KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Arizona guard KJ Lewis paraded down the T-Mobile Center floor, moments after one last steal and one final layup, motioning his right hand to and fro.

A goodbye wave might’ve meant something, except that, well, there wasn’t much of anybody left to receive the message. A game had long been decided, its crowd long gone. ...Read more

DENVER — Los Angeles Lakers coach JJ Redick often makes reference to a lyric from an old Jay-Z song: “It was all good just a week ago.”

Entering Friday’s game against the Denver Nuggets, things were not good for the Lakers. They entered on a three-game losing streak. They were down three starters in LeBron James, Rui Hachimura and ...Read more

The Kentucky Wildcats are headed home after two nights at the SEC Tournament.

Alabama defeated the Cats 99-70 on Friday night in Bridgestone Arena, completing a rare three-game season sweep of the UK men’s basketball team and ending the chances of Mark Pope’s team to bring a league trophy back to Lexington.

The loss was UK’s most ...Read more

INDIANAPOLIS — Round 1 was a first-half knockout. Round 2 went down to the final bell.

Round 3 between Michigan and Purdue was a decisive decision in the Wolverines’ favor.

No. 3 seed Michigan took control early against No. 6 seed Purdue, never let up and snapped a three-year streak of early exits in the Big Ten Tournament with an 86-68 ...Read more

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Down its leading scorer and battling one of the nation's hottest teams, Missouri men's basketball bowed out of the Southeastern Conference Tournament with a quarterfinal loss to Florida.

The No. 7 seed Tigers fell behind the No. 2 seed Gators immediately, making the second half competitive until they were buried by a late ...Read more

The Celtics officially secured their place in the 2025 NBA playoffs Friday night with a win over the Miami Heat.

Jrue Holiday scored 25 points — his highest regular-season total in a Celtics uniform — on efficient 10-of-15 shooting as Boston won, 103-91, at the Kaseya Center.

Jayson Tatum finished with a game-high 28 points, offsetting his...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS — The Timberwolves began a stretch of five straight home games Friday night, with four of those matchups coming against teams with worse records than theirs.

The problem for the Wolves is they’re not always the most consistent team at home (18-14 entering Friday). A short-handed Orlando team, without Jalen Suggs, was the first ...Read more

NEW YORK — For the first time in a quarter-century, St. John’s is headed to the Big East Tournament final.

It took an all-time performance from Zuby Ejiofor to get there.

Top-seeded St. John’s rallied from an early 15-point deficit to beat the fifth-seeded Golden Eagles, 79-63, in Friday night’s semifinal round at Madison Square Garden...Read more

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Friday night’s ACC Tournament semifinal always had the possibility for an exciting sequel to the game in 2019 — the one where a Duke freshman phenom named Zion Williamson led the Blue Devils to a 1-point win in front of a raucous crowd in Spectrum Center in Charlotte.

The sequel was different, surely.

But maybe equally...Read more

CHICAGO — The banners commemorating the Chicago Bulls’ six NBA championships will not be displayed at the United Center for the remainder of the season.

The banners were removed when United Center staff discovered “minor damage” to the banners after a Saturday concert, according to a source. The concert — which featured Three Days ...Read more

INDIANAPOLIS — If this was a practice test for the NCAA Tournament, then UCLA left half the answers blank and smudged its fingerprints over the rest.

The best grade the Bruins could hope for, given the way they played Friday against No. 18 Wisconsin, was incomplete. That’s because they barely showed up.

They struggled to defend screens. ...Read more

INDIANAPOLIS — Michigan State’s Big Ten Tournament started off with a bang.

Facing an Oregon team on an eight-game win streak, first-seeded Michigan State kicked off its Big Ten Tournament with a 74-64 win Friday. In front of a friendly crowd at Indianapolis’ Gainbridge Fieldhouse, four players scored in double digits as the seventh-...Read more

FORT WORTH, Texas — Wichita State produced some of its best play, but also some of its worst.

The Shockers went toe-to-toe with the 16th-ranked team in the country, but in a game with such a thin margin for error, WSU’s mistakes proved too costly to overcome in an 83-80 loss to top-seeded Memphis in Friday’s quarterfinal game in the ...Read more

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — For the first time in three years, the Kentucky Wildcats have won a game in the SEC Tournament.

It came in shocking fashion, with Otega Oweh hitting a shot with 0.5 seconds on the clock to give the Cats an 85-84 victory over the Oklahoma Sooners.

The win might have come at a great cost. The Cats beat Oklahoma without ...Read more

SAN FRANCISCO — There aren’t many teams who can turn any given Thursday night into a slice of basketball history, but Jonathan Kuminga has been on one of them since he walked into the league. He’s used to being under one of several spotlights by now.

The same game Kuminga made his much anticipated debut after missing the past 31 games ...Read more

INDIANAPOLIS — Desmond Claude sprinted as fast as he could down the hardwood, knowing the season was in his hands and precious time was ticking off the clock. He already tried once before to tie it, flying into the fray for a floater that bounced off the back iron.

But a missed free throw gave Claude hope as he came flying across half court, ...Read more

The Nets fell to the Chicago Bulls, 116-110, on Thursday at the United Center in Chicago.

Brooklyn, which fell to 22-44 with the loss, is now six games behind Chicago for 10th place in the Eastern Conference — the final play-in tournament spot — with 16 games left.

This matchup featured 11 lead changes and 10 ties.

Cam Thomas finished ...Read more