The Stretch Run. With 20-odd games remaining on the schedule, it’s officially make-or-break time for the majority of the league — unless your franchise rhymes with Los Shamjealous or Hillmockie, of course. With tantalizing lottery picks for those that bottom out or home-court postseason revenue for teams that push forward, the post-All-Star break jockeying is
3:48 PM ET Portland Trail Blazers guard Damian Lillard will not play Friday against the New Orleans Pelicans and told reporters that he could miss three or four games due to his right groin strain. Lillard suffered the injury on a drive to the basket during a Feb. 12 loss to the Memphis Grizzlies. He
Tyrell Terry is undersized at 6-foot-1, but a closer look at this skill-set and shooting versatility reveals a potential lottery prospect in the 2020 NBA Draft. The top of the 2020 NBA draft is loaded with talented guard prospects. A crop of first-tier ball-handlers, among them LaMelo Ball, Killian Hayes and Anthony Edwards, is emerging
5:43 PM ET Minnesota Timberwolves center Karl-Anthony Towns will remain sidelined indefinitely as he continues to recover from a left wrist injury. Coach Ryan Saunders told reporters that the team held Towns out of its first practice after the All-Star break on Wednesday. Saunders said Towns will miss upcoming games, but the coach did not
Well, well, well . . . we’re now entering the home stretch here, people. With the All-Star break nearing its end, the regular season stakes will intensify exponentially. The losses count for far more now than they did a month ago. The playoff seedings are starting to settle a bit and we’re starting to see
7:46 PM ET It is a “good assumption” the NBA will use a target score to end next season’s All-Star Game after experimenting with the concept for the first time on Sunday, Byron Spruell, the NBA’s president of league operations, told ESPN Wednesday in New York. That is not set in stone yet, as league
After his buyout with the Detroit Pistons is complete, Reggie Jackson will join the LA Clippers. Can he offer a title contender more in a lesser role? With 15 official roster spots on each of the league’s 30 teams, the NBA is made up of 450 of the world’s best basketball players. That kind of
8:06 AM ET NBA Insiders Can LeBron James catch Giannis Antetokounmpo in the NBA MVP race? Who is the favorite to win the NBA Finals? Does Zion Williamson have any chance in the Rookie of the Year race against Ja Morant? We polled the ESPN Forecast panel of experts for their predictions now that we
Russell Westbrook doesn’t care what you call him, whether a high-usage, low-efficiency chucker, an anti-spacer that clogs the lane, or an empty stat-chaser. To Westbrook, it’s all the same: noise, especially if you are focused on Basketball Betting. And, no matter what you may think of him, nothing is stopping Westbrook from playing at his
1:09 AM ET SAN FRANCISCO — Golden State Warriors star guard Stephen Curry still isn’t cleared to take contact in practice as he continues his rehab from a broken left hand. But as he gets closer to returning over the next few weeks, his teammates and coaches dropped a new nickname on him during Tuesday’s
The Milwaukee Bucks are the best team in the NBA by almost any measure, but exactly how far ahead of the rest of the pack are they? Headed into the All-Star break, the Milwaukee Bucks are an incredible 46-8. They’ve outscored opponents by 12.1 points per game, best in the NBA. Their 25-3 home record
10:02 PM ET After a brief and tumultuous tenure, John Beilein is leaving the Cleveland Cavaliers as coach, league sources tell ESPN. The Cavaliers are promoting associate head coach JB Bickerstaff to become the full-time head coach, and he’ll run his first practice on Wednesday evening, league sources said. Beilein, 67, is expected to say
Always one of the most entertaining times of the year, the trade deadline is an annual must-see event for basketball fans. But in addition to the excitement it brings, it can also introduce a headwind of confusion. Case in point: The three-team trade between the New York Knicks, Washington Wizards and Los Angeles Clippers. After
12:05 PM ET High school prospect Makur Maker will be eligible for the 2020 NBA draft if he applies as an early-entry candidate, according to a memo distributed to NBA teams by the league office. The memo also included a revised agreement to the collective bargaining agreement between the NBA and the National Basketball Players
Atlanta sports. Those two words seldom bring joy or revelry. They are most often associated with pain, anguish, failure and lost opportunities. The story of any longtime Atlanta sports fan is a cautionary tale at best, and at worst, a deep-cutting tome of misery and strife. So you think you have it tough as a
Cameron Johnson was one of the more surprising reaches in the 2019 NBA Draft, but is that risk already paying off for the Phoenix Suns? Make no mistake about it: When the Phoenix Suns traded down from the sixth overall pick in the 2019 NBA Draft to add Dario Saric and eventually draft Cameron Johnson
3:54 PM ET Brooklyn Nets guard Kyrie Irving has been elected as a vice president of the National Basketball Players Association. Irving replaces Pau Gasol on the NBPA executive committee. Gasol’s three-year term expired. “This was the right time for me to run for a leadership position in the NBPA,” Irving said. “I have been
Always one of the most entertaining times of the year, the trade deadline is an annual must-see event for basketball fans. But in addition to the excitement it brings, it can also introduce a headwind of confusion. Case in point: The three-team trade between the New York Knicks, Washington Wizards and Los Angeles Clippers. After
6:38 PM ET Adrian Wojnarowski Close Senior NBA Insider Host of The Woj Pod Joined ESPN in 2017 Tim MacMahon Close ESPN Staff Writer Joined ESPNDallas.com in September 2009 Covers the Dallas Cowboys and Dallas Mavericks Appears regularly on ESPN Dallas 103.3 FM The Houston Rockets are doubling down on small ball, planning to use
A new format and fresh faces brought the best out of everyone in Chicago for the 2020 NBA All-Star game. What transpired at NBA All-Star Saturday night set a high bar for fan’s expectations of the newly-changed All-Star game on Sunday. Before the game got underway, the league continued to celebrate the life and legacy
3:27 PM ET Nick DePaulaESPN With nearly 6.5 million viewers tuned in to an epic dunk-off between Aaron Gordon and Derrick Jones Jr., the 2020 Slam Dunk Contest helped launch each player not only to new heights on the hardwood, but also in the marketing world. In the aftermath of his narrowly claimed Slam Dunk
12:58 AM ET The 69th NBA All-Star Game featured notable changes at the United Center in Chicago, highlighted by the two teams — Team LeBron and Team Giannis — racing to the wire toward the target score rather than playing to the buzzer. The new format seemed to bring out playoff-level intensity in the players,
Jennifer Hudson and Dr. Dre honor the late Kobe Bryant ahead of NBA All-Star game on Sunday. It feels like yesterday when the sports world heard of the tragic passing of NBA legend, Kobe Bryant. Now, just weeks after the news has finally settled we’ve had the wounds reopened by way of multiple moving tributes
11:13 PM ET The Cleveland Cavaliers and John Beilein have discussed the possibility of him stepping down as head coach during the NBA All-Star break, sources told ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski and Brian Windhorst. Beilein left for the All-Star break weighing his future as coach — including the possibility that he’s coached his final game, league
Pelicans rookie Zion Williamson dunked so hard at the NBA Rising Stars Challenge he literally broke the rim. All hail our king Zion Williamson, the rim-wrecker. I didn’t anticipate spending my Valentine’s Day evening watching the NBA Rising Stars Challenge, but my life choices led me to this moment. I have no regrets because watching
2:53 PM ET Associated Press DETROIT — Cleveland Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert, who is the Quicken Loans founder and chairman, is slowly returning to work eight months after he had a stroke. Gilbert, 58, returned to his Detroit office early this year. He’s there one or two days a week, using a wheelchair and accompanied
The Miami Heat almost swept the festivities for the 2020 NBA All-Star Saturday night in Chicago as Bam Adebayo and Derrick Jones Jr won the skills challenge and dunk contest in one of the best nights in recent memory. The term “positionless” Basketball has dominated the discussion around the modern NBA. The idea was that
11:37 PM ET Lawrence MurrayESPN.com The 2020 NBA All-Star Slam Dunk contest at the United Center in Chicago already had the potential to be memorable Saturday night. 2008 winner Dwight Howard was returning! Pat Connaughton was participating for the first time! Derrick Jones Jr. was back after coming in second back in 2017! And Aaron
The Philadelphia 76ers are the NBA’s greatest enigma. At home, the Sixers are a powerhouse. Their 25-2 record speaks for itself, but that number still fails to encapsulate their impressiveness in their own arena. The 20-point drubbings of the Milwaukee Bucks and Los Angeles Lakers, the teams with the best record in each conference, add
10:21 PM ET Tim BontempsESPN CHICAGO — Between them, Buddy Hield and Devin Booker took 108 3-point shots Saturday night. It took until the 108th and final one to determine who would come out on top in the NBA’s 3-point shootout — with Hield, thanks to hitting four of the five money balls on his