PHOENIX — Collin Sexton scored 30 points and the Chicago Bulls held off the Phoenix Suns 105-103 on Thursday night for their second victory in three games following an 11-game losing streak.

Down 12 with under six minutes left, Phoenix pulled to 104-103 on Devin Booker’s 3-pointer with 23 seconds left.

Jalen Green had a chance to give the Suns’ their first lead, but missed a running layup, with Phoenix’s Amir Coffey fouling Nick Richards with 4.1 seconds to go. Richards made the first free throw and missed the second, with a scramble for the rebound running out the clock.

Tre Jones added 21 points and Guerschon Yabusele had 16 for Chicago in the opener of a five-game trip. The Bulls were without Matas Buzelis and Josh Giddey after they injured ankles in a home loss to Oklahoma City on Tuesday night.

Booker led Phoenix with 27 points in his second game after missing four because of a right hip injury. Grayson Allen added 21 points. Green had 12 points on 5-of-20 shooting. He was 1 of 8 from 3-point range.

SAN ANTONIO — Victor Wembanyama had 38 points, 16 rebounds and five blocks and San Antonio never trailed in completing a sweep of Detroit.

De’Aaron Fox had 29 points, and Stephon Castle added 11 points and 12 assists in San Antonio’s first game at home after a nearly a month-long trip.

Cade Cunningham had 26 points and Isaiah Stewart added 18 points in Detroit’s second straight loss. The Pistons, who closed their trip 1-2, remained atop the Eastern Conference at 45-16.

A potential NBA Finals matchup resulted in another double-digit victory for the red-hot Spurs.

San Antonio has won 13 of 14 games, including a 114-103 victory over the Pistons on Feb. 23 in Detroit, and remain second in the West at 45-17.

The Spurs rolled to a 10-2 lead in their first game in San Antonio since Feb. 7. The lead expanded to 17 points in the opening quarter as the Spurs shot 54% on 3-pointers.

Detroit lost Ausur Thompson two minutes into the game when he sprained his right ankle.

San Antonio was 13 for 37 on 3-pointers in shooting 35%.

WASHINGTON — Ace Bailey crashed Trae Young’s Washington debut, scoring 21 of his career-high 32 points in the first half to lift Utah to a victory.

Young, who was traded from Atlanta to Washington in January, had 12 points and six assists while playing just 19 minutes. He’d been sidelined by knee and quadriceps injuries and was on a minutes restriction.

Juju Reese had 18 points and 20 rebounds for the Wizards, who have lost seven straight. Utah snapped a seven-game skid of its own.

Bailey, who was taken by the Jazz with the fifth pick in last year’s draft — one spot ahead of where Washington picked — made seven 3-pointers while surpassing his previous high of 25 points.

Although Young’s appearance in the starting lineup was welcomed by the home crowd, the Wizards trailed by 14 after one quarter. Washington’s Tre Johnson missed a breakaway dunk in the second, and although Young provided his share of highlights — including a pass between the legs of a defender to set up Anthony Gill’s layup in the third — Washington couldn’t come all the way back.

MIAMI — Tyler Herro scored 25 points, Bam Adebayo added 21 and Miami beat Brooklyn, sending the Nets to their 10th consecutive loss.

Jaime Jaquez Jr. scored 18 for the Heat (34-29), who have won six of eight and moved five games over .500 for the first time since the first week of December. Pelle Larsson and Kel’el Ware each had 16 points for Miami — with Ware adding 11 rebounds and seven blocked shots.

The Heat also improved to 15-5 on March 5 — or “305 Day,” as it is called in Miami, a nod to the city’s primary area code. No active NBA franchise has a better record on that date.

Michael Porter Jr. scored 27 points for Brooklyn, which also lost at Miami on Tuesday. Noah Clowney scored 17, Nic Claxton had 16 and Ziaire Williams finished with 15 for the Nets. Brooklyn briefly led in the third quarter, but gave up 66 points in the second half.

Miami had a 54-34 edge in bench scoring and shot 53%.

ORLANDO, Fla. — Wendell Carter Jr. made a go-ahead dunk with 1.4 seconds left, and Orlando beat Dallas to spoil Cooper Flagg’s return from injury.

Flagg’s three-point play with 37.3 seconds left gave Dallas a four-point lead, but Orlando scored the last five points. Jalen Suggs hit a 3-pointer with 32.2 seconds left, and after Flagg missed a jumper, Suggs fed Carter in the paint for the decisive slam.

Tristan da Silva led the Magic with 19 points. Suggs finished with 17 points and seven assists, Paolo Banchero had 16 points and 12 rebounds, and Carter scored 15.

Flagg scored 18 points on 7-of-22 shooting in 26 minutes. The top pick in the NBA draft and the league’s highest-scoring rookie, he had missed the previous eight games with a sprained left foot.

Klay Thompson scored 24 points for the Mavericks, coming off the bench to make seven 3-pointers. Khris Middleton scored 10 of his 19 points in the fourth quarter, but the Mavericks lost for the 15th time in 17 games.

WARRIORS 115, ROCKETS 113, OT

HOUSTON — Brandon Podziemski had 26 points, De’Anthony Melton added 23 and short-handed Golden State outlasted Houston in overtime.

The Warriors were up three with about 30 seconds left in overtime when Kevin Durant was fouled on a 3-point attempt and made the first two before a miss. Golden State got the rebound and Melton made a tip-in layup with 5.3 seconds left to push the lead to 115-112.

Durant made 1 of 2 free throws after and a foul by the Rockets allowed Golden State to hold on for the win.

Al Horford added 17 points for the Warriors as Stephen Curry sat out for a 12th consecutive game with a knee injury. The Warriors have said that he’s expected to be re-evaluated around Tuesday.

Reed Sheppard led Houston with 30 points, including six 3-pointers, and Durant added 23.

It was tied with less than three minutes left in overtime before Podziemski made a 3-pointer followed by a driving layup to give Golden State a 111-106 lead about a minute later.

Amen Thompson made the first of two free throws before rebounding the miss on the second. Durant hit a 3-pointer to cut the lead to 1. Horford made a basket for Golden State to make it 113-110.

TIMBERWOLVES 115, RAPTORS 107

MINNEAPOLIS — Anthony Edwards scored 22 points, including an impressive two-handed slam over RJ Barrett, and Minnesota beat Toronto for its fifth straight victory.

In the third quarter, Edwards used a crossover dribble to get free in the lane, elevated well above the rim and slammed it home, flexing and yelling at Barrett afterward. Barrett gave Edwards a little bump as they ran back up the court.

Coming off a 41-point performance in Minnesota’s 117-110 win over Memphis on Tuesday night, Edwards had an efficient night, shooting 8 of 12 from the field and 5 of 8 from 3-point range.

With Houston falling to Golden State in overtime, the Timberwolves (40-23) moved one game ahead of the Rockets for third place in the Western Conference.

Rudy Gobert had 18 points and 12 rebounds, Julius Randle scored 17 and Donte DiVincenzo had 16 points for the Wolves.

Barrett led the Raptors with 25 points and Immanuel Quickley added 18. Toronto has lost four of five but remains fifth in the East.

DENVER — LeBron James broke Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s record for career field goals in Los Angeles’ loss to Denver, with the Nuggets getting 28 points each from All-Stars Jamal Murray and Nikola Jokic.

James injured his left elbow on a layup that pulled Los Angeles to 110-106 with four minutes to go and left the game. He returned with 2:05 left and the Lakers trailing by a point. The Lakers, however, never were able to take the lead as the Nuggets finished off a crucial wire-to-wire win.

James finished with 16 points to go with Luca Doncic’s 27.

Jokic had his 23rd triple-double of the season with 28 points, 12 rebounds and 13 assists to offset nine turnovers and help the Nuggets (39-24) stay a step ahead of the streaking Lakers (37-25) in the logjammed Western Conference. 

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Zion Williamson had 23 points on 10-for-14 shooting, Trey Murphy III added 21 points and New Orelans beat NBA-worst Sacramento.

Saddiq Bey shot 6 for 11 (3 for 5 from 3-point range) and 5 of 6 from the free-throw line for 20 points for the Pelicans, who had lost two in a row after a four-game win streak.

Williamson added nine rebounds and five assists.

Precious Achiuwa had 29 points and 12 rebounds and Russell Westbrook had 19 points and 10 assists for the Kings, who fell to 14-50 overall and lost their ninth in a row at home. They have lost three in a row and are 2-4 following a franchise-worst 16-game losing streak.

The Pelicans entered halftime up 67-61. The Pelicans took a 14-point lead in the third quarter thanks to a 15-0 scoring run.

The Pelicans made 12 3-pointers compared to the Kings eight.

With 20 games remaining and three quarters of the marathon NBA season behind them, we can pretty conclusively conclude the Toronto Raptors are… kind of okay!

Heading into Thursday night’s game against the Minnesota Timberwolves, the Raptors could proudly point to their seventh-ranked defence as a clear indication of the pride, competitiveness and connectedness they play with most nights. 

They also arrived in Minnesota tied for the seventh-most road wins and the fourth-best road winning percentage, which are normally a reliable sign of team quality. The teams with better road winning percentages than the Raptors were Oklahoma City, San Antonio and Detroit — the teams with the three best overall records in the league — so that tracks. 

Scottie Barnes and Brandon Ingram were deserving all-stars, and Barnes should be in the mix for first-team all-defence. 

But it’s becoming more and more clear that it’s not good enough. And neither are the Raptors.

The horse is dead at this point. 

As fun and welcome and refreshing as this Raptors season has been compared to the last three seasons before — the frustrating, underachieving 41-41 year in 2022-23, 25 wins in 2023-23 as the rebuild began, the 30 wins last season as the Raptors tried to tank rather unsuccessfully (though there are worse consolation prizes than Collin Murray-Boyles at No. 9) — it’s looking more and more like Toronto could be simply taking the long way around to the same destination. 

The middle of NBA nowhere. 

With just under four minutes left against the Timberwolves, Darko Rajakovic emptied his bench, pulling his starters. It was an unusual move for the feisty Serbian head coach, given his team was down by 16. The Raptors’ odds of mounting a comeback weren’t great, but they weren’t zero. Hey, the Raptors gave up a 16-2 run to the New York Knicks in the final five minutes on Tuesday night, didn’t they?

But perhaps Rajakovic has seen this movie enough that he knew how it was going to end, so why bother having Scottie Barnes sprain an ankle or Brandon Ingram buckle a knee trying to beat a good team when the Raptors have shown over and over again they don’t have the horses for it? 

The final result was a 115-107 loss to Minnesota. 

It dropped the Raptors’ overall record to 35-27 and their record against the NBA’s top 10 teams to dispiriting 4-17, with just one of those wins coming since Nov. 24^th. 

It’s hard to pinpoint one thing that continues going wrong, other than the Raptors are one of the worst fourth-quarter offences in the NBA (26^th, ahead of another overachiever, and tanking Brooklyn and Sacramento). 

This latest loss was over before the fourth quarter, though. 

It was a game with several momentum shifts. The Raptors led Minnesota by 12 midway through the first quarter, and after Minnesota stormed back with a 24-8 run to lead 31-27 after 12 minutes, Toronto used an 18-4 run to go back up by eight midway through the second. It was a one-possession game halfway through the third quarter. 

And the Raptors were playing to win. For the second game in a row, Rajakovic stuck with a playoff-like eight-man rotation, save for a three-minute first-half cameo from Jonathan Mogbo, who — with Collin Murray-Boyles out with his thumb injured — provided some minutes as a small-ball five. 

Any hopes of developing a deep rotation that Rajakovic trusts in key games seem to have vaporized, which is not a good sign for a relatively young team that believes it is still rebuilding. 

In the second half, after a poor stint compounded an already poor outing from Jamal Shead (two points, one assist and three turnovers on 1-of-7 shooting had him at minus-19 in his 17 minutes), Rajakovic played without a point guard when starter Immanuel Quickley (18 points, seven assists on 6-of-10 shooting in 30 minutes) needed a breather rather than donate more minutes to Shead. 

But trying hard can only take you so far in the NBA. Talent and team cohesion under pressure are tough to overcome, and the Timberwolves — like all the NBA’s better teams — have more of each than the Raptors do. 

Anthony Edwards alone is an element the Raptors don’t have — an apex wing that can take over games at will. He scored 11 of his 22 points — and an epic dunk over Barrett — in the third quarter. 

That’s when the game turned. Minnesota mounted an 11-0 run in the space of just under three minutes, where a sloppy Raptors foul, a Timberwolves offensive rebound and a pair of regrettable turnovers by Shead yielded a pair of open threes and a pair of transition buckets for Minnesota that put them up by 16. 

It stayed mostly in double figures after that, but even when the Raptors showed some signs of life with a pair of threes from Barrett in the fourth quarter that cut the Minnesota lead to 10 with 4:40 to play, the Raptors handed the momentum right back as first Dante DiVincenzo and then Edwards shook loose from the Raptors’ pick-and-roll coverage for open looks from deep in the space of 30 seconds. 

That’s when Rajakovic waved the towel and emptied his bench.

And here’s the thing: for most of the season, the Raptors struggles against the NBA’s best didn’t hurt them. They have been able to dominate the league’s middle and lower classes enough that they’ve been in the hunt for homecourt advantage in the first-round of the playoffs all season. But that margin is slipping. 

The Raptors remain in fifth place in the East, but they are now just one game ahead of sixth-place Philadelphia and 1.5 games up on Orlando and Miami, which are in seventh and eighth place, respectively. Ninth-place Charlotte is 3.5 games behind Toronto, but the Hornets are 16-3 since Jan. 22 and have morphed into an offensive juggernaut that seems to keep rolling downhill.

For the Raptors, even standing still looks like it’s going to keep getting harder. 

The Raptors should catch a breather against Dallas (21-41) at home on Sunday, though rookie sensation Cooper Flagg is back after an extended injury, so no guarantees. 

If there is some good news, it’s that the Raptors only have four more games against teams that are among the NBA’s top 10. They have eight more against teams in the bottom 10. Chances are, their playoff hopes will hinge on holding their own against the eight games they have against teams that are in the mushy middle, just like them. 

1. The ninth man: I spoke with Jamison Battle about playing back in Minneapolis for just the second time in his professional career and the first time since Oct. 26 of last season, which was just Battle’s third career game, and he was excited about it. He was up on some of the changes that the new ownership group, which includes MLB Hall-of-Famer Alex Rodriguez, have made: installing theatre stall lighting at Targe Centre, like they have at Madison Square Garden in New York, for example, or bringing back the ‘Black Tree’ classic jerseys that the Kevin Garnett-era Timberwolves made famous in the late 1990s and early 2000s. 

He said that his only goal in playing at home was to: “Just to stay present, be in the moment and don’t try to do too much because you’re playing at home and just play within the flow of the game.” But last season, Battle played 18 minutes for a Raptors team missing a pair of starters due to injuries. This time around? Even though Battle has seemingly moved in front of Gradey Dick in the rotation, playing ahead of him the past three games, the Raptors’ ninth rotation spot is seemingly a treadmill to nowhere. Battle didn’t touch the floor until the fourth quarter, when — with his team down 14 — Rajakovic played him for the first six minutes of the period. Battle had a couple of rebounds but didn’t get a field goal attempt up until he hit a floater when Rajakovic subbed him back in after he pulled his starters. 

2. The 15^th man: Interestingly, the Raptors — I’m told — are exploring options to fill out the back end of their roster. One of the benefits of trading Ochai Agbaji and acquiring Trayce Jackson-Davis was that it opened up enough room under the luxury tax to add another player. Or at least they will after March 15, when enough days will have run off the NBA calendar that the Raptors will be able to sign someone to a minimum contract prorated over the rest of the season. My understanding is that their first preference is to sign a backcourt player with some NBA experience, although failing that, they could convert one of the players they have on two-way contracts — AJ Lawson, Alijah Martin or Chucky Hepburn — to a standard NBA deal. 

3. But who?: That’s the question. I spoke about this on the pre-game show, and it’s pretty slim pickings, but a few names that make some sense include Lonzo Ball, who struggled with Cleveland this season after a nice comeback with Chicago last year following two years away due to knee issues that nearly cost him his career. I spoke with a couple of sources who indicated he’s healthy, but after shooting 42.3 per cent from three in 2021-22, before his injury troubles, he’s shot just 31.3 per cent since. He’s a disruptive defender and smart passer, and at six-foot-five, he has some size that the Raptors don’t have much of at guard right now.

There’s also Cole Anthony — waived recently by Milwaukee and Phoenix — who could be available. He was a productive third guard for the Magic over the past few seasons and has some paint-punching abilities that could help the Raptors in some situations, as well as two years of playoff experience. I don’t know if Georges Niang — who has missed the entire season with a foot injury — would be healthy or fit enough in the time frame the Raptors are looking at, but adding a career 40 per cent three-point shooter might be nice. One player I know the Raptors have kept tabs on is Lester Quinones, a six-foot-five combo guard who played two seasons with Golden State and had brief stints last season with Philadelphia and New Orleans. The 25-year-old is averaging 22.8 points, 5.5 rebounds and 3.0 assists and shooting 40.5 per cent from three for the Osceola Magic.

Australia defeated Czechia 5-1 on Friday behind a three-run homer from Chicago White Sox infielder Curtis Mead to remain unbeaten in Pool C in the World Baseball Classic.

Australia is lining up among the favourites from Tokyo to reach the quarterfinals, along with the home team Japan. Japan is the defending champion and many expect a final in Miami on March 17 against the United States.

Mead’s homer in the third put Australia up 3-1 after the Czechs failed to convert a double play early in the inning that eventually gave Mead a chance to bat. Australia added two runs in the ninth, including a solo home run by Alex Hall.

The Czechs took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the second on a sacrifice fly by Vojtech Mensik.

Josh Hendrickson was the winning pitcher, and Tomas Ondra got the loss.

Australia improved to 2-0 in Pool C and the Czechs fell to 0-2. Australia reached the quarterfinals three years ago in the last WBC but lost to Cuba 4-3.

The Australians have several players with MLB organizations, including Mead. There’s also Travis Bazzana, the first pick in the 2024 MLB amateur draft, taken by the Cleveland Guardians.

Japan and its superstar Shohei Ohtani play their first game in the WBC later Friday, facing Chinese Taipei, which lost to Australia 3-0 in its opener on Thursday.

The final horn on Thursday didn’t just cement a 4-1 win against the Tampa Bay Lightning – it closed the Winnipeg Jets’ final on-ice audition.

With Friday’s NHL trade deadline looming, the players have put in their final pitch to general manager Kevin Cheveldayoff.

Now, the fate of the roster is entirely out of their hands.

“At the end of the day, we’re still chasing a playoff spot, and that’s what I’ve tried to keep those guys focused on,” said head coach Scott Arniel. 

“This is a hard distraction, it’s right in front of us, but the focus is an eight-game homestand and, well, we’re two for two.” 

That reality set in before puck drop. 

Despite Arniel stating earlier in the day that the team’s injured reserve list was too crowded to afford resting any pending unrestricted free agents, the script flipped by the evening. 

A couple hours after the game, they were dealt to the Buffalo Sabres for defenceman Jacob Bryson, forward Isak Rosen, a conditional fourth-round pick in the 2026 NHL Draft and a second-round selection next year. 

It was a stark reminder of how quickly situations can evolve during deadline week.

“When you’re sitting out two guys that have been teammates the last few years, it’s hard,” Arniel said. “It’s easy for people to just say trade that guy, trade this guy, move this guy. Well, there’s some human aspect to it of family and kids, friendships — all of those things.”

For those players navigating the rumour mill, leaning on teammates with experience in these types of situations has helped.

Veteran forward Gustav Nyquist, who has been traded three times in his career, served as a sounding board for Stanley in recent days.

“I mean, listen, it’s hard. This week’s hard,” Nyquist said. “He’s been here for a while … it’s part of the business. So we’ve had talks, but I think he’s been handling it great.”

For a group that’s become accustomed in recent years to adding players for a playoff push, this season’s impending deadline carries a decidedly different weight to it. 

With the Jets (25-26-10) still several points out of a playoff spot, creating the outside expectation that the organization will pivot to being sellers, the room is trying to balance the human toll with the task at hand.

“Obviously, yeah, it’s different circumstances than the last couple,” Jets captain Adam Lowry said before the game. “Obviously, this year we’re on the outside looking in. But I think the biggest thing is guys in this locker room want to support the guys where there’s a lot of uncertainty.”

The business side of hockey is never more apparent than in the final hours ahead of the deadline. Friendships built over years are suddenly put on hold, replaced by the harsh reality that several players may have worn a Winnipeg sweater for the final time.

“From a personal side, it’s tough,” Lowry added. “You have guys uprooting their families. There’s a lot of things that go on behind the scenes. It’s not just the player getting traded, it’s the family.”

The NHL trade deadline arrives at 3 p.m. ET. Cheveldayoff is expected to be busy working the phones, armed with a clear mandate to accumulate draft capital and future assets.

Winnipeg’s list of pending unrestricted free agents is crowded. 

It includes defenceman Colin Miller, alongside forwards Nyquist, Tanner Pearson, Cole Koepke and veteran Jonathan Toews, who controls his own destiny with a full no-move clause.