MIAMI — Pat Riley entered the room Friday afternoon in a blue sports jacket, salmon shirt and silver-fox hair that, as usual, provided stylish cover for the street fighter underneath.

“How many of you were born after I got here?” the Miami Heat president said while taking a seat before the cameras for his postseason news conference.

A ...Read more

DENVER — Nikola Jokic found his seat on the bench and bellowed at the rafters of his building, the one he has transformed into a temple that worships him.

The agony of his missed buzzer-beater opportunity was doubled by the grim fact that he would have to play through his struggles for another five minutes.

The Nuggets had his back.

Despite...Read more

NEW YORK — The Villanova Wildcats are now proudly represented in Manhattan and Vatican City.

After Thursday’s Conclave in the Vatican’s Sistine Chapel, the world learned that the newly elected Pope Leo XIV, formerly Cardinal Robert Prevost, graduated from Villanova University, the basketball-obsessed school just outside Philadelphia, in ...Read more

Former UConn women’s basketball star Paige Bueckers has only gotten a taste of WNBA physicality less than two weeks into her first training camp with the Dallas Wings. Though she’s already feeling the challenge of battling professionals for the first time, the rookie guard is no stranger to competing against bigger and stronger players ...Read more

NEW YORK — Karl-Anthony Towns doesn’t spend much time on social media. But if he opened Instagram or X, he’d see it — Knicks fans weeping tears of joy. A franchise once buried by dysfunction now delivering a revival. The Knicks did that.

They’ve restored belief in a city that had almost given up.

“We know we’re repping the city ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — As Luka Doncic sat inside the makeshift press conference room inside Crypto.com Arena following the Lakers’ season-ending loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves in the first round of the playoffs, he fielded multiple questions about what he learned over the previous couple of months.

Even though it had been nearly three months ...Read more

MIAMI — For the first time in over a year, Miami Heat President Pat Riley addressed the media at length on Friday at Kaseya Center, reflecting on the past season and touching on future thought.

Among the topics addressed during his annual State of the Heat session:

— Of his comment a year ago on choosing not to extend Jimmy Butler in the ...Read more

DETROIT – It’s the question that has vexed NBA executives and scholars forever, and no, it’s not, what actually constitutes traveling? It’s the one the Pistons suddenly, happily face: How soon to push the pedal?

They just completed a historically dramatic turnaround, won a playoff game for the first time in 17 years and pushed the ...Read more

PHILADELPHIA — The 76ers are considered the luckiest team in the history of the NBA draft lottery.

Their draft position has improved eight times — moving up at least three spots on five occasions — during 18 lottery appearances since 1986.

As a result, the Sixers have gained 24 draft slots thanks to the lottery. No other franchise has ...Read more

LEXINGTON, Ky. — We are roughly six months from the start of the 2025-26 men’s college basketball season. Nevertheless, Mark Pope has already assured that Kentucky Wildcats men’s basketball fans will experience something rare in the coming year — and that’s not referring to the impending season’s shockingly early UK-Louisville game. ...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS — Too often, the Minnesota Timberwolves have been an unserious basketball team. They have had a tendency to let winnable games slip away more than they should when other teams are down key players. Thursday was the first test to see if they learned from their mistakes, as they faced a Golden State Warriors team that won’t have ...Read more

OKLAHOMA CITY — Loud City is not Fraud City.

Every Thunder had a basket Wednesday night, save for the Broncos mascot.

“We got punked,” Denver Nuggets coach David Adelman admitted after the 149-106 drubbing. “We are not going to flush that. We have to be better.”

If the series opener was a referendum on the Thunder’s inexperience,...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS – Steph Curry’s ailing hamstring is on the mend, but the Golden State Warriors star’s sense of humor is healthy as ever.

“I’m feeling great,” Curry said Thursday morning during the Warriors’ pregame shootaround, before adding. “That’s sarcasm.”

Curry spoke for the first time since he was ruled out for at least a...Read more

ATLANTA — Though it came as a surprise to some in February, the Hawks trading of wing De’Andre Hunter opened up potential for both parties.

The Hawks dealt Hunter to the Cavaliers in February for guard Caris LeVert, forward Georges Niang, as well as three second-round picks and two pick swaps. In making the move, the Hawks sold high on ...Read more

CHICAGO — It’s time for the Chicago Bulls to start hunting for big trades.

The early rounds of the NBA playoffs are the most illuminating weeks of the season. It’s when the cracks begin to show, when players and front offices reach breaking points and begin to search for solutions.

And for teams stuck on the sidelines — like the Bulls,...Read more

PHILADELPHIA — Whatever you think about the Xfinity Mobile Arena, I think we can all agree that it would be a lot cooler if it was the Xfinity Arenamobile. You know, like a Bookmobile, except for underperforming sports teams. Put that baby on wheels and send the Sixers and Flyers right on out of here. Maybe New Jersey can still find them a few...Read more

UNCASVILLE, Conn. — Rachid Meziane finished up another practice Wednesday, neither overjoyed nor overly concerned. This is going to be a process, to make the kind of basketball he knows work in the WNBA, and it is just beginning.

“Ah, it’s never perfect,” he said. “We can see, we can recognize our team needs time, needs hard work, ...Read more

OKLAHOMA CITY — In case it wasn’t clear before, the Nuggets are dealing with the best team in the NBA.

Measuring by point differential this season, it was the best team in league history, in fact. But point differential doesn’t matter in a playoff series — fortunately for Denver. If it did, the Thunder would be up by 41 after a 149-106 ...Read more

The Golden State Warriors’ win on Tuesday wasn’t just a show of strength in numbers.

No, the Warriors’ Game 1 victory was shock and awe.

When Steph Curry left the opening matchup of the Warriors’ Western Conference Semifinal series against the Minnesota Timberwolves, Golden State had a five-point lead with 33 minutes to play.

So how ...Read more

BOSTON — It happened again.

Leading by 20 points with 3:12 remaining in the third quarter, the Celtics collapsed in spectacular fashion for the second consecutive game, allowing the New York Knicks to stage another furious late-game comeback at TD Garden.

Boston made just one field goal in the final eight-plus minutes and lost 91-90 to fall ...Read more