Los Angeles Clippers center Ivica Zubac had himself a game during his team's 114-110 win over the Indiana Pacers on Sunday afternoon. In 36 minutes of action, Zubac posted 31 points and a whopping 29 rebounds, including 12 offensive rebounds. The 29 rebounds were a career-high. 

MILWAUKEE -- Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Milwaukee Bucks took down Luka Doncic and the Dallas Mavericks on Sunday night, 124-115, in the latest matchup between two of the league's best and most unique players. Though competitive on the floor, the dueling MVP candidates share a mutual respect for the other's abilities. 

The Los Angeles Lakers have been playing with half of a roster for most of the season, but on Friday, they took a major step towards becoming whole. LeBron James, who has missed the past five games with an adductor strain, returned to the fold for the front half of a back-to-back against the San Antonio Spurs. It was the first game of the season he has played with Dennis Schroder, who started at point guard with Patrick Beverley serving the first game of a three-game suspension.

The Dallas Mavericks (9-7) head over to TD Garden as they play the Boston Celtics (13-4) on Wednesday night. The Mavericks have won four straight games against Boston. This matchup features a top-scoring offense up against a stingy defense as Boston is second in the NBA in points (119.4), while Dallas ranks first in points allowed (105.3). Jayson Tatum (ankle) is questionable while Dallas' injury report consists of Spencer Dinwiddie (questionable; shoulder) and Maxi Kleber (doubtful; back).

LeBron James may not be able to go to the marquee showdown between the No. 2 Ohio State Buckeyes and No. 3 Michigan Wolverines, but he will still make his presence felt. James, a longtime Ohio State fan, sent custom cleats to the Buckeyes.

The Los Angeles Clippers will be without star forward Paul George for Monday night's contest with the Utah Jazz, and perhaps beyond that. George is dealing with a hamstring strain and is set to be re-evaluated at some point in the coming days, according to The Athletic. 

MILWAUKEE --What would Milwaukee Bucks coach Mike Budenholzer be thankful for? Well, as far as basketball goes, a little more protection for his star player -- and, frankly, any player who may be the recipient of a hard foul.

If the Warriors are in one-step-at-a-time mode as they try to crawl out of this early season hole, they took a notable one on Sunday with their first road victory, improving to 1-8 away from Chase Center with a 127-120 in Houston. 

A unique situation occurred during the contest between the Dallas Mavericks and Denver Nuggets on Sunday night. Mavericks guard Luka Doncic drilled a shot from long range right before halftime. The shot was reviewed during halftime and it was determined that Doncic stepped out of bounds prior to releasing the ball. So, Doncic's shot didn't count, and two seconds were added back to the clock. 

After Ben Simmons put up 22 points, eight rebounds and five assists in Brooklyn's 127-115 win over the Grizzlies on Sunday, he was asked if he thought, just maybe, that enough time had passed since his Sixers departure that he might not be met with quite as much hostility in his return to Philadelphia, where the Nets are slated to play on Tuesday night. 

In his first interview since the Brooklyn Nets suspended him, Nets guard Kyrie Irving told SNY's Ian Begley on Saturday that he "should've just answered the questions and just moved on" in two contentious press conferences after he publicized a documentary full of antisemitic conspiracy theories on social media. Irving said that he "meant no harm" by his initial posts on Twitter and Instagram, and repeatedly referenced his upbringing in West Orange, New Jersey. 

Cleveland Cavaliers big man Kevin Love injured his right thumb in the third quarter of their 132-122 double-overtime win against the Charlotte Hornets on Friday, the team announced on Saturday. Love continued to play after the injury, but according to the team, an examination after the game and imaging done on Saturday showed that he'd suffered a hairline fracture. 

Ja Morant is off to the best start of his career this season, but that was jeopardized Friday when he suffered a Grade 1 ankle sprain late in the Memphis Grizzlies' 121-110 victory over the Oklahoma City Thunder. Morant will be out for at least a week and will be considered week-to-week, the team announced on Saturday. 

A few weeks into the 2022-23 NBA season, Philadelphia 76ers forward Tobias Harris finds himself in familiar territory -- in trade rumors. As the Sixers have begun to check in with teams around the league, Harris' name has popped up in conversations, according to Shams Charania of The Athletic. After the current campaign, Harris will have just one year and $39 million remaining on his contract. 

After playing in only two games so far this season, Kawhi Leonard will be making his return for the Los Angeles Clippers on Thursday night against the Detroit Pistons. Leonard was initially listed as "questionable" for the contest and he was ultimately upgraded to available shortly before the scheduled tip. Leonard has missed 12 consecutive games due to lingering knee pain after missing the entirety of last season after undergoing ACL surgery. 

LeBron James spends more time speaking on camera than perhaps any other athlete in the world, and from time to time, he's been known to use those opportunities to drop hints towards his front office about things he might like them to do. As the Los Angeles Lakers have floundered to a 3-10 start, those hints have grown less subtle. 

Wells Fargo Center showcases a headline-grabbing NBA matchup on Friday evening. The Milwaukee Bucks visit the Philadelphia 76ers for the 15th game of the season on both sides. Milwaukee is 11-3, while Philadelphia is 7-7 amid injury challenges. James Harden (foot), Jaden Springer (quad), and Furkan Korkmaz (knee) are out for the Sixers. Tobias Harris (hip) is listed as questionable. Jrue Holiday (ankle) is listed as questionable for the Bucks, with Khris Middleton (wrist), Wesley Matthews (hamstring), Pat Connaughton (calf), and Joe Ingles (knee) ruled out.

The 3-10 Los Angeles Lakers have been perpetual trade candidates since this offseason, but given all of the injuries they have dealt with thus far this season, a more immediate option would have always been a free-agent addition. The Lakers have worked out Moe Harkless, Joe Wieskamp and Tony Snell during the season, but thus far, have signed no new players to their roster since opening night. 

The Memphis Grizzlies are getting some frontcourt reinforcements soon, as big man Jaren Jackson Jr. is expected to make his season debut on Tuesday against the New Orleans Pelicans, per Bleacher Report's Chris Haynes.

Jimmy Butler was having the type of game we've come to expect from him against the Phoenix Suns Monday night, which really just means he was doing a little bit of everything. He finished with 16 points, a team-high 13 rebounds and seven assists in the 113-112 win over the Suns. But it was a single play in the closing seconds of the fourth quarter that not only sealed the comeback for the Miami Heat, but exemplified to a T exactly what makes Butler so special.

The Golden State Warriors fell to 5-8 on the season with a 122-115 loss at Sacramento on Sunday. The good news? They're 5-1 at home. The bad news, they've yet to win a single game away from Chase Center, marking the first time since 1989 that Golden State has started a season 0-7 on the road. 

Don't look now, but the Sacramento Kings might have something brewing. Domantas Sabonis posted the fourth 20-20 game of his career to lead the Kings to a 122-115 victory over the visiting Golden State Warriors Sunday night. This was the Kings' fourth win in five games and pushed their record up to 6-6.

PHILADELPHIA -- Philadelphia 76ers big man Joel Embiid has come a long way in his NBA career. It was just a few years ago that Embiid was cleared to play in back-to-backs for the first time. Fast forward to the present, and the Sixers star center just turned in one of the most dominant back-to-back performances that you'll ever see. 

Bronny and Bryce James, the two sons of NBA superstar LeBron James, both starred in a recent dunk contest at Sierra Canyon School in the Chatsworth area of Los Angeles, Calif. According to a report by Sports Illustrated, LeBron James and his wife Savannah sat courtside as their two sons showed off both their leaping and improvisational abilities during their school's "Midnight Madness" showcase.

Kyrie Irving met with Nets owners Joe and Clara Tsai on Thursday, and while that meeting reportedly was productive, there appears to be no momentum towards a return during Brooklyn's upcoming four-game road trip, according to ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski. Irving's suspension will last a minimum of five games, but there is no defined endpoint. The Nets have given Irving the following list of six steps to complete before he can return to the team.

Is it too soon to start talking NBA MVP? I don't think so. We're basically a quarter of the way into the season. It's still early, but it's not that early. We know, for instance, that the Cleveland Cavaliers made a dynamite decision in pushing all in for Donovan Mitchell. We've seen enough to confidently say that. If you believe Mitchell has been the early season MVP, I won't argue with you. I agreed with you a week ago. 

The cryptocurrency market was rocked Friday by the collapse of FTX, which filed for bankruptcy and saw CEO Sam Bankman-Fried resign after his assets plummeted in worth from $16 billion at the beginning of the week to virtually nothing. The fall of FTX, which had been hailed as a trusted crypto platform, is set to have major consequences for its investors, several of whom are major figures on the field and in the business of sports.

Golden State Warriors forward Draymond Green said in a new interview that Boston Celtics fans called him the N-word during Game 3 of the 2022 NBA Finals. Green said he was "rattled" by the experience, which he felt was dehumanizing. 

Late in the fourth quarter of the Boston Celtics' 131-112 victory over the Denver Nuggets on Friday night, Aaron Gordon was called for a flagrant foul after he ran over Grant Williams in the backcourt. The bizarre nature of the play and Williams' comical miss on one of the ensuing free throws received most of the attention, but the bigger story was what led to the incident in the first place: the Celtics' new game clock trick. 

With each passing day, the chances of the Lakers making a significant trade this season feel more unlikely. It's pretty clear that Rob Pelinka doesn't believe the potential additions of Buddy Hield and/or Myles Turner from Indiana would be enough to vault the Lakers into contention. He's probably right. But there's a reasonable line of thinking that even an outside shot is worth taking when you have LeBron James on your roster. Especially in his 20th season. 

After meeting with Brooklyn nets guard Kyrie Irving, NBA commissioner Adam Silver stated that he doesn't believe that Irving is antisemitic. Irving is currently serving a team-mandated suspension after posting a film that contained antisemitic material and refusing to apologize for doing so in a timely manner. 

Bleacher Report's NBA insider Chris Haynes dumped a lot of Lakers nuggets into one article on Thursday, reporting that LeBron James is not cool with punting on this season in hopes of reinforcements arriving next year, that the Lakers are not considering trading Anthony Davis, and that teams are starting to call about the availability of Russell Westbrook (If you believe that, I've got plenty of other stuff to sell you). 

At 2-9, the Los Angeles Lakers have struggled mightily even with LeBron James on the floor this season. Now they have to face their first stretch without him. Lakers coach Darvin Ham said Thursday that James has a strained left adductor and is doubtful to play against the Sacramento Kings on Friday.

For nine straight games, no one in basketball could stop Luka Doncic. The Dallas Mavericks star opened the campaign with a nine-game streak of 30-point outings—the second-longest in NBA history to start a season behind only Wilt Chamberlain's untouchable 23-game run in the 1962-63 season. That streak was snapped on Wednesday by perhaps the league's most surprising possible opponent.

We've all been there. We're watching a basketball game, and someone goes to the line for free throws, so we take our eyes off of the ball. Maybe we're going to the bathroom or responding to a text message. It happens. You check in once the free throws have been shot and the game resumes. We're able to do that because, crucially, none of us play in the NBA.

At 2-9, the Los Angeles Lakers have struggled mightily even with LeBron James on the floor this season. But they might have to face their first stretch without him.

The Portland Trail Blazers' terrific start to the season continued on Monday night when Josh Hart hit a buzzer-beating 3-pointer to give them a 110-107 victory over the Miami Heat. With the win the Blazers are now 7-3 on the season, just half a game behind the Western Conference-leading Utah Jazz. 

The Phoenix Suns' injury problems continued on Monday night when veteran point guard Chris Paul left the team's 100-88 loss to the Philadelphia 76ers with right heel soreness. Paul finished the game with two points, two rebounds, and two assists in 14 minutes. 

The Phoenix Suns' injury problems continued on Monday night when veteran point guard Chris Paul left the team's 100-88 loss to the Philadelphia 76ers with right heel soreness. Paul finished the game with two points, two rebounds, and two assists in 14 minutes. 

Will Hardy's first opportunity as an NBA head coach couldn't have started out much better with the Utah Jazz, who are 7-3 heading into their matchup on Sunday against the Los Angeles Clippers (5-4). Kawhi Leonard (knee) won't be in action for the seventh consecutive game, but Los Angeles have done well to get production out of John Wall, who has scored double-digits in all but two of his seven games played this year. The Jazz have a similar success story with Collin Sexton, who has averaged 13.6 points per game after he missed nearly all of last season.

The Brooklyn Nets have been in the headlines non-stop since the start of the 2022-23 NBA season, and for all of the wrong reasons. First, there was the extremely underwhelming play of former No. 1 overall pick Ben Simmons, who the Nets traded James Harden for in February. Simmons scored in single digits in the first six games he played with the team, and he has since missed the past handful of games with a knee injury. Questions linger about when -- and if -- Simmons will return to his former All-Star self. 

The Phoenix Suns have been playing some solid basketball to start the 2022-23 NBA season, but it appears as though some adversity is about to hit. Cam Johnson has suffered a torn meniscus in his right knee and will undergo surgery, the team announced on Sunday. There is currently no timetable for his return. 

The Phoenix Suns have been playing some solid basketball to start the 2022-23 NBA season, but it appears as though some adversity is about to hit. The Suns fear forward Cam Johnson has suffered a torn meniscus in his right knee, according to Shams Charania of The Athletic. Early testing is reportedly indicative of a meniscus tear, and Johnson will receive further imaging. 

You might have missed it since it occurred during the middle of the afternoon on Saturday, but the game between the Orlando Magic and Sacramento Kings was one of the more entertaining contests of the young NBA season. Both teams are in the midst of rebuilds, but both boast a plethora of young talent, and that talent was on full display. 

NEW YORK -- The Brooklyn Nets have suspended Kyrie Irving for a minimum of five games without pay, they announced on Thursday, a week after Irving first publicized a film full of antisemitic tropes. Before he is permitted to return to the team, Irving must complete "a series of objective remedial measures that address the harmful impact of his conduct," as he is "currently unfit to be associated with the Brooklyn Nets," according to the press release. 

The Brooklyn Nets aim to right the ship on Friday evening as the Nets are off to a dreadful 2-6 start, including an 0-2 mark on the road. The Nets will face the Washington Wizards at Capital One Area in a tilt between Eastern Conference teams. Washington is 4-4 overall and 2-2 at home this season. Delon Wright (hamstring) is out for the Wizards. Kyrie Irving (suspension), Seth Curry (ankle), Ben Simmons (knee) and T.J. Warren (foot) are out for Brooklyn.

What Kyrie Irving and the rest of the NBA should have done over the course of seven ugly days finally happened late Thursday in the wake of star player's brutal and unacceptable refusal to say "no" when asked if he was antisemitic.

Darvin Ham made a curious decision Wednesday with his Los Angeles Lakers trailing the New Orleans Pelicans 111-108 in the closing seconds. Down three points, he sent LeBron James, Anthony Davis, Patrick Beverley, Lonnie Walker IV and Austin Reaves onto the floor without Matt Ryan, the team's best shooter. Walker missed the game-tying 3-point shot. Dyson Daniels rebounded it for New Orleans. That appeared to be that. With two shots at a game-icing free throw, the Pelicans appeared to have secured the victory. The decision to leave Ryan on the bench was so strange that even Lakers commentators Stu Lantz and Bill MacDonald questioned it on the air.

The Golden State Warriors (3-5) continue their swing through the Sunshine State when they take on the Orlando Magic (1-7) on Thursday evening. It's one of just two games on the Thursday NBA schedule, giving these teams a spotlight opportunity. The Warriors have lost three straight, including a 116-109 setback in Miami on Tuesday. Orlando has just one win on the season and both sides only have two covers this year. Cole Anthony (oblique) is out for Orlando while Terrence Ross (knee) is questionable. The Warriors list Donte DiVincenzo (hamstring) and Andre Iguodala (hip) as out.

The San Antonio Spurs waived 2021 No. 12 overall pick Josh Primo last Friday for "multiple alleged incidents of him exposing himself to women," per reporting from ESPN. 

Russell Westbrook didn't seem too excited about a bench role when the possibility initially presented itself. He publicly grumbled about back pain when Frank Vogel left him on the bench for extended periods last season, claiming he wasn't used to such absences. When Darvin Ham brought him off the bench in the preseason finale, he left the game after only five minutes due to a hamstring injury that he would later blame on his reserve role. Before this season, Westbrook had started every game he'd played since his rookie season.

Dallas Mavericks star Luka Doncic made history on Sunday evening as he became the first player since Chicago Bulls legend Michael Jordan to score 30-plus points in the first six games of a season. Jordan accomplished the feat in the 1986-87 season, but his streak ended after six games, which means Doncic has a chance to surpass him on Wednesday against the Utah Jazz.

The Golden State Warriors are 3-4 to open the season with consecutive losses to the Hornets and Pistons, who did away with the Warriors 128-114 on Sunday night. Golden State has now given up at least 120 points in each of its first seven games to start the season. 

Rejoice, Lakers fans. Your awful-shooting, ill-fitting, probably-should-be-blown-up team will not go 0-82 this season after a 121-110 win over the visiting Denver Nuggets on Sunday night. The Lakers are now 1-5 with two days off before hosting the New Orleans Pelicans on Wednesday. 

Rejoice, Lakers fans. Your awful-shooting, ill-fitting, probably-should-be-blown-up team will not go 0-82 this season after a 121-110 win over the visiting Denver Nuggets on Sunday night. The Lakers are now 1-5 with two days off before hosting the New Orleans Pelicans on Wednesday.