3:54 AM ET LOS ANGELES — With the playoffs seeming like an unrealistic destination for the Los Angeles Lakers following a 113-105 loss to the LA Clippers on Monday night, LeBron James pushed back on the idea of shutting it down for the remainder of the season. “That would take a lot of convincing from

9:25 PM ET Tim BontempsESPN The NBA announced Monday evening that it will be playing preseason games in Japan for the first time in more than a decade next season. The Houston Rockets and Toronto Raptors will play games on Oct. 8 and Oct. 10 at Saitama Super Arena outside Tokyo. It will mark the

11:20 AM ET Adrian WojnarowskiESPN The Los Angeles Lakers and free agent Carmelo Anthony are pausing talks on a possible contract agreement unless the franchise makes a turn back toward pursuit of Western Conference playoffs contention, league sources told ESPN. The Lakers had been leaning toward signing Anthony for the rest of the season —

8:09 PM ET Tim BontempsESPN BOSTON — After adding another game to the loss column — Sunday’s 115-104 loss to the Houston Rockets at TD Garden — the Boston Celtics were left searching for answers. Kyrie Irving, for his part, offered just 23 words to that endeavor during his postgame interviews. “Just gotta play better,”

8:20 PM ET BOSTON — Finally, almost five months into a rocky grind of a regular season, the Houston Rockets resemble the contender-caliber team that James Harden expected them to be. “It feels really, really good to kind of have a full roster and catch a rhythm,” Harden said after the Rockets’ 115-104 victory over

12:40 PM ET After signing LeBron James over the summer, it seemed like there was good reason for the Los Angeles Lakers to be heavy favorites in Las Vegas to make the playoffs. But after a 118-109 loss to the lowly Phoenix Suns on Saturday night, the view in Vegas is worse than ever. The

3:36 AM ET PHOENIX — Saturday was a new low for a Los Angeles Lakers team that has been digging itself into a deeper and deeper hole in recent weeks, losing to the league’s worst team, the Phoenix Suns, 118-109. The loss to the Suns (13-51) dropped the Lakers to 30-33, 4½ games behind the

3:19 PM ET Associated Press CLEVELAND — Star forward Kevin Love will rest his surgically repaired left foot when the Cavaliers face the Pistons on Saturday. Love still isn’t ready to play in back-to-back games, and with Cleveland scheduled to host Orlando on Sunday, the team is remaining conservative with his minutes and won’t play

11:21 PM ET Steve Kerr is no stranger to being surrounded by Hall of Famers. He was a reserve guard on a 1996-97 Chicago Bulls team that had four players — Michael Jordan, Robert Parish, Scottie Pippen and Dennis Rodman — eventually enshrined in Springfield, along with head coach Phil Jackson and assistant coach Tex

1:27 AM ET New Orleans Pelicans star Anthony Davis, who requested a trade earlier this season, said on LeBron James’ HBO show that he’s asserting a greater degree of control over his career. “All the media coverage [is] around me, and now I’m getting a chance to take over my career and say what I