Towns carries Timberwolves past Curry-less Warriors, 119-99

Luka Doncic, over the weekend, eviscerated the NBA's best team -- and he did it with a smile. Time and again, he read the Phoenix Suns' defense from the top of the floor, waited for it to commit itself to a course of action, then leveraged that strategy against it. To the Dallas Mavericks and their fans, Doncic is a savior. To the league, he's a global ambassador. But to those charged with beating him in a seven-game series, he's an enormous, 6-foot-7 problem.

SAN FRANCISCO -- For the second time this postseason, the NBA has fined the Dallas Mavericks for violating rules regarding bench decorum. The league office announced a $50,000 fine on Wednesday for violations that occurred during Sunday's 123-90 Game 7 rout of the Suns at Phoenix's Footprint Center. A statement...

MIAMI -- — Jimmy Butler doesn’t like being a called a scorer. Never mind that the moniker seems appropriate. He’s averaging nearly 30 points per game in this postseason, has reached the 40-point mark three times in his last 10 games after having zero such regular season games since 2017, and carried the Miami Heat over the Boston Celtics in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals.

SAN FRANCISCO -- Something has dawned on Stephen Curry as the Golden State Warriors stage their first legitimate title quest in nearly three years: He's now the old guy. "When I look at some of those guys, you're reminded of how young they are," Curry said, contemplating the NBA's starscape while the Warriors prepared for the Mavericks' arrival in San Francisco. "Jayson Tatum is 24. Luka [Doncic] is 23. Ja [Morant] was 22. That's the only part where you're just like, 'Hell, they're really that young.' You're thinking about what you were doing at that age, trying to come into this scene and [play] playoff basketball."

Milwaukee Bucks assistant coach Darvin Ham and former Portland Trail Blazers coach Terry Stotts are among the candidates who have advanced to the final round of interviews for the Los Angeles Lakers' coaching job, sources told ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski on Friday. Stotts, who coached the Trail Blazers from 2012 to...

UNCASVILLE, Conn. --  Yvonne Anderson understood that making a WNBA roster as an undrafted rookie was going to be tough and getting that chance a decade after she left college would be even tougher. But the former Texas standout, now 32, was invited to camp this spring by the...

The defending WNBA champion Chicago Sky now have a key member back from their 2021 title team. Guard/forward Kahleah Copper, the WNBA Finals MVP last year, has been activated after returning from overseas play. The Sky have started the season 2-2, and Copper will be available for Chicago's matchup at...

KIGALI, RWANDA -- Six years after an unceremonious end to his time with the New York Knicks, 31-year-old small forward Cleanthony Early is in his element with the Cape Town Tigers at the Basketball Africa League. Flown in ahead of the BAL playoffs in Rwanda, as a replacement for the...

The Mountain West Conference will eliminate its divisions in football starting in 2023, pitting the two teams with the highest winning percentages against each other in its conference championship game, the league announced Friday. The MWC followed the Pac-12 this week in its move to scrap divisions after the NCAA...

After the completion of the NBA play-in tournament, we knew the 14 lottery-bound teams for the 2022 NBA draft. Now, after Tuesday's lottery drawing, we know which order they'll be drafting in. The top three teams on the board and worst three teams in the league this season -- the...

MIAMI -- The Boston Celtics are a team of long-distance runners. For years, former Celtics president Danny Ainge employed a consultant that would identify draft picks and free agents' "brain types" under the belief that certain personality traits made for better players. Ainge and that system are gone, but the Celtics -- be it by meticulous scouting, good fortune or, more likely, a mix of both -- have a collective personality type.

If she's being honest -- something Candace Parker makes a point of doing these days -- there were plenty of moments after the Chicago Sky (at Washington Mystics, Sunday, 3 p.m. ET, ABC) won the WNBA Championship last fall when she considered retiring. Parker's wife, Anya Petrakova Parker, was pregnant...