LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. (AP) — Orlando coach Steve Clifford proudly displayed a pair of personalized Mickey Mouse ears inside his home office Monday, saying they would be one of the gifts from this season that he would cherish the most.It’s safe to say they weren’t on his wish list when this season started.The world has been turned upside down by the coronavirus pandemic, which forced the NBA into a bubble at Walt Disney World to resume the season — and now that the Magic are out of the bubble, they have no real idea what comes next.So, for now, there’s no concrete plans to be made for the 2020-21 season. That’ll come in time, but Clifford intends to spend the immediate future going over what went right and wrong after a season in which Orlando made the playoffs for a second consecutive year but couldn’t get past the first round.“I think what it does is it makes us more relevant again,” Clifford said. “First of all, making the playoffs is never an easy thing. You can’t take it for granted.... [More]

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. (AP) — Making their strongest statement yet in the fight against racial injustice, players from six NBA teams decided not to play postseason games on Wednesday in a boycott that quickly reverberated across other professional leagues.Also called off: Some games in Major League Baseball, Major League Soccer and the three WNBA contests, as players across four leagues decided the best way to use their platform and demand change was to literally step off the playing surface.Players made the extraordinary decisions to protest the shooting by police in Kenosha, Wisconsin on Sunday of Jacob Blake, a Black man, apparently in the back while three of his children looked on.Kenosha is about 40 miles south of Milwaukee. That city’s NBA team, the Bucks, started the boycotts Wednesday by refusing to emerge from their locker room to play a playoff game against the Orlando Magic.“There has been no action, so our focus today cannot be on basketball,” said Bucks guard Sterling Brown,... [More]

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. (AP) — Making their strongest statement yet in the fight against racial injustice, players from six NBA teams decided not to play postseason games on Wednesday in a boycott that quickly reverberated across other professional leagues.Also called off: Some games in Major League Baseball, Major League Soccer and the three WNBA contests, as players across four leagues decided the best way to use their platform and demand change was to literally step off the playing surface.Players made the extraordinary decisions to protest the shooting by police in Kenosha, Wisconsin on Sunday of Jacob Blake, a Black man, apparently in the back while three of his children looked on.Kenosha is about 40 miles south of Milwaukee. That city’s NBA team, the Bucks, started the boycotts Wednesday by refusing to emerge from their locker room to play a playoff game against the Orlando Magic.“There has been no action, so our focus today cannot be on basketball,” said Bucks guard Sterling Brown,... [More]

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. (AP) — All three NBA playoff games scheduled for Wednesday have been postponed, with players around the league choosing to boycott in their strongest statement yet against racial injustice.Called off: Games between Milwaukee and Orlando, Houston and Oklahoma City and the Los Angeles Lakers and Portland. The NBA said all three games would be rescheduled, yet did not say when.And the reverberations quickly moved into Major League Baseball and the WNBA. The Milwaukee Brewers' home game with the Cincinnati Reds was called off, by player decision, and other MLB teams were considering similar moves. WNBA players are not playing their three regular-season games scheduled for Wednesday in Bradenton, Florida.The dramatic series of moves began when the Bucks — the NBA’s team from Wisconsin, a state rocked in recent days by the shooting by police of Jacob Blake, a Black man — didn’t take the floor for their playoff game against the Magic. The teams were set to begin Game 5 of... [More]

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. (AP) — All three NBA playoff games scheduled for Wednesday have been postponed, with players around the league choosing to boycott in their strongest statement yet against racial injustice.Called off: Games between Milwaukee and Orlando, Houston and Oklahoma City and the Los Angeles Lakers and Portland. The NBA said all three games would be rescheduled, yet did not say when.And the reverberations quickly moved into Major League Baseball and the WNBA. The Milwaukee Brewers and Cincinnati Reds reportedly decided not to play as scheduled Wednesday and WNBA players also are not playing three regular season games in Bradenton, Florida.The dramatic series of moves began when the Bucks — the NBA’s team from Wisconsin, a state rocked in recent days by the shooting by police of Jacob Blake, a Black man — didn’t take the floor for their playoff game against the Magic. The teams were set to begin Game 5 of their series shortly after 4 p.m., with the Bucks needing a win to advance... [More]

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. (AP) — All three NBA playoff games scheduled for Wednesday have been postponed, with players around the league choosing to boycott in their strongest statement yet against racial injustice.Called off: Games between Milwaukee and Orlando, Houston and Oklahoma City and the Los Angeles Lakers and Portland. The NBA said all three games would be rescheduled, yet did not say when.The dramatic series of moves began when the Bucks — the NBA’s team from Wisconsin, a state rocked in recent days by the shooting by police of Jacob Blake, a Black man — didn’t take the floor for their playoff game against the Magic. The teams were set to begin Game 5 of their series shortly after 4 p.m., with the Bucks needing a win to advance to the second round.Players had been discussing boycotting games in the bubble after the shooting of Blake in Kenosha, Wisconsin. More discussions among players on teams still in the bubble were scheduled Wednesday, presumably on how — or if — to go forward... [More]

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. (AP) — All three NBA playoff games scheduled for Wednesday have been postponed, with players around the league choosing to boycott in their strongest statement yet against racial injustice.Called off: Games between Milwaukee and Orlando, Houston and Oklahoma City and the Los Angeles Lakers and Portland. The NBA said all three games would be rescheduled, yet did not say when.The dramatic series of moves began when the Bucks — the NBA’s team from Wisconsin, a state rocked in recent days by the shooting by police officers of Jacob Blake, a Black man — didn’t take the floor for their playoff game against the Magic. The teams were set to begin Game 5 of their series shortly after 4 p.m., with the Bucks needing a win to advance to the second round.Players had been discussing boycotting games in the bubble after the shooting of Blake by police in Kenosha, Wisconsin. More discussions among players on teams still in the bubble were scheduled Wednesday, presumably on how —... [More]

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. (AP) — James Ennis of the Orlando Magic and Marvin Williams of the Milwaukee Bucks were ejected for scuffling on Saturday during Game 3 of their first-round playoff series. The forwards were battling for rebounding position midway through the second quarter with Milwaukee leading 53-34. When they headed back up the floor, Ennis shoved Williams, and Williams shoved back. As the two players were separated, Williams grabbed Ennis’ jersey. Ennis appeared to throw his fist in an attempt to free his jersey.Ennis was in Orlando’s starting lineup, while Williams was filling a reserve role for Milwaukee. The loss of Ennis further depleted an Orlando team that already was playing without Jonathan Isaac, Aaron Gordon, Michael Carter-Williams and Mo Bamba because of various injuries and illnesses.The Eastern Conference series is tied at one game apiece.___More AP NBA: https://apnews.com/NBA and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. (AP) — The Lakers and Bucks exited practice Wednesday to palm trees around them and sunny skies overhead.The weather is good at Walt Disney World. The service is great. The setting seems ideal.For the best NBA teams, it's anything but.The top-four seeds in each conference should be playing in their arenas right now, with home-court advantage in the first two games of their playoff series. They'd have their fans screaming during the action and in many cases families waiting at home afterward.Boy, do some of them miss that at the moment.“If's definitely a difference. You can feel it,” Bucks All-Star Khris Middleton said. "There's times where we really depended on our crowd last year and during the season this year to kind of pull us out of our struggle or whatever it was. And here, there is none of that."We have to bring it every single night. We can't rely on our crowd, our fans to give us that energy. We have to bring it ourselves."Milwaukee and Los Angeles, the No.... [More]

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — The Heat went cold in the fourth quarter Friday night, matching the lowest point total for a quarter by an NBA team in more than two years.Terrence Ross scored 25 points, Nikola Vucevic added 20 points and 11 rebounds and the Orlando Magic held Miami to six points over the final 12 minutes on their way to a 105-85 victory."They shut down the paint, they shut down our layups, shut down a lot of the things we're used to getting and shut down our normal threes," Miami coach Eric Spoelstra said. "There was a possession when they must have run us off five straight 3s on their close-outs and did a tremendous job with making multiple efforts, and we weren't really doing that on the other end. They deserved to get that win." Miami shot 3 for 19 from the field and missed all 10 3-point shots while committing six turnovers in the period.The last team team to score only six points in a quarter was Portland against Toronto in October 2017.Jimmy Butler had 23 points and 10 rebounds... [More]

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — Terrence Ross scored 25 points, Nikola Vucevic added 20 points and 11 rebounds and the Orlando Magic shut down the Miami Heat in the fourth quarter in a 105-85 victory Friday night.Miami scored only six points in the fourth quarter, going 3 for 19 from the field. Jimmy Butler had 23 points and 10 rebounds for the Heat.Aaron Gordon had 16 points and eight rebounds for the Magic, and Evan Fournier scored 15 points despite spending most of the game in foul trouble.One day after holding the Toronto Raptors to 6-of-42 shooting from 3-point range in a victory at Miami, the Heat shot 7 for 37 from long range and 37.5% overall.After Vucevic and Gordon combined for three 3-pointers in quick succession to give the Magic to a 67-49 lead early in the third quarter, the Heat responded with a 14-3 run. Meyers Leonard then hit pair of 3-pointers to cut Orlando's lead to four.But Miami wet scoreless for more than 3 1/2 minutes at the outset of the fourth quarter, missing five shots... [More]

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — Terrence Ross made some shots and his Orlando teammates blocked a bunch of them.Ross scored a season-high 26 points Monday night and the Magic rejected 13 shots to break a three-game losing streak with a 103-95 victory over the Chicago Bulls.Mo Bamba came off the bench to block four shots, and Jonathan Isaac and Aaron Gordon blocked three apiece.“That's who we have to be,” Magic coach Steve Clifford said. “We're long, we have size, we have versatility. “The other guys did great things, but without (Ross), we would have been playing from eight, 10 behind there in the third quarter. He kept us in the game and made shot after shot.” Zach LaVine led Chicago with 26 points on 8-of-26 shooting, but the Bulls managed only 14 points in the fourth quarter. Tomas Satoransky added 20 points and was 4 of 5 on 3-point shots.“It's very difficult to win a road game when you have 17 turnovers and they have 13 blocks,” Bulls coach Jim Boylen said.Nikola Vucevic had 21 points and seven... [More]

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — Terrence Ross scored a season-high 26 points Monday night to help the Orlando Magic break a three-game losing streak with a 103-95 victory over the Chicago Bulls.Zach LaVine led Chicago with 26 points on 8-of-26 shooting, but the Bulls managed only 14 points in the fourth quarter. Tomas Satoransky added 20 points and was 4 of 5 on 3-point shots.Nikola Vucevic had 21 points and seven rebounds for Orlando, which blocked 13 shots and held the Bulls to 31 percent shooting in the second half. Jonathan Isaac finished with 13 points, nine rebounds, five assists, four steals and three blocks.Ross, who made six 3-pointers, hit a short jumper and a 3-pointer on a 7-0 Magic run early in the fourth quarter to put Orlando ahead to stay.With LaVine hitting two free throws and a 3-pointer, the Bulls scored the first nine points of the game.Lauri Markkanen and LaVine made two 3-pointers apiece in the last 4:15 of the first half to leave Chicago with a 54-51 lead at the break.TIP-INSBulls:... [More]

Orlando had to fight until the final days of the regular season to get its postseason berth. Portland had to scramble down the stretch to replace a huge part of its success.And as is usually the case, San Antonio coach Gregg Popovich had his team playing its best basketball at the end.The Magic, Trail Blazers and Spurs were playoff ready. That's why they're all taking 1-0 series leads into their respective Game 2s on Tuesday night — with Orlando at Toronto, San Antonio at Denver and Portland playing host to Oklahoma City.Orlando and San Antonio, both No. 7 seeds, won on the road and grabbed home-court advantage. But they both know what's coming when Denver and Toronto get fueled by desperation on Tuesday night."It's going to be a lot tougher," Spurs guard DeMar DeRozan said."We're going to get their best," Magic coach Steve Clifford said.It goes without saying that all the teams that are down 1-0 found ways to get better for Game 2. The same goes for the teams leading those series. Clifford... [More]

HOUSTON (AP) — The Houston Rockets have traded Michael Carter-Williams and cash considerations to the Chicago Bulls for a protected second-round pick in the 2020 draft. The Bulls then waived the guard following the trade.The 27-year-old Carter-Williams saw limited playing time in his first season in Houston, appearing in just 16 games with one start. He averaged 4.3 points.The 11th overall pick in the 2013 draft has averaged 11.1 points, 4.5 rebounds and 4.7 assists in a six-year career that included stints with Philadelphia, Milwaukee, Chicago and Charlotte.___More AP NBA coverage: https://apnews.com/NBA and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — Hornets point guard Michael Carter-Williams needs surgery on his left shoulder and will miss the remainder of the season.He suffered a posterior labral tear in his should on March 4 at Toronto.Rookie Malik Monk has filled in as the team's backup point guard the last two games.Carter-Williams has appeared in 52 games and is averaging 4.6 points and 2.7 rebounds in 16.1 minutes per game this season. In 287 career games, he has averaged 11.5 points and 4.7 rebounds per game.___More AP NBA: https://apnews.com/tag/NBAbasketball

G Michael Carter-Williams made his first start of the season Wednesday in Toronto and scored nine points.

G Michael Carter-Williams made his first appearance of the season, playing eight scoreless minutes. Williams, who has dealt with knee issues, was active for just the second time.

G Michael Carter-Williams was active for the for first time this year.

G Michael Carter-Williams (knee soreness) did not play Wednesday.