SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — After reaching five straight NBA Finals, the Golden State Warriors couldn't have foreseen such a strange, disappointing season as they debuted their snazzy new Chase Center in San Francisco.The Warriors had the worst record in the NBA at 15-50 with a roster of largely unknowns taking the court night after night.Kevin Durant had departed. Klay Thompson sat out recovering from surgery for a torn left knee ligament sustained in Game 6 of last year's finals against champion Toronto. Stephen Curry broke his left hand. Andrew Wiggins arrived and never got to showcase his star talent alongside the team's top rotation before pro sports were halted because of the coronavirus pandemic.Steve Kerr's coaching got tested like never before as he relied on rookies and young players to learn on the fly because that's all Golden State had available.Then the Warriors were one of the teams left out when the NBA’s Board of Governors approved a 22-team format for restarting the league season... [More]

The year was 1997. Andy Thompson had an idea. Adam Silver liked his plan.Neither had any clue what they concocted.The ESPN and Netflix documentary “The Last Dance” — the story based around Michael Jordan and the 1997-98 Chicago Bulls — premieres Sunday night with the first two episodes of the 10-part series. And the images from that season exist because of the notion that Thompson had and Silver, now the NBA commissioner but then the person in charge of NBA Entertainment, helped arrange.Thompson, who already had been working at NBA Entertainment for about a decade, suggested embedding a crew with the Bulls. Silver made some phone calls. They were off and running.“It’s almost hard to understate how famous Michael was and how popular this Bulls team was,” Silver told The Associated Press. “And so, Andy’s view was, ‘We need to find a way to capture this team in its glory.’ And there were no such things as multi-part documentaries on sports on television back then.”But there had been some examples... [More]

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Stephen Curry is confident he has put his left hand through every possible test aside from actually getting into an NBA game.He will get that chance Thursday night, when the two-time MVP is set to return following a more than four-month absence with a broken left hand to play for Golden State against the Toronto Raptors. Curry said he is comfortable enough to play, though it may be months before his hand feels completely “normal” again to where he can compare it to the right side. Yet he still plans to play in the Tokyo Olympics this summer with the Team USA training camp scheduled to open in July.“Hopefully, there aren't any thoughts and I get to play my game the way I see it and just be able to react and make plays without having second thoughts or hesitation,” Curry said after shootaround Thursday morning at Chase Center. “If I need to make a left-handed pass, no matter where it is, or finish with my left or defend and get a deflection or take a hit with it, that... [More]

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Stephen Curry is scheduled to return from a more than four-month absence with a broken left hand to play for Golden State against the Toronto Raptors on Thursday night.The Warriors announced Wednesday night that Curry had been medically cleared to play and would be in the lineup Thursday in a rematch of last year's NBA Finals won in six games by Toronto. The two-time NBA MVP missed 58 games after falling on his left hand Oct. 30 versus Phoenix. He practiced Monday with the G League Santa Cruz Warriors, then was recalled back to the NBA team later in the day in a most expected promotion. Curry, who turns 32 on March 14, had hoped to return last Sunday against Washington but his timeline wasn't too far delayed. He is averaging 20.3 points, 6.5 assists and 5.0 rebounds over just four games this season. Golden State Curry's initial game back from injury also will be his first on the court with Andrew Wiggins, who was acquired by the Warriors from Minnesota on Feb. 6 for... [More]

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Stephen Curry is aiming to return to the Golden State Warriors lineup on Sunday for the first time sine breaking his left hand in October.Coach Steve Kerr said Tuesday that the hope is that Curry will be able to play against Washington. Curry has been practicing in recent weeks and will be re-evaluated on Saturday before a final decision is made."He's had that date in his mind," Kerr said. "He'll continue to work this week and we'll make that determination on Saturday."Curry hasn't played since breaking his left hand on Oct. 30 against the Phoenix Suns. The Warriors (12-45) have the worst record in the NBA this season after making five straight trips to the NBA Finals.Curry has played only four games and Klay Thompson has missed the entire season recovering from a serious knee injury.Kerr said he wants Curry to get time to play with recently acquired forward Andrew Wiggins down the stretch to help make for a smoother transition next season.___More AP NBA: https://apnews.com/NBA and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Golden State Warriors guard Klay Thompson will not play this season, though it has not been ruled out that he could still compete in the Olympics this summer.It was expected that Thompson would miss the entire season as he recovers from a torn knee ligament, and the Warriors said it definitively before their game against Houston on Thursday night. Coach Steve Kerr said it is too early to rule Thompson out to play for the U.S. team and he hasn't formed an opinion on what would be best for Thompson given July is still five months away.“Just the determination by the training staff that even though he's coming along well there isn't really any chance that he's playing,” Kerr said. “This is what I expected from the beginning given the severity of the injury and the normal timetable, and so here we are. It's no surprise.”Thompson tore the ACL in his left knee last June 13 during the deciding Game 6 of the NBA Finals against the Toronto Raptors and had surgery July 2. He was... [More]

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Golden State Warriors guard Klay Thompson will not play the rest of the regular season, the team said Thursday.It was expected that Thompson would miss the entire season as he recovers from a torn knee ligament, and the Warriors said it definitively before their game against Houston.Thompson tore the ACL in his left knee last June during the deciding Game 6 of the NBA Finals against the Toronto Raptors and had surgery July 2. He was re-evaluated over the All-Star break and the team said Stephen Curry's Splash Brother “is making good progress and is right on track with his rehabilitation timeline.” Golden State expects him ready to go for training camp in late September.The question now will be whether Thompson still wants to play in the Tokyo Olympics if he hasn't returned to game action.An update on Curry's recovery and progress from a broken left hand is planned for Feb. 28 and he expects to be back on the court in March.___More AP NBA: https://apnews.com/NBA and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports

Kobe Bryant will be announced Friday at All-Star Weekend in Chicago as one of the finalists for this year’s Basketball Hall of Fame induction class, which isn’t a secret and never was.Bryant always was a lock to be a first-ballot pick. Fellow first-time nominees Tim Duncan and Kevin Garnett will almost certainly also be among those announced Friday as finalists. The complete class that will be enshrined at Springfield, Massachusetts in August will be announced on April 4 at the Final Four in Atlanta.But Friday’s announcement of the finalists in Chicago will be largely about the memory of Bryant, and rightly so. This All-Star weekend is the first huge gathering of the NBA family since Bryant, his 13-year-old daughter Gianna and seven others were killed in a helicopter crash in Southern California on Jan. 26. They’ll be remembered and honored throughout the weekend, and it’s a safe bet that Commissioner Adam Silver — in his annual All-Star news conference Saturday — has plenty to say about... [More]

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — In Brooklyn a couple of days back, Bob Myers realized something he has rarely seen as Golden State's general manager or even dating to his days as a busy sports agent: Nobody wanted to be traded from the NBA's worst team.“That's unprecedented,” Myers said Friday after dealing much of the Warriors roster this week.Golden State dealt D'Angelo Russell, Jacob Evans III and Omari Spellman to the Minnesota Timberwolves ahead of Thursday's trade deadline for Andrew Wiggins and draft picks — Minneosta's first-rounder and second-rounder in 2021, unless the first-rounder is in the top three and then it would roll over to 2022.It was “somber” as Myers put it after Golden State opted to send so many players packing for new opportunities. He felt it. Coaches felt it. The young Warriors said heartfelt farewells, having built tight bonds by being thrown into the fire because of injuries to stars such as Splash Brothers Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson and following Kevin Durant's offseason... [More]

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The Minnesota Timberwolves have taken on yet another new look, with D'Angelo Russell on his way to join pal Karl-Anthony Towns and Andrew Wiggins heading west to the Golden State Warriors.In a swap of high scorers consummated just a few hours before the NBA deadline on Thursday, the Timberwolves acquired the dynamic point guard they'd been seeking for awhile in Russell and pulled the plug on their development of Wiggins, the mercurial first overall pick of the 2014 draft.The deal also sent two little-used Golden State players, guard Jacob Evans and forward Omari Spellman, to the Timberwolves and routed two draft picks to the Warriors. They'll get Minnesota's first-rounder and second-rounder in 2021, unless the first-rounder is in the top three. Then it would roll over to 2022.That means the Timberwolves, who overturned half of their roster this week, will have two first-round picks this summer, their own that's likely to be in the top five and another one from Brooklyn... [More]

MIAMI (AP) — Most of the top NBA playoff contenders stayed out of the down-to-the-wire frenzy at the trade deadline.Miami and the Los Angeles Clippers beefed up instead.And a slew of other teams — including the Golden State Warriors — made moves with short-term finances and long-term ramifications in mind.The NBA’s 3 p.m. EST deadline Thursday for trades to be consummated did not arrive quietly, with a flurry of deals getting struck in the final hour and at least one other notable move falling apart before reaching the finish line. Deals that included at least 41 players and 15 future draft picks were struck on either Wednesday or Thursday — the biggest move likely being the one Thursday that saw Andrew Wiggins going from Minnesota to the Warriors so D’Angelo Russell could leave Golden State finally be paired with his good friend Karl-Anthony Towns with the Timberwolves.Here's how busy the Timberwolves were at trade-deadline time: They announced the jersey numbers of eight new players Thursday... [More]

MIAMI (AP) — Most of the top NBA playoff contenders stayed out of the down-to-the-wire frenzy at the trade deadline.Miami and the Los Angeles Clippers beefed up instead.And a slew of other teams — including the Golden State Warriors — made moves with short-term finances and long-term ramifications in mind.The NBA’s 3 p.m. EST deadline Thursday for trades to be consummated did not arrive quietly, with a flurry of deals getting struck in the final hour and at least one other notable move falling apart before reaching the finish line. Deals that included at least 41 players and 15 future draft picks were struck on either Wednesday or Thursday — the biggest move likely being the one Thursday that saw Andrew Wiggins going from Minnesota to the Warriors so D’Angelo Russell could leave Golden State finally be paired with his good friend Karl-Anthony Towns with the Timberwolves.Here's how busy the Timberwolves were at trade-deadline time: They announced the jersey numbers of eight new players Thursday... [More]

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The Minnesota Timberwolves have taken on yet another new look, with D'Angelo Russell on his way to join pal Karl-Anthony Towns and Andrew Wiggins heading west to the Golden State Warriors.In a swap of high scorers consummated just a few hours before the NBA deadline on Thursday, the Timberwolves acquired the dynamic point guard they'd been seeking for awhile in Russell and pulled the plug on their development of Wiggins, the mercurial first overall pick of the 2014 draft.The deal also sent two little-used Golden State players, guard Jacob Evans and forward Omari Spellman, to the Timberwolves and routed two draft picks to the Warriors. They'll get Minnesota's first-rounder and second-rounder in 2021, unless the first-rounder is in the top three. Then it would roll over to 2022.That means the Timberwolves, who overturned half of their roster this week, will have two first-round picks this summer, their own that's likely to be in the top five and another one from Brooklyn... [More]

MIAMI (AP) — Most of the top NBA playoff contenders stayed out of the down-to-the-wire frenzy at the trade deadline.Miami and the Los Angeles Clippers beefed up instead.And a slew of other teams — including the Golden State Warriors — made moves with short-term finances and long-term ramifications in mind.The NBA’s 3 p.m. EST deadline Thursday for trades to be consummated did not arrive quietly, with a flurry of deals getting struck in the final hour and at least one other notable move falling apart before reaching the finish line. Deals that included at least 41 players and 15 future draft picks were struck on either Wednesday or Thursday — the biggest move likely being the one Thursday that saw Andrew Wiggins going from Minnesota to the Warriors so D’Angelo Russell could leave Golden State finally be paired with his good friend Karl-Anthony Towns with the Timberwolves.Marcus Morris leaves New York for Los Angeles, going from the woebegone Knicks to the title-hoping Clippers — who added... [More]

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — In a swap of high scorers, the Minnesota Timberwolves acquired D'Angelo Russell on Thursday from the Golden State Warriors for Andrew Wiggins, according to a person with knowledge of the trade.The person spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the deal had yet to be finalized by the NBA with a few hours remaining before the deadline. ESPN first reported the trade, which also includes additional players and draft picks. Russell had been on Minnesota's radar for months, a dynamic point guard in his fifth season in the league after going as the second overall pick in the 2015 draft. The first choice that year was Timberwolves center Karl-Anthony Towns, a friend of Russell around whom the front office has been trying to rebuild the roster. Minnesota will be Russell's fourth NBA team. He averaged 23.6 points per game for the injury-wrecked Warriors, a career high after coming in an offseason trade with Brooklyn. The Wolves tried to woo him then, too,... [More]

It is the time of year when every injury report causes eyebrows to raise.D'Angelo Russell, not in Golden State’s lineup at Washington on Monday?Hmmm.Tristan Thompson, scratched by the Cleveland Cavaliers for their game against New York the same night?Interesting.That’s because it’s the week of the NBA trade deadline, when teams need to be careful with the health of players they might be trying to deal.The deadline is Thursday at 3 p.m. EST. It arrives quickly now, once the NBA moved it from its longtime spot on the calendar after the All-Star break to its current one the week before. It allows traded players to use the break to acclimate themselves to a new situation, rather than returning to a team that might deal them a couple days later.Russell could be making that adjustment. He’s been considered a trade possibility since virtually the moment the Warriors acquired him from Brooklyn in July in the sign-and-trade transaction that sent Kevin Durant across the country. He’s a point guard... [More]

The All-Star Game is going to have plenty of new faces.The NBA released the list of the players Thursday voted by the league’s head coaches as reserves for the Feb. 16 game in Chicago, including six who will be All-Stars for the first time.Kyle Lowry of the NBA champion Toronto Raptors is headed back to the game, as are Miami’s Jimmy Butler, Philadelphia’s Ben Simmons, Milwaukee’s Khris Middleton, Portland’s Damian Lillard, Denver’s Nikola Jokic, Houston’s Russell Westbrook and — for the first time since 2016 — Oklahoma City’s Chris Paul.The other reserves are all first-time selections: Miami’s Bam Adebayo, Boston’s Jayson Tatum, Indiana’s Domantas Sabonis, New Orleans’ Brandon Ingram and the Utah duo of Donovan Mitchell and Rudy Gobert.“Definitely it is an honor,” Tatum said in a statement. “I am extremely blessed and grateful. Third year, to make the All-Star team, it is a surreal feeling. I’m just very excited and it is a dream come true.”Those six — combined with starters Pascal Siakam,... [More]

The All-Star Game is going to have plenty of new faces.The NBA released the list of the players Thursday voted by the league’s head coaches as reserves for the Feb. 16 game in Chicago, including six who will be All-Stars for the first time.Kyle Lowry of the NBA champion Toronto Raptors is headed back to the game, as are Miami’s Jimmy Butler, Philadelphia’s Ben Simmons, Milwaukee’s Khris Middleton, Portland’s Damian Lillard, Denver’s Nikola Jokic, Houston’s Russell Westbrook and — for the first time since 2016 — Oklahoma City’s Chris Paul.The other reserves are all first-time selections: Miami’s Bam Adebayo, Boston’s Jayson Tatum, Indiana’s Domantas Sabonis, New Orleans’ Brandon Ingram and the Utah duo of Donovan Mitchell and Rudy Gobert.“Definitely it is an honor,” Tatum said in a statement. “I am extremely blessed and grateful. Third year, to make the All-Star team, it is a surreal feeling. I’m just very excited and it is a dream come true.”Those six — combined with starters Pascal Siakam,... [More]

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Victor Oladipo spent 12 months working, wondering and watching. He strengthened his body, his mind, his injured right knee and promised to return a better player.Now, he's finally healthy enough to start proving it.The All-Star guard expects to make his long-anticipated season debut Wednesday when the Indiana Pacers host Chicago.“I don't expect to do anything out there miraculous, I just expect to play basketball to the best of my ability,” he said Tuesday. “I know I'll get better as time goes on and I've got to be patient with my body and patient with the game. But I'm a competitor. I know it isn't going to be easy."Oladipo probably knew that much the moment he couldn't get up after crashing to the floor late in the first half of last January's game against Toronto. He left the court on a stretcher amid a crescendo of cheers from his adoring fans.Players around the league quickly took to social media to offer their encouragement, too.The next day, team officials announced... [More]

Giannis Antetokounmpo had become such an attraction after just a few seasons in the league that ABC analyst Jeff Van Gundy said a couple years ago he wanted to see the Milwaukee Bucks on Christmas, even if it was just a practice.The jump out of the gym explosiveness, the ability to go end to end — or until wherever he decides to leap for a dunk — in just a few strides made Antetokounmpo a highlight waiting to happen. The league took notice and put the Bucks on the Dec. 25 schedule last year, their first appearance since 1977.The Bucks are back this year, bringing the NBA's best record to Philadelphia powered by a much more complete MVP.The athleticism that helped the Greek Freak score a career-best 52 points against the 76ers last March is still there, now bolstered by emerging leadership and outside shooting skills that might just make Milwaukee (27-4) the team to beat this season.Things like sugar and soda are absent from his diet, with Antetokounmpo, who turned 25 this month, having... [More]