Category: NBA Basketball

4:00 PM ET

DALLAS — One win away from returning to the NBA Finals, Stephen Curry says this is the best stretch of basketball this current Golden State Warriors team has played.

Having won four straight games dating back to Game 6 of the last round against Memphis, the Warriors look to complete a sweep of the Dallas Mavericks in Game 4 on Tuesday.

“For sure,” Curry said on Monday when asked if this is the best this team has played so far. “Because it is obviously magnified by the moment. You can look at other stretches where we probably played better offensively and better defensively in spurts. But to put it all together and for it to lead to wins at this stage, that is really all that matters.”

The Warriors opened this season winning 18 of their first 20 games and started off 41-13 before some key injuries slowed them down. But

10:37 PM ET

Kendra AndrewsESPN

DALLAS — Golden State Warriors forward Otto Porter Jr. departed Game 3 of the Western Conference finals midway through the second quarter and was later ruled out with what the team described as left foot soreness.

X-rays on the foot were negative and the team said it should know more in the next 24 hours.

The short-handed Warriors managed without Porter. Stephen Curry scored 31 points and added 11 assists as Golden State posted a 109-100 victory to secure a 3-0 series lead over the Dallas Mavericks on Sunday night.

1 Related

Porter sustained the injury when he landed after going up for a layup. Porter came up hobbling, and was fidgeting with his left foot at the next stoppage — a pair of Dallas free throws. Porter tried to play through the pain, but called to be subbed out just a few moments later.

During the Warriors’ subsequent timeout, Porter

May 22, 2022

University of Michigan coach Juwan Howard recently declined a Los Angeles Lakers overture for the franchise’s coaching job, electing to remain at his alma mater, where Howard will coach his two sons next season, sources told ESPN.

The Lakers have a formal search process in place, but courting college coaches typically requires a different level of discretion. The Lakers have a finalist list of Milwaukee Bucks assistant Darvin Ham, Golden State Warriors assistant Kenny Atkinson and former Portland Trail Blazers coach Terry Stotts, sources said. The Lakers are expected to conduct in-person interviews in the near future.

The Lakers never made a formal offer to Howard, sources said, but it’s clear that if he had expressed an interest in the job, his candidacy would’ve moved quickly to that stage. While Howard has a playing history with Lakers general manager Rob Pelinka and star LeBron James, he has consistently maintained

It looks like Juwan Howard is headed back to Michigan after reportedly declining a head coaching job from the Los Angeles Lakers. Colin Cowherd explores whether or not this Lakers’ team is losing it’s attraction, and compares them to the Detroit Lions, who seem to recycle coaches at an alarming speed.

A DAY AGO・The Herd with Colin Cowherd・3:22

3:37 PM ET

Denver Nuggets president Tim Connelly has agreed to a five-year deal with the Minnesota Timberwolves that is worth over $40 million and includes ownership equity, making Connelly one of the league’s highest-compensated executives, sources told ESPN.

Connelly becomes the second consecutive top basketball executive to leave the Nuggets for a significantly more lucrative offer elsewhere. He replaced Masai Ujiri in 2013 when Ujiri left Denver for Toronto.

Denver made a bid to keep Connelly that would’ve made him one of the better paid league executives, sources said, but the ownership equity with Minnesota is life-changing money — something only a select few executives have in their deals.

Connelly has built a reputation as one of the NBA’s best talent evaluators and deal-makers, maintaining strong relationships with top player agents and the respect of his front-office peers. He has a strong relationship with two-time MVP Nikola Jokic, whom Connelly drafted with the

2:10 PM ET

Associated Press

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Lorenzen Wright’s ex-wife will not be granted early release from a 30-year prison sentence she received after pleading guilty to plotting the retired NBA player’s 2010 slaying, the Tennessee Board of Parole said Monday.

The board voted to deny parole for Sherra Wright, who entered a guilty plea in July 2019 to facilitation of first-degree murder in her ex-husband’s killing. The decision was reached after three of seven board members agreed to deny her release based on the seriousness of her offense, board spokesman Dustin Krugel said in an email to The Associated Press.

Sherra Wright appeared at a parole hearing May 11 at the prison in Nashville where she is being held. Wright said she has done well in classes she is taking from prison and has a support system to help her when she is released. Two of her children gave statements on

May 23, 2022

DALLAS — Moments after his Dallas Mavericks were pushed to the brink of elimination in the Western Conference finals, superstar guard Luka Doncic viewed the situation through a long-term lens.

Doncic scored a game-high 40 points in Sunday’s 109-100 Game 3 loss to the Golden State Warriors, including 21 while the Mavs attempted to mount a fourth-quarter comeback that never gained much steam. He also, however, had the game’s worst plus-minus, as Dallas was outscored by 19 points in Doncic’s 40 minutes on the floor, with the Warriors continuing to have success targeting him on the defensive end while going up 3-0 in the series.

Doncic, whose team is now 2-6 when he scores 40 or more points in a playoff game in his career, accepted accountability for the loss that put the Mavs in jeopardy of being swept in the franchise’s first conference finals appearance since the 2011

Stephen Curry scored 31 points, Andrew Wiggins added 27 while posterizing Luka Dončić on a dunk and the Golden State Warriors beat the Dallas Mavericks, 109-100, Sunday night for a 3-0 lead in the Western Conference finals.

Klay Thompson scored 19 with a pair of big fourth-quarter 3-pointers as the Warriors moved within a victory of a return to the NBA Finals, three years after the end of a run of five consecutive trips that yielded three championships.

Golden State, which swept Portland in its most recent West finals in 2019 before Toronto won the title, goes for the sweep in Game 4 on Tuesday in Dallas. No team has rallied from 3-0 down to win an NBA playoff series.

Dončić scored 40 points and beat the first-quarter buzzer with a 32-footer that got the crowd going with the Mavericks again at home trailing 2-0, as they did against top-seeded Phoenix before winning the West semifinal series in seven games.

But that shimmy-inducing bucket was a blip on an otherwise rough night from 3-point range for the Mavericks, who missed their first seven and finished 13 of 45.

It looks like Michigan Wolverines head coach Juwan Howard isn’t packing it up for the NBA after all, as he has declined a chance to interview for the Los Angeles Lakers’ vacant head coach job.

Howard is reportedly opting to stay put in Ann Arbor at his alma mater to coach his two sons next season.

Howard declined to interview despite having a history with both Lakers general manager Rob Pelinka — who played with Howard at Michigan — and LeBron James — with whom he won back-to-back NBA championships with the Miami Heat.

Howard spent the final three years of his playing career with the Heat before immediately joining Miami’s coaching staff ahead of the 2013-14 season. Howard previously interviewed for the Lakers’ head coach position in 2019 when he was a Miami assistant before taking his current position at Michigan.

Howard, the 2021 AP Coach of the Year, is 93-61 in three seasons at Michigan. His team reached a top-five position in the polls in all three seasons. He also won a Big Ten regular-season title and made two trips to the NCAA Tournament.

Howard will have his work cut out for him this upcoming season as he tries to bounce back from a 19-15 (.559) season, with Wolverines star forward Moussa Diabaté likely to be drafted this summer.

Los Angeles also struggled in the 2021-22 season, finishing 11th in the West at 33-49. Former head coach Frank Vogel was relieved of his duties shortly after the season ended. 

Seven individuals have held the head coaching position since Phil Jackson departed after the 2010-2011 season. Jackson is reportedly advising the Lakers on their coaching search.

With Howard out of the mix, the coaches the Lakers are expected to interview include Milwaukee Bucks assistant Darvin Ham, Golden State Warriors assistant Kenny Atkinson and former Portland Trail Blazers head coach Terry Stotts.

Los Angeles also recently interviewed former Warriors coach Mark Jackson, who was among the finalists for the Sacramento Kings‘ head coach opening.

Get more from Los Angeles Lakers Follow your favorites to get information about games, news and more. Author Sports BuffPosted on May 22, 2022May 24, 2022Categories NBA BasketballLeave a comment on Juwan Howard reportedly declines overture from Lakers

Editor’s Note: As part of a new series for his podcast, “What’s Wright with Nick Wright,” FOX Sports commentator Nick Wright is ranking the 50 best NBA players of the last 50 years. The countdown continues today with player No. 25, James Harden.

James Harden’s career highlights:

• 2018 MVP
• 10-time All-Star
• Six-time first-team All-NBA, one-time third team
• Three-time scoring champion
• One-time assists champion
• 2012 Sixth Man of the Year
• 2010 All-Rookie team

James Harden is an offensive savant.

Philadelphia 76ers president and former Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey went so far as to say he is a better scorer than Michael Jordan. Morey, in fact, called Harden “by far” the best scorer ever. His logic is rooted in advanced metrics like true shooting percentage and points per possession.

Harden does top Jordan in those stats, though he’s not alone given that such formulas reward efficient, high-volume 3-point shooting that wasn’t prioritized in previous eras. Debates involving “His Airness” aside, Harden’s traditional numbers are pretty spectacular, too.

“His regular-season résumé is that of one of the greatest players of all time,” Wright said.