Monday’s Atlantic Coast Conference battle between No. 24 Louisville and visiting North Carolina State features a pair of teams each averaging 85.7 points per game.

Both the Wolfpack and Cardinals are gaining ground in the ACC race and firming up NCAA Tournament resumes. NC State has won six in a row while Louisville has won its last three.

The Cardinals (17-6, 7-4 ACC) are still making up ground after a 4-4 stretch when point guard Mikel Brown Jr. was sidelined with a back injury. But Brown has been back for five games and Louisville seems to be settling in offensively.

Louisville needed a late defensive stand to hold off Wake Forest 88-80 on Saturday. Louisville led 43-34 at halftime, but saw Wake Forest rally to tie the game, doing so for the final time at 80 on a pair of Sebastian Akins free throws with 4:44 to play. The Cardinals forced Wake into 0-for-11 shooting from there to claim the win.

“Our guys had the wherewithal to flip the switch and get stops and rebounds down the stretch,” said Louisville coach Pat Kelsey. “I felt like it was a phenomenal team win.”

Louisville placed six players in double figures in scoring. Sananda Fru tallied 17 points on 7-for-7 shooting from the field and also grabbed six rebounds. J’Vonne Hadley added 15 points on 5-for-7 shooting and added five boards. Reserve Khani Rooths notched 13 points in 18 minutes off the bench and was joined in double figures by Brown (12 points, eight assists), Ryan Conwell (11 points) and Isaac McKneely (11 points).

The Cardinals are three games behind Duke and Clemson in the ACC race but are No. 17 in the NCAA’s NET rankings and look all but certain for the NCAA Tournament.

NC State (18-6, 9-2) is just a game off the lead in the ACC race. All five of coach Will Wade’s usual starters are averaging double-figure scoring totals, and at 40.2%, the Wolfpack are one of the nation’s top 3-point shooting teams (currently best in the ACC and seventh nationally).

NC State is coming off an 82-73 win over Virginia Tech. The Wolfpack jumped out to a 20-7 lead, but saw Virginia Tech pull within 54-51 with 11:20 to play.

An immediate 10-1 run allowed the Wolfpack to cruise home with the win. Matching 3-pointers from Paul McNeil Jr. and Tre Holloman keyed the run.

“They limited our (3-point) attempts,” Wade said after the game. “But our best 3-point offense was in transition. It got us going in transition.”

The Wolfpack shot 9-for-21 (42.9%) from long range, with McNeil and Holloman combining for seven of their 3-point buckets.

McNeil tied Quadir Copeland as the high scorer with 21 points. Copeland made 7 of 11 shots and added 10 assists.

Hollman added 16 points, and Ven-Allen Lubin notched 11 points and seven rebounds.

NC State is 27th in the NET rankings, largely due to a Quad 2 loss and a Quad 3 loss. But with eight wins in the last nine games, the Wolfpack’s NCAA Tournament situation is increasingly solidifying.

–Field Level Media

Now carrying a smidge of success after a recent drought, the Milwaukee Bucks travel to Orlando to take on the Magic Monday night for the first of two games between the teams in three days.

Milwaukee enters with star Giannis Antetokounmpo still ailing, but riding a three-game win streak, its longest of the season.

“I made that comment 100 years ago: winning is like a deodorant. It covers a lot of things that stink at times,” Bucks coach Doc Rivers said after Friday night’s win over Indiana. “When you start winning games, the ball goes in, you feel better, you want to come to practice. When you lose games, you dread watching film, everything is a big deal, the shots get tighter. Now you can see our guys are playing loose, they’re playing free. It’s nice.”

“It feels good,” Bucks guard Kevin Porter Jr. added. “We haven’t had this feeling and been in this situation as much this year as we wanted. We’re going to live in the moment and try to make it an everlasting one and continue to get these wins and stack them up.”

The Bucks are still on the outside looking in for a play-in spot and have been without Antetokounmpo, who has not played since Jan. 23 with a calf injury but was not traded ahead of Thursday’s deadline. Milwaukee is 6-14 this season without the “Greek Freak.”

“He’s gonna play when he’s healthy, we just gotta make sure he’s healthy. He’s getting close,” Rivers said on Friday. “Like, he’s working out, he looks good. So, I would say hopefully sooner than later.”

Orlando, currently nestled at seventh in the Eastern Conference, is riding a modest two-game win streak and has been without leading scorer Franz Wagner (22.2 points per game) with an ankle injury since Jan. 18.

He was upgraded to questionable for Monday’s game and could return after missing the last nine games.

Paolo Banchero has picked up the scoring slack, as has Desmond Bane, who has averaged 21.8 points over his last five games and has made at least one three in his last 12.

Orlando trailed the Jazz by 17 points on Saturday night but rallied for a 120-117 win. Magic coach Jamahl Mosley pointed out plenty of mistakes made by his team afterwards, but said his team showed courage.

“You have to battle through adversity, I don’t care who you play, it’s a game of runs and how you handle that in a game,” Mosley said. “Down 17, you just go for those mini goals. We said let’s get it down to 10 (by the end of the third quarter) and we got it down to seven. Those are the small things guys can grab a hold of and not try to go for the home run but win the small battles.”

Monday will be the first meeting of Magic and Bucks this season. Orlando guard Jalen Suggs had a career-high 32 points against the Bucks when they met in December 2024. Milwaukee won three of four meetings last season.

–Field Level Media

The Sacramento Kings are looking to avoid setting an ignominious franchise record when they face the host New Orleans Pelicans on Monday evening.

With a 132-126 defeat to the Cleveland Cavaliers on Saturday night, the Kings lost their 12th straight game. That equals the mark held by the 1997-98 team for the most consecutive losses since the franchise moved from Kansas City to Sacramento ahead of the 1985-86 season.

Nique Clifford had a career-high 30 points on 12-of-19 shooting followed by Russell Westbrook with 21 points and nine assists, as Sacramento was without four of its leading scorers in Malik Monk, Zach LaVine, Domantas Sabonis and Keegan Murray. Clifford and Westbrook each made five 3-pointers.

“I got some good looks (Saturday), and my teammates were finding me, putting me in good positions to score the ball, and the shots were falling for me,” Clifford said.

The rookie first-round pick out of Colorado State is emblematic of coach Doug Christie’s pivot towards a youth movement as the Kings, who have made the playoffs just once in the last 19 seasons, attempt to alter their fate.

“The name of the game is to win the game, so that part hurts, but to watch these guys begin to find their way, find their rhythm and compete against some really good teams and put themselves consistently in position to win the ballgame (is encouraging),” Christie said. “Now, there’s a learning curve of how to do it, and it’s difficult. It’s difficult to win in our league.”

Second-year guard Devin Carter scored 18 points, and two-way player Daeqwon Plowden had 16 points, six rebounds and four assists. Rookie center Maxime Raynaud had 14 points and seven rebounds. Undrafted rookie Dylan Cardwell had a double-double off the bench with 12 points and 11 rebounds.

Monday night’s clash is the first of three games with the Pelicans this season and the only one in New Orleans.

Saddiq Bey had 30 points, including two free throws with 10.8 seconds left, and Zion Williamson added 29 points, highlighted by a critical three-point play with 35.5 seconds to play, as the Pelicans defeated the Minnesota Timberwolves 119-115 to end a three-game losing streak and conclude a 1-3 road trip.

Bey, who is averaging 16.7 points per game, has three 30-plus-point games so far in 2026 after he had none in the first three months of the season.

“In general, we followed and executed the gameplan, the task, especially defensively. … Our guys battled, got stops when we needed to,” New Orleans coach James Borrego said. “Saddiq made huge plays. … We understand we’re going to have to win clutch games to win games. We’re learning how to close.”

Trey Murphy III had 26 points and six rebounds, while Derik Queen had 17 points and eight rebounds in the win over the Timberwolves. A rookie center who had just 10 3-pointers on 47 attempts coming into the contest, Queen went 4-for-4 from beyond the arc.

The Pelicans shot 44.1% (15 for 34) from 3-point land in the game.

–Field Level Media