NBA News

Giannis Antetokounmpo scored a game-high 29 points on his return from injury as the Milwaukee Bucks earned a 112-103 victory over the Chicago Bulls. Antetokounmpo had missed eight games with a right calf strain, with the Bucks losing six of those matches. Advertisement The defeat for Chicago ended their five-game winning streak, but they still sit ninth and two places …

The Knicks were playing shorthanded again on Saturday. Landry Shamet and Miles McBride are progressing well but remain out, and now Josh Hart has joined them after suffering an ankle injury during the Christmas win over the Cavs. Advertisement Hart is still being evaluated, but he’s expected to be out for New York’s entire road trip. So with the dynamic …

After missing eight games with a calf strain, Giannis Antetokounmpo is expected to return to the Bucks lineup Saturday night against the Chicago Bulls. Antetokounmpo is listed as questionable. He will play if he clears pregame testing after warming up, reports Eric Nehn of The Athletic. Advertisement Milwaukee went 2-6 in the eight games Antetokounmpo missed, falling to 12-19 on …

CHICAGO — Giannis Antetokounmpo may be on the verge of returning from the right calf strain that has kept the two-time MVP from playing in the Milwaukee Bucks’ last eight games. The Bucks issued an injury report that listed Antetokounmpo as questionable for Saturday’s game at Chicago rather than ruling him out entirely. Advertisement Antetokounmpo hasn’t played since injuring his …

The Milwaukee Bucks could get a big boost to their lineup Saturday night with the anticipated return of Giannis Antetokounmpo, according to The Athletic’s Eric Nehm. Antetokounmpo has been out since Dec. 3 with a right calf strain and as long as pregame testing by the team’s athletic training staff goes well, he will be play against the Chicago Bulls …

Lakers guard Austin Reaves will miss at least a month with a grade 2 strain in his left calf, the team announced Friday, one day after he left the game against the Houston Rockets at halftime. Reaves, averaging career highs in points (26.6), assists (6.3) and rebounds (5.2), had already missed three games with what the team called a “mild” …

JJ Redick may be about to get a lot more frustrated. Austin Reaves, the Lakers’ second-leading scorer, has been diagnosed with a Grade 2 left gastrocnemius strain — a calf strain — and will be re-evaluated in four weeks, the team announced. With that timeline, he will miss at least the next 14 games. The injury happened on Christmas Day, …

On Christmas Day the Lakers dropped their third straight game, an ugly 23-point loss to the Houston Rockets. That comes on the heels of a 24-point loss to the Phoenix Suns. The Lakers are 2-4 in their last six with the worst defense in the NBA in that stretch with a -10.9 net rating in that stretch. After the game, …

The NBA’s MVP race has a new leader in the clubhouse, and it’s a familiar face, Nikola Jokic. After Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Oklahoma City lost to San Antonio on Christmas Day, marking a third-straight loss to the Spurs, and Denver’s epic OT win on the back of Jokic’s record-breaking Christmas performance — it’s quite easy to see why the odds …

Jeff Stotts of In Street Clothes, who maintains a deep database of NBA injuries, had the scariest stat of the day: This is the 13th groin injury of Anthony Davis’ career. Davis has suffered a minor groin strain and is expected to miss a few games, reports Shams Charania of ESPN. Stotts said Davis’ average time missed for a minor …

December has been far more kind to the Nets than November, and their month on the relative upswing will soon include the return of a key contributor. Cam Thomas, who missed nearly eight weeks nursing a hamstring strain, is slated to take the court again on Saturday against the Timberwolves, head coach Jordi Fernandez revealed on Friday. Advertisement The 24-year-old …

JJ Redick repeats the same key words after every loss: effort and execution. The Lakers found none of either at Crypto.com Arena on Thursday in a 119-96 loss to the Houston Rockets that played out with a plot as familiar as a Hallmark holiday movie. Getting outhustled by a team that simply played harder with more energy, the Lakers (19-10) …

The Houston Rockets celebrated Christmas in style, delivering an overwhelming and dominant outing in a 119-96 thrashing of the Los Angeles Lakers on Thursday. Amen Thompson led six Rockets in double figures with 26 points in the win, which ended a brutal six-game road trip — three overtime losses plus a 20-point blowout at the hands of the woeful Clippers — …

OKLAHOMA CITY — The final Spurs timeout of an emphatic 117-102 Christmas Day win, with a little over a minute left to play and the game already decided, was the most prominent. Thirty seconds earlier, Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault had recalled his starters, resigned to the reality Oklahoma City was mere moments away from their third defeat to San …

Dallas Mavericks forward Anthony Davis left Thursday’s Christmas matchup against the Golden State Warriors with a groin injury. Davis ran to the sideline at the conclusion of a play in the first half and didn’t return to the floor. The Mavericks ruled him out at halftime with right-groin spasms. The severity of the injury was not initially clear. Advertisement Davis …

The Knicks trailed by 17 points with about 10 minutes left in the game and found a way to complete their biggest comeback of the season, beating the Cleveland Cavaliers on Christmas Day, 126-124. Here are the takeaways… — Karl-Anthony Towns picked up two fouls within the first three minutes of the game, forcing head coach Mike Brown to call …

It’s not the lineups, the injuries or necessarily the system. The cause of the Lakers’ defensive demise is a thousand little decisions gone wrong. “It comes down to just making the choice,” coach JJ Redick said after the Lakers gave up 132 points in a blowout loss to the Phoenix Suns on Tuesday. “It’s making the choice. There’s shortcuts you …

Christmas Eve means that the entire NBA is off for the first time since Thanksgiving. Unfortunately, one day isn’t enough to help with the recovery of some of the league’s most important players, leaving many fantasy managers to scour the waiver wire for help in the final days of Week 10. And while there are some key injuries, most notably …

The Lakers trailed the Suns by 10 at halftime Tuesday night. When asked what happened that turned a game they were into a blowout Phoenix win, JJ Redick was blunt. “They scored on the first 13 possessions of the second half,” the Lakers coach said of the Suns. Advertisement The Lakers went on to lose consecutive games for the first …

Does the NBA’s Christmas Day schedule mean anything? As we power rank the 10 teams playing on this yuletide holiday, it is an interesting question in the aftermath of the NBA Cup, which made early season games feel more meaningful. Advertisement Unlike the NFL’s three-game Christas Day slate, which boasts only two playoff-bound teams across three mostly meaningless games, the …

Every year, we can quibble over whether the NBA’s schedule-makers aced the annual Christmas Day showcase — whether some fan base or another has cause to feel aggrieved over its squad not getting the brightest possible spotlight (we see you, Detroit!) or whether one participant or another has ridden too long on the struggle bus this season to make for …

INGLEWOOD, Calif. — Forget what Bill Parcells used to say, the LA Clippers are convinced they are better than their record says they are. Tuesday night, for the second game in a row, they looked like it. Having Kawhi Leonard back healthy helps. “Just buying into it, what we’re trying to do…” Clippers coach Tyronn Lue said when asked what …

Austin Reaves returned from a left calf strain that sidelined him for three games, but the Lakers’ second-leading scorer did nothing to fix the team’s most glaring weakness. The Lakers’ defense collapsed in a 132-108 loss to the Suns on Tuesday at Mortgage Matchup Center, giving up a season-high field goal percentage (59%), tying their mark for most points allowed …

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Michael Porter Jr. scored 28 points, Egor Demin added 20 and the Brooklyn Nets beat the Philadelphia 76ers 114-106 on Tuesday night Porter went 5 of 12 from the 3-point arc and Demin hit a couple of late 3s after the 76ers cut a 19-point lead to nine in the fourth quarter. Brooklyn shot 17 of 46 …

Why Draymond Green reportedly is ‘frustrated’ with his current Warriors role originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area It has been an eventful week for Draymond Green. On Saturday, the star forward was ejected in the second quarter of the Warriors’ win over the Phoenix Suns. Two nights later, Green didn’t play for the majority of the second half in …