10:38 PM ET The Portland Trail Blazers reached an agreement on a five-year deal to hire LA Clippers assistant Chauncey Billups as the franchise’s new coach on Sunday, sources told ESPN. Billups, 44, will be introduced at a Tuesday news conference in Portland. The deal includes a team option on the fifth season, sources said.
News
3:02 AM ET LOS ANGELES — The LA Clippers are the only team to come back from 2-0 deficits in the first two rounds, and head coach Ty Lue says they can continue their postseason of comebacks even if the odds are historically slim. The Clippers went cold in the fourth quarter, including one of
3:30 AM ET LOS ANGELES — Just one win away from the NBA Finals, Phoenix Suns point guard Chris Paul said he will not allow himself to consider what it will be like to compete on basketball’s biggest stage for the first time in his 16-year career quite yet. “Not until the job is done.
8:52 PM ET Associated Press LOS ANGELES — Philip Anschutz has agreed to sell his 27% stake in the Los Angeles Lakers to two owners of the Dodgers, according to a published report. Citing unidentified sources, the Los Angeles Times reported Saturday that the 81-year-old billionaire is selling his stake to Mark Walter and Todd
12:43 PM ET Associated Press Khris Middleton ordinarily wouldn’t be thinking about anything right now other than what the Milwaukee Bucks are trying to accomplish in the NBA playoffs. An invitation to play in the Olympics, that’s not ordinary. Milwaukee starting guards Middleton and Jrue Holiday plan to play for the U.S. in the Tokyo
1:51 AM ET MILWAUKEE — If there was one play to summarize the futility of the Atlanta Hawks‘ offense in Game 2 against the Milwaukee Bucks‘ swarming defense on Friday, it was probably the first possession of the second half. Trailing by 32 points at the half, the Hawks opened the third quarter unable to
8:35 PM ET Chauncey Billups has emerged as the front-runner to be offered the Portland Trail Blazers head coaching job, sources tell ESPN. Billups, 44, met with Portland’s leadership, including franchise chair Jody Allen and President of Basketball Operations Neil Olshey in Seattle on Wednesday, sources said. 2 Related Billups has a longstanding relationship with
1:43 PM ET The Dallas Mavericks have agreed to terms with Hall of Fame point guard Jason Kidd to be their head coach and longtime Nike executive Nico Harrison to be their general manager and run the franchise’s basketball operations, sources told ESPN’s Tim MacMahon on Friday. Kidd, who had two stints with the Mavericks
2:20 AM ET LOS ANGELES — Phoenix Suns star Devin Booker said he received eight shots of a numbing agent when his broken nose was put back in place between Games 2 and 3 of the Western Conference finals. Then, wearing a clear mask to protect his face, Booker went out and missed twice that
7:06 PM ET Jason Kidd has emerged as a strong front-runner to be hired as the next head coach of the Dallas Mavericks and the team is closing in on hiring a new general manager, sources told ESPN’s Tim MacMahon and Adrian Wojnarowski on Thursday. Mavericks owner Mark Cuban and the soon-to-be hired general manager
7:00 AM ET AFTER DELIVERING A triple-double in the series opener, Luka Doncic put down 39 points in Game 2 to silence a half-capacity Staples Center crowd and hammer a refrain: The LA Clippers had no answer. As the Dallas Mavericks packed a 2-0 lead into their bags to return home, Clippers players lingered in
1:31 AM ET Seventeen days ago, an NBA title contender enlisted a guard with an All-NBA Defense honor to his name to take on the challenge of defending Atlanta Hawks point guard Trae Young in a Game 1. On Wednesday night in the opening tilt of the Eastern Conference finals, another NBA title contender handed
4:03 PM ET USA Basketball finalized its star-laden roster for the Tokyo Olympics on Wednesday, getting pledges from Chicago Bulls guard Zach LaVine and Detroit Pistons forward Jerami Grant, while Brooklyn Nets star James Harden had to withdraw because of a hamstring injury, USA Basketball managing director Jerry Colangelo told ESPN. The team will be
2:50 PM ET The Boston Celtics are finalizing an agreement to hire Brooklyn Nets assistant Ime Udoka as their new coach, sources told ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski. Udoka spent the 2020-21 season on Steve Nash’s staff with the Nets. Prior to that, he spent one season with the Philadelphia 76ers and seven years under coach Gregg
2:39 AM ET With the play drawn up and ready to go, right before they broke their huddle, Monty Williams’ last message to his team was simple. “Execute it,” he said. “If he throws it, DA, you’ve got to, like, try to dunk it. OK?” Williams was talking to Deandre Ayton, telling his third-year big
8:58 PM ET The Detroit Pistons won Tuesday night’s NBA draft lottery and the right to pick No. 1 in the 2021 draft. The Pistons will be followed by the Houston Rockets and Cleveland Cavaliers, with the Toronto Raptors and Orlando Magic rounding out the top five. The Rockets (17-55), Pistons (20-52) and Magic (21-51)
7:00 AM ET The 2021 NBA draft lottery drawing will be unveiled Tuesday night at 8:30 ET on ESPN. The ultimate prize is believed to be the right to select Oklahoma State star Cade Cunningham at No. 1, but inclusion in what NBA evaluators believe could be a historically strong top-5 is a much-coveted circumstance
3:40 PM ET Tim BontempsESPN The idea that Philadelphia 76ers star Ben Simmons will spend the offseason improving his shooting stroke has become an annual discussion in Philadelphia. That certainly will be the case again this offseason, after Simmons melted down at the foul line — and disappeared from Philadelphia’s offense — as the 76ers
7:00 AM ET The NBA’s conference semifinals had a bit of everything. We were treated to two thrilling Game 7s, with the Milwaukee Bucks outlasting the Brooklyn Nets in overtime and the Atlanta Hawks stunning the top-seeded Philadelphia 76ers at home to advance. We got another historic comeback from the LA Clippers, who were down
1:02 PM ET Tim BontempsESPN Boston Celtics president of basketball operations Brad Stevens said Monday that every move he makes in his new role — including trading Kemba Walker and a first-round draft pick to the Oklahoma City Thunder for Al Horford — will be made with one goal in mind: maximizing the talents of
1:46 AM ET For most of Game 7, Atlanta Hawks guard Trae Young‘s patented “shiver” gesture — the one he unleashes to let onlookers know he has transformed into Ice Trae — had a different connotation. Ice Trae had been ice cold all night, missing 19 of his first 21 shots attempts from the field.
8:41 PM ET As he walked into the tunnel moments after posting his first career triple-double, with big man Deandre Ayton walking alongside, Devin Booker grabbed his phone to make a FaceTime call. “You seen them 11 assists, right?” Ayton said into the phone. “You seen him throw out 11 dimes, right?” On the other
7:16 AM ET The NBA’s Western Conference finals showdown between the Phoenix Suns and LA Clippers will begin without two of the league’s biggest stars. Suns guard Chris Paul, who remains in the league’s health and safety protocols, has been ruled out of Game 1 (3:30 p.m. ET on ABC) and Clippers forward Kawhi Leonard
1:00 AM ET The game could’ve been a movie, the action on the sidelines a soap opera and the dialogue between Kevin Durant and his longtime friend P.J. Tucker a stage play. But for all the drama that spilled on the floor Saturday night in an epic overtime Game 7 that saw the Milwaukee Bucks
9:11 PM ET Phoenix Suns star point guard Chris Paul has been ruled out for Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals against the LA Clippers, the team announced on Saturday. Paul entered the league’s health and safety protocols on Wednesday. The NBA’s rules for coronavirus-related isolation periods have evolved throughout the season in correlation
12:21 PM ET The Los Angeles Lakers are on the market looking to hire a new head athletic trainer after injuries ravaged their 2020-21 season. Nina Hsieh, promoted to head trainer two years ago, did not have her contract renewed, sources told ESPN. Hsieh worked for the franchise for more than a decade, beginning as
2:30 AM ET LOS ANGELES — Looking back on it now, there was no way to see what Terance Mann did in the Los Angeles Clippers’ 131-119 series-clinching win over the Utah Jazz on Friday night coming. No way. Anyone who says they foresaw the second-year player scoring 39 points to send the Clippers to
3:47 PM ET ESPN News Services Bradley Beal won a gold medal with USA Basketball 11 years ago, leading the Americans in scoring on their way to an undefeated run at the under-17 world championship. He’s looking for another gold this summer on international basketball’s biggest stage. The Washington Wizards guard has committed to playing
9:15 AM ET The Boston Celtics are trading Kemba Walker and their 2021 first-round pick to the Oklahoma City Thunder for a package that includes Al Horford, sources told ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski. Along with Walker and the No. 16 overall pick in 2021, the Celtics are also sending a 2025 second-round pick to the Thunder
1:15 AM ET NBA fans were anticipating a Brooklyn Nets–Milwaukee Bucks matchup to turn into a classic series. What’s happened is it’s turned into a classic 2021 series. This messy, flowless, injury-riddled, unpredictable and dramatic season has its mascot: a seven-game saga after the Bucks struck back to take Game 6 from the Nets, 104-89