NBA

2:04 AM ET PHILADELPHIA — Joel Embiid‘s night started with a loss and ended with a win in perhaps his most impressive playoff performance to date. The Philadelphia 76ers‘ 118-102 Game 2 victory over Atlanta Hawks on Tuesday began shortly after the NBA announced Denver Nuggets center Nikola Jokic won league MVP honors, with Embiid

9:53 PM ET Tim BontempsESPN Denver Nuggets coach Michael Malone said Tuesday that forward Michael Porter Jr. should be “good to go” for Game 2 of their Western Conference semifinal series against the Phoenix Suns on Wednesday night and that guard Will Barton could return to the court for the first time in almost two

6:53 PM ET Dealing with coronavirus was the priority for the NBA in 2020-21, but as we get to the end of the season, data suggests that the league saw a dramatic increase in injuries not related to COVID. Some team health officials said the carry-over effects will drive how they manage player health for

1:52 PM ET Utah Jazz point guard Mike Conley will not play in the Tuesday’s Western Conference semifinals opener against the LA Clippers due to a mild strain of his right hamstring. Conley suffered the injury during the first half of the Jazz’s series-ending Game 5 win over the Memphis Grizzlies last Wednesday. He was

1:26 PM ET Associated Press MEMPHIS, Tenn. — A judge reset a hearing on Tuesday to address a request by the ex-wife of slain NBA player Lorenzen Wright to throw out her guilty plea in his 2010 killing in Memphis, Tennessee. Sherra Wright filed a petition for relief of conviction or sentence after her surprise

7:00 AM ET After a thrilling play-in tournament and opening-round action that saw the defending champion Los Angeles Lakers get bounced by the Phoenix Suns and the Milwaukee Bucks sweep the reigning Eastern Conference champion Miami Heat, we’ve reached the conference semifinals. Will the LA Clippers ride their Game 7 momentum into their series with

11:45 PM ET Tim BontempsESPN The Milwaukee Bucks spent the better part of the last year trying to ensure this season’s playoff run would go differently than the ones they made in the last two. But after getting obliterated 125-86 by the James Harden-less Brooklyn Nets in Game 2 of their Eastern Conference semifinal series

3:12 AM ET Denver Nuggets coach Michael Malone felt a bad kind of déjà vu as he watched his team fade during the second half of Monday night’s 122-105 loss to the Phoenix Suns in Game 1 of their Western Conference semifinal series. After seeing his team get blown out by the Portland Trail Blazers

2:11 AM ET There are many things Chris Paul is good at, but one of his most crucial skills is sensing a moment. It’s never about how he starts; it’s how he finishes. And in Game 1 of Phoenix’s Western Conference semifinal series against the Denver Nuggets, Paul began slowly, hitting just two of his

12:55 AM ET When Steve Nash was hired to coach the Brooklyn Nets super-team entry last year, it was both shocking and controversial. Judgement on the hire is still a ways off, but Nash’s first postseason on the sideline has been impressive. Nash has run circles early around two-time NBA Coach of the Year Mike

8:02 PM ET Tim BontempsESPN For the second time in his career, and a decade apart, Tom Thibodeau has been named the NBA’s Coach of the Year. The New York Knicks coach, who led the team he grew up watching to a 20-win improvement this season, edged out Phoenix Suns coach Monty Williams by a

8:17 PM ET PHILADELPHIA — Philadelphia 76ers coach Doc Rivers says he keeps a “catalogue” of video clips showing what he believes to be unfair whistles against his All-Star defender, Ben Simmons. Rivers says he wants the league to officiate Simmons correctly, as the Sixers will rely on Simmons’ defense, in part, to dig out

6:55 PM ET Tim BontempsESPN The NBA announced Monday evening that Daryl Morey and the Philadelphia 76ers had each been fined $75,000 for a tweet Morey posted last week about Golden State Warriors superstar Stephen Curry. Morey, Philadelphia’s president of basketball operations, was hit with the fine because it violated the league’s anti-tampering rules, which

5:55 PM ET Associated Press PORTLAND, Ore. — The Portland Trail Blazers are compiling a list of possible candidates to replace coach Terry Stotts, and general manager Neil Olshey said Monday that he hopes to start conducting a first round of virtual interviews this week. Rumors swirled this weekend about possible candidates after Stotts was

3:59 PM ET Associated Press Caron Butler can easily point to the lowest moment in his life – the days he spent as a teenager locked in a solitary confinement cell inside a juvenile prison. The former UConn star and NBA player went to Connecticut’s state Capitol on Monday to ask Gov. Ned Lamont to

1:50 PM ET Marc J. Spears Golden State Warriors and long-time assistant coach Jarron Collins have mutually agreed to part ways in his quest to pursue head coaching and associate head coach opportunities, he told ESPN’s The Undefeated on Monday. Collins joined the Warriors prior to the team’s 2014-15 NBA championship campaign as a player

7:00 AM ET The opening round of the NBA playoffs is complete. And what a finale it was: a LA Clippers‘ clutch Game 7 performance against Luka Doncic and the Dallas Mavericks sent Kawhi Leonard, Paul George & Co. to a Western Conference semifinals meeting with the Utah Jazz. Before the Clippers and Mavs duked

7:00 AM ET After no first-round series in the Eastern Conference went more than five games, here we are in the second round with two star-studded matchups. Can two-time MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Milwaukee Bucks get past the Brooklyn Nets‘ Big Three of Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving and James Harden? How much will the