#nba

#nba

"There will never be a chance, and there will never be a moment that I will come out and say, 'I want a trade,'" Antetokounmpo told The Athletic's Sam Amick in a recent interview. "'That's not ... in ... my ... nature. OK? '"

[They're] a team that plays a little bit different, a team that doesn't play with all our pace. But everything they do, they do with a lot of purpose, because they've been there before. And it's a great challenge. It's a great challenge because we have to be (focused), communication has to be on point, effort has to be on point. Then we've got to win the 50-50 battles and the rebounds.

School and work are officially back in session after the holiday break, so the weekend is the perfect time to get out and enjoy everything Los Angeles has to offer. There is an exciting sports matchup between the Lakers and Bucks happening right here in LA on Friday. There are also some must-watch playoff games for the Chargers and Rams going down this weekend on the road.

The scheduled game between the Miami Heat and Chicago Bulls was postponed on Thursday due to condensation on the court in Chicago. The United Center hosted a Chicago Blackhawks game on ice on Wednesday, and after an unseasonably warm, rainy day in Chicago, the basketball court wasn't in playable condition. Players from both teams went through their standard pregame warmup routines, but didn't consider the court safe for a game.

Michael Porter Jr. had 27 points, 11 rebounds and five assists in his first game against his former team, and the Brooklyn Nets beat the Denver Nuggets 127-115 on Sunday to snap a three-game losing streak. The Nuggets got Aaron Gordon and Christian Braun back from lengthy injury absences and a huge game from Jamal Murray, but fell to 1-2 since Nikola Jokic was lost for perhaps a month with a hyperextended left knee.

LA Clippers center Ivica Zubac is available to return to action for Saturday's home game against the Boston Celtics, sources told ESPN's Shams Charania. It will be a quick return for Zubac after sustaining a Grade 2 ankle sprain during a Dec. 20 Clippers win over the Los Angeles Lakers. Zubac fell to the court in a heap late in the first quarter and immediately hobbled to the locker room for evaluation.

"One thing I don't want to see with Nikola is like, they started calling me 'injury prone' after that, but hopefully they don't start with him because it's one of those freak injuries that you can't really control," Durant said Thursday night after the Rockets beat the Nets 120-96 in his return to Brooklyn. "You can do all the work you can, but somebody falls into your knee, that's just tough."

NEW YORK -- The NBA saw its best Christmas Day viewership numbers in 15 years, the league announced Wednesday. More than 47 million people in the U.S. watched at least some of the five-game slate on ABC and ESPN, which represents a 45% increase over last year. And there was an average of 5.5 million viewers for the games, up 4% from a year ago.

The millennial superstars who stabilized the league for two decades are now entering their twilight: LeBron James (who turned 41 on Tuesday), Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, James Harden and Chris Paul. In their wake comes something genuinely new. For the first time, the league's next dominant generation is unmistakably international. The NBA's gen Z elite now emerge from Slovenia, Serbia, Greece, Canada and France.

Edgecombe, the 6-foot-4 guard out of Baylor, connected on a 25-foot jumper with 1.7 seconds left, capping a 25-point night, and giving Philadelphia a 139-136 victory over the Memphis Grizzlies on Tuesday night.

The NBA is never boring -- and this season is no different. There have been surprising starts, both in good (we see you, Pistons) and bad (unfortunately, we see you, too, Clippers) ways. There have been scandals (yes, plural) that have cast a shadow over multiple franchises. There has been one ignominious ending ( maybe) for an all-time great in Chris Paul, and we could potentially be seeing the last season of LeBron James, arguably the greatest player in the history of the sport.

The NBA on Sunday suspended New Orleans Pelicans guard Jose Alvarado two games and Phoenix Suns center Mark Williams one game for their roles in an on-court fight Saturday night that saw them both ejected. The incident occurred with 2:06 remaining in the third quarter of the Suns' 123-114 win at Smoothie King Center, when Alvarado pushed Williams out of the way while playing defense and was called for a foul. Williams then shoved Alvarado in the back.

Alvarado, an aggressive defender, was trying to fight through a ball screen set by Williams to keep pressure on Suns sharpshooter Collin Gillespie, who had made his first five 3-point attempts of the game. Alvarado pushed Williams out of the way while playing defense and was called for a foul. Williams then shoved Alvarado in the back. Alvarado turned toward Williams and the two exchanged words before grabbing each other and throwing punches. Both players landed right hands before being separated and then ejected.

Larsson had missed six games in a row after suffering an ankle sprain in the NBA Cup quarterfinal against the Orlando Magic. He returned to action Friday, and his play provided a huge spark that this team has been desperately searching for. He finished with a career-high 21 points, 6 rebounds and 5 assists on an efficient 9 of 13 shooting.

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" calf strain.

MINNEAPOLIS -- Anthony Edwards scored 38 points to help the Minnesota Timberwolves beat former teammate Karl-Anthony Towns for the first time and hold off the New York Knicks 115-104 on Tuesday night. Julius Randle had 17 of his 25 points in the fourth quarter and Rudy Gobert contributed 11 points, 16 rebounds and his reliably fierce rim protection for the Wolves (20-10), who have won 10 of 12.

The NBA basketball season is a long slog and requires elite levels of concentration, fitness, and willpower. With 82 matches for each team in the regular season, there are bound to be peaks and troughs throughout the seven-month regular season as teams attempt to make the playoffs, or even better, win their conference.

The NBA is attempting to reduce the value of inside information and combat performance manipulation as it reacts to the federal indictments of a current player, a head coach and former player in gambling cases, according to a memo sent to all teams Friday. The league is considering potential policy changes to address tanking, increase the frequency of injury reporting and restrict what sportsbooks offer, according to the memo.

Everything - from body mechanics to each individual action in a game - are data points. Tracked, put together, analyzed, and spat out. Outcomes closing towards preordained. Yet, something is always missing. On paper, as they say, it should fit. It should work out. The numbers say it so. But, like a meddlesome ghost, something keeps it from all coming together.

As paramilitary fighters from the brutal Rapid Support Forces (RSF) overran the largest city in western Sudan carrying out mass executions, rapes and ethnic cleansing with weapons supplied by the United Arab Emirates the NBA's annual in-season tournament, the Emirates NBA Cup, tipped off on Halloween night, proudly sponsored by the very same Gulf state. The tournament is the most visible example of the NBA's expanding partnership with the UAE