Category: NBA

In some NBA circles, Reed Sheppard has a nickname.

Rule of thumb: If Basketball Reference won’t print it, neither will The Dream Shake. Hmmm. How about Triple Espresso Curry? Why not I Ran Into A Jerk From High School, He Seemed Really Excited To See Me Even Though We Were Never Friends Curry?

To quote the ever-poignant Pusha T (which in itself is a hint), if you know, you know. The more significant point, of course, is that Sheppard has garnered comparisons to Curry.

Are they legitimate?

Rockets’ Reed Sheppard can be a historic shooter

Warning: This attempt at statistical comparison is riddled with flaws.

Firstly, it’d have been better to compare Curry’s sophomore stats. Unfortunately, NBA.com’s tracking data doesn’t go back that far. The furthest back we could get was 2013-14. By then, Curry was a fringe MVP candidate, even if not the direct descendant of Khrysos that Rockets fans have grown to loathe.

Secondly, the league has changed dramatically in the last decade-and-change. Curry is the best shooter of all time, but it’s fair to say that the NBA did not know how to defend him when his style of play was beginning to crystallize. Ironically, the Rockets were instrumental in introducing some coverages that kind of, sort of mitigated his impact for stretches. It’s fair to assume Sheppard is seeing those coverages more regularly.

Lastly, Steph Curry is the best shooter of all time. It stands to reason that he’s unlikely to be number two by the time Sheppard retires. This is the highest bar.

So, the fact that Sheppard comes close to meeting it is very encouraging.

On catch-and-shoot threes, Curry shot 45.8% on 2.6 attempts per game in 2013-14. Sheppard is hitting 40.7% of his 4.4 threes per game. On pull-up threes, Curry hit 40.3% of his 4.4 attempts, while Sheppard is hitting 38.1% of his 2.0 per game.

On face value, perhaps that’s not as comparable as you’d like. The pull-up shooting is the secret sauce. That’s the skill that allowed Curry to warp the geometry of the basketball court. It’s what separates him from the Klay Thompsons and Ray Allens of the world.

Two counterpoints. First, 38.1% is a very strong percentage on pull-up triples. For context, Anthony Edwards is hitting 34.0% of his 6.0 attempts per game. There’s a simple conclusion here: Sheppard should shoot more pull-up threes. He’s got considerable breathing room for his accuracy to decline and remain one of the most effective pull-up three-point shooters in the NBA. As of now, he shoots a higher percentage than anyone in the top-10 in volume besides Ty Jerome and – you guessed it – Steph Curry.

Second, Sheppard doesn’t have to be a Curry facsimile to be one of the most impactful shooters in the NBA. Let it be said that Curry never played with a big man with Alperen Sengun’s combination of interior gravity and passing acumen. Given the potential synergy there, Sheppard’s catch-and-shoot chops could mean more for the Rockets than Curry’s meant for the Warriors.

Once again, volume is a variable. This is a neat stat that shows how much the league has changed. In 2013-14, Curry shot 8.1 threes per 75 possessions. That ranked third in the league behind Miro Telotovic (a beautiful blast from the past, what a fun player) and Gerald Green* (you’re a Rockets fan, so you know what that’s about).

*Green is the only celebrity I ever played against in NBA 2K. Random Rec. The dude played exactly like his NBA self. Finished 4/10 from three, 4/10 from the field. Pretty sure he missed 5 straight before hitting three impossible triples in a row. Surreal.

Sheppard shoots 9.7 threes per 75 possessions. That’s 12th in the league. Regardless of shot type, he needs to shoot more three-pointers. That’s true on a per-possession basis, but it’s more broadly true in general, which is a roundabout way of saying Ime Udoka needs to give him more minutes.

Could that unlock his inner Curry-ness?

Rockets’ Reed Sheppard can be a star

For Udoka to play Sheppard more, Sheppard needs to improve on defense.

He’s been doing that lately. Sheppard is gambling less. All of the hand-wringing about his efforts on that end may have been no more than a reaction to watching a rookie/sophomore on a contending NBA team.

He won’t be Curry. Nobody will. That’s fine. If Sheppard can be, say, 80% of a Steph Curry offensively plus elite defensive playmaking (even if exploitable in certain matchups), that feels like a borderline franchise player. If he can hit 90%, that’s a certified franchise stud.

If you disagree, you might be on drugs.

PALLEKELE, Sri Lanka (AP) — New Zealand backed into the Twenty20 World Cup semifinals when Pakistan could only narrowly beat Sri Lanka in a gripping match on Saturday.

Pakistan had to restrict Sri Lanka's chase to 147 to advance from the Super Eights at New Zealand's expense.

It looked achievable when Pakistan reduced Sri Lanka to 101-5 in the 12th over. But its hopes were foiled when Pavan Rathnayake and captain Dasun Shanaka led Sri Lanka to 148 in the 16th over.

But then Pakistan found itself in danger of failing to defend its highest ever T20 World Cup total, 212.

Shanaka began the last over against Shaheen Shah Afridi by slamming 4-6-6-6. Sri Lanka could pull off a heist with six runs needed off the last two balls.

But Shanaka missed trying to scoop the fifth ball and left the sixth, a yorker, thinking it was wide. It was not.

Pakistan won by five runs and bowed out of the tournament on net run rate, -0.123 to New Zealand's 1.390.

“When I lost the toss it was always going to be challenging because of the dew,” Pakistan captain Salman Agha said. “It was a good pitch. Restricting (Sri Lanka) to 148 was going to be challenging — we tried.”

Tournament co-host Sri Lanka was already out of semifinals contention but finished its fourth straight defeat to applause from its home crowd after going down swinging.

“Sometimes as players we feel the pressure,” Shanaka said. I wanted to say sorry to all the fans because we fell down. It was a close game, I could've finished it. Well bowled to Shaheen."

England, New Zealand and South Africa have nailed semifinal spots. Defending champion India — the only Asian team left — and the West Indies meet for the last spot on Sunday in Kolkata. With Pakistan knocked out, co-host India will host both semifinals next week and the final on March 8.

Farhan breaks Kohli record

Pakistan was made to bat first and openers Sahibzada Farhan and Fakhar Zaman combined for 176 runs, the highest ever partnership in men's T20 World Cup history. They eclipsed the 175 by New Zealanders Tim Seifert and Finn Allen on Feb. 10.

Farhan's blistering 100 off 60 balls also blew away Virat Kohli’s single tournament runs record of 319 in 2014. Farhan passed Kohli when he reached 40. He has 383 after two centuries and two half-centuries.

“The ton didn't work for the team, that's why I'm sad,” Farhan said. “I have been feeling well, that brings confidence. I knew I could hit whatever was in my arc.”

Zaman was promoted to opener for the first time in the tournament and the left-hander slammed 84 off 42 balls as Pakistan posted 212-8.

Sri Lanka could have broken their stand in the 11th over but didn’t go for a television referral when replays suggested Zaman edged behind on 46 and the partnership at 107-0.

Their stand of 176 finished in the 16th over when Zaman played onto his stumps. Sri Lanka fought back with eight wickets in the final 26 balls for 36 runs.

Farhan, dropped on 76, fell in the final over after htting five sixes and nine fours.

“We didn't bat well in the tournament,” Agha said. “It was only Sahibzada Farhan who batted exceptionally well. Our batting was always a concern, especially the middle order. It’s been an issue for a few years now.”

Fast bowler Dilshan Madushanka grabbed 3-33 and Shanaka took 2-42.

Sri Lanka's top order was rattled by Abrar Ahmed (3-23), one of three changes by Pakistan. But with the ball getting wet because of dew it became difficult for the bowlers to hit the right lengths.

Pakistan spinner Usman Tariq struggled with his grip and returned 0-43, ending his streak of consecutive T20 innings with a wicket at 26, two shy of the record.

Rathnayake anchored Sri Lanka with 58 off 37 and Shanaka almost achieved the miracle at the death. Shanaka smashed eight sixes and two fours in his unbeaten 76 off 31 balls.

___

AP cricket: https://apnews.com/hub/cricket

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There are five games on tap this Saturday night in the Association, and all eyes should be on Lakers vs. Warriors.

A LeBron James player prop tops my best NBA picks for Saturday, February 28.

Read below for all my favorite NBA player props.

Best NBA player props today

Player	Pick
Kon Knueppel	Over 20.5 points	-110
Tyler Herro	Over 20.5 points	-105
LeBron James	Over 5.5 assists	+115

Prop #1: Kon Knueppel Over 20.5 points

-110 at bet365

Rookie Kon Knueppel has been sizzling of late, scoring at least 21 points in each of his last four games, with Charlotte winning three straight.

This run started with a monster 33-point outing in a loss to the Cavaliers. Knueppel followed that up with 28 against the Wizards, before ripping Indiana for 28 points on 10-for-17 shooting last game.

Portland isn’t exactly a defensive juggernaut, ranking 24th in scoring defense allowing 118.2 points per game.

• Time: 1:00 p.m. ET
• Where to watch: KUNP, FDSN SE-CHA

Prop #2: Tyler Herro Over 20.5 points

-105 at bet365

Miami’s leading scorer Norman Powell is out for this one as he deals with a groin strain, but the Heat should be in good hands with Tyler Herro.

Just four games back from a rib injury, Herro seems to be picking up his pace. He shot 9-for-18 in a loss to Philadelphia en route to 25 points when last seen.

Houston is one of the tougher defensive teams in the league, allowing just 109.1 points per game (third overall), but Herro should be ready to carry a big-time scoring load in this one.

• Time: 3:30 p.m. ET
• Where to watch: Prime Video

Prop #3: LeBron James Over 5.5 assists

+115 at bet365

We’ll wrap with the NBA’s ageless wonder, LeBron James, who has a 5.5-assist line on Saturday against the Warriors. 

While that number might deter you, as he’s only topped that total once in his last six games, LeBron has been dealing against the Dubs.

LBJ has had 10 straight games against the Warriors with at least eight assists, and I like the plus odds he’s getting Saturday to just get to six.

• Time: 8:30 p.m. ET
• Where to watch: ABC

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.

Yours truly built a bracket around the most important question of the Two-Timelines era. It’s not about who was the best, but who did you believe in the most? Eight ex-Warriors drafted after Kevin Durant left. Three rounds. One crown. I seeded it by emotional gravity: draft expectations, peak belief, and how long you kept the faith. And now the voting starts.

First matchup: the #1 seed Jordan Poole against the #8 seed Alen Smailagic.

Current matchup: the #2 seed James Wiseman against the #7 seed Ryan Rollins

There is a version of this story where James Wiseman becomes the most important Warrior of the next decade.

Joe Lacob saw it. He called Wiseman a “once in a decade” kind of player in November 2020, barely a month after the draft. That is not a throwaway line from a man who does not throw away lines. That is a vision statement. Lacob looked at a 7-foot-2 athlete who was 19 years old, who had barely scraped together 39 college games before the NCAA shut the whole thing down on him, and decided this kid was the foundation of everything that came next.

Dub Nation believed it too, and that collective belief is exactly why he is the #2 seed in this bracket.

When you pick second overall you are not picking a rotation piece. You are picking a cornerstone. And from the jump, Wiseman had the physical gifts to justify every ounce of that faith. The dunks alone were an exhilarating experience. He led all NBA rookies with 84 slams in just 39 games, 20th in the entire league. He shot 51.9% from the field and 76% at the rim, landing in the 89th percentile per Cleaning the Glass. The 84% free throw percentage told you the shooting touch was real if you gave it room to grow. The transition upside and the lob threat. All of it was right there in Year 1, visible, pointing somewhere exciting. Sure he didn’t have a training camp or have people in the stands to watch him play which is pretty insane, but those were the pandemic times.

And then Year 2 didn’t happen.

An injured knee ended his sophomore season before it ever got going. He played zero games in 2021-22. The Warriors won a championship that year and Wiseman watched it from the bench in street clothes. No reps. No rhythm. No chance to build on what the rookie season started.

So when September 2022 rolled around and the Warriors took the team to Japan for a preseason exhibition against the Washington Wizards, the entire Dub Nation energy around Wiseman was basically: okay, this is it. Year 3. This would be his first full training camp with a healthy body. He’s finally going to show us what this whole thing was supposed to look like.

And for one night in Tokyo, he absolutely did.

He went 20 points, 9 rebounds on 8-of-11 shooting off the bench in 23 minutes. Five dunks. He delivered a poster so thoroughly that “WISEMAN SEASON 3 ACTIVATED” was being typed in capital letters across every Warriors forum on the internet. I wrote about that game with full optimism and zero apology because if you watched it, the optimism was mandatory. This was the guy. This was finally the guy.

Then the actual season happened. He played 21 games in a Warriors uniform that year, averaging 6.9 points in 12.5 minutes, and by February the front office was done waiting. The trade to Detroit came on February 9, 2023, Kevin Knox and draft picks heading out, Gary Payton II coming back through Portland. Monte Poole wrote the definitive autopsy in his NBC Sports Bay Area piece that day: Wiseman was the only center in the Warriors’ recent dynasty history whose best skill was his shot and whose weakest skills were orchestrating a defense and setting screens. Every center who thrived in that system before him was built around the opposite profile. The mismatch was not fixable within the championship window that remained.

Legendary DNHQ journalist and GSOM alumni Eric Apricot framed the bigger picture well in his farewell piece around the same time. The front office was running a high-variance portfolio strategy across all their young picks. You cannot look at one pick in isolation and call it a disaster. Big miss, Eric said, but not an incompetent one.

Steph Curry said his piece on it too, eventually. Reflecting on the Two-Timelines era with ESPN, he said: “I think the postmortem on some of the two-timeline stuff is not great. We picked Wiseman, who’s had a rough go. It’s not his fault, but we had an opportunity when we were at the bottom of the standings and had the No. 2 pick, and picked Wise. We thought there was going to be a way to bridge that gap, and it didn’t work out that way.”

In total we’re talking 60 games across three seasons and one championship he watched in street clothes as year 2 was completely missed. The Japan game resurrection that turned out to be a curtain call. That collective hope was enormous, and losing it slowly over three seasons hurt in a way most Warriors draft stories simply do not. That is why he is the 2 seed. The emotional peak of believing in James Wiseman was higher than almost anything else this era produced.

Let’s talk about Ryan Rollins.

The Warriors paid $2 million in cash to move up seven spots in the 2022 draft to take a youngster from Toledo. Joe Viray’s GSOM deep-dive at the time laid out what they saw: a potential three-level scorer with a 6‘10″ wingspan on a 6’3″ frame, passing lane instincts, and a physical profile that a coaching staff could shape into a real rotation piece. The organization liked him enough to spend actual cash to get him. That is not nothing.

He played 12 games in a Warriors uniform. Then a stress fracture in his foot ended his rookie season before it found any kind of footing. And when the summer of 2023 arrived and the Warriors needed to move Jordan Poole to Washington, Rollins got packaged into that deal as the salary filler that made the numbers work. He was not the story, rather he was a part of the fine print. Most of Dub Nation barely registered his name leaving because the Poole trade was the only thing anyone was reading that week.

Washington gave him 10 games before off-court issues ended his time there entirely.

This season with Milwaukee he’s opening eyes, but don’t take my word for it. That is the player who walked into Chase Center on October 30, 2025 with no Giannis to bail him out. Just Rollins, the 44th pick who got 12 games and a line in a trade announcement, laying the smackdown on the franchise and ex-teammates where his NBA story began. He dropped 32 points, 8 assists, and 5 treys as Milwaukee won 120-110. Rollins was the best player on the floor against the team that let him walk out the door as an afterthought.

Milwaukee Bucks blog Brew Hoop’s Jack Trehearne said it plainly this week: “Men lie, women lie, numbers don’t. This is a stone-cold killer.” He is averaging 17.2 points, 5.4 assists, and 1.5 steals on 42% from three. In clutch situations he is shooting 55.6% and ranks second in clutch shooting percentage among the 13 players with the most clutch attempts in the entire NBA.

GARMISCH-PARTENKIRCHEN, Germany (AP) — Marco Odermatt has taken a giant step towards retaining his World Cup downhill title this season, leading a Swiss sweep Saturday in the first men’s race since the Milan Cortina Olympics.

More good news for Odermatt was that his closest challenger, teammate and Olympic gold medalist Franjo van Allmen, was not part of the Swiss trio on the podium.

Odermatt just barely edged out Alexis Monney by 0.04 seconds, with Stefan Rogentin coming 0.98 seconds behind in third. Austria’s Vincent Kriechmayr and Italy’s Giovanni Franzoni shared fourth.

Von Allmen had costly mistakes halfway through his run down the Kandahar course and finished 1.47 second behind in sixth.

The result means Odermatt increased his lead over von Allmen to 175 points in the season standings with two races remaining. A race win is worth 100 points.

It felt like redemption for Odermatt, who arrived at the Olympics as a gold-medal favourite in the downhill but finished fourth.

“It was certainly a bit of a revenge today, too,” said Odermatt, who won the World Cup downhill title the past two seasons and is also a strong favourite to win his fifth straight overall Crystal Globe this year.

The fascinating duel between close friends Odermatt and von Allmen has dominated the downhill season.

Odermatt started his campaign with back-to-back wins and later added a victory at the classic Wengen event, but von Allmen hit back with two wins, including the last race before the Olympics a month ago in Crans-Montana, where Odermatt failed to make the podium.

On Saturday, though, von Allmen could not keep up with his rival.

“I was a little bit too direct, also not central with my body, sat down in the back, and was pretty tired. In the end, too direct and not smooth enough,” said von Allmen, who was one of Alpine skiing's stars of the Olympics with three golds from the downhill, super-G and team combined.

Odermatt's 54th career win put him level with Austrian great Hermann Maier in third position on the men’s World Cup winners list. Only Ingemar Stenmark (86 wins) and Marcel Hirscher (67) won more races. The overall record is held by American standout Mikaela Shiffrin with 108 World Cup wins.

“My idol always was Didier Cuche when I was a kid,” Odermatt said. “But it’s incredible to get level with Hermann.”

Several skiers sat out the race a day after they crashed in the final training session Friday, most notably France's Nils Alphand and Finland’s Elian Lehto.

The French ski federation said Alphand sustained a right shoulder and rib injury and would be out for at least three weeks. Lehto suffered “injuries to the chest area and lower limb that require hospital monitoring” but “are not life-threatening,” the Finnish ski federation said on Instagram.

A super-G on the same hill is scheduled for Sunday.

___

AP skiing: https://apnews.com/hub/alpine-skiing

Coming into Thursday’s game against the Los Angeles Lakers, the Phoenix Suns were struggling. Losing four of their last five, they shot under 38% in their four contests since the All-Star break ended. Their lone win was the first time a team had won a game since 2023 when shooting worse than 35% from the field. On top of all the struggles, the team is decimated. Their top two scorers, Devin Booker and Dillon Brooks, remain out, while Jordan Goodwin, one of the team’s most reliable bench players and defenders, is also sidelined.

Despite the struggles and injuries, the Suns had a lot at stake going into Thursday’s game. Obviously, any game against a division rival carries some inherent stakes, even when divisions are essentially irrelevant in the standings, as they are in the NBA, but the matchup had massive seeding implications.

The two teams are neck and neck in the standings. Before the game, the Lakers were two games ahead of the Suns for the final playoff spot, the last one that avoids the play-in tournament, where just two bad games can derail an overall strong season.

With the two teams playing at least five times this year because of their In-Season Tournament finishes, one will have the clear tiebreaker, which is uncommon when many teams play each other four times in a season.

Going into Thursday, the Suns were up 2-1 in the season series, but Thursday’s game was the last time the two will face off in Phoenix during the regular season. Phoenix wins around 60% of their games at home, while they’re a .500 team on the road. With a win, the Suns would secure the season series over an opponent they are close to in the standings.

To start the game, the Suns struck first, going up early, taking a 17-9 lead. Then Los Angeles responded, controlling the rest of the first, until the Suns took the first double-digit lead of the second. Going into halftime, the game was tied at 49, and coming out of the third, the Lakers went on an 11-0 run. The Phoenix offense looked like it did just two nights ago against the Boston Celtics to start the second half: cold and unable to hit shots. They scored just 11 points in the third against their 97-81 loss to the Celtics on Thursday.

As Phoenix struggled, Grayson Allen had different plans. Coming in off the bench early in the third, Allen became a human flamethrower, scoring 16 points and hitting four threes in the quarter. Phoenix turned what was once a 12-point lead into an 80-80 game with 12 minutes left.

In the fourth quarter, the Suns got up big until Luka Dončić did what he typically does to the Suns: cook them. Just like Phoenix had done earlier in the game, the Lakers turned a double-digit deficit into a tie game. With 22 seconds left and the game knotted 110-110, Phoenix had the ball and a chance to win the game, and Royce O’Neale took advantage of the opportunity.

After a night of ups and downs, coming in shorthanded and playing the Lakers, who were nearly at full strength, Phoenix pulled out the victory. Allen and Collin Gillespie led the way, and O’Neale hit the dagger, but many who aren’t typical contributors had big games. Rasheer Fleming had his best game as a pro with his 8-point third, and newcomer Amir Coffey chipped in a few triples.

Phoenix is now just one game back of the Lakers for the sixth spot and secured the season series, something that could be crucial for the final standings. The Suns now have four days until their next game, where they’ll face the Sacramento Kings, who have lost 16 of their last 18 games. Devin Booker could be back playing by then.

Considering the stakes, the injuries, and the mental resilience the Suns needed, was Thursday the Suns’ best win of the season?

First of all, I have to say this- the Spurs have ELEVEN consecutive wins. The Spurs have hit 11 total straight wins on eight previous occasions. Two of those were during Championship runs. The first time was late in 2002-2003 season when they won their second NBA title. They also kicked off their 2013-2014 campaign with an eleven game streak. Later that season they eventually had a nineteen game run, their longest in franchise history, but hopefully that will be a discussion for a future post.

In the 2011-2012 season, they accumulated two 11-game streaks over the final 10 weeks of the season. This led into a sweep of the Utah Jazz in the first round of the playoffs, followed by a sweep of the Clippers in the second round, and eventually taking a 2-0 lead in the Western Conference Finals against the Oklahoma City Thunder.

They eventually lost to the younger OKC squad in the next four games, a most disastrous outcome after amassing a 20-game overall winning streak. But even then it was obvious the team was onto something special. They made the Finals the following two years, coming up short in 2013 and then dismantling the Heatles super team — and picking up their fifth Larry O’Brien — in 2014.

The Spurs had one 12-game streak at the start of their 2010-2011 season. They could repeat this feat on Sunday, but it will not be easy.

To win twelve straight they have to beat the New York Knicks, the third best record in the Eastern Conference, in Madison Square Garden. So far this season, they split games with the Knicks. They lost the Emirates Cup Finals (which did not effect their overall record but did supply the Knickerbockers with bragging rights). However, they did win at home on New Year’s Eve when Julian Champagnie finished with a team-high 36 points on 11 three-pointers.

The Big Apple native definitely likes playing to his hometown crowd. Champagnie must mark his calendar for those New York opponents as the Spurs sharpshooter scored 26 points while hitting 6 of 9 three-pointers against Brooklyn on Thursday night. If he can maintain that intensity, he and the Spurs could ride the game into Philly on a 12-game heater.

What do these streaks mean? Most directly, it’s an impressive show of strength and an alignment of players and goals. In a few cases, they are a build up to a title run. In others, it’s just a sign of where the team is at that specific moment in time.

This season, between December 27 and January 13, the Spurs went 4-6 losing by double-digits to Utah, Cleaveland, and OKC. In that moment, most pundits were not considering the Spurs for title contention despite them beating the Thunder in 3 of their 4 meetings.

Now, as the Spurs have shown resilience against the top teams, the streak helps illuminate their emergence as a contender at a quicker pace than originally anticipated.

That said, any streak must be taken with a grain of salt in the same way a blowout loss or two is not the end of the world.

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On Sunday, after a long and arduous wait, the calendar will turn to March.

With it will come a tense two weeks for dozens of men’s college basketball teams across the country, whose results over the final stretch of the regular season will determine whether their NCAA Tournament dreams will live or die.

Such is life on the dreaded bubble for the 68-team event.

March Madness predictions: 13 teams who can win NCAA Tournament

Bracketology: NCAA Tournament prediction has another shakeup

Six months ago, it’s an anxiety-laced position few would have envisioned Auburn finding itself in. Coming off the program’s second Final Four appearance in a six-year stretch, the Tigers returned a handful of key contributors, namely guard Tahaad Pettiford, from a squad that went 32-6 while bringing in some impactful new players like Keyshawn Hall.

Auburn’s outlook abruptly changed in late September, though, when coach Bruce Pearl stunned much of the sport by stepping down and handing the reins over to his son, Steven. Under a first-time head coach who had never coached in the sport other than under his own father, the Tigers have failed to live up to their status as a preseason top-25 team, with a 15-13 record heading into the weekend of Feb. 28.

It’s been especially bleak lately, with six losses in their past seven games. Not all of those setbacks came against the SEC’s heaviest hitters, either. In the past 10 days, Auburn has fallen to a sub-.500 Mississippi State team and an Oklahoma squad that seems destined to make a coaching change once the season ends.

While that slew of losses has placed the Tigers in an uncomfortable position, they’ve got several important metrics working in their favor. As of Thursday, Auburn was No. 35 in the NCAA’s NET rankings, No. 37 on KenPom and No. 25 in BPI. On KenPom, it has the No. 1 strength of schedule this season, an unforgiving run of games that featured some notable wins against No. 7 Florida, No. 15 St. John’s and No. 17 Arkansas. Though it comes against 11 losses, it has five Quad 1 victories.

Conversely, the Tigers have a pair of Quad 2 losses and are 42nd nationally in Wins Above Bubble, a metric the NCAA Tournament selection committee said it will weigh heavily among bubble teams. There are some landmines lurking among their final three regular-season games, too, with matchups looming at home against Ole Miss and LSU, which are a combined 26-30.

Regardless of whether it makes the cut for March Madness, Auburn has experienced first-hand just how hard it is to move on from a legendary coach.

Here’s a look at some of the winners and losers among bubble teams from the past week of games:

NCAA Tournament Bubble winners

Statistics cited are as of Thursday, Feb. 26

UCLA

The preseason No. 12 team has had a largely disappointing season, but over the past month, the Bruins have started to elevate their play, with a 7-3 mark in their past 10 games. That spurt has been highlighted by a huge pair of home wins — against No. 8 Purdue and No. 11 Illinois. The victory over the Illini last Saturday was followed up by a 19-point drubbing of rival and fellow bubble-dweller USC, a game in which New Mexico transfer Donovan Dent had 30 points. 

Just don’t get too excited about the recent success, lest UCLA’s coach think you’re raising your voice a bit too much.

Missouri

A Tigers team that had just two Quad 1 wins entering February racked up three in a 13-day stretch, edging Texas A&M on the road on Feb. 11, hanging on to beat No. 21 Vanderbilt at home on Feb. 18 and knocking off No. 22 Tennessee at home on Feb. 24. Missouri is now 5-5 in Quad 1 games, though a 4-4 record in Quad 2 matchups could prove to be detrimental to its tournament hopes.

A trip to March Madness this year would mark the first time in 13 years that the Tigers have made the NCAA Tournament in back-to-back seasons.

TCU

The Horned Frogs looked destined for an NIT berth as recently as three weeks ago, with a 13-9 mark that most recently included a 26-point beatdown at the hands of Colorado. Since then, though, coach Jamie Dixon’s squad has won five of its past six games. While four of those victories have come against teams in the bottom half of the Big 12 standings, a Feb. 10 win against No. 5 Iowa State serves as the centerpiece of an increasingly impressive resume.

TCU could ultimately be stung by some unsightly losses earlier in the season, including a Quad 4 loss at home against New Orleans and a Jan. 17 loss against a Utah team that’s 2-13 in Big 12 play.

Cal

The Calgorithm got a beneficial data point last Wednesday with a 73-69 win against SMU, giving the Golden Bears yet another win against a likely tournament-bound team (they’ve also defeated North Carolina, Miami and UCLA).

Cal’s 20-8 record is inflated a bit by a soft non-conference schedule that KenPom ranks 325th among 365 Division I teams. It will have a chance to stack up some wins to wrap up the regular season, with games against reeling Pitt, Georgia Tech and Wake Forest teams.

San Diego State

An Aztecs resume that had very much been lacking a marquee win finally got one, with San Diego State thumping Utah State by 17 last Wednesday to hand what had been a 23-4 Aggies team its most lopsided loss of the season.

While the predictive metrics like the Aztecs — they’re No. 42 in the NET and No. 43 on KenPom, as of Thursday — they’re negative-0.06 wins above bubble, ranking them only 53rd in the country.

REQUIRED READING: What I missed in college basketball while I was covering Winter Olympics

NCAA Tournament Bubble losers

USC

After an 18-6 start, the wheels have started to come off for the Trojans, who have lost four games in a row. One of those losses came at home against an Oregon team that’s No. 107 in the NET and another came by 36 at home against No. 11 Illinois.

On Saturday, coach Eric Musselman’s team will get a major opportunity in the form of a home game against No. 10 Nebraska. With a win, USC could improve its lowly 2-7 mark against Quad 1 opponents.

Indiana

Since a double-overtime road win against UCLA that improved their record to 15-7, the Hoosiers have lost four of their past six games, including three in a row. While losses, even lopsided ones, to Illinois and Purdue can be forgiven, a home setback last Tuesday against a 12-16 Northwestern team could loom large come Selection Sunday.

Indiana is only 8-9 in Big Ten play, though coach Darian DeVries’ team is still holding on at No. 38 in the NET — even if that includes a 2-10 mark in Quad 1 games.

More: Make no mistake, Indiana is a football school. It's not even close

West Virginia

DeVries’ current team is sitting in a slightly better spot than his former one. The Mountaineers have dropped three in a row, including losses to Utah and Oklahoma State teams that are a combined 7-23 in Big 12 play.

West Virginia’s down to No. 64 on KenPom, No. 66 in the NET and its negative-2.07 Wins Above Bubble are 69th in Division I. Even wins against BYU and UCF to cap off the regular season may not be enough at this point for a team that likely needs a run in the Big 12 tournament to get on the right side of the bubble.

Santa Clara

The margin for error for teams outside the sport’s power conferences, even in a league as strong as the West Coast Conference this season, is sadly small for teams hoping to get an at-large berth into the NCAA Tournament.

The Broncos find themselves in that precarious position, with a No. 38 ranking on KenPom and a No. 41 ranking in the NET, but with two losses in their past three games, albeit against WCC powerhouses Gonzaga and Saint Mary’s. Those losses, while understandable, deprived Santa Clara of a chance to improve its 1-5 record in Quad 1 games.

Ohio State

The Buckeyes have only one non-Quad 1 loss this season — a 67-66 setback on a buzzer-beater at Pitt on Nov. 28 — but they’ve failed to do much of anything in their biggest games of the season. Ohio State is just 1-10 in Quad 1 games and is 4-6 since a 13-5 start.

It can reverse that discouraging trend, if even just temporarily, on Sunday, when it hosts No. 8 Purdue. A win against the Boilermakers could get the Buckeyes back on the right side of the bubble.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: March Madness bubble winners, losers: Auburn struggles, Indiana sweats

The Washington Wizards host the Toronto Raptors tonight. Let’s get to it.

Game info

When: 7 p.m. ET on Saturday, Feb. 28

Where: Capital One Arena, Washington

How to watch: Monumental Sports Network

Injuries

Wizards: Trae Young, Anthony Davis, Cam Whitmore and Alex Sarr all remain OUT. Tristan Vukcevic and Kyshawn George are both listed as DAY-TO-DAY. D’Angelo Russell remains OUT and will not report to the team.

Raptors: Chucky Hepburn is OUT. Collin Murray-Boyles is DOUBTFUL.

Game notes and more

The Wizards come back to DC after two whoopings by the Atlanta Hawks. The two losses also drop them to a 16-42 record, guaranteeing them yet another sub. 500 season. The Raptors have also lost three of their last five games, with their most recent loss coming last Wednesday to the San Antonio Spurs. Toronto is 34-25 and comfortably in a guaranteed Top 6 playoff spot. On paper, it’s safe to say that the Wizards will have a difficult time winning this one, but we shall see!

Warriors sign young forward Gui Santos to multi-year contract extension originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

With several Warriors stars sidelined due to injury, Gui Santos has stepped up in a consistent and dependable way in recent weeks.

And on Saturday, the versatile forward was rewarded.

Golden State signed Santos to a multi-year contract extension, the team announced in a statement.

ESPN’s Shams Charania reported, citing sources, that the deal is a three-year, $15 million contract extension with the franchise, which includes a player option in 2028-29.

Santos had 11 DNP-CDs (Did Not Play, Coach’s Decision) this season before the season-ending injury to Warriors star forward Jimmy Butler in late January. Santos has played heavy minutes every game since then, averaging 13 points on 57.6-percent shooting from the field and 41.7 percent from 3-point range, with 5.1 rebounds, 3.3 assists and 1.4 steals in 26.6 minutes.

The injury bug since has carried over to other Warriors players, such as Steph Curry, who has missed the last nine games with a knee issue.

Down two key starters, Santos has had to take on a different role to try and keep the Warriors afloat in the Western Conference. With Curry out, Santos has taken on more ball-handling duties and served more as a point-forward — a role he said he’s really enjoyed.

In the nine games without Curry — all games Santos has started — the 23-year-old has averaged 15.2 points on 57.87 percent shooting and 43.6 percent from distance, with 5.9 rebounds, 4.2 assists and 1.7 steals in 30.3 minutes played.

The timing is quite fitting, too, as Santos was just speaking to reporters after practice Friday about his NBA journey.

“I think the keyword for that is patience,” Santos said. “Because when I got here, I was a point guard. Playing back in Brazil was like playing as a point guard, you know, having the ball in my hands. I spent the whole year in the G League (2022-23) just learning how to fit the system.”

It appears the patience has paid off.

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SOLDEU, Andorra (AP) — Emma Aicher dominated the first women’s super-G since the Olympics to earn her fifth career World Cup win Saturday as the fight for the season discipline title got fresh impetus.

The German allrounder posted the fastest split times in the first two sections of the Aliga course and became the first skier with multiple super-G wins this season.

“Feels pretty good, to be honest. I had really fun skiing today,” said Aicher, who won silver medals in the downhill and the team combined but didn’t finish the super-G at the Milan Cortina Games this month.

Aicher finished 0.88 seconds ahead of Alice Robinson of New Zealand. Robinson closed the gap to World Cup super-G leader Sofia Goggia to 20 points with three events left, including one on Sunday on the same hill.

The Italian came 1.32 seconds behind Aicher in sixth.

Robinson, who won the season-opening super-G in Switzerland last December, said she felt “really proud of myself for getting the most out of the sections I knew I could ski fast. It's really nice to be back on the podium."

Corinne Suter, who won Friday’s downhill, trailed by 0.98 in third and was the last skier to finish within a second of Aicher’s winning time.

Racing in perfect sunny conditions, Aicher had a near-flawless run on the challenging course, where only 37 of the 55 starters managed to complete their run.

Aicher celebrated by pumping her fist after crossing the finish line with a commanding lead, and said she was surprised by her huge advantage of nearly nine-tenths of a second.

“It felt good at the top, the flat part. The steep part, the super-G part where the turns were, I mean, it was OK but not ideal,” said the German, whose win saw her overtake Lindsey Vonn into third place in the super-G standings, 96 points behind Goggia.

Vonn is out since badly injuring her left leg in a frightening crash in the Olympic downhill.

Two-time Olympic champion Federica Brignone was more than two seconds off the lead.

The Italian, who returned from a broken left leg just before the Milan Cortina Games and then won gold in super-G and giant slalom, skipped Friday’s downhill and seemed to struggle with landing the many jumps in the course.

Saturday's race was interrupted following a nasty crash from Ricarda Haaser, who was transported off the hill on a rescue sled. The Austrian ski federation said Haaser fractured the tibial plateau in her left knee and was set to travel back to Austria on Saturday for treatment.

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AP skiing: https://apnews.com/hub/alpine-skiing

Tonight the Golden State Warriors host the Los Angeles Lakers at Chase Center without Steph Curry or Jimmy Butler, and with Kristaps Porzingis listed as questionable after missing three straight games with an illness. Golden State’s starting lineup reads like a beautiful fever dream of hustlers, grinders, and some guys your casual fan couldn’t pick out of a police lineup two months ago. And yet here we are, asking whether this team can steal a game that any rational observer would hand to LA on a silver platter.

The Lakers roll in at 34-24, losers of three straight, having dropped games to a Celtics team missing Jayson Tatum, a Magic squad without Franz Wagner and Jalen Suggs, and a Suns team operating without Devin Booker and Dillon Brooks. That last one genuinely defies physics. Los Angeles has the firepower to cover for dysfunction, Luka Doncic is averaging 32.7 points, 7.8 rebounds, and 8.6 assists per game and the ageless wonder LeBron James remains a very dangerous LeBron James. But a team built to contend shouldn’t be slumping like that against shorthanded opponents.

Golden State Warriors vs. Los Angeles Lakers

When: February 28, 2026 | 5:30 PM PT

Where: Chase Center

TV: ABC

Radio: 95.7 The Game

Meanwhile, the Warriors just went into Memphis two nights ago and posted 133 points on 37 assists. 8 of 9 players scored in double figures led by a career-high 21 points from rookie Will Richard. This team has spent February being elite in assist percentage and assisted basket rate, building something cohesive and joyful in the wreckage of a catastrophic injury report. The key question for tonight is whether Porzingis suits up.

Steve Kerr confirmed the POTS reports were misinformation and expressed genuine optimism that KP could return. If he plays, suddenly the Warriors have a legitimate interior presence who changes the calculus on both ends. If he doesn’t, the Warriors’ only path is chaos with bodies flying at Luka and LeBron crowding the paint and erasing runways.

What this Golden State group has proven is that they refuse to audition for the tank. That matters tonight. The Warriors are at 31-28 and fighting for playoff positioning while the Lakers sit three games ahead in the West. A win here tightens the race and sends a message that the next month is going to be a lot more interesting than anyone expected.

If Golden State steals this one, the Western Conference math tightens and the league has to take this group seriously. Not as a feel-good story but as a problem.That’s why we watch the games folks!

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander marked his return from injury with 36 points as the Oklahoma City Thunder beat the Denver Nuggets 127-121 in overtime.

The NBA's reigning Most Valuable Player had been out of action since sustaining an abdominal strain on 3 February and missed nine games.

He played 34 minutes on his return, but remained on the bench in overtime as Alex Caruso guided the Thunder to their sixth win from their past eight games.

"Felt good," said Gilgeous-Alexander. "I'm just thankful to be back."

The 27-year-old was in the action from the start, opening his account with a layup before being called for an early technical foul for throwing the ball at Denver's Nikola Jokic who made contact with him after play had stopped.

Thunder forward Luguentz Dort was later ejected for a flagrant foul after he tripped Jokic, sparking a shoving match that saw Jokic and Oklahoma City's Jaylin Williams receive technical fouls.

Caruso drove to the basket in the final seconds of regulation, but his shot bounced off the rim at the buzzer to send the game to extra time.

However, the Thunder scored the first five points in overtime and hung on for the win to maintain their two-game lead over the San Antonio Spurs at the top of the Western Conference.

Yours truly built a bracket around the most important question of the Two-Timelines era. It’s not about who was the best, but who did you believe in the most? Eight ex-Warriors drafted after Kevin Durant left. Three rounds. One crown. I seeded it by emotional gravity: draft expectations, peak belief, and how long you kept the faith. And now the voting starts.

First matchup: the #1 seed Jordan Poole against the #8 seed Alen Smailagic.

I was in Las Vegas for Summer League 2019 when Jordan Poole first put on a Warriors uniform. KD had just left. Kawhi and PG had just linked up in LA. The dynasty felt like it was genuinely over. And in the middle of all that noise, this 19-year-old kid from Michigan with a quick trigger and absolutely zero fear was out there getting buckets like the scoreboard owed him money.

I wrote about him that summer. I stayed high on him even when most people weren’t sure. Then the G League bubble happened in 2021 and everything changed. Pre-bubble, he was averaging 5.5 points on 42.6% shooting in under 10 minutes a game. Post-bubble, he was up to 14.7 points on 43.3% in 23.5 minutes. Same player, more runway, and that’s all he needed.

Dr. Tom and I wrote a whole season review for the legendary Warriors publication Dub Nation HQ about how Jordan Poole had arrived. By the end of the 2020-21 season, he was drawing shooting fouls at a slightly higher rate than Steph Curry. Steve Kerr said he gets places most players can’t get to. We compared him to Leandro Barbosa as a compliment. We meant it.

And then 2022 happened and it wasn’t the Barbosa ceiling anymore.

Four 20-point games off the bench in the playoffs at age 22 proved he was the sparkplug the Warriors needed to keep their offense rolling. He started showing out on the biggest stages, with no hesitation, serving up Poole Parties to defenders when the franchise needed him most. Dub Nation didn’t just believe Jordan Poole was good, we believed Jordan Poole was going to be the one who kept all of this going after Steph. The dream was that he’d evolve into some kind of Steph clone. And can you blame us? The slippery handles, the outrageous shotmaking, the dead-eye free throws in addition to watching the student take buzzer beaters from the master IN THE ACTUAL NBA FINALS. The next chapter wrote itself in our heads.

Then October 5, 2022 happened in practice.

I wasn’t quite sure what to make of the punch at the time, and honestly I’m still not. What I do know is that the season that followed was the most complicated thing I’ve ever had to cover as a Warriors writer. Poole played all 82 games. He averaged 20.4 points, 4.5 assists, 87% from the free throw line. Without Curry in the lineup, he averaged 26.1 points and 5 assists per game.

But then he’d have games where the turnovers were genuinely indefensible. Games where his shot chart looked like it was affiliated with the Bloods; his playoff shot chart had so much red on it that it was genuinely alarming. In the 2023 playoffs against the Lakers, he shot 34% from the field and 25% from three.

Steph got ejected throwing his mouthguard in pure frustration after a Poole decision in a must-win game. Klay could only watch in horror; he finally ran into someone with less of a conscience than the Splash Bros.

That summer, young Poole was traded to Washington for Chris Paul.

I wrote a season review about that too at DNHQ titled “How Jordan Poole’s Warriors Tenure Ended.” I tried to be fair. I noted that he was only 23. I noted that the turnovers made more sense when you realized he was a young guard on a defending-champion team where everyone had him circled. I noted that the same things that made him infuriating (the shot selection, the individual creation, the relentless ball-in-hands approach) were the exact same things that made him great without Steph.

The community poll at the end of that piece asked readers to grade his final season. Fifteen percent of respondents chose “F – I see why Draymond punched him.”

That’s the Poole story. That’s the whole thing. Not that he failed. It’s that we watched him arrive, we watched him ascend, we watched him win a championship, we watched the whole thing catch fire from the inside, and then we watched him leave at 23 years old with the best basketball of his life theoretically still ahead of him.

That’s why he’s the 1 seed. The peak belief was enormous. The confusing grief was real. And the fall hurt in a way that Dub Nation hasn’t fully processed even now.

Alen Smailagic was 18 years old when he played in the G League for Santa Cruz in 2018, the youngest player in the history of the league. He came over from Belgrade having played above the Serbian semi-professional third division and not much else. They called him Smiley.

The Warriors traded up to get him 39th overall in 2019 and gave him a four-year, $6.13 million contract. And for a moment a real, genuine, Warriors-fan-Twitter moment it looked like the investment might pay off. Draymond adopted him as a pet project, gushing about how quickly Smiley learned and how inquisitive he was.

The front office floated the vision of him as a pick-and-pop forward in the Davis Bertans mold, a 6’10” shooter who could put the ball on the floor and make plays from the arc.

The flashes were real. His shooting motion was fluid. His 84% free throw percentage as a rookie was a legitimately good sign for long-term development. He could put the ball on the floor in almost guard-like fashion for a center. There were moments in Santa Cruz where you could start to see the shape of what the Warriors were building toward.

But there were also the turnovers. The happy feet on defense. The 223 total minutes in a Warriors uniform across two full seasons. The G League bubble in 2021 where his Santa Cruz coach Kris Weems had to pull him aside and tell him flat out: “You can’t try to score every time you touch the ball.” The late-March start against Memphis where he played eight minutes, shot 1-for-5, and committed five fouls. The $1.78 million salary about to become guaranteed. The quiet August waiver wire move that most Warriors fans barely registered.

Connor Letourneau wrote the obituary in the Chronicle before it was officially over: “Even projects must show progress.”

That was it. He went back to Europe, building a career entirely on his own terms. Just a kid who came to the Bay at 18, learned English, learned the freeway, and went home when the NBA dream ran out of runway.

“I really would like to stay in the NBA and not just be on the bench,” Smailagić said one day after he was drafted. “I really want to play.” And Smiley played a little bit in his time with the Dubs. We just watched and hoped, and for a little while that was enough.

SINGAPORE (AP) — Australians Hannah Green and Minjee Lee moved to the top of the leaderboard Saturday to lead by one stroke after three rounds of the HSBC Women’s World Championship.

Green, the 2019 Women’s PGA Championship winner and who won the Singapore tournament in 2024, shot a 4-under 68 and three-time major winner Lee 69 to post three-round totals of 11-under 205 at the Sentosa Golf Club.

American Angel Yin (68) and Haeran Ryu (70) of South Korea were tied for third in the LPGA tournament.

With the final group on the eighth hole, six players were tied for the lead at 9-under. Yin took the lead for first time with a birdie from off the green on the 10th, displacing her fellow American Auston Kim, who had led after the first two rounds.

Kim had back-to-back bogeys on the seventh and eighth to fall out of the lead, but it could have been worse. After seeing her ball plugged in hazard off the green on the eighth hole and having to return to the fairway to hit her fifth shot, she sank a 20-foot putt for bogey to minimize the damage.

Kim finished with a 73 and was tied for sixth at 8-under, three behind Green and Lee.

“Definitely, there are a lot of birdies to be made but it’s very easy to make bogey," Green said. “So I think just limiting as many of those as possible.

“I’ve been hitting the ball into the greens, so if I can continue to do that, and even though I’m playing with Minjee, we are good friends, I don’t want to get too caught up in what her scores are.”

Yin said the margins were close in the third round.

“Good golf and good luck. Honestly there’s nothing much you can do to it," Yin said. "There’s a lot of instances today where it was like one hole, I made this unbelievable up-and-down. That’s skill and luck to me. So get lucky and get good.”

Lee won her first major in 2021 at the Evian Championship, her second at the U.S. Women’s Open in 2022 and her third at last year’s Women’s PGA Championship.

Top-ranked Jeeno Thitikul, who won last week’s tournament in her native Thailand, shot 70 Saturday that left her at 3-under. She was tied with defending champion Lydia Ko and Brooke Henderson, who each shot 71, all eight strokes behind the leading Australians.

The 72-player, no-cut tournament is the second of three stops on the LPGA’s early year Asian swing, with the final one next week at Hainan Island, China.

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AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf