The Timberwolves entered Monday's game without Rudy Gobert, their defensive anchor. The likely NBA Defensive Player of the Year and the team's coaching staff have tried to install consistency, effort and attention to detail in the team's defense ever since his arrival in Minnesota.

His teammates did him proud with a stifling defensive effort in...Read more

NEW YORK — Donte DiVincenzo has been here before.

The ball found DiVincenzo behind the three-point line with the game and series on the line in Game 6 of the Knicks’ first-round playoff series against the Philadelphia 76ers when he uncorked a bomb from downtown to put the Sixers away and punch New York’s ticket to the second round

The ...Read more

Joel Embiid has already sent Daryl Morey some thoughts on his offseason plans. Soon, the 76ers’ superstar and the team’s president of basketball operations will sit down with coach Nick Nurse and the medical team, among others, for their customary postseason meeting.

Morey on Monday called Embiid incredible, a stud, and a warrior while ...Read more

MIAMI — Jimmy Butler wants more from the Miami Heat, and the Heat wants more from Butler.

Butler will ask for a maximum two-year contract extension worth about $113 million from the Heat this offseason, and the Heat will ask Butler to play in more games next season.

Whether either side fulfills the other’s request remains to be seen, as ...Read more

CLEVELAND — It has become tradition during the Orlando Magic’s 35th anniversary season for delirious fans in Kia Center to chant, “Play the song! Play the song!” when the Magic record a victory. And then the crowd celebrates and sings along when a remade version of the original team anthem blares throughout the arena.

On Sunday ...Read more

CLEVELAND — Paolo Banchero became the third-youngest player in NBA history to score 30-plus points in three or more games of the same playoff series but his tremendous efforts weren’t enough against the Cavaliers in Orlando‘s first trip back to the postseason in four years.

Banchero, who totaled 38 points during Sunday’s Game 7, was one...Read more

DENVER – Anthony Edwards shared the floor Saturday night with Nikola Jokic, the two-time NBA MVP who is favored to win his third.

He was in Jokic's Ball Arena, and his Timberwolves were going against the defending champions, the standard of late-game composure and execution that these Wolves could only dream about reaching a season ago.

But ...Read more

MIAMI — The NBA offseason is a layered process, required to take into account the salary cap, luxury tax, payroll aprons and willingness of potential or perceived trade partners to engage.

So to forecast what should or could come next for the Miami Heat requires layered conversation, with a distinct difference between what the Heat might want...Read more

ARLINGTON, Texas — Caitlin Clark’s first game as a pro went like her last games as a collegian. Disregard the age of the opponent, she’s the best player on the floor, in a packed arena.

On Friday night at the College Park Center in Arlington on the campus of UTA, the Dallas Wings’ WNBA team, thanks to some shrewd foresight, were the ...Read more

PHILADELPHIA — Having preached against The Process for these 11 years, it delivers me no small measure of delight when the Sixers inevitably falter every spring. Losing on purpose to game the system created a culture of losing, and the Sixers have mastered the art of the springtime collapse against every decent opponent they’ve faced, ...Read more

After she was selected with the No. 14 pick in the 2024 WNBA draft, with dozens of cameras and microphones focused on her every word, an emotional Nika Muhl was brought back to hours and hours spent last summer at the UConn women’s basketball team’s practice facility.

Muhl had a regular drill in her workouts with assistant coach Morgan ...Read more

DENVER — Anthony Edwards is the future, and the evolution was televised Saturday night.

The Nuggets lost for only the second time in their past 15 home playoff games, dropping the opener, 106-99, in the Western Conference semifinals. As fans shrugged toward the exits at Ball Arena, one thing was clear: The Minnesota Timberwolves are way ...Read more

Last year's playoff between the Timberwolves and Nuggets ended with Anthony Edwards missing a shot and tossing a chair.

This year's series between the teams began with Edwards making every kind of shot and suggesting he'll steal a throne.

Maybe the Wolves will prove they deserve one, too.

In Game 1, against the best team and player in the ...Read more

DENVER — Foul trouble is rarely a blessing in disguise.

It helped the Timberwolves steal a road game in the first chapter of what’s sure to be a bitterly competitive series.

NBA Sixth Man of the Year Naz Reid entered off the bench with Karl-Anthony Towns in foul trouble, and his 10-point burst helped hand the Nuggets a 106-99 Game 1 loss ...Read more

DALLAS — Steve Ballmer leaned over from his baseline seat and shook hands with a reporter walking by, the Clippers owner appearing somber after watching his team get eliminated from the playoffs with a 114-101 loss in Game 6 against the Dallas Mavericks at American Airlines Arena.

A few minutes later, Clippers coach Tyronn Lue said Ballmer ...Read more

PHILADELPHIA — Once the 76ers’ season had ended and their locker room at the Wells Fargo Center was open to the media early Friday morning, Joel Embiid and Tyrese Maxey spent several minutes together seated in a corner, the foundations of the franchise conversing about fouls uncalled and opportunities missed.

Those were six thrilling games ...Read more

Jevon Porter, 20, has three older brothers, three potential role models. Like him, all three are basketball players.

Michael Porter Jr., 25, is locked in, pursuing a second consecutive NBA championship with the Denver Nuggets. He’s in the second year of a five-year, $179.3 million contract, a key cog on arguably the best team in the NBA.

...Read more

STORRS, Conn. — Two years ago, the UConn men were coming off a stinging first-round loss in the NCAA Tournament and the roster was in upheaval; players impatient about development were moving on. A conversation with Dan Hurley evolved into a long lament about the new ways of college basketball, ending with a vow to “adapt or die.”

Perhaps...Read more