MIAMI (AP) — Dwyane Wade is missing Miami's game against San Antonio on Wednesday night for personal reasons.It's the first game Wade has missed this season, his 16th and final in the NBA. He's averaging 14.3 points on 45 percent shooting in nine games, all of them as a reserve.The Heat again will be without Dion Waiters and James Johnson as they recover from surgeries. Goran Dragic is questionable because of knee soreness after an MRI this week revealed some inflammation. Heat center Hassan Whiteside is expected to play, after sitting Monday with knee pain.The Spurs expect to have point guard Derrick White available off the bench for his season debut. White has been sidelined by a heel injury.___More AP NBA: https://apnews.com/NBA and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports

ATLANTA (AP) — Miami Heat point guard Goran Dragic is out for their game at Atlanta due to persistent pain in his right foot.Dragic is not in uniform Saturday night after a cortisone shot earlier in the week did not provide sufficient pain relief.Forward Justise Winslow made his first start of the season. Rodney McGruder moved from forward to join Josh Richardson in the backcourt. Dragic's status for Monday's game at Detroit is not known. He is second on the team with 17.7 points per game.___More AP NBA: https://apnews.com/NBA and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports

ATLANTA (AP) — Miami Heat point guard Goran Dragic is out of the starting lineup for their game against the Atlanta Hawks due to persistent pain in his right foot.Dragic is active but not expected to play Saturday night after a cortisone shot earlier in the week did not provide sufficient relief.Forward Justise Winslow is moving into the lineup for his first start of the season. Rodney McGruder is moving from forward to join Josh Richardson in the backcourt. Dragic's status for Miami's next game at Detroit on Monday is not known. He is second on the team with 17.7 points per game.___More AP NBA: https://apnews.com/NBA and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports

BOCA RATON, Fla. (AP) — Part of Miami coach Erik Spoelstra's annual mandate to players, whether a 16-year veteran like Dwyane Wade or a second-year guy like Bam Adebayo, is to evolve.Spoelstra expects the same from himself.The Heat opened training camp on Tuesday with players who accounted for 98 percent of their scoring, 98 percent of their assists and 97 percent of their rebounding from last season. And keeping the same team means that those players, by now, have heard just about every speech and seen just about every trick in the Heat book.Hence, the challenge for Spoelstra this season: Keeping the message and the approach fresh."I look back on it now and I don't even know how I prepared for my first training camp," Spoelstra said after the first practice of the season at Florida Atlantic University. "With this group, this probably felt more like a practice and an extension of last year's playoff prep because we had so many familiar faces. So that was nice."Wade was back in Heat camp... [More]

MIAMI (AP) — Dwyane Wade doesn't know how this whole notion of his final season being called "The Last Dance" even started.Fun fact: He can't dance.But the three-time champion and 12-time All-Star can still play, and the Miami Heat are hoping — and expecting — Wade to still be extremely valuable in this, his 16th and last season in the NBA. And at Heat media day Monday, Wade said that even he doesn't know what to fully expect from what will be the last months of his playing career."I have no idea what I want out of this year," Wade said. "We're going to be able to figure this thing out as the year goes on. It's going to take on a life of its own. ... To me, that is the beauty of it, is that I do not know and we do not know."Starting Tuesday, the story starts getting told.Wade and the Heat head about 45 minutes north to Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton, Florida for training camp — five straight days of workouts preceding Sunday's preseason opener at San Antonio. Decisions will have... [More]

MIAMI (AP) — Dwyane Wade doesn't know how this whole notion of his final season being called "The Last Dance" even started.Fun fact: He can't dance.But the three-time champion and 12-time All-Star can still play, and the Miami Heat are hoping — and expecting — Wade to still be extremely valuable in this, his 16th and last season in the NBA. And at Heat media day Monday, Wade said that even he doesn't know what to fully expect from what will be the last months of his playing career."I have no idea what I want out of this year," Wade said. "We're going to be able to figure this thing out as the year goes on. It's going to take on a life of its own. ... To me, that is the beauty of it, is that I do not know and we do not know."Starting Tuesday, the story starts getting told.Wade and the Heat head about 45 minutes north to Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton, Florida for training camp — five straight days of workouts preceding Sunday's preseason opener at San Antonio. Decisions will have... [More]

MIAMI (AP) — This time last year, Miami's Goran Dragic was already tired and the season was just getting started.It's very different now.When the Heat hold their first practice of the season Tuesday, Dragic expects to be as rested and ready as he's been for any training camp in years. The point guard who went to his first All-Star Game last season wore down as the year went along, in part because of the grind he put himself through last summer while leading his native Slovenia to the European championship.This summer, he played less — and is hoping that pays off this season."I feel amazing. I feel great," Dragic said. "I think one of the smartest moves I made was retiring from the national team, because I feel energized and pumped for this season. I always kind of hit a wall toward the end of a season, but I feel like this season is going to be a totally different story."At 32, Dragic is Miami's third-oldest player — among those in the Heat locker room, only Udonis Haslem (38) and the entering-his-final-season... [More]

MIAMI (AP) — Miami Heat guard Dion Waiters will begin this season as he finished last season — unable to play.Waiters has not recovered sufficiently enough from left ankle surgery to be ready for the start of training camp next week, the team announced Tuesday. Heat President Pat Riley said it's unlikely that Waiters will be ready for the start of the regular season as well.The announcement wasn't a total surprise because Waiters was told when he had the procedure in mid-January that he could be sidelined for up to 10 months."Dion will not be returning to the court until the Heat medical team and training staff deem him healed, rehabbed and physically conditioned for all basketball activities," Riley said.Heat point guard Goran Dragic was taken aback by the news."This is kind of out of the blue for me," Dragic said. "At the end of the day, he knows what is best for him. I'm hoping he's going to be ready when we need him."Waiters is due to make about $11.5 million this season, the second... [More]

MIAMI (AP) — Udonis Haslem is barely given the chance to play anymore, and the Miami Heat wanted him back anyway.That's how much they value his presence.A person with knowledge of the negotiations said Haslem and the Heat have agreed on a one-year, $2.4 million contract that will keep him with his hometown team for a 16th season. The person spoke to The Associated Press Thursday on condition of anonymity because the contract has not been signed, though that last detail is now merely a formality."When players come in and we talk to them about what it means to be a Miami Heat player, we point them at Udonis Haslem," Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said earlier this offseason.Haslem is one of the team's captains, and he and Dwyane Wade are the only two players to appear on all three of Miami's NBA champion teams. Haslem becomes the 19th player under contract going into training camp, one shy of the preseason maximum — and the Heat are waiting to see if Wade will take that last available spot.Haslem's... [More]

CLEVELAND (AP) — The NBA offseason has arrived, which means nothing will happen for the next four months other than a draft, three summer leagues, free agency, the creation of a new schedule, coaching hires, trades, roster reworkings and possibly movement toward letting high school graduates jump directly into the league again.It all adds up to very little downtime.There is no shortage of questions about what will happen this summer — leading off, of course, with yet another decision to be made by LeBron James about his future and where he'll play next season as he resumes his quest for more championships.Here are some non-James topics heading into the offseason:KAWHI LEONARDThe mystery of the 2017-18 NBA season is the mystery of the offseason as well. Leonard played in only nine games for the Spurs this season while dealing with a leg injury, the specifics of which are a closely guarded secret even by San Antonio's notoriously tight-lipped standards. He could get a supermax deal, he could... [More]

CHICAGO (AP) — Deandre Ayton might be going back to Arizona after all. The same can be true for Marvin Bagley III. Or maybe Luka Doncic gets to reunite with his past coach.The Phoenix Suns have a trio of fine candidates for the No. 1 pick in the NBA draft.In various ways, the team already has an element of familiarity with each one of them.Ayton played his college ball at Arizona. Bagley, the Duke freshman star this past season, is an Arizona native. And Doncic, the Slovenian teen who has been tabbed a can't-miss NBA prospect, won a title with new Suns coach Igor Kokoskov last summer — when they helped give the tiny nation its biggest sports win, a gold medal at the European Championships.These are good days for the Suns, who have gone through three dreadful seasons and eight consecutive playoff-less campaigns. But they have a new coach in Kokoskov, a promising young core and after winning the draft lottery on Tuesday night, a chance to pick No. 1 overall at the draft in New York next month."It's... [More]

MIAMI (AP) — Goran Dragic is going back to his native Slovenia in a few weeks for the summer. There's a couple of weddings the Miami Heat guard needs to attend, a trip scheduled with his wife to Paris for a fashion show and probably even some pickup basketball to remind his friends that he's an NBA All-Star and they aren't.And there will be some celebrating.Winning the European title last summer is still a huge deal to Slovenians, which means Dragic's homecoming will be a huge deal as well. He was recently voted as the most influential Slovenian, a poll conducted by media in that country who picked people from the sports world to the top six spots. No. 7 was U.S. First Lady Melania Trump, and No. 8 was Slovenian President Borut Pahor.Leading that list shows what Dragic's countrymen think of him, especially after he led the nation to probably its proudest sports moment."As soon I go out with my family, walk around the town, probably that's going to be the time I'm going to start realizing... [More]

MIAMI (AP) — If there was any reason for solace in the Miami Heat locker room after the final game of the season in Philadelphia, it was this: They knew they lost to a better team.The Heat were good. They weren't great.Hence, the challenge of the offseason is clear: The Heat have to not only find ways to improve, but will have to find some creative ways to make it happen. They don't have a pile of salary-cap space to play with, they don't have any picks in this year's draft and they know that fellow Eastern Conference clubs like the 76ers — who needed five games to oust Miami from the playoffs — might only get better."We gave everything we have," Heat guard Dwyane Wade said. "We have to be OK with that."And with that, there is Question No. 1 of the offseason: Does Wade have any more to give?Wade is considering retirement, a decision that could affect some of the personnel decisions the Heat will make this summer, plus could also have an impact on whether Udonis Haslem returns to Miami for... [More]

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — A poised and productive Ricky Rubio has been smiling and laughing, masterfully running Utah's offense in his matchup with Oklahoma City's Russell Westbrook.Meanwhile, the reigning league MVP has been scowling, shoving, fouling, complaining and most of all — losing.It's fair to say Rubio has been more effective for the Jazz.The Rubio-Westbrook matchup mirrors what is happening throughout the NBA playoffs: The team that gets the best point guard play usually wins.Rubio's all-around success has the Jazz on the brink of advancing. Utah has a 3-1 lead on the Thunder and can finish the series Wednesday night in Oklahoma City.He summed up his play after Game 2, saying "I did my job, looking for my teammates, and looking for my shot too when it was open. I just took what the game gave me and watched film and got better and we played as a team."Maybe it is just that simple.Rubio is averaging 18.5 points, 7.8 rebounds and 8 assists per game against Oklahoma City, all well above... [More]

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — A poised and productive Ricky Rubio has been smiling and laughing, masterfully running Utah's offense in his matchup with Oklahoma City's Russell Westbrook.Meanwhile, the reigning league MVP has been scowling, shoving, fouling, complaining and most of all — losing.It's fair to say Rubio has been more effective for the Jazz.The Rubio-Westbrook matchup mirrors what is happening throughout the NBA playoffs: The team that gets the best point guard play usually wins.Rubio's all-around success has the Jazz on the brink of advancing. Utah has a 3-1 lead on the Thunder and can finish the series Wednesday night in Oklahoma City.He summed up his play after Game 2, saying "I did my job, looking for my teammates, and looking for my shot too when it was open. I just took what the game gave me and watched film and got better and we played as a team."Maybe it is just that simple.Rubio is averaging 18.5 points, 7.8 rebounds and 8 assists per game against Oklahoma City, all well above... [More]

Joel Embiid expects his first playoff game in Philadelphia to be quite a scene."It's going to be lit," Embiid said.And if the 76ers win, there will be more games like it next week.The 76ers can become the first team into the Eastern Conference semifinals when they host the Miami Heat on Tuesday in Game 5 of the only East series that isn't tied.Also Tuesday, the Golden State Warriors get their second chance to eliminate San Antonio, and the Celtics and Bucks return to Boston for Game 5 of a series in which the home team has won every game.Embiid was still sidelined while recovering from a broken orbital bone around his left eye for the first two games in Philadelphia, then returned to help the 76ers win Games 3 and 4 in Miami.Now the 76ers, who just two years ago lost 72 games in one of the worst seasons ever while the Warriors were winning an NBA-record 73, can join the defending champions in the second round on the same night. The 76ers have advanced to the East semis just twice since... [More]

Joel Embiid expects his first playoff game in Philadelphia to be quite a scene."It's going to be lit," Embiid said.And if the 76ers win, there will be more games like it next week.The 76ers can become the first team into the Eastern Conference semifinals when they host the Miami Heat on Tuesday in Game 5 of the only East series that isn't tied.Also Tuesday, the Golden State Warriors get their second chance to eliminate San Antonio, and the Celtics and Bucks return to Boston for Game 5 of a series in which the home team has won every game.Embiid was still sidelined while recovering from a broken orbital bone around his left eye for the first two games in Philadelphia, then returned to help the 76ers win Games 3 and 4 in Miami.Now the 76ers, who just two years ago lost 72 games in one of the worst seasons ever while the Warriors were winning an NBA-record 73, can join the defending champions in the second round on the same night. The 76ers have advanced to the East semis just twice since... [More]

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Jrue Holiday's postseason production is providing Pelicans All-Star Anthony Davis with a more comfortable margin for error — and has left Portland with precious little.Holiday's 54 points, 16 assists and slew of defensive successes in the first two games are big reasons why the sixth-seeded Pelicans hold a surprising 2-0 series lead over the third-seeded Trail Blazers as they prepare for Game 3 Thursday night in New Orleans."Playoff Jrue, I guess," Davis quipped after Holiday scored 33 — including a late, deep 3-pointer — in the Pelicans' Game 2 triumph in Portland on Tuesday night. "He's in a different mode."Philadelphia visits Miami in one of two other Game 3s on Thursday night, while the Spurs' return to San Antonio after a pair of double-digit losses at defending champion Golden State.Pelicans general manager Dell Demps bet big on Holiday on the first day of free agency last summer, giving the 27-year-old guard a five-year contract worth about $126 million. But if... [More]

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Jrue Holiday's postseason production is providing Pelicans All-Star Anthony Davis with a more comfortable margin for error — and has left Portland with precious little.Holiday's 54 points, 16 assists and slew of defensive successes in the first two games are big reasons why the sixth-seeded Pelicans hold a surprising 2-0 series lead over the third-seeded Trail Blazers as they prepare for Game 3 Thursday night in New Orleans."Playoff Jrue, I guess," Davis quipped after Holiday scored 33 — including a late, deep 3-pointer — in the Pelicans' Game 2 triumph in Portland on Tuesday night. "He's in a different mode."Philadelphia visits Miami in one of two other Game 3s on Thursday night, while the Spurs' return to San Antonio after a pair of double-digit losses at defending champion Golden State.Pelicans general manager Dell Demps bet big on Holiday on the first day of free agency last summer, giving the 27-year-old guard a five-year contract worth about $126 million. But if... [More]

Gregg Popovich and Erik Spoelstra have copious amounts of championship jewelry in their possessions, and their teams committing to the level of defense necessary to win in the postseason is a major reason why that's the case.Vastly improved defense will be what both coaches demand — or at least hope for — on Monday.Popovich's San Antonio Spurs just didn't have enough answers for Golden State in Game 1 of their Western Conference series, and Spoelstra's Miami Heat offered Philadelphia absolutely no resistance in a second-half meltdown that opened their Eastern Conference series. The Warriors and 76ers are both looking to take 2-0 leads when those matchups resume on their respective home floors."We understand that we are not favorites," San Antonio's Manu Ginobili said. "We are underdogs. We talked about it, and to get a win here, we've got to overachieve. We've got to do better than we think we can do, even. So we'll fight as hard as we can in Game 2."That will have to be a mantra for both... [More]