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4:26 PM ET ESPN News Services Brooklyn Nets guard James Harden will start Saturday’s game against the Orlando Magic, according to coach Steve Nash. Harden had been listed as questionable to play while the players involved in the trade that sent him from Houston to Brooklyn this week awaited completion of their physicals. The Nets

2:45 AM ET After his playoff struggles in the NBA bubble, LA Clippers guard Paul George said he had to come back “with vengeance” this season to address the fact that “people saw weakness” in him. A highly motivated George continued his torrid start to the season by making 8-of-14 shots and scoring 26 points

2:24 AM ET The Los Angeles Lakers came into Friday with the third-best 3-point percentage in the league and were hot from the outside once again in their win over the New Orleans Pelicans, hitting 15 3s in their 112-95 win. LeBron James was responsible for two of them, going 2-for-6 from deep, which caused

10:18 PM ET After 17 years with rival Coca-Cola, pitching a variety of products, LeBron James is signing with rival PepsiCo, sources confirmed to ESPN. The Los Angeles Lakers star is expected to promote the Mountain Dew brand, which has developed into one of the NBA’s prime sponsors after PepsiCo took over as its official

7:00 AM ET Anthony OlivieriESPN.com Willie Cauley-Stein was in fifth grade when he packed up his bag for a trek across Spearville, Kansas, a tiny blip of a town — population: 800 — just up US-50 from Dodge City, which passes for a metropolis in a blur of flatlands and windmills. Cauley-Stein was headed to

12:04 AM ET The short-handed Houston Rockets were good enough Thursday night to win their first game after James Harden’s trade request was granted. The Rockets, who had only nine available players due to injuries and the pending arrivals of newcomers, capped off what first-year head coach Stephen Silas called “a crazy 48 hours” with

1:57 PM ET Shooting guard Eric Gordon said he believes the trade that sent former franchise cornerstone James Harden to the Brooklyn Nets allows the Houston Rockets to have “a real direction” under first-year head coach Stephen Silas after a chaotic start to the season. “Obviously, you could tell from the summer and since the

11:39 AM ET Associated Press The Boston Celtics expect their unplanned weeklong hiatus because of coronavirus-related issues to end Friday, when they’re scheduled to play host to the Orlando Magic. Celtics general manager Danny Ainge, in a radio interview Thursday, said “it looks like we’re moving in the right direction.” Boston had three games that

3:58 PM ET Houston Rockets center DeMarcus Cousins blasted James Harden for being “disrespectful,” saying that the disgruntled superstar’s antics this season have been “completely unfair” to the rest of the players on the roster. Cousins took his strong stance in a virtual media availability Wednesday before, according to sources, the Rockets traded Harden to

4:14 PM ET The Rockets have sent James Harden to the Nets in a blockbuster four-team trade that also involves the Pacers and Cavaliers, completing the disgruntled star’s exit from Houston and setting up a potential super team in Brooklyn, sources tell ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski and Ramona Shelburne. The Nets sent Houston a package that

3:40 PM ET As the NBA tightened coronavirus protocols to try and preserve a season teetering amid positive tests, thinning rosters and game postponements, the league made a dramatic change that most franchises had wanted all along: The closing off of rooms to non-team guests in road hotels. The NBA and National Basketball Players Association

11:31 PM ET Disgruntled superstar James Harden said the Houston Rockets are “just not good enough” after the team’s second consecutive blowout loss to the Los Angeles Lakers on Tuesday night, adding that he doesn’t believe the team can improve enough to be a contender. “I love this city. I literally have done everything that

5:02 PM ET The NBA continues to grapple with COVID-19-related and contact-tracing issues. The league’s health and safety protocols have sidelined players; games have been postponed; and teams have been forced to take the court with the minimum eight active players. Amid thinning rosters and growing concern across the league, the NBA has no plans

11:38 AM ET Malika Andrews Close ESPN Staff Writer Staff Writer Joined ESPN in 2018 Appears regularly on ESPN Chicago 1000 Adrian Wojnarowski Close Senior NBA Insider Host of The Woj Pod Joined ESPN in 2017 As the NBA is expected to review videos circulating on social media of a maskless Kyrie Irving at what

5:25 PM ET The Miami Heat have added stars Jimmy Butler, Bam Adebayo and Goran Dragic to the team’s out/health and safety protocol list after the completion of contact tracing. Joining them on the Heat’s list are Kendrick Nunn, Maurice Harkless, Udonis Haslem and KZ Okpala. Guard Avery Bradley was placed into the health and

12:55 PM ET ESPN News Services The NBA called off two more games because of COVID-19-related and contact tracing issues, postponing Monday’s game in Dallas between the Mavericks and the New Orleans Pelicans as well as Tuesday’s matchup in Chicago between the Bulls and the Boston Celtics. Those moves come one day after Miami‘s game

7:04 AM ET The Golden State Warriors have won four of their past five games, including a 21-point comeback against the LA Clippers on Friday night. Stephen Curry — his 2-of-16 showing Sunday night against the Toronto Raptors notwithstanding — has found his scoring groove. Although they aren’t the same title contenders of seasons past,

1:30 AM ET SAN FRANCISCO — Stephen Curry didn’t allow himself to wallow in self-pity or shake his head in frustration on the night of the worst shooting performance of his career. He smiled wide at the idea that he could go 2-for-16 and the Golden State Warriors could still find a way to squeak

7:11 PM ET As coronavirus-infected players, contact tracing quarantines and ancillary injuries thin rosters of available players, the NBA has no plans to pause the season, a league spokesman told ESPN. “We anticipated that there would be game postponements this season and planned the schedule accordingly,” NBA spokesman Mike Bass told ESPN in a statement.

10:06 PM ET ESPN News Services CHARLOTTE, N.C. — LaMelo Ball became the youngest player in NBA history to record a triple-double with 22 points, 12 rebounds and 11 assists and the Charlotte Hornets beat the Atlanta Hawks 113-105 on Saturday night for their third straight win. Ball, 19, replaced Markelle Fultz as the youngest

10:05 PM ET Tim BontempsESPN Before the NBA season started last month, commissioner Adam Silver was asked on a conference call with reporters what it would take for the league to shut itself down again, like it did in March due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. “I think we are prepared for isolated cases,” Silver

12:12 PM ET As the Philadelphia 76ers prepared to take on the Denver Nuggets Saturday afternoon with seven healthy players, coach Doc Rivers said he believed the NBA should have postponed the game. “I don’t think we should [play], but it’s not for me to express that,” Rivers said, when asked whether he believed the

2:51 AM ET After the LA Clippers blew a 22-point lead in just over five minutes to suffer another second-half collapse, Kawhi Leonard said the Clippers “just have to change.” The Clippers led 85-63 with 3:15 remaining in the third quarter, only to drop a stinging 115-105 loss to the Golden State Warriors on Friday

3:15 AM ET Golden State Warriors star guard Stephen Curry scored 38 points in a 115-105 win over the LA Clippers on Friday night, bringing his team all the way back from a 22-point second half deficit while reminding the rest of the basketball world just how much more fun the game can be when

7:10 AM ET TWO BROTHERS IN the NBA. One drafted second overall, the other third. On Friday night (7:30 p.m. ET, ESPN) they will play against each other, one for the New Orleans Pelicans and one for the Charlotte Hornets. They will guard each other for the first time in an organized game, a couple

3:08 AM ET LOS ANGELES — A day after a mob of pro-Trump rioters stormed the U.S. Capitol, Los Angeles Lakers captain LeBron James wondered what would have happened if the group of insurgents was mostly Black people, and blamed the mayhem on President Donald Trump. “We live in two Americas,” James said Thursday following

2:44 AM ET Perhaps the most frightening thing about Luka Doncic is how far the Dallas Mavericks superstar is from a finished product. After Doncic’s spectacular performance in his first taste of the playoffs, Mavs coach Rick Carlisle predicted that the 21-year-old would add an element or two to his game during the offseason, saying

6:09 PM ET Andrew LopezESPN For the first time in their lives, Lonzo and LaMelo Ball will be going at each other in a regulation basketball game. The two Ball brothers, three years apart, have never faced each other outside pickup games and duels in the Ball backyard. Friday night’s contest between Lonzo’s New Orleans

7:52 PM ET Tim BontempsESPN As much of the country attempted to grapple with the scenes that emerged from Washington on Wednesday afternoon, as angry supporters of President Trump stormed the U.S. Capitol, much of the sports world was trying to figure out how to process the day’s events. For the Miami Heat and Boston

7:08 PM ET National Basketball Players Association executive director Michele Roberts expressed outrage over the mob that stormed the U.S. Capitol in Washington on Wednesday and how it reflected on racial double standards in America. Roberts told ESPN that her contact with multiple NBA players throughout the afternoon kept returning to the contrast between the