Moses Moody of the Warriors exits with apparently serious knee injury late in OT against Mavs

DALLAS (AP) — Golden State's Moses Moody dribbled all alone on his way to what looked to be an easy basket after stealing the ball from Dallas rookie standout Cooper Flagg yet again.

Instead, Moody's left leg buckled and he crumpled to the court with an apparently serious left knee injury that left players and coaches from both teams stunned along with fans late in overtime of what had been an intense game.

After play finally stopped on Dallas' offensive end with 58 seconds remaining in the extra period, Warriors coach Steve Kerr put his hands over his face — and he wasn't even looking in the direction of his fallen player.

Players and medical staff surrounded Moody, who stayed down for several minutes before being taken off on a stretcher. Kerr said Moody was getting X-rays at the arena.

“Just saw his leg buckle. Saw him go down in a heap, in pain,” Kerr said after Golden State's 137-131 OT victory Monday night. “We don’t know what it is, but it sure looked bad. Just hoping for the best. What the best-case scenario is, that’s what we’re all hoping for. But it looked bad.”

Moody was playing for the first time after missing 10 games with a sprained right wrist. He led the Warriors with 23 points and had three steals — all three against Flagg, all three in the fourth quarter or overtime. The first two came during an 11-0 Golden State run that broke a tie at the start of the fourth.

“Mo is such a great human being, great teammate, wonderful guy to coach,” Kerr said. “Puts in the work every day. And was brilliant, by the way. Played so well defensively, changed the game for us with his ball pressure and knocked down big shots. So great to finally have him back. And then for that to happen, you’re just praying that it’s not too serious, but it sure looked serious.”

The noise didn't return to the hushed arena over the final 58 seconds, the Warriors scoring the only point in that stretch. Each team attempted just one shot as Dallas lost a 12th consecutive home game, its longest home skid in 32 years.

“I saw the looks on the Mavericks’ faces,” Kerr said. “Everybody on the floor was just horrified. Players care about players. They know how fragile this business is and how short their careers are and how injuries can happen and can be catastrophic. We don’t know what it is yet. We’re just hoping for the best.”

Brandin Podziemski, who had 20 points and 10 rebounds as the Warriors stopped a three-game losing streak, said the scene reminded him of when Jimmy Butler tore the ACL in his right knee against Miami, his former team, at home on Jan. 19.

“You just hate to see it, especially to the good people in life,” Podziemski said.

The Warriors are headed to the play-in tournament in the Western Conference, and waiting for word on star guard Stephen Curry's return from a knee injury after losing Butler for the season. Now one of their locker room favorites appears to be facing a lengthy absence.

“It’s tough,” said Gary Payton II, who made all eight of his shots and scored 17 points. “It’s his first game back, and he does so much rehab and everything, takes care of his body, does what he needs to do to get back. And just to see the noncontact thing, it’s annoying to see, especially among the ones that does all the right things, is professional, is a pro.”

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Golden State Warriors guard Moses Moody is carted off the field after suffering an injury against the Dallas Mavericks during overtime of an NBA basketball game Monday, March 23, 2026, in Dallas. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

Golden State Warriors guard Moses Moody reacts after being fouled by Dallas Mavericks forward Cooper Flagg during overtime of an NBA basketball game Monday, March 23, 2026, in Dallas. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

Golden State Warriors guard Moses Moody, right, reacts while suffering an injury as Dallas Mavericks forward Cooper Flagg (32) looks on during overtime of an NBA basketball game Monday, March 23, 2026, in Dallas. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

Golden State Warriors center Kristaps Porzingis, center, and guard Gary Payton II, left, react after guard Moses Moody (4) suffered an injury during overtime of an NBA basketball game against the Dallas Mavericks Monday, March 23, 2026, in Dallas. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr, right, reacts in front of referee Jacyn Goble (68) during the first half of an NBA basketball game against the Dallas Mavericks Monday, March 23, 2026, in Dallas. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

GENEVA (AP) — Scientists in Geneva are taking some antiprotons out for a spin — a very delicate one — in a truck, in a never-tried-before test drive.

If this so-called antimatter comes into contact with actual matter — even for a fraction of an instant — it will be annihilated in a quick flash of energy. So experts at the European Organization for Nuclear Research, known as CERN, will, over the course of four hours Tuesday, gingerly wheel out from its lab about 100 antiprotons. They are suspended in a vacuum inside a specially designed box and held in place by supercooled magnets.

Then, they'll ease it into a truck, and take about a half-hour drive to test how — if at all — the infinitesimal particles can be transported by road without seeping out. If all goes well, the antiprotons will be returned back to the lab.

The hard part: Manipulating antimatter, like antiprotons, can be tricky business. As scientists understand the universe today, for every type particle that exists, there is a corresponding antiparticle, exactly matching the particle but with an opposite charge.

If those opposites come into contact, they “annihilate” each other, setting off lots of energy, depending on the masses involved. Any bumps in the road on the test journey that aren't compensated for by the specially-designed box could spoil the whole exercise.

Tuesday’s practice is a first step toward making good on hopes, one day, to deliver CERN antiprotons to researchers at Heinrich Heine University in Düsseldorf, Germany, which is about eight hours away in normal driving conditions.

The antiprotons have been encased in a 1,000-kilogram (2,200 pounds) box called a “transportable antiproton trap.” It's compact enough to fit through ordinary laboratory doors and fit on a truck. It uses superconducting magnets cooled to -269 degrees Celsius (-452 Fahrenheit) that allows the antiprotons to be remain suspended in a vacuum — not touching the inner walls, which are made of ... matter.

The mass in Tuesday's test — slightly less than that of about 100 hydrogen atoms — is so little, experts say, that the worst possible outcome is the loss of the antiprotons. Even if they do touch matter, any release of energy would be unnoticeable, only an oscilloscope, which picks up electrical signals, would be able to detect it.

The trap, says CERN spokeswoman Sophie Tesauri, “is supposed to contain these antiprotons no matter what: if the truck stops, if it starts again, if it has to slam on the brakes — all that.” Work remains: The trap can contain the antiprotons on its own for only about four hours, and the drive to Düsseldorf is twice that.

The Geneva-based center is best known for its Large Hadron Collider, a network of magnets that accelerates particles through a 27-kilometer (17-mile) underground tunnel and slams them together at velocities approaching the speed of light. Scientists then study the results of those collisions.

But the sprawling, buzzing complex of scientific experiment is more than just about smashing atoms together: the World Wide Web, for example, was invented here by Britain’s Tim Berners-Lee in 1989.

Heinrich Heine University is seen as a better place to study antiprotons in-depth, because CERN — with all its other activities — generates a lot of magnetic interference that can skew the study of antimatter.

But to get them there, those antiprotons will have to avoid touching anything on the way.

The center's Antiproton Decelerator, where a proton beam gets fired into a block of metal, causes collisions that generate secondary particles, including lots of antiprotons. It’s billed as a unique machine that produces low-energy antiprotons for the study of antimatter.

CERN’s “Antimatter Factory,” lab officials say, is the only place in the world where scientists can store and study antiprotons.

The center has been experimenting with antimatter for years, and has made breakthroughs on measurement, storage and interaction of antimatter. Two years ago, the team transported a “cloud” of about 70 protons — not antiprotons — across CERN's campus.

It's a similar drill this time, except that with antiprotons, a much better vacuum chamber is needed, according to Christian Smorra, head of a team behind the apparatus designed to store and transport antimatter.

Jittery test teams weren't available for interviews before the exercise, but were expected to explain the results afterward on Tuesday.

FILE - The magnet core of the world's largest superconducting solenoid magnet (CMS, Compact Muon Solenoid) at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN)'s Large Hadron Collider (LHC) particle accelerator, in Geneva, Switzerland, March 22, 2007. (AP Photo/Keystone, Martial Trezzini, File)

FILE - The globe of the European Organization for Nuclear Research, CERN, is illuminated outside Geneva, Switzerland, March 30, 2010. (AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus, File)

FILE - A technician works in the LHC (Large Hadron Collider) tunnel of the European Organization for Nuclear Research, CERN, during a press visit in Meyrin, near Geneva, Switzerland, Feb. 16, 2016. (Laurent Gillieron/Keystone via AP, File)

FILE - A technician works in the LHC (Large Hadron Collider) tunnel of the European Organization for Nuclear Research, CERN, during a press visit in Meyrin, near Geneva, Switzerland, Feb. 16, 2016. (Laurent Gillieron/Keystone via AP, File)