LOS ANGELES — Grainy game footage and yellowed newspaper clippings confer UCLA's standing as college basketball royalty, the team's status as a blue blood rooted in the success of a coach who retired nearly 50 years ago.

John Wooden's 10 national championships in a 12-year span are more than any other program has won in its history. On the ...Read more

The Denver Nuggets’ flare for the dramatic seems unlikely to go away any time soon. Generally this season, it has worked out in their favor. Not on Thursday.

Anfernee Simons drove to his right for a game-winning layup as time expired, handing the Nuggets their 11th loss of the season after they had erased a 17-point gap in the fourth quarter....Read more

MINNEAPOLIS — Karl-Anthony Towns sat on the opposing bench Thursday as his new team’s starting lineup was announced. After the first four starters came to the floor, the Target Center scoreboard played a 90-second tribute video of some of Towns’ career highlights.

Towns soaked it all in, then soaked up a large ovation from the crowd as ...Read more

SACRAMENTO — Midway through the first quarter Thursday night, LeBron James checked out against the Sacramento Kings, walking to the bench in the city where he played his first NBA regular season minutes more than 21 years ago.

It would be his last walk off the court before achieving another milestone. By the time his next shift ended in the ...Read more

BOSTON — The Chicago Bulls beat the Boston Celtics at their own game Thursday night in a battle of the NBA’s two most prolific 3-point shooting teams.

Chicago rode a 15-point advantage from beyond the arc to a 117-108 victory at TD Garden, with the typically sharp-shooting Celtics making just 14 of their 56 3-point attempts (a season-worst ...Read more

DETROIT — The Detroit Pistons recently revealed their aspirations to end their five-year playoff drought. This season, the Pistons have appeared to be on the right track at times, but they have also had several games in which they looked far from achieving their goal.

Thursday night inside Little Caesars Arena, the Pistons looked like a team ...Read more

ORLANDO, Fla. — During Thursday morning shootaround, Magic coach Jamahl Mosley twice described Oklahoma City‘s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander as a league MVP candidate.

The two-time All-NBA guard backed up the high praise he received with a game-high 35 points during the Thunder’s 105-99 victory in front of a national TV audience on TNT at Kia ...Read more

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Dennis Schroder got traded from a team that’s trying to lose to one failing to put the winning ways of their early-season halcyon days back in the bottle.

If they play like they did on Thursday, the Warriors’ bottle is shattered.

The 51-point margin of defeat is tied for the fourth-biggest blowout loss in franchise ...Read more

NEW YORK — Nic Claxton was not on the court for long in the Nets‘ 101-94 defeat of the Toronto Raptors on Thursday at Scotiabank Arena. After being intentionally fouled by Kelly Olynyk on a drive to the hoop with 8:46 left in the second quarter, a frustrated Claxton tossed the ball into the stands.

Claxton seemed like he was still mad about...Read more

BOSTON — Joe Mazzulla and the Celtics prioritized support for the members of the organization who were affected by a pair of break-ins during the team’s recent trip to Washington, D.C.

Jaylen Brown’s mother’s house in Wellesley and the Newton home of assistant coach Amile Jefferson both were targeted by intruders Sunday night, while the...Read more

PHILADELPHIA — Sixers center Andre Drummond, a two-time NBA All-Star with the Detroit Pistons, doesn’t have a problem with the new format for the 2025 All-Star Game.

Instead of a single game and two teams, the event will feature three games and a four-team tournament on Feb. 16 at the Chase Center in San Francisco.

“I think it’s cool,�...Read more

At $9.1 billion, the Warriors are the most valuable NBA franchise and the second-highest valued organization in all of U.S. professional sports, according to an annual valuation from Sportico.

Only the Dallas Cowboys are worth more than Golden State, according to both Sportico and Forbes, which valued the Warriors at $8.8 billion in October. ...Read more

ORLANDO, Fla. — Paolo Banchero was wearing bright, highlighter green shoes in an all-black athletic outfit when he was slowing moving his left and right arms up and down one at a time with a small orange exercise ball in his hands.

Slowly and surely, Banchero went through a variety of light stretching drills under the watchful eye of Todor ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — It's been seven months since the Lakers fired Darvin Ham, and he's still surprised he's no longer coaching the team.

Ham, who was 90-74 in two seasons in Los Angeles, took the Lakers to the Western Conference finals in his first year and back to the playoffs the following year, while guiding them to victory in the inaugural NBA ...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS — The plane the New York Knicks took to Minnesota landed at MSP airport instead of Signature Flight Support, which is the private terminal the Timberwolves always land at coming back into town from the road.

That was the first indication that this was going to be a “wild” experience for Karl-Anthony Towns as he made his return...Read more

With nonconference play winding down, Michigan had one last chance to bolster its resume with a marquee win in a top-25 matchup.

The No. 24 Wolverines couldn’t seize the opportunity and fell to No. 14 Oklahoma on a late four-point play in the Jumpman Invitational, 87-86, on Wednesday at the Spectrum Center.

Vlad Goldin scored 26 and Danny ...Read more

HARTFORD – Anything can happen in a conference opener for the UConn men’s basketball program.

It took an extra five minutes on Wednesday night, but the 11th-ranked Huskies were able to put away Xavier, 94-89, for their first win in a home conference opener since 2011.

Tarris Reed Jr. made his first UConn start in place of Samson Johnson, ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — Clippers All-Star Kawhi Leonard participated in the "contact" part of practice for the first time this season on Wednesday, but coach Tyronn Lue said there still isn't a timetable for the return of the team's best player, who has been out all season as he manages a right knee injury.

Leonard will travel with the Clippers for ...Read more

NEW YORK — The day has arrived.

Karl-Anthony Towns is set to return to the place he once called home — to the franchise that drafted him No. 1 overall in 2015 and molded him into a perennial All-Star center.

On Thursday, Towns will step onto the Target Center floor as a member of the Knicks, facing the Minnesota Timberwolves for the first ...Read more

NEW YORK — Brooklyn acquired a pair of point guards in the Dennis Schröder deal, the first being De’Anthony Melton, who in all likelihood, will never suit up for the team given the season-ending ACL tear he suffered with the Golden State Warriors, and of course his expiring contract.

It appears the other, two-way rookie Reece Beekman, will...Read more