1:59 AM ET Tim BontempsESPN TORONTO — The NBA’s Most Valuable Player award is officially given out based on how players perform over the course of the league’s 82-game regular season. In truth, though, the narratives that frame the race are set by the time Christmas rolls around. With less than three weeks until the
NBA
12:19 AM ET LOS ANGELES — Los Angeles Lakers forward Brandon Ingram injured his left ankle in the first quarter of Wednesday night’s game against San Antonio when he landed on the foot of Spurs big man LaMarcus Aldridge. After an official’s review, Aldridge was called for a flagrant foul 1 for sticking his foot
11:54 PM ET CLEVELAND — Golden State Warriors superstar Kevin Durant says he would like to own an NBA team when his playing career is finished, and admits it would be a ‘great story,’ if the team he actually ran was the one he brought back to Seattle. “Hell yeah,” Durant told ESPN following Wednesday
10:32 PM ET Associated Press NEW YORK — Paul George scored 25 of his 47 points in a sensational fourth quarter, including a go-ahead 3-pointer with 3.1 seconds left that gave the Oklahoma City Thunder a 114-112 victory over the Brooklyn Nets on Wednesday night. George rallied the Thunder from a 23-point deficit and finished
9:16 PM ET Nick DePaulaESPN [embedded content] As ESPN celebrates its 12th annual V Week for Cancer Research, a new initiative has been added to the slate of charitable fundraising drives, seeing several of the basketball world’s biggest stars donate sneakers for “Kicks to Beat Cancer.” Ranging from vintage game-worn pairs of Paul Pierce’s first
7:31 PM ET Toronto Raptors president Masai Ujiri insists he and Kyle Lowry do not have an acrimonious relationship — and have never had so much as a confrontation. Speaking a day after the star guard said he felt betrayed over the trade that sent his best friend to the San Antonio Spurs, Ujiri told
2:32 PM ET The Los Angeles Lakers haven’t landed a superstar player yet to pair with LeBron James — and Kevin Durant thinks they may struggle in that effort. In a recent interview with Bleacher Report, Durant discussed the challenges associated with playing with James. “It depends on what kind of player you are,” Durant
8:33 AM ET All terms being equal, would I want to play here? How the best basketball players in the world answer this question governs the entire power structure of the NBA. No two players hold every team in the same regard, and the impressions of these teams fluctuate day to day. But it’s not
8:00 AM ET Editor’s note: This is an updated version of a story first posted on May 5, 2018. IT IS A raucous November night at the TD Garden in Boston as Toronto Raptors forward Pascal Siakam calls for the ball in the post, extending his spindly arm while Boston Celtics forward Jaylen Brown, a
11:17 PM ET There was a noticeable hole on the Heat bench in the closing seconds of Tuesday night’s loss to the Magic. It was about 7-foot, 265 pounds. Center Hassan Whiteside abruptly left the bench and went to the locker room by himself with less than a minute to go in Miami’s 105-90 home