SAN FRANCISCO – The Warriors entered Tuesday night with only one objective: Make sure Steph Curry made it through his allotted 25 minutes against the woeful Kings.

Sure, they also wanted to win the game – they did that in an 110-105 victory over arguably the most dysfunctional franchise in American pro sports and snapped a four-game losing ...Read more

BOSTON — The first two meetings between the Boston Celtics and Charlotte Hornets were one-sided blowouts. The rubber match was a much closer fight.

Boston trailed Charlotte by as many as 11 points Tuesday night at TD Garden before rallying to win 113-102 in a possible first-round playoff preview.

Jaylen Brown finished with 35 points and nine...Read more

TORONTO – You still can’t spell play-in without Miami Heat.

So for a fourth consecutive year, the postseason will begin with the pre-playoffs for Erik Spoelstra’s team.

Assured of no better than a No. 7 regular-season finish in the East, and currently at No. 10 in the conference, the Heat again will have to try to do it the hard way, ...Read more

NEW YORK — Good for E.J. Liddell. Not great for the tank.

With Brooklyn’s injury list still swallowing half the rotation and the draft lottery picture tightening by the day, Liddell used Tuesday night as a personal argument. The two-way forward delivered a career-high 21 points in his second start of the season, and the Nets beat the ...Read more

The final weeks of the Minnesota Timberwolves schedule hasn’t been filled with many of the several teams that are tanking to close out the season.

That’s one reason other teams in the Western Conference have had lengthy win streaks while the Wolves are stumbling to the finish line.

Another reason? The Wolves are down two important players ...Read more

DENVER — Nikola Jokic and the Denver Nuggets saluted former coach Michael Malone as he transitioned to the college game Monday with a shocking move to North Carolina.

“I’m happy for him,” Jokic said. “Probably a little bit different. Was he ever a coach in college? No?”

Malone was in fact a college hoops assistant coach throughout ...Read more

WASHINGTON — The Chicago Bulls need to enter an era of hands-on ownership.

President and CEO Michael Reinsdorf voiced that belief Tuesday while addressing the media in a video conference following the firing of executive vice president Artūras Karnišovas and general manager Marc Eversley. The news conference marked Reinsdorf’s first ...Read more

INDIANAPOLIS – Dan Hurley let all of his emotions out before Monday night’s national championship game. He wore sunglasses to cover his tears walking through the team hotel and on the bus ride over to Lucas Oil Stadium, welling up with pride knowing his team was one of the last two standing.

By the time the game ended and his players shed ...Read more

Angel Reese has a message for Atlanta Dream fans: ATL Barbie is here to stay.

The two-time WNBA All-Star told People on Tuesday that she was excited when she learned she had been traded to the organization after spending her first two seasons with the Chicago Sky.

"The team has welcomed me so much, the atmosphere, the culture. ... I'm so ...Read more

CHICAGO — The Chicago Sky can’t continue down this road.

In trading Angel Reese on Monday, this franchise stumbled upon a crossroad. The decisions made in the coming weeks and months will define this team for decades. Yet it’s unclear if principal owner Michael Alter is even aware that he’s standing at the intersection of two diverging ...Read more

INDIANAPOLIS — The Big Ten had waited 26 long years to win a national championship in men’s basketball.

To put things in perspective, that was even longer than the wait list for tickets to Bozo’s Circus.

But that legendary drought finally ended Monday at Lucas Oil Stadium when Michigan held off UConn 69-63 in the NCAA Tournament ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — Already without Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves, the Lakers ruled out LeBron James out for Tuesday's game against the Oklahoma City Thunder.

James was questionable as he manages a chronic left foot injury. The Lakers are fighting for playoff seeding with four games left before the postseason, but with two consecutive losses and ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — Was that really Aday Mara?

It was the most maddening part of March.

It was a Cinderella story that smelled like rotting pumpkin.

It was a big dance over the sensibilities of everything that is UCLA.

Seriously, was that really Aday Mara?

The biggest player on the giant national champion Michigan basketball team Monday night ...Read more

INDIANAPOLIS — It began as an impossibility, a young coach gathering a bunch of transfers, preaching selflessness and persistence, launching an ambitious mission with a clear destination. It was an impossibility that somehow, against the odds and long-held norms, became an inevitability.

The Wolverines found one more way to confound the ...Read more

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — After the UNC Board of Trustees approved his new contract, Michael Malone officially became the new Tar Heels men’s basketball coach on Tuesday.

“Michael was the first coach we engaged with as part of the search process because of his reputation as a selfless teacher and innovator who brings an incredible ability to ...Read more

INDIANAPOLIS — The end had come, there was no staving it off any longer. Alex Karaban’s last, desperate shot from far back with 17 seconds left was short of the rim, and fell to the floor.

And that’s how it ended, the national championship game on April 6 the ultimate expiration date. Karaban’s four years at UConn, during which he grew ...Read more

INDIANAPOLIS — He calls her his “guardian angel” and the “strongest person I’ve ever known,” but when Yaxel Lendeborg limped off the court Saturday night, grimacing in pain, his mother felt helpless.

“I was so scared, and I was down,” Yissel Raposo recalled Monday night, just as the scene was turning celebratory inside Lucas Oil...Read more