No. 4 Arizona is positioned to enter the NCAA tournament as a No. 1 or No. 2 seed, based on a resume that includes victories over Florida, UConn and Alabama prior to taking down Houston on Saturday.

Now comes the hard part. Maintaining.

How the Wildcats respond in their most difficult stretch of the season will determine the landing spot, and their situation is made more perilous because of an injury to forward Koa Peat.

The Wildcats got off to a good start Wednesday, improving to 24-2 with a 75-68 home victory over BYU, completing a season sweep of the ranked Cougars and rebounding from close losses at Kansas and home to Texas Tech.

It will not get easier. The BYU game was simply the next in the series of pivotal tests that the UA will face before selection Sunday on March 15.

No. 2 Houston, No. 8 Kansas (again) and No. 6 Iowa State remain on the unforgiving Big 12 regular-season schedule, and a rematch or two seems inevitable in the Big 12 tournament.

Along the way, the Wildcats will have a chance for revenge against the Jayhawks, whose 82-78 victory in Lawrence on Feb. 9 snapped Arizona’s school record, 23-game winning streak

The Wildcats must find a way around the injury to freshman Peat, who is among the best players to come out of metro Phoenix since Mike Bibby and Jalen Williams.

Peat, who has started since Day 1 and is averaging 13.8 points, 5.4 rebounds and 2.6 assists, did not play against BYU after suffering what Arizona called a muscle strain in a “lower leg area” early in the Texas Tech game.

The Wildcats are averaging 88.2 points per game with an offense built around creating guards Brayden Burries (15.5 points, 4.6 rebounds) and Jaden Bradley (13.3 points, 4.7 assists), and perimeter reserve Anthony Dell’Orso stepped up with an Arizona career-high 22 points and four 3-pointers against BYU.

But they are not the same without 6-foot-8 Peat solidifying a relentless front line that includes 7-2 center Motiejus Krivas (10.8 points, 8.7 rebounds) and 6-8 Tobe Awaka (9.7, 9.6).

Arizona is third in Division I with a plus-12.5 rebounding margin, and Peat is part of that. Both Arizona and Houston average more than 13 offensive rebounds per game.

Houston was giving up 61.6 points per game, before Arizona’s 73-point showing Saturday night.

The NBA’s preeminent rivalry will have its next iteration on Sunday Night Basketball as the Boston Celtics visit the Los Angeles Lakers. Boston (36-19) has won eight of its last 10, including a 121-110 Thursday victory over Golden State. L.A. (34-21) is coming off back-to-back victories, most recently a Friday triumph over the Clippers by a 125-122 score. Boston leads the all-time series with 211 wins versus 166 losses. Both teams have clean injury reports.

Tipoff is at 6:30 p.m. ET from Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles. Boston has won the last two matchups, including a 126-105 victory on Dec. 5. The latest Celtics vs. Lakers odds list Boston as the 1.5-point favorite, with the over/under at 230.5. Boston is at -117 on the money line (risk $117 to win $100), with Los Angeles priced at -102. Before making any Lakers vs. Celtics picks, check out the NBA predictions and betting advice from the SportsLine Projection Model.

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The SportsLine Projection Model simulates every NBA game 10,000 times and has returned well over $10,000 in betting profit for $100 players on its top-rated NBA picks over the past eight-plus seasons. The model exited the NBA All-Star break on a sizzling 38-17 roll on top-rated NBA spread picks dating back to last season. Anyone following its NBA betting advice at sportsbooks and on betting apps could have seen huge returns.

Now, the model has simulated Lakers vs. Celtics 10,000 times and just revealed its coveted NBA picks and betting predictions. You can head to SportsLine now to see the model’s picks. Here are several NBA odds and NBA betting lines for Celtics vs. Lakers:

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Top Celtics vs. Lakers predictions for Sunday Night Basketball

SportsLine’s model has simulated Lakers vs. Celtics 10,000 times and is going Over on the total (230.5 points). Their matchup a few weeks ago went Over with 231 combined points despite neither LeBron James or Luka Doncic playing. With or without them, the Lakers have heavily leaned over this season. The Over has a 31-24 record for L.A., with that 56.4% being the fourth-highest in the NBA.

At Crypto.com Arena, the Over is 18-8 for the Lakers, which is the best home Over record in the league. As for Boston, it has eclipsed the total in each of its last two games, and the Celtics offense will be even more prolific over the rest of the season with Nikola Vucevic now in the fold. SportsLine’s model projects the Over to hit in 64.4% of simulations with 238 combined points, making this side of the total an A-rated pick.

How to make Lakers vs. Celtics picks on Sunday Night Basketball

It also says one side of the spread hits almost 70% of the time. You can head to SportsLine to see the model’s NBA picks. 

So who wins Lakers vs. Celtics, and which side of the spread hits almost 70% of the time? Visit SportsLine now to see which side of the Celtics vs. Lakers spread to back, all from the model that has returned well over $10,000 on top-rated NBA picks, and find out.

NEW DELHI: Indian captain Suryakumar Yadav vowed a stronger comeback after India suffered a crushing 76-run loss to South Africa in their Group 1 Super Eights clash of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup.“I feel we were always in the game when we started. I think we bowled really well in the beginning, 21 for 3, and the way they batted after that from 7 to 15, I think they batted really well, and then we came back again in the game later on. Overall, if we see, we bowled really well, but we could have batted a little better. My thing is sometimes you’ve got to think, if you’re chasing 180-185, you can’t win the game in the powerplay, but you might lose the game in the powerplay. We lost too many wickets in the powerplay and then we couldn’t have small, small partnerships which we wanted for chasing 180-185, but that’s part of the game. We learn from it, we’ll sit back and then come back stronger,” Surya said after the match.

After winning the toss, South Africa posted 187/7, powered by David Miller’s 63 off 35 balls and Dewald Brevis’ 45 off 29 balls. The duo stitched a 97-run fourth-wicket partnership off just 51 balls. Marco Jansen (4/22), Keshav Maharaj (3/24), and Corbin Bosch (2/12) also contributed with the ball, while Lungi Ngidi kept things tight with 4 overs for 15 runs.“I think everyone knows their combination (Bumrah-Arshdeep) has been very lethal. Both of them have played together. If you see today also, both of them bowled eight overs, picked around five wickets and gave around 45-50 runs. If I’m not wrong, I’m not good with numbers. But they bowled really well in partnership and that’s what we want from them. Both are experienced and it’s good to have both of them in our side,” Surya added.India’s reply faltered from the start. Ishan Kishan fell for a duck to Markram, while Abhishek Sharma (15) and Tilak Varma (1) were dismissed in the powerplay. Shivam Dube top-scored with 42, and Hardik Pandya contributed 18, but India were bowled out for 111 in 18.5 overs.“Hopefully bat well, bowl well and field well (Talking about the plans for the next game vs Zimbabwe). That’s it. We’ll try and keep it simple, play the same brand of cricket which we want to play and nothing changes. I think we’ll come back strong,” Surya said.The loss, in front of 90,954 fans, is India’s first ICC event defeat since the 2023 ODI World Cup final, leaving them needing wins against Zimbabwe and West Indies to stay in semi-final contention with a net run rate of -3.8.

Manchester United will face Everton in the Premier League in the Monday Night Football with both clubs having players on the sidelines

Both Manchester United and Everton are expected to have players on the sidelines for their Premier League clash on Monday evening. The Reds will travel to Merseyside to take on the Toffees in their return to top-flight action after nearly two weeks without a game.

United were not in FA Cup action last weekend, and have been preparing to face Everton since their 1-1 draw with West Ham on February 10.

Michael Carrick provided an update on the United squad when he spoke to the media last week, which included the latest on the players who are sidelined with injuries.

Patrick Dorgu, Matthijs de Ligt and Mason Mount all missed United’s draw with West Ham earlier this month, and neither are expected to make a return to the Reds’ clash against Everton on Monday night.

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De Ligt has been sidelined with a back injury since November, while Mount has missed United’s last three matches with a knock and that absence is expected to continue for the trip to Hill Dickinson Stadium in the Monday Night Football.

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“Mason [Mount] is getting closer, we have to be patient with him.” Carrick said on Friday. “We don’t want to rush anything, he is getting closer.

Carrick added: “De Ligt is working towards it, he is a little bit behind Mason [Mount].”

Dorgu has been unavailable since the end of January with a hamstring injury and is still expected to be several weeks away from returning to the matchday squad for United.

Everton will also have some players on the sidelines when United travels to Merseyside. Jack Grealish is expected to miss the rest of the season after undergoing surgery on a foot injury earlier this month.

Defender Jake O’Brien will also be unavailable for Everton, as he serves a one-game ban for a red card he picked up in the Toffees’ defeat to Bournemouth earlier this month.

Seamus Coleman has not featured for Everton since United’s defeat to the Merseyside club at Old Trafford in November, but Toffees boss David Moyes has confirmed the defender is expected to make a return for this evening’s fixture.

“Seamus [Coleman] is fit and available as well [at right-back], so we’ve got people we can choose and we’ll move on from [O’Brien’s red card],” Moyes told reporters on Friday. “He got sent off and these things happen.

“We’ve got everybody fit, bar Jack Grealish.”

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