8:59 PM ET Three Dallas Mavericks rotation players remained in Denver when the team returned from its trip after one of them tested positive for COVID-19, sources confirmed to ESPN. Point guard Jalen Brunson, forward Dorian Finney-Smith and shooting guard Josh Richardson are listed as out for Saturday’s home game against the Orlando Magic due
NBA
10:13 PM ET Andrew LopezESPN NEW ORLEANS — It was little brother’s night Friday inside the Smoothie King Center — and almost a historic one, as well. Charlotte Hornets guard LaMelo Ball nearly became the youngest player in NBA history to record a triple-double as he posted 12 points, 11 rebounds and nine assists in
8:22 PM ET LOS ANGELES — Los Angeles Lakers star forward Anthony Davis will be held out of Friday night’s home game against the Chicago Bulls because of a right adductor strain, the team announced. It will be the second time Davis sits out through the Lakers’ first 10 games of the season. The perennial
5:43 PM ET Denver Nuggets forward Michael Porter Jr. will remain in the league’s health and safety protocol for an indefinite period and continue to be tested daily for the coronavirus, sources told ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski. Porter, 22, has been in the protocol since last Thursday as a result of contract tracing. He has missed
6:36 PM ET Tim BontempsESPN BOSTON — Celtics All-Star point guard Kemba Walker has been cleared to practice, the team announced Friday, and coach Brad Stevens says Walker’s troublesome left knee has been pain-free for “over a month.” Walker’s left knee has been an ongoing issue for Boston going back for a calendar year, to
3:33 PM ET The Philadelphia 76ers are expected to have multiple players miss time due to contact tracing and are still awaiting results of Friday’s coronavirus testing, sources tell ESPN. Those players were in close contact with Seth Curry, who sources say returned a positive test on Thursday. The team learned of Curry’s positive test
11:22 AM ET Tim BontempsESPN The Boston Celtics will be without virtually their entire frontcourt rotation for Friday night’s game against the Washington Wizards after announcing Grant Williams, Robert Williams and Tristan Thompson were all out due to the NBA’s Health and Safety Protocols. Those three players — along with reserve guard Carsen Edwards —
7:10 AM ET TWO BROTHERS IN the NBA. One drafted second overall, the other third. On Friday night (7:30 p.m. ET, ESPN) they will play against each other, one for the New Orleans Pelicans and one for the Charlotte Hornets. They will guard each other for the first time in an organized game, a couple
2:44 AM ET Perhaps the most frightening thing about Luka Doncic is how far the Dallas Mavericks superstar is from a finished product. After Doncic’s spectacular performance in his first taste of the playoffs, Mavs coach Rick Carlisle predicted that the 21-year-old would add an element or two to his game during the offseason, saying
3:08 AM ET LOS ANGELES — A day after a mob of pro-Trump rioters stormed the U.S. Capitol, Los Angeles Lakers captain LeBron James wondered what would have happened if the group of insurgents was mostly Black people, and blamed the mayhem on President Donald Trump. “We live in two Americas,” James said Thursday following
11:46 PM ET Philadelphia 76ers guard Seth Curry returned a positive test for the coronavirus, which the team learned of near the start of its 122-109 loss to the Nets in Brooklyn on Thursday night, sources told ESPN. The Sixers are staying overnight in New York and will commence contact tracing Friday morning, sources said.
10:30 PM ET Following the postmortems of a year that couldn’t end fast enough, the first week of 2021 has not provided a balm for 2020 as much as it has amplified last year’s relentlessness. For Black America in general, and Black athletes in particular, the year has begun with a series of events that
9:31 PM ET Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan has spoken with NBA commissioner Adam Silver and is “pretty optimistic” the city is moving toward landing an expansion franchise to replace the SuperSonics. Silver said in a news conference last month that the NBA was dusting off its long dormant expansion consideration and had put more time
2:03 PM ET I warned you about Myles Turner. In my Bold Prediction for this season, I told you that Turner was custom-built for ESPN.com’s new points-based system. That Turner would be a top-30 player. And that he would outperform Rudy Gobert and Bam Adebayo. Seven games in, I think we can go ahead and
6:35 PM ET Free-agent forward Taj Gibson is re-signing with the New York Knicks, his agent, Mark Bartelstein of Priority Sports, tells ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski. Terms of the contract were not disclosed. The Knicks also waived forward Omari Spellman on Thursday. Spellman hasn’t appeared in a game this season. The Knicks had waived Gibson before
6:09 PM ET Andrew LopezESPN For the first time in their lives, Lonzo and LaMelo Ball will be going at each other in a regulation basketball game. The two Ball brothers, three years apart, have never faced each other outside pickup games and duels in the Ball backyard. Friday night’s contest between Lonzo’s New Orleans
6:29 PM ET Brooklyn Nets point guard Kyrie Irving did not play against the Philadelphia 76ers on Thursday night due to personal reasons. Speaking to reporters an hour and 45 minutes before tipoff, coach Steve Nash said he “just found out” that Irving would not be playing. “I sent him a message in the last
3:48 PM ET Denver Nuggets forward Michael Porter Jr. has been ruled out of Thursday night’s game against the Dallas Mavericks. The Nuggets listed Porter as not with the team because of health and safety protocols. Porter had been expected to have his seven-day protocol quarantine, which started last Thursday as a result of contact