NBA

11:44 PM ET John Wall had problems sleeping the night before, as his heart and mind raced in anticipation of his Houston Rockets debut, a comeback from a two-year injury layoff that was delayed another week by an NBA-mandated quarantine due to COVID-19 protocols. It had been 735 days, as Wall precisely pointed out after

6:32 PM ET ESPN News Services Indiana Pacers forward T.J. Warren will undergo surgery to repair a stress fracture in his left foot and will be out indefinitely, sources told ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski on Thursday. Warren has averaged 15.5 points and 3.5 rebounds points in four games this season after a breakout performance in the

8:38 PM ET LOS ANGELES — Kawhi Leonard will play for the LA Clippers on Wednesday for the first time since suffering a mouth laceration on Christmas night. Clippers head coach Ty Lue said Leonard will return against the Portland Trail Blazers after a two-game absence due to the mouth injury suffered at Denver last

11:23 PM ET Becky Hammon made history on Wednesday, becoming the first woman to act as head coach during an NBA regular season game. The San Antonio assistant coach filled in for head coach Gregg Popovich after he was ejected in the first half of the Spurs’ 121-107 loss to the Los Angeles Lakers. Popovich

6:55 PM ET Associated Press INDIANAPOLIS — Longtime Indiana Pacers executive Donnie Walsh, the architect of the franchise’s turnaround, announced his retirement on Wednesday. “Over my 30-year relationship with Donnie, I have been amazed to watch him help lead this organization to what it has become,” team owner Herb Simon said in a statement. “He

10:49 PM ET Eric WoodyardESPN Snow might have been falling from the sky back in Milwaukee, but in Miami on Tuesday night, the Bucks were making it rain from beyond the arc. Milwaukee set the single-game NBA record for 3-point field goals made, with 29 in a 144-97 victory over the Heat. The only Bucks

1:18 AM ET Steve Kerr sat down in front of the computer screen and tried to spin the kind of positivity that has been hard to feel throughout 2020. After watching his young team grind through an underwhelming 116-106 win over an undermanned Detroit Pistons squad on Tuesday night, the basketball lifer tried to let

4:56 PM ET Memphis Grizzlies star point guard Ja Morant has a Grade 2 left ankle sprain and is expected to miss 3-5 weeks, the team said Tuesday. An MRI on Tuesday revealed the severity of the sprain after initial X-rays on Monday night showed no fracture. Morant was hurt in Memphis’ 116-111 overtime win

8:52 PM ET NEW YORK — Memphis Grizzlies star point guard Ja Morant left the Barclays Center court area in a wheelchair Monday night after spraining his left ankle in the second quarter. The team announced he would not return to the game. Morant went up to attempt to block Brooklyn forward Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot‘s shot

12:55 AM ET Sometime around 4:30 p.m. local time Monday, Rudy Gobert walked out of the 21c Museum Hotel in the west end of downtown Oklahoma City and stepped onto a bus to make the seven-block trip over to Chesapeake Energy Arena. Nine and a half months ago, Gobert walked out of that same hotel

12:31 PM ET NEW YORK — Brooklyn Nets guard Spencer Dinwiddie has been diagnosed with a partially torn right ACL, the team announced on Monday. He is scheduled to have surgery next week. Dinwiddie was injured in the third quarter of Sunday night’s game against the Charlotte Hornets when he drove against Bismack Biyombo and

7:20 AM ET The LA Clippers, thanks to an impressive 2-0 start — a season-opening win over the Los Angeles Lakers and a Christmas Day triumph against the Denver Nuggets — might have had the inside track for No. 1 in our latest NBA Power Rankings. Then Sunday happened. In a matinee showdown, the Dallas

5:51 PM ET The Dallas Mavericks set an NBA shot-clock era record by leading the Los Angeles Clippers by 50 points at intermission Sunday en route to a 124-73 victory. Yes, Kawhi Leonard was out, but it’s safe to say even someone of his talent couldn’t have helped the Clippers, who trailed 77-27 at intermission.

5:09 PM ET LOS ANGELES — The LA Clippers trailed by a historic 50 points at halftime to the Dallas Mavericks, who set the record for largest halftime lead in NBA history on Sunday. Playing without the injured Kawhi Leonard (mouth laceration) and Marcus Morris (knee), the Clippers couldn’t do much in the first half

2:16 AM ET Fresh off a four-day forced quarantine, which followed weeks of his desire to be traded dominating headlines, Houston Rockets superstar James Harden had a performance Saturday night that reminded people why he’s a perennial MVP candidate. It just wasn’t quite enough to carry an extremely short-handed Houston team, missing six players due

11:33 AM ET Four Houston Rockets players — center DeMarcus Cousins, point guard John Wall, shooting guard Eric Gordon and two-way guard Mason Jones — who were considered close contacts under the NBA’s COVID-19 protocols will be forced to quarantine until Wednesday, a league source told ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski. The players had already been ruled

1:15 AM ET A bloodied Kawhi Leonard was forced to leave the LA Clippers‘ 121-108 win at the Denver Nuggets in the fourth quarter after taking an inadvertent elbow to the face from teammate Serge Ibaka. Ibaka was going up for a rebound when his elbow collided with Leonard’s face. Leonard immediately collapsed to the

6:03 PM ET The Houston Rockets are traveling to Portland with nine players — one more than the minimum required to play an NBA game — for Saturday’s road game against the Trail Blazers. The Rockets, whose season opener against the Oklahoma City Thunder was postponed due to a lack of available players, have six