The San Antonio Spurs are still reeling from the news that Victor Wembanyama will miss the rest of the season due to deep vein thrombosis (blood clot) in his right shoulder. Yet, the Spurs rallied to defeat the Phoenix Suns 120-109 on Thursday in their first game without their rising star. Now, San Antonio (23-30) will take on the Detroit Pistons (29-26) in Austin, Texas, on Friday, looking for back-to-back wins. Wembanyama’s season-ending diagnosis is a significant blow for a Spurs team that has relied on his dominance on both ends of the floor. The rookie sensation led the league in blocks (176) and had a team-best 27 double-doubles before being sidelined. Despite the emotional setback, De’Aaron Fox stepped up

The No. 15 Missouri Tigers (20-6, 9-4 SEC) have turned the page on last season’s winless conference disaster and have emerged as one of the most electrifying offenses in college basketball. Missouri’s scoring barrage has taken the SEC by storm, culminating in a 110-98 victory over No. 4 Alabama on Wednesday. It was the Tigers’ highest-scoring non-overtime conference game since 1990. Now, Dennis Gates’ squad heads to Fayetteville to take on Arkansas (15-11, 4-9), a team that has shown signs of life after a brutal start to SEC play. The Tigers’ turnaround has been remarkable, and their elite offensive efficiency has been key. Against Alabama, Missouri was: Former Duke standout Mark Mitchell erupted for a career-high 31 points, while Caleb

The New York Knicks prepared for their challenging schedule following the All-Star break in about the only way a blue-collar team could do so: by playing their longest game of the season. The New York Knicks will begin their playoff push Thursday night when they host the Chicago Bulls as both teams return from the All-Star break. It will be the first game for the Knicks and Bulls since Feb. 12, when host New York outlasted the Atlanta Hawks 149-148 in overtime, while the Bulls fell to the visiting Detroit Pistons 128-110. The win improved the Knicks to 36-18, their best winning percentage (.667) at the All-Star break since 1996-97. But it was a surprisingly hard-earned victory, as New York

A significant measure of how the regular season is unfolding for the Cleveland Cavaliers is that they can talk about pursuing other trophies after Donovan Mitchell and Evan Mobley teamed up to win the All-Star skills competition. After a season-opening 15-game winning streak and another 12-game run, the Cavaliers are rolling again with four straight wins heading into Thursday’s game against the host Brooklyn Nets. At 44-10, the Cavs are four wins away from last year’s total when they finished 48-34 after winning 51 the previous season. In both campaigns, Cleveland’s season ended before getting to the conference finals, but this team has a good chance of winning at least 60 games for the third time in team history. Cleveland’s