11:41 PM ET In his first moment in the spotlight as a member of the Miami Heat last fall, Jimmy Butler failed. It was the rigorous conditioning test the Heat put players through before training camp that is legend within the league. Some athletic trainers claim it’s the most demanding such test in all of
NBA
7:03 PM ET New Orleans Pelicans forward Brandon Ingram won the NBA’s Most Improved Player award on Monday. Ingram, 22, received 42 first-place votes from a panel of 100 sportswriters and broadcasters and earned 326 total points. He beat out Miami Heat big Bam Adebayo, who finished in second place with 38 first-place votes (295
3:53 PM ET Tim BontempsESPN LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. — Boston Celtics coach Brad Stevens said Gordon Hayward‘s rehab from a Grade 3 right ankle sprain is “going OK” and that the veteran forward will be rejoining Boston sometime soon in the bubble at Walt Disney World Resort — though he isn’t likely to return
5:11 PM ET After staving off elimination in two straight games, Nikola Jokic sees a “relaxed” Denver Nuggets entering Game 7 against the Utah Jazz. “To be honest it has been Game 7 the last two games for us so I mean it is a win or go home for us,” Jokic said after Game
2:05 PM ET Andrew LopezESPN The Charlotte Hornets unveiled Association and Icon jerseys on Monday for the 2020-21 season — and they dipped into their history for their new look. This is the first full redesign for the Hornets since the team rebranded from the Charlotte Bobcats in 2014. The new look features double pinstripes
2:01 PM ET Eric WoodyardESPN Indiana Pacers president of basketball operations Kevin Pritchard has a lot of work to do. After suffering a fifth straight first-round playoff exit when they were swept by the Miami Heat and then firing coach Nate McMillan, the Pacers are preparing to head in a different direction, beginning with a
7:00 AM ET The conference semifinals are underway — in the East, at least. While the West waits on the results of two first-round series, the Milwaukee Bucks and Miami Heat tip off their second-round series on Monday night, and the Boston Celtics already took Game 1 from the defending champion Toronto Raptors. Who will
8:00 AM ET With six first-round series done in the 2020 NBA playoffs, let’s bounce around some positives and negatives we haven’t covered in other places (i.e., enough about The Process). We’ll have more on the Jamal Murray–Donovan Mitchell firestorm before Tuesday’s Game 7. The Mavs are here … right? Through four games against perhaps
2:04 AM ET The Western Conference quarterfinals matchup between the No. 3 Denver Nuggets and No. 6 Utah Jazz is going to a Game 7. After the Nuggets swept the regular-season series against their Northwest Division rivals 3-0, the Jazz took a 3-1 series lead — only for the Nuggets to tie the series. While
1:51 AM ET As he walked up the ramp back to the Denver Nuggets locker room, Jamal Murray, stopped and sat alone in a crouching position for a moment before using his jersey to wipe his face. Helping stave off elimination again by scoring 50 points for the second time in three games, Murray forced