Basketball

Guard is emerging to become part of a squad that will include superstar free agents Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving.

A fourth consecutive down-to-the-wire finish, a fourth consecutive win for the Portland Trail Blazers

The New Orleans Pelicans have fired coach Alvin Gentry after the club missed the playoffs for the fourth time in five seasons

Portland’s Damian Lillard has been unanimously selected as the top player of the NBA’s seeding games at Walt Disney World after averaging a league-best 37.6 points in the eight games

Pelicans fire coach Alvin Gentry after New Orleans fails to reach playoffs for 4th time in 5 seasons

Luka Doncic would like to clear up a bit of a misconception: He has playoff experience

Heroics were needed to get Portland and Memphis on the doorstep of the playoffs

Tobias Harris scored 18 points and the Philadelphia 76ers closed the regular season by trouncing the Houston Rockets 134-96 on Friday night

Rookie Terance Mann hit a go-ahead 3-pointer with 2:30 left in overtime and had 25 points and 14 rebounds for the Los Angeles Clippers, who beat the Oklahoma City Thunder 107-103 in a final seeding game for both teams devoid of stars

Doug McDermott  scored 23 points as the Indiana Pacers beat Miami 109-92 on Friday in a game delayed for several minutes late in the third quarter when Heat forward Derrick Jones Jr. was carted off the court

Five new players have not hampered the team's chemistry and the coaching staff has embraced the challenge.

Stanley Johnson scored 19 of his season-high 23 points in the second half and the Toronto Raptors closed out their regular season with a 117-109 victory over the slipping Denver Nuggets

San Antonio’s record-tying run of 22 consecutive postseason appearances is over, with the Spurs being eliminated from contention for a Western Conference play-in spot Thursday

The Chicago Bulls have fired coach Jim Boylen, the new front office beginning its remake of a team that missed the playoffs again

Kyle Lowry spent 13 years chasing an NBA championship before finally getting the ring

Jim Boylen fired as Chicago Bulls coach

Luke Walton was trying to motivate his Sacramento Kings to play hard until the end of this season

Caris LeVert (37 points, nine assists, six rebounds) leads six Nets in double figures.

Damian Lillard sent Portland into the NBA’s first play-in series with 42 more points and a crucial steal, helping the Trail Blazers escape with a 134-133 victory over the Brooklyn Nets

Nikola Vucevic scored 23 points on 10-of-11 shooting from the floor and the Orlando Magic tuned up for the postseason by beating the New Orleans Pelicans 133-127 on Thursday to snap a five-game skid

The Phoenix Suns did all they could in the bubble

Jonas Valanciunas and Ja Morant had triple-doubles and the Memphis Grizzlies kept their season alive Thursday with a 119-106 victory over the Milwaukee Bucks, who were missing star forward Giannis Antetokounmpo after he was suspended for head-butting an opponent

The Nets fell to the Portland Trail Blazers in the final game of their regular season on Thursday in the Orlando bubble.

Damian Lillard averaged 37 points and 9.3 assists for Portland in NBA restart.

Buddy Hield made a 3-pointer that capped Sacramento’s streak of 11 consecutive baskets made in the third period and the Kings beat the Los Angeles Lakers 136-122

Thomas Bryant had 26 points and nine rebounds to help the Washington Wizards beat the Boston Celtics 96-90 for their lone win in the restart

The last day of an NBA regular season typically sees just about every team in action, with plenty of drama surrounding down-to-the-wire playoff races and statistical titles on the line

Milwaukee’s former police chief, who was demoted to captain in part for using tear gas against protesters demonstrating over George Floyd’s death, has chosen to retire instead of staying with the department

The NBA playoff field is taking shape, and the final day of the regular season will also provide a preview of a first-round matchup

NBA players are building on the framework of Colin Kaepernick’s protests during the national anthem that helped raise awareness about police brutality

A team is going to reach the Western Conference playoffs with a losing record for the first time in 23 years, which ordinarily would not be exciting news

Mike Muscala made a 3-pointer with 5.2 seconds and the Oklahoma City Thunder overcame a 22-point deficit in the  fourth quarter to beat the Miami Heat 116-115 on Wednesday night

Paul George scored 27 points, and Kawhi Leonard had 26 and the Los Angeles Clippers wrapped up the second seed in the Western Conference playoffs with a 124-111 victory over Denver on Wednesday night

Stanley Johnson scored the tiebreaking basket in the lane with 4.9 seconds remaining, giving the Toronto Raptors a 125-121 victory over the Philadelphia 76ers that made a winner of Adrian Griffin

Myles Turner had 18 points, reserve Edmond Sumner added a season-high 17 and Indiana held off a late rally by Houston and James Harden to break a five-game losing streak to the Rockets, 108-104 on Wednesday

"I think it's a great last regular-season game for us going into the playoffs," Joe Harris said. "It's going to be a playoff-like atmosphere and intensity."

Giannis Antetokounmpo has been suspended for Milwaukee’s final game of the regular season,

The Kentucky coach said Payne will help in the development of Julius Randle and Kevin Knox, two players he recruited to play for the Wildcats.

Isiah Thomas loved to play road games, and the ones he could have been part of in 1980 might have been unlike any other in his career

NBA players could have some family members or close friends inside the season-restart bubble with them by the end of the month

Damian Lillard has no shortage of motivation

Brook Lopez scored 24 points on five 3-pointers and the Milwaukee Bucks defeated the Washington Wizards 126-113 despite NBA MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo getting ejected in the second quarter for headbutting Moritz Wagner

Harrison Barnes scored 25 points, including 12 in the third quarter, and the Kings beat the New Orleans Pelicans 112-106

Giannis Antetokounmpo was ejected from Milwaukee’s game against the Washington Wizards after the NBA MVP headbutted Moe Wagner

Damian Lillard tied a career-high with 61 points and made nine 3-pointers, willing Portland to a 134-131 victory over the Dallas Mavericks that moved the Trail Blazers into eighth place in the Western Conference

Devin Booker scored 35 points and the Phoenix Suns protected their playoff hopes by beating the Philadelphia 76ers 130-117 to remain undefeated in the NBA restart

Jayson Tatum scored 29 points and the Boston Celtics ran past the Memphis Grizzlies, 122-107

Keldon Johnson had 24 points and 11 rebounds and San Antonio kept alive its chances of becoming the first team in NBA history to make 23 consecutive playoff appearances with a 123-105 win over the Houston Rockets

Nets are 5-2 in the NBA restart as Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot and Jeremiah Martin each scored 24.

Jeremiah Martin and Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot each scored 24 points, and the Brooklyn Nets beat the Orlando Magic 108-96 as both teams looked ahead to the playoffs

The Nets faced the Magic during the NBA restart seeding games in Florida on Tuesday.

The former NBA player worked under John Calipari at Kentucky from 2010-20, serving as the lead recruiter.

The race for who qualifies for the Western Conference play-in series will go down to the wire, with four teams left in the race for the two spots in the matchup that will take place this weekend

Kyle Kuzma hit a 3-pointer with

Hodgepodge roster has won four of its past five games and clinched the seventh seed in the East.

Jimmy Butler returned from a foot injury and scored 19 points, Derrick Jones scored 18 off the Miami bench and the Heat kept T

Chris Boucher scored a career-high 25 points and grabbed 11 rebounds to help the Toronto Raptors defeat the Milwaukee Bucks 114-106

The short-handed Dallas Mavericks rallied from a 22-point deficit in the second half to stun the Utah Jazz 122-114 on Monday

Devin Booker scored 35 points, and the Phoenix Suns rolled past the Oklahoma City Thunder 128-101 to improve to 6-0 in the restart

Zion Williamson’s rookie season is ending without a playoff berth

Caris LeVert had 27 points and 13 assists, and the Brooklyn Nets used the best-shooting quarter in the NBA this season on their way to a 129-120 victory over the Los Angeles Clippers

It’s now official: There will be a play-in series to determine the final playoff spot in the Western Conference

Brooklyn's interim head coach is credited with guiding a hodgepodge team into playoffs.

Caris LeVert scores 22 points, Joe Harris adds 21 and Jarrett Allen just misses a triple-double with a solid all-around game.

As the NBA has managed to safely resume the season in a bubble, closing in on the final days of the regular season in the coming week — minus eight teams that were left out — it's worth looking back on the season that was.

Despite the postseason being all but a lock, team sees room for improvement after blowout loss to Celtics.

Boston was 20-for-39 from three-point range against the overwhelmed Nets.

Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot scored 26 points as the Nets finished the game on a 12-6 run.

While there has been some talk about a second bubble for the eight teams to stage an exhibition schedule, some teams have little interest.

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Highlights of this day in history: Christopher Columbus sets sail; Europe slides further into World War I; A Cold War ...

Caris LeVert scores 34 and Joe Harris has 27 to  lead squad in 118-110 victory.

He also scored 22 points and pulled down 15 rebounds in 118-110 victory over Wizards.

"I've known them for over two decades," Thibodeau said of Leon Rose and William Wesley. "They've been involved in just about every major decision that I've made.

Brooklyn has a six-game lead over the ninth-place Wizards, but to avoid a play-in series for the final berth, they must finish more than four games ahead of Washington.

The ordained minister believes in Black Lives Matter but not this particular statement.

Only an 18-0 run by the Nets to finish the game made the final score respectable.

League is in process of how to gather non-bubble teams in a way that will protect everyone's health.

Thibodeau served as an assistant coach with the Knicks from 1996 to 2003, then had successful turns as an assistant in Houston and Boston before becoming an NBA head coach.

They enter the NBA's seeding games at No. 7 ahead of the Magic and Wizards.

"I think the NBA has done an unbelievable job of setting the format and the guidelines, and it's up to the individuals to respond to those guidelines in a respectful and mature way," Nets coach Jacque Vaughn said.

The league's hopes are built around the bubble-like campus at Disney's Wide World of Sports complex.

Report suggests NBA, players may agree on voluntary team workouts for those outside the bubble.

The young center is in the starting lineup with DeAndre Jordan out of the NBA restart and had three double-doubles in scrimmages in Orlando.

Van Gundy takes on critics who say Thibodeau's hard-driving style is old-school NBA.

Former Hofstra star Justin Wright-Foreman was tough down the stretch, scoring the last seven points for Utah in a 112-107 victory.

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NBA Vice President Monty McCutchen and NBA referee Zach Zarba discuss how the league is adding baggies to whistles in ...

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Shake Milton of the Philadelphia 76ers explains why noise by teammates during games in the NBA bubble at Walt Disney World is helpful. (July 27)

The Knicks know they have to give their new head coach the players with which to win.

Organization and former NBA Coach of the Year working out details on five-year contract.

Tom Thibodeau is still the frontrunner, but team might want a teacher for young players rather than a proven winner.

The 6-3 shooting guard was waived by Phoenix in February and signed with Brooklyn on June 24; he has passed through the bubble protocols and is slated to play against the Spurs on Saturday.

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San Antonio coach Gregg Popovich, 71, wears a mask for his team's first scrimmage at the NBA bubble in Florida. ...

The Knicks would not comment on how many candidates remain in play, but it appears to be between Tom Thibodeau, Kenny Atkinson and Jason Kidd. 

Ravaged by injuries and positive COVID-19 tests, the Nets began their scrimmage schedule Wednesday night with loss to Pelicans.

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Orlando coach Steve Clifford and Los Angeles Clippers coach Doc Rivers discuss the need for societal change. (July 22)

A report that former Nets coach Kenny Atkinson interviewed Monday raises issues of just where the Knicks' coaching search stands.