MIAMI — Say what you will about the Heat’s culture and the full roster’s effort lacking in a Game 3 performance that had all the lackluster feel of a back-to-back game in January.

Out-rebounded. Out-hustled. Out-and-outdone by Denver.

Say what you will about all that — and Heat coach Erik Spoelstra will say a lot leading into Friday’...Read more

Heat guard Tyler Herro’s chances of returning during the NBA Finals continue to look increasingly questionable.

More than seven weeks after a serious hand injury, Herro still has not been cleared to return to game action, coach Erik Spoelstra said Thursday.

“Right now he is not cleared to take that next step,” Spoelstra said, as his team...Read more

DURHAM, N.C. — On the whole, the Duke basketball staff has been successful in roster building over the nearly three months since the Blue Devils’ NCAA Tournament loss to Tennessee.

Four players who started every game during the Blue Devils’ 10-game winning streak that included an ACC Tournament championship are returning for next season, ...Read more

Initial observations from Game 3 of the 2023 NBA Finals between the Denver Nuggets and Miami Heat at Kaseya Center.

1.Christian Braun? More like Christian LeBraun. Who’s got the mojo to break the Heat’s fourth-quarter magic? A rookie from Kansas, of course. Christian Braun introduced himself to the NBA at large in the Nuggets’ Game 3 ...Read more

MIAMI — Through three rounds of these NBA playoffs, the Heat was an unstoppable juggernaut in Game 3, dismantling the Bucks by 22, the Knicks by 19 and the Celtics by 26 in the third game of each of those series.

But none of those teams had Nikola Jokic.

And against Denver’s triple-double machine, the Heat’s Game 3 mastery ended with a ...Read more

MIAMI – The only thing coursing through the white-hot crowd was an artificial bass.

The Nuggets stormed into South Beach and stomped the life out of the crowd on Wednesday night.

Behind their surgical passing and physical, hard-nosed play, the Nuggets seized control of the NBA Finals with a dominant 109-94 win in Game 3. Behind dueling ...Read more

The Chicago Sky are adding new investors and a splash of capital as the team seeks to expand its facilities, staff and player resources amid a year of record growth for the WNBA.

The franchise’s owners sold 10% of the team this week to a group of investors — including Cubs co-owner Laura Ricketts — for $8.5 million, providing the team ...Read more

In the end, it’s coaching that matters most.

Coaching — that is, Erik Spoelstra — is the reason the Miami Heat return to South Beach tied with the Denver Nuggets at one game apiece in the NBA Finals with Game 3 looming Wednesday night.

The Heat trailed by as many as 24 before losing Game 1 by 11 in Denver, but thanks to some tactical ...Read more

DENVER — Postgame media sessions during the NBA Finals are conducted in separate rooms for each of the teams. So it’s not a case, as it used to be, of one coach picking up on the theme of the other as he waits in the wings.

Sunday night, in the wake of the Miami Heat’s 111-108 victory at Ball Arena in Denver, the messages could not have ...Read more

Amid a critical offseason for the Golden State Warriors, there’s an essential distinction for fans to make:

It’s not what the Warriors want to do with their roster this summer. It’s what they can do.

It’s fun to imagine moves the Warriors can make to put the team in a better position to win a fifth title under Steve Kerr and Steph ...Read more

DENVER — Rare are the nights when postgame praise flows for a center outscored by 20 by the opposing center.

But that exactly was the case after Sunday’s 111-108 Miami Heat victory over the Denver Nuggets at Ball Arena that tied the best-of-seven NBA Finals at 1-1 heading into Wednesday night’s Game 3 at Kaseya Center.

Bam Adebayo closed...Read more

PHILADELPHIA — What if I told you the real reason the Sixers lost to Boston Celtics in the second round of the NBA playoffs wasn’t because of Joel Embiid’s knee injury, James Harden’s erratic play, or even recently out of work Doc Rivers’ poor coaching? What if I told you there is someone else to blame? And what if I told you that ...Read more

ATLANTA — The Hawks added former Raptors and Pistons assistant Brittni Donaldson to their coaching staff, according to people familiar with the situation. Donaldson becomes the first female coach in the history of the franchise.

The 30-year-old Donaldson, who played at Northern Iowa from 2011-15, is one of six female assistant coaches in the ...Read more

The Celtics were looking to add an assistant coach with NBA experience to their staff this summer. Just days into the offseason, they found one.

Sam Cassell – who was a member of the Celtics’ championship team in 2008 – will join Boston’s coaching staff as an assistant under Joe Mazzulla, according to a report Sunday from The Athletic. ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — The Clippers are promoting Trent Redden to general manager while keeping the core of their front office together by promoting Mark Hughes to senior vice president/assistant general manager.

By selecting Redden as the team's second-highest-ranking basketball executive, president of basketball operations Lawrence Frank chose ...Read more

FERNANDINA BEACH,, Fla. — A little more than a year ago, months after what was then thought to be one of the ACC’s worst men’s basketball regular seasons in a long time, the conference sought outside counsel to address a problem it had rarely encountered throughout its 69-year existence: the prevailing perception that the league wasn’t ...Read more

Kaleena Patrick could’ve scaled that smile to Heaven. No COVID. No Delta variant. No gasping. No pain. Just Taurean Taylor grinning at his phone like it was a winning scratch ticket.

“I didn’t know that they’d been talking for an extended period of time,” Patrick said of her son, Taurean. “He’s like, ‘Yeah, I talk to MPJ all the...Read more

Oscar Tshiebwe’s announcement Wednesday that he was keeping his name in the 2023 NBA Draft and foregoing the opportunity to play one more season for Kentucky brought an end to one of the most remarkable playing careers in UK’s regal men’s basketball history.

In the two seasons (2021-22 and 2022-23) he played for the Wildcats after ...Read more