Le Journal

10:55am: Borrego will remain the interim coach the remainder of the season, Will Guillory of The Athletic tweets. 8:41am: The Pelicans have fired head coach Willie Green, NBA insider Chris Haynes tweets. James Borrego will take over as the team’s interim coach, Marc J. Spears of ESPN tweets. The change comes as no surprise. New Orleans has lost four straight and sits at the bottom of the Western Conferene standings with a 2-10 record. It was reported on Friday that they were having “serious” internal discussions about Green’s future. Team owner Gayle Benson told NOLA.com that any decision on Green’s job status would be made by executive VP of basketball operations Joe Dumars. The Pelicans released a statement, confirming Green’s dismissal and the hiring of Borrego. “After careful evaluation, we have made the difficult decision to make a change at head coach,” Dumars said in the statement. “I have the utmost respect for Willie Green, and I’m sincerely appreciative of his contributions to the Pelicans organization and the New Orleans community. We wish him and his family all the best in the future.” Benson also confirmed that Dumars made the decision to relieve Green of his duties. “As I have stated, Joe Dumars is in charge of basketball operations decisions, and as one of the best basketball minds in the business, I trust him to make the right decisions for our franchise,” she said. “I have tremendous admiration and respect for Willie Green, and I truly appreciate all he has done for our organization over the last few years. This is a tough business and these are difficult decisions. My expectation is to be a winning team that competes for championships, and I remain steadfast in our commitment to building a championship-caliber organization for our players, partners, and above all, our fans.” Green was named head coach prior to the 2021/22 season and the team’s record steadily improved during his first three seasons. The Pelicans posted 36 wins in his first year, 42 the next and 49 in 2023/24. They made the playoffs in two of those seasons, falling in the first round both times. Everything fell apart last season with injuries to multiple rotation players greasing the skids for a 21-61 season. Dumars was hired afterward and chose to stick with Green in the short term but their disastrous start led to his dismissal. Pivoting to Borrego is also not a surprise. Earlier this month, Marc Stein reported that Borrego was retained as New Orleans’ lead assistant in anticipation of a potential head coaching change. Stein noted that the Pelicans denied a request from the Knicks to interview Borrego to become the lead assistant on Mike Brown‘s staff. Borrego, of course, has plenty of head coaching experience. He was Orlando’s interim coach in 2014/15, then had a four-year stint as Charlotte’s head coach from 2018-22. He has compiled a 148-183 record during his head coaching career.

Defending champion Jannik Sinner stormed to a 7-5 6-2 victory over Alex de Minaur in the last four of the ATP Finals on Saturday, as the Australian suffered his 13th straight loss to the four-time Grand Slam winner despite a fighting start. World number two Sinner had to dig deep to get his first break of the match, which tipped the first set in his favour. The Italian took the first four games of the second set to ensure victory, backed by a supportive crowd at Turin’s Palasport Olimpico. “It was a very tough match, especially at the beginning of the first set. Felt like (De Minaur) was serving great,” said Sinner, who has now reached the final of the season-ending championship for the third time in a row. “In the second set… my level raised and I tried to be a bit more aggressive, which worked very well.” Seventh seed De Minaur fended off two break points to hold the opening game of the match and was on the verge of a break after going 40-0 up in the second, but Sinner held his nerve to hold. Neither player could get a break as the match stayed even until the 11th game, when Sinner’s perfectly angled backhand evaded a stumbling De Minaur to put the Italian 6-5 ahead. Sinner held the next game with ease to clinch the first set. Sinner dominated the second set, bringing up match point with a strong backhand volley before sealing victory with a powerful forehand that was well outside De Minaur’s reach. “Tomorrow I will enjoy, I will try my best to have the best possible result but in any case, it has been an amazing week,” added Sinner, who has yet to drop a set in the tournament. Top seed Carlos Alcaraz faces Canadian eighth seed Felix Auger-Aliassime in the second semi-final later on Saturday, with the final on Sunday.