Houston Rockets vs New York Knicks
March 31, 2026

Location: Toyota Center – Houston, Texas

TV: NBC/Peacock

Radio: KBME Sports Talk 790

Online: Rockets App, SCHN+

Time: 7:00

Probable Starting Lineups

Rockets: Amen Thompson, Reed Sheppard, Kevin Durant, Jabari Smith, Alperen Sengun.

Knicks: Jalen Brunson, Josh Hart, Mikal Bridges, OG Anunoby, Karl-Anthony Towns

Let’s be honest about something first.

When Stephen Curry left that January 30th game against Detroit with what we’d eventually learn was runner’s knee, the Warriors didn’t just lose their best player. They lost the arguments about playoff positioning, and optimistic projections about this team’s ceiling, because every reason to believe evaporated with him.

Seventy-five days later, Steph Curry completed his first full practice in two months on Tuesday. Steve Kerr confirmed he’ll miss Wednesday’s game against San Antonio and is “doubtful” for Thursday against Cleveland, but you could hear it anyway. The man is coming back. Or at least… something close to him.

Steph Curry went through the Warriors’ full practice today and is about to scrimmage @NBCSWarriors

He’s out for tomorrow and doubtful for Thursday

— Dalton Johnson (@DaltonJ_Johnson) March 31, 2026

You don’t run 5-on-5 in April unless something inside the building believes he should come back. Now the real question hits: should he? And what exactly are we supposed to expect from it?

On the “should he” part, Curry answered that himself back on March 15th after Golden State dropped a 110-107 game at Madison Square Garden. “That’s not who we are,” he said. “If we have stuff to play for, we play. So, I’m working to get back.” That’s not bravado. That’s 38 years of competitive DNA refusing to negotiate. Curry has been pushing behind the scenes this entire time, hoping to get a rhythm before the Play-In tournament opens on April 15th. The training staff is the gatekeeper here, not sentiment, and they’ve apparently seen enough to let him scrimmage.

So yes, he should play. The question is what that actually looks like.

The Warriors are sitting at 36-39, good enough (or trash enough) for tenth in the West. Close enough to see it, far enough to feel stupid for looking. They’re 23.5 games behind Oklahoma City’s terrifying 60-16 operation. A game behind Portland for ninth, with seven games left to prove it.

“If you told the experts, Jimmy Butler and Steph Curry are going to miss half the year…Would anybody have them at 39-40 wins? No. They’d have them at 20 wins [like] the Pacers.”

– Bob Fitzgerald is impressed by the Warriors’ “grit and determination” (via @WillardAndDibs). pic.twitter.com/njFyPebUeb

— 95.7 The Game (@957thegame) March 28, 2026

Here is where the age conversation gets complicated in ways the discourse usually refuses to engage with honestly. Curry before the injury wasn’t running on fumes. He was running on jet fuel, dismantling defenses that had spent years specifically designing schemes to contain him, finding a second gear nobody planned for. He didn’t look like a player slowing down. He looked like one accelerating into something that nobody has an answer for.

Runner’s knee, technically patellofemoral pain syndrome, is a different animal from the ligament and ankle injuries that have historically threatened his availability. It’s an overuse injury. The treatment isn’t reconstruction. Translation: nothing’s broken. But everything’s tired.

Curry scrimmaging two months after the injury is genuinely encouraging from a structural standpoint.

The realistic expectation for his return is probably 20 to 28 minutes of strategic deployment. What you will see is the Curry who makes the offense coherent again, who forces defenses into decisions they haven’t had to make in months, who gives Brandin Podziemski and Gui Santos actions they cannot generate on their own. Without Curry, those actions simply don’t exist.

The story is whether this team, which has battled through Moses Moody’s season-ending injury, Jimmy Butler’s ACL, and two months without the greatest point guard in basketball history, can find enough juice to force its way into the postseason and make some noise. If Curry comes back at 80 percent of what he was in January, that 80 percent is still better than what most teams can put on the floor at full capacity.

Draymond Green on Steph Curry returning this season:

“What I will tell you is, I don’t think Steph is getting shut down for the season. I do know that Steph is doing all that he can to get back. I do know that he’s progressing well on the court. And I do know that he’s very,… pic.twitter.com/0epOR1zoDA

— NBA Courtside (@NBA__Courtside) March 31, 2026

That knee might rattle. It might smoke again.

But smoke coming from under the hood doesn’t always mean the engine is done. Sometimes it just means the car needs a minute. My first car was a 2000 Saturn with 226,000 miles that put up that smoke for three years before it finally quit on me. And in those three years, it got me everywhere I needed to go.

Steph Curry is not a 2000 Saturn. He’s a heavily armed Galaxy-class warship with plasma cannons and photon torpedos.

He’s going to get the Dubs where they need to go.

ZENICA, Bosnia and Herzegovina (AP) — Four-time champion Italy has failed to qualify for a third straight World Cup.

Connecticut coach Dan Hurley went viral shortly after Braylon Mullins’ heroic game-winning 3-pointer against Duke in the Elite Eight for appearing to headbutt official Roger Ayers in celebration of the shot.

Hurley’s action raised debate on whether the two-time national championship-winning coach could’ve received a potentially game-altering technical foul. On Tuesday, March 31, Hurley said it was all in good fun after noting he and Ayers have a good on-court relationship.

REQUIRED READING: Did Dan Hurley deserve a technical after game-winning shot for going face-to-face with ref?

“Really at that point in the game we had it won,” Hurley said on “The Triple Option” podcast. “And (Ayers is) an easy guy to work with during the game that I thought he was coming over to chest bump me to celebrate the shot. Because it’s not like that for me with him.

“My experience with him has been — we haven’t won every game, I haven’t agreed with every call — so that was, in no way, me and a ref that I had been at their throat the whole game. Other points in the game where I had my arm around him walking out of a timeout, we were cracking jokes and laughing with that situation. … That was more like the emotion of the shot and this is a cool-(expletive) ref.”

Turns out @dhurley15 wasn’t worried about getting a technical at all.

You won’t want to miss this week’s episode 🤝
Subscribe now: https://t.co/kRwZLYmtaLpic.twitter.com/yaSLwjVkJJ

— The Triple Option (@3xOptionShow) March 31, 2026

Hurley also clarified that Ayers — who commonly officiates UConn games as a Big East referee — was coming up to tell him there was 0.3 seconds left on the game clock. It’s clear Hurley felt comfortable with the gesture given their background, and it’s not a surprise given the coach’s tendency to be fiery on the sidelines — especially with officials.

Hurley then brought up UConn’s loss to Marquette in the regular season finale, in which he was fined $25,000 by the Big East after he received a double-technical ejection for appearing to bump into the referee. He noted that situation was much different than the Elite Eight game.

“When I was on my man’s neck, screaming into his neck,” Hurley said. “That was a guy coming right up to the line and losing his mind.

Seth Greenberg, appearing on ESPN, relayed on March 30 that Ayers was similarly unbothered by the interaction with Hurley:

“I talked to Roger today,” Greenberg said. “He said, ‘What are you talking about?’ He literally didn’t know what I was talking about. He said, ‘Nothing happened.’ The ball went in. I was running back. They were celebrating. … That was social media trying to create something out of nothing because of Dan Hurley’s ‘allegedly’ reputation.”

REQUIRED READING: ‘It was heartbreaking’: Former Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski laments Elite 8 loss

Hurley and “The Triple Option” crew, comprising former Heisman Trophy winner Mark Ingram and host Rob Stone, all laughed at the situation in the clip, clearing the air on a situation that became controversial in the aftermath of Duke’s 73-72 win over top-seeded Duke. The Blue Devils’ play-by-play announcer even called for a technical foul on a UConn player who allegedly left the bench and stepped on the court after Mullins’ shot.

Two-time Final Four participant Sam Dekker, an NBA first-round pick out of Wisconsin, said there should’ve been a technical foul called on Hurley. At least, that was before Hurley explained what was happening.

“I have no bias here,” Dekker wrote on X. “This is a tech 10/10 times. For multiple reasons … it would have lost the game for his team and he would have tried to fight the officials like he did nothing wrong. I just don’t understand it at all. Also, referees need to grow a spine in instances like this.”

Regardless, UConn moved on to the Final Four with the instant-classic win and will face No. 3 seed Illinois for a spot in the national championship game against the winner of No. 1 seeds Arizona or Michigan.

All bets are off in UConn’s remaining games with Hurley and those officials, though.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Dan Hurley says he thought ref wanted to ‘chest bump me’ to celebrate UConn shot

Golden State Warriors point guard Stephen Curry is close to making his return. Warriors head coach Steve Kerr told reporters that Curry went through full-contact 5-on-5 practice on Tuesday.

Curry is ruled out for Wednesday’s game against the San Antonio Spurs and is doubtful for Thursday’s game against the Cleveland Cavaliers, according to ESPN’s Anthony Slater. The 38-year-old point guard last played on Jan. 30 against the Detroit Pistons after suffering a knee injury.

Despite averaging 27.2 points and 4.8 assists while shooting 39.1% from beyond the arc, Curry is not eligible for All-NBA because he has suited up for only 29 games this season, his fewest since the 2019-20 season. NBA awards require players to appear in at least 65 games to be eligible. The 2019-20 season was also the last time the two-time MVP was not named to an All-NBA team.

Despite Curry’s ineligibility for NBA awards, the Warriors’ season is far from over. At 36-39 and in 10th place, the Warriors are locked into a play-in spot. Curry is expected to give a boost to a depleted Warriors lineup. The Warriors have lost Jimmy Butler and Moses Moody to season-ending injuries, while Al Horford and Kristaps Porziņģis have struggled to stay on the court due to injuries and medical conditions.

With the Warriors’ matchup likely coming against the reigning NBA champion Oklahoma City Thunder or the San Antonio Spurs if they make it out of the play-in tournament, they could already have their eyes on next season. According to NBA insider Marc Stein, the Warriors could reportedly target the Los Angeles Clippers’ Kawhi Leonard and Los Angeles Lakers’ LeBron James this offseason to give Curry a shot at his fifth NBA title.

Ah yes, the signs of spring. Flowers blooming, temperatures rising and baseball players signing contract extensions.

During the 2025 calendar year, there were 14 extensions of at least five years signed by players under 30 years old. Those feel like appropriate enough parameters to define the typical “young player signs extension” headline. Of those 14, 10 were agreed upon within a month of Opening Day. That’s no coincidence. Things have been slightly slower this season, but we’ve seen recent agreements involving JesúsLuzardo, Nico Hoerner, Pete Crow-Armstrong, Shane Baz, Cristopher Sánchez, Cooper Prattand Colt Emerson.

“It’s a little bit of tradition,” Orioles president of baseball operations Mike Elias said Saturday during Baz’s extension news conference, when asked why March and April tend to bring so many contracts. “Spring training is, maybe, the peak time to have those discussions. Front offices tend to be really, really busy from November all the way into February. And [spring training] is a period of time where you can sort of take a breath, look at your team and maybe lean into these conversations a little bit more.”

The calendar is about to flip to April, but extension season is far from over. Opening Day is most certainly not a deadline. History tells us that a handful of additional players are likely to reach deals at some point in the next month. So let’s dig through the pile of young talent, sorting them into extension-candidate tiers, to see which names could be next.

Pending free agents 

Tarik Skubal (DET), Freddy Peralta (NYM), Jazz Chisholm Jr. (NYY), Trevor Rogers (BAL), Trent Grisham (NYY), Daulton Varsho (TOR), Kris Bubic (KC)

As the most accomplished player on this list, Skubal is also the likeliest to hit free agency. An extension for the two-time reigning Cy Young would probably have to start in the $400 million range. Grisham and Chisholm are also almost certain to test the market; the Yankees haven’t done an extension since the disastrous Aaron Hicks deal signed in February 2019. Varsho is a Scott Boras client, which makes an extension improbable (more on that in a moment).

Rogers and Bubic both play for clubs that have shown a willingness to extend pitchers. Baltimore just secured Baz for the next five years, while Kansas City inked a 3-year deal with young southpaw Cole Ragans last spring. Peralta, dealt to New York from Milwaukee over the winter, faced extension questions immediately upon his arrival in Queens. The righty has a history with Mets POBO David Stearns and assistant general manager Eduardo Brizuela from their time with the Brewers, but there’s definitely a chance Peralta wants to test the free-agent market.

Scott Boras clients

Jeremy Peña (HOU, free agent in 2028), MacKenzie Gore (TEX, 2028), Gunnar Henderson (BAL, 2029), Shea Langeliers (ATH, 2029), Elly De La Cruz (CIN, 2030), James Wood (WSH, 2031), Royce Lewis (MIN, 2029)

Boras, the game’s most notorious and influential agent, rarely, if ever, advises his players to sign extensions. There have been a handful of exceptions — Stephen Strasburg in 2016, Jose Altuve in 2018, Xander Bogaerts in 2019 — but for the most part, Boras Corp clients reach free agency.

That’s bad news for fans of those players’ teams, particularly those in smaller markets. It’s difficult to envision Henderson leaving money on the table to stay in Baltimore; the same is true for De La Cruz in Cincinnati. The Athletics have been über-aggressive recently with extensions, which could put a Langeliers deal on the table. And keep an eye on Wood, who grew up in the D.C. area and might want to stay close to home.

Draft your Yahoo Fantasy Baseball team for the 2026 MLB Season

How good is this player? 

Adley Rutschman (BAL, 2028), CJ Abrams (WSH, 2029), Vinnie Pasquantino (KC, 2029), Jarren Duran (BOS, 2029), Oneil Cruz (PIT, 2029), Masyn Winn (STL, 2030)

It’s hard to extend a mystery box.

All of these players have flashed superstar potential, yes, but not one has finished in the top five of MVP voting, and only two — Rutschman in 2023 and Duran in 2024 — have finished in the top 10. This dynamic presents something of a double-edged sword. By extending such a player, the team involved could be buying low, getting in on the ground floor, or it could be locking itself into an albatross contract. These guys come with high risk and high reward.

It’s a thunderstorm of “ifs.” If Rutschman and Duran recapture their All-Star form and find more consistency. If Cruz finally capitalizes on his immense physical tools. If Winn takes a step forward offensively. If Abrams takes a step forward defensively. If Pasquantino ups his walk rate and pulls the ball in the air more. If, if, if.

Pitchers

Logan Gilbert (SEA, 2028), George Kirby (SEA, 2029), Hunter Brown (HOU, 2029), Paul Skenes (PIT, 2030), Bryan Woo (SEA, 2030), Edward Cabrera (CHC, 2029), Eury Pérez (MIA, 2030)

Pitchers present an equation all their own, as the injury risk associated with the position makes hurlers more volatile than hitters year over year. That means a disproportionate number of extensions involve hitters. Still, hurlers get long-term deals from time to time, including recent signees Sanchez, Luzardo and Baz.

Of the Seattle trio, Gilbert is probably the likeliest extension candidate, given his free agency timeline and track record of durability. The Cubs have done two extensions over the past week; is Cabrera next? Pérez probably has to deliver a stretch of health for Miami to feel comfortable committing significant money to him. 

Skenes, as always, is his own conversation. It’s hard to see the Pirates coughing up the fortune it would require to keep the 23-year-old star in Pittsburgh for the long run. So far, Skenes has said all the right things about how he’s committed to the Steel City and how he wants to win there. But the cold, hard math says his days in Pittsburgh are relatively numbered.

Will they pay what it’s gonna take? 

Riley Greene (DET, 2029), Zach Neto (LAA, 2030), Brice Turang (MIL, 2030), Junior Caminero (TB, 2031), Nick Kurtz (ATH, 2031), Wyatt Langford (TEX, 2030)

These are all sensational young players. Greene and Caminero were All-Stars last season. Turang and Kurtz got MVP votes. Neto and Langford both produced more than 5.0 bWAR. If not for their penny-pinched employers, this crew would all be great extension contenders.

The Tigers have done just one extension under POBO Scott Harris, a six-year, $31 million deal that bought out Colt Keith’s arbitration years. Anaheim hasn’t done one since 2021, when the Angels gave David Fletcher a five-year extension that turned out disastrously. Turang and Kurtz both play for extension-friendly franchises, but both might have already played themselves out of their employers’ price ranges. The Rangers have been operating frugally ever since they won it all in 2023, though Langford is a perfect candidate. So, too, is Caminero, whose agent has overseen landmark extensions for José Ramírez and Geraldo Perdomo.

Guys who just got here

Chase DeLauter (CLE), Kevin McGonigle (DET), JJ Wetherholt (STL), Marcelo Mayer (BOS), Drake Baldwin (ATL), Colson Montgomery (CWS), Luke Keaschall (MIN), Carson Benge (NYM)

These players either debuted in the past week or at some point last year. They won’t hit free agency until after the 2031 season. Time is on their side. Still, we always hear extension buzz around hot-shot rookies. And over the years, many of those rumors have turned into real dollars. 

Baldwin, whose employers in Atlanta are perhaps the most extension-eager organization in baseball, has to be at the top of this list. Expect the chatter around Wetherholt and McGonigle to pick up as they continue to establish themselves as stars. Mayer has seen two Red Sox compatriots, Roman Anthony and Kristian Campbell, get extensions over the past 365 days or so and could be next. Montgomery and Keaschall are both good options for their bad teams to build around, if they’re willing to spend the money. DeLauter’s lengthy injury history likely makes an extension complicated, though he has made a lot of noise in his short time in the majors.

Not even here yet 

Konnor Griffin (PIT), Jesus Made (MIL), Leo De Vries (ATH)

Pre-debut extensions are rare, but they do happen from time to time, as Colt Emerson, Seattle’s shortstop of the future, reminded everyone this week. There were whispers about negotiations between Griffin and the Pirates during spring training, but nothing came to fruition. Made and De Vries are further behind on their debut timelines but could find themselves in the show this autumn with a strong summer.