OKLAHOMA CITY — In the fourth quarter of the Timberwolves’ 118-103 loss to the Thunder, Jaden McDaniels of the Wolves got tangled up with Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.

As the whistle blew for a foul on McDaniels, he shoved Gilgeous-Alexander to the ground, drawing a flagrant foul.

It typified the frustration the Wolves had all night Thursday, ...Read more

NEW YORK — The sudden silence among Knicks fans spoke volumes.

As the Indiana Pacers celebrated Tyrese Haliburton’s stepback buzzer beater in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals, a sellout Madison Square Garden hushed in disbelief.

They had just witnessed an epic postseason collapse.

After his improbable jumper bounced off the back of...Read more

SEATTLE — This is what we’re missing.

That’s all I thought Wednesday, as Andrew Nesmith — who much of America had never heard of — hit six consecutive 3-pointers in the final five minutes. As the New York Knicks, who led by 14 points with 2:39 left in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals, deteriorated on national television. As a ...Read more

SAN FRANCISCO — Draymond Green’s Hall of Fame legacy as one of the NBA’s all-time great stoppers was further solidified on Thursday morning.

The 35-year-old frontcourt standout was named to the league’s All-Defensive first team for the fifth time in his career. Green has also been named to the NBA’s All-Defensive second team four ...Read more

NEW YORK — Well, that escalated quickly.

The Knicks built a 17-point fourth-quarter cushion in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals — then watched it dissolve in real time, undone by a series of defensive breakdowns and a momentum swing that felt like whiplash. What should have been a statement win at Madison Square Garden turned into a ...Read more

DENVER — David Adelman has shaken himself free of the “interim” label.

The Nuggets are hiring Adelman to replace Michael Malone full-time as their head coach, the team announced Thursday afternoon. Adelman, 44, has been on the coaching staff since 2017 and took over the interim position with three games left in the 2024-25 regular season ...Read more

NEW YORK — All Reggie Miller could do was laugh.

As Madison Square Garden descended into disbelief after Tyrese Haliburton’s game-tying buzzer beater in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals, Miller broke the silence on the TNT broadcast with a prolonged chuckle.

Thinking he had won Wednesday night’s game, Haliburton unleashed the “...Read more

DENVER — The NBA’s Mount Olympus comes with a two-trophy cover charge.

Bill Russell notched 11 titles. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar got six. Tim Duncan landed five. Shaquille O’Neal won four. Hakeem Olajuwon and Wilt Chamberlain? Two apiece.

“The Nuggets kind of drive me a little crazy,” George Karl, the Hall of Fame basketball coach whose ...Read more

DENVER — Nikola Jokic’s greatest statistical season will not be decorated with the commensurate laurels.

Despite stamping himself as the third player and first center in NBA history to average a triple-double in a season, Jokic fell short of a fourth career MVP trophy, the league announced Wednesday. The 30-year-old Nuggets big man was ...Read more

The Florida basketball team’s final moment together was another winning performance, only this time on an even bigger stage than last month’s NCAA championship game.

President Donald Trump welcomed coach Todd Golden and the Florida Gators to the White House Wednesday to celebrate their 2025 national title, showering players with praise ...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS — With a tight rotation, balanced scoring and some extraordinary ball movement that made up for a slew of turnovers, the Minnesota Lynx did something that hasn’t happened since 2019.

They have started the season 3-0.

Their 85-81 victory over Dallas in their home opener Wednesday at Target Center — with an announced attendance...Read more

NEW YORK — The Knicks had been the kings of comebacks this postseason.

But in Wednesday night’s Game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals, they received a bitter taste of their own medicine.

The Knicks led by 17 points with 6:26 remaining in the fourth quarter and by nine points with under a minute left, only to lose, 138-135, in overtime at...Read more

NEW YORK — It’s the matchup Tyrese Haliburton wanted — one-on-one with the Knicks captain — and with just under five minutes left in the third quarter of Game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals matchup between the Knicks and Pacers, Indiana’s All-Star guard dialed his own number.

Haliburton, bothered by Knicks stopper OG Anunoby’s ...Read more

MIAMI — To call this vindication would be way too simplistic, considering how it ended for his own team.

So leave to others whether Miami Heat president Pat Riley got his joy back on Wednesday night when Jimmy Butler was eliminated from the playoffs with his Golden State Warriors.

And yet, as with almost everything in the NBA, ultimate ...Read more

SAN FRANCISCO — Like the rest of his Warriors teammates, Jonathan Kuminga sat down with general manager Mike Dunleavy and coach Steve Kerr on Thursday in the wake of their elimination from the NBA playoffs and talked about where he fit on their roster heading into the summer.

These exit interviews are typically routine. But Kuminga’s ...Read more

DENVER — Jamal Murray interrupted himself.

Running on autopilot, he had tripped over his words. The cost of a confident instinct. “It sucks,” he was saying after the Nuggets lost a painful Game 5 in Oklahoma City, pushing them to the brink of elimination. “It’s sports, man. But the greatest thing is, in a day and a half, we get to ...Read more

SAN FRANCISCO — It’s the question that will keep Stephen Curry up at night this summer.

“It’s the great ‘What if?’ ” Curry pondered Thursday morning inside the Warriors’ home arena, where the only signs of life were the WNBA’s Valkyries getting ready for their season opener. The Warriors’ season came to an end Wednesday ...Read more

ARLINGTON, Texas — The Dallas Wings are too smart to publicly announce it, but one playoff berth altered the direction of this franchise in a way that it can only guess what might have happened.

By making the playoffs in ‘23, which ended in a semifinals sweep, it kicked them out of the WNBA’s lottery in 2024, and the chance to pick ...Read more

LEXINGTON, Ky. — I don’t know how good Kentucky basketball will be next season. Neither do you. Neither do the so-called experts churning out their way-too-early Top 25 rankings for the 2025-26 campaign, which doesn’t officially begin for another six months.

ESPN has Kentucky at No. 10 in its latest rankings. “Kentucky is absolutely ...Read more

Kelsey Plum gets it.

Ideally, the management of her new team will get it as well.

Plum, 30, is a former No. 1 draft pick, a three-time All-Star, a two-time WNBA champion, a two-time Olympic gold medalist (in 3-on-3 competition in 2021 in Tokyo and with the full U.S. women’s team in 2024 in Paris) and the former NCAA career scoring leader ...Read more