Sports

/

ArcaMax

Elsa/Getty Images North America/TNS

Cade Cunningham scores 33 points vs. Wizards as Pistons snap eight-game losing skid

Sports / Basketball /

For the last eight games, the Pistons have faced teams currently positioned to qualify for the postseason. The outcome was the same after every contest — another loss.

On Friday, the Pistons traveled to the nation's capital to match up against the Washington Wizards, a team that entered the meeting two games ahead of Detroit for the second-...Read more

Matias J. Ocner/Miami Herald/TNS

Heat bludgeon Blazers, 142-82, in most lopsided victory in franchise's 36 seasons

Sports / Basketball /

MIAMI — The Portland Trail Blazers spent the 2023 offseason acting as if the Miami Heat didn’t exist, at least when it came to soliciting trade offers for since-dealt guard Damian Lillard.

Friday night at Kaseya Center, the Blazers could not deny the reality of the Heat very much taking care of business, with Erik Spoelstra’s team ...Read more

Jason Miller/Getty Images North America/TNS

Cavaliers edge Sixers behind Georges Niang's game-high 25 points

Sports / Basketball /

CLEVELAND — Georges Niang pump-faked to get Paul Reed in the air, then splashed the 3-pointer and screamed as he strutted back to the bench for a timeout.

It was a burst of emotions the 76ers are plenty familiar with. But Friday night, Niang burned his former team, dropping a game-high 25 points off the bench to help lift the Cavaliers to a ...Read more

Elsa/Getty Images North America/TNS

Nets tie NBA record with 18 second-half 3-pointers in 125-108 win over Bulls

Sports / Basketball /

NEW YORK — The Nets still have an outside shot at qualifying for the NBA’s play-in tournament. But with limited opportunities to strike left in the regular season, they have to start stringing together wins now to have any real hope. Their window of opportunity inches closer to shut with each passing game.

Coming off of back-to-back road ...Read more

Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images North America/TNS

Warriors coast by Hornets for third consecutive victory

Sports / Basketball /

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Even though they were short-handed, the Warriors cruised past the lottery-bound Charlotte Hornets.

In his hometown, Steph Curry tallied 23 points and four assists. He and the Warriors turned the game into a layup line, outscoring the Hornets 64 to 38 in the paint.

For their third straight win, Golden State beat Charlotte, ...Read more

Carmen Mandato/Getty Images North America/TNS

Luke DeCock: Wave carrying NC State hasn't broken. It's taken Pack within a win of the Final Four.

Sports / Basketball /

DALLAS — The wave hasn’t broken yet. N.C. State is crouched in the tube, swept along by powerful forces it might not fully understand but will happily enjoy as long as they last.

Ride it. Ride it as long as you can. See where it takes you. Why stop now?

The Wolfpack has been a game away from going home for three weeks and now it’s a game...Read more

Dylan Buell/Getty Images North America/TNS

Lakers score season-low 90 points in road loss to Pacers

Sports / Basketball /

INDIANAPOLIS — Maybe any other month of the NBA season, any other moment, and a night like Friday could be written off as an unavoidable occurrence.

When you have 82 games on the schedule — or in the case of the Lakers and the Indiana Pacers, 83 games thanks to the in-season tournament — there are going to be nights when your legs are too...Read more

Carmen Mandato/Getty Images North America/TNS

NC State's NCAA Tournament run continues as Wolfpack stuns Marquette to reach Elite Eight

Sports / Basketball /

DALLAS — N.C. State just won’t go away, will it? The Wolfpack just refuses to go home.

The Pack started playing elite basketball in Washington. D.C., winning the ACC championship, and has taken it on the road in the NCAA Tournament.

And keeps winning.

The Wolfpack, seeded 11th in the Southern Regional, turned back No. 2 seed Marquette on ...Read more

Michael Reaves/Getty Images North America/TNS

Would-be Timberwolves owners Marc Lore and Alex Rodriguez are 'not giving up'

Sports / Basketball /

DENVER – A day after Glen Taylor said he would remain the controlling owner of the Timberwolves and Lynx when a sale to Marc Lore and Alex Rodriguez fell through, Lore said he and Rodriguez would fight "with all means possible" to complete the last portion of the deal that would make them leaders of the franchise.

"We're going to own this ...Read more

Hector Amezcua/The Sacramento Bee/TNS

Sources: Kings guard Kevin Huerter will undergo season-ending surgery to repair torn labrum

Sports / Basketball /

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Sacramento Kings guard Kevin Huerter will miss the rest of the season as a result of the shoulder injury he sustained in a recent game against the Memphis Grizzlies.

Huerter will undergo season-ending surgery to repair a torn labrum in his left shoulder, league sources told The Sacramento Bee on Friday, confirming a ...Read more

Ryan C. Hermens/Lexington Herald-Leader/TNS

Preston Spradlin leaves Morehead State for James Madison

Sports / Basketball /

LEXINGTON, Ky. — Morehead State men’s basketball is now tasked with replacing the head coach who led the Eagles through a golden age of on-court success.

On Friday afternoon, James Madison announced it hired Spradlin to be the next head coach of the Dukes. According to a James Madison news release, Spradlin’s contract with the school (...Read more

Steven M. Falk/The Philadelphia Inquirer/TNS

Kelly Oubre, Nick Nurse fined $50k for 'abusing' officials after controversial Clippers loss

Sports / Basketball /

PHILADELPHIA — Nick Nurse and Kelly Oubre Jr. were both fined $50,000 for their actions toward the officials at the end of Wednesday’s controversial loss to the Los Angles Clippers, the NBA announced Friday afternoon.

Nurse was reprimanded for “aggressively pursuing and verbally abusing” the crew of Kevin Scott, JD DeRosa and Brandon ...Read more

Sarah Stier/Getty Images North America/TNS

Shaq has a message for oft-injured Nets star Ben Simmons: 'Get some … Icy Hot. Man up!'

Sports / Basketball /

NEW YORK — Shaquille O’Neal thinks Ben Simmons has one of the sweetest gigs in the NBA.

On Wednesday’s episode of “The Big Podcast with Shaq,” the four-time champion and NBA Hall of Famer was asked by co-host Adam Lefkoe which players in the league he’d buy a ticket to see.

And O’Neal chose Simmons because of the 27-year-old's ...Read more

Silas Walker/Lexington Herald-Leader/TNS

Mark Story: One thing Kentucky men's basketball acutely needs: A coaching succession plan

Sports / Basketball /

LEXINGTON, Ky. — The track record of major college basketball and football coaches who have “lost” their team’s fan bases — which seems now the case for John Calipari at Kentucky — going on to recover and produce a positive ending is not great.

Yet it is not impossible.

Former UK football coach Rich Brooks went from a “dead coach...Read more

Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images North America/TNS

Dejounte Murray's career-best 44 points lift Hawks over Celtics again

Sports / Basketball /

ATLANTA — After completing a comeback win over the Celtics on Monday, the Hawks delivered another thrilling game against Boston on Thursday night. Despite being on the second night of back-to-back games and missing several rotation players, the Hawks downed the Celtics, 123-122 in overtime.

Here are five observations:

— 1. The Hawks had 6....Read more

Ronald Martinez/Getty Images North America/TNS

UNC goes cold in second half as Tar Heels suffer season-ending loss against Alabama

Sports / Basketball /

Throughout the final 10 minutes of an NCAA Tournament West Regional semifinal here on Thursday night, North Carolina and Alabama put on the kind of show befitting of this moment and this stage, and delivered the kind of finish that only this tournament can. It was a finish befitting of the urgency of March; the intensity and the drama of this ...Read more

K.C. Alfred/The San Diego Union-Tribune/TNS

Rematch a rerun as top-seeded UConn knocks San Diego State out of NCAA Tournament

Sports / Basketball /

BOSTON — San Diego State forward Jaedon LeDee was asked Wednesday about getting a rematch of the national championship game against the Connecticut Huskies.

"It could have been anybody," LeDee said. "It could have been UConn. It could have been Kentucky. It could have Boys or Girls Scouts. It doesn't matter."

Actually, it did. It was the ...Read more

Maddie Meyer/Getty Images North America/TNS

UConn pulls away, advances to Elite Eight with 82-52 rout of San Diego State

Sports / Basketball /

BOSTON – Fueled by its backcourt, the UConn men’s basketball program is headed back to the Elite Eight after pulling away for an 82-52 win over 5-seed San Diego State in Boston’s sold-out TD Garden Thursday night.

Tristen Newton, Cam Spencer and Stephon Castle led the way in the national championship rematch, combining for 51 points as ...Read more

Steven M. Falk/The Philadelphia Inquirer/TNS

Marcus Hayes: Kelly Oubre Jr.'s Philly moment: It was lyrical, poignant, even poetic. Even if he gets punished for it.

Sports / Basketball /

PHILADELPHIA — Kelly Oubre Jr. became an unintentional legend Wednesday night, expressing the sentiments of 20,000 outraged Sixers fans after two horrible non-calls cemented a loss that should’ve been a win.

He used an emasculating term that defines a female dog and rhymes with “witch,” the word we’ll use hereafter as a substitute. ...Read more

Joe Sargent/Getty Images North America/TNS

NC State has had all the answers in postseason play, but what about for Marquette?

Sports / Basketball /

DALLAS — Is this when N.C. State’s comes to the end of the road?

In Dallas? Against Marquette, in the semifinals of the NCAA South Region at American Airlines Center?

More specifically, is this the game the Wolfpack — after winning seven straight games, after winning an ACC championship, after emerging as a national story, after turning ...Read more