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What to know about Big Ten basketball in 2024-25 as the men's and women's seasons get underway

Sports / Basketball /

CHICAGO — Hoops season is upon us!

The men’s and women’s college basketball seasons open Monday, with 14 of the 18 Big Ten men’s teams in action — including Illinois and Northwestern — and 11 of the women’s teams, starting with a doubleheader in Paris featuring No. 3 USC and No. 5 UCLA.

Conference play begins Dec. 3 for the men ...Read more

Wolves surge past Denver late as teams revive rivalry forged in last season's playoffs

Sports / Basketball /

MINNEAPOLIS — The 21st meeting between the Minnesota Timberwolves and Denver Nuggets over the past three seasons lived up to the billing on Friday night for a national TV audience, with the Wolves pulling out a thriller, 119-116, at Target Center.

Nickeil Alexander-Walker breathed life back into the Wolves by scoring eight fourth-quarter ...Read more

Hawks fight back but Kings hand them fourth straight loss

Sports / Basketball /

ATLANTA — The Hawks erased an 18-point deficit, tying the game a couple of times to give themselves a chance on Friday night at State Farm Arena. But the Kings got the better of them down the stretch to hand the Hawks a 123-115 loss.

Here are five observations:

— 1. Things appeared to finally swing the Hawks’ way as they got enough stops...Read more

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Nets win second in a row after holding off Bulls, 120-112

Sports / Basketball /

NEW YORK — How good was the Nets offense in the first half of Friday’s matchup against the Chicago Bulls at Barclays Center?

Look at it this way: The Bulls shot 56% from 3-point range (14 for 25) in the first half but trailed by 17 points with 4:42 left in the second quarter and were down eight at halftime.

It was just that kind of ...Read more

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LeBron James and Anthony Davis put on a show in Lakers' 131-125 win over Raptors

Sports / Basketball /

TORONTO — The people here know.

For the 75th time in his NBA career, LeBron James stepped onto a court to face the Toronto Raptors. And before Friday, James’ team had won 56 of them, including a trio of playoff series.

Still, the fans in Toronto always enjoy James’ annual appearance in Canada, cheering each time as he enters the game —...Read more

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Kansas lands Darryn Peterson, top-ranked shooting guard in class of 2025

Sports / Basketball /

LAWRENCE, Kan. — Darryn Peterson, the No. 1-ranked shooting guard in the basketball recruiting class of 2025, will be a Kansas Jayhawk.

Peterson announced his commitment to Kansas on Friday night. He chose KU over Kansas State, Ohio State and USC. He’s the Jayhawks’ first commitment from the 2025 class.

The 6-foot-5 shooting guard will ...Read more

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Jalen Brunson scores 36 points as Knicks rout Pistons, 128-98

Sports / Basketball /

DETROIT — A trap game, it was not.

After starting their season with four consecutive matchups against likely Eastern Conference playoff contenders, the Knicks faced a different kind of challenge Friday night in Detroit: staying focused against a rebuilding team with eyes on the lottery.

The Pistons, coming off back-to-back seasons with the ...Read more

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Short-handed Magic fall at Cavs, 120-109

Sports / Basketball /

CLEVELAND — When it rains, it pours.

That adage became reality for the Magic on Friday night when Orlando fell to the Cavaliers, 120-109, at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse in front of a national TV audience on ESPN.

Less than 24 hours after it was announced star forward Paolo Banchero was ruled out indefinitely due to a torn right oblique (...Read more

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Grant Williams ejection helps Celtics pull away, beat Hornets

Sports / Basketball /

Grant Williams smiled as he greeted his former Boston teammates before Friday night’s game between the Celtics and Hornets.

Any postgame interactions likely weren’t as friendly.

Williams, the ex-Celtics forward, was ejected late in the fourth quarter after flooring Jayson Tatum with a shoulder-to-shoulder check while the C’s star ...Read more

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Joel Embiid, Paul George are full participants at Sixers practice but will remain out vs. Grizzlies

Sports / Basketball /

PHILADELPHIA — Joel Embiid and Paul George will remain sidelined Saturday night when the 76ers face the Memphis Grizzlies at the Wells Fargo Center.

This will come after the All-Star duo were full participants in Friday’s practice, including the five-on-five scrimmage.

Embiid has missed the first four games for what the team labeled left ...Read more

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Marcus Hayes: Sixers absentee Joel Embiid fibs in his own defense and has a gold-medal deflection

Sports / Basketball /

PHILADELPHIA — Absentee superstar star Joel Embiid held a pop-up press conference at Sixers practice Friday to defend his lack of preparation for the 2024-25 season. It was the first time since he began the season missing games because he was unfit to play. He did not commit to playing anytime soon, and he did not address how much his ...Read more

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Stephanie White hired as Fever head coach days after parting ways with Sun

Sports / Basketball /

HARTFORD, Conn. — Four days after the Connecticut Sun mutually parted ways with coach Stephanie White, she was hired Friday as the head coach of the Indiana Fever.

Indiana fired second-year coach Christie Sides on Sunday after a 20-20 season in 2024 that ended in the Fever’s first WNBA playoff appearance since 2016, though they were swept 2...Read more

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College basketball, king of all sports in NC, should be special again in the Triangle

Sports / Basketball /

RALEIGH, N.C. — Of all the innumerable changes that have reshaped college athletics during the past several years there is at least one constant that continues to endure: In the Triangle and throughout North Carolina’s Great Beyond, basketball rules.

It has. It does. It will.

Sure, that other major college sport generates all the headlines...Read more

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Jim Souhan: When you rank the top young athletes in Minnesota sports, there's a new leader

Sports / Basketball /

MINNEAPOLIS — In June, when Royce Lewis looked like he was incapable of hitting anything less than a grand slam with the game on the line, I ranked the four best major-sport young athletes in Minnesota.

My picks: The Wolves’ Anthony Edwards a half-step ahead of the Vikings’ Justin Jefferson, followed by Lewis, then the Wild’s Kirill ...Read more

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Devin Booker torches Clippers for 40 as Suns overcome 21-point deficit to win

Sports / Basketball /

LOS ANGELES — It was just last week that the Los Angeles Clippers hosted the Phoenix Suns and only nine days later they were playing them again at the Intuit Dome.

Before the game, Clippers coach Tyronn Lue said there weren’t a lot of advantages to playing a team like the Suns so soon again, especially a team with lethal weapons Kevin ...Read more

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Magic star Paolo Banchero sidelined indefinitely with oblique injury

Sports / Basketball /

CLEVELAND — After undergoing further testing Thursday in Cleveland, Magic forward Paolo Banchero has been diagnosed with a torn right oblique, president of basketball operations Jeff Weltman announced.

Banchero will be out indefinitely and his return to play will depend on how he responds to treatment, the team said. He will be re-evaluated ...Read more

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Matt Calkins: How Paolo Banchero joined a long list of NBA standouts from Washington

Sports / Basketball /

SEATTLE — One day, and that day is feeling closer by the minute, we’re likely to see the Sonics return to Seattle. And if it happens, it may just be the most glorious reunion between city and franchise in sports history.

Seattle is a hooper town. The enthusiasm you see whenever an NBA preseason game comes here, the pandemonium that occurs ...Read more

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Warriors sweep Pelicans in rare back-to-back before leaving for road trip

Sports / Basketball /

SAN FRANCISCO — The Pelicans were even more short-handed than the Warriors, having CJ McCollum, Trey Murphy III, Herb Jones and Dejounte Murray unavailable due to injuries.

Their skeleton crew couldn’t keep pace with the Warriors, even without Steph Curry, Andrew Wiggins and De’Anthony Melton for a second straight night. Especially with ...Read more

Clippers, becoming experts at close games, lose a tight one to Portland

Sports / Basketball /

Four games into their season, and the Clippers only seem to know how to play close games.

It was tight against the Phoenix Suns in a loss and tight against the Denver Nuggets and Golden State Warriors in back-to-back victories.

On Wednesday night, the Clippers found themselves in another game that came down to the wire at Intuit Dome, a game L...Read more

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Short-handed Hawks fade in second loss to Wizards in three days

Sports / Basketball /

WASHINGTON — The Hawks’ rematch against the Wizards on Wednesday at Capital One Arena did not go according to plan. With the absence of five of their nine key rotational players, the Hawks looked like they ran out of gas in the second half and fell to the Wizards, 133-120.

Prior to tipoff, the Hawks ruled out Bogdan Bogdanovic (right ...Read more