NBA

11:46 PM ET HOUSTON — The Los Angeles Lakers‘ late-season surge, with Sunday’s victory over the Houston Rockets marking their 10th win in their past 14 games, has LeBron James talking about a hopeful title run once again. “We just want to put ourselves in position to be able to compete for a championship,” James

12:56 PM ET Kendra AndrewsESPN Golden State Warriors forward Andrew Wiggins is nearing a return to the team and is expected to be back early this week, sources told ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski on Monday. Wiggins, who has missed 22 consecutive games attending to a family matter, is expected to be back in the Bay Area

1:27 PM ET The NBA’s Western Conference playoff and play-in tournament races are more than what commissioner Adam Silver could have ever hoped. There are still eight teams that could end up in the West play-in tournament. The remaining teams battling for the playoffs are also battling for seeding — and the right to avoid

7:29 AM ET NBA insiders With the 2022-23 NBA season entering its final week, it’s time to take a look at the league’s major award races. While the contentious MVP race has garnered most of the attention, each of the league’s five major individual player awards has multiple worthy candidates. We asked our ESPN panel

8:01 PM ET The Portland Trail Blazers pulled off the largest NBA upset in 30 years on Sunday by knocking off the Minnesota Timberwolves as 19.5-point underdogs. The Trail Blazers were missing four starters, including star guard Damian Lillard, and had lost 11 of 12 games heading into the game. But Portland still managed to

9:59 AM ET Kentucky freshman Cason Wallace, a projected lottery pick, will forgo his remaining college eligibility and enter the 2023 NBA draft, he told ESPN on Saturday. “I’m all in,” Wallace said. “This season was fun. It had its ups and downs but the best part was having my brothers with me. We stuck

11:31 AM ET Associated Press Tony Parker and Pau Gasol played for him. Becky Hammon coached alongside him. Dirk Nowitzki and Dwyane Wade waged battles against him. He is San Antonio Spurs coach Gregg Popovich. And he, finally, is a Hall of Famer. The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame made it official Saturday, with

2:50 AM ET The NBA and National Basketball Players Association have agreed on a new seven-year collective bargaining agreement, clearing the way for labor peace through this decade, sources told ESPN on Friday night. The deal, which starts with the 2023-24 season, includes a mutual opt-out after the sixth year, sources said. The agreement landed

2:05 PM ET Associated Press MILWAUKEE — Bucks forward Thanasis Antetokounmpo has been suspended one game without pay for head-butting Celtics forward Blake Griffin on Thursday night. Antetokounmpo was ejected from the game after the incident, which occurred with 1:25 remaining in the Bucks’ 140-99 blowout loss. Antetokounmpo will serve his suspension Sunday when the

7:05 AM ET NEW YORK — Brooklyn Nets forward Mikal Bridges is on the verge of completing a statistically perfect season that makes analytics pushers shudder and teammates smile all at once. Bridges, who started the 2022-23 NBA season with the Phoenix Suns before a midseason trade to the Nets, is on track to play

1:44 PM ET LaMarcus Aldridge is calling it a career — again. The 37-year-old big man announced Friday on Twitter that he is retiring for a second time. “In the words of TB12, you only get one big, emotional retirement… so, on that note…I’m thankful for all the memories, family and friends I made throughout

2:28 PM ET Discussions on lowering the minimum age to enter the NBA draft are no longer a part of the league’s labor talks with the National Basketball Players Association, clearing the way for the “one-and-done” era to continue into the foreseeable future, sources told ESPN on Friday. Talks on lowering the minimum age limit

12:22 AM ET Jamal CollierESPN MILWAUKEE — The Boston Celtics responded from one of their worst losses of the season with one of their biggest wins. The Celtics cruised to a 140-99 victory over the Milwaukee Bucks on Thursday night, bouncing back from a disappointing loss in their previous game against the Washington Wizards and

5:24 PM ET Tim BontempsESPN New York Knicks All-Star forward Julius Randle will be reevaluated in two weeks for a sprained ankle suffered in Wednesday night’s win over the Miami Heat, effectively ruling him out for the remainder of the regular season. The NBA playoffs will begin two weeks from Saturday. Randle, 28, suffered the

7:30 AM ET Tim BontempsESPN Will this NBA season feature one of the closest Most Valuable Player votes in league history? If ESPN’s final MVP straw poll of 2022-23 is any indication, buckle up, as Philadelphia 76ers center Joel Embiid has overtaken Denver Nuggets center and two-time reigning MVP Nikola Jokic. By two points. Not

12:13 AM ET Marc J. Spears After a 16-year hiatus, it was only right that the Sacramento Kings punched their own ticket back into the NBA playoffs. The Kings had been eligible to qualify for the playoffs since Saturday but came shy of getting the needed wins from themselves and other teams entering Wednesday. However,

4:25 PM ET Associated Press NEW YORK — NBA commissioner Adam Silver said Wednesday he is hopeful that a new collective bargaining agreement between the league and its players can get done by the end of this week, though he stopped short of predicting that a deal would actually get struck. “I think everyone understands

7:30 AM ET Kendra AndrewsESPN MINNESOTA TIMBERWOLVES center Karl-Anthony Towns called it. Three seconds before, down one with 18 seconds left against the Golden State Warriors, Kyle Anderson had intercepted a bad pass from Draymond Green. Anderson took two dribbles, spotted his big man sprinting down the floor to meet him, and dished it. Towns