DENVER — For the Clippers' vaunted defense, the ultimate test undoubtedly will be dealing with Denver's incomparable center Nikola Jokic during what figures to be a competitive seven-game playoff series.

Jokic is a basketball savant, exceptional in every facet of the game, a player for whom the Clippers will gameplan like never before.

He's ...Read more

DENVER — Bubble Jamal? Or Trouble Jamal?

What’s it gonna be, 27? Because right now, Nuggets Nation isn’t quite sure which Jamal Murray they’re going to get in the 2025 NBA playoffs.

We know Nikola Jokic will paint the lane the way Michelangelo painted ceilings. We know Aaron Gordon will destroy rims for fun. We know Christian Braun ...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS — Conspiracy theories got tossed out on social media approximately three seconds after the NBA’s playoff matchups were set.

The fix is in!

The Timberwolves will have to play five on eight!

There’s no way the NBA will let the Lakers lose!

That serves as the backdrop in what will be the biggest test of the Wolves’ emotional...Read more

NEW YORK — The blueprint is there. The margin for error isn’t.

The Knicks enter their first-round playoff series against the Detroit Pistons as the deeper, more experienced and more talented team on paper. But paper doesn’t win playoff games — execution does. And if New York wants to avoid an early exit, they’ll need to do more than ...Read more

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Interim Kings coach Doug Christie said his work was not done following Wednesday’s season-ending loss to the Dallas Mavericks in the NBA play-in tournament.

Christie said the organization had offered him no assurances, but he made it clear he wanted to keep his job after the Kings suffered a 120-106 loss to the ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — The Lakers have given Rob Pelinka a contract extension and a new title: president of basketball operations. Terms of the deal were not announced Friday.

Pelinka, who has been the storied franchise’s general manager since 2017, had been vice president of basketball operations since 2020.

He pulled off the stunning deal to ...Read more

CHICAGO — From the first phone call, Hailey Van Lith felt that Chicago was the right fit.

There isn’t much time for predraft networking in the WNBA. The draft takes place eight days after the NCAA championship game, leaving the league without time to host a formal combine. The final stage of scouting typically happens over the course of ...Read more

LEXINGTON, Ky. — In an era when college sports boosters are being tapped to pay players via NIL deals that can reach multi-millions of dollars, conventional wisdom has been there would be fewer coaching changes.

The theory went that, with so much cash going to the players, there would be less booster money available to fund coaching contract ...Read more

UNCASVILLE, Conn. — For more than a decade, superstar forward Alyssa Thomas was synonymous with the Connecticut Sun.

Nicknamed ‘The Engine’ by fans, Thomas was the centerpiece of the franchise almost as soon as she was drafted with the No. 4 overall pick in the 2014 WNBA draft out of Maryland. But after 11 years, five All-Star selections ...Read more

DENVER — The Nuggets have their hands full with Tom Brady.

Intellectually, that’s the comparison David Adelman offered for James Harden this week, needing a different sport to accurately place the patience and precision with which Harden operates a pick-and-roll. The idea is that he’s still got it, even as his beard grays.

Another apt ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — On the night Luka Doncic returned to Dallas, the Mavericks condensed his American basketball career into an emotion-filled two minutes full of game-winners, highlight passes and trick shots that helped connect the Slovenian star to the Texas city.

As Doncic watched the footage, occasionally hiding his eyes behind a white tear-...Read more

CHICAGO — Chicago Bulls fans will just have to wait.

The morning after another demoralizing ending to a losing season, executive vice president of basketball operations Artūras Karnišovas wanted to talk about time.

The Bulls aren’t competitive — not in the play-in tournament, not in the Eastern Conference and certainly not in the NBA ...Read more

SEATTLE — Adam Silver dropped another breadcrumb in the ongoing wait for potential NBA expansion, this time providing a glimpse of a potential timeline.

Appearing on the Pat McAfee Show on ESPN on Thursday, Silver said the league could begin a formal expansion process sometime this summer. Silver was quick to caution that it doesn’t mean ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — JJ Redick had validated Austin Reaves all season, publicly and privately praising the Lakers guard as a key player of the roster.

It was a topic in Redick's first news conference as Lakers coach, a topic in the preseason and, as the season began fittingly against the Minnesota Timberwolves, a topic an entire regular season ago. ...Read more

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — There are a great many things about LaMelo Ball that are fun to watch and make for terrific highlights. But there are two things about Ball that bother me greatly now that he has completed his first five years with the Charlotte Hornets:

1. He has missed 57% of the Hornets’ games over the past three seasons due to various ...Read more

CHICAGO — Whether the Chicago Bulls’ immediate future is bright is debatable, but the team’s brand appears to be in pretty good shape.

The Bulls ranked fifth in NBA merchandise sales this season behind the Los Angeles Lakers, Boston Celtics, Golden State Warriors and New York Knicks, according to figures the league released this week.

...Read more

CHICAGO — For the second consecutive Wednesday, the Miami Heat put everything they had into a game against the Chicago Bulls at the United Center.

This time, they got it right.

And this time it means one more victory and it’s on to the playoffs for the sixth consecutive year.

Left with little more to show from the regular season than a 37...Read more

The Golden State Warriors are back in the playoffs, where anything can happen.

I’m not trying to sell you hope or doom here. I literally mean “anything can happen.”

There is no truly surprising outcome for these Warriors over the next few days, weeks, or even months.

On Tuesday night, Golden State beat the Memphis Grizzlies 121-116 in ...Read more