For some reason, the Knicks have decided to play down to the level of their opponents.

Nearly lost in Indianapolis. Damningly close to dropping one to a G League-like Warriors. Will it finally happen when the Pacers visit MSG on Tuesday?

Here’s what the protagonists had to say, including Steve Kerr.

Mike Brown

On whether he will change the starting lineup before or for the playoffs:

“Right now I don’t feel the need to. But like I said, if I felt the need to, I would. I don’t feel the need to right now.

“It’s not too late to do anything. And if I feel the need, I will. I’m not thinking that right now. I’m not concentrating on each individual because, like you said, we’ve started different people at different times.”

On demanding better starts despite the recent wins:

“We have to figure out individually, collectively, how we can start games better…. I’m not talking about the outcome, win or loss, I’m talking about the start of the game. (We need to start games) with a level of focus, a level of physicality, so that they’re feeling us to start the game. This group knows it. They understand it. Now we’ve just gotta go do it.”

On Mikal Bridges’ overall impact on the game:

“It’s no secret Mikal has not shot the ball well. But he’s given us life at times, and he’s given us life at the right time at times. I thought he was fantastic in Indiana. On both ends of the floor. So it’s not just Mikal. It’s us collectively as a group.”

On expecting more from the team despite the strong defensive numbers:

“I’m sitting here bitching about this and somebody told me from the first of January on, we had the No. 1 defense in the league. Something like that. We can play better. I know for myself and every man in that locker room, every person in that locker room, expects more. And somehow, someway, we got to figure it out.”

On Steve Kerr’s pregame warning text:

“Steve texted me and he said he came up with some killer plays that were going to make us spin backwards and forward. I believe him. Situations like this, we faced it in Utah. We faced it to a certain degree in Indiana. They’re tough. But if you expect to be who you think you are at the end of the day, you will approach this in a business-like manner.”

On not skipping details against undermanned teams:

“The biggest thing is making sure you don’t skip any details. I think in games like this, the details or the small things are huge. And playing with a sense of urgency while making them feel you on both ends of the floor — that doesn’t mean going out and blowing them out, but if you’re lackadaisical at any point in the game for any stretch, they’re NBA players. A lot of these guys are hungry and some of them have proven that they belong on this level and in a pretty good spot in terms of a rotation. If you relax at any moment in time and they see one, two, three go in, like the guys did in Utah, it can be a climb back up the hill to get back in the game.”

On road trip fatigue not being an excuse:

“I think every game can be challenging for a lot of different reasons. Mainly, all teams are in the NBA, and they’re here for a reason. That stuff’s above my head. A lot of times they say, ‘it’s because of your clock’ or whatever. You win some, you lose some, and I don’t see rhyme or reason for it.”

On prioritizing playing the right way over seeding:

“It’s tricky because let’s say we were in second, and we were a game in front of somebody. Are we just gonna play better because of that? I hope at this point of the season we’re playing the right way regardless of seeding, and sometimes, you’ll lose while playing the right way, but you’re playing the right way all the time—not just to try to catch Boston. That’s part of the equation, but that’s not the end-all, be-all.

“I want us to play the right way because it’s time to do that. We’re going into the playoffs. Play the right way. Again, you’ll lose sometimes playing the right way, but you want to go into the playoffs doing this, not just with your play but with your confidence or your belief, and so I think that’s just as much of it as opposed to — hey let’s find a way to win just to catch these guys. No, no: handle all the small details, embrace the details, embrace the journey. All that stuff and go get a win. So there are a lot of factors, not just those guys are ahead of us by a game-and-a-half and the guys are behind us by two games.”

Josh Hart

On the possibility of the NBA reducing the 82-game schedule:

“I probably be retired before that happens. So I don’t care. Nah, do I think it will be probably be better for the game and the quality on the court? I think so. Do I think it will happen? Probably not because everybody is so money-hungry and money-driven. I think everybody puts that above everything else.”

On the need for respecting undermanned opponents:

“At the end of the day, you got to respect everybody. And if you’re in a situation like this against a team without its starters, you never want to play with a game or anything like that because you’ll never what’ll happen at the end of a game. You don’t want to put yourself in that position for someone to make a shot, someone to miss a shot or a ref to call a call you don’t agree with. So we got to approach this like any other game. And if that’s the case, then we should handle business early and it should be a game where everybody gets to play. But these guys are good. They’re in the NBA for a reason.”

On his knee soreness leaving him out of two games of late:

“It was just a play in the Laker game where I did my normal fastbreak finish, but just the landing on it kind of irritated it. So I think that kind of flared it up.”

On whether the knee will linger:

“I hope not. We’ll see. Time will tell.”

On not making excuses based on the injury:

“Ehh. I was out there. If I’m out there and able to play, there’s no excuses.”

Karl-Anthony Towns

On avoiding slow starts:

“Don’t play like that. I think it’s pretty simple.”

On Brown’s frustration even after the win:

“Yeah, he was frustrated. Obviously, the win’s everything, but we don’t want to win games like that, especially this late in the year when we should have better standards and a better execution in playing. I understand it.”

On Jordan Clarkson’s impact off the bench:

“Special. The stats don’t lie. One of the best players coming off the bench in NBA history. He does one thing better than almost anybody in the league, and that’s put the ball in the basket. When he’s doing that, he’s playing with that fire and that passion he has; there’s not many players in the NBA coming off the bench you feel better about.”

On the Dominican Republic’s elimination from the WBC at the hands of the USA:

“Hell yeah, that was a ball, man! That was some bulls**t. They should have had a chance. They had Tatis Jr. coming up. Come on, man.”

Jalen Brunson

On the need to avoid playing catch-up every damn game:

“If we play better from the start, we don’t have to play catch-up. It’s definitely something that we need to get better at and it has to be our focus.”

Steve Kerr

On shortening the NBA season:

“I’m willing to stick my neck out and say I’m all for that because I think the quality of the product is the most important thing.”

On managing player workloads:

“In talking to performance people, looking at the data, hearing the experts in our own group talk about the load that these guys are facing and then you get older players like Steph or Al or Jimmy – we have to manage them through 82 games. So there are nights where you just have to say, can’t play this guy. I get emails all the time from fans saying ‘I spent $2,000 on tickets to go to this game and Steph didn’t play.’ And it wasn’t an injury designation and I held him out. Shouldn’t we reconcile that somehow? Maybe it’s stretching the season out a little bit. If you can’t give up 10 games, can you extend the season by two weeks and give players more time in between games? I don’t know. I know there’s no guarantee that players are going to be out there every night, but I know that we have enough issues all clumped together that if we put our heads together – we’ve got a lot of really smart people in this league. I think we can address a lot of them and satisfy the fans, the owners, the TV partners. I believe that’s possible. Maybe I’m naïve. But I think it’s important to put it out there just for discussion and see where it goes.”

On advocating for a shorter season:

“I’m just saying what I see with all the injuries. The soft tissue injuries. I see all the data about how fast the guys are running, how much distance guys are covering now compared to 20-30 years ago. I see all the injuries, the tanking. I see everything. I’ve been in the league a long time. I’m well aware fewer games would mean less revenue, which means everybody takes a pay cut, and I’m willing to stick my neck out and say I’m all for that because I think the quality of the product is the most important thing. So I don’t say these things flippantly. I say these things because I mean them. I think there’s a meaningful discussion to be had, and I love the league, I’ve loved the NBA my whole life. My whole adult life has been spent in the NBA in some form and it’s an amazing league. We have incredible people in this league and great fans. I just want to make sure we give our fans the very, very best product we can and try to satisfy all of our corporate partners, and I just think there’s probably a way to do that without just completely ignoring some of the obvious issues we’ve established.”

We are down to the final month of the 2025-26 NBA regular season.

No NBA team has more than 16 games remaining, as the races for seeding tighten up. And there’s still a possibility for some upheaval at the top of both the Eastern and Western Conferences; the Boston Celtics are only 4 games back of the Detroit Pistons in the East, while the San Antonio Spurs trail the Oklahoma City Thunder by just 3 ½ games.

And, as has been the case for a couple of months now, there’s also a race to the bottom, with tanking teams in the bottom third of this list looking to improve their draft positioning.

Here are USA TODAY Sports’ NBA power rankings after Week 19 of the 2025-26 regular season:

Given that LeBron James has played more basketball season that any other player you’d think he was done with firsts in his career.

However, he gave us all a new one in LA’s matchup against the Nuggets.

In the fourth quarter, LeBron dove on the floor, fully extending his body and going airborne to try and gain possession for his team. The play didn’t ultimately lead to the Lakers having the possession as they lost the jump ball, but it did make it clear that this level of hustle was the standard for everyone donning a purple and gold uniform.

The Lakers were pushed to the brink by the Nuggets but they came out on top winning 127-125 in overtime. The victory not only gave them their first season series win over Denver since 2021, but it also meant that they’ll have the tiebreaker over them in playoff seeding.

Considering how tight the Western Conference race is, that’s a big deal and a huge advantage the Lakers now have.

After the win, Lakers head coach JJ Redick spoke about his oldest player making such a shocking dive during clutch time.

“I told him after the game, I said, ‘In 23 years of watching you play in the NBA and the three years I watched him play in high school, I never saw him make a full-out extension dive like that,’ Redick said. “He said, ‘You’re right. I’ve never done that.’ It’s awesome. I know he’ll feel that tomorrow, but that’s a winning play.”

Seeing LeBron sacrificing his body like that made it clear that he was going to do anything to tip things in LA’s favor.

Teams take the identity of their leaders. For the Lakers Luka Dončić, Austin Reaves and LeBron are the players who establish what the Lakers are. If LeBron, the oldest player in the league is out there diving on the floor, then no one has excuses for not bringing their best.

After the game, LeBron discussed why this was the contest to be out there diving for loose balls.

“Just living in the moment and understanding the impact of the game, implications of the game and our opponent and what we’re trying to build,” James said. So, every possession matters.”

This is just another example that for LeBron it’s all about sacrificing in any way possible to earn wins and go after the main goal, which is a title.

Hopefully, there aren’t any more dives on the floor for James this season. Because while it was amazing to see him do it, the Lakers will need him healthy if they are going to maximize their potential this postseason.

You can follow Edwin on Twitter at @ECreates88 or on Bluesky at @ecreates88.bsky.social.

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Let’s tip off the new week of NBA action with some slam dunk winners in the player prop markets.

My best NBA player props include Zion Williamson dominating the paint against the Mavericks, and Victor Wembanyama continuing his block party when he travels to L.A. to take on the Clippers.

Those and more NBA picks for Monday, March 16, below.

Best NBA player props today

Player	Pick
Cam Spencer	Over 11.5 points	-115
Zion Williamson	Over 21.5	-120
Victor Wembanyama	Over 3.5 blocks	+120

Prop #1: Cam Spencer Over 11.5 Points

-115 at bet365

The tank is real for the Memphis Grizzlies. Ty Jerome has been the team’s last reliable scorer. But he hasn’t played back-to-back games since coming out of the All-Star break. And he played last time out.

So, who’s left? Give me Cam Spencer in this matchup against the Chicago Bulls. Spencer is averaging 13.3 points and shooting 47.3% from three.

The Bulls don’t play much defense, ranking 23rd in defensive rating and 21st in opponent effective field goal percentage.

Spencer has a point total of 11.5. A number he’s topped in four of his last five games.

• Time: 8:00 p.m. ET
• Where to watch: FanDuel Sports Network Southeast-Memphis, CHSN

Prop #2: Zion Williamson Over 21.5 Points

-120 at bet365

You’d think a team like the New Orleans Pelicans would be in full tank mode. But Dejounte Murray is back, and Zion Williamson is consistently playing.

So, the Pels don’t look like the teams at the bottom of the West, like tonight’s opponent, the Dallas Mavericks.

Injuries have hampered the Mavs, but it's their interior presence that has really been hurt, ranking last in opponent points in the paint per game.

Williamson has a point total of 21.5 and is averaging 22.7 points over his last 11 full games and has topped this number in both of his games against the Mavs.

• Time: 8:00 p.m. ET
• Where to watch: KFAA, GCSEN

Prop #3: Victor Wembanyama Over 3.5 Blocks

+120 at bet365

Victor Wembanayama has been the favorite to win the NBA Defensive Player of the Year for a while now, but he’s taken his effort at that end of the floor to the next level.

The San Antonio Spurs star has been having his own block party, averaging 4.3 blocks per game over 12 games since coming out of the All-Star break, blocking four or more shots 10 times over that stretch.

His block prop for tonight’s game against the Los Angeles Clippers is sitting at 3.5 with the Over at a tantalizing plus-money price.

• Time: 10:00 p.m. ET
• Where to watch: Peacock

These props are available now at bet365, one of our best betting sites.

This article originally appeared on Covers.com, read the full article here and view our best betting sites or check out our top sportsbook promos.

Follow USA TODAY Sports' live coverage as March Madness tips off Tuesday night in Dayton with the First Four.

The wait is over.

The 2026 NCAA Tournament will finally commence with the First Four games on Tuesday, March 17, from Dayton, Ohio. That means March Madness is finally upon us.

March Madness expert picks: Bracket predictions for 2026 NCAA Tournament

What channel is truTV? How to watch First Four, March Madness games

UMBC and Howard will kick off the action at 6:40 p.m. from UD Arena with a matchup that will determine the No. 16 seed in the Midwest Region, with the winner taking on No. 1 Michigan.

The second game will pit Texas against North Carolina State to decide the No. 11 seed in the West Region, and the first opponent for No. 6 seed BYU.

If you thought NBA expansion had become a never-ending rumor cycle, the latest reporting suggests the league may finally be ready to move forward. 

According to ESPN’s Shams Charania, the National Basketball Association Board of Governors will vote later this month to begin exploring expansion to Seattle and Las Vegas, with the league targeting the 2028–29 season for two new franchises.

The price tag alone almost feels like satire. Industry projections place potential expansion bids somewhere in the $7 to $10 billion range per team. The owners may be thrilled about that windfall, but it also means the ripple effects for teams across the league will be very real once the league reaches 32 teams.

For the Celtics, the challenge will be making sure those ripples don’t rock the roster too hard.

Expansion drafts force teams to expose players they would rather keep, and Boston happens to be built around the exact type of depth that expansion drafts tend to punish. To follow up on my piece earlier this year about who the Celtics might protect, it’s worth revisiting the conversation now that the expansion timeline is finally coming into focus.

The latest expansion update from Shams

The report from Shams adds a few meaningful details about how the expansion process would unfold.

First, the upcoming vote would allow the league to begin exploring purchase processes for teams in Seattle and Las Vegas. If those processes produce bids that reach the league’s desired valuation range, a final vote later in the year could formally approve expansion to 32 teams. Both votes require approval from 23 of the league’s 30 governors.

Second, the timeline attached to the report also clarifies when the league expects these franchises to begin play. The 2028–29 season currently sits as the target.

That places the expansion draft in the summer of 2028, likely between the NBA Finals and the NBA Draft. In league terms, that is not far off at all. Front offices around the NBA plan several years ahead when structuring contracts and building rosters. Brad Stevens likely plans decades ahead, but not everyone can be Brad Stevens.

If this holds, there would be two NBA Drafts between now and the expansion draft, which means the Celtics’ protection list will largely revolve around the roster they already have, plus whoever Brad Stevens selects in the 2026 and 2027 drafts.

All that’s to say, the Celtics will have more than eight players they would prefer not to leave out in the open. That is the squeeze expansion creates for good teams: not “who do we keep?” but “who are we okay losing?”

What the Celtics’ expansion decisions could look like

The rules for the expansion draft are simple enough. Each team gets to protect eight players. Everyone else becomes eligible for selection by the expansion team (or teams in this case). Seattle and Las Vegas can take one player from each franchise, but once someone is taken from a franchise, that team is off the board and can’t be taken from again.

Sounds manageable, right?

But a quick scan of Celtics fan guesses already shows the tension. If you want to understand why expansion could get uncomfortable for Boston, look at where the production has come from over the last ten games and then try talking yourself into protecting only eight players.

Brad Stevens has quietly built a roster where the eighth-best player might still be someone another team would gladly take a chance on. Which means the hard part isn’t naming the protected eight, but deciding which good player Boston has to expose.

The locks

For the Celtics, the no-brainers to protect are:

• Jayson Tatum
• Jaylen Brown
• Derrick White
• Payton Pritchard

Tatum and Brown define the franchise timeline. White is still one of the most valuable connectors in the league, the kind of player every serious team needs and almost no team wants to give away. Pritchard belongs here too, both because of his production and because smaller contracts attached to real rotation players become even more valuable in roster-building situations like this. Boston is not exposing him if he is still part of the picture when expansion arrives.

Barring unexpected developments (and those happen a lot in the NBA), those four players will get protection spots. That means Boston will be halfway through its protected list before the difficult decisions even begin.

The real debate

Sam Hauser is where the conversation starts to become a conversation.

If I had to choose today, I’d lean toward protecting him. Shooting this clean, at his size, in a role he already knows how to play next to stars, is useful on any contender. But I also understand the other side of that coin. By the time an expansion draft arrives, Hauser will be older, more expensive, and closer to a finished product than some of Boston’s younger options. That does not make him expendable, it just means the argument is no longer automatic.

Then there is Neemias Queta. Functional center depth cannot be underestimated in the modern NBA, and teams do not casually throw away size if they believe it can hold up in real minutes. If Boston still views Queta as a reliable rotation big in 2028 (like they do in 2026), he has a legitimate case for one of the final protection spots.

And then you get to the trio that makes this whole exercise interesting and a little nauseating: Hugo Gonzalez, Baylor Scheierman, and Jordan Walsh. If the six above are in, you can only protect two from this group.

These three are exactly the kinds of players expansion teams tend to talk themselves into. Young. Relatively cheap. Not fully formed yet. Easy to imagine in a bigger role.

Scheierman may be the easiest of the three to picture helping another team quickly because he already looks like an actual NBA player. Gonzalez brings the kind of physical upside teams chase, while Walsh is the classic “if the shot comes around, there’s something here” bet. You can make a case for any of them, and you can also make the case that Boston would hate to spend years developing one of those players only to lose him right before the payoff.

That is why the eighth spot matters so much more than the first four. The Celtics are deciding which developmental bet they trust the most.

The leftovers

Veteran back-end pieces such as Nikola Vučević are not likely to be at the heart of the expansion dilemma. 

The rest of the roster mostly falls into the category of players who would need to force their way into the long-term picture before expansion becomes a real concern. Big men like Luka Garza and Amari Williams still have development ahead of them. Wings such as Ron Harper Jr. and rookie guard John Tonje would need to carve out consistent roles to enter the protection conversation.

Newer additions like recently converted Max Shulga and depth options such as Charles Bassey fall into a similar category. If any of them make a leap over the next two seasons, the math gets harder. But if they remain deep bench pieces or early-stage projects, they likely sit outside the protected eight. 

Expansion will test what Boston has built

Expansion will be good for the league. And honestly, it will be fun to watch a real piece of NBA history take shape in real time, hopefully with better results than the last time the NBA expanded when it welcomed the Charlotte Bobcats in 2004. It’s never a good sign when an expansion team rebrands back to an old team name before you’ve expanded again.

For now, Celtics fans can keep the conversation light. What will the Las Vegas team name be? Do the SuperSonics get to claim Kevin Durant as part of their history? Which Western Conference team gets shoved East and immediately starts annoying everyone?

Boston’s harder questions can wait a little longer.

But if expansion is going to punish teams for being too deep, too well run, and too full of interesting young players, I’d rather be the Celtics than anyone else.

Justin Edwards was one of the few bright spots of the Sixers’ disastrous, cursed 2024-25 season. His second year in the NBA hasn’t progressed as smoothly as both he and the Sixers would have liked. Fighting to make the fringes of the rotation, his field goal and three-point percentages have dropped significantly. In 15 games this year he’s been DNP-CD.

He’s been forced into the rotation as of late with 80% of the starting lineup out with injury for an extended period of time. Edwards has taken advantage of the opportunity, putting together three solid performances that helped the Sixers pick up two much-needed wins.

He dropped 19 points on the Brooklyn Nets and 21 on the Portland Trail Blazers while being insanely efficient. Edwards shot 69% and 64% from the field in those games, respectively.

His mentality over this stretch is very to similar to the team’s as a whole as they have plummeted down the Eastern Conference standings. There’s no time to reflect on it — he just needs to play quality minutes when he’s out there to try to pick off a win.

“I can’t think of it like that — guys are down so I got a bigger role on the team,” Edwards said after the Brooklyn game. “So I’m just trying to take advantage of that right now.”

Admittedly, it hasn’t been easy for him to fight for his playing time. As understanding of the business as he is, he wants to be in the rotation and playing every night as well.

“You know, I’m in the NBA, I’m part of that percentage that’s made it to the NBA,” he said. “I can’t think like that at the end of the day because this is my dream job and this is something I want to do for a long time. It always comes back around so I just got to stay ready and stay patient.”

Edwards sees the benefits of reserves deep on the bench having these games to build confidence while they’re shorthanded. He hopes that’s something that remains as the bigger names on the roster return from injury.

“I feel like it’s a confidence booster for coach,” he said, “being able to look down at the bench and say those guys are ready, they’ve been playing consistent minutes the last couple of games.”

There’s a lot of different ways the Sixers have to play based on who’s available. That especially makes it a challenge for guys on the fringes of the rotation to figure out their exact role. Edwards is hopeful this stretch makes his spot a little more clear when things look more normal.

“I feel like I could be a lot more comfortable, but as far as what my role is on this team, I’m getting a little more comfortable,” he said.

Edwards will have to continue playing like this in the meantime to retain that rotation spot if and when the starters return from injury. Putting up 20 points a night is a good place to start though.

Who: Phoenix Suns (39-28) vs. Boston Celtics (44-23)

When: 4;30 pm Arizona Time

Where: TD Garden — Boston, Massachusetts

Watch: Arizona’s Family 3TV, Arizona’s Family Sports

Listen: KMVP 98.7

The Phoenix Suns look to shake off their tough loss vs the Toronto Raptors as they travel to Boston. With this six-game road trip meaning a lot to the standings, they must take advantage of every contest. So far, the team is 2-1 on this trip, but with another back-to-back on the horizon, they must get a win here. This year, they played the Celtics on their home court, and it did not go their way. Both teams also dealt with injuries to key players, whereas now the injury report is a bit cleaner for this contest.

For the Celtics, they are looking to keep this rhythm going. Fueled by the motivation from Joe Mazzulla, they have not skipped a beat this year. Now adding Jayson Tatum back makes them an even more lethal juggernaut, one that the Suns want to dethrone on the road.

In this game, though, one thing that will be fun to watch is the stars playing against each other. Tatum has not played the Suns since 2024, and this game between him and Devin Booker should be another classic. Will Booker find his offensive groove in the building, and will he have his career high? Only time will tell for the Suns fans who anticipate a great game.

Probable Starters

Injury Report

Suns

• Dillon Brooks – (Left Hand Fracture) – OUT
• Mark Williams – (Left Foot Third Metatarsal Stress Reaction) – OUT

Celtics

• Nikola Vucevic – (Right Ring Finger Fracture) – OUT

What to Watch For

One thing to watch for in this one is how the Suns continue to use the rookies in this matchup. With the Suns still having injuries to Dillon Brooks and Mark Williams, it is still evident that both Rasheer Fleming and Khaman Maluach will see some time in this one. That being said, they are both coming off a great week, with Fleming having a career-high 3 blocks in the last game and going 3/3 from behind the arc.

He was so impressive that head coach Jordan Ott even trusted him to start the fourth quarter with the Suns in a close game. Not to mention, he has also seen plenty of minutes at the center position, playing some small-ball five. This is where he has been able to get these incredible blocks and continues to prove he deserves to be a part of this rotation when fully healthy.

With him going up against a scrappy Celtics team that has plenty of players fighting for spots like his, I only hope this brings the best out of the young wing. He has something to prove to the team and has some good matchups against Tatum and Brown to keep an eye on.

Key to a Suns Win

The big key to his game is going to be dominating the rebound game. Last time these two played, Phoenix was outrebounded 61-34, and it was a major factor in their loss. Only having 9 offensive rebounds compared to Boston’s 22 basically sealed the deal, as they dominated in paint scoring and second chances. This also all happened with no Brown and Tatum in their lineup. Baylor Scheierman and Neemias Queta had 24 boards on their own, which is alarming if the Suns as a team only had 10 more.

Making sure they can limit those second-chance opportunities for Boston while creating their own fast break in transition should be the plan to help them execute a much-needed victory.

Prediction Time

The Suns get the revenge they need against a top-tier team in the Eastern Conference.

Suns 102, Celtics 99

Welcome to Week in Review: a Monday feature that looks back at the week that was for the San Antonio Spurs, takes a look at the week ahead, and more. Enjoy!

Week 20: From a massive blowout in Philadelphia to close the Rodeo Road trip with an 8-1 record, to another competitive win over the Pistons in the return home, an emotionally draining 25-point comeback against the Clippers, and finally a comfortable blowout of their rival Rockets, it was a fun week that had it all as the Spurs played in San Antonio for the first time in a month.

Week 21: 2-1 (49-18, 2nd in West)

125-116 win vs. Boston Celtics

With Jayson Tatum back from a ruptured Achilles suffered last season, the Spurs traded leads with the Celtics in a highly competitive first half, but things took a turn in their favor when Jaylen Brown got himself ejected late in the second quarter for volatilely arguing for a foul on a Stephon Castle “push” (that looked much more like a flop on Brown’s part). The Spurs held the lead for the entire second half, countering a 34-point outing from former Spur Derrick White with a 39-point one from Victor Wembanyama, which included tying his career high of 8 made three-pointers.

131-136 loss vs. Denver Nuggets

With Wemby a late scratch due to a sore ankle, at first the Spurs didn’t miss a beat without him, leading by has much as 20 points and in control for the first 2 1/2 quarters of the game while using Castle’s second career 30-point triple-double to offset a 30-20-12 night from Nikola Jokic. Unfortunately, the offense went cold late in the third quarter, and combined with Jokic’s pleading for calls finally getting in the refs’ heads and Jamal Murray going nuclear on offense, the Nuggets rallied back to hand the Spurs just their second loss since January 31 and end their five-game winning streak.

115-102 win vs. Charlotte Hornets

Speaking of January 31, the Spurs were ready to get revenge for that winter debacle that involved gametime changes and getting stranded in the snow in Charlotte. With Wemby back from his one-game absence, the Spurs returned to their February/March selves with a steady beatdown of the Hornets. They led for the final 45 minutes and always had an answer whenever Charlotte threatened to make things interesting. Wemby remained hot from three with five more makes and just missed his own triple-double with 32 points, 12 rebounds and 4 assists.

Power Rankings

John Schuhmann, NBA.com — 2 (last week: 1)

OffRtg: 117.7 (4) DefRtg: 110.5 (3) NetRtg: +7.2 (4) Pace: 100.9 (12)

Victor Wembanyama missed a game for the first time since early January and the Spurs blew a 20-point lead to the Nuggets. But they’ve won 17 of the last 18 games that Wembanyama has played in, with the last five having come against the Pistons, Clippers, Rockets, Celtics and Hornets.

Three takeaways

1. The Spurs have outscored their opponents by an amazing 23.6 points per 100 possessions in Wembanyama’s 540 minutes on the floor over those 18 games. That’s the best on-court mark among 339 players who’ve played in at least 10 games since Feb. 1. And 13 of those 18 games he’s played in have come against teams currently at or above .500.
2. The Celtics dared the Spurs to shoot 3-pointers, and they did, registering their highest 3-point rate (55% of their shots) of the season on Tuesday. They shot 20-for-46 (43%) from deep, but also outscored the Celtics at the free throw line, with Wembanyama going 8-for-15 from beyond the arc and 9-for-12 from the stripe. Stephon Castle (who had a 30-point triple-double in the loss to Denver) still isn’t shooting a lot of 3-pointers, but he’s 18-for-45 (40%) from beyond the arc since the All-Star break, up from 29% prior.
3. The Spurs have been at their best (plus-12.3 points per 100 possessions) in the first quarter and have led by double-digits in 13 (72%) of their 18 losses. That would be, by far, the highest rate for any team in the 30 seasons of play-by-play data, with only one other team in that time (the 2019-20 Heat, 55%) having had double-digit leads in at least half of the games it lost.

Coming up: The Spurs will play eight of their next 11 games on the road, with a potential first-round preview at the Intuit Dome on Monday. They came back from 25 points down to win their first meeting with the Clippers 10 days ago.

Law Murray, The Athletic — 2 (last week: 1)

2025 draft class: PG Dylan Harper (second pick), SG Carter Bryant (14th pick)

San Antonio went 5-1 on its homestand, with the loss coming in the game that Victor Wembanyama missed; the Spurs also blew a 20-point lead to the Nuggets, and their defense was horrible. If the intent was to help Wembanyama get a Defensive Player of the Year trophy, it did the job. Harper has a calf contusion, but he has been a helpful part of a San Antonio team that has arguably the most enviable guard depth in the league. Harper isn’t in a position to shine while sharing the ball with starters Wembanyama, De’Aaron Fox and Stephon Castle, and Harper has to iron out his jumper. But he is an assignment-sound rookie, while Bryant is the 10th man in the rotation due to his strong defense.

Brett Siegel, Clutch Points — 2 (last week: 1)

The only reason the San Antonio Spurs dropped a spot behind the Thunder is because of their loss to Denver this past week and Oklahoma City’s win over the same team. Still, this doesn’t impact the Spurs’ chances of competing for a championship, as they are still widely expected to meet the Thunder in the Western Conference Finals.

After some key tests at home, all of which (except Denver) the Spurs passed comfortably, this team now enters a stretch where five of their next eight games are against teams below .500 on the season to close out March.

With Victor Wembanyama continuing to elevate his play on both ends, as well as the Spurs’ youngsters in Dylan Harper and Carter Bryant becoming more comfortable in their secondary roles, San Antonio looks very strong heading into the postseason.

Coming up: Mon. 3/16 at Los Angeles Clippers (34-33); Tues. 3/17 at Sacramento Kings (15-51); Thurs. 3/19 vs. Phoenix Suns (39-28); Sat. 3/21 vs. Indiana Pacers (15-53)

Prediction: 4-0 — Are the Spurs unbeatable when Wemby plays right now? That may be a stretch, but this is a relatively friendly schedule after that gauntlet of a six-game homestand in which they still went 5-0 when he played. They have a couple of match-ups with potential first-round opponents, along with two games against teams that are already eliminated from playoff contention and have nothing but draft odds to play for. As they showed last week, the Clippers will be the hardest matchup of these games (especially with Dillon Brooks out for the Suns), but the Spurs won’t be at a rest disadvantage this time, plus they now know what to expect from Kawhi and Co.

Alabama basketball star Aden Holloway was arrested on Monday, March 16, four days before the Crimson Tide is scheduled to play in the Men's NCAA Tournament.

According to the Tuscaloosa News — part of the USA TODAY Network — Holloway was charged with first-degree possession of marijuana and failure to affix a tax stamp. More than a pound of marijuana, paraphernalia and cash were found inside the residence on the 400 block of 30th East Avenue on Monday morning by the West Alabama Narcotics Task Force.

REQUIRED READING: March Madness Cinderella predictions: VCU, Akron top NCAA Tournament upset picks

Holloway, 21, was transported to the Tuscaloosa County Jail and had his bond set for $5,000, according to the Tuscaloosa News. He was no longer listed as an inmate, which indicates he was released on that bond.

With Alabama as a 4-seed in the NCAA Tournament, it is scheduled to open the tournament against at 3:15 p.m. Friday, March 20, from the Benchmark International Arena in Tampa, Florida.

It is unclear if Holloway will face a suspension from the program following the arrest and felony charge. The junior guard was second on the Crimson Tide with 16.8 points per game, while also adding 3.8 assists and 2.8 rebounds per game.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Alabama basketball guard Aden Holloway arrested, charged with felony