Reporting Articles - Page 345

SAN FRANCISCO — If you ever wondered what it would be like to play with the stars of the Golden State Warriors, this article is for you. After Thursday’s shootaround, Otto Porter Jr. spoke with the media about learning to play alongside superstars Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson. “With Klay back, I’m still learning how […]

Some late, breaking news on Thursday afternoon: LeBron James has been downgraded to questionable for the Los Angeles Lakers’ clash with the Philadelphia 76ers at the Wells Fargo Center, just hours before tip-off. Left knee soreness was cited by the Lakers as the reason for his surprise inclusion on the injury report. LeBron did not mention […]

Both the Dallas Mavericks and Portland Trail Blazers entered Wednesday’s game barely 24 hours removed from a loss. Only one of them, though, showed the inevitable ill-effects of taking the floor for the second time in as many nights. A thoroughly depleted roster didn’t help Portland, either. The fatigued and overmatched Blazers fell to the […]

The Charlotte Hornets have been bitten by the injury bug early this season. To be more specific, Covid-19 has ransacked this team all season long. At one point, they were missing as many as nine guys from their roster. More recently, they have lost Gordon Hayward due to health and safety protocols and he missed […]

Jordan Poole was the Golden State Warriors’ 28th pick in the 2019 NBA draft. In his first season, he spent a lot of time in the G League before finally getting his break and becoming a major contributor to the team. Now, three years, later rookie Jonathan Kuminga is experiencing a similar situation. The No. […]

The Brooklyn Nets are set to host Nikola Jokic and the Denver Nuggets at Barclays Center. They are 29-18 in third place in the East, but just one full game out of first place behind both the Chicago Bulls and Miami Heat. The problem is that Steve Nash’s men have a rare away-court advantage: Kevin […]

The Los Angeles Lakers did a smart thing on Wednesday: they not only re-signed Stanley Johnson for the rest of the 2021-22 NBA season, they offered him a two-year deal with a team option for 2022-23. Well-deserved. Johnson — both his play and his story — has represented one of the few unequivocally bright spots […]

The Los Angeles Lakers could trade Russell Westbrook right now if they wanted to. As Marc Stein has reported on over the past week, they have an offer on the “proverbial table” to send Russ and a 2027 first-round pick to the Houston Rockets in exchange for John Wall. Don’t count on it. As I […]

Kevin Durant is injured through the All-Star break, Kyrie Irving is only available part of the time and James Harden now finds his name swirling in Ben Simmons trade rumors every single day. There have been days when the “scary hours” dream of a healthy and available, full-time Big Three felt like it was just […]

Things did not look great for the Philadelphia 76ers early on in their matchup with the New Orleans Pelicans on Tuesday night. After sleepwalking through most of the first two quarters, the Sixers found themselves with an eight-point halftime deficit to a heavily shorthanded squad. Similar to the matchup with the Orlando Magic a week […]

SAN FRANCISCO — Golden State Warriors guard Jordan Poole just played his best game this season with Klay Thompson in the starting lineup. The rising star had 17 points on 6-of-10 shooting from the field while playing 26 minutes off the bench. It was an impressive performance against the Dallas Mavericks, but what impressed Thompson […]

The Portland Trail Blazers fell to the Minnesota Timberwolves 109-107 on Tuesday night, their crunch-time rally spoiled by D’Angelo Russell’s tie-breaking layup past Anfernee Simons with 2.9 seconds remaining. Simons had the chance to send his team to a walk-off win on the game’s next possession, but his tough chance from three caromed off the […]

Despite trailing by a seemingly insurmountable 35 points, Amir Coffey continued to pour it on. And then Luke Kennard poured it on. And before they knew it, Tyronn Lue‘s Los Angeles Clippers were just one 3-pointer away from tying the game against Bradley Beal and the Washington Wizards. With eight seconds remaining, the Clippers ran […]

This 2021-22 NBA season has been one of the toughest to predict outcomes for, and the Los Angeles Clippers have been the toughest team to gauge. After losing a tough game to the struggling New York Knicks on Sunday, Luke Kennard and the Clippers took on the Washington Wizards Tuesday night hoping to get back […]

Kobe Bryant’s global impact is impossible to quantify.  When I worked on the documentary, Kobe Bryant’s Muse, I was tasked with calculating his total economic value, to no avail. I ended up at some figure in the tens of billions but, ultimately, I was dumbfounded. There was certainly no fiscal route through which to pinpoint […]

Bradley Beal and the Washington Wizards dropped a very winnable game against the LA Clippers on Tuesday night, sparking trade rumors and questions about the star guard’s future with the team. With a minute left in the first half, the Wizards took a 66-31 lead over the Clippers. It was nothing new for LA, whose […]

It’s hard to overstate how badly the Los Angeles Lakers needed Anthony Davis back. LeBron James continues to play at an otherworldly level — even Austin Reaves is utterly confounded by his brilliance. However, the Lakers had largely wasted the career-best “zone” James has enjoyed since early December. Perhaps a telling quote here from Frank […]

Bradley Beal and the Washington Wizards were well on their way to ending a three-game losing streak against Luke Kennard and the the LA Clippers at home on Tuesday night. The team got off to a hot start in the first quarter, leading 32-23. They then poured it on in the second quarter, where they […]

The Charlotte Hornets have now lost two straight games after winning seven of their last eight games. They traveled to Toronto for the first time this season to take on the Raptors and lost 125-113. Charlotte has had defensive breakdowns in their last couple of losses. On Tuesday night, the Hornets gave up 39 points […]

James Harden and Brooklyn Nets lost again at home on Tuesday. They’re now just 12-12 at Barclays Center after a 106-96 home loss to LeBron James, Anthony Davis, Russell Westbrook and the Los Angeles Lakers. This is a team who had an away-game advantage for most of the season and with Kyrie Irving back in […]

James Harden’s name has popped up in trade rumors quite a bit this week. Almost every single one of them indicates that his former GM Daryl Morey would love to acquire The Beard in a blockbuster sign-and-trade after this season. For what it’s worth, Harden had the opportunity to take a big contract extension through […]

The Brooklyn Nets made it through most of this turbulent season thus far without a ton of credible trade rumors. But, lately, James Harden’s name has popped up every few days with solid reports hinting that Philadelphia 76ers president Daryl Morey would love to acquire The Beard in an offseason trade for disgruntled star Ben […]

The LA Clippers have played all season without Kawhi Leonard and half the year without Paul George. But good news could be on the horizon. At least, according to Clippers forward Nicolas Batum. Batum makes a regular appearance on a video show for First Team, a French Sports media page on Twitch, Twitter, and other […]

The Golden State Warriors have been one of the best teams in the NBA on defense, and according to Gary Payton II, it is largely because of Draymond Green and Andre Iguodala. “It’s amazing to have two defensive anchors him (Iguodala) and Draymond on the same team,” Payton II told ClutchPoints. “Everybody’s really sitting down […]

San Francisco, CA – Historically, Klay Thompson would defend the best offensive player on the opposing team. Now those days are over according to Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr. The job of taking on the most dangerous player on the opposing team now belongs to Andrew Wiggins, even if Thompson’s injuries never happened. “I […]

San Francisco, CA – Golden State Warriors superstar Stephen Curry has done multiple things he’s never done this season. The three-time champion set the new NBA record in three-pointers made in a career and he became the first player to reach 3000 three-pointers. But all isn’t well. This season, he’s displaying the worst shooting of […]

This season, the Philadelphia 76ers have asked more of Joel Embiid than ever before. Even after a year where he finished second in MVP voting, the All-Star center has managed to take his game to new heights while playing without Ben Simmons. Since his return from health and safety protocols, Embiid has been nothing short […]

After a second-half collapse against the Los Angeles Clippers Friday, the Philadelphia 76ers hit the road Sunday, looking to get back on track. Next up on their schedule was a meeting with Dejounte Murray and the San Antonio Spurs. When these teams met in Philly at the beginning of January, the Sixers completely dominated the […]

SAN FRANCISCO — Golden State Warriors superstar Stephen Curry struggled shooting the ball once again, this time against Rudy Gobert and the Utah Jazz. While the Warriors squeaked out a 94-92 win, Curry finished the game with just 13 points on 5-of-20 shooting from the field and showed clear frustration. In his postgame interview, he […]

LeBron James scored 33 points on 12-of-22 shooting in 40 minutes on Sunday. It wasn’t enough, as the Los Angeles Lakers lost 113-107 to the Miami Heat at FTX Arena. This has been a subplot of the Lakers season: LeBron puts the team on his back, and the Lakers lose. By his own admission, this […]

The Charlotte Hornets got punched in the mouth by the visiting Atlanta Hawks on Sunday night, 113-91. It was just one of the nights for the Hornets. Shots weren’t falling for them. They shot a putrid 4-of-36 from deep for only 11%. Everyone just had an off night tonight. Hornets coach James Borrego had very […]

It was simply not meant to be for the Toronto Raptors. In one of the most demoralizing halves of basketball the Raptors have played this season, they came out completely discombobulated against the Portland Trail Blazers at home on Sunday night, languid on defense and stagnant on offense. They only managed 34 points through those […]

The Portland Trail Blazers beat the Toronto Raptors 114-105 at Scotiabank Arena on Sunday, closing out a long, arduous road trip by building a 30-point lead and almost squandering it before the final buzzer. The victory moves the Blazers 20-26 on the season, including a stunning 4-2 since they last took the floor in Rip […]

Anthony Davis has been upgraded to questionable for the Los Angeles Lakers matchup against the Miami Heat on Sunday at FTX Arena. Davis has missed the past five weeks (16 games) with a sprained MCL in his left knee — an injury he suffered against the Minnesota Timberwolves on Dec. 17. A couple of weeks […]

The Portland Trail Blazers earned one of their most impressive wins of the regular season on Friday, beating the Boston Celtics 109-105 at TD Garden. The win is Portland’s fourth in six games, all of which have come without Damian Lillard. Anfernee Simons continued staking his claim as one of basketball’s most intriguing young guards, […]

We’re going to learn a lot about the Los Angeles Lakers over the next five games. Forgive me for not overreacting to an eventually-comfortable win over the 8-39 Orlando Magic at the Amway Center. That said, the Lakers needed to beat Orlando at the end of a chaotic week that included the best win of […]

Russell Westbrook played a solid all-around game in the Los Angeles Lakers (23-23) important 116-105 bounce-back win over the Orlando Magic (8-39) on Friday at the Amway Center. Westbrook — who was benched in crunch time of the Lakers loss to the Indiana Pacers on Wednesday — responded with 18 points (8-of-17 shooting), 11 rebounds, […]

Against all odds, there may exist one path for the Los Angeles Lakers to trade Russell Westbrook. According to Marc Stein, Westbrook’s former team, the Houston Rockets, could be willing to re-acquire Russ in exchange for the exiled John Wall … if the Lakers include their 2027 first-round pick in the deal. For the rebuilding […]

The Los Angeles Lakers may find a trade suitor for Russell Westbrook, after all. The chances remain extremely slim, but, according to Marc Stein, one of Westbrook’s former teams may be willing to take on the nine-time All-Star and his mammoth contract. Here’s what Stein wrote on Substack on Friday: I have been advised that […]