National Basketball Association News

James Harden gave Houston quite the jump-start with 22 of the team's 50 points in the third quarter, as the Rockets cruised past the Minnesota Timberwolves 119-100 on Monday night to take a 3-1 lead in their first-round playoff series.

The morning after the Toronto Raptors' late-game meltdown against the Washington Wizards, DeMar DeRozan was still taking the blame.

The Toronto Raptors saw their playoff series lead disappear on Sunday. Bradley Beal scored 31 points, while John Wall had 27, and the Washington Wizards beat Toronto 106-98 to tie their opening-round Eastern Conference series at two games apiece.

Manu Ginobili scored 10 of his 16 points in the fourth quarter of what could have been his final home game with the Spurs, and San Antonio beat the Golden State Warriors 103-90 on Sunday to avoid a series sweep as coach Gregg Popovich remained out following the death of his wife.

The Toronto Raptors' second unit was so strong in the regular season that the team ran a tongue-in-cheek social media campaign suggesting their entire "bench mob" win the NBA's sixth man of the year award.

Ben Simmons had the first playoff triple-double by a rookie in nearly 40 years, JJ Redick scored 24 points and the Philadelphia 76ers outlasted the Miami Heat 106-102 on Saturday to move within a victory of the second round.

Bradley Beal and John Wall scored 28 points apiece and the Washington Wizards beat Toronto 122-103 on Saturday, cutting the Raptors' lead in their opening round playoff series to 2-1.

Bojan Bogdanovic scored 30 points, leading the Indiana Pacers back from a 17-point halftime deficit for a 92-90 victory over the Cleveland Cavaliers on Friday night for a 2-1 lead in their first-round series.

A masked Joel Embiid scored 23 points in his post-season debut, Marco Belinelli and Dario Saric each added 21 and the Philadelphia 76ers beat the Miami Heat 128-108 on Thursday night to take a 2-1 lead in their Eastern Conference first-round series.

Dwane Casey remembers the "powwow" he had with DeMar DeRozan and Kyle Lowry. The Toronto Raptors were in Utah, wrapping up their uninspiring season-opening road trip, and Casey's all-stars weren't fitting into the team's new ball-sharing style of play as seamlessly as he would have liked.