News

8:00 AM ET It’s not too early to put Jacque Vaughn in the NBA Coach of The Year conversation. The Brooklyn Nets head coach has helped spearhead one of the league’s most dramatic turnarounds in the early season, as the Nets have gone from controversy-laden underachievers to one of the hottest teams in the Eastern

11:40 PM ET ESPN News Services The only yells in the Chicago Bulls‘ locker room on Tuesday night were happy ones. Nikola Vucevic had 29 points and 12 rebounds, DeMar DeRozan scored 24 points, and Chicago stopped a four-game slide by beating the short-handed Miami Heat 113-103. The Bulls looked nothing like the team that

8:00 AM ET Andrew LopezESPN ORLANDO, FLA. — PAOLO BANCHERO was only five years old when the SuperSonics left his hometown of Seattle to become the Oklahoma City Thunder. Still, despite growing up in a city without an NBA team, Banchero was raised by the NBA. Long before the Orlando Magic made Banchero the No.

1:33 PM ET Billionaire mortgage lender Mat Ishbia is finalizing a purchase of the Phoenix Suns and the WNBA’s Mercury for a record price of $4 billion, sources told ESPN on Tuesday. The deal, expected to be announced as soon as Tuesday, will end the tumultuous tenure of owner Robert Sarver. Ishbia is well-known and

1:50 AM ET PHOENIX — With the Phoenix Suns‘ lead already ballooning to begin the second half, Los Angeles Lakers guard Patrick Beverley scored a layup while being fouled by Chris Paul early in the third quarter on Monday. After the whistle, Beverley placed his right hand a few inches from the floor, suggesting Paul

9:47 PM ET ESPN News Services Portland Trail Blazers point guard Damian Lillard passed Clyde Drexler to become the franchise’s all-time leading scorer Monday night against the Oklahoma City Thunder. Drexler, a member of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, had 18,040 points in 867 games for the Trail Blazers from 1983-95. Lillard, 32,

12:00 PM ET ON THE AFTERNOON of Sept. 21, Phoenix Suns employees logged onto an all-hands Zoom session led by team president and CEO Jason Rowley. Hours earlier, Robert Sarver had announced he was selling the Suns and Phoenix Mercury amid continuing and widespread anger over his conduct as majority owner. While employees eagerly anticipated

11:42 PM ET ESPN News Services DENVER — Nikola Jokic had 40 points and a career-high 27 rebounds in yet another triple-double to help the Denver Nuggets beat the Charlotte Hornets 119-115 on Sunday night. Jokic also had 10 assists for his fifth triple-double of the season and 81st overall. He is the third player

10:41 PM ET DETROIT — Kevin Durant got so hot in the third quarter of Sunday night’s 124-121 win over the Detroit Pistons that even one of the NBA’s all-time great offensive players lost track of how well he was shooting the ball. Durant, who scored 26 points in the third, a career high for

12:51 PM ET Adrian Wojnarowski Close Senior NBA Insider Host of The Woj Pod Joined ESPN in 2017 Dave McMenamin Close ESPN Staff Writer Lakers and NBA reporter for ESPN. Covered the Lakers and NBA for ESPNLosAngeles.com from 2009-14, the Cavaliers from 2014-18 for ESPN.com and the NBA for NBA.com from 2005-09. Los Angeles Lakers

11:47 PM ET ESPN News Services OKLAHOMA CITY — Memphis Grizzlies star Ja Morant was ejected just before halftime of Saturday night’s 115-109 loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder after apparently making remarks to courtside Memphis fans that were derogatory about the officiating. Morant was ejected with 43 seconds left in the half when he

4:55 PM ET After nearly 10 months of rehabilitation on a torn left ACL, Milwaukee Bucks forward Joe Ingles will make his return against the New Orleans Pelicans on Monday, his agent, Mark Bartelstein of Priority Sports, told ESPN on Saturday. Ingles successfully completed a final 5-on-5 workout Saturday, and that was considered the last

8:00 AM ET THE SAN ANTONIO SPURS still had flickering postseason hopes as they prepared for their regular-season finale in Dallas last April. Not that it had been a priority. San Antonio had made a series of moves over the previous months that signaled a shift into a rebuilding period. The Spurs didn’t attempt to

12:33 AM ET TORONTO — Kyrie Irving knocked down the first buzzer-beating game winner of his NBA career in a thrilling 119-116 win over the Toronto Raptors on Friday night. Irving shook off Raptors guard Fred VanVleet as the final seconds ticked off the clock, stepped behind the 3-point line and nailed the clutch shot

7:28 PM ET Andrew LopezESPN The Miami Heat listed all 16 of their players on the injury report ahead of the Saturday game against the San Antonio Spurs in Mexico City. The injury update came just hours after the Heat were fined $25,000 by the NBA for violating the league’s injury reporting rules. According to

8:00 AM ET Tim BontempsESPN There is a narrow leader in the early race for the Michael Jordan Trophy. Boston Celtics forward Jayson Tatum, who is averaging a career-high 30.2 points per game, claimed 47 first-place votes and was on 98 of 100 ballots cast in the 2022-23 debut of ESPN’s NBA MVP straw poll,

11:49 PM ET ESPN News Services HOUSTON — Tyler Herro matched the Miami record with 10 3-pointers and scored a career-high 41 points to help the Heat beat the Houston Rockets 111-108 on Thursday night. A night after making nine 3-pointers and scoring 35 points in a victory at Oklahoma City, Herro became the fourth

3:48 PM ET Golden State Warriors star Stephen Curry is expected to miss “a few weeks” with a left shoulder injury, sources told ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski. The Warriors announced on Thursday that Curry suffered a left shoulder subluxation but did not provide a timeline for his return. On Off Minutes 894 503 Off. efficiency 118.9

12:47 PM ET Dallas Mavericks power forward/center Maxi Kleber is out indefinitely after suffering a tear of his right hamstring during Tuesday’s practice, the team announced. Treatment options are being considered, according to the team. Kleber, 30, who signed a three-year, $33 million contract extension this summer, is a key reserve for the Mavs and

2:00 PM ET The NBA and its players’ union have agreed to extend the deadline to give notice of plans to opt out of the collective bargaining agreement to Feb. 8, the sides announced in a joint statement Wednesday. Prior to Wednesday’s agreement, the opt-out deadline had been Thursday. Now it falls one day before

9:21 PM ET Kendra AndrewsESPN INDIANAPOLIS — Stephen Curry was ruled out of the Golden State Warriors‘ 125-119 loss at the Indiana Pacers in the fourth quarter because of a left shoulder injury Wednesday. Curry sustained the injury with 2:04 left in the third quarter after attempting to strip Indiana’s Jalen Smith of the ball

8:00 AM ET Picture this: Zion Williamson vs. Ja Morant in this year’s Western Conference finals. The New Orleans Pelicans and Memphis Grizzlies look capable of bringing that showdown to NBA audiences this year with their recent surge to the top of the West standings. Then again, just a few weeks ago, some were quivering

12:28 AM ET Kendra AndrewsESPN MILWAUKEE — A fan was thrown out of the Golden State Warriors–Milwaukee Bucks game Tuesday night at Fiserv Forum after exchanging words with Draymond Green. As Giannis Antetokounmpo lined up for two free throws with 6:30 left in the third quarter of an eventual 128-111 Bucks win, a fan with

10:22 AM ET Tim BontempsESPN WHEN WILL HARDY first saw Boston Celtics center Luke Kornet‘s weird trick to contest 3-pointers, he was bemused. “I thought it was absolutely f—ing hilarious,” Hardy, who spent last season as an assistant with the Celtics before becoming head coach of the Utah Jazz this summer, told ESPN. “‘You’re 20

8:00 AM ET The NBA is renaming its annual regular-season MVP award after Michael Jordan, the player who topped ESPN’s ranking of the NBA’s 75th Anniversary Team named last season. The league unveiled the newly designed Michael Jordan Trophy on Tuesday, along with five other reimagined trophies named after league pioneers that will now be

1:11 AM ET ESPN News Services PORTLAND, Ore. — Damian Lillard tied his own regular-season franchise record by making 11 3-pointers and finished with 38 points, leading the Portland Trail Blazers over the Minnesota Timberwolves 133-112 on Monday night. Lillard shot 11-for-17 from long range, and he didn’t play in the fourth quarter. The Blazers

5:58 PM ET Detroit Pistons guard Cade Cunningham — the No. 1 overall pick in the 2021 NBA draft — plans to have season-ending surgery on his left shin, sources told ESPN on Monday. Cunningham, who has been sidelined since Nov. 9, consulted with multiple doctors in recent weeks and ultimately decided with the Pistons

8:00 AM ET HOW DOES A 6-foot-2 point guard whose self-described weight is “175 soaking wet” rank right up there with the NBA’s best big men in paint scoring? “Because motherf—ers can’t stay in front of me,” Ja Morant told ESPN after pondering the question for about as long as it takes him to get

11:21 PM ET DETROIT — If not for an Austin Reaves 3-pointer with 12.1 seconds remaining, the Los Angeles Lakers might have dropped the final leg of their six-game road trip Sunday against the Pistons. Instead, L.A. completed a 124-117 win against a Detroit team with the worst record in the league at 7-22 to

2:15 PM ET ESPN News Services Basketball taught Paul Silas how to be patient. As a player, he waited 10 years before winning his first championship. As a coach, he waited 15 years for a second chance at running a team. As a father, he waited 20 years before seeing his son get a chance