After securing a coveted first-round playoff bye, the Los Angeles Sparks cherished their hard-earned rest to prepare for a single-elimination game. Five days later, they were still resting.

The Sparks, who were without forward Nneka Ogwumike because of a migraine, disappointed in the second round of the WNBA playoffs Thursday, losing 73-59 to ...Read more

Seven years after leaving New Orleans an as assistant, Michael Malone connected his former point guard there with the burgeoning lead guard of his new team in Denver during the summer of 2018.

Malone wanted Jamal Murray to visit Chris Paul at his summer camp in Winston-Salem, N.C., for several reasons. As a teenage star from Toronto's suburbs, ...Read more

No deficit has been too much for the Miami Heat this postseason. Not even 17 against the Boston Celtics on Thursday.

The Heat erased a 17-point first-half deficit with a dominant third quarter, then closed out a 106-101 win in Game 2 of the Eastern Conference finals with a series of clutch plays by Jimmy Butler and Goran Dragic.

Miami is now ...Read more

Explain it? Explain a 10-1 record in the playoffs? Explain coming back from Thursday's 17-point deficit? Explain being outscored 15-2 one stretch in the fourth quarter - and the Miami Heat still cruising to a 106-101 win against Boston in Game 2 of the Eastern Conference finals.

There's only one way to explain any of that:

It was Goran Dragic'...Read more

LeBron James knows a thing or two about clawing back from a 3-1 deficit in a playoff series, having done it in the 2016 NBA Finals. So when he saw the Denver Nuggets do that not once, but twice, while inside the bubble, he had an idea of what it took.

"Very resilient, very confident, very driven, very well-coached team," James said. "It takes a...Read more

The WNBA has crowned new award winners for the 2020 bubble season. They're not the winners you may have thought of the beginning of the season, but at the end of the day, they're the ones most deserving.

A'ja Wilson, the star from the Las Vegas Aces was named this season's MVP, the first of her career in the league. Wilson received 43 of 47 ...Read more

HARTFORD, Conn. - The Big East will explore moving up the start date of conference play and utilizing a bubble setting so its member basketball schools can play all 20 scheduled league games, according to a source with knowledge of a virtual meeting of coaches and athletic directors Thursday.

Each of the 11 teams were originally slated to play ...Read more

NEW YORK - Not even Steve Nash expects himself to be a tactical expert on the sideline. As the head coaching job has evolved in the NBA over the years - from essentially strict principal to guidance counselor - Nash said he's focusing on his strengths of relationships and culture, which was why the Nets hired him for a championship run despite ...Read more

Nine months before the Denver Nuggets ended the Los Angeles Clippers' season, they were sending their visitors from Los Angeles to their sixth loss in 13 games on a crisp January night. By the end, Doc Rivers' patience was as thin as the Rocky Mountain air.

After voicing his frustration over two decisions by the officials, the Clippers' coach ...Read more

It was a slam dunk.

Maya Moore has married Jonathan Irons, the man she helped free from prison earlier this year after a wrongful conviction.

The all-time WNBA great paused her career with the Minnesota Lynx before the 2019 season to work for Irons' freedom. Irons walked out of prison July 2.

Moore, 31, told "Good Morning America" on ...Read more

A key step in determining what the college basketball season will look like amid the coronavirus pandemic came Wednesday with the NCAA's Division I Council approving a plan to begin the college basketball season for men and women, on Nov. 25, with practices to start Oct. 14.

The vote doesn't necessarily mean the season will begin on that date, ...Read more

ORLANDO, Fla. - In the hallways outside the convention center ballroom that the NBA has turned into a practice court, Boston coach Brad Stevens swatted away a question like he was Bam Adebayo waiting for Jayson Tatum.

Down 1-0 to Miami, the reporter wondered, could his young core of Tatum, Jaylen Brown and Marcus Smart play with even more ...Read more

As the NBA bubble crystallized and teams began committing to going, the Los Angeles Lakers had two players who hesitated to join the team in Orlando, Florida. The first was Avery Bradley, who opted to stay home. The second was Dwight Howard, who eventually decided he would go into the bubble.

But it wasn't a decision made lightly, nor was it ...Read more

ORLANDO, Fla. - LeBron James and Anthony Davis have been awarded spots on the All-NBA first team, the only two players with the honor who are still playing inside the NBA bubble.

The Lakers duo is joined by Houston's James Harden, Dallas' Luka Doncic and Milwaukee's Giannis Antetokounmpo, the likely league most valuable player.

Antetokounmpo ...Read more

Wow. Just wow.

The Denver Nuggets upset the Los Angeles Clippers Tuesday night. The Nuggets came back from being down 3-1 to punch their ticket to the Western Conference finals. The Nuggets will now prepare for a date with LeBron James, Anthony Davis and the Los Angeles Lakers - the Clippers are on a date with the sea, because they've gone ...Read more

It started to sink in at home. Candace Parker was at the crescendo of her career: two high school state titles in Illinois, two college national championships at Tennessee; finally her first WNBA championship.

The height of her success also came during a year of significant heartbreak: the loss of her legendary college coach Pat Summitt, to ...Read more

The Clipper Curse lives.

The hex that has haunted this team since it arrived unwanted and unloved in Los Angeles 35 years ago rose up again Tuesday night with its most chilling ramifications yet.

The monumental Hallway Series is dead, and the Clipper Curse killed it.

The historic NBA Western Conference finals playoff battle between the Lakers...Read more

ORLANDO, Fla. - Doc Rivers left the NBA bubble with the kind of limp that's a receipt for nearly 26,000 minutes of NBA basketball played on his legs. A 3-1 playoff series lead turned into a punchline for the second time in five years, and disbelief filled his lungs.

He marveled at Denver's togetherness, and regretted his team didn't have it.

"...Read more

PHILADELPHIA - Ever since he fired Brett Brown, Elton Brand has been telling everyone who asks that it will take several weeks to hire Brown's successor.

I spent the past few days polling a handful of currently powerless NBA lifers about the coaching vacancy. The consensus: It's a bad job, with a structureless organization. You would work in a ...Read more