SAN JOSE, Calif. — There was no denying Purdue’s effort.

Playing against a team that is loaded with NBA draft prospects, the Boilermakers scrapped for rebounds, dived for loose balls and did all the little things to make up for the talent gap. Their offense got clean looks and the Indiana school even held a lead early in the game.

But on ...Read more

HOUSTON — As Illinois fans screamed and clapped Saturday night at the Toyota Center, the hugging began. Illinois coach Brad Underwood and his assistants on the bench. Keaton Wagler, still holding the ball, and David Mirković. The rest of the Illini players joined in.

With a 71-59 win over Iowa in the South Region final of the NCAA Tournament...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS — Fans inside Target Center missed out on the chance to see two MVP candidates — Cade Cunningham and Anthony Edwards — go head-to-head, but what they saw was which key attributes have kept the Detroit Pistons afloat without their star player.

On Saturday evening, a collective offensive and defensive effort led the Pistons to a...Read more

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Duke faced St. John’s in the teams’ NCAA Tournament East Region game Friday night with all its major players available for the first time in nearly four weeks — and that included Caleb Foster, who’d been sidelined for four weeks after having surgery to repair a broken foot.

Duke entered the postseason without Foster...Read more

WASHINGTON — It was the biggest March Madness comeback in Michigan State history, until it wasn’t. But it sure was one heck of a basketball game.

From trailing by 19 points midway through the first half to leading halfway through the second, No. 3 seed Michigan State pulled a pending blowout from the brink. But in the end, No. 2 seed UConn ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — For the second time in less than a week, Luka Doncic faces a one-game suspension because of technical foul accumulation.

Only a week after Doncic's 16th technical foul was rescinded by the NBA, the Los Angeles Lakers superstar picked up another one in a 116-99 win over the Brooklyn Nets on Friday and is in line to miss the ...Read more

SAN FRANCISCO — With almost an entire third quarter left to play, young Washington Wizards center Alex Sarr picked up his fifth foul of the night at Chase Center.

Rather than do the sensible thing, which would be to sit him for the rest of the third quarter if not much of the fourth too, Wizards coach Brian Keefe elected to leave him out ...Read more

DENVER — David Adelman had no choice but to burn through his timeouts.

He had only two remaining with 18 minutes of game time left, as a sluggish and sloppy quintet sauntered into the huddle to the tune of light boos. The Jazz had opened up a double-digit lead in the second half, and Ball Arena was miffed.

That lead crept to a maximum of 14 ...Read more

WASHINGTON, D.C. — It was the kind of game everyone expected. Tough, physical, two good teams straining to move on in the NCAA Tournament.

Duke and St. John’s went at it for 40 minutes in an NCAA game that had a little of everything. There were big shots and hustlng defensive plays and relentless effort. It was as if both teams were ...Read more

CLEVELAND – The Miami Heat’s desire remains to get to the playoffs for a franchise-record seventh consecutive season.

Friday night’s game offered a reminder of what can happen when you get there as an overmatched opponent.

Last year, the Heat were swept out of their first-round series against the Cleveland Cavaliers by an NBA-record ...Read more

BOSTON — What’s been true all season was true again Friday night at TD Garden: When Jaylen Brown sits, the Celtics don’t blink.

Boston handled one of the NBA’s hottest teams without its leading scorer, defeating the Hawks 109-102 while Brown (Achilles tendonitis) watched from the bench in street clothes.

The Celtics improved to 49-24,...Read more

CHICAGO — The Wolverines’ record-setting season keeps rolling on.

After flipping a switch and taking control after halftime in their first two NCAA Tournament wins, they followed a similar script to march on.

Behind a strong start to the second half and another 20-point game from Yaxel Lendeborg, No. 1 seed Michigan raced past No. 4 seed ...Read more

SAN FRANCISCO – The Warriors will be without Steph Curry until at least next week.

The team announced that Curry, who will miss his 24th consecutive game with knee soreness and bone bruising on Friday, will be re-evaluated next week after the team examined his knee earlier in the day.

“The re-evaluation indicated that Curry continues to ...Read more

The last 10 games have essentially turned into a tanking leaderboard, and the race to the bottom is brutally tight.

Entering Friday, the Nets are 1-9. The Indiana Pacers are 1-9. The Washington Wizards are 1-9. The Memphis Grizzlies are 1-9. The Utah Jazz are 2-8. It’s a sprint for lottery position, and it’s exactly the type of late-season ...Read more

No. 1 seed South Carolina women’s basketball is facing No. 4 seed Oklahoma in Sacramento in the Sweet 16 on Saturday.

It’ll be the second-straight rematch of a regular-season game in the NCAA Tournament for Dawn Staley and the Gamecocks. Last week, South Carolina had to beat No. 9 seed Southern Cal in order to advance to a 12th straight ...Read more

Despite being on track to average a triple-double again, even Nikola Jokic admits his season has been tricky to evaluate.

In part because it’s been broken up into phases.

“I think for me, it was a little bit inconsistent,” the Nuggets big man said. “Just because injury, and then it was the first time I was coming back from (an) injury....Read more

NEW YORK — As Adam Silver recalled the events, it was one of the first meetings he took after becoming NBA commissioner in 2014.

His visitor that day was a minority owner of the Boston Celtics. But he wasn’t in town to talk about arguably the most storied franchise in NBA history, of which he held a small share.

There was another topic on ...Read more

CHICAGO — Dusty May and Nate Oats go way back. All the way back to the early stages of their coaching careers that crossed paths in Michigan.

Twenty years ago, when May got his start as an assistant coach at Eastern Michigan in 2005-06, he would make the 20-minute drive over to Romulus High School to watch Oats lead 6 a.m. workouts.

“I was...Read more