News

8:21 PM ET Utah Jazz center Rudy Gobert and Indiana Pacers center Myles Turner were among four players fined by the NBA on Friday after the two players got into a scuffle late in Thursday night’s game. Gobert was fined $35,000 for initiating the on-court altercation, while Turner received a $25,000 fine for escalating it,

6:05 PM ET Portland Trail Blazers star Damian Lillard has been ruled out for Sunday’s game against the Denver Nuggets with lower abdominal pain. Lillard has struggled to start the season, shooting below 40% from the field and below 30% from 3-point range. The Blazers officially ruled Lillard out with “lower abdominal tendinopathy.” He had

9:37 PM ET Philadelphia 76ers top assistant coach Dave Joerger is leaving the team for several weeks to undergo chemotherapy and radiation treatments for a form of “head and neck” cancer, Joerger told ESPN. Joerger, 47, has undergone treatments while coaching for the past two weeks — missing only one road game — but the

12:40 AM ET NEW ORLEANS — When he got off to a slow scoring start this season, James Harden said his body and conditioning weren’t yet ready to score 30 and 40 points. It took him 13 games but Harden cracked 30 points for the first time this season, and nearly hit 40. The Brooklyn

2:52 AM ET LOS ANGELES — Anthony Davis unloaded on the Lakers after Friday night’s 107-83 loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves that was largely determined by a third quarter in which his team was outscored 40-12. “We sucked,” Davis said when asked about the third. “No defense. Can’t score. That’s not just this third quarter,

8:07 PM ET The NBA’s probe into possible pre-free agency tampering centered on the sign-and-trade acquisitions of Chicago’s Lonzo Ball and Miami’s Kyle Lowry appears to have reached the advanced stages, sources told ESPN on Friday. The NBA has conducted numerous interviews with team executives and player agents and have gathered electronic messaging of front

2:58 PM ET Associated Press PORTLAND, Ore. — Trail Blazers president and CEO Chris McGowan has decided to step down after nine years in the position. Dewayne Hankins, chief commercial officer and executive vice president, will take over as the team’s new president of business operations. McGowan’s resignation is effective on Nov. 26. He released

1:54 AM ET ESPN News Services SALT LAKE CITY — Four players were ejected after Rudy Gobert and Myles Turner got into a scuffle late in the Indiana Pacers‘ 111-110 victory over the Utah Jazz on Thursday night. The tussle began after Gobert appeared to pull Turner down to the ground with him after Turner

2:44 PM ET Chicago Bulls center Nikola Vucevic tested positive for COVID-19 and entered the NBA’s health and safety protocols on Thursday, sources told ESPN. The Bulls listed Vucevic in the protocols, but the positive test means the two-time All-Star selection will be sidelined for 10 days or until he has two negative PCR tests

8:00 AM ET NBA Insiders The NBA season is — almost — a month old. What standouts are here to stay? The Eastern Conference standings is full of early-season surprises, including impressive starts from the Chicago Bulls, Washington Wizards and Cleveland Cavaliers. Meanwhile, the defending champion Milwaukee Bucks are dealing with injuries as they work

12:23 AM ET Andrew LopezESPN NEW ORLEANS — Throughout the New Orleans Pelicans‘ much maligned start to the 2021-22 season, coach Willie Green has tried to stay positive about the direction in which his team is headed. But after a 108-100 loss to Oklahoma City on Tuesday night in which his team picked up five

3:52 PM ET LOS ANGELES — Miami Heat coach Erik Spoelstra had no interest in rehashing Monday’s on-court incident involving his team and the Denver Nuggets, or the subsequent penalties handed down by the NBA on Tuesday. “I’m done talking about it,” Spoelstra said Wednesday after his team’s shootaround in advance of Miami’s game against

8:00 AM ET JALEN GREEN HEARS the wrath from the old man with the unmistakable, raspy voice. It’s a little less than an hour before the Rockets’ shootaround begins, but almost half the roster is already on the Footprint Center floor in Phoenix, running three-man pick-and-roll drills. John Lucas, the Rockets’ 68-year-old assistant coach, provides

4:49 PM ET Three former Phoenix Suns employees have received messages from Penny Sarver, the wife of Robert Sarver, who is the team’s majority owner. Two messages came from the @pennsar Instagram account and another was a text message from a number that belongs to Penny Sarver. These former employees say they consider the messages

9:59 PM ET Denver Nuggets star and reigning MVP Nikola Jokic has been suspended for one game without pay for forcefully pushing Miami Heat forward Markieff Morris in the back on Monday night. The Nuggets will not have their franchise center against Indiana on Wednesday Markieff Morris was also fined $50,000 for his flagrant two

1:11 PM ET Emotions from NBA MVP Nikola Jokic‘s retaliatory bodycheck from behind on Miami Heat forward Markieff Morris on Monday night have spilled onto social media as the brothers of both players weighed in. As the league looks into whether to levy any further punishment over the Denver Nuggets star’s ejection after his run-in

12:41 AM ET SAN FRANCISCO — Warriors star guard Stephen Curry scored an NBA-season-high 50 points in Golden State’s 127-113 win over the Atlanta Hawks on Monday night. Curry finished the night 14-for-28 from the field, 9-for-19 from 3-point range and 13-for-13 from the free throw line, while chipping in 10 assists and seven rebounds

6:13 PM ET After initial resistance, Philadelphia 76ers All-Star guard Ben Simmons met with a team-recommended medical specialist to discuss his mental health on Monday, sources told ESPN. It is unclear what Monday’s meeting means for the Sixers’ ultimate hopes of a Simmons return to play, but it was a change of direction for Simmons

12:31 PM ET Philadelphia 76ers center Joel Embiid has entered the NBA’s health and safety protocols, a source told ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski. Embiid returned a positive test for COVID-19 on Monday morning and is expected to miss several games, the source said. Embiid wasn’t at team shootaround Monday and was planning to rest Monday night’s

12:20 AM ET Fantasy staff We are merely two weeks into the fantasy basketball season, but already it’s easy to identify some draft-day hits and misses. Our team of fantasy experts — Eric Karabell, Andre Snelllings, Eric Moody, Jim McCormick and John Cregan — got together to discuss some of the things that have stuck

12:33 PM ET Jake Paul‘s next fight card will feature a familiar name to sports fans. Deron Williams, the former NBA All-Star point guard, will compete in a boxing match at the event headlined by Paul and Tommy Fury on Dec. 18 in Tampa, Florida, Most Valuable Promotions co-founder Nakisa Bidarian confirmed Friday with ESPN.

1:59 PM ET Associated Press MIAMI — The NBA told its players, coaches and referees Sunday that they should receive booster shots against the coronavirus, with particular urgency for those who received the single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine. The league and the National Basketball Players Association — working jointly based on guidance from the league’s

2:45 AM ET PORTLAND — Having already navigated speculation about his desire to be traded and pushback over the hiring of his franchise’s new head coach in recent months, Portland Trail Blazers star Damian Lillard said his duty will remain the same while the team opens an investigation into general manager Neil Olshey. “The games

11:44 PM ET PORTLAND — A stomach illness caused Los Angeles Lakers star Anthony Davis‘ night to end prematurely during Saturday night’s game against the Portland Trail Blazers, according to the team. Davis exited the game with 4:51 remaining in the first quarter. He went straight to the locker room and did not return. The

1:29 PM ET Portland Trail Blazers president of basketball operations Neil Olshey is under an independent investigation commissioned by the team into allegations of workplace misconduct, a source confirmed to ESPN on Saturday. In a statement, the team acknowledged an investigation but did not name Olshey, saying the Blazers were “recently notified of concerns around

2:38 AM ET SAN FRANCISCO — The Golden State Warriors are quickly becoming the talk of the NBA after starting the season 7-1 and looking like the dominant two-way force that they proved to be during their championship reign. After a 126-85 demolition over the New Orleans Pelicans on Friday night, star guard Stephen Curry

8:19 PM ET DETROIT — Mayor-elect Eric Adams said Friday night that New York City will not change its COVID-19 vaccination mandate that currently prevents Kyrie Irving from playing in games there. Adams, who won the city’s mayoral election Tuesday, put the onus on the NBA and Irving to find a resolution. The current mandate

12:36 PM ET The Philadelphia 76ers fined All-Star guard Ben Simmons his $360,000 game salary for missing Thursday night’s victory over the Detroit Pistons and plan to continue fining him until he cooperates with team physicians on his mental health and fulfills other basketball-related obligations, sources told ESPN on Friday. The Sixers will again place

3:29 AM ET LOS ANGELES — If the Lakers had managed to protect two massive leads against the Oklahoma City Thunder — up 26 on the road last week and up 19 at Staples Center on Thursday night — they would be sitting pretty with a 7-2 record and OKC would be winless at 0-8.

10:07 PM ET PHOENIX — Saying there are two sides to the story, Phoenix Suns coach Monty Williams will wait for the NBA’s investigation into team owner Robert Sarver’s conduct before taking any action. ESPN published a lengthy story Thursday, based on dozens of interviews, that detailed multiple incidents of misogyny and racism during Sarver’s