8:00 AM ET Tim BontempsESPN WHILE THE NBA world waited on the offseason’s biggest drama, Philadelphia 76ers coach Doc Rivers pondered the future of a point guard not named Ben Simmons. When Rivers met with his coaches ahead of the 2021-22 season to discuss lineups, he made a bold declaration: No matter what happened with
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7:00 AM ET Jump ahead: Game of the night | Picks and props | Analytics edge All odds are provided by Caesars Sportsbook. What you need to know for Saturday’s playoff games Crouching Nets, Betting Dragon: With the Nets in a pivotal spot, it’d be easy to blindly back their stars and let the chips
12:14 AM ET ATLANTA — Miami Heat point guard Kyle Lowry suffered a left hamstring injury in the third quarter of the Hawks’ 111-110 Game 3 victory on Friday night. He could only watch from the bench as Atlanta, the Eastern Conference’s No. 8 seed, erased a double-digit deficit to draw within 2-1 of the
1:17 AM ET ATLANTA — Trae Young got his last shot to bounce in, Jimmy Butler missed his final heave and the Hawks beat the Miami Heat 111-110 to draw within 2-1 in their first-round playoff series with the East’s top-seeded team. “I didn’t have any doubt that if I shot it, I wasn’t going
1:43 AM ET Jamal CollierESPN CHICAGO — After knocking down a 3-pointer at the buzzer to end the third quarter, extending an already substantial Milwaukee Bucks lead in what was shaping up to be a dominant victory in Game 3 on Friday night, Bucks forward Bobby Portis stopped and shimmed, savoring the basket for a
11:18 PM ET Andrew LopezESPN New Orleans Pelicans forward Jaxson Hayes was ejected from Friday night’s Game 2 in the second quarter after he was assessed a flagrant foul 2 for shoving Phoenix Suns forward Jae Crowder. After a made CJ McCollum jumper with 5:15 left in the first half, Hayes was crashing the boards
2:19 AM ET Andrew LopezESPN NEW ORLEANS — The Point God was at it again. Just five days after Chris Paul scored 19 fourth-quarter points to will the Phoenix Suns to a Game 1 victory, Paul scored 19 fourth-quarter points again on Friday night to lead the top-seeded Suns to a 114-111 win over the
5:20 PM ET Philadelphia 76ers star Joel Embiid is experiencing significant pain and discomfort in his right thumb and could get an MRI in the near future to determine whether there is ligament damage, sources told ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne and Adrian Wojnarowski. Despite the discomfort, Embiid practiced on Friday and expects to play in Game
7:06 PM ET SALT LAKE CITY — Dallas Mavericks superstar Luka Doncic, who has yet to play in the Western Conference first-round series against the Utah Jazz due to a strained left calf, is listed as questionable for Saturday’s Game 4. Doncic has been doing full-speed basketball activity since Tuesday and played 5-on-5 on Thursday
7:33 PM ET ATLANTA — A suspicious package found outside of State Farm Arena on Friday night caused the NBA to delay the tip-off of Game 3 of the Hawks’ first-round playoff series against the Miami Heat by about 55 minutes. The package was found outside Gate 2 of the arena, across from CNN Center,