10:41 PM ET As he sipped his coffee in a Salt Lake City hotel lobby just after the All-Star break, Houston Rockets coach Mike D’Antoni spoke fondly about his professional fit with general manager Daryl Morey. D’Antoni had plenty of experience as a coach who butted heads with front offices when it came to basketball

11:55 PM ET After finding himself in a flurry of criticism following his Game 4 postgame comments, Denver Nuggets rookie Michael Porter Jr. stepped up in Game 5 on Friday night to hit the biggest shot of the game, playing a key part in forcing a Game 6 against the LA Clippers. With the Nuggets

7:00 AM ET IT’S A FIVE-POINT game in a 1-1 playoff series and the game clock ticks inside two minutes in the first half when LeBron James goes in his bag. The sequence begins when James snags a defensive rebound and advances the ball up the left side of the court. Once past the massive

11:54 PM ET There are few people in the NBA who dislike each other more than Boston Celtics president Danny Ainge and Miami Heat president Pat Riley — and it has been this way going on four decades. They hated each other in the 1980s, when Ainge was a guard for the Celtics in the

12:29 PM ET Associated Press MEMPHIS, Tenn. — The Memphis Grizzlies on Friday hired Sonia Raman as an assistant coach. She replaces Niele Ivey, who was hired by Notre Dame in April. Raman spent the past 12 seasons as women’s basketball coach at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where she twice reached the NCAA tournament.

7:00 AM ET NBA Insiders Let’s go to Game 7! For the third time in the 2020 NBA playoffs, a series is going the distance. Along the way, the Boston Celtics and Toronto Raptors have put on eye-popping shooting displays and defensive clinics, with star performances on the court and a coaching chess match on

12:44 AM ET There are some quotes that follow a coach his whole career, or at least long enough to become profoundly ironic. When Mike D’Antoni took over as coach of the Los Angeles Lakers in 2012 and was asked how he planned to use likely future Hall of Fame big men Pau Gasol and

11:25 PM ET Tim BontempsESPN LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. — For many reasons — primarily the loss of NBA Finals MVP Kawhi Leonard in free agency — the Toronto Raptors entered the 2019-20 season as the least-heralded league champion since the 2011 Dallas Mavericks. Bookmakers in Las Vegas set the line for Raptors wins at

7:30 PM ET LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. — The Los Angeles Lakers will have an earlier tipoff time for Game 4 of the Western Conference semifinals Thursday, a schedule change that couldn’t come soon enough for the team. The Lakers will play the Houston Rockets at 7 p.m. ET, a welcome adjustment after seeing their

11:39 PM ET Tim BontempsESPN LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. — For the second time in six games of this Eastern Conference semifinal series, the Boston Celtics failed to deliver a knockout blow to the Toronto Raptors. But after Toronto’s heart-stopping, 125-122 double-overtime victory over Boston in Game 6 on Wednesday night, Celtics guard Kemba Walker