Category: Basketball

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Bucky McMillan will ‘have to get to work immediately’ as he takes over Texas A&M basketball

The Bucky McMillan era kicked off at Texas A&M with a lofty promise from the coach who raised Samford basketball to new heights. “For me to leave that place, it would only be for some place that I know I could not just win championships, but was a great place with great people,” McMillan said at his introductory press conference in A&M’s Reed Arena on Monday. Texas A&M's men's basketball team has never advanced to the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament, much less won a national championship.

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3 observations after Sixers' losing streak grows to a dozen in Miami

3 observations after Sixers' losing streak grows to a dozen in Miami  originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia

The Sixers finished winless for the full duration of March Madness.

Their losing streak grew to a dozen games Monday night in Miami with a 117-105 defeat to the Heat. 

Lonnie Walker IV and Quentin Grimes scored 29 points apiece for the 23-56 Sixers.

Duncan Robinson was the Heat’s leading scorer with 21 points off the bench on 7-for-8 shooting. Tyler Herro added 20 points and rookie center Kel’el Ware had a 19-point, 17-rebound double-double. 

The Sixers’ many sidelined players included Justin Edwards (rib contusion) and Guerschon Yabusele (personal reasons). Miami’s injury list included Bam Adebayo, who sat because of back spasms. 

The Sixers will face the Wizards on Wednesday night in their final road game of the season. Here are observations on their loss to the Heat:

Bagley joins the starters

Marcus Bagley made his first career start and the Sixers extended their record-setting number of starting units this season.

The team’s 53rd lineup was Jared Butler, Grimes, Walker, Bagley and Adem Bona.  

Bagley gave the Sixers a 4-0 lead when he nabbed a steal and turned it into a fast-break layup. The Sixers capitalized on Miami’s early sloppiness and forced the game’s first five turnovers. 

Bagley had another nice play on the Sixers’ final possession of the first quarter when he slipped behind the Heat’s zone defense and slammed in a Grimes lob. He’s had some good moments as a cutter and offensive rebounder his last few outings.

Seven games in, Bagley has yet to break the three-point ice. He went 0 for 2 from long range in Miami, which puts him at 0 for 15 overall in the NBA. He posted six points, six rebounds, a block and a steal in his 23 minutes.

More early shooting woes

As a team, the Sixers’ shooting start was again very poor. They missed 16 of their first 18 three-point attempts. 

Outside shooting is one of the areas where the Sixers have ranked among the league’s worst this season. Entering Monday, they were 26th in the NBA at 34.3 percent from long distance.

Walker was literally the only Sixer knocking down threes in the first half.

He was 3 for 7 beyond the arc and his teammates were 0 for 12. After an 18-point game Saturday night in the Sixers’ loss to the Timberwolves, Walker remained aggressive, decisive and low-turnover. His confidence certainly grew as he kept seeing shots drop.

Though the Sixers used a 10-man rotation, Walker, Bona and Grimes all logged at least 18 minutes in the first half. Long-range shooting isn’t part of Bona’s game, but he showed plenty of other strengths in a bright, bouncy start.

Bona tallied 16 points on 7-for-11 shooting, 11 rebounds and three blocks. The rookie’s first block was an impressive, well-timed rejection of a Herro driving layup attempt. Over his last 12 games, Bona’s swatted 31 shots.

Closing in on top-5 lottery odds

Miami led by as many as 14 points in the second quarter and held an eight-point halftime edge. 

A third-quarter Grimes scoring flurry erased the Sixers’ deficit completely. He drained four triples in the third period and the Sixers took the lead with an 11-0 run.

Grimes eventually cooled off a bit and the Sixers couldn’t secure the necessary stops in the fourth quarter. Davion Mitchell’s step-back jumper over Bona stretched the Heat’s lead to 13 points. Grimes missed three consecutive free throws with 2:04 left.

On paper, Wednesday’s matchup with the 17-61 Wizards looks to be a winnable game for the Sixers. Whatever the result, they’re now nearly locked into top-five NBA draft lottery odds:

  • Fourth-best odds: Pelicans (21-57)
  • Fifth-best odds: Sixers (23-56)
  • Sixth-best odds: Nets (25-53) 
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‘Celtics City' beyond the episode: The Len Bias tragedy

‘Celtics City' beyond the episode: The Len Bias tragedy originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston

The Boston Celtics expierienced the highest of highs and the lowest of lows in June of 1986.

Just over a week after defeating the Houston Rockets in the NBA Finals to secure Banner 16, the C’s selected highly-touted Maryland forward Len Bias with the second overall pick in the draft. Two days later, Bias died from cardiac arrhythmia induced by a cocaine overdose.

The tragedy was the subject of Episode 6 of Max’s Celtics City docuseries, titled “Untenable Toll.” Longtime NBA reporter Jackie MacMullan covered Bias’ death and shared her reaction to the emotional recall of Bias’ passing.

“It was the worst story I’ve ever covered, bar none,” MacMullan said on NBC Sports Boston’s Keys to the City show recapping Episode 6, as seen in the video player above. “It was the worst story, because by all accounts he was a great kid, a gregarious kid. And by the way, that can be true and you can still do cocaine. They’re not mutually exclusive. That was just a tragedy of epic proportions for that family.”

Bias’ death marked the begininng of a dark era in the franchise’s history. The Celtics battled and beat the “Bad Boys” Detroit Pistons in a heated 1987 playoff series before ultimately falling to the Los Angeles Lakers in the Finals. After dominating the decade, they wouldn’t win another title until 2008.

“After Len Bias died, nothing went right. Nothing,” MacMullan added. “(Bill) Walton trips on (Robert) Parish’s foot, he never plays again. (Kevin) McHale breaks his foot, (Larry) Bird starts having back problems. That day set off an unprecedented period of time, including the death of Reggie Lewis. It was like that one thing cast a pall over that franchise that was not lifted for the longest time.”

More Celtics City ‘Beyond the Episode’

Check out our footage of moments from “Celtics City” Episode 6 below:

Celtics legend Robert Parish had enough of one of the biggest villains from the 1980s Pistons, Bill Laimbeer. After Laimbeer used his elbows a little too aggressively when going up for a rebound, “The Chief” clobbered him:

After missing the final seven games of the regular season and being questionable for Game 1 of the first round vs. the Indiana Pacers in 1991, Larry Bird put on a show for the Celtics faithful. Bird finished with 21 points, 12 rebounds, 12 assists and 3 steals in 41 minutes while besting Pacers rival Chuck Person:

Watch the full “Keys to the City” episode below:

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Led by LaVine, Kings recover from ‘low point' to beat Pistons

Led by LaVine, Kings recover from ‘low point' to beat Pistons originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

The Kings’ final road trip of the 2024-25 NBA regular season was a roller coaster, to say the least.

After three consecutive losses — capped off by a troubling defeat to the 17-win Washington Wizards on April 2 — Sacramento bounced back with a trio of wins to salvage the six-game jaunt.

Monday’s victory perhaps was indicative of the trip as a whole, as the Kings recovered from an 18-point first-half deficit to claim a 127-117 win over the Detroit Pistons at Little Caesars Arena.

Guard Zach LaVine led the way with 43 points, including 16 straight for Sacramento branching the third and fourth quarters. The midseason addition had it going from outside, shooting 8 for 11 from 3-point range.

“When he gets the heater going, it’s a different type of heater,” coach Doug Christie said postgame of LaVine. “You just want him to touch the ball every time.”

LaVine’s huge night came just 24 hours after another big performance, dropping 37 points with seven triples in the Kings’ 120-113 victory over the Cleveland Cavaliers on Sunday.

The two-time All-Star became the first player in franchise history to have consecutive games with 35-plus points and five-plus 3-pointers, per NBA Stats.

Forward DeMar DeRozan, who went on a 37-point heater of his own Monday, didn’t appear shocked by LaVine’s red-hot shooting.

After all, the two teammates previously shared the floor with the Chicago Bulls from 2021 to 2024 before a February reunion in Sacramento at the NBA trade deadline. So, DeRozan knows about LaVine’s ability to catch fire as well as anyone.

“I just told [LaVine] to keep going. I was supposed to come in for him at the start of the fourth. I told Coach to just leave him in,” DeRozan told NBC Sports California’s Morgan Ragan and Deuce Mason on “Kings Postgame Live.” “He was hot. He led us. Without him getting hot, we wouldn’t have gotten this win.

“It’s nothing new for me. I’ve seen it.”

While the Kings’ rough start to the trip certainly wasn’t ideal, Christie believes it helped inspire the combined 80-point night from his top scoring tandem.

“The basketball universe — it’s an interesting thing,” Christie delineated to reporters. “But I tell them, sometimes you get what you need and not what you want.

“We want to play well all the time. But obviously, in that moment, there were many things with us that needed to be discussed and needed to be — that’s a part of our game that needs to evolve as well. And I think it took a low point like that to make us address it.”

DeRozan offered a similar observation on the impact of last week’s Wizards loss.

“Every individual had to look themselves in the mirror, first and foremost, and understand that’s not the complete level we got to bring every single night if we want to be a playoff team,” DeRozan explained. “Ever since then, everybody’s been stepping up.”

The Kings’ leaders have stepped up the most; forward Domantas Sabonis added a triple-double Monday to help Sacramento battle back from their early adversity — just as the team has responded to that “low point” in Washington, D.C.

Now, with some clear momentum heading back home, the Kings hope to carry it through the end of the regular season. Currently the No. 9 seed in the Western Conference, Sacramento will clinch a spot in the NBA play-in tournament if the Golden State Warriors defeat the Kevin Durant-less Phoenix Suns on Tuesday.

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Maryland losses in the portal continue in the weeks following Sweet 16

The Maryland exodus highlighted by coach Kevin Willard leaving his Sweet 16 program for Villanova has trickled down to the roster. Ja’Kobi Gillespie, a 6-foot-1 guard now headed to Tennessee, is the latest Terrapin to bolt the program in the transfer portal. Derik Queen said over the weekend he would enter the NBA draft.

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Portland signs general manager Joe Cronin to extension

Portland has a promising young roster, including Toumani Camara, Deni Avdija, Shaedon Sharpe, Scoot Henderson, and Donovan Clingan. The Trail Blazers have looked like a team coming together of late, going 7-6 in their last 13 with a top-10 defense since the All-Star break, laying a foundation for a leap forward next season.

The man who assembled that roster, general manager Joe Cronin, was rewarded with a contract extension, Portland announced Monday.

"Joe has demonstrated leadership and vision during his time as general manager, and I'm excited to see him continue building the foundation for a long-term, winning team," said Jody Allen, chair of the Portland Trail Blazers. "We are all thrilled with the team's forward momentum and excited for the future of Trail Blazers basketball."

"My vision is to have a competitive roster with the potential for sustained success, while creating a culture that helps all our players, coaches and staff thrive," Cronin said in a statement.

While details of general manager contracts are not public, Cronin's contract extension takes him through the summer of 2028, reports Shams Charania of ESPN.

Cronin has reshaped the Portland roster since trading Damian Lillard to Milwaukee, bringing in young players and developing them under coach Chauncey Billups, a core that has started to show its potential in recent months. Portland will head into this year's lottery with the ninth-best odds at the No. 1 pick (and a 76% chance they will end up with the No. 9 or 10 pick).

Billups becomes the next big decision point in Portland. Just a few months ago the expectation was that Portland and Billups would mutually agree to part ways when the season ended. However, with Portland's stark improvement in recent months, the tone of the conversation has changed, something Marc Stein reported. Billups' contract has a team option for next season, he's going to want an extension, not for the team to just pick up the option and find himself in another lame duck year. Does Cronin want to tie himself to Billups for multiple years, or does he want to bring in someone new? If Portland just wants to pick up the extension for a year, does Billups think the grass is greener elsewhere (like Phoenix — Suns owner Mat Ishbia loves his Detroit/Michigan guys)? It's a decision point both sides need to agree upon that will help shape the franchise's future.

Whoever ends up as the coach, we know Cronin will be the GM.