Deandre Ayton earns 1st career Player of the Week honor after Suns go 3-0

On Thursday night, the NBA announced the starters for each conference in the NBA All-Star Game. In the East, the starters will be Giannis Antetokounmpo (the Captain), Jayson Tatum, Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving, and Donovan Mitchell. Meanwhile, in the West, the starters are LeBron James (the Captain), ...

PHOENIX — The Phoenix Suns just got back to winning, so a fairly clinical victory in the middle of a streak was a once familiar feeling that was now foreign. Even in their shorthanded state, the Suns were able to take care of business against a reeling Charlotte Hornets club Tuesday in a 128-97 win.

The Phoenix Suns will once again be without center Deandre Ayton on Tuesday when they host the Charlotte Hornets at Footprint Center, the team announced. Ayton had been upgraded to doubtful Tuesday morning, but will now miss his third straight game due to a non-COVID illness. The center joins All-Star...

Phoenix Suns guard Devin Booker will remain sidelined for the next week but continues to progress in his recovery from a groin injury, the team said. Booker, who on Wednesday went through light shooting work after practice, will be reevaluated in a week, which will push his absence beyond a month.

Phoenix Suns center Deandre Ayton played a bizarre game on Thursday night in the 99-94 loss to the Dallas Mavericks. The center scored 19 points and secured 20 rebounds, but he shot 6-for-20 from the field and had multiple lapses in focus throughout the game that allowed the Mavericks to either snag an easy bucket in crunch time or grab offensive or defensive rebounds. He added two assists and two blocks.

Welcome back Cam Johnson. After missing 37 games due to a meniscus tear in his right knee, the Phoenix Suns wing came out on fire in just his third game and second start since Nov. 4 on Tuesday night. In the first seven minutes of the first quarter alone, Johnson...

Eleven teams in the NBA’s Western Conference, spanning the No. 3 through No. 13 seeds, are within a five-game range of one another. It’s a wild fight for playoff seeding, where any of those 11 teams could hit April hunting for homecourt advantage in the first round, hoping to avoid the play-in tournament or more desperately seeing that quick-elimination tournament as the best-case scenario.

LeBron James is closing in on Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s NBA career scoring record. And now, he has caught Abdul-Jabbar on another page of the All-Star record book. James was announced Thursday as an NBA All-Star for the 19th time, the Los Angeles Lakers’ star tying Abdul-Jabbar for the most selections in league history. James — the leading overall vote-getter — will be the captain of one of the teams for the Feb. 19 All-Star Game in Salt Lake City, while Eastern Conference voting leader Giannis Antetokounmpo of the Milwaukee Bucks will captain the other side.

Dallas Mavericks All-Star Luka Doncic left Thursday’s game against the Phoenix Suns early after rolling his ankle. Doncic was pivoting down low when he stepped on Suns forward Mikal Bridges’ foot and turned his left ankle in the first quarter. He limped back on defense before coming out and heading to the locker room alongside Mavs director of player health and performance Casey Smith.

Arizona Cardinals general manager Monti Ossenfort and Arizona Wildcats football head coach Jedd Fisch go back over 20 years. The duo first met ahead of the Houston Texans’ inaugural season in 2002 when Ossenfort was a pro personnel intern and Fisch was a defensive quality control coach. And even...

Arizona State men’s basketball head coach Bobby Hurley is well-known for his outbursts directed at officials on the sideline during games, and he admittedly used to take that same energy into the locker room following tough losses, such as those like the one on Saturday against USC. Hurley told...

The Arizona Coyotes are hosting the third annual Skatin’ for Leighton at Sun Devil Stadium on Sunday. Presented by Phoenix Children’s, the event honors the life of Coyotes ring of honor member Leighton Accardo, who passed away in 2020 after a battle with cancer. It also raises money for youth female hockey in the Valley as part of the Leighton Accardo Foundation.

Mat Ishbia’s purchase of the Phoenix Suns is expected to be finalized and official before the Feb. 9 NBA trade deadline, reports ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski and Baxter Holmes. Ishbia, a billionaire mortgage lender, agreed to buy the Suns and the WNBA’s Phoenix Mercury from Sarver in December, but...

Phoenix Suns All-Star shooting guard Devin Booker is a man of the people. And prior to Tuesday night’s game against the Charlotte Hornets, the NBA 2K23 cover boy surprised 17-year-old Make-A-Wish Arizona kid Breanna Amado and her family with a hug and meet-and-greet session. Amado was battling leukemia a...

CBS broadcasting legend Jim Nantz offered a touching tribute to Billy Packer after the longtime Final Four basketball analyst died Thursday night at the age of 82. "I think Billy will go down in history as one of the greatest analysts in the history of sports television," Nantz remarked during an appearance on "CBS Mornings," per the Barrett Sports Media website. "I think that when you look at the pantheon of great analysts, you’ve got John Madden and you’ve got Billy Packer. You start right there. He blessed this network for a long time, from 1982 to 2008. One of my dearest friends. It’s been a restless night thinking of the Packer family, which I’m very close to. I got to speak to Billy the day before he died, and tell him I loved him."

The Arizona Diamondbacks were one of two teams in Major League Baseball with three prospects in the top 15 of MLB Pipeline’s top 100 prospects list for 2023, which came out Thursday night. Outfielder Corbin Carroll, who finished the 2022 season at No. 3, jumped up to No. 2...

TEMPE, Ariz. (AP) — Troy Terry saw his teammate go down, the referee’s hand go up for a major penalty and kept skating. Using some nifty stickhandling, he weaved around a defender and scored before the offending Arizona player could be sent to the penalty box. Cam Fowler...

Former Arizona Cardinals, Los Angeles Chargers and Lions linebacker Jessie Lemonier has died at the age of 25, Detroit announced Thursday. The cause of death was not given. “We are shocked and saddened to learn of the passing of Detroit Lion Jessie Lemonier,” the Lions said in a statement. “Jessie was a model teammate and wonderful young man who is gone far too soon.

Non-quarterback-needy teams atop the 2023 NFL Draft might quibble between one another if they’re discussing whether they place defensive tackle Jalen Carter or edge rusher Will Anderson Jr. atop their big boards. But if the first two draft picks aren’t traded, there’s a solid chance the Arizona Cardinals don’t...