amfoto1 Loc: San Jose, Calif. USA

All three images look about a stop underexposed to me (using a calibrated monitor). There also appears to be some color shift. Both could be due to the lighting in the gym.

After I applied gentle noise reduction, I tweaked the image further first using Photoshop Adjustments/Curves to brighten it up and then applying Adjustments/Photo Filters (cooling... mostly LBB... a little 80) to remove the color tint that was likely caused by the lights.

Are you using Anti-Flicker when shooting "under the lights"? I found it to be a big help reducing underexposure problems.

Do you set a Custom White Balance or at least take a reference shot of a color checker or neutral target under the lights, to make later color correction quick and easy?

But you were asking about noise reduction. Frankly I don't see severe noise in your images. Just as an example, I took the first image through Imagenomic Noiseware plug-in in Photoshop. I applied LIGHT noise reduction (compare some of the out of focus areas at ridiculously high magnification). I like Noiseware and have been using it with various Canon cameras for some five or more years.

Another noise reduction tool I've recently heard a lot of positive things about is DXO PureRaw. Examples I've seen have been amazing and I may need to give it a try. As I understand it, PureRaw is a stand-alone which only works with RAW files, converts them to a 16 bit TIFF or DNG after applying noise reduction. The image then can be worked in any other editing software in whatever manner you wish.

Recent versions of Topaz Denoise are another good NR s'ware I hear. I guess it can either be a plug-in or a stand-alone. But from what I've seen, DXO PureRaw does a little better job. (I tried an older version of Denoise some time ago, but preferred the results from Noiseware and have used it instead.)

See what you think of your image after light NR in Noiseware, brightening and a little color correction, below...

(Download)

LFingar Loc: Claverack, NY

Nice result! I'll have to check out Noiseware. I have decided to stop using the camera's noise reduction feature. I use Elements 2020 and I usually make no more the minimal changes. The photos I posted have been lightened somewhat so, as you noticed, I am shooting underexposed. I'll have to work on that now that you have given me a needed poke! I have shot 3 games so far this season. The photos I posted were from the first two. At those games I did not use anti-flicker. The reason for that was because the last time I shot in a gym was two seasons ago and I was using a Canon R, my previous camera. With that camera, for some reason that I can't figure out, I got better results with anti-flicker disabled. This most recent game I shot with anti-flicker enabled. To be honest, I didn't see any difference. Nor did I see any exposure differences even during burst shots in the first two games. Not all lighting though produces flicker and the gym was completely refurbished during the Covid shutdown. It may be that the new lights don't flicker.
Unfortunately, there are no more home games for me to shoot until next month. It will be interesting to see the results with NR disabled. Fortunately, the 15 or so 5x7's that I printed out for the players came out very well, despite my complaint about noise. Just the same, I like to improve my work whenever I can so I Thank You for your efforts, as well as everyone else who has replied. It is appreciated!