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3:23 PM ET At least one fan joined the Utah Jazz bandwagon after their five-game series win in the first round: Tee Morant, the father of Memphis Grizzlies star Ja Morant. Moments after top-seeded Utah ended the series with a 126-110 win Wednesday night, Tee Morant told Donovan Mitchell that he’d be rooting for the

2:17 AM ET LOS ANGELES — From the moment Luka Doncic declared for the NBA draft in 2018, this game was coming. The game when it became clear he wasn’t just a great talent, but one who was ready to lead a team to a win against any opponent, in any playoff series, in any

12:27 AM ET Andrew LopezESPN As fans in Madison Square Garden rose to their feet to give one last round of applause to their New York Knicks, Atlanta Hawks guard Trae Young wanted to send the crowd home with one more parting gift. In the final minute of Wednesday’s Game 5, Young sized up Knicks

3:36 PM ET Tim BontempsESPN After the Boston Celtics shocked the basketball world with their dual announcement of longtime president of basketball operations Danny Ainge retiring and coach Brad Stevens leaving the sideline to replace him, Stevens said he chose to leave coaching and take on this new challenge because he wants “to do what’s

12:30 AM ET Dame Time. You know what that means. On Tuesday night, Damian Lillard put on an electric 55-point performance, becoming the first player in NBA history with at least 50 points, 10 assists and 10 three-pointers in a game, regular season or playoffs. With his twelfth 3-pointer, the pride of the Portland Trail

9:32 PM ET PHOENIX — Los Angeles Lakers star forward Anthony Davis is out for Tuesday’s pivotal Game 5 in L.A.’s first-round series with the Phoenix Suns because of a strained groin. Markieff Morris started in Davis’ place. Davis hurt his groin late in the second quarter of Game 4 and did not play after

1:35 PM ET Andrew LopezESPN Atlanta Hawks center Clint Capela didn’t mince words Tuesday when asked about the physical nature of his team’s first-round matchup against the New York Knicks. Things got chippy in Game 4 in Atlanta on Sunday, with John Collins needing four stitches in his lip because of an errant elbow from

7:02 AM ET NBA Insiders The Milwaukee Bucks have taken care of business, blitzing past the Miami Heat in four games. The Philadelphia 76ers, Brooklyn Nets and Atlanta Hawks are each one win away from joining them in the Eastern Conference semifinals. What happens next in the Western Conference playoffs, though, is anyone’s guess. Outside

8:30 PM ET Philadelphia 76ers‘ star Joel Embiid was ruled out of Monday night’s potential closeout game against the Washington Wizards with right knee soreness. Embiid crashed to the floor after he was met in the air at the rim by Wizards center Robin Lopez just over seven minutes into Game 4. Lopez cleanly blocked

5:21 PM ET LOS ANGELES — Anthony Davis missed the second half of the Lakers‘ 100-92 loss to the Suns on Sunday with a strained left groin. Davis missed a layup inside the final minute of the second quarter and collapsed to the floor after landing. He was slow to get up, clutching at his

10:27 PM ET A fan at TD Garden for Game 4 of the Brooklyn Nets and Boston Celtics first-round series appeared to throw a water bottle at the head of Nets guard Kyrie Irving. The bottle missed Irving, who was walking toward the tunnel following the Nets’ 141-126 win on Sunday night. “You’re seeing a

8:50 PM ET The Los Angeles Lakers will get no sympathy from the Phoenix Suns or any of the remaining playoff teams after they lost star forward Anthony Davis to a groin injury during a 100-92 loss Sunday afternoon at Staples Center. The Suns, after all, have been playing this first-round Western Conference playoff series

1:53 PM ET Dallas Mavericks star Luka Doncic is expected to play Sunday against the LA Clippers in Game 4 of their first-round playoff series despite a strained neck, a source told ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski. Doncic is officially listed as questionable for the game, but Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle said Saturday that he thought Doncic

2:19 AM ET Mike Conley still can’t quite believe the way the basketball stars have aligned. After spending 12 seasons with the Memphis Grizzlies, the veteran Utah Jazz guard is still adjusting to the fact that his new team is facing his old team in an emotional first-round playoff series. But after scoring 27 points,

8:21 PM ET It’s not unusual for Denver Nuggets coach Michael Malone to tell it like it is and he put it quite bluntly again after a 115-95 loss in Game 4 to the Portland Trail Blazers. “Our starters were awful,” he said. “I thought we had some guys that were tentative, that looked a

1:39 PM ET ESPN News Services Mark Eaton, the 7-foot-4 shot-blocking king who twice was the NBA’s Defensive Player of the Year during his career with the Utah Jazz, has died, the team said Saturday. He was 64. The Jazz said police said Eaton was found lying in the road around 8:30 p.m. Friday night

1:16 AM ET Tim BontempsESPN BOSTON — Every one of the 4,789 fans who entered TD Garden on Friday night came ready to boo Kyrie Irving until their voices were hoarse. But after Boston came away with a stunning 122-115 victory over the Brooklyn Nets in Game 3 of their first-round playoff series, those same

5:27 PM ET Washington Wizards guard Russell Westbrook did not practice Friday and is being listed as questionable for Game 3 of their series against the Philadelphia 76ers on Saturday. Westbrook rolled his ankle with 10 minutes in the fourth quarter of the Wizards’ 120-95 Game 2 loss in Philadelphia on Wednesday night and did

1:02 PM ET Milwaukee Bucks starting guard Donte DiVincenzo will miss the rest of the playoffs with a tendon injury in his left foot, sources told ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski. DiVincenzo left Thursday’s 113-84 win over the Miami Heat in the second quarter due to the injury. The 24-year-old had started 66 games for the Bucks

3:47 AM ET LOS ANGELES — Playing in their first home playoff game in eight years, the Los Angeles Lakers looked like a true championship contender for the first time in a while. L.A., the No. 7 seed, won 109-95 on Thursday night to take a 2-1 lead in its first-round matchup against the No.

7:27 PM ET The three fans banned indefinitely by the Utah Jazz made vulgar and racially offensive comments to Ja Morant’s parents, the father of the Memphis Grizzlies star guard told ESPN. A statement from the Jazz cited one “verbal altercation” that occurred during Utah’s series-tying 141-129 victory at Vivint Arena on Wednesday night, but

1:19 PM ET Andrew LopezESPN The New York Knicks say they have banned a fan who spit on Atlanta Hawks guard Trae Young on Wednesday night during Game 2 of their first-round playoff series. The Knicks released a statement on the matter on Thursday afternoon. “We investigated the matter and determined that this patron, who

2:41 AM ET Memphis Grizzlies point guard Ja Morant cut toward the basket, caught the pass, cocked the ball back in his right hand and soared to the rim early in the second quarter. Utah Jazz center Rudy Gobert met Morant at the summit and stuffed the dunk attempt, a spectacular block by a big

9:33 PM ET Washington Wizards guard Russell Westbrook suffered a right ankle injury and left the floor limping in the fourth quarter of Wednesday night’s playoff game at Philadelphia. Westbrook stepped on 76ers guard Furkan Korkmaz‘s foot and rolled the ankle with 10:28 remaining and the Wizards down 17 points in Game 2 of the

6:46 AM ET TAJ GIBSON HAS heard all the questions before. When Tom Thibodeau takes a job, Gibson knows what’s coming. And when Thibodeau was named coach of the New York Knicks last year, Gibson fielded all those regular questions — including those from Knicks forward Julius Randle. There’s an internal script that plays out

2:12 AM ET For as long as they have shared basketball rights — and hearts — in Los Angeles, there have been remarkably few playoff matchups between the Lakers and Clippers over the years. Like zero, to be precise. Fifteen years ago, the Lakers were one win away from creating the first “Hallway Series” at

9:46 PM ET Tim BontempsESPN Boston Celtics forward Jayson Tatum and Brooklyn Nets forward Jeff Green both left with injuries Tuesday night in Game 2 of the first-round series between the two teams. Tatum exited the game with 8 minutes, 48 seconds to go in the third quarter when he was accidentally poked in the

2:54 AM ET The Denver Nuggets walked into the locker room at halftime of Game 2 of their first-round playoff series against the Portland Trail Blazers with a lead, but also had the inescapable presence of Damian Lillard‘s supernova first half simmering in the air. Lillard had the flamethrower set to maximum heat, firing in

12:02 AM ET On the eve of the one-year anniversary of George Floyd’s murder, the NBA’s social justice coalition released a statement Monday night calling on the U.S. Senate to pass the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act as a way to honor the memory of Floyd and “others who have been victims of police

8:08 PM ET Tim BontempsESPN Utah Jazz guard Jordan Clarkson was named the NBA’s Sixth Man of the Year on Monday night, edging out teammate Joe Ingles and New York Knicks guard Derrick Rose for the award. “For me, it was tough,” Clarkson said in an interview on TNT’s “Inside The NBA.” “My first couple