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8:20 PM ET BOSTON — Finally, almost five months into a rocky grind of a regular season, the Houston Rockets resemble the contender-caliber team that James Harden expected them to be. “It feels really, really good to kind of have a full roster and catch a rhythm,” Harden said after the Rockets’ 115-104 victory over

12:40 PM ET After signing LeBron James over the summer, it seemed like there was good reason for the Los Angeles Lakers to be heavy favorites in Las Vegas to make the playoffs. But after a 118-109 loss to the lowly Phoenix Suns on Saturday night, the view in Vegas is worse than ever. The

3:36 AM ET PHOENIX — Saturday was a new low for a Los Angeles Lakers team that has been digging itself into a deeper and deeper hole in recent weeks, losing to the league’s worst team, the Phoenix Suns, 118-109. The loss to the Suns (13-51) dropped the Lakers to 30-33, 4½ games behind the

3:19 PM ET Associated Press CLEVELAND — Star forward Kevin Love will rest his surgically repaired left foot when the Cavaliers face the Pistons on Saturday. Love still isn’t ready to play in back-to-back games, and with Cleveland scheduled to host Orlando on Sunday, the team is remaining conservative with his minutes and won’t play

11:21 PM ET Steve Kerr is no stranger to being surrounded by Hall of Famers. He was a reserve guard on a 1996-97 Chicago Bulls team that had four players — Michael Jordan, Robert Parish, Scottie Pippen and Dennis Rodman — eventually enshrined in Springfield, along with head coach Phil Jackson and assistant coach Tex

3:29 AM ET LOS ANGELES — Los Angeles Lakers coach Luke Walton blamed himself after a late turnover contributed to his team’s collapse in the waning minutes of a 131-120 loss to the NBA’s best team, the Milwaukee Bucks, on Friday. Trailing 121-118 with less than two minutes to play, Walton called a timeout to

5:35 PM ET Sixers center Joel Embiid will miss Saturday’s game against the Golden State Warriors in Philadelphia. According to the league injury report, Embiid has tendinitis in his left knee. It will be the fifth game the All-Star will miss since the Sixers announced on Feb. 20 that he would be out at least

1:57 AM ET HOUSTON — It has reached a point where the Houston Rockets seem almost desensitized to James Harden producing historic statistics. As far as they were concerned, Harden’s 58 points and 10 assists were practically a footnote in the Rockets’ 121-118 comeback win over the Miami Heat on Thursday. “He had a terrific

10:47 PM ET Rockets guard James Harden scored 58 in Houston’s win over the Miami Heat on Thursday night for his sixth 50-point game of the season. No other player in the NBA has more than one this season. Harden also had 10 assists, 8 threes, 7 rebounds and 4 steals. He was 18 for

4:58 PM ET Kings rookie Marvin Bagley III is expected to miss up to two weeks after an MRI exam on his injured left knee Thursday revealed a sprain. Sacramento says its fourth leading scorer and the No. 2 overall pick out of Duke will be re-evaluated in one to two weeks. That means Bagley

8:51 AM ET The race for consensus No. 1 overall NBA draft prospect Zion Williamson is on. But this tankathon will be different from that of past seasons. This is the first year under the lottery reform rules passed in September 2017 — more of an incremental step to deter blatant tanking than a complete

12:22 AM ET Sacramento Kings rookie Marvin Bagley III suffered a left knee sprain during Wednesday night’s game against the Milwaukee Bucks and will not return. Bagley will have an MRI on the knee Thursday, the team said. Bagley, the No. 2 overall pick out of Duke, was hurt when he ran into a pick

2:36 PM ET LOS ANGELES — Anthony Davis will play limited minutes and likely will be held out in the fourth quarter against the Los Angeles Lakers on Wednesday night. New Orleans Pelicans‘ head coach Alvin Gentry said the plan remains to utilize Davis around “20-to-23” minutes and that he will likely not see action

1:20 AM ET TORONTO — After the Celtics suffered their worst loss of the season, a 118-95 drubbing at the hands of the conference rival Raptors, Boston starting shooting guard Marcus Smart said the team “is just not together,” in contrast to the Celtics’ squads in recent seasons that exceeded expectations. “What are the main

6:18 PM ET The NBA has rescinded the technical foul called on Golden State Warriors center DeMarcus Cousins for tossing Jeremy Lamb‘s shoe off the floor in Monday night’s win over the Charlotte Hornets, according to a league source. The league has been cautious about objects flying into the stands, but upon further review, the

11:23 AM ET Former NBA player Mike Bibby is under police investigation after being accused of sexual abuse and harassment from a teacher at the high school where he works as a coach, according to The Arizona Republic. The Paradise Valley Unified School District confirmed to The Republic that Phoenix police are investigating the allegations

2:53 AM ET LOS ANGELES — Dirk Nowitzki had no idea why LA Clippers coach Doc Rivers called a timeout with 9.4 seconds remaining and his team leading by nine points Monday night. Rivers’ reasoning became clear seconds later when he walked to the scorer’s table, picked up the public address announcer’s microphone and gave

7:21 PM ET Malika AndrewsESPN CHICAGO — Giannis Antetokounmpo will not play against the Chicago Bulls on Wednesday in the United Center. Ersan Ilyasova will start in Antetokounmpo’s place. Antetokounmpo has had lingering right knee soreness over the past few games. Before the game, coach Mike Budenholzer said he is optimistic the knee soreness is

8:15 AM ET Will the final stretch of the season belong to the Milwaukee Bucks? Giannis Antetokounmpo & Co. are the hottest team in the NBA right now, taking over for a slumping Golden State Warriors squad atop our rankings. Throughout the regular season, our panel (ESPN’s Kevin Arnovitz, Tim MacMahon and Andre’ Snellings, The

10:23 PM ET NEW YORK — The New York Knicks beat the San Antonio Spurs at home Sunday night to avoid the wrong kind of NBA history. The Knicks’ 130-118 victory snapped an 18-game home losing streak. Had New York lost Sunday, the club would have tied the 1993-94 Dallas Mavericks for the longest home

4:42 PM ET Associated Press MILWAUKEE — Rapper Ja Rule is taking heat on social media after problems with his halftime show during Saturday’s Timberwolves-Bucks game. Videos posted online show Ja Rule had sound problems at the beginning of his performance. At one point he said, “Are we ready?” then said, “I guess not,” before

9:46 AM ET Nick DePaulaESPN PJ Tucker is constantly on the hunt. Since his college days at Texas, Tucker has been relentlessly searching for sneakers. As he told The Undefeated over All-Star Weekend, he got his start on eBay and simply never looked back. “I actually went to the bank and got a debit card

1:25 AM ET OAKLAND, Calif. — As Golden State Warriors center DeMarcus Cousins continues working his way through the next stage of the rehabilitation process from a left Achilles tear a year ago, he understands nobody in the league is going to “feel sorry” for him as he tries to find his footing. Warriors forward

4:34 PM ET Rockets guard James Harden has been fined $25,000 for publicly criticizing the officiating following Houston’s loss to the Los Angeles Lakers on Thursday, the league announced Saturday. Harden’s comments were directed specifically at referee Scott Foster, whom he said “for sure” has a “personal” issue with the Rockets and should not be

4:06 AM ET OKLAHOMA CITY — If you wanted any more evidence that Paul George is feeling himself on a whole other level this season, look to the first overtime of the Oklahoma Thunder’s game Friday against the Utah Jazz. Down two, three minutes to go, Jerami Grant came up with a steal and kicked

10:28 PM ET Memphis Grizzlies rookie forward Jaren Jackson Jr. has suffered a right quad injury and will be sidelined for the foreseeable future, league sources tell ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski. The franchise plans to be cautious with a timetable on its young star’s return. Jackson Jr. was ruled out for Friday’s home game against the

1:43 PM ET ESPN News Services Minnesota Timberwolves center Karl-Anthony Towns is questionable for Friday night’s game in New York against the Knicks after a car crash in the Minneapolis area. The Star Tribune reports that Towns was headed to the airport Thursday when he was involved in the crash. Coach Ryan Saunders told reporters

3:15 AM ET OAKLAND, Calif. — The Golden State Warriors have defeated the Sacramento Kings all four times the teams have played this season, but the upstart Kings have earned a measure of respect from the defending champions in the process. “That’s the fourth game that we deserved to lose against this team,” Warriors star

9:45 PM ET LOS ANGELES — The Houston Rockets will sign a pair of G League players to 10-day contracts, including former Houston first-round pick Terrence Jones, league sources told ESPN. Guard Chris Chiozza, a rookie out of Florida, is the other player the Rockets will sign to bring their roster up to a league-mandated

1:54 PM ET Fresh off an appearance on one of the NBA’s biggest stages, Sacramento guard Buddy Hield was quick with the assurance the Kings will have a place on the league’s most meaningful stage. The Kings, mired in the NBA’s longest postseason drought at 12 years, won’t miss the playoffs this season, Hield says.