NBA

5:28 PM ET A day after openly criticizing LeBron James for some acts that he considers to be “embarrassing” and “beneath him” considering James’ stature in both the sport of basketball and society at large, Los Angeles Lakers legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar issued an apology to the current Lakers star. “All I have to say is

2:26 PM ET PHOENIX — The Los Angeles Lakers will head into a potential elimination game without their leader, LeBron James. James was ruled out of Tuesday’s game against the Phoenix Suns with left ankle soreness, the team announced. It will be James’ third missed game out of the Lakers’ last four. The Lakers, who

12:52 PM ET NEW YORK — Brooklyn Nets guard Kyrie Irving has played in some of the most pressure-packed atmospheres the game can offer, but as his team prepares for next week’s play-in tournament and tries to solidify its playoff seeding with just four regular-season games left, Irving admits he has never felt this kind

1:18 PM ET Andrew LopezESPN Zion Williamson‘s stepfather, Lee Anderson, said he expects Williamson to return to play this season, but understands that it’s a decision that has to be made with the New Orleans Pelicans‘ medical staff with a look not only toward the present but the future as well. Anderson made the comments

11:22 AM ET Associated Press Gene Shue, a two-time NBA Coach of the Year who won 784 games with the Bullets, 76ers and Clippers, has died. He was 90. A five-time All-Star as a player for the Pistons, Shue went on to coach for more than two decades. He took the Baltimore Bullets to the

8:00 AM ET Could the NBA regular season’s final week decide the 2022 MVP? While Denver Nuggets center and reigning MVP Nikola Jokic has the inside track at the award, both he and Philadelphia 76ers center Joel Embiid have plenty to play for down the stretch. (The Nuggets can still capture home-court advantage in the

8:01 PM ET ESPN News Services The NBA on Monday fined Cleveland Cavaliers coach J.B. Bickerstaff $15,000 after he was highly critical of the officiating in Sunday night’s 112-108 home loss to the Philadelphia 76ers. “That game was taken from us,” Bickerstaff said Sunday night. “We deserved to win it.” Bickerstaff was upset with what

7:37 PM ET Free-agent guard Luca Vildoza is expected to finalize a deal with the Milwaukee Bucks that’ll take him through the 2022-23 season, sources told ESPN. Vildoza — MVP of the 2020 Spanish ACB League finals — has fully recovered from foot surgery and will be activated for the Bucks in the playoffs, sources

2:35 PM ET NEW YORK — Brooklyn Nets star Kevin Durant said he believes his team’s season got derailed when he injured the MCL in his left knee in mid January. “To be honest, I feel like our season was derailed by my injury,” Durant said after Monday’s practice. “So I’m not looking at it

2:08 PM ET NEW YORK — Brooklyn Nets swingman Ben Simmons will not be making his season debut in the regular season as he continues to deal with a herniated disk issue in his back, Nets coach Steve Nash said after Monday’s practice. Nash added that while he remains hopeful that Simmons will return at

2:00 PM ET Working the waiver wire is pivotal to succeeding in fantasy basketball. With so many games, injuries and endless shifts in rotations throughout the marathon campaign, we’ll need to source stats from free agency to maximize imaginary rosters. A willingness to entertain competition for the last few spots on your fantasy hoops roster

8:00 AM ET With one week to go in the NBA’s regular season, only three postseason seeds are locked in: The Phoenix Suns will have the top seed in the Western Conference playoffs, the Memphis Grizzlies will have the second and the LA Clippers are locked into eighth. The other 17 seeds remain up for

1:10 AM ET Kendra AndrewsESPN Draymond Green had never experienced a midseason injury like the one to his lower back in early January. He had never missed such a long stretch of games and had never had to work his way back with games still going on. So coming off his two-month layoff, he struggled.

11:32 PM ET ESPN News Services CLEVELAND — Philadelphia 76ers star Joel Embiid says he doesn’t know what else he has to do to win MVP this season after scoring 44 points in a 112-108 victory over the Cleveland Cavaliers on Sunday night. He also made 17 free throws, added 17 rebounds and 5 blocks,

10:34 PM ET ESPN News Services CLEVELAND — Joel Embiid did plenty of damage on his own. The Cavaliers, though, felt the big man got some unwarranted help. Cleveland coach J.B. Bickerstaff was highly critical of the officiating after Embiid scored 44 points — and made 20 trips to the free-throw line — in the

10:23 PM ET LOS ANGELES — After the Lakers continued their free fall from play-in tournament contention with a sixth straight loss on Sunday, Anthony Davis looked back at a season gone awry and reflected on what “could have been.” “I think the biggest thing that I think about personally is what we could have

9:20 PM ET Kendra AndrewsESPN As the Kings prepared to host the Warriors on Sunday night, coaches Alvin Gentry and Steve Kerr addressed the mass shooting just blocks from Sacramento’s Golden 1 Center that left six people dead and injured a dozen others early Sunday morning. “It’s an incredible tragedy,” Gentry said during his pregame

8:17 PM ET Associated Press TORONTO — Raptors fans and guard Kyle Lowry finally got to enjoy their long-awaited reunion Sunday. The six-time All-Star guard returned to Toronto for the first time in more than two years, his first trip back north of the border since an offseason trade to the Miami Heat. “I missed