7:00 AM ET How does the NBA play-in tournament work and which teams will participate during the 2020-21 season? The league first tested out the play-in round during the 2020 NBA restart in Orlando, Florida, with the Portland Trail Blazers topping the Memphis Grizzlies to get the final spot in the Western Conference playoffs. In
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5:43 PM ET The LA Clippers have signed DeMarcus Cousins to a 10-day contract for some much-needed depth at center. Cousins cleared health and safety protocols required for any free agent signing with a new team. The Clippers need a backup center and will take a close look at the veteran Cousins. Starting center Serge
7:00 AM ET The battle for the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference is shaping up to be a three-team race. The Philadelphia 76ers, Brooklyn Nets and Milwaukee Bucks are separated by just 1.5 games. The rest of the conference, however, is in a logjam. Right now — with the No. 4 through No.
7:04 AM ET NBA Insiders The Brooklyn Nets and the Los Angeles Lakers are the favorites to reach the NBA Finals. On paper, no teams come close to matching the star power of Brooklyn’s trio of Kevin Durant, James Harden and Kyrie Irving or L.A.’s dynamic duo of LeBron James and Anthony Davis. But plenty
8:34 PM ET LOS ANGELES — It didn’t take Paul George long to see what Rajon Rondo can do for the LA Clippers. Rondo made his Clippers debut Sunday, playing 13 minutes off the bench in a 104-86 win over the undermanned Los Angeles Lakers at Staples Center. While Rondo had just two points, three
12:46 PM ET Milwaukee Bucks guard Jrue Holiday has agreed to a four-year, $135 million extension that includes bonuses that could take the deal to $160 million, agent Jason Glushon told ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski. The deal includes a player option, according to Glushon. Holiday joined the Bucks in a four-team trade in November, providing shooting
7:42 PM ET Tim BontempsESPN Philadelphia 76ers star Joel Embiid is returning to the lineup Saturday night against the Minnesota Timberwolves after missing the past 10 games with a bone bruise in his left knee. Embiid, who suffered the injury during an awkward fall on a dunk in the third quarter of Philadelphia’s win over
10:13 PM ET Los Angeles Lakers star Anthony Davis responded to a crash scene involving his personal security guard on Saturday, sources close to Davis confirmed to ESPN. Davis’ security guard, Garrett “GP” Pullman, was riding a motorcycle at the time of the collision and needed to be taken to a local hospital for observation,
3:08 PM ET ESPN News Services Charlotte Hornets forward Gordon Hayward is set to miss at least four weeks after suffering a sprained right foot during Friday’s game against the Indiana Pacers, the team announced Saturday. Hayward suffered the injury in the second quarter of the 114-97 win, which knocked him out of the game.
2:56 AM ET Los Angeles Lakers center Marc Gasol admitted Friday night that he has been questioning his place on the team since Andre Drummond was added from the buyout market last weekend. Drummond was named the starter almost immediately after he arrived, and Gasol was relegated to the bench on a team that already
11:34 PM ET The Golden State Warriors suffered one of the most “humiliating” losses in franchise history Friday night during a 53-point defeat at the hands of the Toronto Raptors — a team that came into the game having lost 13 of its last 14 games. “You saw it,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said after
1:16 AM ET Golden State Warriors forward Draymond Green says that he is not motivated by the NBA’s new play-in games, despite the fact that his team currently sits in 9th place in the Western Conference — squarely on the fringe of the league’s reformatted playoff system. “To be honest with you I don’t go
7:00 AM ET NICOLAS BATUM FELT the doubt creeping in. He hadn’t played a minute of NBA basketball since Jan. 24, 2020, when the Charlotte Hornets decided to embrace a youth movement and send their 31-year-old, $120 million veteran permanently to the bench. That March, he publicly apologized to Hornets fans for not being able
9:00 PM ET NEW YORK — Kevin Durant, as part of his first public comments since injuring his hamstring in February, on Thursday addressed a feud between himself and actor Michael Rapaport that had been made public this week. Rapaport posted private messages that he said Durant had sent him — which included threatening language
1:49 PM ET NEW YORK — All-Star Brooklyn Nets guard James Harden has been ruled out of Thursday’s game against the Charlotte Hornets with hamstring tightness, while the team’s newest acquisition — center LaMarcus Aldridge — is available to make his debut in Brooklyn. Harden exited early from Wednesday’s 120-108 win over the Houston Rockets.
11:24 PM ET NBA Insiders With the NBA season nearly two-thirds complete, teams are now reconfiguring their depth charts and expectations after a wild flurry of trade deadline moves and buyout signings. While big names such as Kyle Lowry and Lonzo Ball didn’t change rosters, former All-Stars Victor Oladipo and LaMarcus Aldridge now find themselves
12:05 AM ET Members of the Utah Jazz feared for their lives after the team’s charter plane collided with a flock of birds shortly after takeoff Tuesday, causing an engine fire and failure and forcing an emergency landing. “For a good 10 or 15 minutes, I think all of us on that flight were questioning
3:07 PM ET Andrew LopezESPN JJ Redick criticized the New Orleans Pelicans front office for how it handled his trade to the Dallas Mavericks at last week’s deadline, saying that Pelicans executive vice president of basketball operations David Griffin “did not honor his word” to help put Redick in a favorable situation where he would