ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — Paolo Banchero scored 31 points, Desmond Bane added 25 and the Orlando Magic beat the Detroit Pistons 123-107 on Monday night.
Jalen Suggs had 12 points, 12 assists, six rebounds and three steals for the Magic, who won for the fourth time in five games.
Jalen Duren and Daniss Jenkins scored 18 points apiece for Detroit. Kevin Huerter and Javonte Green added 17 each for the Pistons, who had 21 turnovers.
KNICKS 108, HAWKS 105
ATLANTA (AP) — CJ McCollum’s half-court shot at the buzzer was ruled no good after a review and New York held off Atlanta.
Jalen Brunson made two free throws with 1.2 seconds left to give New York a three-point lead. McCollum took an inbounds pass near the free-throw line and took two dribbles before launching a shot that banked in. But replays showed the ball was still in his hands as time expired.
It was the Hawks’ first home loss since early February and put an end to Atlanta’s 13-game home win streak.
Brunson led New York with 30 points and 13 assists, and Karl-Anthony Towns had 21 points, 12 rebounds and six assists. MVP chants erupted in State Farm Arena as a 17-point fourth quarter from Brunson carried New York to its 51st win of the season.
Nickeil Alexander-Walker led the Hawks with 36 points, 20 coming in the first half to help Atlanta to a 57-53 lead at halftime.
CAVALIERS 142, GRIZZLIES 126
MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — Evan Mobley scored 24 points, Dennis Schroder had 22 points and 11 assists, and Cleveland beat Memphis despite the Grizzlies tying the NBA single-game record with 29 3-pointers.
Cleveland (50-29) reached 50 wins for the second straight season and 14th overall.
Memphis (25-54) shot 29 for 59 (49%) from behind the arc with all nine Grizzlies making a 3-pointer. Memphis’s franchise record for 3-point shooting matched the NBA mark of 29 shared by the Milwaukee Bucks (versus Miami on Dec. 29, 2020) and the Boston Celtics (versus the New York Knicks on Oct. 22, 2024). Adama Bal broke Memphis’ franchise record on the 28th make with 3:25 left and he added another at 1:41.
SPURS 115, 76ERS 102
SAN ANTONIO (AP) — Stephon Castle had 17 points, 13 assists and 10 rebounds and San Antonio held on to beat Philadelphia after Victor Wembanyama left in the first half due to a left rib contusion.
Wembanyama’s status for the final week of the regular season is unknown.
San Antonio (60-19) is is 2 1/2 games behind Western Conference-leading Oklahoma City (62-16) and assured of finishing no worse than second in the conference.
Philadelphia lost its second straight as it battles to stay out of the play-in tournament. The 76ers (43-36) are a half-game behind the Toronto Raptors (43-35) for sixth place in the Eastern Conference.
Philadelphia center Joel Embiid had 34 points and 12 rebounds, and Paul George added 16 points.
NUGGETS 137, TRAIL BLAZERS 132, OT
DENVER (AP) — Nikola Jokic had 35 points, 13 rebounds and 13 assists, and Denver rallied from a 16-point deficit in the fourth quarter to beat Portland in overtime.
Denver (51-28) moved into third place in the Western Conference with its season-high ninth straight win. Jokic recorded his 33rd triple-double and Jamal Murray scored seven of his 20 points in overtime to move the Nuggets a half-game ahead of the Los Angeles Lakers (50-28).
Portland (40-39) had its three-game winning streak snapped and dropped into ninth in the West, a half-game behind the Los Angeles Clippers.
Orlando Magic forward Paolo Banchero, right, makes a move to get around Detroit Pistons guard Ausar Thompson during the second half of an NBA basketball game, Monday, April 6, 2026, in Orlando, Fla. (AP Photo/John Raoux)
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — This title for Michigan's newest Fab Five will look better in the trophy case than a time capsule.
Hard to be too picky — this new-age group of ballers in maize and blue showed they can win any which way.
The five fabulous transfers who make up coach Dusty May's starting lineup got down and dirty with the rest of the Wolverines to dig out the national championship on Monday. Michigan made only two 3-pointers all night but still muscled its way to a 69-63 victory over stingy, stubborn UConn.
Elliot Cadeau led the Wolverines with 19 points, including the team’s first 3, which came 7:04 into the second half. The second, from freshman Trey McKenney, came with 1:50 left and felt like a dagger, giving May's team — which had scored 90 points in five straight March Madness games leading to the final — a nine-point lead.
Though the shooting wasn’t great, this marked the fourth straight game in which Michigan has held its opponent to a season-low field goal percentage. UConn shot 30.9%.
“These guys have done it all year,” May said. “When one side of the ball has let us down, the other side has picked it up. Our togetherness defensively ultimately got us over the hump.”
To no one’s surprise, UConn fought to the finish. Solo Ball banked in a 3 to cut it to four with 37 seconds left — and after two missed free throws, UConn’s Alex Karaban (17 points) barely grazed the rim on a 3 that would’ve cut the deficit to one with 17 seconds left.
Michigan also got outrebounded 22-12 on the offensive glass by a UConn team that would not go away.
Not until McKenney sank two free throws to bring Michigan’s shooting from the line to 25 for 28 for the night could the Wolverines (37-3) kick off the celebration for the program’s second title — the other coming in 1989, a few years before the Fab Five arrived and made two trips to the Final, but never won a title.
This game, though, had a 1950s feel to it.
Michigan had to fight for everything. The Wolverines missed their first 11 shots from 3, finished 2 for 15 beyond the arc and won despite the struggles of their best player, Yaxel Lendeborg. Ailing with a hurt knee and foot that kept him from elevating, the graduate transfer from UAB finished with 13 points on 4-of-13 shooting.
“If you’d told me we would shoot it this poorly and (be) dominated on the glass and still find a way to win, I don’t know if I would have believed you,” May said. “This team just found a way all season.”
Truth be told, it wasn’t anyone’s prettiest night.
UConn’s hopes at becoming the first team since John Wooden’s UCLA dynasty to win three titles in four seasons came up short, done in by massive foul trouble and its own terrible shooting.
Coach Dan Hurley’s team missed its first 11 shots from 3 in the second half.
Braylon Mullins, the hero of the Duke win that put UConn in the Final Four, finished 4 of 17, though he made a pair of late 3s that kept the game in reach.
UConn (34-6) covered the 6 1/2-point spread, and Hurley kept his players out on the court to watch the podium get set up for the presentation of a trophy heading not to Storrs, but Ann Arbor.
About the only consolation: The Huskies clogged things up, slowed things down and made Michigan beat them at their game.
The Wolverines came in shooting freely and winning big. In each of their five tournament games, they broke 90 and won by 13 or more.
In this one, they didn’t hit 70 and had to battle to the buzzer. But in almost every way, it was the prettiest of them all — the one that gives them what the Fab Five couldn’t manage — namely, a natty.
“Nobody cared about stats the whole season,” Cadeau said. “Nobody cared about nothing but winning. I’m just had to be part of that.”
Style points aside, this was a championship built from outside — the best team money could buy.
All five Wolverines starters played college ball elsewhere, and all but Nimari Burnett came to Ann Arbor this season. That’s the product of the transfer portal that May has shown no reluctance to use. His ability to form a makeshift group into a winner is still the value of a coach and a culture.
“They might be still calling us mercenaries but we’re the hardest-working team,” Lendenborg said. “We’re the best in college basketball and we’ll be one of the greatest ever.”
AP March Madness bracket: https://apnews.com/hub/ncaa-mens-bracket and coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/march-madness
Michigan forward Yaxel Lendeborg celebrates after defeating UConn in the NCAA college basketball tournament national championship game at the Final Four, Monday, April 6, 2026, in Indianapolis. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)
Michigan head coach Dusty May celebrates by cutting down the net after defeating UConn in the NCAA college basketball tournament national championship game at the Final Four, Monday, April 6, 2026, in Indianapolis. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy)
Members of Michigan celebrate after defeating UConn in the NCAA college basketball tournament national championship game at the Final Four, Monday, April 6, 2026, in Indianapolis. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy)
Michigan celebrates after defeating UConn in the NCAA college basketball tournament national championship game at the Final Four, Monday, April 6, 2026, in Indianapolis. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy)
Members of Michigan celebrate after defeating UConn in the NCAA college basketball tournament national championship game at the Final Four, Monday, April 6, 2026, in Indianapolis. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy)
Michigan's Nimari Burnett (4) and Morez Johnson Jr. celebrate after defeating UConn in the NCAA college basketball tournament national championship game at the Final Four, Monday, April 6, 2026, in Indianapolis. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy)
Michigan forward Yaxel Lendeborg walks to his bench during a time out during the second half of the NCAA college basketball tournament national championship game against UConn at the Final Four, Monday, April 6, 2026, in Indianapolis. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)
UConn's Tarris Reed Jr. (5) grabs a rebound as Michigan's Elliot Cadeau (3) falls and UConn's Silas Demary Jr. (2) and Michigan's Morez Johnson Jr. (21) watch during the second half of the NCAA college basketball tournament national championship game at the Final Four, Monday, April 6, 2026, in Indianapolis. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy)
UConn head coach Dan Hurley reacts during the second half of the NCAA college basketball tournament national championship game against Michigan at the Final Four, Monday, April 6, 2026, in Indianapolis. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)
Michigan's Yaxel Lendeborg watches from the bench during the second half of the NCAA college basketball tournament national championship game against UConn at the Final Four, Monday, April 6, 2026, in Indianapolis. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy)
Michigan's Trey McKenney, left, and Elliot Cadeau celebrate during the second half of the NCAA college basketball tournament national championship game against UConn at the Final Four, Monday, April 6, 2026, in Indianapolis. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy)
UConn guard Silas Demary Jr. celebrates after the second half of an NCAA college basketball tournament semifinal game against Illinois at the Final Four, Saturday, April 4, 2026, in Indianapolis. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)
Michigan's Aday Mara (15) reacts during the second half of an NCAA college basketball tournament semifinal game against Arizona at the Final Four, Saturday, April 4, 2026, in Indianapolis. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy)
