NBA

6:40 PM ET The Toronto Raptors are the defending NBA champions, yet they remain horribly under the radar in this year’s title race. That needs to change. Dating back to before the league’s stoppage in March, this team has won 23 of its past 27 games. They’ve been awesome in their first two restart matchups,

11:55 AM ET The Milwaukee Bucks‘ Mike Budenholzer and Oklahoma City Thunder‘s Billy Donovan were voted the National Basketball Coaches Association co-coaches of the year, the organization announced Monday. “I am honored and humbled to be recognized by the Coaches, they are a great group of people that I admire and respect,” Donovan said in

6:00 AM ET The NBA season officially resumed in Lake Buena Vista, Florida. Playoff seeding and the race for the No. 8 seed in the West have already been shaken up. The Los Angeles Lakers evened the score in the battle of L.A. with a close win, and the Giannis Antetokounmpo–James Harden beef was renewed

7:50 PM ET NBA Insiders Who are the new favorites to make the NBA playoffs as the No. 8 seed in each conference? Can anybody get past the Los Angeles Lakers and LA Clippers in the West? Who will be the best rookie in the bubble? After the first weekend of the 2020 NBA restart,

7:24 AM ET The Houston Rockets‘ official Twitter account took what could be considered the first jab in the beef between two of the NBA’s biggest superstars seconds after Giannis Antetokounmpo was announced as the league’s 2018-19 MVP. James Harden finished as the runner-up for the third time in five seasons, which didn’t sit right

10:54 PM ET ESPN News Services T.J. Warren had scored 40 points only once in his NBA career before the sixth-year pro went off for 53 on Saturday night in the Pacers‘ first game of the NBA restart to carry Indiana to a 127-121 win over the Philadelphia 76ers. A small forward acquired from Phoenix

12:15 PM ET The Los Angeles Lakers and LA Clippers gave fans a reason to tune in on opening night of the NBA restart for the reseeding games, with the Lakers edging the Clippers in a close one. They’ll both be back in action Saturday with two games that offer their own intrigue. The Clippers

6:57 PM ET ESPN News Services Miami Heat center Meyers Leonard stood during the national anthem before Saturday’s game against the Denver Nuggets, saying afterward he can be both a patriot and a supporter of Black Lives Matter. “I think I can be a beacon of light … not only for my voice or platform

1:00 PM ET The pre-restart training camp Mike D’Antoni so eagerly anticipated for the Houston Rockets — a team remodeled midseason with a drastic shift in philosophy to microball — never really materialized. Due to late arrivals, including both of the team’s superstars, as well as Austin Rivers‘ excused exit and reentry, the Rockets never

12:48 AM ET NBA Insiders Last year, a dark horse contender pulled off consecutive upsets to win the NBA championship. Who could be this year’s Raptors? Friday night’s action featured three of those dark horses: the Houston Rockets. Dallas Mavericks and Boston Celtics. Saturday’s games will show us a handful more: • Miami Heat vs.

5:56 PM ET Andrew LopezESPN The way the New Orleans Pelicans handled the minutes of rookie forward Zion Williamson was seemingly the talk of the NBA on Thursday night as the league returned to play in Orlando, Florida. On Friday afternoon, Pelicans executive vice president of basketball operations David Griffin spoke to reporters to try

7:04 AM ET The Milwaukee Bucks are big favorites to come out of the Eastern Conference. According to Caesars Sportsbook, they enter the bubble at minus-230 to reach the NBA Finals in October. Still, respect from Vegas is one thing, but execution in Orlando is another. While the Bucks hold the league’s best record, the

12:51 AM ET NBA Insiders It’s not easy to recall the storylines and themes that dominated the 2019-20 NBA season prior to its suspension, which seems like eons ago. But the battle for supremacy between the Los Angeles Lakers and LA Clippers in their home market — and more largely the Western Conference — was

1:00 PM ET LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. — Basketball is back. Finally. After 141 days, the NBA will return inside of the bubble at the ESPN Wide World Of Sports Complex at Walt Disney World Resort on Thursday night. It feels as if the world has changed a dozen times since the night of March

6:41 AM ET After 20 full weeks on hiatus, the 2019-20 NBA season is finally ready to restart. In case you’d forgotten, the Milwaukee Bucks lead the Eastern Conference, the Los Angeles Lakers are atop the West, the Memphis Grizzlies are clinging to the West’s 8-seed and the Toronto Raptors are still — more than

2:25 PM ET Denver Nuggets president of basketball operations Tim Connelly has spoken with Michael Porter Jr. about the second-year forward theorizing the coronavirus pandemic is “being used for population control.” Connelly did not make a statement, but Nuggets head coach Michael Malone said he learned about Porter’s comments — which were made on a

6:05 AM ET FRED VANVLEET TRUDGED from the lobby of the Ritz-Carlton Naples, out the double doors and into the stifling Florida humidity. The Toronto Raptors guard squinted, his eyes adjusting to the sunlight as the words came into focus. He saw “Black Lives Matter” in large, white letters across each side of two buses

6:24 AM ET In the NBA, where rosters can change dramatically from season to season, how much of an edge is it to have continuity heading into the league’s 2020 restart? Denver Nuggets head coach Michael Malone, whose team checks in near the top of our list, has high hopes. “Continuity [will] help with trying