UR MAG

The 41-year-old superstar had 18 points in the first half as the Lakers built a 49-31 lead before going back to the locker room. He was responsible for seven of Los Angeles' 18 successful shot attempts from the field throughout the first two quarters of play.

During the game, James reached 1,500 career playoff points as a member of the Lakers.

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He reached the mark with a 4-foot, two-point shot, giving the Lakers a 32-18 lead with 9:26 left in the second quarter. James entered Game 6 with 1,489 playoff points for the Lakers.

The NBA playoffs bring out more than high‑stakes basketball, as stars showcase their sneaker style on the league’s biggest stage.

See the coolest kicks worn during the 2026 NBA Playoffs, where footwear becomes part of the spotlight.

Above, The shoes of Jalen Brunson #11 of the New York Knicks are seen during the first half of Game One of the Eastern Conference First Round NBA Playoffs against the Atlanta Hawks at Madison Square Garden on April 18, 2026, in New York City.

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Coolest kicks of the NBA playoffs as stars show their sneaker style

The NBA playoffsbring out more than high‑stakes basketball, as stars showcase their sneaker style on the league’s biggest stage.See the coolest kicks worn during the 2026 NBA Playoffs, where footwear becomes part of the spotlight.Above, The shoes of Jalen Brunson #11 of the New York Knicks are seen during the first half of Game One of the Eastern Conference First Round NBA Playoffs against the Atlanta Hawks at Madison Square Garden on April 18, 2026, in New York City.

LeBron James career playoff points

James entered Game 6 as the NBA’s all-time leader with 8,400 career points scored in the postseason. He scored a career-high 748 during the 2017-18 postseason while playing with the Cleveland Cavaliers. The most he scored in a single season with theMiami Heatwas 697 in 2011-12. He finished with 580 with the Lakers on the way to winning the 2019-20 NBA title.

• Cleveland Cavaliers: 4,573 (2003-2010, 2014-2018)

• Los Angeles Lakers: 1,500** (2019-26)

• Miami Heat: 2,338 (2010-2014)

**=will be updated after Game 6

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY:LeBron James reaches another postseason scoring milestone

MLS Whitecaps Galaxy Soccer

The Whitecaps (8-1-1), who were only the second MLS team in the post-shootout era (since 2000) to win eight of their first nine games to begin a season, had their club regular-season record four-game win streak snapped.

Sebastian Berhalter played a free kick from the left side to the back post and Laborda headed home the finish from point-blank range to cap the scoring.

The Whitecaps had 58% possession and outshot LA 19-7, 5-2 on target.

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Joseph Paintsil opened the scoring in the 46th minute. Lucas Sanabria, in the opening seconds of the second half, stole a misplayed ball from Whitecaps goalkeeper Yohei Takaoka and fed Paintsil for a finish from the right side of the area.

JT Marcinkowski had four saves for the Galaxy (3-4-4).

Takaoka finished with one save.

AP soccer:https://apnews.com/hub/soccer

Cunningham averaged 32.4 points for Detroit, which last won a postseason series by beating Orlando in the second round in 2008. The Pistons advance to play the winner of Sunday evening’s Game 7 between the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Toronto Raptors. Game 1 will be Tuesday at Little Caesars Arena.

The Pistons became the 15th team in NBA history to overcome a 3-1 deficit and the second in the last two nights, after the Philadelphia 76ers came back to eliminate Boston.

They trailed by 24 points in Game 6 in Orlando before rallying to take the series at home. Orlando only scored 113 points in the final six quarters of the series — an average of 18.8 per period.

Cunningham and Harris became the first Pistons teammates to score 30 points in a playoff game since Bob Lanier (33) and Howard Porter (30) against the Golden State Warriors on April 17, 1977.

CAVALIERS 114, RAPTORS 102

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CLEVELAND (AP) — Jarrett Allen tied his playoff career high with 22 points and grabbed 19 rebounds as Cleveland advanced to the Eastern Conference semifinals with a victory over Toronto in Game 7 of their series.

Donovan Mitchell led the Cavaliers with 22 points and James Harden added 18 in a series in which the home team won all seven games.

Cleveland, the No. 4 seed, will visit top-seeded Detroit on Tuesday night in Game 1 of the second round. The Central Division rivals split their four regular-season meetings.

Scottie Barnes had 24 points and nine rebounds and RJ Barrett scored 23 for the Raptors, who were in the playoffs for the first time since 2022.

Allen had 14 points and 10 rebounds, including five on the offensive end, as Cleveland went on a 49-21 run during a 15-minute span over the second and third quarters where it turned a nine-point deficit into an 19-point advantage.

Toronto led for most of the first half and had a 10-point lead midway through the second quarter before Cleveland began its comeback.

The Cavaliers were down 47-38 with 2:58 remaining before going on a 11-2 run to close the half and tie it at 49. The Cavs were 4 of 17 on 3-pointers before Harden, Max Strus and Jaylon Tyson connected from beyond the arc.

Braves Rockies Baseball

The Braves owned the best record in baseball at 24-10 entering Sunday's game against theColorado Rockies. But they'll have to get by for now without one of their top players.

Acuña leftSaturday night’s gamein the second inning. He was attempting to run out a ground ball before he pulled up about halfway down the base path and grabbed at his hamstring.

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The five-time All-Star and 2023 National League MVP is batting .252 with two home runs, nine RBIs, 17 runs and a team-high seven steals. He had played in all 34 games after a torn ACL he suffered in May 2024 limited him to a combined 144 games over the past two seasons.

The Braves activated right-hander Spencer Strider from the injured list prior to Sunday's start. The 2023 All-Star was set to make his season debut after being sidelined with a strained oblique. The Braves optioned right-hander Hunter Stratton to Triple-A Gwinnett following Saturday's game to make room for him. They also selected outfielder José Azócar's contract from the minor league club on Sunday with Acuña going on the injured list.

AP MLB:https://apnews.com/hub/mlb

Cuba Daily Life

The shelves once laden with goods during his childhood sat nearly empty in late April, with barely anything to offer the 5,000 clients who depend on the state-run store for subsidized food.

Government ration booksthat once provided for a healthy diet and kept families fully fed for a month are now shrinking.

As the economy collapses and prices soar, a growing number ofCubansfind themselves unable to afford alternatives to state-run storesand struggle to subsiston meager salaries in a socialist country of nearly 10 million where basic goods increasingly are sold in U.S. dollars.

“No Cuban can truly survive on the products from the ration book anymore,” Amate López said.

‘Living

off air’

Revolutionary leaderFidel Castroestablished the ration book — “la libreta”— in the early 1960s. It offered heavily subsidized goods ranging from milk to fish and even cigarettes. Cubans knew their assigned bodega would be stocked with everything they needed by the first of the month.

The ration book shrank during the “Special Period,” when Soviet aid plummeted in the 1990s and deprivation hit Cuba. During that time, Cubans lost an average of 5% to 25% of their body weight, according to one study published in a medical journal, with goods including bread, milk, eggs and chicken in scarce quantities.

Even so, many Cubans who lived through that period say the current situation is worse.

Amate López recalled that his assigned bodega was so full decades ago “you could barely walk.”

It’s now an empty room with dusty old posters detailing the prices and amounts of nearly two dozen goods no longer available, including yogurt, pasta and bars of soap. Two industrial freezers once packed with meat and chicken serve only to keep Amate López’s water bottle cold. In April, the only items he had available to sell were rice, sugar and split chickpeas.

Cuban teens turning 15, a landmark birthday in Latin America, used to receive cake and several cases of beer. Now they only get 3 kilograms (6.6 pounds) of ground beef. The government recently opted to celebrate those turning 65 by awarding them sardines, a bar of soap and a package of toilet paper. But Amate López said he doesn't have those items.

Havana resident Ana Enamorado, 68, said she only was able to buy split chickpeas and 2 pounds (1 kilogram) of sugar at her assigned bodega in April.

She struggles to buy the remaining basic goods at small, privately owned stores known as“mipymes”with her salary and pension totaling some 8,000Cuban pesos($16) a month.

A carton of 30 eggs costs roughly 3,000 pesos ($125), 2 pounds of meat hash are nearly 900 pesos ($37) and 1 pound of cornmeal is roughly 200 pesos ($8).

“There’s hardly anything in the ration book,” she said. “We’re practically living off air.”

Her lunches and dinners are a rotation of rice, seasoned ground meat and cornmeal, or sometimes nothing at all. She recalled once upon a time being able to eat pork, lamb, fricassee, fried plantain slices and red beans and rice.

“Now we have to cut back, have one meal a day and live on memories,” Enamorado said.

Subsidizing people in need instead of goods

Cuba imports up to 80% of the food it consumes, including goods offered at state stores that are increasingly unavailable given a lack of government resources.

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“They just don’t have the money to do it anymore,” William LeoGrande, a professor at American University who has tracked Cuba for years, said about the government running out of funds. “Things come in an ad hoc way.”

LeoGrande said the government “bungled” the2021 merging of two Cuban currenciesand the resulting inflation has persisted because the state spends far more money than it takes in.

The government has to stop printing money and balance its budget without drastically cutting social services, a challenge since the bulk of state funds is spent on health, education, social welfare and food imports, he said.

“Any major cuts in state spending are going to have a profound social impact, which is why they haven’t done it,” LeoGrande said, adding that the government’s investment in tourism is “way higher” than the demand for tourism, whichhas plummeted.

In recent years, Cuba’s government has talked about subsidizing people in need instead of goods. That would free up money to import fuel, medicine and other items, LeoGrande said.

But many Cubans still depend on their ration books while the island's crises deepen assevere power outages, petroleum shortages and aU.S. energy blockadepersist.

Cuban comedians have spoofed the ration book, creating a character named “Pánfilo" who sings a rhyming chorus in a recent video posted online: “Place the notebook in a cemetery, because it's ready to be buried.”

Struggling to buy basic goods

On a recent sunny afternoon, Lázaro Cuesta, 56, stood in line to receive a daily allowance of two small bread rolls for him and his wife.

“Before it was 80 grams and cost 5 (Cuban) cents. Now it’s 40 grams and costs 75 cents,'' he said. “And the quality is worse.”

Cuesta works in food preparation and earns 6,000 Cuban pesos ($250) a month. His wife, a retired nurse, receives 4,800 pesos in monthly pension. They also receive $200 a month from her brother and daughter who live abroad.

The remittances allow them to eat avocados, eggs and red beans and rice, Cuesta said.

“If not for the remittances,” he said as he grabbed his neck with his right hand, “hang yourself.”

Roughly 60% of Cubans on the island receive remittances, but Rosa Rodríguez, 54, of Havana is not one of them.

“Everything is scarce here — everything — even that wretched bread they give us,” Rodríguez said. She earns 4,000 Cuban pesos ($8) a month, which she said isn’t a bad salary for Cuba, but “no matter how hard you work, it’s simply not enough.”

Rodríguez said the only product she obtained at her assigned bodega in April was a donation of 4 pounds (1.8 kilograms) of rice, while she struggles to buy other basic goods.

“If you buy beans, then you can’t buy sugar,” she said, noting that most of her salary is spent on a large carton of eggs. “If I retire, I die.”

Follow the AP’s coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean athttps://apnews.com/hub/latin-america