MINNEAPOLIS — Since the Suns put the capstone on their seasonlong shellacking of the Timberwolves with a 125-106 victory Sunday at Target Center, there has been plenty of time for fans, players and coaches to roll around the matchup in their heads.

Among the points of discussion: Does Phoenix present an unsolvable matchup defensively for the ...Read more

MIAMI — How hard would you fight to win if winning meant a hugely harder battle ahead — one everyone seemed sure you would lose decisively? Perhaps even embarrassingly. And that you’d have to undertake this biggest of challenges without your biggest star and top scorer?

That is how much fight the Miami Heat brought Friday night in the ...Read more

ORLANDO, Fla. — When Jalen Suggs was officially introduced less than 24 hours after he was drafted No. 5 overall by the Magic in 2021, he sat in front of a set of microphones alongside fellow first-round pick Franz Wagner, new head coach Jamahl Mosley and president of basketball operations Jeff Weltman.

Mosley had only been hired by Weltman ...Read more

DENVER — After the Lakers’ last practice before their playoff series begins Saturday night, LeBron James praised Denver Nuggets center Nikola Jokic, calling him “one of the best players to ever play this game.”

“He does everything. Does everything. The most important thing is he changes the way his teammates think about their own ...Read more

MIAMI — Immediate challenge conquered.

Greater challenge ahead.

Pushing past the Chicago Bulls a day after learning team leader Jimmy Butler would be lost for weeks with a knee injury, the reward for the Miami Heat for Friday night’s 112-91 win-or-go-home play-in victory is a first-round matchup against the league-best Boston Celtics.

On ...Read more

SAN FRANCISCO — In 1998, Steve Kerr was one of the several Chicago Bulls who left the franchise after winning the team’s sixth title.

“There was a documentary about what a disaster the whole thing was, you guys might want to watch it,” Kerr quipped Thursday.

Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen, Dennis Rodman and Kerr won the 1998 NBA ...Read more

Michigan basketball has received its first high school commitment under new coach Dusty May, and it comes from the son of an NBA legend.

Justin Pippen, a 6-foot-3 guard out of Chatsworth (Calif.) Sierra Canyon, verbally pledged to the Wolverines on Friday, becoming the second member of Michigan’s 2024 recruiting class.

Pippen made his ...Read more

DENVER — The best way to play a LeBron James flop? Have a Joker up your sleeve.

“Listen: To have the success that they’ve had, as great as (Nikola) Jokic has been­ — if you go back and look at that (Western) Conference finals, the Lakers had no answer,” former NBA guard Greg Anthony, now an analyst with Warner Bros. Discovery and NBA...Read more

MIAMI — This moment was inevitable, whether it came during the play-in, playoffs or the offseason.

At some point, it felt as if the Heat would have to make a decision on Jimmy Butler.

Then, Wednesday night in Philadelphia, came the crashing and crushing reality.

And, so, a crossroads, the intersection of the franchise revival and older and ...Read more

DALLAS — When it comes to sportscasters and analysts in Dallas-Fort Worth, Brian Dameris may not be a household name but he did drop the single greatest rant in the history of the broadcasts of the Dallas Mavericks, Dallas Stars, Texas Rangers and Dallas Cowboys combined.

With all due respect to the many men and women who have served as ...Read more

PHILADELPHIA — It could have been the start of something big. Maybe it should have been. Crazy as it sounds, when Game 1 between the 76ers and New York Knicks tips off Saturday at Madison Square Garden, it will mark the first time the teams have faced each other in the playoffs in 35 years. And the final image of that series was the sort of ...Read more

MIAMI — As they went into Friday night’s winner-take-all play-in game against the Chicago Bulls, the Miami Heat paused to reflect on the perseverance of their leader.

While a sprained MCL in his right knee took Jimmy Butler out of Friday night’s showdown at Kaseya Center, it did not deter him from playing to the finish of Wednesday night�...Read more

DENVER — Coban Porter, the brother of Denver Nuggets star Michael Porter Jr., was sentenced to six years in prison Friday for killing a woman in a drunk-driving crash last year.

Porter, 22, pleaded guilty to vehicular homicide and vehicular assault in February on the condition that he would be sentenced to no more than eight years in prison. ...Read more

HARTFORD, Conn. — From the start it was clear Stephon Castle wasn’t your typical “one-and-done” player. He came to UConn all in for winning a championship, and fulfilled that commitment to coach Dan Hurley.

In fact, Hurley called him “the anti-five star,” because his team-first attitude was different from the typical high-end ...Read more

DURHAM, N.C. — As a seventh Duke basketball player entered his name in the NCAA transfer portal on Friday, the Blue Devils are closing in on their first addition.

Sean Stewart, a 6-9 freshman reserve forward, became the latest Blue Devils player from last season’s team to announce his departure via the portal on the same day Syracuse ...Read more

NEW YORK — The only time Josh Hart spoke about it was to poke fun at Jalen Brunson.

After all, Brunson’s 2023 playoff run ended in similar fashion to the brutal ending to Hart’s Villanova career.

With a turnover.

Hart and Brunson were teammates on the 2017 Wildcats team bumped from the NCAA Tournament’s second round by the Wisconsin ...Read more

LEXINGTON, Ky. — Over the past 10 days, the coaching conflict that has defined Kentucky college hoops in the 21st century has flipped 180 degrees.

In what has essentially been an unending war between the “House of Calipari” and the “House of Pitino,” the forces of “Ricky P.” have secured a stunning victory.

On April 8, the ...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS — The countdown clock started around 5 p.m. Sunday and expires Saturday afternoon, a protracted gap between games that must feel like an eternity in the NBA's rhythm of life.

The playoff format grants the Timberwolves five full days to prepare for the Phoenix Suns, a Monday-through-Friday workweek that is the most important time ...Read more

NEW YORK — Elite Bulls defender Coby White had a unique way of describing Jalen Brunson after the Knicks’ All-Star point guard hung 45 points in a near wire-to-wire victory in Chicago on April 9.White called Brunson a ‘motherf-----.’

Brunson is that good. He’s proven it against each of the NBA’s premier individual and team defenses:...Read more

DENVER — They gave us what we wanted: The Nuggets back on stage with Maury Povich and a manila envelope. In the case of the 64-year-old Los Angeles Lakers, you are the father.

Denver welcomes the Lakers back to Ball Arena on Saturday as family. Cup your ears from Trinidad to Windsor and you can still hear the “Who’s your daddy?” chant ...Read more