6:00 AM ET As we approach the 2020 postseason, the NBA title remains fully up for grabs. No one should be considered a clear favorite to win it all, and given the quirks of the bubble environment, more teams than ever are heading to the playoffs with visions of triumph. But one reason there’s no
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10:19 PM ET The final spot in the Western Conference playoffs will come down to a weekend play-in, where the No. 9 seed will have to win two games against the No. 8 seed — Saturday at 2:30 p.m. ET on ABC and, if necessary, Sunday at 4:30 p.m. ET on ABC — to make
3:36 PM ET Associated Press LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. — There will be an NBA Bubble MVP. The league announced that there will be an All-Seeding Games Team and a Player of the Seeding Games, honoring the best performers from the seeding games that started July 30 and will conclude Friday. The awards will be
7:25 AM ET In 2014, Boston Celtics president Danny Ainge got a single first-place vote for Executive of the Year and finished seventh. At the time, no one thought twice about it. The Celtics were at the start of a rebuild and went 25-57, missing the playoffs. But that was the season Ainge executed one
3:16 AM ET LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. — Kyle Kuzma said not much, if anything, could have stopped him from taking the game-winning 3-pointer in the Los Angeles Lakers‘ 124-121 victory Monday night — including a Denver Nuggets defender measuring 7-foot-2. “I think Jesus could be in front of me and I’ll probably still shoot,”
8:32 PM ET LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. — Still perfect in the bubble and continuing their postseason push with a 128-101 win over the Oklahoma City Thunder on Monday, Phoenix Suns coach Monty Williams says his team has to finish the job. “We haven’t accomplished anything,” Williams said after the Suns ran their record to
7:15 AM ET The playoff picture is beginning to take shape as the final week of seeding games begins. Three teams — the Washington Wizards, New Orleans Pelicans and Sacramento Kings — have been eliminated from playoff contention, and a Western Conference play-in is officially happening. The Memphis Grizzlies‘ hold on the No. 8 seed
11:45 PM ET NBA Insiders Entering the final week of seeding games in the NBA restart, teams have only a few more opportunities to improve their place in the standings. There are still four teams pushing for the final spot in the Western Conference playoffs, and it’s now guaranteed that there will be a play-in
11:00 AM ET When the New Orleans Pelicans were struggling defensively early in the season, a small change in December helped get them back on track. The Pelicans decided to drop their bigs on pick-and-rolls more, and the team immediately saw an improvement on the court. From Dec. 17 to Jan. 21, the Pelicans were
7:23 AM ET NBA Insiders Zion Williamson‘s rookie season might have only five days left in it. Even though they were 3.5 games back of the 8-seed in the West when the NBA season resumed last month, the New Orleans Pelicans were a popular choice to reach the postseason and set up a tantalizing first-round
12:06 AM ET During the final moments of the first five-minute quarter of the Milwaukee Bucks’ first five-on-five scrimmage since the NBA’s shutdown in March, Giannis Antetokounmpo’s team found itself down a bucket. When a long miss by the opposing team caromed off the rim and floated toward the baseline, Antetokounmpo launched himself with both
7:21 PM ET Tim BontempsESPN LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. — The first double-overtime game inside the NBA’s bubble at the Walt Disney World Resort, a thrilling 134-132 victory for the Denver Nuggets over the Utah Jazz, was overshadowed by a pair of clock operation malfunctions at the end of the first overtime period. The first
12:00 PM ET After a career game on Thursday against the Denver Nuggets, Portland Trail Blazers reserve wing Gary Trent Jr. sat on a stool a day later in front of a widescreen TV doing his media Zoom, talking about his development, his improvement, his progression, his confidence. It was an extended media session for
12:52 AM ET Tim BontempsESPN LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. — The Boston Celtics might have played their best game of the 2019-20 season Friday, beating the Toronto Raptors 122-100 in a result that was even more lopsided than the final score would indicate. But afterward, Celtics coach Brad Stevens wasn’t about to take any victory
8:52 PM ET LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. — With his team off to an 0-4 start in the NBA bubble and his daughter, Kaari Jaidyn, celebrating her first birthday hundreds of miles away, Memphis Grizzlies rookie standout Ja Morant called his parents with an admission Friday morning. “I wasn’t in a good mood at all,”
7:10 AM ET Here are 10 things I like and don’t like from the NBA restart: 1. The champs’ defense: the most exciting nerd thing in the NBA Nick Nurse’s funky zones get the attention, but Toronto’s base defense is one of the best night-to-night shows in the NBA. The Raptors in full flight are
12:12 AM ET NBA Insiders The first eight days of NBA seeding games have given us a lot of highlights — and not from the stars alone. We asked our writers to identify the up-and-coming players who have caught their eye over the first week-plus. Some of these players have been mainstays already this season,
6:35 AM ET The NBA bubble is in full swing. The race for the No. 8 seed in the Western Conference looks loaded, and Toronto Raptors are reminding people not to sleep on the defending champs. Now that we are one week into this grand experiment in Lake Buena Vista, Florida, let’s take a look