The NBA's process of finding new ways to deter teams from tanking is currently focused around three separate concepts to change the draft lottery, two people with knowledge of the discussions surrounding the issue told The Associated Press on Friday.

The concepts — they are not yet finalized proposals — were presented to the league's board of governors by NBA executives earlier this week, the people said.

The people spoke on condition of anonymity because none of the details have been shared publicly.

NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said Wednesday he expects a special meeting of owners to take place in May to vote on changes to the lottery, vowing that the league would fix the tanking issue. And one of the people who spoke with the AP on Friday said it's almost certain that the concepts will change or at least be tweaked in the coming weeks, with a possibility of more ideas being presented to owners as well. The league's general managers — for some time — have also been weighing in with ideas for potential changes.

ESPN first reported that the concepts were shared with the governors.

“I will say again, as I’ve said this before, this is not a new issue in this league,” Silver said this week. “You can go back to the ’60s, when coin tosses were used to determine who got the first pick, then in the ’80s, when a draft lottery was created. That lottery has been modified four times since then. Does not seem to be operating optimally where we are now.”

The changes — whatever they end up being — won't be in place for this year's lottery, which will be held in May.

The current rules

The 14 teams that don't make the NBA playoffs go to the lottery, where a four-number combination of ping-pong balls are drawn to decide the order of the top four teams in the draft.

The teams with the worst three records all have a 14% chance of winning the No. 1 pick — and none of the teams with the worst five records can finish lower than eighth in the lottery. The odds of winning the No. 1 pick decrease gradually for the other 11 teams outside the top three, from 12.5% for the team with the fourth-worst record to 0.7% for the team with the 14th-worst record.

“Incentives need to be fixed,” Silver said. “We will fix them. I’m looking forward to that.”

Concept 1: An 18-team lottery

The 10 teams that don't make the playoffs and the eight teams that reach the play-in tournament all would be headed to the lottery. The bottom 10 teams would all have 8% odds of winning the lottery, and the odds would decrease from there.

This is the scenario where the 18th-worst team — a playoff team — could still win the lottery. It would have a 1% chance of winning.

Concept 2: The WNBA model

The WNBA lottery is for the worst teams over a two-season span, not just the previous season. An idea the NBA is considering would be similar to that.

But the NBA would also have a floor for wins as well — the current idea there being 25 wins per season. It would mean that if Team A won 31 games over two seasons, it would have the same odds of winning the No. 1 pick as a team that won exactly 50 games over those two seasons. That floor would be in place to give teams no incentive for trying to lose every game.

Concept 3: Better odds for more teams

A third idea being presented is one where the five worst teams would all have 11% odds of winning the No. 1 pick — instead of the current three-teams-at-14% model.

There would be some pick protections in that model as well, keeping the worst teams from falling too far in the draft.

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AP NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/NBA

OTTAWA, Ontario (AP) — Ben Kindel scored the shootout winner to lead the Pittsburgh Penguins to a 4-3 win over the Ottawa Senators on Thursday night.

Rickard Rakell scored twice and had an assist, and Erik Karlsson also scored for the Penguins, who moved into second in the Metropolitan Division.

Drake Batherson scored twice and Nick Cousins also scored for the Senators. Tim Stutzle added two assists.

Both Linus Ullmark and Stuart Skinner made huge saves in overtime to force the shootout.

Pittsburgh opened the third period on the power play with a two-man advantage after Ottawa took a late tripping penalty and got called early too many men. The Penguins capitalized with Rakell scoring his second of the game at 1:43.

Just over two minutes later, the Senators tied the game with Batherson burying a rebound in the crease for his second of the game. Pittsburgh challenged for goaltender interference but was unsuccessful.

Penguins captain Sidney Crosby took the opening shift of the second period but left after 38 seconds and did not return.

With an assist on the opening goal, Stutzle picked up his 400th point and became the seventh player, and youngest, in franchise history to hit the milestone.

Up next

Penguins: Host the Dallas Stars on Saturday.

Senators: Visit the Tampa Bay Lightning on Saturday.

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AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/nhl

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — Paolo Banchero had 30 points, nine rebounds and seven assists as the Orlando Magic stopped a six-game losing streak with a 111-107 victory over the Sacramento Kings on Thursday.

Banchero logged his third straight game of 30-plus points for the Magic (39-34), who fell below the play-in cut in the Eastern Conference during their skid that came immediately after a seven-game winning streak had propelled them into fifth place.

This was the 25th time in Banchero's four-year career that he logged at least 30 points, five rebounds and five assists. Only Tracy McGrady (66) has more such games.

Desmond Bane added 23 points and Jalen Suggs returned from a two-game absence to an illness with eight points and four assists in 34 minutes for Orlando, which forged a three-way tie with Charlotte and Miami for eighth. Atlanta (41-32), Toronto (40-32) and Philadelphia (40-33) are just ahead, with the top six teams in each conference guaranteed a spot in the playoffs without having to go through the play-in games.

DeMar DeRozan had 33 points and 11 assists for the Kings, who sliced a nine-point deficit with a little more than two minutes left down to 116-115 on Daeqwon Plowden's 3-pointer with 50.4 seconds to go. Suggs answered with a 3-pointer with 27.4 seconds remaining to give the Magic a bigger cushion.

Plowden added 23 points on 6-for-10 shooting from 3-point range and Precious Achiuwa had 14 points and nine rebounds for Sacramento (19-55), which is in last place in the Western Conference.

Up next

Sacramento plays at Atlanta on Saturday. Orlando plays at Toronto on Sunday.

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AP NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/NBA

ATLANTA (AP) — Texas junior Rex Maurer defended his title in the 400-yard individual medley at the NCAA swimming and diving championships, and the Longhorns held the team lead after Day 2 on Thursday.

Texas has 215.5 points, followed by Florida with 205 and Arizona State 133.5.

Josh Liendo won the 100 butterfly for Florida in a NCAA record time of 42.49, just passing Texas' Hubert Kos on the final stroke. Kos matched Liendo's record set in the prelims at 42.54. Arizona State's Ilya Kharun also broke the 43-second mark.

Arizona State ended the night by winning its second relay of the championships, finishing the 200 freestyle with a NCAA record time of 1:12.46.

Virginia freshman Maximus Williamson won the 200 freestyle from lane eight in 1:30.03. In the prelims, Williamson tied his teammate David King for the final spot in the final and King ceded the spot.

California sophomore Yamato Okadome out-touched two Texas swimmers to win the 100-yard breaststroke in 49.90. Longhorns Campbell McKean and Nate Germonprez came in second and third, respectively.

SMU sophomore Luke Sitz claimed the one-meter diving title.

Day 3 of the four-day event continues on Friday with the 100 backstroke, 200 breaststroke, 500 freestyle, 50 freestyle, 400 medley relay and three-meter diving.

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AP sports: https://apnews.com/sports

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — LSU has fired men's basketball coach Matt McMahon and is in process of rehiring former coach Will Wade, AP source says.

This could be a familiar Final Four in the women’s NCAA Tournament.

UConn, South Carolina, UCLA and Texas reached the Final Four last year. They’re the top four seeds this season. And they’ve all won convincingly through the first two rounds of this tournament.

That creates the possibility of the first repeat Final Four since 1996, when Tennessee, UConn, Georgia and Stanford all made the national semifinals for a second straight year. UConn captured the title in 1995, while Tennessee won it all in 1996.

While the results have been relatively predictable, aside from Virginia’s rise from the First Four to the Sweet 16, there have been plenty of notable performances. Here’s one statistical nugget you need to know about each team remaining in the women’s bracket heading into the Sweet 16.

Fort Worth 1

Vanderbilt: Mikayla Blakes’ 891 points this season are the most ever by a Division I sophomore. Aari McDonald previously owned the record after scoring 890 points for Arizona in 2018-19. Blakes has a Division I-leading 27 points per game.

Notre Dame: Through the first two rounds of this tournament, Hannah Hidalgo has collected 16 steals — more than twice as many as any player in the field. For the season, Hidalgo ranks third in Division I in scoring (25.2) and first in steals (5.6).

UConn: Only one of UConn’s victories during its 52-game winning streak had a single-digit margin. That one close call was a 72-69 triumph over Michigan on Nov. 21. UConn’s 31 wins since the Michigan game have all been decided by at least 14 points. Each of their last eight contests had margins of 32 points or greater.

North Carolina: The Tar Heels have allowed NCAA Tournament opponents to shoot just 5 of 38 from 3-point range. North Carolina will face a much greater challenge dealing with the outside shooting of UConn, which has made 20 3-pointers through the first two rounds to tie for first place among all Sweet 16 teams.

Sacramento 2

UCLA: The Bruins have outrebounded their first two NCAA Tournament opponents by 21.5 boards per game, which constitutes the best rebound margin for anyone in the 68-team field. UCLA ranks second to LSU among all Division I teams in rebound margin this season.

Minnesota: The Gophers have gone 13 of 27 from 3-point range through the first two rounds for the best NCAA Tournament 3-point percentage of anyone still playing. Mara Braun has gone 7 of 10 from beyond the arc.

LSU: The Tigers have scored at least 100 points in 16 games this season, including each of their two NCAA Tournament contests. That breaks the Division I record formerly held by Long Beach State, which had 15 games with at least 100 points in 1986-87. Next up is Duke, which has allowed 65 points or fewer in each of its last five games. LSU won 93-77 at Duke on Dec. 4.

Duke: In the first two rounds of the NCAA Tournament, opponents have shot just 27.9% from the floor against Duke. In Duke’s regular-season loss to LSU, the Tigers shot 59.7%.

Fort Worth 3

Michigan: The Wolverines head into their regional semifinal matchup with Louisville already owning a 3-0 record against Atlantic Coast Conference schools. Those three wins all came against NCAA Tournament teams: Notre Dame, Syracuse and N.C. State. On the other hand, Louisville has faced Michigan twice before in the NCAA Tournament (2019 and 2022), and the Cardinals won both meetings.

Louisville: The Cardinals’ second-round win over Alabama marked the first time all season that Louisville hadn’t outscored its opponent in points off the bench. Louisville entered that game ranked second among all Division I teams with 33.8 bench points per game.

Texas: Madison Booker has shot at least 50% in each of her last six games and has shot at least 60% in four of them. Her 40 points in a second-round victory over Oregon represented the highest NCAA Tournament single-game total by any player in the history of Texas’ program.

Kentucky: Clara Strack’s 29 rebounds through the NCAA Tournament’s round of 32 are the most for any player in the Sweet 16.

Sacramento 4

South Carolina: The Gamecocks’ 17 steals in a second-round win over Southern California represented their highest total ever in an NCAA Tournament game. Now they face Oklahoma, which is coming off a 23-turnover performance in a victory over Michigan State. Then again, South Carolina produced 13 steals and forced 21 turnovers against Oklahoma on Jan. 22, and the Sooners still won that game 94-82 in overtime.

Oklahoma: Raegan Beers has recorded double-doubles in each of her five NCAA Tournament games with Oklahoma since transferring from Oregon State. The 6-4 senior is averaging 18 points, 12 rebounds and three blocks through the first two rounds of this tournament. She had 18 points and 14 rebounds when Oklahoma beat South Carolina during the regular season.

TCU: Olivia Miles is one of only three players ever to have two career NCAA Tournament triple-doubles. The others were Sabrina Ionescu at Oregon and Nicole Powell for Stanford. Miles’ first triple-double came against UMass in her NCAA Tournament debut with Notre Dame in 2022. Her second came Friday when she had 12 points, 16 rebounds and 14 assists against UC San Diego. She was two assists shy of a triple-double in TCU’s second-round overtime win over Washington.

Virginia: Kymora Johnson ranks third among all Division I players in 3-point attempts this season with 274, but she's also shown a knack for getting to the foul line in this tournament. Johnson has gone 22 of 26 on free-throw attempts and 11 of 30 from 3-point range while averaging 24.3 points, 6.3 rebounds and five assists through Virginia’s three NCAA Tournament games.

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AP March Madness bracket: https://apnews.com/hub/ncaa-womens-bracket and coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/march-madness