3 passes, 1 slam, 60 wins.

The Cavs’ teamwork was on full display Sunday as they joined OKC in the 60-win club.

5 STORIES IN TODAY’S EDITION 🏀

March 31, 2025

Standings Shakeup: The 6-8 seeds in the West all changed position after Sunday

Taking Flight: Rockets get 12th win in 13 games, Hawks win season series with Bucks

Sunday Roundup: Knicks top Blazers, Pelicans beat Hornets, Raptors sweep Sixers

What’s Trending – East: Boston making noise, Detroit & Chicago turnarounds, young stars rising

What’s Trending – West: After OKC, the rest of the West is in flux entering the home stretch

BUT FIRST … ⏰

Start your week with an eight-game night…

Two of the league’s hottest teams highlight tonight’s TNT doubleheader. In Memphis, the Celtics go for their 9th straight win when they visit the Grizzlies (7:30 ET). Then, the Rockets visit the Lakers (10 ET) in a key matchup between the Nos. 2 & 4 teams in the West.

Pass The Rock: Tip off Season 3 of Pass The Rock with Darius Garland as he opens up about his upbringing, the Cavaliers’ historic start to the season, and the challenges he’s overcome throughout his career.

1. STANDINGS SHAKEUP AT THE WEST PLAYOFF VS. PLAY-IN LINE

How the day started (left) and ended (right) in the Western Conference.

Entering Sunday night, the 6-8 seeds in the West read as follows: Clippers, Warriors, Timberwolves.

By the end of Sunday’s action, it flipped entirely.

The Warriors are now in possession of the final Playoff spot in the West with the Timberwolves and Clippers right on their heels.

Warriors 148, Spurs 106: Brandin Podziemski (27 pts, 6 reb, 5 ast) led the way as Golden State put up a season-high 148 points. | Recap

• Dominance With Depth: Podz’s seven 3s marked a career-high for the 2nd-year guard. Moses Moody (20 pts) and Buddy Hield (19 pts) co-starred for Golden State, which saw all 13 players that took the court score at least four points
• Setting The Mark: The Warriors improved to 17-2 with Steph Curry and Jimmy Butler III in the lineup together. They each scored 13 in Sunday’s wire-to-wire win

Timberwolves 123, Pistons 104: Minnesota trailed by as many as 16 in the 1st half and were down six at the break before unleashing a 69-44 2nd half to run away from the Pistons behind a combined 51 points from Julius Randle and Anthony Edwards. | Recap

• Ant-Man Classic: The phenom added another highlight to his mixtape, gliding in the air for a huge jam. Ant’s 25 points were aided by four 3s to give him 287 for the season – 97 more than he had all of last season – and five behind league-leader Malik Beasley (292)
• Stuffing The Stat Sheet: Rudy Gobert posted 19 points and a season-high 25 boards, becoming just the 5th player in team history to post 25+ rebounds in a game, joining Kevin Garnett (2x), Kevin Love, Karl-Anthony Towns & Al Jefferson

Cavaliers 127, Clippers 122: Despite a Clippers’ comeback that trimmed an 18-point deficit to just three, the Cavs held on to pick up their 60th win on the season. Jarrett Allen (25 pts, 12 reb) and Donovan Mitchell (24 pts, 12 reb, 7 ast) led the charge for Cleveland. | Recap

• Third Time’s A Charm: The Cavs reached the 60 wins mark for the 4th time in franchise history (2009-10: 61; 2008-09: 66) and joined OKC (62-12) to mark the 4th time in the past 10 seasons that the NBA has seen multiple teams reach 60 wins in the same season
• Coach Atkinson On Reaching 60 Wins: “I didn’t think we would hit 60. I just wanted to be better than last year. This team took it to another level. This isn’t the end goal but we have to celebrate this.”
• Jarrett 🤝 Wilt: With his 8th career game with at least 25 points while shooting 90% or better, Allen trails only Chamberlain (12) for the most such games in NBA history
• Standings Slide: After falling from the 6th seed to 8th on Sunday, the Clippers will look to climb once again tonight in Orlando (7 ET, League Pass)

2. THE FIGHT FOR SEEDING IN BOTH CONFERENCES

In the West, the red-hot Rockets continued their dominant stretch, while out East the Hawks rolled past the Bucks with Playoff seeding on the line.

Rockets 148, Suns 109: Jalen Green (33 pts) showed out as the Rockets rolled past Devin Booker (28 pts) and the Suns for their 12th win in the last 13 games. | Recap

• Young Shining Star: With his 50th career 30+ point game, Green became the youngest Rocket (23 years old) to achieve that feat
• One Away: The Rockets’ recent hot stretch has kept them in firm standing in the No. 2 spot out West. They sit at 49-26 – one win shy of their first 50-win season since 2018-19

Hawks 145, Bucks 124: Zaccharie Risacher – 2nd on the latest Kia Rookie Ladder – had his highest-scoring game as a pro, with 36 points and five 3s to lead the Playoff-hopeful Hawks to a win over Giannis Antetokounmpo (31 pts, 9 reb) and the Bucks. | Recap

• Finding His Groove: Risacher’s breakout is coming at the perfect time for Atlanta. With his 3rd game of 30+ pts and 5+ 3pm, Risacher tied Anthony Edwards for the most such games by a teenager in NBA history
• The Great Barrier Thief: An all-around game from Dyson Daniels (22 pts, 9 reb, 6 ast, 5 stl) etched his name in Atlanta’s history books. He tallied his 213th steal of the season, passing Mookie Blaylock’s franchise record for most in a season
• Playoff Implication: The Bucks’ four-game losing streak has opened the door for Atlanta to try to break into the top 6 in the East. They now trail the Bucks by four games with eight to play – and earned the head-to-head tiebreaker (3-2)
• Part Of Historic Night: Atlanta (145) joined Golden State (148) and Houston (148) to become the first trio of teams to score 145+ points in the same night since 1970

3. SUNDAY ROUNDUP: KNICKS GET 4TH WIN IN LAST 5 GAMES

A trio of action-packed games rounded out Sunday’s eight game slate.

Knicks 110, Trail Blazers 93: OG Anunoby and Mikal Bridges scored 28 points apiece to push the Knicks to 20 games over .500 with a victory over the Blazers. | Recap

• In His Bag: Anunoby has scored 25+ points in each of his last four games – the longest streak of his career. His hot play has helped keep the Knicks afloat with a 7-5 record since Jalen Brunson’s injury
• Mikal At The Buzzer: Bridges has been no stranger to beating the buzzer this March – doing so against the Blazers on March 12 in Portland – and adding another at the end of the 1st quarter on Sunday at MSG

Pelicans 98, Hornets 94: Jose Alvarado delivered the go-ahead three-point play with 31 seconds left, then dished the game-sealing dime to Keion Brooks Jr., who scored a career-high 17 points in the win. | Recap

Raptors 127, 76ers 109: RJ Barrett scored 19 of his game-high 31 points in the 1st half to lead the Raptors to their 4th straight win and a season series sweep of the Sixers. | Recap

4. WHAT’S TRENDING: KEY EAST RACES IN THE FINAL 2 WEEKS

Nic Antaya/Getty Images

The reigning champions are making serious noise.

Boston sat 8.5 games back of 1st place on Mar. 12, but rattled off eight consecutive wins to move within four of Cleveland for the first time since Dec. 28 before the Cavs pushed the lead back to 4.5 games on Sunday.

Stealing the No. 1 seed would be extra gravy as the Celtics have already secured a top-two finish for the 4th season in a row via their defeat of the Spurs on Saturday night.

• Parquet Power: Now boasting 55 or more wins in three consecutive campaigns, Boston is on a multi-year stretch it hasn’t experienced since 1985-88. The last time it notched 60+ victories in back-to-back seasons was 2007-09
• A Tatum Tear: Jayson Tatum has been the driving force behind Boston’s run of dominance – leading the team in scoring each of the past six seasons – and is leading the current eight-game run with 26.3 ppg, 7.3 rpg and 7.3 apg

Chris Schwegler/NBAE via Getty Images

Chicago is beside Boston in the conversation for the league’s hottest squad. The Bulls have won nine of their last 12 behind Coby White and Josh Giddey’s 29.1 and 20.9 ppg, respectively, this month.

• Back-To-Back: White (Weeks 21 & 22) joined Michael Jordan as the only Bulls to win consecutive Player of the Week honors
• MVP Company: Giddey is averaging 20.9 pts, 9.8 reb and 8.9 ast in March. The only other player to hit those marks this month is reigning MVP Nikola Jokić. Both Giddey and Joker also had epic buzzer-beaters this past week

Postseason hoops are returning to Detroit for the first time in six years thanks to an epic turnaround sparked by All-Star Cade Cunningham.

• Triple Up: The Pistons (42-33) have tripled their win total from last season (14) with seven games to play
• Top 5: Detroit’s season-to-season leap has seen them jump from 15th in the East last season to 5th entering the closing two-week sprint

Fernando Medina & Pepper Robinson/NBAE via Getty Images

March also served as a showcase for young All-Stars Tyrese Haliburton and Paolo Banchero.

• Wand-Waver: Banchero (30.1 ppg) ranks 3rd in scoring among those with 10+ games played in March. Only Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (35.3) and Luka Dončić (30.8) have averaged more
• Mistake-Free Basketball: Haliburton, who leads the NBA in assist-to-turnover ratio this season (5.61) almost doubled that mark exactly in March (11.20)

Several postseason contenders will be in action tonight, including the 2nd-place Celtics visiting the Grizzlies (7:30 ET), the 4th-place Pacers hosting the Kings (7 ET) and 7th-place Magic hosting the Clippers (7 ET).

5. WHAT’S TRENDING: THE WILD, WILD WEST STRETCH RUN

With two weeks remaining in the regular season, we know the Thunder will finish with the top seed in the West.

The rest of the conference is still fluid, with races for the remaining five guaranteed Playoff berths and four spots in the SoFi NBA Play-In Tournament coming down to the wire.

• 2nd-4th Place: The (2) Rockets, (3) Nuggets and (4) Lakers enter the week separated by 3.5 games as they look to stay locked in for home-court in the First Round
• 4th-8th Place: The (4) Lakers, (5) Grizzlies, (6) Warriors, (7) Timberwolves and (8) Clippers are separated by just 3 games. The key to this race is finishing in the top 6 to guarantee a Playoff berth and avoid the Play-In
• 9th-11th Place: The (9) Mavs, (10) Kings and (11) Suns are separated by just two games as one of the three will be left out of the postseason altogether

Joshua Gateley/Getty Images

At a league-best 62-12, the Thunder already have the most wins in a season in the OKC-era (since 2008) and are three shy of breaking the franchise record of 64 held by the 1995-96 Sonics.

• SGA’s Stardom: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander enters the week with 67 straight 20+ point games, needing three more to pass Michael Jordan for the 4th longest single season streak ever
• SGA is also on pace to join Jordan (3x), Dwyane Wade & LeBron as the only players to average 30+ ppg, 1.5+ spg & 1.0 bpg
• 30 vs. 30: While SGA leads the NBA with 47 30+ point games – three shy of joining Wilt & MJ as the only players with multiple seasons with 50 or more – the OKC defense has allowed a league-low nine players to reach 30 points this season
• Historic Greatness: OKC continues to increase what is on pace to be the greatest point differential in NBA history (+13.2) with a 15.0 point differential in March

Jack Gorman & Patrick McDermott & Michael Hickey/Getty Images

The red-hot Rockets have won 12 of their last 13 games thanks to a balanced offense (seven players averaging 14+ ppg) and a stingy defense (109.3 DefRtg, 3rd in NBA) during that span.

• Keeping Pace: With a dominant 148-109 win over Phoenix, the Rockets opened their lead for the No. 2 seed to 2 games over the Nuggets and 3.5 over the Lakers with seven games to play

But, the battle for the No. 2 spot in the West rages on thanks to the returns of a pair of multi-time Kia MVP winners – Denver’s Nikola Jokić (3x) and Los Angeles’ LeBron James (4x).

• Back on Track: Denver is 2-0 since Joker returned from a five-game absence. He remains on pace (29.3 ppg, 12.8 rpg, 10.2 apg) to join Russell Westbrook and Oscar Robertson as the only players to average a triple-double for a season
• Dynamic Duo: The Lakers have won two of their last three – including Saturday’s showdown with Memphis – to maintain a top-four position as LeBron & Luka continue building their on-court chemistry
• Games To Watch: The Lakers and Rockets meet tonight for the first of two critical matchups down the stretch for both teams. The Nuggets and Rockets meet on the final day of the season with the winner clinching the tiebreaker