Category: Sports News

SAN FRANCISCO — Steph Curry swapped out a green-and-gold snapback for a navy blue Red Sox hat, changed from his baggy gray cargo pants into sweats and walked across the Warriors’ locker room to Kristaps Porzingis and dapped up the Latvian big man.

Then, he left the building.

Steph’s newest sidekick has yet to share the floor with him, but those handshakes should soon be taking place on the hardwood. The next time Curry enters Chase Center on gameday, the hope is that his street clothes aren’t the main attraction.

“Even from afar, I was always amazed. It was a nightmare to play him,” Porzingis said. “But he was one of those players, you can’t get mad because you look at it, and it’s like, ‘Wow. What can you do?’ Now, to actually be his teammate? That’s going to be pretty cool.”

Golden State’s 118-111 loss to the Cavaliers on Thursday is expected to be the last of a 27-game absence with a knee injury that has kept Curry sidelined since Jan. 30.

In that time, the Warriors have gone 9-18 and more or less locked themselves into the No. 10 seed in the Western Conference. They also acquired Porzingis, the kind of partner with the ideal combination of size and spacing to pair with the all-time 3-point king.

The 7-foot-3 center pulls from 30 feet as casually as Curry and provides a potentially lethal pick-and-roll partner. In two months since being acquired from the Hawks, Porzingis has gotten his own health problems under control, but he’s still only gotten to know Curry off the court.

---

Download The California Post App, follow us on social, and subscribe to our newsletters

Considering the prospect of finally sharing the floor together, Porzingis could hardly contain his excitement in a brief interview at his locker with The California Post, shortly after his exchange with Curry.

“He draws so much attention. And not only does he draw the attention, with the attention already on him, he’s so effective and so good,” Porzingis raved. ”Like, he’s so good. One of the best players, like, ever. It’s unreal, the things he has done on a basketball court.”

Curry, 38, participated in his second 5-on-5 scrimmage in three days before Thursday’s game, and coach Steve Kerr said, “He looks like Steph Curry.” He will be reevaluated this weekend, and the Warriors have not set anything in stone, but word that Curry was targeting Sunday’s home game against the Rockets for his return had clearly made it around the locker room.

“I think everybody’s excited,” Brandin Podziemski said.

But the level of excitement?

“You cannot imagine it, brother,” Gui Santos chuckled ebulliently.

There’s been a noticeable shift in the mood around the team from the doldrums that dominated following the losses of Curry and Jimmy Butler. They can see light on the horizon.

“He brings hope to a tough situation,” Kerr said. “When Steph’s around, the vibe tends to be better, and it’s definitely better right now.”

While the Warriors have five games remaining starting Sunday, Kerr will likely have four at most to determine how best to deploy Curry, Porzingis and potentially Al Horford, too, before attempting to make a playoff run from the bottom seed in the play-in.

In addition to an expected minutes restriction as he returns to game action, Curry will likely sit one half of their last remaining back-to-back, next week against the Lakers and Kings.

“Hopefully we can develop a semblance of a rotation and figure out exactly who we want to play with whom and that sort of thing,” Kerr said Wednesday. “We do have a season full of information that will help us with that, but with Kristaps’ arrival, Steph hasn’t played with him. So we would have to decide, are we starting Kristaps? Are we starting Al? How much can we play Kristaps and Al together? Where does Draymond fit in that group? Which one is he better with? Those are the type of things that we’re thinking about, along with the backcourt rotation.”

Horford, 39, is still recovering from a calf strain that has cost him the past 11 games. Porzingis, for his part, told the Post that he is “getting there, but I still have a good ways to go” in regards to his health and conditioning and has “levels” he hasn’t reached yet.

Health troubles have prevented Curry from sharing the court with another teammate: His brother. Seth Curry is also trending in the right direction after a bout with sciatica. 

“I know that’s one of his motivating factors for getting out there, to get us out there on the court together,” Seth Curry said. “I want to get out there with him at least one time and experience that.”

The only person yearning for Curry’s return more than his teammates is probably Steph himself. Despite no structural damage, the absence has drawn on longer than all but two others in his 17-year career. The “unpredictable” nature of the injury — runner’s knee, which can flare up if not given the proper rest — has resulted in a few false starts.

But his knee reacted positively enough to his return to practice earlier this week that Curry wanted to go public. Fans were treated to his famous pregame warm-up, in full, before the Warriors hosted the Spurs on Wednesday.

Kerr said he believed the decision was “purposeful.”

“Instead of shooting downstairs, I think he wants to feel the crowd. And show the crowd that he wants to come back,” Kerr said. “So that’s the hope.”

Now, to make it the reality.

The Detroit Pistons return to action tonight against a Philadelphia 76ers team that was kind enough to dispatch the Minnesota Timberwolves in their previous game, and with the added benefit of that game being Friday, and thus facing the East’s top team on the second half of a back-to-back. That means the Sixers will be playing without Joel Embiid, who has played pretty well in his four games since a long absence to injury. The Sixers will have both Paul George and Tyrese Maxey, however.

None of those players was available the last time these two teams faced off, a 131-109 Pistons blowout in which the Sixers were so bereft of big men that they trotted out Dominick Barlow as a starting center. Jalen Duren played only 14 minutes in that game but scored 14 points on 6-of-7 shooting and grabbed 10 rebounds. The Sixers have a bit more size suiting up tonight, including former Piston Andre Drummond, but Duren’s game also seems to have hit another gear lately. We will see what Duren, who played high school ball in Philly and grew up 45 minutes away in New Castle, Delaware, has in store for his return to his “hometown” team.

Game Vitals

When: 7 p.m. ET
Where: Xfinity Mobile Arena, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Watch: Detroit TV20, FanDuel Sports Network Detroit
Odds: Pistons -3.5

Projected Lineups

Detroit Pistons (56-21)

Daniss Jenkins, Duncan Robinson, Ausar Thompson, Tobias Harris, Jalen Duren

Philadelphia 76ers (43-34)

Tyrese Maxey, VJ Edgecombe, Kelly Oubre, Paul George, Andre Drummond

Well, now what?

The first version of this article lasted all of about 55 minutes before Austin Reaves was ruled out for the regular season and likely the playoffs with a Grade 2 oblique strain. He will join Luka Dončić, who is out for the rest of the regular season and likely the first round of the playoffs with a Grade 2 hamstring strain

Luka’s injury alone was going to cause widespread ripple effects for the Lakers. Add Austin to the mix and everything is disrupted.

Austin is set to miss 4-6 weeks, which covers the whole first round and part of a second round series, if somehow that happens. The typical recovery time for a Grade 2 hamstring strain would rule Luka out for the first round and, similarly, jeopardize his availability for a second round series.

Those timelines feel like a formality now, though. Austin and Luka are out for the first round of the playoffs and, barring a miracle, the Lakers will be, too.

Where does that leave the purple and gold, then, moving forward, both in the short and long term?

Playoff seeding

The Lakers have five games remaining in the regular season and are not locked into a playoff seed yet. While it went under the radar last week, LA did clinch a playoff spot, meaning the play-in is out of the question.

The standings are still tight, however, with LA one game up on Denver and two games up on Houston in the fourth and fifth spots, respectively. Minnesota has taken a nosedive and is four games back of the Lakers in the sixth seed, so there is a floor for LA to fall.

Having the tiebreakers over both Denver and Houston will be huge.

The Lakers also don’t have a particularly daunting schedule, sans another meeting with Oklahoma City on Tuesday. They will play at Dallas on Sunday, the Thunder on Tuesday, at Golden State on Thursday, at home against Phoenix on Friday and at home against Utah to wrap up the season.

Having said all that, making matters worse on Saturday was Denver beating the Spurs at home, pulling them closer to the Lakers. They will still play San Antonio and Oklahoma City one more time each in its final four games.

As for Houston, they play at Golden State and Phoenix before hosting the Sixers, Wolves and Grizzlies to end the season. While they’ve won five games in a row, the only win against a non-tanking team in that span was the Knicks.

It feels likely that the floor for the Lakers will be the fifth seed, though there is a worst-case scenario of LA going winless and Minnesota going undefeated, dropping them all the way to sixth.

Postseason match-up

Remember the 2013 playoffs? I wouldn’t blame you if you memory-holed that series against the Spurs in which the Lakers lost player after player after player.

In the fourth and final game of that matchup, LA started Darius Morris and Andrew Goudelock in the backcourt with Earl Clark at small forward. Chris Duhon played 43 minutes off the bench.

The playoffs this year are going to resemble that a little too closely.

LA still has talented players available, but this team is going to be so drastically different from the one in the regular season that it’s going to be hard to win a game. LeBron is going to have to go from third fiddle to carrying the offense again, something he may not even be able to do at 41.

A whole lot of role players who had spent months learning how to play alongside Luka now are going to have drastically different roles. Players who probably shouldn’t be relied upon for offense are going to need to score to even be competitive.

In that sense, it feels irrelevant who they play in the first round now because of how outmatched they’re going to be. Success for this team is going to look more like being competitive and maybe stealing a win, which is a damn shame considering where this team was even at the start of the week.

Offseason plans

The summer is going to be full of decisions for the Lakers and they’re now going to have to make them without seeing the best version of this team in the playoffs.

In fact, with the injuries they dealt with during the season, the sample size of the recent, idealized version of the Lakers is about a dozen games. It was a really good dozen games, but it was also a dozen games that ended in a dismantling by the Thunder.

The playoffs were supposed to serve as the big stress test for the team to learn if this really worked, particularly against the top teams, and where they needed changes. We’re not even going to get a glimpse of that now with so many players likely being slotted into unfamiliar roles in the postseason.

Instead, the front office will have to make decisions this summer with an incomplete data set.

Is it worth bringing LeBron back this summer or is it time to rip off the band-aid? Do they need another center this summer? Two new centers? How do some of the Lakers’ role players set for free agency hold up in the playoffs alongside Luka like Rui Hachimura or Luke Kennard?

These are all questions this front office won’t have fully satisfactory answers on, which is what makes this injury such a gut punch.

You can follow Jacob on Twitter at @JacobRude or on Bluesky at @jacobrude.bsky.social.

The San Antonio Spurs came up short in one of their final tests of the regular season, ending their win streak at 11. The Nuggets are battle-tested, deploying the top offense in the NBA, and they were the better team in the crucible.

Nikola Jokić feasted in the lane, but the Spurs couldn’t be stopped from getting there, either. It also helped that they kept their groove going in most of the non-Victor Wembanyama minutes, and the Nuggets weren’t as strong with Jokić resting. Still, it was a close game that required overtime, and the difference was the Spurs losing control and going cold after Jokić checked in for the last time.

Observations

• This is as good as it gets to a playoff appetizer. Thirteen 3-pointers came in the first quarter as both teams showed high-level horsepower and the level of physicality increased as the game went on. The stakes were high for both teams as the Spurs had a chance of catching the first seed, and the Nuggets are trying to maintain home-court advantage in round one of the playoffs. 
• The Nuggets had the Spurs on the ropes in the third quarter, and they survived thanks to Julian Champagnie, Wembanyama and Stephon Castle putting the offense on their shoulders. The three of them combined for seven baskets in that span, yet the Nuggets went on a big run late in the period with them on the bench, cutting the Spurs’ lead to four going into the fourth quarter. The Spurs took advantage of the non-Jokić minutes, but the script flipped, and they were put in too many scrambles.
• Nikola Jokić is the best player in the world, and making him work on defense is a necessity because he doesn’t want to guard anybody. The Nuggets tried to hide him on the smaller players, but the Spurs did a good job of going at him.
• Wembanyama and Castle each had two fouls in the first quarter, but they didn’t let that affect their aggression and they continued charging into the paint. Wembanyama’s activity generated 11 of his 17 free throw attempts in the first half. On top of that, his presence was a big reason why the Nuggets struggled to score in the lane. Still, Jokić outplayed him in crunch time.
• Christian Braun was the guy the Spurs left open to clog the lane, and he made five 3-pointers. Despite the production, he was the right player for the Spurs to try that against because he’s been awful on open and wide-open attempts this year.
• Jokić took an accidental smack to the face by Wembanyama in the first quarter, and then took a shot to the upper chest by Keldon Johnson late in the second. He usually comes out like a madman after getting battered and bruised, and he finished with 40 points on 52 percent shooting.
• The Spurs have been almost unbeatable when they score at least 70 points in the first half. After this loss, their record drops to 15-3.
• De’Aaron Fox had five baskets in the fourth quarter, but he made a huge mistake, causing a four-point play by lunging at a shooter, which cut the team’s lead to two points late in the game. He also missed some critical shots in overtime.

Michigan basketball has been an indomitable force in the 2026 NCAA men’s basketball tournament, marching its way to the Final Four with four victories that were decided by an average of 22.5 points per game.

While their triumphs have been the product of hard, diligent work from players and coaches, one figure has loomed particularly large in the Wolverines’ path to a 35-3 record.

Yaxel Lendeborg has been an overwhelming driver for Michigan in his first season with the program. After averaging a double-double in each of the previous two years at UAB, the 6-foot-9 forward was the prize of last year’s transfer portal haul, choosing Dusty May and the Wolverines over a number of other extremely interested suitors. 

REQUIRED READING: March Madness games today: Final Four schedule and game breakdowns

Lendeborg has more than lived up to the hopes that greeted him in Ann Arbor, earning first-team All-American and Big Ten player of the year honors for a Michigan team that’s two wins away from its first national title since 1989.

Lendeborg’s do-everything success on the floor has made him a figure of intense interest not only for college basketball fans, but NBA front offices who will be vying for his services during the 2026 NBA Draft.

As his team prepares to play fellow No. 1 seed Arizona in the Final Four on Saturday, April 4, here’s a closer look at Lendeborg:

Yaxel Lendeborg age

Lendeborg is one of the older players in this year’s Final Four. The Michigan standout is 23 years old and will turn 24 in September, ahead of what will be his rookie season in the NBA.

Yaxel Lendeborg draft

Lendeborg is widely regarded as a lottery pick in the 2026 NBA Draft.

Here’s a look at where various mock drafts have the Wolverines star going:

• USA TODAY Sports: No. 7 overall to the Memphis Grizzlies
• ESPN: No. 17 overall to the Memphis Grizzlies
• Bleacher Report: No. 13 overall to the Charlotte Hornets 
• CBS Sports: No. 16 overall to the Memphis Grizzlies
• SB Nation: No. 6 overall to the Los Angeles Clippers
• Yahoo Sports: No. 16 overall to the Charlotte Hornets

REQUIRED READING: Arizona vs Michigan predictions: Who will win in Final Four, play for national championship?

Yaxel Lendeborg stats

This season, Lendeborg is averaging 15.2 points, seven rebounds and 3.3 assists per game. Since the first round of the NCAA tournament, he’s been even better, averaging 25 points, 8.3 rebounds and 4.3 assists per game while shooting 61.4% overall, including 52.6% from 3-point range in Michigan’s past three games.

Here’s a look at his stats from this season:

• 2023-24 (UAB): 13.8 points per game, 10.6 rebounds per game, 2.1 assists per game, 2.1 blocks per game, 0.7 steals per game, 51.3% on field goals, 33.3% on 3s
• 2024-25 (UAB): 17.7 points per game, 11.4 rebounds per game, 4.2 assists per game, 1.8 blocks per game, 1.7 steals per game, 52.2% on field goals, 35.7% on 3s
• 2025-26 (Michigan): 15.2 points per game, 7 rebounds per game, 3.3 assists per game, 1.3 blocks per game, 1.2 steals per game, 52% on field goals, 37% on 3s

Yaxel Lendeborg height

Lendeborg is listed on Michigan’s official roster at 6-foot-9.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: How old is Yaxel Lendeborg? Age, stats, mock drafts for Michigan basketball star