CHICAGO (AP) — Michael Jordan and Dominique Wilkins have never talked to one another about the 1988 dunk contest.They might be the only ones.It is still the dunk contest by which all other dunk contests are measured: Two stars, at the peak of their powers, the players who finished first and second in that season’s scoring standings, going head-to-head to decide a winner. Jordan left the old Chicago Stadium that night with the trophy. To this day, many believe Wilkins was the rightful winner. Either way, it was a never-to-be-forgotten show — and now, for the first time since that night 32 years ago, the dunk contest is returning to Chicago on Saturday night.“I did have a homecourt advantage, yes,” Jordan said this week in an interview with The Associated Press.“The fans got their money’s worth,” Wilkins said in a separate interview with AP.This season’s dunk contest entrant — Orlando’s Aaron Gordon, Miami’s Derrick Jones Jr., the Los Angeles Lakers’ Dwight Howard and Milwaukee’s Pat Connaughton... [More]

CHICAGO (AP) — Michael Jordan and Dominique Wilkins have never talked to one another about the 1988 dunk contest.They might be the only ones.It is still the dunk contest by which all other dunk contests are measured: Two stars, at the peak of their powers, the players who finished first and second in that season’s scoring standings, going head-to-head to decide a winner. Jordan left the old Chicago Stadium that night with the trophy. To this day, many believe Wilkins was the rightful winner. Either way, it was a never-to-be-forgotten show — and now, for the first time since that night 32 years ago, the dunk contest is returning to Chicago on Saturday night.“I did have a homecourt advantage, yes,” Jordan said this week in an interview with The Associated Press.“The fans got their money’s worth,” Wilkins said in a separate interview with AP.This season’s dunk contest entrant — Orlando’s Aaron Gordon, Miami’s Derrick Jones Jr., the Los Angeles Lakers’ Dwight Howard and Milwaukee’s Pat Connaughton... [More]

The NBA is changing the format to this season’s 3-point contest at All-Star Saturday Night in Chicago by adding a pair of deep shots that will be worth three points apiece.That change means each round will now be a total of 27 shots instead of 25, and competitors will now get 70 seconds to finish their shots instead of the customary 60. Competitors were told of the changes in the past few days, and the NBA announced the change Tuesday night.The two additional shots will come from six feet beyond the 3-point line, between the racks located on the wings and the one at the top of the key. Those shots — only one from each spot called the MTN DEW Zone — will be taken with a special green ball.All-Star Saturday is Feb. 15, one night before the All-Star Game.The list of competitors for the 3-point contest this season includes Portland’s Damian Lillard, Sacramento’s Buddy Hield, Washington’s Davis Bertans, Charlotte’s Devonte’ Graham, Miami’s Duncan Robinson, Atlanta’s Trae Young, Chicago’s Zach... [More]

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — Miami got 24 points from Jimmy Butler and a big boost from rookie Tyler Herro on Saturday night. But it was a big game from center Meyers Leonard that put the Heat over the top in a 102-89 victory over the Orlando Magic."Tonight it just happened to be a night where the ball was finding my energy on both ends of the floor, I guess," said Leonard, who had 18 points and 14 rebounds before going to the bench with five fouls with 5:49 left in the game.Herro came off the bench with six 3-pointers and 23 points. Herro and Leonard combined for 10-of-19 shooting from 3-point range to help the Heat beat Orlando for the second time this week and stretch their lead in the Southeast Division to 12 1/2 games."Everyone in the locker room wants Meyers to be more aggressive," said Miami coach Erik Spoelstra. “He really worked on it the last couple of days in practice, letting it fly, almost past his comfort zone. I'm talking about shooting it every time he touched it.”The 7-foot Leonard... [More]

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — Miami got 24 points from Jimmy Butler and a big boost from rookie Tyler Herro on Saturday night. But it was a big game from center Meyers Leonard that put the Heat over the top in a 102-89 victory over the Orlando Magic."Tonight it just happened to be a night where the ball was finding my energy on both ends of the floor, I guess," said Leonard, who had 18 points and 14 rebounds before going to the bench with five fouls with 5:49 left in the game.Herro came off the bench with six 3-pointers and 23 points. Herro and Leonard combined for 10-of-19 shooting from 3-point range to help the Heat beat Orlando for the second time this week and stretch their lead in the Southeast Division to 12 1/2 games."Everyone in the locker room wants Meyers to be more aggressive," said Miami coach Erik Spoelstra. “He really worked on it the last couple of days in practice, letting it fly, almost past his comfort zone. I'm talking about shooting it every time he touched it.”The 7-foot Leonard... [More]

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — Jimmy Butler scored 24 points and rookie Tyler Herro came off the bench with 23 on Saturday night to lead the Miami Heat to a 102-89 victory over the Orlando Magic.Meyers Leonard had 18 points and 14 rebounds for the Heat before going to the bench with five fouls with 5:49 left in the game. Herro and Leonard combined for 10-of-19 shooting from 3-point range.Aaron Gordon scored 24 for the Magic, who lost their fifth straight. Nikola Vucevic added 21 points and nine rebounds.Miami led 57-49 at halftime despite a big first half by Gordon, who was 4 of 6 on 3s and scored 16 points.Herro, bumped out of the starting lineup by the return of fellow rookie Kendrick Nunn, hit three 3-pointers and scored 12 points in the first half.Back-to-back 3-pointers by Leonard stretched Miami's lead to double digits early in the second half, and the Heat led 73-60 when Butler converted a three-point play late in the third quarter.After the Magic closed the gap to six early in the fourth,... [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]

CLEVELAND (AP) — The Orlando Magic spent last season climbing back to relevance. They're at it again.Terrence Ross scored 21 points, Evan Fournier added 18 and Aaron Gordon had a big dunk in the final 20 seconds to lead the Magic to their fourth straight win, 93-87 Friday night over the slumping Cleveland Cavaliers, who have dropped four in a row and 11 of 12.Orlando opened the season 2-6, but in winning five of six, the Magic, who had a 17-game improvement in 2018 after winning just 25 games the previous year, reached .500 for the first time.“It’s good we’ve gotten back there after the way we started, but time will tell how good we are,” said Ross, who made two 3-pointers early in the fourth. "We’ve got three tough games coming up that will test us.”The Magic face a brutal stretch over the next week, playing at Milwaukee and home against the Los Angeles Lakers and Houston.Collin Sexton scored 19 points and Cedi Osman 14 for Cleveland, which pulled within 90-87 on rookie Darius Garland's... [More]

CLEVELAND (AP) — Terrence Ross scored 21 points, Evan Fournier added 18 and Aaron Gordon had a big dunk in the final 20 seconds to lead the Orlando Magic to their fourth straight win, 93-87 Friday night over the Cleveland Cavaliers, who have dropped four in a row and 11 of 12.Orlando, which opened the season 2-6, moved to .500 for the first time.Collin Sexton scored 19 points and Cedi Osman 14 for Cleveland, which pulled within 90-87 on rookie Darius Garland's jumper with 42.5 seconds left.The Cavs needed a defensive stop on Orlando's next trip, but instead they gave up a dunk on a baseline out of bounds play with just three seconds left on the 24-second shot clock to Gordon, who managed to get free in the lane and scored over Tristan Thompson.On Cleveland's next possession, Larry Nance Jr. threw away the ball trying to hit Sexton on the opposite wing, ending the Cavs' last chance at a comeback. Cleveland was without star forward Kevin Love, who has been battling a flu bug the past few... [More]

Robin Lopez and Frank Mason III both scored 14 points to lead the Milwaukee Bucks over the Chicago Bulls 122-112 in preseason action on Monday night.Milwaukee didn't play most of its major contributors, including last year's league Most Valuable Player Giannis Antetokounmpo, Eric Bledsoe and Khris Middleton.Bucks coach Mike Budenholzer said before the game that most of them had a good scrimmage on Sunday so he didn't want to play them in what was essentially a back-to-back stretch.All five of the Bucks' starters scored in double figures. Brook Lopez scored 13 points, Sterling Brown added 12 points and nine rebounds and Wesley Matthews scored 10.Zach LaVine led the Bulls with 16 points. Lauri Markkanen added 14 points, making 4 of 8 of his 3-point attempts.PELICANS 133, HAWKS 109Jrue Holiday led New Orleans with 21 points and Zion Williamson scored 16, including several highlight-reel dunks.Williamson, the No. 1 overall pick in June's draft, threw down his first preseason dunk, a tomahawk... [More]

Robin Lopez and Frank Mason III both scored 14 points to lead the Milwaukee Bucks over the Chicago Bulls 122-112 in preseason action on Monday night.Milwaukee didn't play most of its major contributors, including last year's league Most Valuable Player Giannis Antetokounmpo, Eric Bledsoe and Khris Middleton.Bucks coach Mike Budenholzer said before the game that most of them had a good scrimmage on Sunday so he didn't want to play them in what was essentially a back-to-back stretch.All five of the Bucks' starters scored in double figures. Brook Lopez scored 13 points, Sterling Brown added 12 points and nine rebounds and Wesley Matthews scored 10.Zach LaVine led the Bulls with 16 points. Lauri Markkanen added 14 points, making 4 of 8 of his 3-point attempts.PELICANS 133, HAWKS 109Jrue Holiday led New Orleans with 21 points and Zion Williamson scored 16, including several highlight-reel dunks.Williamson, the No. 1 overall pick in June's draft, threw down his first preseason dunk, a tomahawk... [More]

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — The Orlando Magic will open training camp Tuesday with an expectation they haven't had in many years — to win.After making the NBA playoffs for the first time in seven years, the Magic brought back every rotation player including Nikola Vucevic and Terrence Ros after both signed four-year contracts this summer to stay in Orlando after becoming free agents."If you look at all the teams in the past that brought back the same teams, like the Spurs, they always win," said guard D.J. Augustin. "They keep the same culture and the same chemistry. It's going to be great for our team. If we start how we finished last year, we can do amazing things this year."Under first-year coach Steve Clifford, the Magic won 22 of their last 31 regular-season games to finish 42-40, then lost in five games to the eventual champion Toronto Raptors."Just to get a taste of the playoffs was a great feeling," said forward Aaron Gordon. "We put together a great stretch after the All-Star break, and... [More]

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — It was time for the last jump shot of Markelle Fultz's workout on the Orlando Magic practice court on Wednesday. He let a 3-pointer fly from the left corner, and spun around in celebration even before the ball swished through the net.After two years of problems, he's feeling good again.The shoulder injuries that kept him off the court for most of the two seasons since he was picked No. 1 in the 2017 draft are now being managed — he's hesitant to say healed — and Fultz is expected to be a full participant in practice when the Magic open training camp next week. It's a significant step forward, though the Magic also know they'll have to proceed with caution."Man, I always have joy every time I step in here no matter what's going on," Fultz said after his workout. "As I learned quickly, you can't take it for granted. You never know when it's going to get stripped away from you."His shot is still a work in progress. Some of his jumpers Wednesday were perfect, some rimmed... [More]

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — The Orlando Magic were supposed to have gotten a day off on Jan. 30. Instead, an incensed coach Steve Clifford brought his team in to watch film and make them see all the mistakes they made the night before in a loss to Oklahoma City.Plenty of teams would have grumbled about such a move.In this case, it paid off.Clifford showed them the error of their ways, and their ways changed. They took some days off over the next 3 1/2 months, sure — but they didn't take any more games off. A team that was 20-31 after that Thunder loss wound up going 22-9 down the stretch, earned its first playoff berth in seven years and set the tone for what Clifford is going to expect from the outset of next season."As the season went on, we played better and better and toward the end of the year we played some of our best basketball," Magic center Nikola Vucevic said. "We were just very well organized and it comes from the culture that coach Clifford installed, put in for us. As the season... [More]

TORONTO (AP) — The Toronto Raptors have reason to believe this is the year their playoff run doesn't end in failure and frustration.Just ask the Orlando Magic, who have seen firsthand how good this Raptors team can be.Kawhi Leonard scored 27 points, Pascal Siakam added 24 and the Raptors routed the Magic 115-96 on Tuesday night, winning their first-round playoff series in five games.Toronto, which has made six straight postseason appearances, has reached the second round for the fourth straight year.Buoyed by the offseason additions of Leonard and guard Danny Green, plus trade deadline pickup Marc Gasol, these Raptors are focused on a conference finals berth, and maybe more."We know what we are and what we can be," guard Kyle Lowry said.So does Orlando coach Steve Clifford."To me, this is by far the best team they've had here in this stretch," Clifford said of the Raptors. "This is a terrific team here. Terrific."Toronto lost 104-101 in Game 1 when Orlando's D.J. Augustin hit a tiebreaking... [More]

TORONTO (AP) — The Toronto Raptors have reason to believe this is the year their playoff run doesn't end in failure and frustration.Just ask the Orlando Magic, who have seen firsthand how good this Raptors team can be.Kawhi Leonard scored 27 points, Pascal Siakam added 24 and the Raptors routed the Magic 115-96 on Tuesday night, winning their first-round playoff series in five games.Toronto, which has made six straight postseason appearances, has reached the second round for the fourth straight year.Buoyed by the offseason additions of Leonard and guard Danny Green, plus trade deadline pickup Marc Gasol, these Raptors are focused on a conference finals berth, and maybe more."We know what we are and what we can be," guard Kyle Lowry said.So does Orlando coach Steve Clifford."To me, this is by far the best team they've had here in this stretch," Clifford said of the Raptors. "This is a terrific team here. Terrific."Toronto lost 104-101 in Game 1 when Orlando's D.J. Augustin hit a tiebreaking... [More]

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — Steve Clifford knew very quickly that he was going into the family business. His father was a teacher and a high school coach in a tiny town in northern Vermont, and when he was a sophomore on his dad's team Clifford was telling his parents that he intended to head down that very same career path.The NBA was not on his radar."Never," Clifford said. "Not at all."But he got there, and he's persevered since. He dealt with a heart scare a few years ago, with debilitating headaches that left him unable to coach for a long stretch of last season, even getting fired by Michael Jordan's Charlotte Hornets this past offseason after five years and two playoffs berths there. And now he's got a new challenge, taking over the Orlando Magic and leading a team that has the Eastern Conference's longest active playoff drought.Regardless of how much turmoil he's gone through, Clifford is still counting his blessings — even now, as he inherits a rebuilding project."There's definitely times... [More]

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — Orlando Magic forward Aaron Gordon figures it is time to take on some new responsibility now that is starting the season with a new coach and a new long-term contract.After signing a four-year, $76 million contract in July, the 23-year-old forward says the responsibility for turning around the fortunes of the Orlando Magic is on him as much as anyone."I'm here to spearhead, to make sure it's all-systems-go and make sure everybody is fighting every single night," Gordon said Monday at the team's media day. "I feel like I need to set the tempo, the energy. Energy is very contagious, and I know if my energy is low, then the next person's energy is low, and that's not how it's going to be."The Magic have had six straight losing seasons, four of them since drafting Gordon fourth overall in 2014. They are a long way from NBA respectability, but Gordon believes they can get there under new coach Steve Clifford."That's why I came back," he said. "It's to win with this franchise... [More]