NBA

9:33 PM ET Washington Wizards guard Russell Westbrook suffered a right ankle injury and left the floor limping in the fourth quarter of Wednesday night’s playoff game at Philadelphia. Westbrook stepped on 76ers guard Furkan Korkmaz‘s foot and rolled the ankle with 10:28 remaining and the Wizards down 17 points in Game 2 of the

6:46 AM ET TAJ GIBSON HAS heard all the questions before. When Tom Thibodeau takes a job, Gibson knows what’s coming. And when Thibodeau was named coach of the New York Knicks last year, Gibson fielded all those regular questions — including those from Knicks forward Julius Randle. There’s an internal script that plays out

11:51 PM ET NEW YORK — After the Nets took a 2-0 series lead over the Celtics on Tuesday, Brooklyn All-Star guard Kyrie Irving contemplated the reception that he would receive from the TD Garden crowd when his team travels to Boston — where he used to play — for Game 3 on Friday. “I

2:12 AM ET For as long as they have shared basketball rights — and hearts — in Los Angeles, there have been remarkably few playoff matchups between the Lakers and Clippers over the years. Like zero, to be precise. Fifteen years ago, the Lakers were one win away from creating the first “Hallway Series” at

2:54 AM ET The Denver Nuggets walked into the locker room at halftime of Game 2 of their first-round playoff series against the Portland Trail Blazers with a lead, but also had the inescapable presence of Damian Lillard‘s supernova first half simmering in the air. Lillard had the flamethrower set to maximum heat, firing in

8:00 AM ET BOBAN MARJANOVIC is singing. Just a minute ago, Boban was talking about growing up in Serbia and being 7-foot-4 and playing for the Dallas Mavericks, but now, he is warbling, in thickly accented English, a Vanessa Carlton song with the joy and energy of a devoted tween. “I’d walk a thousand MILES

12:02 AM ET On the eve of the one-year anniversary of George Floyd’s murder, the NBA’s social justice coalition released a statement Monday night calling on the U.S. Senate to pass the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act as a way to honor the memory of Floyd and “others who have been victims of police

11:14 AM ET Brian Windhorst Close ESPN Senior Writer ESPN.com NBA writer since 2010 Covered Cleveland Cavs for seven years Author of two books 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 Utah Jazz star Donovan Mitchell was

7:00 AM ET NBA Insiders The NBA playoffs tipped off this weekend, and all eight Game 1s are in the books. On Saturday, the Brooklyn Nets and their Big Three took down the Boston Celtics; Khris Middleton‘s overtime game-winner propelled the Milwaukee Bucks past the Miami Heat; and the Dallas Mavericks and Portland Trail Blazers

11:47 PM ET Andrew LopezESPN Atlanta Hawks guard Trae Young played in his first career playoff game on Sunday evening. His teammate Lou Williams was playing in his 72nd. As the Hawks stood in the huddle with 9.8 seconds left — with the screams of 15,000 New York Knicks fans raining down upon them —

4:40 PM ET Chris Paul returned in the second quarter of the Phoenix Suns‘ first-round series against the Los Angeles Lakers on Sunday after suffering a right shoulder contusion. With the Suns up 11 in the second quarter, LeBron James leaped over Paul for an offensive rebound and putback layup, drawing L.A. within 38-29 with

2:53 AM ET Facing the presumptive MVP of the league, the Portland Trail Blazers approached Game 1 against the Denver Nuggets with a bold strategy: Let Nikola Jokic score. “We want him to score and not get his teammates involved,” Blazers center Jusuf Nurkic said. “When he scores, I think we have a better chance.

12:51 AM ET Tim BontempsESPN BROOKLYN, N.Y. — Ever since the Brooklyn Nets put together their Big 3 of Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving and James Harden four months ago, the basketball world has waited to see what these Nets would look like in the playoffs. While it took a bit for the show to get

12:50 PM ET After a second surgery in 28 months to repair his right quadriceps tendon, Miami Heat guard Victor Oladipo could be cleared to return to full-contact basketball as soon as November, orthopedic surgeon Dr. Jonathan Glashow told ESPN. Glashow performed the procedure on May 13, and he expressed surprise that Oladipo had even

11:59 PM ET The 2021 NBA playoffs are here. After a thrilling four days of play-in tournament action, the Nos. 7 and 8 seeds are set in each conference. Which play-in survivors will build off their momentum and secure an opening-round upset? Which title contenders will blitz through to the conference semifinals? Keep it here

12:18 AM ET SAN FRANCISCO — The Memphis Grizzlies are headed to the playoffs because Ja Morant delivered in the biggest moment of his young career. The 21-year-old scored 35 points, grabbed six rebounds and dished out six assists in a thrilling 117-112 overtime win over the Golden State Warriors. The win not only gave

2:01 PM ET Tim BontempsESPN NBA commissioner Adam Silver on Friday said his personal preference is for the play-in tournament to continue after this season, and that it was a success because of the incentive it gave teams to care until the end of the regular season. “I haven’t made any secret that I want

1:24 AM ET During an impassioned speech that took place in the middle of the season after a loss, Russell Westbrook told the Washington Wizards that they were going to make the playoffs despite all the injuries, a COVID-19 outbreak and losing streaks the team had to endure this season. On Thursday night, Westbrook delivered