NBA

11:37 PM ET Lawrence MurrayESPN.com The 2020 NBA All-Star Slam Dunk contest at the United Center in Chicago already had the potential to be memorable Saturday night. 2008 winner Dwight Howard was returning! Pat Connaughton was participating for the first time! Derrick Jones Jr. was back after coming in second back in 2017! And Aaron

10:00 AM ET Nick DePaulaESPN CHICAGO — Surrounded by friends and family, Aaron Gordon strolled into the United Center late Thursday night with a purpose. The Orlando Magic forward, one of the showcase attractions of All-Star Saturday night, was looking to avenge past failures. While league officials worked on ideal camera placements for the upcoming

11:59 PM ET The Rising Stars Challenge got off to a sleepy start in the first quarter Friday, and Team World took a 10-point lead into the halftime locker room despite equipment damage courtesy of New Orleans Pelicans power forward Zion Williamson. But Charlotte Hornets small forward Miles Bridges flipped a switch in the second

5:44 PM ET Kobe Bryant, Tim Duncan and Kevin Garnett headline the Class of 2020 finalists for the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame, it was announced Friday. They are joined by 10-time WNBA All-Star Tamika Catchings, Baylor women’s coach Kim Mulkey, five-time Division II coach of the year Barbara Stevens, four-time NCAA coach of the

8:00 AM ET NBA All-Star Weekend is here! This is the third consecutive year in which captains participated in a fantasy draft and selected their own teams, a change from the traditional East vs. West format. All-Star captains LeBron James and Giannis Antetokounmpo have made their draft picks. All-Star Saturday night participants have been unveiled.

1:36 AM ET Tim BontempsESPN BOSTON — Since Kemba Walker signed with the Boston Celtics last summer, he has repeatedly spoken about the potential Jayson Tatum possesses. And after Tatum turned in a master class performance Thursday night, finishing with 39 points and nine rebounds in just under 48 minutes in Boston’s 141-133 double-overtime victory

ClippersCeltics Field Goal % LAC60.0 36.4BOS Three Point % LAC0.0 60.0BOS Turnovers Rebounds Full Team Stats TD Garden Coverage: TNT Boston, MA Line: BOS -1.0 Over/Under: 228 Capacity: 18,624 Referees: James Williams, Dedric Taylor, Scott Foster To help make this website better, to improve and personalize your experience and for advertising purposes, are you happy

11:59 PM ET NBA All-Star Saturday featured three competitions that came down to the wire. Bam Adebayo set the tone with a close win over Domantas Sabonis in the skills challenge. Buddy Hield used his final attempt to knock off 2018 champion Devin Booker in the 3-point contest. And Derrick Jones Jr. needed a dunk-off

9:00 AM ET TOWARD THE END of Bam Adebayo‘s freshman year at Northside High School in tiny Pinetown in eastern North Carolina, two teachers, a coach, and a mother gathered in the coach’s classroom to discuss how they would wrap their arms around the mother’s son — a raw basketball prodigy already bordering on 6-foot-8.

3:26 AM ET DENVER — The Los Angeles Lakers increased their stranglehold on the Western Conference’s No. 1 spot with an impressive road win against the Denver Nuggets on Wednesday, but LeBron James claims seeding isn’t a topic of conversation for L.A. “We don’t talk about it,” James said after the Lakers’ 120-116 overtime win

3:08 PM ET ESPN News Services Kobe Bryant and his daughter, Gianna, were buried Feb. 7 in a private ceremony in Corona del Mar, California, according to death certificates released Tuesday by Los Angeles County officials. The burial occurred at Pacific View Memorial Park, which is near the family’s home in Orange County. Burial originally

8:15 AM ET VICTOR OLADIPO RARELY gets frustrated. So when he was standing on the court before tipoff between the Indiana Pacers and New York Knicks on Feb. 1 and kept messing up his intricate dueling circus dribbling routine — between the legs, loop one over the other, switch hands, quick staccato bounces, switch hands

2:39 AM ET HOUSTON — The Houston Rockets provided a glimpse of their potential when both of their superstar guards have it rolling. “It’s pretty scary,” James Harden said after a 116-105 win over the Boston Celtics on Tuesday at the Toyota Center. Harden scored 42 points in the win, the most by the NBA’s

Clippers76ers Field Goal % LAC42.3 44.1PHI Three Point % LAC37.5 25.0PHI Turnovers Rebounds LAC12 20PHI Full Team Stats Wells Fargo Center Coverage: TNT Philadelphia, PA Line: EVEN Over/Under: 229 Capacity: 20,155 Referees: Kane Fitzgerald, Ben Taylor, JB DeRosa TNT 1 2 3 4 T Clippers 22 4 26 76ers 30 6 36 Data is currently

9:14 AM ET Let’s go on break with 10 NBA things: 1. The mental dexterity of the defending champion Toronto Raptors Toronto’s 15-game winning streak is over, but man, is this team a joy. The Raptors bring a combination of toughness, intelligence, and confidence that is really hard to find. Some of that was within

11:37 PM ET SAN FRANCISCO — For the first time since he was traded away last summer, Andre Iguodala faced off against the Golden State Warriors Monday night at Chase Center. Iguodala, 36, spent six seasons with the Warriors, winning three NBA championships and the 2015 Finals MVP before being dealt to the Memphis Grizzlies

12:06 AM ET HOUSTON — It surprised Bojan Bogdanovic that he was substituted back into the game for the final possession with the Utah Jazz needing a shot to send the game into overtime or win, much less coach Quin Snyder designed the final play with him as the primary option. It’d been a rough

6:33 PM ET After retiring prior to summer free agency last year, veteran guard Darren Collison considered a midseason return to the NBA with the Los Angeles Lakers or the Clippers — but has decided to stay retired, league sources told ESPN. Collison had been weighing a February or March comeback with one of the