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3:44 PM ET LeBron James is out for Wednesday night’s game at Utah, the Lakers announced. James played Tuesday against the Washington Wizards at Staples Center and had 23 points, 14 assists and seven rebounds in a 124-106 win. Sunday against the Sacramento Kings, he recorded his eighth triple-double of the season (and 81st of

3:11 PM ET Tim Hardaway was part of one of the original Big Threes, and the other two are in the Basketball Hall of Fame. He thinks he knows why he hasn’t joined them: his well-publicized rant from over a decade ago, in which he said he hated gay people. Hardaway, 52, was a five-time

4:52 PM ET Portland Trail Blazers center Jusuf Nurkic underwent surgery on Tuesday and is expected to make a full recovery from a season-ending injury to his left leg, the team announced in a release. There is no timetable for his return to basketball activity. Nurkic, 24, fractured his left tibia and fibula with 2

3:52 AM ET PORTLAND, Ore. — Portland Trail Blazers center Jusuf Nurkic suffered compound fractures to the tibia and fibula of his lower left leg in a double-overtime win against the Brooklyn Nets on Monday night and will be out indefinitely. Nurkic was jumping for a rebound and came down awkwardly in a tangle of

1:30 AM ET Portland Trail Blazers center Jusuf Nurkic had to be stretchered off the court Monday night after suffering a serious left leg injury in double overtime of the Blazers’ 148-144 win over the Brooklyn Nets. Nurkic finished with 32 points and 16 rebounds. The Blazers clinched a playoff berth with the win. Many

2:35 PM ET Associated Press NEW YORK — Cal Ramsey, who starred at NYU in the 1950s and went on to play and broadcast for the New York Knicks, died Monday. He was 81. The Knicks said he died of cardiac arrest at The Riverside Premier Rehabilitation and Healing Center in Manhattan. After his playing

1:53 AM ET LOS ANGELES — With the playoffs already out of the picture, LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers played for pride in Sunday’s 111-106 win over the Sacramento Kings — and to appease the mythical basketball gods. “I would never cheat myself,” James told Spectrum SportsNet in his on-court interview after recording

10:13 PM ET Malika AndrewsESPN MILWAUKEE — The NBA’s winningest team couldn’t stop watching as the NCAA’s biggest show — and most-hyped prospect — were pushed to the brink on Sunday afternoon. Giannis Antetokounmpo, Pat Connaughton, Brook Lopez, Tony Snell, Bonzie Colson and a gaggle of reporters were glued to two television screens playing the

1:21 AM ET Kyrie Irving appeared to question Brad Stevens’ coaching strategy after Kemba Walker scored 18 of his game-high 36 points in the fourth quarter to rally Charlotte to a 124-117 victory over the Celtics. The Hornets closed Saturday night’s home game on a 30-5 run that included all 18 of Walker’s fourth-quarter points.

8:41 PM ET Ramona Shelburne Close ESPN Senior Writer Senior writer for ESPN.com Spent seven years at the Los Angeles Daily News Paula Lavigne Close ESPN Staff Writer Data analyst and reporter for ESPN’s Enterprise and Investigative Unit. Winner, 2014 Alfred I. duPont Columbia University Award; finalist, 2012 IRE broadcast award; winner, 2011 Gannett Foundation

8:45 PM ET OAKLAND, Calif. — Golden State Warriors star Stephen Curry will not play Saturday night against the Dallas Mavericks after being given the game off to rest. “Rick [Celebrini, Warriors director of Sports Medicine and Performance] and I have been talking about it the last couple weeks,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said before

9:22 AM ET James Harden lit up the San Antonio Spurs for 61 points on Friday, matching his career high as well as the Houston Rockets‘ franchise record in a 111-105 victory. Harden also scored 61 on Jan. 23 against the New York Knicks. He joins Wilt Chamberlain, Kobe Bryant and Michael Jordan as the

1:49 AM ET LOS ANGELES — After the Los Angeles Lakers missed the playoffs only five times in the first 65 years of the franchise’s existence, Friday’s 111-106 loss to the Brooklyn Nets officially eliminated them from postseason contention for the sixth straight year. At 31-41, L.A. is now a game worse than it was

5:42 PM ET Associated Press NEW YORK — Papa John’s is getting “Shaq-ified.” The pizza chain said Friday that basketball Hall of Famer Shaquille O’Neal will be its new pitchman, appearing in TV commercials and promoting Papa John’s in other ways. The company hopes O’Neal can repair its image and revive its sales after the

7:39 PM ET Klay Thompson, a week after apologizing to the Golden State Warriors‘ fan base for his remarks about their lack of energy at Oracle Arena, delivered another subtle poke Thursday, saying it’s important for him to remain focused on his day-to-day performance over the changing perceptions of media and fans. “At the end

Mar 20, 2019 Malika AndrewsESPN The book on guarding Giannis Antetokounmpo is evolving. When the Milwaukee Bucks faced the Utah Jazz‘s elite defense earlier this month, head coach Quin Snyder’s plan was to give Antetokounmpo a sizeable cushion on the perimeter to prevent him from driving. As soon as he elected to shoot, though, his

7:09 PM ET ESPN News Services Boston Celtics guard Marcus Smart has been fined $50,000 by the NBA on Thursday for shoving Philadelphia 76ers center Joel Embiid on Wednesday night. Smart was ejected less than a minute into the third quarter of the Sixers’ 118-115 victory over Boston for the two-handed shove into the back

11:53 AM ET The Minnesota Timberwolves announced Thursday that guard Derrick Rose, guard Jeff Teague and forward Robert Covington are all expected to be out for the rest of the season. Covington has missed the last 34 games while recovering from a right knee bone bruise suffered Dec. 31 at New Orleans. He suffered a

2:54 AM ET OKLAHOMA CITY — It was supposed to be the kind of night that could jump-start the Oklahoma City Thunder. For a moment, it even appeared poetic. On a night when the organization retired the jersey of Nick Collison, a prototypical glue-guy role player known for his charge-taking and backdoor bounce passing, the

6:18 PM ET After leading the Utah Jazz to a first-round upset of the Oklahoma City Thunder in the playoffs last year, it was inevitable Donovan Mitchell would return this season with a target on his back. But after struggling for much of the early season, Mitchell is now outperforming his rookie year and has

8:33 AM ET OKLAHOMA CITY — The first player in Oklahoma City Thunder history to have his jersey retired isn’t Russell Westbrook or Kevin Durant. It’s someone who averaged 5.9 points per game, never made an All-Star team and started about 20 percent of the games he played in. But on Wednesday, the Thunder will

12:57 AM ET ESPN News Services SACRAMENTO, Calif. — D’Angelo Russell scored 27 of his career-high 44 points in the fourth quarter, Rondae Hollis-Jefferson made a layup with eight-tenths of a second remaining, and the Brooklyn Nets rallied from 28 points down in the second half to beat the Sacramento Kings 123-121 on Tuesday night

8:18 AM ET SAN ANTONIO — Discomfort contorted Gregg Popovich’s face as he pondered a defensive demise nobody wanted to concede. With the San Antonio Spurs mired in a three-game skid at the time, and mere minutes before the Feb. 27 start of a league-best nine-game winning streak, Popovich seemed to have given up hope

12:01 AM ET New Orleans Pelicans guard Elfrid Payton joined an illustrious list of NBA greats Monday night by recording a triple-double in his fifth straight game. Payton, a sixth-year NBA veteran, joined the likes of Russell Westbrook, Oscar Robertson, Wilt Chamberlain and Michael Jordan to accomplish the feat, according to Elias Sports Bureau. Westbrook

12:41 AM ET SAN ANTONIO — Golden State Warriors star Stephen Curry drained a 61-foot 3-pointer to close the first quarter of Monday night’s 111-105 road loss to the San Antonio Spurs. It is the longest shot anyone in the league has hit all season, according to ESPN Stats & Information research. The shot came

2:47 PM ET Associated Press CLEVELAND — The Detroit Pistons will rest star forward Blake Griffin for at least one game this week to keep him as fresh as possible for their final postseason push. Griffin will sit out Monday’s game against the Cavaliers after scoring 25 points in 33 minutes in Sunday’s win over

1:56 AM ET LOS ANGELES — After watching the Brooklyn Nets somehow erase a 10-point deficit in 57 seconds to tie the game late, Lou Williams did something that the super-scoring sub hadn’t done in his career before. Danilo Gallinari took an inbounds pass with 5.3 seconds left before passing to Williams, who drilled a

8:16 PM ET Malika AndrewsESPN MILWAUKEE — When given a choice of who he would rather be defended by — Joel Embiid or Ben Simmons — Giannis Antetokounmpo didn’t miss a beat before responding. “It’s easy,” Antetokounmpo said. “I would rather Ben guard me than Joel. It’s simple. If Joel’s been guarding me all night

10:56 PM ET SAN ANTONIO — Portland Trail Blazers guard CJ McCollum suffered what the team is calling a left leg injury Saturday that forced him out of action against the San Antonio Spurs on Saturday night. He did not return. McCollum will undergo an MRI on his left knee Sunday, the team announced. McCollum

1:30 AM ET OKLAHOMA CITY — Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr believes a loss to the lowly Phoenix Suns last week woke up his team from a recent malaise and got them to refocus heading into the final month of the season. “I think the loss to Phoenix opened our eyes a little