Basketball

SAN ANTONIO (AP) — San Antonio is going to have a difficult time adding to the NBA-record career victories held by Spurs coach Gregg Popovich. Take it from him. “To be a championship program, you have to have a couple of superstars on your team.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — The Charlotte Hornets breathed a sigh of relief Tuesday after an MRI on All-Star point guard LaMelo Ball confirmed the initial diagnosis of a sprained left ankle and revealed no significant long-term injury.

TORONTO — Back in the day, a basketball player might sneak into a gym to work on his shot late at night. Now a Toronto Raptor can do it and have a machine verbally and visually track his shot. And then file it away for future comparison.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Darvin Ham was still a fringe NBA player during the first two seasons of LeBron James' career.

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — Ja Morant and the Memphis Grizzlies have more experience now along with some painful postseason heartbreak. What matters most for these still very young Grizzlies? What's next. And they want it all.

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Zion Williamson's return to a Pelicans squad that made a captivating postseason appearance without him last spring could transform New Orleans' long-beleaguered NBA franchise into a marquee team.

CLEVELAND (AP) — As Donovan Mitchell worked his way around Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse's floor recently, stopping to pose for photographers on media day, something stood out about the Cavaliers' star guard. He couldn't stop smiling.

DETROIT (AP) — The Detroit Pistons seem to be on their way up from rock bottom, assembling a dynamic backcourt, acquiring a veteran scorer and keeping a nucleus of promising young players.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Bradley Beal returned to the Washington Wizards saying he wanted to win a championship with them. Now the pressure is on for this team to show that it's at least moving closer to some form of contention.

CHARLOTTE, N.C.