The Washington Wizards are as much of a rebuilding team as you can get, but they might have something finally working for them. Especially when Jordan Poole is making heat checks.

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The Wizards guard stunned the Denver Nuggets on Saturday with a deep, pull-up 3-pointer to break a 123-123 tie with 1.8 seconds left. A final heave from Nikola Jokić missed, giving Washington its sixth win in its past 10 games.

By Wizards standards, that’s a hot streak.

The NBA’s site measured Poole’s shot as a 35-footer.

More encouraging for the Wizards was a career game by 2024 No. 2 overall pick Alex Sarr, who posted 34 points on 12-of-28 shooting, plus six rebounds and five assists. Before Saturday, his career high was 22 points. Poole finished with 19 points on 7-of-11 shooting.

Jokić finished with 40 points, 13 rebounds and nine assists, which would have helped him in the NBA MVP race had Shai Gilgeous-Alexander not posted 48 points in a win over the Detroit Pistons the same day.

Make no mistake, the Wizards are still 15-51 and dead last in the Eastern Conference, but the win does make them a half-game better than the Utah Jazz for the worst record in the league. Before Feb. 24, they were 9-47 and on pace for one of the worst seasons in NBA history.

Now, you can squint and kinda see some progress for a team that needs it. In Washington, that’s good news.

Jalen Brunson is running out of time before his absence really starts hurting the New York Knicks.

The All-Star point guard, sidelined since March 6 with a sprained right ankle, is now expected to be out through late March or early April, according to ESPN’s Shams Charania. He was initially reported to be out at least two weeks, but Charania said the timeline is now seen as three or four weeks.

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The Knicks have 16 games left in the regular season, which ends April 13, after losing 97-94 to the Golden State Warriors on Sunday. They currently hold a 42-24 record, which puts them in third place in the East with a four-game advantage over the fourth-place Milwaukee Bucks.

In addition to Sunday’s loss, the Knicks have lost to the Los Angeles Clippers and defeated the Sacramento Kings and Portland Trail Blazers since losing Brunson, who leads the team in both points and assists per game.

Charania also reports Knicks head coach Tom Thibodeau and starting wing Mikal Bridges had a productive conversation following Bridges’ revelation he asked Thibodeau to play his starters for fewer minutes.

No team in the NBA has relied on its starters as much as the Knicks before Brunson’s injury, with each member of its nominal starting five averaging at least 35 minutes per game, and any concept of a respectable playoff run starts with Brunson at 100%.

A return on, say, April 1 would give Brunson eight games to get right for the playoffs, which start on April 19. If he takes any longer than that, there might be reason to worry in New York, if there wasn’t already.

The Los Angeles Lakers were without starters Luka Dončić, LeBron James, Rui Hachimura and Jaxson Hayes, as well as bench players Gabe Vincent and Dorian Finney-Smith, on Friday night against the No. 2 team in the West while on a three-game losing streak.

It was closer than you’d expect.

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Reaching deeper into their bench than they have all season, the Lakers lost 131-126 to the Denver Nuggets in a game that was decided by Jamal Murray, a player that has given L.A. plenty of problems in the past.

Murray finished with 26 points, while Nikola Jokić continued his MVP campaign with 28 points, seven rebounds, five assists and three steals.

The only remaining healthy Lakers starter was Austin Reaves, who responded like he has in some past games with their stars out. He finished with 37 points on 13-of-26 shooting, plus 13 assists, eight rebounds and four steals.

Dončić was announced as out before the game due to “left calf injury management” and a right ankle sprain, the team said. 

The Lakers have now dropped four straight games after winning eight in a row and 14 of 16. Three of those four losses in a row came without James, who remains out with a groin strain.

Dončić put up 45 points during Thursday’s loss to the Milwaukee Bucks, his highest point total since the trade that sent him from Dallas to L.A. In 13 games with the Lakers, Dončić is averaging 26.1 points, 8.6 rebounds and 7.6 assists per game.

NEW YORK (AP) — RJ Luis Jr. scored all but two of his 29 points after halftime and No. 6 St. John’s made 14 straight shots from the field in the second half to beat Creighton 82-66 on Saturday night for its first Big East Tournament title in 25 years.

Zuby Ejiofor added 20 points and Kadary Richmond had 12 points and 12 rebounds for the top-seeded Red Storm (30-4), who reached 30 wins for the third time in program history before a roaring hometown crowd at sold-out Madison Square Garden.

They earned the conference’s automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament for their first trip since 2019, making 72-year-old Hall of Famer Rick Pitino the first coach to take six schools to the Big Dance.

The others were Boston University, Providence, Kentucky, Louisville and Iona.

Pitino, in his second season at St. John’s, also became the first coach to win the Big East Tournament at two schools. He’s won three times in his last four seasons in the league, after guiding Louisville to championships in 2009, 2012 and 2013.

Ryan Kalkbrenner scored 15 for second-seeded Creighton (24-10), which fell to 0-5 in Big East championship games since joining the conference for the 2013-14 season.

It was the fourth Big East Tournament title for the Johnnies, who made the championship game for the first time since winning the 2000 trophy under Mike Jarvis. The previous two came in the 1980s under Hall of Fame coach Lou Carnesecca, who died Nov. 30 about five weeks shy of his 100th birthday.

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OWINGS MILLS, Md. (AP) — The Baltimore Ravens have re-signed offensive lineman Ben Cleveland.

The team announced the move Saturday.

Cleveland has spent all four of his NFL seasons with the Ravens, making seven starts. Baltimore took him in the third round of the 2021 draft out of Georgia.

Last month, Cleveland was arrested in Georgia on suspicion of drunken driving.

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LAS VEGAS (AP) — Nique Clifford scored 24 points and No. 2 seed Colorado State made a Mountain West Championship Tournament-record 12 3s and beat fifth-seeded Boise State 69-56 on Saturday night for its first title since 2003.

Colorado State (25-9) will make its second straight NCAA Tournament appearance on a 10-game win streak.

Boise State trailed by 10 points at the half and pulled to within five points during the first minute of the second. But Jaylen Crocker-Johnson hit consecutive 3-pointers during an 11-0 run and the Rams led 43-27. Clifford made the Rams’ 12th 3-pointer with about 10 minutes left that stretched their lead to 60-36.

Ethan Moore scored a career-high 11 points and Bowen Born added nine for the Rams. Clifford and Born each made three 3s as the Rams shot 12 of 24 from distance.

Tyson Degenhart scored 18 of his 22 points in the second half to lead Boise State (24-9).

Colorado State took the lead for good about eight minutes in and led by as many as 17 points in the first half. Boise State used an 11-4 surge to cut the deficit to 32-22 at the break. Crocker-Johnson’s layup gave the Rams their largest lead, 63-38, with 6:48 remaining.

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