LOS ANGELES (AP) — The Los Angeles Lakers have signed veteran Spanish center Marc Gasol. The NBA champions confirmed the latest step in their roster reconfiguration Tuesday by announcing the addition of the 35-year-old Gasol, who spent the last 1 1/2 seasons with the Toronto Raptors and won a championship ring in 2019. The Lakers traded starting center JaVale McGee to Cleveland to make room under the salary cap to sign Gasol, who will be expected to provide his usual sturdy defense along with strong passing skills and 3-point shooting. Gasol struggled with injuries last season while scoring a career-low 7.5 points per game along with 6.3 rebounds and 3.3 assists. The Lakers still beat out several interested suitors for Gasol, whose NBA career is coming full circle as he joins the team that drafted him in 2007. Gasol will suit up for the Lakers nearly 13 years after the franchise acquired his older brother, Pau, by trading Marc's draft rights to the Memphis Grizzlies in February 2008 while... [More]

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The Los Angeles Lakers have signed veteran Spanish center Marc Gasol. The NBA champions confirmed the latest step in their roster reconfiguration Tuesday by announcing the addition of the 35-year-old Gasol, who spent the last 1 1/2 seasons with the Toronto Raptors and won a championship ring in 2019. The Lakers traded starting center JaVale McGee to Cleveland to make room under the salary cap to sign Gasol, who will be expected to provide his usual sturdy defense along with strong passing skills and 3-point shooting. Gasol struggled with injuries last season while scoring a career-low 7.5 points per game along with 6.3 rebounds and 3.3 assists. The Lakers still beat out several interested suitors for Gasol, whose NBA career is coming full circle as he joins the team that drafted him in 2007. Gasol will suit up for the Lakers nearly 13 years after the franchise acquired his older brother, Pau, by trading Marc's draft rights to the Memphis Grizzlies in February 2008 while... [More]

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Montrezl Harrell did not make the trip lightly when he moved down the Staples Center hallway last weekend to join the Los Angeles Lakers. The NBA's reigning Sixth Man of the Year realizes the gravity of his decision to leave the Los Angeles Clippers after three seasons — and to leave them for their bigger, more successful intra-city rivals, no less. The decision turned out to be surprisingly simple, though. According to Harrell, the NBA champion Lakers made it clear they badly wanted him in the opening minutes of free agency. The Clippers did not. “If you spend your career in any place long enough, you're going to want to continue playing there and growing there,” Harrell said Monday. “Of course, I still have great respect for those guys and for that organization. But as far as if they wanted me back? Obviously, it just doesn't seem that way, does it?” The tenacious forward who plays much bigger than his 6-foot-7 frame agreed to a two-year deal during the Lakers' impressive... [More]

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The more things changed for the Los Angeles Clippers, the more they stayed the same.They shocked the league by adding superstars Kawhi Leonard and Paul George to a proven cast, immediately creating major expectations for the franchise to win its first NBA championship.In the end, the Clippers reverted to their old selves. They blew a 3-2 series lead and double-digit leads in multiple games against the Denver Nuggets, and got sent packing from the NBA playoff bubble. The franchise once mocked as the laughingstock of the NBA couldn't erase a big part of its ignominious history: 0-8 all time in games in which it could clinch a spot in the conference finals.“We did have championship expectations. We had the talent to do it,” Lou Williams said. "I don’t think we had the chemistry to do it and it showed."George missed time to start the season while recovering from two offseason shoulder surgeries. Playing for his third team in three years, Leonard followed a load management... [More]

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The more things changed for the Los Angeles Clippers, the more they stayed the same.They shocked the league by adding superstars Kawhi Leonard and Paul George to a proven cast, immediately creating major expectations for the franchise to win its first NBA championship.In the end, the Clippers reverted to their old selves. They blew a 3-2 series lead and double-digit leads in multiple games against the Denver Nuggets, and got sent packing from the NBA playoff bubble. The franchise once mocked as the laughingstock of the NBA couldn't erase a big part of its ignominious history: 0-8 all time in games in which it could clinch a spot in the conference finals.“We did have championship expectations. We had the talent to do it,” Lou Williams said. "I don’t think we had the chemistry to do it and it showed."George missed time to start the season while recovering from two offseason shoulder surgeries. Playing for his third team in three years, Leonard followed a load management... [More]

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. (AP) — Montrezl Harrell was close last year. This year, his grandmother told him, he was going to win the Sixth Man Award.The only disappointment was she didn't live to see it.“It just hurts that I can’t take it home to her,” Harrell said, with the trophy sitting beside him.He won it on Friday, keeping the honor for the league’s top reserve with the Los Angeles Clippers for the third straight season.Harrell ended the two-year run of teammate Lou Williams — who finished third — and gave the Clippers four winners in the last five years. Harrell and Williams helped the Clippers have the league’s highest-scoring bench for the second straight season.Harrell received 58 first-place votes from a panel of 100 writers and broadcasters, earning 397 points. Dennis Schroder of Oklahoma City was second with 35 first-place votes and 328 points, while Williams got the other seven first-place votes and 127 points.Voting took account only games through March 11 and none during the... [More]

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. (AP) — Montrezl Harrell won the NBA's Sixth Man Award on Friday, keeping the honor for the league’s top reserve with the Los Angeles Clippers for the third straight season.Harrell ended the two-year run of teammate Lou Williams — who finished third — and gave the Clippers four winners in the last five years. Harrell and Williams helped the Clippers have the league’s highest-scoring bench for the second straight season.Harrell received 58 first-place votes from a panel of 100 sports writers and broadcasters, earning 397 points. Dennis Schroder of Oklahoma City was second with 35 first-place votes and 328 points, while Williams got the other seven first-place votes and 127 points.The Clippers averaged 51.5 points from their bench, continuing to get strong play from their second unit. Before Williams' consecutive awards, Jamal Crawford won the last of his three awards in 2016.Harrell is a 6-foot-8 force of energy, outworking fellow big men on the boards and outracing them on fast breaks. He averaged a career-best 18.6 points in 63 games, including two starts, through March 11.Voting took account only games through that point and none during the restart. Harrell didn't play during that after leaving the team because of his grandmother's death, but returned to help the Clippers into the second round of the playoffs.

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. (AP) — The kids are having all kinds of fun at Walt Disney World.Donovan Mitchell, just 23 years old, opened the NBA playoffs with 57 points, third-most in history.Luka Doncic, only 21, scored 42, the best postseason debut the league had ever seen.They did everything but win.Numbers have been eye-popping all over the bubble, with individual players and sometimes entire teams pouring it on like never before. There’s no indication so far that’s going to change in the postseason. “In some ways I don’t know if it’s more competitive, but it’s competitive out there,” said Clippers coach Doc Rivers, whose team withstood Doncic’s debut to beat Dallas in Game 1.“I think because everyone in the bubble has confidence right now because they put the work in, so that’s what’s going to make it hard.”The thought was always that defenses tightened up come playoff time, with the pace of the game slowing down and more adjustments being made as teams familiarize themselves with an opponent... [More]

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The Los Angeles Clippers were resilient and dominant in the second half to put away the Los Angeles Lakers, using the NBA’s marquee Christmas game to show why the city and the Western Conference might belong to them this season. Kawhi Leonard scored 11 of his 35 points in the fourth quarter and had 12 rebounds and five assists to help the Clippers beat Lakers 111-106 on Wednesday night.The Clippers trailed by 12 points at halftime, by 15 in the third quarter, and by seven in the fourth quarter with 6:39 remaining, but they rallied to improve to 2-0 against the Lakers this season.“And we didn’t flinch,” Clippers coach Doc Rivers said. “Like, we just kind of hung in there. Almost felt like we were biding our time and just trying to make a run. That’s something you have to have when things aren’t going great for you. You just got to hang in there, and I thought we did that tonight.”Leonard set a franchise record for points on Christmas, and he became the 10th player in NBA... [More]

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Kawhi Leonard scored 11 of his 35 points in the fourth quarter and had 12 rebounds to help the Los Angeles Clippers beat the Los Angeles Lakers 111-106 on Wednesday night in the NBA’s marquee Christmas game.Montrezl Harrell had 18 points off the bench, Paul George added 17 and the Clippers improved to 2-0 against the Lakers this season.Kyle Kuzma led Los Angeles with 25 points. LeBron James had 23 points, 10 assists and nine rebounds, and Anthony David had 24 points. The Lakers have lost four straight games.Los Angeles had a chance to tie in the final seconds, but video review showed James touched the ball last after Patrick Beverly knocked it away as James went up for a 3. George hit two free throws for the final margin. Lou Williams made two free throws — after a questionable foul call against Davis for tapping the swingman after his transition layup rimmed out — to give the Clippers a 105-103 lead with 3:29 Leonard, who had a 3 to cap a 7-0 run and tie it at 101 with 5:14 remaining, then made four late free throws.TIP-INS Clippers: Williams had six points and seven rebounds. ... The Clippers had a 50-42 edge in rebounds.Lakers: The Lakers bench outscored the Clippers' backups 49-36. … James played in 14th Christmas Day game, second in NBA history to Kobe Bryant at 16.UP NEXTClippers: Host Utah on Saturday night.Lakers: At Portland on Saturday night.___More AP NBA: https://apnews.com/NBA and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Minnesota center Karl-Anthony Towns missed the Timberwolves' game Wednesday night against the New Orleans Pelicans because of a left knee sprain. Coach Ryan Saunders called Towns “day-to-day” with the injury. Minnesota hasn't played since a 124-117 loss to the Los Angeles Clippers on Dec. 13 when Towns had 39 points and 12 rebounds in 35:15. In the fourth quarter, Towns went down hard after a missed dunk attempt while being guarded by Montrezl Harrell.Towns leads the Timberwolves at 26.5 points and 11.7 rebounds per game this season. He missed two games this season after being suspended for a confrontation with Philadelphia's Joel Embiid.___More AP NBA: https://apnews.com/NBA and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Kawhi Leonard isn't healthy three weeks into the season, according to the NBA, which says that as a result the Los Angeles Clippers can rest their new superstar.He was on the bench against the visiting Milwaukee Bucks for a national TV game Wednesday night, the first half of a back-to-back for the Clippers. They host Portland on Thursday night, and coach Doc Rivers said Leonard would play."Kawhi Leonard is not a healthy player under the league's resting policy," NBA spokesman Mike Bass said in a statement Wednesday. "And, as such, is listed as managing a knee injury in the LA Clippers injury report. The league office, in consultation with the NBA's director of sports medicine is comfortable with the team medical staff's determination that Leonard is not sufficiently healthy to play in back-to-back games at this time."While not disputing the league's comments, Rivers also said Leonard "feels great.""But he feels great because of what we've been doing and we're just going... [More]

Preseason numbers often mean almost nothing. Rotations are unusual, starters rarely play much, and few if any teams are putting a premium on winning games.As such, it's tough to glean much from exhibition stats.But what the Boston Celtics and New Orleans rookie Zion Williamson — the No. 1 pick in this year's draft — have been doing so far in the preseason certainly stands out.The Celtics are 3-0 after beating Cleveland on Sunday — and have put together a huge run in all three of those games. The latest was a 50-17 spurt against the Cavaliers, a game that was close for most of the first quarter before Boston built what eventually became a 54-point lead.Boston's other big runs of note in this preseason were a 41-17 stretch last Sunday against Charlotte, and opening the game with a 29-4 burst at Orlando on Friday. On top of the 50-17 run against the Cavs, they added a 26-8 run in the fourth quarter as well.No matter who the Celtics have on the court, defense has been the constant. Boston is... [More]

Preseason numbers often mean almost nothing. Rotations are unusual, starters rarely play much, and few if any teams are putting a premium on winning games.As such, it's tough to glean much from exhibition stats.But what the Boston Celtics and New Orleans rookie Zion Williamson — the No. 1 pick in this year's draft — have been doing so far in the preseason certainly stands out.The Celtics are 3-0 after beating Cleveland on Sunday — and have put together a huge run in all three of those games. The latest was a 50-17 spurt against the Cavaliers, a game that was close for most of the first quarter before Boston built what eventually became a 54-point lead.Boston's other big runs of note in this preseason were a 41-17 stretch last Sunday against Charlotte, and opening the game with a 29-4 burst at Orlando on Friday. On top of the 50-17 run against the Cavs, they added a 26-8 run in the fourth quarter as well.No matter who the Celtics have on the court, defense has been the constant. Boston is... [More]

Preseason numbers often mean almost nothing. Rotations are unusual, starters rarely play much, and few if any teams are putting a premium on winning games.As such, it's tough to glean much from exhibition stats.But what the Boston Celtics and New Orleans rookie Zion Williamson — the No. 1 pick in this year's draft — have been doing so far in the preseason certainly stands out.The Celtics are 3-0 after beating Cleveland on Sunday — and have put together a huge run in all three of those games. The latest was a 50-17 spurt against the Cavaliers, a game that was close for most of the first quarter before Boston built what eventually became a 54-point lead.Boston's other big runs of note in this preseason were a 41-17 stretch last Sunday against Charlotte, and opening the game with a 29-4 burst at Orlando on Friday. On top of the 50-17 run against the Cavs, they added a 26-8 run in the fourth quarter as well.No matter who the Celtics have on the court, defense has been the constant. Boston is... [More]

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The Los Angeles Clippers overcame low expectations and a roster without any current or former All-Stars to win 48 games, make the playoffs and push the two-time defending champion Golden State Warriors to six games.Now they're ready to go shopping. A blockbuster list of free agents comes on the market this summer.The Clippers have depth and a cohesive bunch of players who fight to the finish — comeback wins of 31 points in Game 2 against Golden State, 28 points at Boston, 25 points at Detroit and 20 points at Charlotte — and that should help catch the eye of big-name talent.They went 48-34, extending a franchise record with their eighth consecutive winning season. Their 13-2 mark was the NBA's best in March."We did more than most thought we could," coach Doc Rivers said. "This is the start of something great here."After missing out last year, they returned to the playoffs for the seventh time in eight years. As an eighth seed, they lost in 4-2 in the first round to Golden... [More]

Golden State was looking ahead to facing Houston. At least, Klay Thompson acknowledged that was the case.Kevin Durant said he wasn't sure about that.And Stephen Curry flatly dismissed the notion.The Warriors weren't in sync for Game 5 of their Western Conference first-round series against the Los Angeles Clippers — and still weren't in sync afterward when asked if their minds drifted ahead to what would be a second-round date with Houston in a rematch of last season's West finals. And perhaps to the surprise of many, the Warriors-Clippers series is still chugging along.The Clippers will play host to Game 6 on Friday night, looking to knot the series at 3-3 and send it back to Oracle Arena for a winner-take-all Game 7 on Sunday. They staved off elimination with a 129-121 win on the Warriors' home floor in Game 5 on Wednesday."We're looking forward to going home," Clippers coach Doc Rivers said. "My guess is that probably not a lot of tickets sold because I don't think a lot of people thought... [More]

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — The stars have been stars in these playoffs.Kyrie Irving has Boston on the cusp of sweeping away Indiana Pacers. Kevin Durant, Stephen Curry and Golden State are coming off a game against the Los Angeles Clippers where the Warriors looked very much like the NBA champions again. Damian Lillard and Russell Westbrook are going at each other big-time in the Portland-Oklahoma City series.And then there's Pascal Siakam.Toronto's surprise story is no surprise anymore.Siakam has been perhaps the biggest breakout player in these playoffs, adding to his breakout season for the Raptors — who lead the Orlando Magic 2-1 in their first-round matchup thanks largely to the 25-year-old from Cameroon and his 24.3 points and 10 rebounds per game in the series.It's easy to forget that Siakam only started playing organized basketball seven years ago."Seriously?" Raptors guard Danny Green asked, unaware of his teammate's unique background.Seriously.Raptors coach Nick Nurse was amused by... [More]

The Golden State Warriors are trying to regain the lead in a series they probably still can't believe is tied.Same with the San Antonio Spurs, who like the Warriors know they are facing an opponent who won't stay down no matter how far they fall down.The Clippers' historic comeback against the Warriors, followed by Denver's potential season-saving surge against the Spurs, made that clear.So things are all even in those two Western Conference first-round series, which resume with a pair of Game 3s on Thursday night.Philadelphia and Brooklyn play the other Game 3 of the night in an East series that also is tied at a game apiece.Golden State would be up 2-0 if not for the Clippers' colossal comeback — or the Warriors' colossal collapse — on Monday night in Game 2. The Warriors led by 31 in the third quarter before Los Angeles charged back to win 135-131 after the biggest rally in NBA postseason history.The Warriors won Game 1 by 17, appeared headed toward an even easier win in Game 2, and... [More]

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Ralph Lawler called his 3,229th and last regular season game for the Los Angeles Clippers on Wednesday night.They even obliged his trademark Lawler's Law, which states the first team to 100 points wins.Montrezl Harrell's dunk gave the Clippers that many points near the end of the third quarter and they went on to beat the Utah Jazz 143-137 in overtime.The eighth-seeded Clippers open the playoffs this weekend against the defending champion Golden State Warriors.Lawler, who turns 81 on April 21, plans to end his 60-year broadcasting career whenever the Clippers are eliminated from the playoffs. He's handled their games for 40 years."I love you people," he told the crowd that gave him a standing ovation during a halftime ceremony.He noted many of them, including comedian Billy Crystal, have been coming since the Clippers played at the old Los Angeles Sports Arena in "the darkest days any franchise could have only imagined. God love you for still being here."The recently... [More]