NBA

2:10 AM ET Mike D’Antoni was watching the Brooklyn Nets‘ season-ending loss to the Boston Celtics Monday night from his living room in Austin, Texas, a world away from the drama his protégé, Nets coach Steve Nash, had just lived through. A year ago, D’Antoni had been on the Nets bench alongside Nash as the

6:44 PM ET Ja Morant has been named the NBA’s most improved player after a season in which the Memphis Grizzlies point guard went from future star to superstar. In his third year, Morant was named an All-Star starter and averaged career bests of 27.4 points and 5.7 rebounds per game to go along with

8:00 AM ET AN EIGHT- OR nine-figure subplot hovers over Jalen Brunson‘s star rise during these NBA playoffs. Brunson, the other guard the Dallas Mavericks landed in the 2018 draft, is poised to enter unrestricted free agency this summer. Suffice it to say that the price to retain his services, a priority for the Mavs,

2:16 AM ET NEW ORLEANS — Normally low-key by design, Phoenix Suns coach Monty Williams had cutting remarks about the officiating after the New Orleans Pelicans took Game 4 on Sunday to even the first-round series at 2-2. The Pelicans shot 42 free throws to the Suns’ 15 and it was a 17-2 disparity in

5:06 PM ET Within hours of his planned season debut, Brooklyn Nets guard Ben Simmons reported a return of back soreness on Sunday and has been ruled out for Monday’s Game 4 against the Boston Celtics, sources told ESPN. After approximately 10 days of pain-free ramp up following recovery from a herniated disc, Simmons’ admission

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

1:14 AM ET NEW YORK — Brooklyn Nets star forward Kevin Durant admitted Saturday night that he has been “thinking too much” throughout the first-round series against the Boston Celtics and that it has been a factor in his poor play. After being held to 16 points on 6-of-11 shooting in a 109-103 loss the

1:45 PM ET Toronto Raptors forward Scottie Barnes has been named the 2021-2022 NBA Rookie of the Year, the league announced Saturday. Barnes received 378 points (48 first-place votes). Cleveland Cavaliers center Evan Mobley finished in second place with 363 points (43 first-place votes). The 15-point difference between the first- and second-place finishers is the

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

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

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

8:00 AM ET JUST ACROSS THE street from FTX Arena, on a billboard space that was regularly occupied by Dwyane Wade during his legendary Miami Heat tenure, Tyler Herro is all angles, pictured in a Hudson Jeans advertisement dribbling a basketball, wearing a short-sleeved black T-shirt, ripped black jeans and black boots. Inside the arena

12:47 AM ET MINNEAPOLIS — In one of the most dramatic comebacks in NBA postseason history, the Memphis Grizzlies clawed their way out of a 26-point hole on Thursday night to defeat the Minnesota Timberwolves 104-95. Improbably, the Grizzlies now lead the best-of-seven first-round series 2-1. “We all know the game is never over until

6:48 PM ET Milwaukee Bucks star Khris Middleton will miss the rest of the opening-round playoff series against the Chicago Bulls due to a sprained medial collateral ligament in his left knee, sources told ESPN on Thursday. Middleton will be re-evaluated in two weeks when a timeline on his possible return in these playoffs —

8:00 AM ET Kendra AndrewsESPN JUST SEVEN MONTHS ago, one of the most important role players on a club desperate to return to its dynastic reign and the son of the legendary Seattle Supersonics’ Gary Payton, was preparing to apply for a desk job in the team’s video department. Seven months ago. Gary Payton II,

11:41 PM ET Brianna Williams Joel Embiid knows what it’s like to be losing on the side of a go-ahead 3-pointer in the NBA playoffs, but that wasn’t the case on Wednesday night. The Philadelphia 76ers star splashed a turnaround three with under one second remaining in overtime to secure a 104-101 win against the

2:43 PM ET Phoenix Suns star Devin Booker is likely to miss Games 3 and 4 against the New Orleans Pelicans with a mild right hamstring strain, but he hasn’t been ruled out for the rest of the opening-round Western Conference series, sources told ESPN. The Suns were still evaluating results of an MRI on

3:27 AM ET Andrew LopezESPN PHOENIX — Before every game when his team is doing pregame handshakes, New Orleans Pelicans forward Larry Nance Jr. has a message for Brandon Ingram. “You’re the best player on the floor,” Nance tells him. Nance and Ingram were teammates on the Los Angeles Lakers for the 2016-17 season and