SAN FRANCISCO — One team added its star guard back to its starting lineup; the other’s spent Sunday night in street clothes.

The results may surprise you.

Despite playing with a well-rested Steph Curry, the Warriors (18-17) otherwise looked listless in a 129-99 loss to the Sacramento Kings (17-19), who were missing All-Star De’Aaron Fox ...Read more

ORLANDO, Fla. — To put it lightly, Sunday’s contest between the Magic and the Utah Jazz wasn’t exactly representative of what the two franchises had in mind when their respective seasons began.

Each team was without four of its top five scorers when they took the court inside Kia Center.

Orlando (21-16) didn’t have Paolo Banchero (...Read more

HOUSTON — The curse of the NBA regular season is that it’s a monthslong slog from city to city, from hotel rooms and hostile arenas, with opposing scouting reports bleeding into one another in what can create an unrecognizable blur.

The gift of that 82-game schedule are the tests, the moments of competition when a team can take an honest ...Read more

The No. 7-ranked Kansas Jayhawks men’s basketball team entered Sunday’s road game at UCF with many question marks.

One of the biggest: whether KU can win on the road. The Jayhawks’ struggles away from Allen Fieldhouse this season, and last, have been well documented.

KU answered that concern with one of its most dominant showings in a ...Read more

Maryland men’s basketball’s first West Coast trip of the season is fortunately its last.

The Terps wrapped up a disappointing visit to the Pacific Northwest by squandering a double-digit advantage in the first half and then a smaller lead at halftime to No. 9 Oregon, which proved why it belongs in the national conversation of top-tier teams...Read more

STORRS, Conn. – The No. 11 UConn men’s basketball team narrowly avoided a loss in its first game without star freshman Liam McNeeley, coming back from a 14-point deficit in the second half to beat Providence, 87-84, at Gampel Pavilion on Sunday.

“We cheated death in this one here today,” coach Dan Hurley said afterward.

UConn faced a ...Read more

The Boston Celtics are still the defending NBA champions. But it’s hard to call them the favorites to win it all again this year after what transpired Sunday in Oklahoma City.

Boston, at full strength for the first time all season, crumbled in the second half of a potential NBA Finals preview, losing 105-92 to Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and the ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — Forget good. The Lakers want to be great.

That was coach JJ Redick’s halftime message Friday night to the Lakers, his frustration with the team’s lack of attention to defensive details boiling over first into a couple of rage-induced timeouts and later into a challenge to his group to be better.

The timing, which came with ...Read more

MIAMI — In these days of social correctness, the phrase “spare the rod and spoil the child” probably has moved on from the vernacular.

But the concept assuredly remains in play. And for more than kid stuff.

That, in many ways is how the Miami Heat got here, to this point of no return with now-suspended Jimmy Butler.

Without ground rules...Read more

LOS ANGELES — Kawhi Leonard took the final shot of his pregame routine Saturday and ran off the Intuit Dome court. With fans chanting, “Kawhi! Kawhi! Kawhi!” he glanced up at the crowd and pointed his finger in acknowledgment before running into the tunnel toward the locker room.

It was a rare show of excitement by a player usually devoid...Read more

If only Pacome Dadiet and Ariel Hukporti were on New York’s bench, and not on G-League assignment with the Westchester Knicks.

Maybe then Tom Thibodeau would have had two extra sets of fresh legs to use in his team’s second leg of a back-to-back against the Chicago Bulls on Saturday.

But he didn’t, and for the second game in a row, the ...Read more

SAN FRANCISCO — The numbers that might define the direction of the Warriors might be easy as one, two, three. And they have nothing to do with 2- or 3-pointers.

Jonathan Kuminga left Saturday night’s game with a right ankle sprain. If it’s a Grade 1 strain, he’ll be back on the court in no time. If it’s Grade 2, returning before ...Read more

The Wolverines kicked off the new year and their Los Angeles trip with a wild tale of two halves.

Michigan welcomed Southern California to the Big Ten with a 3-point barrage in the first half and a healthy helping of points in the paint in the second half en route to an 85-74 win on Saturday at Galen Center.

Danny Wolf stuffed the stat sheet ...Read more

DETROIT — Paul Reed quickly got the Detroit Pistons to stay focused Friday night. Inside the locker room at Little Caesars Arena, the Pistons celebrated a thrilling victory against the Charlotte Hornets. Although he saw nothing wrong with his teammates celebrating the win, Reed reminded the team that it had another game in less than 24 hours. ...Read more

CHICAGO — For a half-hour interlude in an otherwise unimportant game between the Chicago Bulls and the New York Knicks on Saturday night, the city of Chicago sank into nostalgia.

It wasn’t the way most of the city had dreamed it up over the last eight years. But that didn’t matter. Fans lined up for hours in the subfreezing temperatures ...Read more

MIAMI — As bad as it had gotten with Jimmy Butler and his indifference and indignation, it got even worse Saturday night for the Miami Heat.

With Butler serving the first game of a seven-game team suspension imposed Friday for “conduct detrimental to the team,” Erik Spoelstra’s team offered its own version of detriment, falling 136-100 ...Read more

BOISE, Idaho — It was San Diego State against Boise State, which means we might as well have just fast-forwarded through pre-game introductions, the entire first half, all of halftime, and all of the second half until the closing few minutes.

Six of the last seven meetings have gone down to the wire, all decided by two possessions or less, ...Read more

NEW YORK — One of the best parts about having an 82-game regular season is that it allows NBA teams to recognize an area of weakness and then take the steps to address it.

The 76ers struggled mightily in many areas during Thursday’s blowout loss to the Golden State Warriors. One of those areas was transition defense, and they were ...Read more

LEXINGTON, Ky. — In the preseason, one of the major knocks on the prospects for Mark Pope’s first Kentucky team was that the Wildcats lacked star power.

A collection of good players — no great player — was the consensus.

Well, don’t look now, but the Wildcats have flipped their perceived weakness into their greatest strength.

...Read more

DETROIT — Two nights after Anthony Edwards described how the constant double teams he was facing made it hard for him to score, he got what he wanted. Scoring was no problem for Edwards against the Pistons on Saturday night, as he set a career high with 53 points.

The problem was, nobody else on the Wolves could score ... nor could they ...Read more