Sports

/

ArcaMax

Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times/TNS

Bill Plaschke: Mick Cronin can coach, but can he chill? His long-term UCLA future may depend on it.

Sports / Basketball /

LOS ANGELES — He has the uncanny ability to coach toughness into overachieving teams.

He also has the audacity to publicly humiliate them.

He wins games, one Final Four and two Sweet 16 appearances in his first four seasons that featured postseasons.

He also loses fans, longtime boosters fed up with his unhinged sideline behavior, his rude ...Read more

Sarah Stier/Getty Images North America/TNS

Nets' Nic Claxton suspended one game without pay for excessive technical fouls

Sports / Basketball /

NEW YORK — The NBA suspended Brooklyn Nets center Nic Claxton one game without pay for accruing his sixth Flagrant Foul point of the 2024-25 regular season. He will serve his suspension on Wednesday when Brooklyn hosts the Oklahoma City Thunder at Barclays Center.

In Brooklyn’s 107-99 road loss to the Washington Wizards on Monday, Claxton ...Read more

Elsa/Getty Images North America/TNS

Diana Taurasi officially announces retirement from WNBA after 20 seasons, three titles

Sports / Basketball /

HARTFORD, Conn. — The Phoenix Mercury’s final home game of the 2024 WNBA season was a celebration of UConn legend Diana Taurasi’s legacy after 20 years with the franchise, marketed under the slogan, “If This Is It.”

Family, friends and former teammates from more than two decades of basketball came together in Phoenix on Sept. 19, ...Read more

Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times/TNS

LeBron and Bronny James file response to car crash lawsuit, denying 'each and every allegation'

Sports / Basketball /

LOS ANGELES — LeBron and Bronny James have denied "each and every allegation" made in a lawsuit that claimed they had some involvement in a 2022 car crash in the town of Littlerock in the Antelope Valley.

That lawsuit, filed last fall in Los Angeles County Superior Court, alleged that the father-son Lakers teammates "negligently owned, ...Read more

Yong Kim/The Philadelphia Inquirer/TNS

Fans can buy $2 tickets and opposing announcers are laughing at the team. That's the current reality for the Sixers.

Sports / Basketball /

PHILADELPHIA — Going to a Sixers game has rarely been cheaper. On Monday, Process-era pricing appeared to be in effect with tickets available on the secondary market for just $2, not including fees, which would bring you a bit closer to $4 per person.

Of course, then you had to watch the Sixers.

And if you were one of the Sixers fans who ...Read more

Ryan C. Hermens/Lexington Herald-Leader/TNS

Mark Story: In evaluating Mark Pope's first season, don't lose sight of bigger picture

Sports / Basketball /

LEXINGTON, Ky. — Mark Pope assumed the Kentucky men’s basketball head coaching position five years into what seems likely to go down as the least successful decade in UK’s regal hoops history.

Since the Southeastern Conference formed in 1932-33, Kentucky men’s hoops has won at least three SEC regular-season championships in every decade...Read more

Jason Getz/The Atlanta Journal-Constitution/TNS

Ken Sugiura: Time is fleeting for Hawks to make use of Trae Young's brilliant season

Sports / Basketball /

ATLANTA — In a breakthrough season, Trae Young’s game Monday night stood apart and provided evidence of what the Hawks could be.

Young’s scoring touch was way off. The high-scoring guard failed to make a 3-pointer for only the fourth time this season and contributed a mere 11 points.

But the Hawks still won, taking a gritty 98-86 win ...Read more

Ray Chavez/Bay Area News Group/TNS

Dawn of the Warriors' dynasty: How Steve Kerr built a new culture

Sports / Basketball /

Three hours at the Oklahoma City airport is usually a recipe for a bad day, but they were some of the most pivotal moments in Steve Kerr’s post-playing career.

It was May 2014, and Kerr was in town to call the Thunder-Clippers Western Conference semifinals for TNT. He’d been itching to get out of the broadcast booth and onto a sideline. The...Read more

Grant Halverson/Getty Images North America/TNS

Earlier this season, UNC quietly extended coach Hubert Davis' contract. Here are details.

Sports / Basketball /

Hubert Davis’ first three seasons as head basketball coach at North Carolina ended with a trip to the NCAA Final Four, the Tar Heels missing the NCAA Tournament and then a regular-season ACC title that earned them a No. 1 seed in the tournament.

It also has earned Davis two contract extensions, the second signed in December 2024 that extends ...Read more

Dustin Satloff/Getty Images North America/TNS

Dom Amore: A study in accountability, Alex Karaban puts another UConn loss on himself

Sports / Basketball /

NEW YORK — Alex Karaban stared downward as he spoke Sunday, down at the floor in the basement of the “World’s Most Famous Arena,” using the low monotone that he uses in such moments.

It was another loss for the UConn men, a game in which Karaban found his long lost shooting stroke, but found it too late to change the outcome. The ...Read more

Hunter Dickinson carries KU basketball to road win at Colorado. Here are 3 takeaways

Sports / Basketball /

Hunter Dickinson was determined to make sure his Kansas Jayhawks walked out of CU Events Center with a victory Monday.

Whenever KU found itself in trouble against Colorado, Dickinson answered with a timely bucket. He scored five of the Jayhawks’ last seven points and erupted for 32 overall in one of the best offensive performances of his KU ...Read more

William Purnell/Getty Images North America/TNS

Timberwolves pull off big comeback, beat Thunder 131-128 in overtime

Sports / Basketball /

OKLAHOMA CITY – Monday was not shaping up to be a thriller.

The Minnesota Timberwolves’ injuries looked like they had finally caught up to them against the best team in the Western Conference, and they were down as much as 25 in the second half.

Even coach Chris Finch pulled Anthony Edwards with 3 minutes, 41 seconds to play. But from that...Read more

Dylan Buell/Getty Images North America/TNS

Nikola Jokic sets career-high with 19 assists as Nuggets bounce back at Pacers

Sports / Basketball /

INDIANAPOLIS — The Denver Nuggets’ loss to the Los Angeles Lakers on Saturday was of the high-exposure variety. National television. A matchup they had dominated in recent years.

They needed a bounce back, and they got one Monday night. Aaron Gordon scored 25 points, Nikola Jokic set a career-high with 19 assists, and Denver won its 10th ...Read more

Yong Kim/The Philadelphia Inquirer/TNS

76ers drop 8th straight game with 142-110 blowout loss to the Bulls

Sports / Basketball /

PHILADELPHIA — The 76ers had another negative night … depending on who you ask.

For those wanting them to reach the postseason, Monday night’s loss to the Chicago Bulls could be a detriment.

The Sixers missed out on an opportunity to clinch the season’s series over the Bulls following the 142-110 decision at the Wells Fargo Center.

...Read more

Todd Kirkland/Getty Images North America/TNS

Heat don't have a shot in 98-86 loss to Hawks, as season turns even more dire

Sports / Basketball /

ATLANTA – A microcosm of the season, as in the Miami Heat don’t have a shot?

It certainly felt that way in Monday night’s 98-86 loss to the Atlanta Hawks at State Farm Arena, when a made shot practically was reason for celebration and a converted 3-pointer practically an abstract.

In falling to 1-6 since trading forward Jimmy Butler to ...Read more

Luke Hales/Getty Images North America/TNS

Nets doomed by slow start, rough finish in 107-99 loss to Wizards

Sports / Basketball /

The Brooklyn Nets fell to the Washington Wizards 107-99 at Capital One Arena on Monday, marking their second loss to the worst team in the NBA in as many tries.

However, Brooklyn’s defensive identity still shined through in spurts, as it forced a season-high 15 steals and created 23 turnovers — 15 of which came in the second half.

The ...Read more

Daniel Mears/The Detroit News/TNS

No. 15 Michigan grinds out win in low-scoring battle at Nebraska

Sports / Basketball /

Michigan coach Dusty May was confident the Wolverines would bounce back, respond and find a way to keep pace in the Big Ten race.

They’ve proven that throughout the season and did so once again in a wrestling match Monday at Nebraska.

Despite turning in its worst offensive performance of the season, No. 15 Michigan shook off the sting of a ...Read more

Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times/TNS

'Dogfight for playoff seeding': How the Lakers are preparing for the wars to come

Sports / Basketball /

LOS ANGELES — Lakers players looked around the meeting room Saturday morning, double-checking with one another to make sure that what they thought they just heard was what JJ Redick actually said.

Did he, the Lakers coach, clearly amped up for their game with Denver later that night, tell his players to go to war and to be "willing to die on ...Read more

Clarence Tabb Jr./The Detroit News/TNS

Pistons' winning streak reaches 7 following home victory over Clippers

Sports / Basketball /

DETROIT — After defeating the Philadelphia 76ers on Feb. 7, the Detroit Pistons have become one of the top teams in the league. The victory sparked a season-long six-game winning streak. However, four of the last six games have been played on the road.

During a season of resurgence, the Pistons have performed better on the road than at home, ...Read more

Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times/TNS

LaVar Ball says 'everyone heard' about his amputated foot: 'If I wanted to, I'd grow it back!'

Sports / Basketball /

LaVar Ball confirmed a recent report that his right foot has been amputated. And he offered that information in the most LaVar Ball way possible.

Over the last month or so, Ball — the famously vociferous father of NBA stars Lonzo and LaMelo Ball and their brother LiAngelo Ball, who played in the NBA G League and is now a rising hip-hop star �...Read more