Sports
Skidding, short-handed teams clash as Grizzlies face Mavericks
Feb 25, 2026; Memphis, Tennessee, USA; Memphis Grizzlies forward Taylor Hendricks (22) dunks as Golden State Warriors center Quinten Post (21) defends during the fourth quarter at FedExForum. Mandatory Credit: Petre Thomas-Imagn Images With a little more than a month left in the season, the Memphis Grizzlies are doing their best to persevere as their best players remain on the mend and the losses mount.
Star guard Ja Morant will miss his 16th consecutive game when the Grizzlies visit the Dallas Mavericks on Friday night. Morant has been sidelined with a left elbow injury and hasn’t been on the floor since Jan. 21.
Big man Zach Edey remains out with an ankle issue, and rookie Cedric Coward hasn’t played since the All-Star break because of a knee injury.
The situation has left the Grizzlies scrambling to assemble a cohesive unit. And the loss of Edey — in addition to recent trades of 6-foot-10 Jaren Jackson Jr. and 6-11 Jock Landale — has rendered the Grizzlies ineffective on the boards as well.
After being outrebounded 48-34 in a 133-112 home loss to the Golden State Warriors on Wednesday, the Grizzlies have been outrebounded 150-106 in their past three games, all losses.
Memphis has lost seven of its past eight games, and the disparity on the glass has been a factor.
“Absolutely,” Grizzlies coach Tuomas Iisalo said. “With the size disadvantage that we have, we have to be able to have some friction on the ball, some ball pressure and not allow the offense to get to the spots where they want to get the ball.
“We’ve given up way too easily (in the past three games). There’s no primary rim protector, and we have very little secondary rim protection right now that will erase those mistakes.”
The Grizzlies made a move on Thursday to address the situation by signing 40-year-old free agent forward/center Taj Gibson to a two-year deal. Gibson, a 16-year NBA veteran who has appeared in 1,002 games, is 6-foot-9.
His most recent NBA action was 37 games last season for the Charlotte Hornets, when he averaged 2.9 points and 3.2 rebounds.
Taylor Hendricks, a recent trade acquisition from the Utah Jazz, saw significant time at center — not his natural position — on Wednesday and finished with 14 points and six rebounds.
“He was in a tough situation (against Golden State),” Iisalo said. “(Kyle) Anderson was a late scratch for the game. Taylor went into a new position after being with the team very little time. I thought he did a good job for not having practiced there once.”
Dallas has encountered its share of injury issues, too. Rookie of the Year candidate Cooper Flagg missed the past five games because of a foot sprain and likely won’t play against Memphis. The Mavericks, who will be playing the second game of a back-to-back set, have dropped 11 of their past 13 contests.
Dallas fell 130-121 to the visiting Sacramento Kings on Thursday despite Naji Marshall logging a season-high 36 points to go with 10 rebounds and six assists. Khris Middleton chipping in with 17 points.
Brandon Williams added 16 points and four assists off the bench. On Tuesday, Williams scored 19 points and added 10 assists in a road win over the Brooklyn Nets.
“I think you can see that (Brandon has) turned the corner of being able to play-make for others,” Dallas coach Jason Kidd said. “(He’s) using his speed to get into the paint and not always looking to score but making plays for others.
“He’s made some big shots for us, and I thought he played some pretty good defense, too. I think you can see he’s getting comfortable running the team.”
–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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