Stroud feels ‘embarrassed’ after loss

C.J. Stroud couldn’t believe it. Neither could his Texans teammates. They were frustrated after a 21-13 loss to the Jets on Thursday night when they couldn’t get much going against a team that was seeing its season spiral after losing five straight games. “It’s embarrassing to come out here in a prime-time game and get embarrassed like that is never fun,” Stroud said. “We have to be better in a lot of areas, and that starts with me.” Stroud completed just 11 of 30 passes for 191 yards for the Texans (6-3), who played without injured receivers Stefon Diggs and Nico Collins. Stroud was also sacked eight times. “If we want to win, this is not the recipe for it,” Stroud said. “We’ve got to learn how to dominate and stop learning to just go with the flow.” It was the first of three consecutive prime-time games for the Texans, with a Sunday night home matchup against the Lions on Nov. 10 next and a Monday night meeting at Dallas on Nov. 18. “We just have to honestly just play football better, execute better, stop pointing the finger and realize at the end of the day this is not winning football,” Stroud said.

Banchero won’t play for a few weeks

Paolo Banchero knew something was wrong. He was surprised to learn the extent. The Magic All-Star will miss the next several weeks with a torn right oblique, an injury that happened in his team’s loss to the Bulls on Wednesday night. The abdominal muscle injury was diagnosed Thursday, causing Banchero to miss the game Friday in Cleveland. The Magic take on the Cavaliers in a rematch of an Eastern Conference first-round series from last season. “I felt it when it happened,” Banchero said Friday, speaking with reporters in Cleveland after the Magic’s shootaround. “Didn’t know what it was but knew it didn’t feel good. Just tried to play through it, wanted to get it looked at after the game, was hoping it wasn’t too bad but obviously it was a little worse than I thought.” Banchero was off to a monster start — his 29 points per game ranked seventh in the league entering Friday. He’s one of only three players who started the day averaging that many points along with 8.8 rebounds and 5.6 assists per game. The others: the Nuggets’ Nikola Jokic and the Bucks’ Giannis Antetokounmpo.

Barzal leaves road trip with injury

Islanders center Mat Barzal has returned to Long Island to be evaluated for an upper-body injury, the team said Friday, adding a timeframe for his absence would be announced after he sees doctors. It was not clear exactly when Barzal was injured. He finished the Islanders’ game at Columbus on Wednesday night, its third consecutive loss to drop to 3-5-2 this season. The Islanders are already playing without winger Anthony Duclair, who is expected to miss several weeks with a lower-body injury. Veteran Matt Martin signed a contract last week to replenish forward depth. Barzal, 27, is the Isles’ highest-paid player in the second season of an eight-year, $73.2 million contract. He has five points in his first 10 games. The Islanders are in Buffalo on Friday night to take on the Sabres before finishing their road trip at Madison Square Garden on Sunday against the New York Rangers. Bo Horvat, who is Barzal’s linemate in the Islanders’ top scoring unit, skated with captain Anders Lee and forward Jean-Gabriel Pageau in Friday morning’s practice. —Associated Press