NBA News

The Houston Rockets entered last offseason with a star player in their sights, and decided to pull the trigger on a Kevin Durant deal with the Phoenix Suns. Durant, aging but still spectacular, immediately proved his worth. But the Rockets had to overcome the loss of Fred VanVleet to a torn ACL. In fact, the loss of VanVleet moved almost everyone …

Lower seed on the road shocks higher seed at home in Game 1. It’s a tale as old as time (e.g., The 2003 playoffs when the number 8 seeded Phoenix Suns stole Game 1 on the road against the number 1 seeded San Antonio Spurs). They say a playoff series truly doesn’t start until someone loses at home. Well, consider …

A few notes on the Knicks’ Game 1 rout of the 76ers… BUILDING BRIDGES Mikal Bridges‘ fingerprints were all over New York’s dominant win. He gave the Knicks 22 points and five assists in 26 minutes. He hit seven of 10 shots. New York outscored Philadelphia by 19 with Bridges on the court. Advertisement On the other end of the …

The Cleveland Cavaliers and Detroit Pistons meet in the semifinals of the Eastern Conference after seven game series in the first round. Cleveland beat Toronto after up 2-0 then tied 2-2, while Detroit beat Orlando after being down 3-1. Detroit is the No. 1 seed and had the No. 1 net rated defense in the first round. The Pistons’ main …

The 2026 NBA playoffs shift into high gear as the top-seeded Oklahoma City Thunder prepare to battle the No. 4 seed Los Angeles Lakers in a Western Conference semifinals showdown. The Thunder remain perfect in first-round action, pushing their record to 12-0 after a commanding sweep of the Phoenix Suns. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander continued to shine for the Thunder with his …

The Knicks hit first in their second round series with the Philadelphia 76ers, taking Game 1 in a 137-98 rout. Everything was working well for New York, who built a 23-point advantage at halftime and led by as many as 40 points. The Knicks shot a scintillating 19-for-37 (51.3 percent) from three and had 34 assists in the win. Advertisement …

Victor Wembanyama put his defensive stamp on Minnesota by accumulating three blocks in the opening moments of the game. He ended the night with twelve blocks, a career high for the newly crowned Defensive Player of the Year. Wemby also had thirteen defensive rebounds, making second chance points tough for the Timberwolves. Advertisement Where the Spurs superstar struggled was on …

The Cleveland Cavaliers didn’t assemble the highest-paid roster in the league just to get out of the first round. “We haven’t done anything,” Donovan Mitchell said after his team closed out the Toronto Raptors in seven games. “It’s just the first round.” Advertisement The Cavs will have their hands full against a 60-win Detroit Pistons team that proved to be …

The lottery drawing for the 2026 NBA Draft was always going to have massive stakes. A.J. Dybantsa, Darryn Peterson, and Cameron Boozer have been hyped as an elite trio at the top of the class going back to their high school days, and their presence caused a tank-off for the ages this season. Add in a breakout freshman year from …

WHOOPS. My bad, everyone. I missed the window to actually get this post up in between the Philadelphia 76ers advancing to the second round to face the New York Knicks on Saturday and Game 1 of that Eastern Conference semifinal series on Monday. I totally had time to do it on Sunday night and Monday morning…. just totally did not …

Fresh off an opening-round sweep of the Phoenix Suns, the Oklahoma City Thunder will continue their title defense tonight as their second-round series against the Los Angeles Lakers tips off at Paycom Center. OKC is the heavy favorite over the Luka Doncic-less Lakers, but they’ll also be down one of their own key players for Game 1 Tuesday, May 5 …

Want to get more Covers content? Add us as a preferred source on your Google account here. Could LeBron James’s time with the Los Angeles Lakers end not with a bang, but with a whimper? This series against the Oklahoma City Thunder should certainly force that question. Advertisement My Lakers vs. Thunder predictions and NBA picks have no faith in L.A., …

Luka Doncic is still building towards a return, but it won’t come in time for Game 1. The Los Angeles Lakers will be without Doncic for the start of their second-round playoff series against the Oklahoma City Thunder on Tuesday, ESPN NBA insider Shams Charania reported on “Inside the NBA.” Advertisement Charania reports the Lakers are evaluating Doncic on a …

Good morning, BBN! It is officially one of the greatest times of the sports calendar as the NBA and NHL Playoffs are in full swing. Now, while there are not a lot of former Kentucky Wildcats riddled across the NHL, there are plenty of them in the NBA. Advertisement On top of that, there are still several Cats fighting for …

Was it a one-game anomaly? Or the start of a turnaround? Based on Monday night, it could be the latter. Bridges was at his best in the opening-round, series-clinching rout of the Hawks, the kind of performance the Knicks would like to see more from the two-way wing, and he built on it in the opener of the Eastern Conference …

Jerry Krause doesn’t get enough credit for what he did with the Chicago Bulls. Not only did he not make the mistake that Houston and Portland made in not taking Michael Jordan (the Bulls took him at #3 in the 1984 draft), he quickly paired him with Scottie Pippen. For the first three championship teams, the Bulls put guys like …

After seven days off since beating the Trail Blazers in Game 5 of the first round, the San Antonio Spurs opened Round 2 against an injured but pesky Minnesota Timberwolves squad that gave them trouble in the regular season. It was an old school, defensive slug-fest most of the night, with neither team able to find much offense or build …

Before the Cleveland Cavaliers traded for superstar guard James Harden, there was reportedly another team that his representatives inquired about seeking a deal with: the Houston Rockets. According to ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne and Tim MacMahon, Harden’s team reached out to Houston to gauge their interest in acquiring the former MVP from the then-reeling Los Angeles Clippers. The Clippers, who started …

Florida only added one player via the college basketball transfer portal ahead of the 2026-27 season, but came away as one of the biggest winners of the offseason due to retention. The Gators were able to keep leading scorer Thomas Haugh and two-year starting forward Alex Condon for next season, despite both players having heavy NBA interest. Starting guard Boogie …

NEW YORK (AP) — The Philadelphia 76ers looked just as they did in their series against Boston. The beginning of it anyway, when they were run off the floor in Game 1. The 76ers made a huge comeback after that blowout to win the series and they will have to play from behind again in the Eastern Conference semifinals after …

The game never felt comfortable. Not for a second. Every possession was a fight. Every shot was earned. And by the time the final seconds ticked away Monday night, the difference between the San Antonio Spurs and the Minnesota Timberwolves came down to a single shot that wouldn’t fall. San Antonio opened its Western Conference semifinal series with a narrow 104-102 loss, a game …

Game 1 went about as good as the Knicks could’ve hoped. New York came out on their homecourt and really set the tone for this second round series, dominating the 76ers on both ends of the floor in a commanding 39-point victory. Advertisement Defensively, they shutdown Philly’s one-two punch of Tyrese Maxey and Joel Embiid, limiting them to just a …

The good thing about a defensive battle is that it provides some incredibly compelling basketball, where every shot must be earned, and every make has been fought for. The bad thing about a defensive battle is that sometimes no one makes a shot for five minutes at a time, and you can feel the life force draining from you as …

Philadelphia 76ers (45-37, seventh in the Eastern Conference) vs. New York Knicks (53-29, third in the Eastern Conference) New York; Wednesday, 7 p.m. EDT LINE: Knicks -6.5; over/under is 215 EASTERN CONFERENCE SECOND ROUND: Knicks lead series 1-0 Advertisement BOTTOM LINE: The New York Knicks host the Philadelphia 76ers in the Eastern Conference second round with a 1-0 lead in …

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Los Angeles Lakers guard Luka Doncic and Oklahoma City Thunder guard/forward Jalen Williams have been ruled out of Game 1 of the Western Conference semifinals on Tuesday night with left hamstring injuries. The teams notified the league on the injury reports they turned in on Monday. Advertisement Doncic was injured in Oklahoma City about a month …