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Tonight, we have the women’s Final Four, with Connecticut playing South Carolina (7 ET) and Texas facing UCLA (9:30), setting the stage for Sunday’s championship game. Tomorrow night, we have the men’s Final Four, with Illinois taking on Connecticut (6:09) and Michigan playing Arizona (8:49) ahead of Monday’s title game. It’s a great weekend for April Madness!
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Ineligibility crisis
The 65-game rule looks even dumber now
How’s the NBA awards race going? Well …
- The Pistons announced yesterday that star Cade Cunningham, who has missed the last nine games with a collapsed lung, will be re-evaluated in a week. That means Cunningham has a maximum of two more games he can play this regular season — if he comes back when the re-evaluation happens. Cunningham would max out at 62 games (that count under the 20-minute threshold to qualify), eliminating him from eligibility for All-NBA and other awards under the league’s 65-game minimum rule.
- Anthony Edwards missed the Timberwolves’ game in Detroit last night with an illness. He’s played in 59 games, and Minnesota has six games remaining. But in the third game of the season against the Pacers, Edwards left with hamstring tightness after playing a little over three minutes. He’s also no longer eligible for All-NBA and other awards.
- Also last night, Luka Dončić exited the Lakers’ loss to the Thunder with a hamstring injury after playing 26 minutes. That was his 64th game this season. If he can’t play again in the next 10 days, he’ll be ineligible too.
- Victor Wembanyama and Nikola Jokić can each only miss one more game the rest of the season to remain eligible for awards like MVP, All-NBA and, in Wemby’s case, Defensive Player of the Year and All-Defense. Deni Avdija can miss one more game to remain eligible for All-NBA and Most Improved Player. Tyrese Maxey needs to play in two more games and Kawhi Leonard in four more to be eligible for the awards.
Edwards and Cunningham would have easily made All-NBA without the 65-game rule. Between the 2015-16 season and when the rule was instituted in 2023-24, 16 players logged 64 games or fewer and still earned All-NBA honors. That’s not counting the 2019-20 or 2020-21 pandemic-shortened seasons. Sixty players in league history have made All-NBA in non-truncated seasons despite playing 64 or fewer games.
NBA commissioner Adam Silver addressed the 65-game rule criticismafter last week’s Board of Governors meeting and said it was only affecting one player (Cunningham). He might want to check his math regarding this stupid rule
The last 24
🏀 Gap year. After making Game 7 of the 2025 NBA Finals, the Pacers are 18-58. David Aldridge takes an inside look at Indiana’s humbling season.
🎣 Big fish? The Mavericks are looking for a marquee name to be their next GM. Can they reel one in?
🚚 Get moving? Draymond Green has said the Grizzlies should move to Nashville. LeBron James agrees with him.
🏆 Get defensive. Perimeter defense is nearly impossible to play these days. Fred Katz is rewarding the best at it.
👽 Bon chance! Artemis II astronauts took off yesterday on a new moon mission. Wemby wished them good luck.
🏀 Playoffs? If the playoffs started today … we’d all be very confused.But these would be the matchups!
Stream the NBA on Fubo (try it for free!) and catch out-of-market games on League Pas
About last night
Thunder put a big hurt on the Lakers
Thunder 139, Lakers 96: This was a bludgeoning! From the start. In what was supposed to be a showdown of two of the hottest teams in the NBA, the Thunder reminded the Lakers that there are levels to this contention thing. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander had a game-high 28 points, and, as noted above, the Lakers got a big scare with Luka’s hamstring injury. The Thunder were up 35 in the second quarter and led by as many as 46. They also had 32 fast-break points.
Pistons 113, Wolves 108: Jalen Duren had 22 points and 14 rebounds. Daniss Jenkins led the Pistons with 26 points. And Detroit improved to 8-2 since Cunningham went down with the collapsed lung (counting the game he left early). The Pistons’ magic number for securing the No. 1 seed in the East is one.
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Spurs 118, Clippers 99: De’Aaron Fox had 22 points, Stephon Castle had 20 and Dylan Harper added 19 off the bench. That was enough to overcome 24 points from Kawhi Leonard, as the Spurs shut down the Clippers, even though Wemby did not play. This dropped LA (39-38) to ninth in the West.
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Hornets 127, Suns 107: LaMelo Ball had 15 points, 11 assists and zero turnovers, and Kon Knueppel put in 20 points. The Hornets (41-36) are now half a game ahead of Orlando and a full game ahead of Miami for eighth in the East. They’re a game and a half behind Philadelphia and Toronto for sixth.
Cavs 118, Warriors 111: Donovan Mitchell (25), Max Strus (24) and James Harden (19) outdueled Brandon Podziemski (25), Gui Santos (25) and Kristaps Porziņģis (16). Why was this game so close? The Cavs gave up 50 points in the paint and 23 points off 15 turnovers. Cleveland (48-29) is a game behind the Knicks for third in the East.
Blazers 118, Pelicans 106: Technically, not a Dunk Tank game, because the Pelicans do not benefit from tanking since they don’t own their draft pick. They’re just bad! Jrue Holiday (27), Avdija (26) and Toumani Camara combined for 76 points to move Portland (40-38) a half game ahead of the Clippers for eighth in the West.
Let’s head to the Dunk Tank!
There weren’t any games for the Dunk Tank last night, but the Washington Wizards find themselves there anyway. On a day they didn’t play. Why? They were one of many teams to do some hacky April Fool’s stuff during their games. I might just be an April Fool’s Day Grinch or something, but it’s truly one of the least creative and least funny days of the year.
The Wizards had a “fan” shoot a half-court shot blindfolded, and he missed because of course he did. They had the arena pretend like he made the shot, and the video went viral. It wasn’t real, though. Not that it was some stupid AI video — this was all rehearsed. A good rule of thumb is, whenever there’s some in-arena entertainment that involves purposefully embarrassing “a fan,” you can bet that’s an employee or a paid actor.
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Because this video went viral, for some reason the Wizards felt the need to issue a public mea culpa:
“We apologize for last night’s April Fools’ joke that left many wondering if we had misled a fan. The skit involving our mascot and other members of our performance team was scripted and intended to celebrate the day. All participants were in on the joke, but we missed the mark. Our fans are our priority, and we continue to be committed to providing a positive experience to all who attend our games.”
Why are you apologizing? That’s so unnecessary. Is that part of the April Fool’s joke too? Is this some performance-art apology I’m just too dumb to get? The team is 17-59, and in its last two seasons has had the lowest net ratings (minus-11.4 and minus-12.2) since the 7-59 Charlotte Bobcats in 2011-12 (minus-15.0). I’m not sure you’re that committed to providing a positive experience just yet. That’s a Tank score of 10/10 on a day you didn’t even play.
Expansion draft!
All about the WNBA’s big dispersal day
The WNBA season tips off on May 8. This season, the league is adding the Portland Fire and the Toronto Tempo as the 14th and 15th teams. Those two squads need players, and the WNBA expansion draft happens today at 3:30 p.m. ET on ESPN. I couldn’t think of anybody better to break down what to expect from this draft than The Athletic’s Sabreena Merchant. Here’s our Q&A!
Bounce: We just had an expansion draft for the Golden State Valkyries last year. Was their successful first season mostly due to that draft?
Sabreena: Golden State found an All-Star and the most improved player in the expansion draft, capitalizing on undervalued players on deeper rosters. But the key to their success was likely the culture established by coach of the year Natalie Nakase, who came over from Las Vegas after winning two titles with the Aces.
Bounce: Who are the biggest and best players expected to be available?
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Sabreena: We can’t know for sure because teams weren’t required to make their protected lists public, but the best player I expect to be available is Arike Ogunbowale. Dallas is building around Paige Bueckers, and that could mean moving on from the four-time All-Star. Here’s my full list of the 15 top available expansion pickups.
Bounce: With two teams drafting now, is it reasonable to expect a Valkyries level of success right away from either Portland or Toronto?
Sabreena: The addition of two teams is going to make the dispersal of talent a little bit more complicated, and it’ll be harder to build a competitive roster, especially because the playoff field is still only eight teams. The expansion teams will have an easier path in free agency because more than 100 veterans are unrestricted, but I’m not sure either team will want to be competitive right away. The 2027 draft should be incredible, headlined by Texas’ Madison Booker, Notre Dame’s Hannah Hidalgo and maybe USC’s JuJu Watkins. Both Portland and Toronto could decide to stealth tank for a season before getting a franchise cornerstone in next year’s draft.