Tag: nytimes.com

OKLAHOMA CITY — It was all good just a week ago. On the final Friday of March, the Los Angeles Lakers were preparing to play their first home game after a successful six-game road trip. All-Star point guard Luka Dončić, who dominated during the trip as the Lakers won five of those games, was listed…

The Bounce Newsletter  | This is The Athletic’s daily NBA newsletter. Sign up here to receive The Bounce directly in your inbox. 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…

So begins the closing stretch of a long, strange NBA regular season. There’s been so much noise, from the federal indictments during opening week to supreme awkwardness on All-Star Weekend. But beautiful basketball has been here for those with open eyes and minds. Now is the time to tap back in as the playoffs pull…

WASHINGTON — An explanation for why Paul George is suddenly looking like his All-Star version self for the first time in a Philadelphia 76ers uniform is simple on the surface, but layered in context. George’s resurgence is tied to a left knee injury that has lingered for years — one that was connected to the…

In the second quarter of the Dallas Mavericks’ Feb. 7 road game against the San Antonio Spurs, Klay Thompson got hot. The future Hall of Fame shooting guard made a 3 from the right corner first and then another 3 from the left wing. He scored 14 points in fewer than four minutes. Amid that…

Before Jayson Tatum’s season debut on March 6, Sam Hauser laid out the difficulty his teammate would encounter. With barely more than a month left in the regular season, Hauser pointed out the Boston Celtics would have little time to rebuild chemistry with Tatum. As much as Hauser expected the process to work smoothly, he…

The NBA regular season is coming to an end, and we already know that 10 teams are booked for vacations in various locales. The other 20 teams are still in contention for the 2026 NBA championship. Sure, there will be a Play-In Tournament to eliminate four more teams. But this year’s potential field for the…

INDIANAPOLIS — Four minutes into the fourth quarter of the 73rd game of the season, down 20 points, Pascal Siakam gets into a defensive stance, swiping at and ultimately stealing the ball from the Los Angeles Lakers’ Austin Reaves. Siakam was approaching 2,000 minutes played this season. His Indiana Pacers, to this point of the…

OKLAHOMA CITY — There wasn’t much said to Luka Dončić as he limped out of the locker room late Thursday night. There wasn’t much, frankly, to say. The Los Angeles Lakers, facing their biggest test since they announced themselves as serious contenders with a 15-2 March record, had completely blown it. This wasn’t just them…

OKLAHOMA CITY — What was supposed to be an MVP-candidate showdown is on the verge of ending as badly as possible for the Los Angeles Lakers. LA is getting beaten badly, but much more importantly, Luka Dončić left the game midway through the third quarter after suffering a left hamstring injury. With the Lakers trailing…