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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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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?

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.

___

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!