura of championships is inescapable. Even NBA legend and Los Angeles Sparks co-owner Magic Johnson stopped by camp and pulled up a chair.

The Sparks — who held their first two weeks of training camp at the UCLA Health Training Center in El Segundo, the Lakers’ state-of-the-art practice facility — have their own storied history with three WNBA titles. But this proximity to greatness isn’t so much aspirational as a reminder that winning is the standard in Los Angeles — and that both local scrutiny and outside hostility is more prominent here than anywhere else.

“We’re a Showtime team. That’s what L.A. is known for, Showtime,” Sparks guard Brittney Sykes said. “But they get the job done as well. We can’t just be Showtime and then be out here losing.”

Losing came more frequently than usual for the Sparks in 2021, their first season following the free-agency departures of Chelsea Gray and two-time MVP Candace Parker, who up to that point had spent her entire WNBA career in Los Angeles. Riddled with injuries and searching for a new identity, the Sparks finished 12-20 and missed the playoffs for the first time in a decade, just the third time since 1999.

Entering the second season of the post-Parker era, and Derek Fisher’s fourth since coming aboard as head coach, the Sparks readily admit they are in “rebirth” mode. They entered this past offseason with a renewed urgency to get the franchise back to its winning ways, exemplified by an aggressive free agency that brought in four-time All-Star Liz Cambage and Chennedy Carter, the No. 4 draft pick in 2020. How effectively and quickly this conglomeration of skill sets, talent and strong personalities can jell will be a defining question for a team determined at minimum to return to the postseason as the 2022 season opens Friday at the Chicago Sky.

Those on the outside have pondered how all the disparate pieces will fit together, but the group is embracing its 2022 season slogan, both on an individual level and as a collective: It’s “time to show.” To show the Sparks can be, in former MVP Nneka Ogwumike‘s words, a phoenix rising from the ashes, can become dominant once more in an increasingly competitive league, and can deepen their reach in an unforgiving town, where the expectation is championships and the alternative is arguably something worse than derision: irrelevancy.

The pressure is on the Sparks even more so after the Lakers returned to championship form in 2020, as did the Dodgers (2020) and Rams (2022). And the momentum around the NWSL’s Angel City FC, who played their inaugural game Friday in front of a sellout-crowd of 22,000 and is backed by a group of celebrity investors, has the city buzzing.

The Sparks, Ogwumike said, feel like the middle child in such a crowded sports market. One way to fix that? Competing for and ultimately winning championships.

“I want us to matter in L.A. again,” Fisher said. “Because right now, we don’t.”

MORE HAS CHANGED than remained the same since the Sparks’ back-to-back WNBA Finals appearances five years ago — the first, in 2016, when L.A. won its third title. Following the resignation of coach Brian Agler, Fisher took over going into 2019 and guided the Sparks to strong regular-season finishes in 2019 and 2020 before they flamed out early in the postseason both years. Longtime general manager Penny Toler was fired shortly after the 2019 playoffs, and Fisher took over the role in December 2020.

The 2021 season was always going to be an adjustment period after Parker left to play in her hometown of Chicago, forcing the Sparks to acclimate to life without their longtime franchise player. But between a slew of injuries, as well as off-court turmoil for Nneka and Chiney Ogwumike, whatever identity the Sparks were hoping to take on never materialized.

Chiney, who opted out of the 2020 season, was limited to just seven games due to lingering knee issues. Nneka suffered what she deemed an “identity crisis” following the departure of Parker, whom she called the Batman to her Robin, and struggled to navigate what was needed from her on court. When she managed to find her stride, she also dealt with a knee injury, missing 14 games. And both sisters coped with the emotional toll of Nneka being left off the U.S. Olympic squad and initiating a still-ongoing battle with FIBA to be allowed to play for the Nigerian national team.

The disarray wasn’t limited to the Ogwumikes. Kristi Toliver, who helped the Sparks and Washington Mystics win titles in 2016 and 2019, respectively, was also sidelined with multiple injuries throughout the season. Russian center Maria Vadeeva never joined the team, and 2021 first-round draft pick Jasmine Walker tore her ACL early on.

L.A. fell one win short of making the playoffs, yet even amid the circumstances it was a startling layoff for one of the WNBA’s most prestigious franchises, one that enjoys a prized status as one of the league’s three remaining original franchises.

As the longest-tenured player on the team, Nneka had experienced a lot of disruption in her time in L.A., such as having four different coaches in her first eight years since being drafted in 2012. But to her, last season “was the peak of, ‘Whoa, what’s going on?'”

MISSING THE POSTSEASON, Fisher said, catalyzed the front office into making the necessary moves to reshape the roster. Part of that entailed shifting the franchise’s approach from chasing its success from 2016 to building a team and organization better suited for the long term.

“We spent a lot of time trying to recreate or extend what the Sparks have accomplished in the past,” said Fisher, who won five titles with the Lakers during his 18-year NBA career. “To win in the WNBA now, what do you need? What kind of roster [given the] new CBA, different contracts structures? We have to move in that direction. I think this year we actually got a chance to do that.”

Nneka Ogwumike had felt the franchise’s tendency to fixate on trying to recreate 2016, but the way forward, she noted, won’t ignore the franchise’s championship tradition, either.

“This is like a tree we had to cut down and let it grow again,” she said. “The foundation is there, the roots are there. But what it looks like now is going to be very different.”

In the offseason, Fisher traded for Carter, brought in hometown products Jordin Canada and Katie Lou Samuelson and signed Cambage, who signed for nearly $60,000 below the supermax so the Sparks could carry a full 12-player roster. While the Sparks had a top three defense each of the past six years, their offense and rebounding suffered greatly in 2021, which the additions of the 6-foot-8 Cambage, the explosive Carter, the two-way threat Canada and the sharpshooter Samuelson could help correct. The Ogwumikes are the only holdovers on the roster from when Fisher first took over.

Carter is eager to embrace the razzle-dazzle of Hollywood — that is her nickname, after all. She played just 11 games last season, her second in the league, after being sidelined with an elbow injury and then being suspended mid-season by the Atlanta Dream for “conduct detrimental to the team.” A change of environment could make for a breakout year for the budding star.

“I’m proving to myself that this situation is perfect for me. I’m a good, respectful kid, and I know how to be in a situation and make it work and I know how to deal with people,” Carter said. “Maybe people need to look a little deeper into me and realize, ‘Hey, the kid maybe just misunderstood a little bit, some things may not be all the way right with what she went through. But outside of that the kid can play, the kid wants to be a team player and just wants to win.'”

Everyone who’s in L.A. wants to be here, Nneka noted, perhaps no one more so than Cambage. The Australian center grew up idolizing L.A. culture, making it clear before she was even drafted into the WNBA 11 years ago that she wanted to play for the Sparks. Being in L.A. doesn’t just mean that Cambage has limitless access to opportunities for her fashion, DJing and design endeavors, although she is excited for what’s to come on those fronts: “If anyone needs a seven-foot extra in the back of a movie, hit me up, I’m in town,” she said. “Or I’d love to be a main character in a movie.”

Entering her sixth season in the WNBA, Cambage wants to get back to being a three-level scorer, which she exhibited when she put up a WNBA-record 53 points playing for the Wings in 2018. She went 4-for-5 on 3s that game before being told from the get-go with the Las Vegas Aces not to shoot from the arc.

Cambage has long polarized WNBA fans with her edge on the court and for how outspoken she is off of it, including recently when she criticized new Aces coach Becky Hammon’s salary being four times the player supermax. Last year, she withdrew from playing for Team Australia shortly before the Tokyo Olympics citing her mental health, while reports emerged that she was involved in a physical altercation and verbal exchange in a closed-door scrimmage. And in December, Cambage said she had zero interest in representing the Opals in September’s FIBA World Cup. She said she has been pleasantly surprised by the support she has received from fans since arriving in L.A., but that has also come with increased pressure to win.

“I feel like if you’re a losing team in L.A., you get no love,” Cambage said. “We’ve got to turn the winning up and really do our thing out here.”

THE SPARKS ARE going over offensive sets one week before the regular season begins, and there are moments when it’s clear that Cambage and Carter are new. Nneka Ogwumike gives pointers to Cambage under the basket on where she’s supposed to be; later, it’s Sykes who pulls Carter off to the side to talk things over.

The basketball work might be serious, but the players still choose their spots to have fun, whether it’s Cambage letting out a random shimmy after a play, Carter joking around with 2022 draftee Rae Burrell in between drills, or Fisher orchestrating a half-court contest that results in pandemonium when rookie Olivia Nelson-Ododa is the first to hit the shot.

It’s easy for things to stay light before the games begin. But between the infusion of youth and so many vibrant personalities, the heaviness the team felt in previous years has been replaced with “a levity in the group I haven’t felt in a long time,” Nneka said.

“We’ve finally released a lot of the things that have burdened us individually and collectively. Now it’s like ‘Wow, the air is refreshed,'” Chiney said. “And all we have to do is come in and play basketball. That’s what we’ve been wanting for so long, and now we have it.”

How the Sparks come together on the floor is still a work in progress, and will likely be in the weeks to come. But Nneka knows she doesn’t have to take on the role of Batman alone.

“This is like the Avengers now,” Nneka said. “Avengers, Justice League, whatever you want to call it. We have multiple people who can [step up].”

What’s in store for 2023 and beyond is more of an open question, as each of the Sparks’ players on protected contracts — the Ogwumikes, Toliver, Cambage and Canada — in addition to Sykes, will be unrestricted free agents after this season. Age isn’t entirely on the Sparks’ side, either, as the Ogwumikes are in their early 30s and Toliver will turn 36 next year.

But Fisher said his long-term vision is to develop the Sparks’ young players — Burrell, Walker and Nelson-Ododa — to the point where, when paired with what Fisher called the “star power” they hope to add over the next few seasons, the Sparks can get back to competing for multiple championships across the next decade. Ten of the players on their opening night roster have four or fewer years in the league, and unlike most teams, L.A. is carrying three of its four 2022 draftees to start the season.

Still, “that doesn’t mean we’re taking the year off of competing for a championship now,” Fisher said.

The Sparks hope that if they do this right, on the court and in the front office, they’ll set themselves up not just to surpass expectations in 2022, but for success in the years to come. And maybe redefine what it means to be a champion in L.A.

“We’re not trying to hide the fact that we’re trying to get pieces to put together a dynasty to win a championship and to bring some banners on the women’s side of Los Angeles,” Sykes said. “We see the pieces. As players we have to take that faith and belief and go out and get the job done.”

In a game with ramifications at opposite ends of the table, Arsenal entertain Leeds at the Emirates Stadium in the Premier League.

The Gunners tightened their grip on fourth spot with a 2-1 win at West Ham last weekend – their third successive victory following a brief wobble at the beginning of last month.

Leeds, meanwhile, were leapfrogged by Burnley on goal difference following last weekend’s results, with Jesse Marsch’s side hovering just two points above the relegation zone.

Here’s everything you need to know about this weekend’s crunch clash.

When is kick off? Sunday 8 May, 14:00 (BST)
Where is the match being played? Emirates Stadium
TV channel/live stream? Sky Sports Main Event/Football (UK), Peacock Premium (US)
Highlights? Sky Sports Football YouTube channel, BBC Match of the Day 2
Referee? Chris Kavanagh
VAR? John Brooks

Those of an Arsenal persuasion will be hoping to see Ben White return to the side after the defender missed last weekend’s win at West Ham with a muscle injury. Arteta insists he is still in contention to feature but must overcome one final training session.

The boss has confirmed both Bukayo Saka and Takehiro Tomiyasu were withdrawn last time out as a precaution, with the latter making his first start since December.

Stuart Dallas is set for a lengthy spell on the sidelines after suffering a serious leg break in last weekend’s defeat to Man City, but Marsch confirmed he has undergone successful surgery and is now focused on his recovery.

On a more positive note, Liam Cooper and Diego Llorente were both in training on Friday and should be in contention as long as they don’t hit any bumps.

Crysencio Summerville, Adam Forshaw and Tyler Roberts have all been ruled out for the season, although Leeds are optimistic on Patrick Bamford’s chances of featuring before the end of the campaign.

The Gunners could be granted the opportunity to move five points clear in fourth place with a win this weekend if Tottenham fall to defeat at Anfield on Saturday evening.

The incentive could not be much bigger for Arteta’s side ahead of next week’s north London derby showdown, with the Gunners heading into Sunday’s clash with momentum following three straight victories.

Unlike last weekend’s visit to West Ham, however, Arsenal will be facing a very motivated side in Leeds, looking nervously over their shoulder given Everton and Burnley’s respective form.

Expect that to play into Arsenal’s hands, with Arteta’s side more than comfortable in being able to play through an opponent’s high press.

Prediction: Arsenal 2-0 Leeds

In a game with ramifications at opposite ends of the table, Arsenal entertain Leeds at the Emirates Stadium in the Premier League.

The Gunners tightened their grip on fourth spot with a 2-1 win at West Ham last weekend – their third successive victory following a brief wobble at the beginning of last month.

Leeds, meanwhile, were leapfrogged by Burnley on goal difference following last weekend’s results, with Jesse Marsch’s side hovering just two points above the relegation zone.

Here’s everything you need to know about this weekend’s crunch clash.

When is kick off? Sunday 8 May, 14:00 (BST)
Where is the match being played? Emirates Stadium
TV channel/live stream? Sky Sports Main Event/Football (UK), Peacock Premium (US)
Highlights? Sky Sports Football YouTube channel, BBC Match of the Day 2
Referee? Chris Kavanagh
VAR? John Brooks

Those of an Arsenal persuasion will be hoping to see Ben White return to the side after the defender missed last weekend’s win at West Ham with a muscle injury. Arteta insists he is still in contention to feature but must overcome one final training session.

The boss has confirmed both Bukayo Saka and Takehiro Tomiyasu were withdrawn last time out as a precaution, with the latter making his first start since December.

Stuart Dallas is set for a lengthy spell on the sidelines after suffering a serious leg break in last weekend’s defeat to Man City, but Marsch confirmed he has undergone successful surgery and is now focused on his recovery.

On a more positive note, Liam Cooper and Diego Llorente were both in training on Friday and should be in contention as long as they don’t hit any bumps.

Crysencio Summerville, Adam Forshaw and Tyler Roberts have all been ruled out for the season, although Leeds are optimistic on Patrick Bamford’s chances of featuring before the end of the campaign.

The Gunners could be granted the opportunity to move five points clear in fourth place with a win this weekend if Tottenham fall to defeat at Anfield on Saturday evening.

The incentive could not be much bigger for Arteta’s side ahead of next week’s north London derby showdown, with the Gunners heading into Sunday’s clash with momentum following three straight victories.

Unlike last weekend’s visit to West Ham, however, Arsenal will be facing a very motivated side in Leeds, looking nervously over their shoulder given Everton and Burnley’s respective form.

Expect that to play into Arsenal’s hands, with Arteta’s side more than comfortable in being able to play through an opponent’s high press.

Prediction: Arsenal 2-0 Leeds

As soon as they saw each other at the American Airlines Center, Donovan Mitchell made a simple request of Theo Pinson before the Utah Jazz and Dallas Mavericks met in the first round of the NBA’s Western Conference playoffs.

“Theo, shut up, please,” Mitchell told Pinson.

Mitchell is quite familiar with his friend Pinson’s proclivity for running his mouth, having known him since they crossed paths on the AAU circuit. Mitchell had also been subjected to a barrage of trash talk from Pinson and the Mavs’ bench during the Jazz’s two March trips to Dallas.

“Don’t say nothing today,” Mitchell playfully added.

Not a chance. Pinson hardly ever keeps quiet during a Mavericks game.

Pinson is ineligible for the playoffs because he’s on a two-way contract but makes his presence felt as the ringleader of the rowdy Mavs’ bench. He’s on his feet almost all 48 minutes, constantly hyping up his teammates, hollering out coaching points and spewing trash talk in an effort to get in the opponent’s head.

Players who aren’t in the rotation, along with injured guard Tim Hardaway Jr., have joined Pinson, and pride themselves on having the NBA’s most boisterous bench for a Dallas team that is down 0-2 in the conference semifinals to the top-seeded Suns entering Friday’s Game 3 (9:30 p.m. ET, ESPN).

Their jobs are to be “energy-givers,” as Hardway puts it, a blend of assistant coach and antagonist. They’ll call out defensive coverages and reminders from that morning’s film sessions to teammates. And they’ll mercilessly mock opponents’ mistakes, such as when they made a production out of ducking and dodging when Jazz center Rudy Gobert air-balled a free throw.

“Probably more s— talking than coaching,” Pinson says. “We just try to do everything we can to help our teammates. We just want to give ourselves an advantage. We’re causing a problem for the other team, just mentally.

“I don’t see other teams doing what we do.”

Maybe not, but the NBA office sees them. So much so that the league singled out the Dallas bench in its “Points of Education” video sent to teams before the playoffs.

The video includes a clip of the Mavs committing “a violation of the bench decorum guidelines,” showing Pinson, Hardaway and several other bench players jumping and stomping onto the court in celebration after Reggie Bullock blocked a shot in a March 1 road win against the Los Angeles Lakers.

“We’re probably on the floor a little bit too much here and there, but we’ve tamed it back from the regular season,” Pinson says. “We police ourselves over there a lot more than we did in the regular season.”

Pinson scored 48 points in 148 minutes scattered over 19 games for Dallas in the regular season, but the Mavs don’t think it’s a coincidence that they snapped out of a slow start soon after Pinson’s arrival on a hardship 10-day contract.

They consider him an integral part of their success, so much so that coach Jason Kidd was only half-kidding when he called Pinson the team’s MVP in early February.

“He gave us something we didn’t have, and now he has a group over there,” Kidd said before Dallas’ closeout Game 6 win over Utah.

“They’re all into the game from jump ball to the end. Win or lose, those guys are connected and the team is connected.”

Kidd, who was hired in the summer to replace Rick Carlisle, took over a team that had major chemistry concerns. That was reinforced during Luka Doncic‘s news conference in Slovenia after he signed his supermax contract extension. Doncic, fresh off leading Slovenia to a fourth-place finish in its first men’s basketball Olympic run, noted the “amazing chemistry” of his national team.

“I think that led us to winning games,” Doncic said then. “And I think that’s what we need in Dallas.”

And now?

“Our chemistry is way better now than it was at the start of the season,” Doncic said before the start of the second round. “We’re together, and I think it’s improved a lot. You can see it on the court and off the court.”

You can certainly see it on the bench.

The Mavs didn’t know it, but Pinson came along at the right time. He was playing for the Boston Celtics‘ G League team when a COVID-19 outbreak decimated the Mavs’ roster in mid-December. He signed two 10-day hardship deals, instantly infusing the team with positive energy, convincing the coaching staff and front office that they needed to keep Pinson around.

He traveled with the team full-time, which isn’t typical for a two-way player, even when he was sidelined with a broken finger.

“Theo is the best hype man, culture guy, whatever you want to call it in the NBA,” Mavericks sixth man Spencer Dinwiddie, who played with Pinson on the Brooklyn Nets and reunited with him after the trade deadline deal for Kristaps Porzingis, said in March.

“I’ve been in the NBA eight years. I’ve been on, what, five teams or something like that — Theo is the best [teammate].

“I’ll take him on a team any day. The mood is instantly lighter. It’s instantly better. You’re going through some tough times, he’s going to make you laugh. You’re going through some good times, he’s going to make you feel great.”

Hardaway has become Pinson’s hype partner, giving the shooting guard a greater sense of purpose as he recovers from left foot surgery. Hardaway says he is holding out hope he can return during this playoff run, but it’s unlikely, as he is still a few weeks away from beginning to cut.

“The guys allow me to do what I do on the bench right now and be verbal and be supportive. I just try to do the best that I can to stay positive and be relentless in that aspect,” Hardaway says.

“I’m having a great time. That goes with my teammates and Theo being a big part of that. Theo lights up the room, makes sure everybody stays positive, talks trash but in a funny, joking way. But at the same time, he’s serious and wants to win just as much as the five guys on the floor.”

There are times, as the league office’s video reminded with the tsk-tsk tone, that the Mavs have more than five guys on the floor.

“We’re involved all game,” Pinson says. “We’re involved, up, ready, helping our teammates. We’ve seen the importance of it.”