CHICAGO — Lonzo Ball needed less than a minute to reintroduce himself to the NBA on Wednesday night. Forty-three seconds, to be exact.

When Ball checked into the preseason game against the Minnesota Timberwolves at the 6-minute, 8-second mark of the first quarter, the Chicago Bulls guard wasn’t weighed down with expectations. He was greeted...Read more

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — “The Last Amateur,” a feature-length documentary chronicling Silvio De Sousa’s turbulent college basketball career at the University of Kansas and UT Chattanooga, premieres Saturday in L.A.

De Sousa, a 6-foot-9, 245-pound, 26-year-old former KU forward from Luanda, Angola, is now playing pro basketball in Israel. He ...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS — Friday is do or die for the Lynx if Napheesa Collier, Courtney Williams and the rest of the gang have any hope of securing the championship.

They lost Game 3 of the WNBA Finals to the New York Liberty, 80-77, at Target Center on Wednesday. After the Lynx led by double digits for much of the first half of the game, New York ...Read more

LEXINGTON, Ky. — We know Mark Pope has done practically everything right since the moment he was officially named the new head coach of the Kentucky men’s basketball program.

Here’s what we don’t know: How good his first team will actually be.

We know the Cats were ranked 23rd by the educated guesses made by the assortment of AP ...Read more

Many of Jonathan Kuminga’s days this summer started with a 4:20 a.m. wake-up for a 90-minute on-court training session. After that, as the sun rose, he’d get a one-hour lift in. He’d head home for a nap and lunch before returning to the gym for his third workout of the day in the afternoon.

Gibou Njie’s days were even longer. Kuminga’...Read more

MIAMI — Jimmy Butler came to play.

In the preseason, no less.

Few signs could be more encouraging for the Miami Heat at this time of year.

In 20:55, on a night he was pulled for good early in the third period, Butler was active and aggressive with 24 points on 8-of-11 shooting and three steals in Wednesday night’s 120-111 exhibition ...Read more

CHICAGO – One reason the Minnesota Timberwolves made the trade to send Karl-Anthony Towns to the Knicks was to make them deeper with the addition of Julius Randle and Donte DiVincenzo.

That move had ripple effects up and down the roster. Since the Wolves added two players to their rotation in exchange for one, those on the fringes of ...Read more

DENVER — More than an hour after the final buzzer, Zeke Nnaji still had Kool & The Gang queued up. When he’s in charge of the workout playlist, buckle up. A skilled pianist and high school marching band alum, he’ll jump between genres as much as anyone on the Nuggets’ roster.

“I just put on some 70s, 80s funk kind of music. They didn�...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS — For two days, the Minnesota Lynx talked about starting fast. Living life trailing big early in games wasn’t the way to go.

And then, to start Game 3 of the WNBA Finals, in a packed Target Center filled with a team-record 19,521 fans, against the New York Liberty, the Lynx roared out of the gate.

But then they forgot to finish...Read more

Everyone in the building knew who was going to get the ball.

Or at least they thought they knew.

After the Minnesota Lynx built a 15-point first-half lead in Game 3 of the WNBA Finals on Wednesday, and after the Liberty fought back with a third-quarter flurry and took their first lead of the game in the waning moments of the fourth quarter, ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — Even with perhaps their best defender, Kawhi Leonard, out the entire preseason, the Clippers have still overwhelmed teams on defense.

Throughout training camp, the Clippers have made it their goal to be a tough defensive group, to make it hard on opponents to score, to be gritty and sound on defense.

"We're getting after it ...Read more

BOSTON — Heading into his second Celtics training camp, Jordan Walsh looked like an afterthought on a loaded, veteran-laden roster.

Walsh had played five times as many games in the G League than the NBA as a 19-year-old rookie, and he was coming off a miserable showing at the Las Vegas Summer League, during which he shot 29.1% from the floor ...Read more

CHICAGO — For the first time in nearly three years, Lonzo Ball will put on a Chicago Bulls jersey and enter an NBA game tonight.

It’s been 1,006 days since Ball suffered what appeared to be a minor meniscus injury that led to three operations, two seasons on the sidelines and looming doubt over his ability to ever return. But if Ball was ...Read more

HARTFORD, Conn. — There is a new big man coming to Storrs.

Eric Reibe, ranked the second-best center in the Class of 2025 by ESPN, announced his commitment to the UConn men’s basketball program on Wednesday on a YouTube live stream hosted by 247Sports Director of Scouting Adam Finkelstein.

“First off it was the special culture at UConn ...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS — Lynx forward Napheesa Collier was named to the All-WNBA first team for the second consecutive season.

The league’s defensive player of the year, Collier averaged 20.4 points, 9.7 rebounds, 3.4 assists and 1.9 steals per game. She was runner-up for the league’s MVP award to Las Vegas’ A’ja Wilson.

Wilson and Collier were...Read more

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — He hasn’t coached a game in the league yet, but new Kentucky head coach Mark Pope already has several connections in the world of SEC basketball.

The one with Georgia’s Mike White is unique.

Back in 1996, about three months before UK won the national championship, White was a freshman point guard at Ole Miss and Pope ...Read more

NEW YORK — Landry Shamet’s shoulder popped out of its socket.

It’s the dark takeaway from the Knicks’ 111-105 victory over the Charlotte Hornets on Tuesday, a game head coach Tom Thibodeau opted to sit his starting five to rest ahead of Friday’s preseason finale in Washington, D.C.

Without Jalen Brunson, Mikal Bridges, Josh Hart, OG ...Read more

The Boston Celtics erased a 24-point first-quarter deficit Tuesday night in Toronto but couldn’t complete the comeback, falling to the Raptors 119-118 to close out their preseason schedule.

Boston, which went 4-1 in its tuneup games, now will turn its eyes toward opening night. The reigning NBA champions will open the regular season next ...Read more

It doesn’t feel like six years have passed since Zion Williamson electrified Duke, the Triangle and all of college basketball simultaneously, somehow managing to eclipse all of the hype that preceded his arrival on campus.

An awful lot has happened since then, absolutely earthshaking stuff — Duke and North Carolina played in a Final Four, ...Read more