| The NBA returned from the All-Star break last night, with 24 of the league's 30 teams in action. The Knicks ended their four-game losing streak with a 110-96 win over the Joel Embiid-less 76ers, led by Bojan Bogdanovic's 22 points and six 3-pointers. Strengthened by the returns of Donte DiVincenzo, Isaiah Hartenstein and Bogdanovic, the Knicks next face the league's greatest challenge, as the Celtics visit Madison Square Garden on Saturday for the first time since Boston's season-opening win in New York.
Even if the Knicks bring back Julius Randle, OG Anunoby and Mitchell Robinson before the postseason begins, the Celtics — who improved to a league-best 44-12 with their seventh straight win last night in Chicago — remain their greatest hurdle to reaching the NBA Finals for the first time in a quarter-century.
While the Knicks are a trendy sleeper to win the Eastern Conference — the third-best odds, at +700, on DraftKings — the Celtics are nearly even-money (+115) to claim it and boast title odds (+260) nearly twice as strong as the defending champion Nuggets (+475).
It's hard to argue the books are wrong.
The Celtics have the best offensive rating and third-best defensive rating in the league. They rank fourth in rebounding percentage, fifth in turnover percentage, fourth in effective field-goal percentage, sixth in 3-point percentage and second in blocks. The offseason trades for Kristaps Porzingis and Jrue Holiday have been home runs, forming the league's best starting five.
 With new additions Jrue Holiday and Kristaps Porzingis, the Celtics rank in the top five in both offense and defense.
AP
Boston's league-best plus-minus rating puts it on pace to become the 13th team in NBA history to finish a season with an average margin of victory of at least 10 points. All but one member of that club has captured a championship. The Celtics are also on pace for the most wins by an NBA team in six years and a near-lock to clinch the East's No. 1 seed, giving them home-court advantage in a building where they are 26-3 this season.
Boston feels due in many ways. It has been seven years since the team with the best regular-season record won the title, marking the league's longest drought since the 1970s. It has been 16 years since the most successful franchise in league history has won the title. Over the past seven years, the Celtics have reached the Eastern Conference Finals five times. And this is unquestionably the best team led by Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown.
Is this year finally their year? Or does more late-season heartbreak await?
Here are the other big questions looming over the second half of the NBA season:
Are the champs playing possum?
 The Nuggets have not looked as dominant as they appeared last season, but it's hard not to consider them a title contender with Nikola Jokic playing at an MVP level.
AP
The Nuggets wear the crown, but lack the respect attached to past defending champions returning the core of a title team. It could be due to the fact that there hasn't been a back-to-back champion in six years or because the Nuggets have only one All-Star or because they are currently in fourth place in a so-called wide-open Western Conference. How quickly everyone has forgotten their dominant run (16-4) through last year's postseason. In all likelihood, the Nuggets — who went 7-10 to close last year's regular season — are pacing themselves for another title pursuit.
Who will stay healthy?
The Knicks don't know when Randle, Anunoby and Robinson will return. The 76ers may not see Embiid until next season. The Celtics' X-factor (Porzingis) has averaged less than 50 games per season the previous four years. The Clippers' title hopes rest on a trio of thirty-somethings (Kawhi Leonard, James Harden, Paul George) with spotty injury histories. Khris Middleton's health cost the Bucks a title two years ago and hasn't played in more than two weeks. Unfortunately, more season-altering injuries are likely inevitable.
Who is the MVP?
Embiid appeared to be running away with the award for the second straight season. Now, Nikola Jokic (26.0 points, 12.1 rebounds, 9.1 assists) is the favorite to become the ninth player in history with at least three MVPs. But Jokic fatigue, and the potential for Oklahoma City to claim the top-seed in the West, could propel Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (31.1 points, 6.6 assists, 2.1 steals) to one of the most stunning MVP wins of all-time. Strong second halves from the Bucks and Mavericks could also put Giannis Antetokounmpo and Luka Doncic in position for the honor.
Who — if anyone — will shoulder the blame in Milwaukee?
 Damian Lillard's shooting struggles are emblematic of a Bucks team that has been wildly inconsistent this season.
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The Bucks remain a title contender on paper, but haven't looked the part. Since firing first-year coach Adrian Griffin, Milwaukee has gone 3-7 under Doc Rivers. Meanwhile, Damian Lillard is having one of the worst shooting seasons of his career, hitting 34.1 percent of 3-pointers, while playing no-show defense. And Antetokounmpo, who got the changes he wanted and agreed to sign an extension after Lillard's acquisition, may ultimately discover that a roster that finished with the best record in the league last season didn't need an overhaul.
Will any droughts end?
The Knicks haven't made the Eastern Conference Finals since 2000. The Pelicans/Hornets have never made the conference finals. The Clippers and Timberwolves have never made the NBA Finals. The Thunder and Suns have never won the title. The Cavaliers haven't won a playoff series since LeBron James left. The Pacers haven't won a playoff series in 10 years. The Magic haven't won a playoff series in 14 years. The Kings haven't won a playoff series in 20 years.
Is another longshot lurking?
The Raptors had 18/1 odds to win it all in 2019. The Warriors had 9/1 odds in 2022. The Nuggets were 18/1 longshots last season. Entering this season, the notion of the Cavaliers (25/1), Knicks (50/1), Timberwolves (66/1) or Thunder (100/1) playing for the title seemed outlandish. The past few months have shown each of those teams are capable of taking down any team.
Will the old guard make one last stand
 The Warriors are on the outskirts of the playoff race but still have the core of a franchise that has won four titles since 2015.
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If Steph Curry, Kevin Durant or LeBron James have lost a step, it's hard to tell. The three defining players of an era — with a combined seven NBA Finals MVP awards — remain among the game's elite. On paper, they each are surrounded by enough talent to make a surprising postseason run. But will their inconsistent supporting casts elevate their play when it matters most?
Where is Wemby?
Victor Wembanyama is the league's must-see attraction in his first season. For those who don't subscribe to NBA League Pass, you can watch the 7-foot-4 French phenom during the Spurs' four more games scheduled for broadcast on NBA TV (March 11, 17, 23, 31). Through 49 games, the 20-year-old has lived up to the generational hype, averaging 20.5 points, 10.0 rebounds and a league-best 3.2 blocks in 28.4 minutes. The best is still ahead.
Today's back page  New York Post
Aced out The Mets will open another season without their ace.
Mets president of baseball operations David Stearns announced yesterday that Kodai Senga has a moderate capsule strain in the back of his right shoulder and will be shut down until the symptoms subside and the strength in his throwing arm returns. No timetable was provided on when the 31-year-old might return.
"What I can say at this point comfortably is we don't expect Opening Day, but I do expect him to make a bunch of starts for us this year," Stearns said. "This is not a surgical type problem. This is something with rest and treatment — potentially an injection — that can move this forward."
 Mets president David Stearns said the Mets would try to find options already in organization to fill in for Kodai Senga, who has been sidelined with a shoulder issue.
Corey Sipkin for the NY Post
In 2022, the Mets opened the season without Jacob deGrom and Max Scherzer. Last year, Justin Verlander opened the season on the injured list, along with closer Edwin Diaz.
Senga, who is entering the second season of his five-year, $75 million deal, finished second in the N.L. Rookie of the Year voting last season after going 12-7 with a 2.98 ERA and 202 strikeouts in 166 ⅓ innings.
Last year, the Mets opened the season with Senga and a pair of aces who had won a combined six Cy Young awards. This year, the rotation includes Jose Quintana, Luis Severino, Sean Manaea and Adrian Houser. Despite Senga's injury, Stearns shot down the option that the Mets would make a move in free agency — two-time Cy Young winner Blake Snell and Jordan Montgomery are still available — with the Mets required to pay a 110 percent luxury tax on any signing.
With David Peterson still recovering from offseason hip surgery, Stearns said Senga's replacement will likely be either Tylor Megill, Joey Lucchesi or Jose Butto.
 Tylor Megill is in line for a regular role in the Mets' rotation with Senga out for an indefinite amount of time.
Corey Sipkin for the NY Post
Megill, who filled with five shutout innings as the Opening Day starter in 2022, went 9-8 with a 4.70 ERA last season. Lucchesi, who missed the 2022 season after undergoing Tommy John surgery, spent much of last season at Triple-A Syracuse, but the lefty performed strongly in nine starts with the Mets, going 4-0 with a 2.89 ERA. Butto, 25, has only appeared in 10 games in the majors. Last season, he made seven starts, going 1-4 with a 3.64 ERA.
Hard acts to follow The most recognizable faces in college basketball have changed in recent years. Mike Krzyzewksi is gone. So is Jay Wright, Roy Williams, Jim Boeheim and Bob Huggins, among other legends.
In their absences, it is likely no coincidence that three of the top four No. 1 seeds in last year's NCAA Tournament were guided by some of the sport's winningest head coaches (Kansas' Bill Self, Purdue's Matt Painter, Houston's Kelvin Sampson). It was the same the previous season, with Self, Gonzaga's Mark Few and Baylor's Scott Drew.
The stability of long-tenured, established winners has also shaped this season, with the nation's No. 1 ranking held by Dan Hurley and defending champion UConn, followed by Purdue and Painter — in his 19th season with the Boilermakers — and Houston and Sampson, who ranks ninth among active coaches with 680 wins.
 Even with a surprising loss at Creighton this week, defending national champion UConn has been one of the most reliable teams in Division I this season under Dan Hurley.
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It can be difficult to foresee the coaches who become national fixtures. Krzyzewski went 38-47 during his first three seasons at Duke. John Beilein was 46-53 at Michigan. Wright didn't reach the NCAA Tournament until his fourth season at Villanova.
Their successors inherited stronger foundations, as well as expectations that may be impossible to reach.
Some are handling it better than others:
Duke: The sport's most powerful brand of the past three decades continues to steer five-star recruits toward Durham. Duke doesn't elicit the same fear, hatred or respect under Jon Scheyer, but the 36-year-old has gone 48-14 through parts of two seasons and has the talent to make a deep run in this year's NCAA Tournament.
North Carolina: Hubert Davis took an 8-seed to the national title game in Year 1. He followed that up by missing the NCAA Tournament with the top-ranked team in the preseason. This season, the former Knicks guard and longtime Roy Williams assistant has the Tar Heels in position to capture a top-two seed in the dance.
Villanova: Before returning to Philadelphia, Kyle Neptune had spent one season as a head coach (Fordham). And it shows. The Wildcats are less than two years removed from a Final Four appearance and Wright's sudden retirement, but the era feels like eons ago. Neptune, 39, went .500, with a first round NIT loss in his first season, and is currently on the wrong side of the bubble again (15-11, 8-7 Big East), entering Saturday's game at No. 1 UConn. Villanova hasn't missed consecutive NCAA Tournaments in two decades.
 Kyle Neptune has found it difficult to translate the success he had at Fordham into his job as Jay Wright's successor at Villanova.
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Syracuse: The Orange attract less attention without Boeheim, but the results look similar to his final years. Under first-year head coach Adrian Autry, 51, Syracuse (17-10, 8-8 ACC) is almost certain to miss the NCAA Tournament for the third straight season, though the Orange are in position to pick up their most wins in five years.
West Virginia: Josh Eilert — Bob Huggins' longtime assistant — was named the Mountaineers' interim head coach in June, following Huggins' DUI arrest, resignation and retirement. Eilert, 43, may not hold the job for long, leading West Virginia (9-17, 4-9 Big 12) to what may be its worst season in more than two decades.
Michigan: Juwan Howard appeared to be a worthy successor to Beilein, reaching the Elite Eight as a 1-seed in his second season (2020-21). Now, the former Fab Five member may be on the hot seat, with the Wolverines (8-18, 3-12 Big Ten) in last place and set to miss the NCAA Tournament for the second straight year.
 Three seasons after leading Michigan to the Elite Eight, Juwan Howard has a squad so disappointing that it may cost him his job.
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Davidson: Matt McKilllop succeeded his father, Bob, whose 33-year tenure with the Wildcats ended in 2022. Thus far, the longtime assistant, 40, has struggled to recapture the mid-major magic, going .500 in Year 1 and sporting a 5-8 record in the Atlantic 10 (15-11 overall) this season.
What we're reading 👀 🏒 Igor Shesterkin and the Rangers clearly have shaken off the rust of their midseason struggles, winning their ninth straight, a 5-1 result over the Devils punctuated by two fights and a playoff-like atmosphere, writes Mollie Walker.
⚾ One of the most memorable moments Juan Soto experienced when he was traded to the Yankees was when he received a text from his idol, Robinson Cano, whom the star slugger has long idolized. Turns out the admiration goes both ways, finds Joel Sherman: "For me, he's a perfect player for New York," Cano said. "He is not a guy you will see going out. He's never in trouble."
🏈 The Giants' current draft position at No. 6 might be just out of reach to grab one of the consensus top-3 quarterbacks. To move up via a trade, though, would be exceedingly expensive in terms of draft picks. How pricey? Ryan Dunleavy found out.
🏀 New head coach, same depressing result for the Nets, who were blown out in Toronto in Kevin Ollie's first game on the bench.
⚾ Mike Vaccaro understands the Mets' plan calls for patience. He understands the vision espoused by Steve Cohen and David Stearns could make for a bright future. He also knows the best-laid plans don't always work as intended.
⚾ Aaron Judge questioned the Yankees' use of advanced statistics at the end of last season. It appears the team heard what he was saying, moving the club's minor league hitting coordinator, Aaron Leanhardt, to the big league staff as an analytics translator, of sorts, for the players. With a PhD in physics from MIT, Leanhardt's job is to help how the advanced numbers are presented to players.
🏀 Joe Tsai is selling the Nets. Or, part of them to be more precise. David Koch Jr. and his mother, Julia, are close to purchasing a 10 percent stake in the parent company that operates both the Nets and the Liberty. Tsai's new partners are, indeed, part of the politically well-connected, and well-financed, Koch political family.
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