Sports
NBA roundup: Pistons knock off Cavs, clinch winning season
Mar 28, 2025; Detroit, Michigan, USA; Detroit Pistons forward Tim Hardaway Jr. (8) celebrates in the second half against the Cleveland Cavaliers at Little Caesars Arena. Mandatory Credit: Rick Osentoski-Imagn Images Tim Hardaway Jr. had a season-high 32 points and the host Detroit Pistons clinched their first winning season in nine years by defeating the Eastern Conference-leading Cleveland Cavaliers 133-122 on Friday night.
The last time Detroit (42-32) posted a winning season was 2015-16 when it finished 44-38. The Pistons also snapped a 12-game losing streak against the Cavaliers. Detroit had not beaten Cleveland since Feb. 24, 2022.
Malik Beasley supplied 19 points, while Ausar Thompson had 18 points, 10 rebounds and four blocked shots. Dennis Schroder contributed 17 points, 10 assists and seven rebounds.
Donovan Mitchell carried the Cavaliers with 38 points. Darius Garland had 21. Pistons All-Star Cade Cunningham missed his third straight game due to a left calf contusion.
Clippers 132, Nets 100
Kawhi Leonard finished with 31 points, including 19 in the second quarter, as Los Angeles rolled to its seventh win in eight games with the victory over Brooklyn in New York.
Leonard, who also had six rebounds and four steals, scored 25 points in the first half, while Ivica Zubac added 21 points and 12 boards. James Harden had 17 points and six assists for the Clippers, who shot 55 percent from the field and outscored the Nets 79-42 in the second and third quarters.
Keon Johnson led Brooklyn with 13 points, while Cameron Johnson contributed 11. Brooklyn’s other three starters — Ziaire Williams, Nic Claxton and D’Angelo Russell — were held to a combined 17.
Raptors 108, Hornets 97
Jakob Poeltl scored 24 points and grabbed 12 rebounds to lead host Toronto past Charlotte for its third consecutive win.
Poeltl’s efficient 12-of-14 effort from the field pushed him to his 22nd double-double of the season. Immanuel Quickley scored 19 points on 6-of-15 shooting and had nine assists, while Scottie Barnes added 18 points, six rebounds and six assists.
Mark Williams led the Hornets with 18 points and 12 rebounds on a perfect 9-of-9 from the field. DaQuan Jeffries scored 15 points on 6-of-9 shooting as Charlotte took its fourth straight loss.
Knicks 116, Bucks 107
OG Anunoby had 31 points, Mikal Bridges added 26 and New York held on for a road win over Milwaukee.
Karl-Anthony Towns had 14 points and 10 rebounds for the Knicks, who have won three of the last four, and Josh Hart chipped in 13 points, 14 boards and eight assists.
Giannis Antetokounmpo led the Bucks with 30 points and nine rebounds, while Kyle Kuzma and Ryan Rollins each scored 20 points. Milwaukee has dropped three straight and four of its last six.
Nuggets 129, Jazz 93
Nikola Jokic had 27 points and 14 rebounds and Michael Porter Jr. scored 20 points as host Denver routed Utah.
Russell Westbrook had 17 points and Christian Braun contributed 16 for the Nuggets, who have won three of their past four games.
Collin Sexton scored 20 points to lead the Jazz, who have lost five in a row and 15 of 16. Kyle Filipowski finished with 18 points and 13 rebounds, and Keyonte George also scored 18 points.
Timberwolves 124, Suns 109
Julius Randle had 25 points, six rebounds and eight assists, and Minnesota pulled away for a win over Phoenix in Minneapolis.
Rudy Gobert notched 17 points and 12 rebounds for Minnesota, which completed a four-game sweep of the Suns during the regular season. Anthony Edwards finished with 20 points, and Jaden McDaniels scored 16.
Kevin Durant scored 23 points and grabbed six rebounds to lead Phoenix. Collin Gillespie had 22 points and 10 assists, and Royce O’Neale finished with 21 points off the bench.
Warriors 111, Pelicans 95
Stephen Curry overcame a slow start in his return from injury to score 23 points as visiting Golden State defeated New Orleans to snap a two-game skid.
Curry, who missed two games because of a pelvic contusion, scored just three points in the first quarter. But the Warriors gradually took control. Jimmy Butler III added 18 points and 10 rebounds for Golden State.
Bruce Brown scored 18 points and Yves Missi had 12 points and 10 boards for New Orleans, which was outscored 28-13 in the fourth quarter.
–Field Level Media
Sports
Knicks and Nuggets Blow Big Leads: What Went Wrong in Game 2?
Roughly 5,000 feet of elevation separate Denver and New York City.
Still, gravity works the same regardless of where one stands. Just ask the NBA teams in both towns.
“You get too high, and you get, I don’t want to say cocky, but feeling yourself,” Nuggets guard Tim Hardaway Jr. said.
That sensation went south on either side of the country Monday night.
After squandering sizable leads that would have cemented commanding 2-0 advantages in their respective first-round playoff series, the Nuggets and Knicks now find themselves bracing for a fight.
Should their opponents ultimately have their number, Denver and New York will look back with disdain on 19 and 14. Those were the Game 2 cushions the teams coughed up as the No. 3 seeds in the Eastern and Western Conference.
“It’s a game we should’ve won,” Knicks guard Josh Hart said. “In the playoffs, we can’t give away games.”
Be that as it may, the Knicks did just that against the Atlanta Hawks. They controlled the outcome for much of the night and took a 12-point edge into the fourth quarter after leading by as many as 14.
Then New York shot 5-for-22 from the floor in the final 12 minutes compared to 10-for-15 for Atlanta. Fighting through vulgar chants from the Madison Square Garden faithful, Hawks star CJ McCullom scored six straight points down the stretch during one key sequence on the way to a game-high 32.
“In that fourth quarter, you could tell [the Hawks] were playing with a level of desperation,” Knicks coach Mike Brown said. “There were four 50-50 balls, and they got three of the four. We always use that stat to gauge the level of aggression in a game. In that fourth quarter, their aggression stepped up.”
New York’s melted at the same time. How many late possessions saw the Knicks pass or hold the ball around the perimeter before settling for subpar looks from 3-point range? The Knicks went 3-for-11 from deep as part of their flop.
Denver led the Minnesota Timberwolves by 19 points early in the second quarter before crumbling. The Nuggets still were ahead by three points to start the fourth quarter but a combined 2-for-12 shooting effort from pillars Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray in the final 12 minutes took a toll.
“I feel like we had the game in hand, and then we just didn’t make our shots,” Murray said.
As with the Knicks and Hawks, the reversal of fortunes stemmed both from the hosts’ miscues and an outstanding effort from a visiting player, as Minnesota’s Anthony Edwards had 30 points.
“Great leadership, positive,” Timberwolves coach Chris Finch said. “He recognized he needed to get into attack mode and get downhill a little bit more. He did that.”
The Knicks and Nuggets no doubt sensed the need to amp up their own urgency as things started slipping away Monday.
That neither could act upon it didn’t signal the end for either New York or Denver, of course. But now there’s unnecessary added weight for the climb back to the top.
Sports
Pistons seek return to identity vs. Magic after Game 1 shocker
Apr 19, 2026; Detroit, Michigan, USA; Detroit Pistons forward Tobias Harris (12) is defended by Orlando Magic guard Desmond Bane (3) in the second half during the 2026 NBA Playoffs at Little Caesars Arena. Mandatory Credit: Rick Osentoski-Imagn Images After an exceptional regular season, this wasn’t the start to the NBA playoffs that the Detroit Pistons envisioned.
Reeling from a stunning Game 1 loss in which only two players reached double figures, the Eastern Conference’s top seed heads into Game 2 Wednesday against the visiting Orlando Magic facing early pressure to reset the best-of-seven series.
The eighth-seeded Magic controlled the opener from the start, never trailing and leaning on a balanced offensive attack. Paolo Banchero led the way with 23 points while Franz Wagner scored 11 of his 19 in the fourth quarter to help close out the 112-101 win.
For Detroit, the issue wasn’t just the loss — it was how it happened. The Pistons never established their defensive identity and struggled to find consistent offense beyond star guard Cade Cunningham, two areas that will be central entering Game 2.
“It starts, always, with us defensively,” said Pistons coach J.B. Bickerstaff. “When you go back and watch the film of that (game), we weren’t ourselves defensively. The telling tale is typically when we play them, they go to the free-throw line a ton.
“… We went 38 (times) but they went 19. So that means we weren’t playing our brand of basketball, being physical, being handsy, being aggressive. That kind of sets the tone for us.”
Offensively, the Pistons leaned on Cunningham, who scored 39 points, but got little other support — scoring their fewest points in nearly three months, since a loss to the Phoenix Suns on Jan. 29. Detroit will need more help from All-Star center Jalen Duren, who was held to just eight points and seven rebounds in Game 1.
“They came out ready from the jump,” Duren said. “We didn’t really meet their intensity. They’ve been playing with their backs against the walls the last few weeks, so they were already kind of already rolling. I think we just got to do a better job meeting that intensity.”
Duren said the Pistons remain confident despite the loss, which extended their home playoff losing streak to 11 games, the longest in NBA history.
“We know the type of team we are,” Duren said. “We feel like we’re the better team. We know that we’ve just got to make adjustments and come out smarter, come out playing harder.”
Orlando coach Jamahl Mosley said he has talked to his team about not becoming too overconfident coming off Sunday’s win.
“It’s one game at a time,” Mosley said of his message to the team. “It’s the reality that, yeah, you did get the Game 1 win, but now you have to go and figure out how to get a Game 2 (win). There’s going to be, obviously, the positive talk about what you’ve done, and thinking there’s reasons to celebrate, but at the end of the day, it’s one game, and that’s the most important piece that we’ve talked about: just taking it one game at a time.”
Banchero said the team has received the message, and he believes the key for the Magic is to play defense like they did in the opener.
“I thought we were on a string, just communicating, talking out coverages,” Banchero said. “I think it’s just going to continue to take that, being aggressive, being the aggressors on defense and just not trying to give them much. Obviously they’re going to make shots, but just not trying to give them any free looks.”
–Field Level Media
Sports
Lynx star Napheesa Collier (ankle) targets June for on-court work
Mar 2, 2026; Brooklyn, NY, USA; Unrivaled Co-founder Napheesa Collier at Barclay’s Center. Mandatory Credit: Wendell Cruz-Imagn Images The Minnesota Lynx said Tuesday that star forward Napheesa Collier’s rehab from left ankle surgery is “progressing as expected,” and she could resume on-court activities in early June.
The team plans to release updates on Collier’s progress when available.
The timeline means Collier will miss, at minimum, the first month of the WNBA season, which begins May 10 for the Lynx.
Collier underwent surgery on her ankle on March 24 after sustaining a severe injury during the 2025 playoffs. Per reports at the time, she sustained a Grade 2 tear of three ligaments in the ankle and a muscle in her left shin on a collision during Game 3 of the playoff semifinal series vs. Phoenix.
Collier, 29, averaged a career-high 22.9 points and shot 40.3% from 3-point range to go with 7.3 rebounds, 3.2 assists, 1.6 steals and 1.5 blocks per game last year. The back-to-back WNBA Most Valuable Player runner-up, Collier is a five-time All-Star and earned MVP honors in the 2024 Commissioner’s Cup final and the 2025 All-Star Game.
–Field Level Media
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