LOS ANGELES — The Lakers entered a critical six-game stretch Saturday that could very well determine their playoff position in the competitive Western Conference postseason race.

Behind the heroics of Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves, the Lakers defeated the Nuggets in a thrilling 127-125 win at Crypto.com Arena that secured a playoff seeding ...Read more

MIAMI — The Magic have the Heat’s number this season.

Five times, the in-state rivals have faced off this year. All five times, the Magic picked up the win. Saturday was no different, as Orlando took down Miami, 121-117, at the Kaseya Center despite a late comeback attempt form the home team. The loss snapped the Heat’s seven-game winning...Read more

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — It hadn’t been Cameron Boozer’s night up until then, but still, with 27.4 seconds left and the game on the line, one of the best young coaches in the game commanded the ball — and the game’s fate — to be in Boozer’s hands.

Boozer delivered.

Not how you thought he might — but he did nonetheless.

Up two, the ...Read more

UMBC men’s basketball will be mired in the madness.

The Retrievers assured themselves of that fate when they defeated Vermont, 74-59, in the America East Tournament final Saturday afternoon before an announced 4,753 at the Chesapeake Employers Insurance Arena in Catonsville, Md.

UMBC (24-8), the No. 1 seed, extended its winning streak to a ...Read more

NEW YORK — Zuby Ejiofor got his wish.

Following last month’s historic 72-40 loss to UConn, the St. John’s star left Huskies head coach Dan Hurley with a parting message.

“He muttered something like, ‘I’ll see you again, my man,’ ” Hurley said at the time on ESPN’s “SportsCenter.”

And in Saturday night’s Big East ...Read more

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — An amazing Big 12 season was good through the final seconds.

Arizona outlasted Houston 79-74 a Big 12 Tournament final between the top-two seeds and highest ranked teams.

The Wildcats led nearly the entire game but couldn’t feel comfortable with the victory until freshman Brayden Burries hit a pair of free throws with ...Read more

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — For much of the season, Kansas Jayhawks men’s basketball star Darryn Peterson has dealt with a variety of health issues.

The freshman guard missed 11 games during the 2025-26 season, his only one in Lawrence as he heads to the NBA draft, due to various health issues. And when he has played, he was rarely fully healthy.

...Read more

PHILADELPHIA — The Philadelphia 76ers squeaked out a 104-97 win over the Brooklyn Nets in a game they led by 28 points.

Down Tyrese Maxey, Joel Embiid, Paul George, Kelly Oubre Jr., Andre Drummond and Johni Broome, the Sixers are hanging on by a thread to the No. 8 seed in the Eastern Conference.

Here are three things we learned from ...Read more

CHICAGO — Maybe they needed this, a test of their mettle and a taste of peril. Yaxel Lendeborg certainly needed it after his recent struggles. The Wolverines will take it this time of year, any way they can get it.

You’d think by now, Michigan would have run out of new ways to win games. But then here came Wisconsin, heaving 3-pointers from...Read more

BOSTON — Coming off three straight road games against championship hopefuls, the Boston Celtics got a reprieve Saturday in their return to TD Garden.

The Washington Wizards are one of several teams vying for the No. 1 pick in the 2026 NBA draft, and they looked overmatched in a 111-100 loss to Boston.

The victory snapped a two-game losing ...Read more

CHICAGO — His best shooter had already been ruled out. Then, midway through the first half, his star point guard left for the locker room.

It was the kind of worst-case scenario in the lead-up to March that UCLA coach Mick Cronin had probably only considered in his nightmares. But here was Tyler Bilodeau, UCLA’s leading scorer, dressed in ...Read more

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Two minutes, 17 seconds into 14th-ranked Kansas’ Big 12 Tournament semifinal game against No. 5 Houston on Friday night at T-Mobile Center, an incensed Bill Self called a timeout.

Prompted by Bryson Tiller surrendering an offensive rebound, Self unleashed a scathing message to Tiller ... and a torrent at the broader team....Read more

PITTSBURGH — When Pitt athletic director Allen Greene announced Friday afternoon that Jeff Capel would return for a ninth season as Pitt’s men’s basketball coach, the reaction was immediate — and largely surprised.

After a 13-20 season that ended with Pitt fighting just to qualify for the ACC Tournament, many assumed a coaching change ...Read more

DENVER — Almost a year to the date before Bam Adebayo broke Kobe Bryant’s single-game modern scoring record, Nikola Jokic posted the first 30-20-20 stat line in NBA history. Teammates and coaches who spend endless hours with him were starstruck. At least one Nuggets assistant asked him to autograph a print-out of the box score. The piece of ...Read more

CHICAGO — UCLA will be without Tyler Bilodeau, its best shooter and leading scorer, for Saturday’s Big Ten Tournament semifinal game against Purdue.

But the mild knee sprain Bilodeau suffered Friday night isn’t expected to linger into next week’s NCAA Tournament, according to a team spokesperson.

Bilodeau, who averaged 17.6 points on ...Read more

Florida’s SEC dominance the past three months ended emphatically against Vanderbilt during a stunning and one-sided loss in the conference tournament semifinals.

The No. 4 Gators (26-7) couldn’t keep pace with the No. 22 Commodores (26-7) or slow them defensively during a 91-74 beatdown Saturday at the Bridgestone Arena, just 10 minutes ...Read more

CHICAGO — The Michigan Wolverines toppled one Big Ten team after another during their near-unbeaten march to the outright regular-season title.

Well, everyone but the Badgers.

Top-seeded Michigan avenged its lone conference loss in Saturday’s Big Ten Tournament semifinal, downing No. 5 seed Wisconsin, 68-65, on a last-second 3-pointer by ...Read more