11:32 PM ET Jimmy Butler believes in the Miami Heat‘s culture as much as the organization believes in him. The perfect basketball marriage, one that has only been strengthened in the bubble as the Heat dominate everybody in their path, took another step closer to NBA paradise on Friday night when Butler scored 30 points
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3:54 AM ET LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. — Los Angeles Lakers coach Frank Vogel stuck by veteran point guard Rajon Rondo after L.A.’s 112-97 Game 1 loss to the Houston Rockets in the Western Conference semifinals on Friday. “Rajon is one of the smartest players in the league, and obviously our guys’ IQ raises when
2:19 AM ET To those who have done battle with the Houston Rockets the past few seasons as they morphed into the purest form of positionless, small-ball basketball the NBA has ever seen, Friday’s 112-97 dismantling of the Los Angeles Lakers in Game 1 of their Western Conference semifinals series does not come as a
5:02 PM ET LA Clippers power forward Montrezl Harrell has won the 2019-20 Sixth Man of the Year award, a source confirmed to ESPN. For the third consecutive year, the Clippers have the league’s top sixth man after Lou Williams won the award the previous two seasons. The Clippers now have had the Sixth Man
5:21 PM ET Denver Nuggets coach Michael Malone went after the NBA on Friday, calling its policy of not allowing coaches to bring family into the bubble “criminal in nature.” Speaking to reporters ahead of Saturday’s Game 2 against the LA Clippers, Malone answered a different question about the bubble by saying he needed to
8:15 PM ET LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. — Los Angeles Lakers guard Rajon Rondo will come off the bench in Friday’s Game 1 of the Western Conference semifinals against the Houston Rockets and log his first NBA action since March, L.A. head coach Frank Vogel said before the game. “He was ready to return in
7:20 AM ET Close your eyes and try to picture it: When was James Harden‘s last capital “M” playoff moment before his flying block on Luguentz Dort to help seal the Houston Rockets‘ Game 7 win over the Oklahoma City Thunder? Unless you include the bad ones — we’ll get to those — you might
6:00 AM ET Eric WoodyardESPN Eric Bledsoe has heard the talk. How he was outplayed by fill-in starter Terry Rozier, who rankled Bledsoe on and off the court, causing him to average just 13.6 points per game on 44% shooting in the Milwaukee Bucks‘ seven-game loss to the Boston Celtics in 2018. How a year
1:49 PM ET The call landed late on Wednesday night in San Francisco, Sean Marks reaching out to Golden State’s Bob Myers to tell him the Brooklyn Nets had recruited one more MVP from the Golden State Warriors. This time, Steve Nash. The Nets GM made a leap that Myers had done twice in searches:
1:37 AM ET It’s difficult to doubt the LA Clippers‘ personnel and its potential. Yet coming into this conference semifinals series against the Denver Nuggets, we still hadn’t seen the fully-intact, healthy Clippers play championship-quality basketball for a sustained stretch of time longer than 10 days after the All-Star break and before the March suspension.