HOUSTON (AP) — P.J. Tucker has become such a fashion icon that he is no longer simply wearing designer pieces. He is making them.The Houston Rockets forward collaborated with Italian designer Giuseppe Zanotti on a sneaker that was released in December. His latest collaboration, a shirt from New York designers Ovadia & Sons , will go on sale this weekend.The hard-nosed defender with the gruff on-court persona flashed a huge smile as he described seeing the shirt for the first time."It was crazy," he told The Associated Press. "It's like seeing your baby."Tucker has long been a fan of the brand, which is also favored by rappers Jay Z and Future and fellow NBA stars Kevin Durant and Chris Paul. He was thrilled when the company approached him with the idea of designing something for the label.To be clear, this isn't just something Tucker slapped his name on. He said he was fully involved in every step of the process, which took about six months."I picked everything," he said. "They helped... [More]

HOUSTON (AP) — P.J. Tucker has become such a fashion icon that he is no longer simply wearing designer pieces. He is making them.The Houston Rockets forward collaborated with Italian designer Giuseppe Zanotti on a sneaker that was released in December. Hi latest collaboration, a shirt from New York designers Ovadia & Sons , will go on sale this weekend.The hard-nosed defender with the gruff on-court persona flashed a huge smile as he described seeing the shirt for the first time."It was crazy," he told The Associated Press. "It's like seeing your baby."Tucker has long been a fan of the brand, which is also favored by rappers Jay Z and Future and fellow NBA stars Kevin Durant and Chris Paul. He was thrilled when the company approached him with the idea of designing something for the label.To be clear, this isn't just something Tucker slapped his name on. He said he was fully involved in every step of the process, which took about six months."I picked everything," he said. "They helped... [More]

New Orleans has an All-Star for the sixth straight year.That is, unless he gets traded first.Pelicans standout Anthony Davis — only three days removed from having his trade request made known publicly — was one of the 14 players announced Thursday as reserves for the All-Star Game in Charlotte. Davis wants to be swapped out of New Orleans by the Feb. 7 trade deadline, so it remains unclear if his uniform for the All-Star contest on Feb. 17 will bear a Pelicans logo or not.It's the sixth consecutive All-Star nod for Davis. The Pelicans aren't sure if he'll play for them again, though there's also no guarantee that he gets traded by next week either."That's something that will obviously have to be discussed about what's best for him and what's best for our team," Pelicans coach Alvin Gentry said.The other Western Conference reserves were Oklahoma City's Russell Westbrook, Denver's Nikola Jokic, Portland's Damian Lillard, Golden State's Klay Thompson, San Antonio's LaMarcus Aldridge and Minnesota's... [More]

New Orleans has an All-Star for the sixth straight year.That is, unless he gets traded first.Pelicans standout Anthony Davis — only three days removed from having his trade request made known publicly — was one of the 14 players announced Thursday as reserves for the All-Star Game in Charlotte. Davis wants to be swapped out of New Orleans by the Feb. 7 trade deadline, so it remains unclear if his uniform for the All-Star contest on Feb. 17 will bear a Pelicans logo or not.It's the sixth consecutive All-Star nod for Davis. The Pelicans aren't sure if he'll play for them again, though there's also no guarantee that he gets traded by next week either."That's something that will obviously have to be discussed about what's best for him and what's best for our team," Pelicans coach Alvin Gentry said.The other Western Conference reserves were Oklahoma City's Russell Westbrook, Denver's Nikola Jokic, Portland's Damian Lillard, Golden State's Klay Thompson, San Antonio's LaMarcus Aldridge and Minnesota's... [More]

New Orleans has an All-Star for the sixth straight year.That is, unless he gets traded first.Pelicans standout Anthony Davis — only three days removed from having his trade request made known publicly — was one of the 14 players announced Thursday as reserves for the All-Star Game in Charlotte. Davis wants to be swapped out of New Orleans by the Feb. 7 trade deadline, so it remains unclear if his uniform for the All-Star contest on Feb. 17 will bear a Pelicans logo or not.The other Western Conference reserves were Oklahoma City's Russell Westbrook, Denver's Nikola Jokic, Portland's Damian Lillard, Golden State's Klay Thompson, San Antonio's LaMarcus Aldridge and Minnesota's Karl-Anthony Towns.Indiana's Victor Oladipo was selected as one of the Eastern Conference reserves, even though his season is over because of injury. The other reserves from the East were Toronto's Kyle Lowry, Milwaukee's Khris Middleton, Philadelphia's Ben Simmons, Washington's Bradley Beal, Detroit's Blake Griffin... [More]

HOUSTON (AP) — James Harden has been scoring at a pace not seen since Wilt Chamberlain in the 1960s.He doesn't want to talk about it, of course. He never does, whether things are going well or not. But it is clear he is enjoying this because his scoring outburst has coincided with Houston climbing the standings, back among the top teams in the Western Conference after an early-season slump."I love to hoop," he said. "I love to just be out there and the grind."He scored 40 points in Houston's win over Orlando on Sunday night to extend his stretch of consecutive 30-point games to 23, the fourth-longest streak in NBA history behind three such streaks by Chamberlain. In 13 games this month, last season's MVP is averaging 44.1 points. He has scored at least 40 points in eight games in January, including two 50-point games and a franchise-record 61 in a win over the Knicks."It's remarkable," teammate Eric Gordon said. "I've been around a lot of big-time players and he's for sure the best scorer... [More]

NEW YORK (AP) — Dwyane Wade considered ending his NBA career after last season. Carmelo Anthony was one of the people who told him he needed a proper goodbye.On Sunday, Wade's final lap around the league even brought Anthony back to Madison Square Garden.Anthony sat courtside at his former home to watch Wade help Miami beat the New York Knicks 106-97."I didn't know he was coming. I found out before the game. But it meant a lot, man. I am glad," Wade said."I talked to him this summer. We went out to dinner and I was contemplating retirement and Melo was one of the ones that was pushing me to come back and he was like, 'Flash, you can't go out like that. You got to come back and get that love, that last tour kind of.' And he was a big part of me making that decision. I am glad he came out (to) see me play in person, you know, maybe for the last time. So it's cool."Anthony spent 6½ seasons with the Knicks before they traded him to Oklahoma City in September 2017. He's still looking for a team... [More]

HOUSTON (AP) — Chris Paul will return for the Houston Rockets against the Orlando Magic after missing the last 17 games with a strained left hamstring.The nine-time All-Star has been out since he was injured Dec. 20 in a loss at Miami.Coach Mike D'Antoni said Paul's minutes will be limited initially and he hopes to keep him somewhere in the mid-20s on Sunday night.The Rockets have done well in Paul's absence, going 12-5 behind the high-scoring of James Harden and some help from the addition of Austin Rivers, who started while Paul was out.___More AP NBA: https://apnews.com/NBA and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports

LeBron James of the Los Angeles Lakers is a captain and an All-Star starter — again.Giannis Antetokounmpo of the Milwaukee Bucks will choose his own teammates as the other captain.And Hornets guard Kemba Walker is about to make his first All-Star start, on his home floor in Charlotte.While there were perhaps mild surprises, there were no real stunners during Thursday night's unveiling of the starters for the NBA All-Star Game that will be played in Charlotte on Feb. 17. James and Antetokounmpo are captains, their perk for being the leading vote-getters out of the Western and Eastern Conferences, and nine of this year's 10 starters have been chosen to begin All-Star Games in the past.Walker is the lone exception, and broke into a smile when realizing he was a pick."It's kind of surreal," Walker told TNT during the broadcast to announce the starters.The starting guards from the East are Boston's Kyrie Irving and Walker. The East frontcourt picks were Antetokounmpo, Toronto's Kawhi Leonard... [More]

LeBron James of the Los Angeles Lakers and Giannis Antetokounmpo of the Milwaukee Bucks are the captains for this year's NBA All-Star Game.James and Antetokounmpo were the leading vote-getters from each conference, making them the players who will choose who plays on which team for the Feb. 17 matchup at Charlotte.They will draft their teams on Feb. 7. As the leading overall vote-getter, James will have the first pick — just as he did last year, when the captain's-choice format was used for the All-Star rosters for the first time.James extended his NBA record by being chosen as a starter for the 15th straight time. Antetokounmpo is now a three-time All-Star.The starting guards from the East are Boston's Kyrie Irving and Charlotte's Kemba Walker — who'll get to start on his home floor. The East frontcourt picks were Antetokounmpo, Toronto's Kawhi Leonard and Philadelphia's Joel Embiid. From the West, Stephen Curry and reigning NBA MVP James Harden were the picks at guard, with James, Golden... [More]

LeBron James of the Los Angeles Lakers and Giannis Antetokounmpo of the Milwaukee Bucks are the captains for this year's NBA All-Star Game.James and Antetokounmpo were the leading vote-getters from each conference, making them the players who will choose who plays on which team for the Feb. 17 matchup at Charlotte.They will draft their teams on Feb. 7. As the leading overall vote-getter, James will have the first pick — just as he did last year, when the captain's-choice format was used for the All-Star rosters for the first time.James extended his NBA record by being chosen as a starter for the 15th straight time. Antetokounmpo is now a three-time All-Star.The starting guards from the East are Boston's Kyrie Irving and Charlotte's Kemba Walker — who'll get to start on his home floor. The East frontcourt picks were Antetokounmpo, Toronto's Kawhi Leonard and Philadelphia's Joel Embiid. From the West, Stephen Curry and reigning NBA MVP James Harden were the picks at guard, with James, Golden... [More]

This play midway through the fourth quarter of James Harden's historic effort at Madison Square Garden was largely reminiscent of what the Houston Rockets' offense has looked like lately:He got the ball.He kept it for 16 seconds.He dribbled it 21 times.He shot.He scored.What Harden has done in his last five games — 261 points, 52.2 points per game, zero assisted by a teammate — is astounding by any measure. He's averaged 43.1 points in his last 21 games, keeping Houston in the thick of the Western Conference playoff race. The Rockets have alternated wins and losses in each of their last 10 games, despite Harden's greatness of late.Earlier this month, Houston guard Austin Rivers described the Rockets' playbook like this to Sports Illustrated: "James Harden. Just get the (bleep) out of his way. Let him do the heavy lifting."That philosophy should be coming to an end before long.Rockets point guard Chris Paul will be back soon from his latest tale of hamstring woe, maybe even as early as Friday... [More]

NEW YORK (AP) — James Harden has reached 30 points for the 21st consecutive game, passing Wilt Chamberlain for the fourth-longest streak in NBA history.Harden's 3-pointer with about three minutes remaining in the first half of Houston's game against the Knicks on Wednesday night gave him 32 points.The NBA's leading scorer had already surpassed his average of 35.7 points by halftime, putting back the miss of his own shot to beat the buzzer and give himself 36 points and nine rebounds.Chamberlain still has all three streaks that were longer. His record is 65 straight 30-point games, and he also had streaks of 31 and 25 games.___More AP NBA: https://apnews.com/NBA and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports

NEW YORK (AP) — James Harden has reached 30 points for the 21st consecutive game, passing Wilt Chamberlain for the fourth-longest streak in NBA history.Harden's 3-pointer with about three minutes remaining in the first half of Houston's game against the Knicks on Wednesday night gave him 32 points.The NBA's leading scorer had already surpassed his average of 35.7 points by halftime, putting back the miss of his own shot to beat the buzzer and give himself 36 points and nine rebounds.Chamberlain still has all three streaks that were longer. His record is 65 straight 30-point games, and he also had streaks of 31 and 25 games.___More AP NBA: https://apnews.com/NBA and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports

MILWAUKEE (AP) — Giannis Antetokounmpo and Luka Doncic never really squared off in their first head-to-head matchup, with the enormous exception of one game-deciding moment.The established All-Star drove the lane.The rising All-Star had no chance to stop him.There will be plenty of Giannis vs. Luka moments before their NBA careers are all said and done, but the first one came on Monday and it absolutely went Antetokounmpo's way. His dunk over Doncic with 2:50 left was a punctuation mark of sorts in Milwaukee's 116-106 win over Dallas, a game that featured a top international candidate for MVP this season against the very likely international rookie of the year.Antetokounmpo finished the dunk with a stare-down of Doncic. If there was a message in there, Antetokounmpo wasn't saying."Just a dunk," Antetokounmpo said. "It was a momentum play."Doncic — to the 19 year-old's credit — was poised enough afterward to acknowledge that he's still got a lot of room to grow before he consistently gets... [More]

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Lou Williams won't be coming off the bench for the Los Angeles Clippers against Golden State.The NBA's leading reserve scorer was inactive for Friday night's game at Staples Center because of a sore right hamstring.Williams averages 18.7 points. He's scored at least 15 points in 12 straight games, the league's longest active streak among reserves and his longest streak of the season.He played in his 900th career game on Wednesday against Utah, scoring 23 points.Williams is tied with Houston's James Harden for first in the NBA with 296 fourth-quarter points this season.He missed four games last month with a sore left hamstring and left another game early because of the injury.___More AP NBA: https://apnews.com/NBA and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — James Harden had a game for the history books.That's good and bad.Harden scored 38 points Sunday night in Houston's 116-109 loss in Orlando, marking the 16th consecutive time that he's scored at least 30 or more points — matching Kobe Bryant for the league's longest such streak since the NBA-ABA merger in 1976-77.But Harden also was 1 for 17 from 3-point range, tying the league's single-game record for most misses from beyond the arc."They just didn't go in," Harden shrugged afterward.Damon Stoudamire was 5 for 21 from 3-point range for Portland against Golden State on April 15, 2005. Until Sunday, that was the only time a player had missed 16 3s in a game.The NBA's greatest shooters have had awful nights from 3-point range — Dennis Scott once went 2 for 17, Ray Allen once went 1 for 14, Stephen Curry has an 0 for 11 game on his resume. Harden went 0 for 11 from deep in Game 5 of last year's Western Conference finals against Golden State, and has been 0 for 10 on three... [More]

The NBA changed the All-Star voting process two years ago, in part to prevent Zaza Pachulia being elected a starter.Instead, it might keep Dwyane Wade from being one — again. Luka Doncic and Derrick Rose, too.Entering the last full week of balloting, Wade would be in a good position for a farewell All-Star start under the old system, which was solely dependent on fan votes. He's running second among Eastern Conference guards, with a sizeable gap to No. 3 Kemba Walker after the second set of returns were released last week.Doncic is second among West forwards in a bid to start as a rookie, and Rose is ahead of MVP James Harden in the second spot in the West backcourt.But fan vote is now just 50 percent of the process, a change that was made after Pachulia was undeservedly nearly elected a starter through a huge overseas push in 2016. The players' vote and a media panel each account for 25 percent, and in its first year it did stop Pachulia, who would have been elected to start by fans in... [More]

Imagine this: Kevin Durant is out of bounds by an enormous margin, all three referees somehow miss the obvious infraction and Golden State winds up getting a basket that it didn't deserve to take the lead with a few seconds remaining.It seemed implausible.That is, until it happened.When such a scene played out last week in the Houston-Golden State overtime thriller, James Harden kept a ton of egg from landing on the NBA's face when he connected on a 3-pointer to give the Rockets a win in a game they would have screamed bloody murder about otherwise. But what if he missed? Or worse, if a call that big got missed in Game 7 of the NBA Finals?"How do you miss that?" TNT analyst Reggie Miller mused while watching the Durant replay.An obvious question, with an obvious answer: It's time for a change.Everyone in the NBA replay center in Secaucus, New Jersey that night surely saw Durant standing out of bounds. But there is no mechanism for the replay crews to trigger a review of such a play — since,... [More]

James Harden and the Houston Rockets were one half away from the NBA Finals last time they played at Oracle Arena.The way the Rockets are rolling now, they might just get another shot at the champs this postseason.The Rockets try to wrap up a perfect month at home Monday against Memphis, then visit Golden State for the first time since the Western Conference finals, having recovered from a rough start thanks to Harden's torrid stretch.He has scored 40 points in three straight games and 35 or more in seven straight, the longest streak since LeBron James did it in nine in a row in 2006. The NBA scoring leader's quest to repeat as MVP is clearly on track.And after a poor start, so are the Rockets (20-15). They have won four straight and nine of their last 10 games overall, and are 8-0 at home in December after dropping their first four games at the Toyota Center.Just like Game 6 of the West finals, when they blew a double-digit lead, they will play at Golden State for Thursday's nationally... [More]