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PHILADELPHIA -- With his dominant 52- point , 13-rebound performance in Philadelphia's 103-101 win over the Boston Celtics on Tuesday night, 76ers center Joel Embiid might have locked up the 2023 NBA MVP Award. His coach thinks so, at least.  "The MVP race is over," Doc Rivers said after the game. "Really. Like tonight, we couldn't make shots... The man just scored half of our points in an NBA game. And I'm biased, but the MVP race is over."  Rivers is likely correct, as no player from across the league's landscape has been as downright dominant as Embiid this season. But, while the game served as an exclamation point to Embiid's season-long case, it also raised a couple of legitimate concerns regarding Philadelphia's upcoming playoff push.  The way things have shaken out, it looks like the Celtics will finish at No. 2 in the Eastern Conference standings, while the Si...

Philadelphia 76ers big man Joel Embiid has been ruled out for Monday night's MVP showdown against Nikola Jokic and the Denver Nuggets, CBS Sports ' Bill Reiter confirmed. Embiid has been battling foot and calf issues in recent weeks, and he told reporters recently that he's going to need time off soon. He attempted to work out Monday morning, but the team is taking a cautious approach with the playoffs looming. Embiid recently sat out of the second half during his team's win over the Chicago Bulls on March 22 due to calf tightness. Then, following the team's blowout loss to the Phoenix Suns on Saturday, Embiid revealed the toll that his major workload is taking.  "I'm going to need one [game off] pretty soon," Embiid said. "It's two things. Like I said, it's all about [being healthy] for the playoffs. You know, like tonight, I was very sloppy. Usually when I'm s...

LeBron James is making his return from a right foot injury on Sunday against the Bulls, the Lakers announced less than an hour before tipoff. James has missed his team's past 13 games due to that foot injury, but tested it in pregame warmups and is good to go in the Sunday matinee in Los Angeles. However, James will not be part of the Lakers starting lineup. Instead, James will come off the bench for just the second time in his NBA career (1,414 regular season games) and the first time since 2007. The injury itself came in the middle of a Feb. 26 clash with the Dallas Mavericks. The Lakers trailed by as many as 27 points in the Game , but James played through the injury to help the Lakers complete the comeback. He finished that contest with 26 points, eight rebounds and three assists, but he has been sidelined ever since. LeBron just got out here for warmups 👀 pic.twitter.com/7nrSha0912 — Dani...

When LeBron James went down with an injury in late February, it all but spelled disaster for a Los Angeles Lakers team that was 29-32 at the time. However, in James' absence, the Lakers have managed to go 8-5, and have reached the .500 mark for the first time this season following a 116-111 nail-biting win over the visiting Oklahoma City Thunder Friday night. That's a huge accomplishment for a team that started the season 2-10. All of a sudden, the Lakers now sit in a tie for seventh place with the Minnesota Timberwolves, and are just 1.5 Game s back of the Golden State Warriors for the No. 6 spot in the Western Conference. Since the All-Star break, the Lakers have been playing with a renewed sense of energy, and it has resulted in a Lakers team that looks far different than the one we saw earlier this season that struggled to find consistency on offense.  After the Game , coach Darvin Ham spoke about h...

LeBron James is running out of time to return to the court. As of Sunday, the end of the regular season is only three weeks away, and yet it isn't clear when the injured Los Angeles Lakers star will be able to rejoin the team. Fortunately, coach Darvin Ham offered a positive update on his status ahead of Sunday's Game against the Orlando Magic: while he wouldn't specify an exact timeline, Ham did confirm that the Lakers "anticipate him coming back at some point." James suffered a foot injury on Feb. 26 against the Dallas Mavericks. He stayed on the floor to help the Lakers overcome a 27-point deficit to defeat the Mavericks, but he has not played for them since. While the exact nature of the injury is unclear, The Athletic's Shams Charania recently reported that the Lakers are preparing for a lengthy absence. All things considered, the Lakers have played quite well without James. Si...

There is still no show in sports that quite measures up to Stephen Curry on a heater. At 35 years old, the Warriors' superstar is as electric as ever, and he was at it again on Wednesday with 50 points against the Clippers.  Still, the Warriors lost 134-126 in Los Angeles, dropping their road record to an embarrassing 7-27. The Warriors have now lost nine straight on the road, where they are 0-21 when trailing after three quarters. Even writing those numbers, it's almost impossible to believe. And yet, here the Warriors are still clinging to the No. 6 seed in the Western Conference, one game up in the loss column 7-9 seeds. Not much room for error, but if that 6-seed were to hold for Golden State, it could actually be a blessing in disguise that they dropped this game to the Clippers.  As it stands, the Warriors would match up against the No.3 Grizzlies in the first round instead of the Suns. That said, Go...

Russell Westbrook is used to making statistical History , and on Saturday, he did so yet again as the Los Angeles Clippers faced the New York Knicks. In a close Game in the third quarter, Westbrook hit Paul George with a pass that turned into an easy layup. It was the third assist of the Game for the former MVP, but more importantly, it was the 9,060th assist of his NBA career. That moved him past Detroit Pistons icon Isiah Thomas for the ninth- most assist s in NBA History . Russell Westbrook has moved to 9th all-time in career assists 👏 Congrats, Russ! Watch live on the NBA App 📺: https://t.co/1pomQZMAZK pic.twitter.com/IWdI1QRXl9 — NBA (@NBA) March 11, 2023 The all-time assist s leaderboard is unusually cluttered in a few spots. Westbrook, at No. 9, is more than 800 assist s behind No. 8 Oscar Robertson. However, No. 5 Steve Nash leads Westbrook by less than 1,300 assist s...

The Atlanta Hawks have dismissed coach Nate McMillan, according to ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski. The Hawks are in the middle of a disappointing 29-30 season, which followed an underwhelming first-round playoff exit a season ago. Assistant coach Joe Prunty will take over as interim head coach , per ESPN. With this season seemingly going nowhere, the Hawks have made a move that will hopefully spark the team. The last time they made an in-season coach ing change, it did just that. The Hawks fired Lloyd Pierce in the middle of the 2020-21 season and replaced him with McMillan. They proceeded to reach the Eastern Conference Finals, which raised expectations moving forward and earned McMillan, initially hired on an interim basis, the permanent job. But McMillan's old-school sensibilities made him an odd fit in the modern NBA . He got into a dispute with star point guard Trae Young in the middle of the season when...

Zion Williamson is expected to miss several weeks after the All-Star break with a hamstring strain, New Orleans Pelicans vice president David Griffin told reporters Sunday. Williamson has been sidelined with a hamstring strain since January and was expected to be re-evaluated during the All-Star break. However, it appears his return will be a little bit further down the line after re-aggravating it.  Williamson was named an All-Star starter for the Feb. 19 Game due to his performance prior to the injury . But given he won't be available to participate, NBA commissioner Adam Silver announced that Domantas Sabonis will fill the starting role in the frontcourt in place of the Pelicans forward.  Williamson suffered a right hamstring strain during a Jan. 2 loss to the Philadelphia 76ers. He has been out ever since, and the Pelicans have struggled to stay afloat without him. They are 6-14 since he went down, and...

Philadelphia 76ers star Joel Embiid was promoted to a starter for the 2023 NBA All-Star Game just a few days ago but has now revealed that he may not participate in the event at all due to persistent foot soreness .  "We will see how it goes," Embiid said after putting up 35 points, 11 rebounds and six assists in the Sixers' 119-108 win over the New York Knicks on Friday night. "I got three games [before the All-Star Game]. So I'm just taking it day by day. So I'm just taking it day by day." Embiid has been dealing with foot problems all season. He has missed a combined 12 games due to plantar fasciitis, a foot sprain and, most recently, general foot soreness. That number may increase to 13 if Embiid sits out of the team's back-to-back on Saturday night against the Brooklyn Nets.  "I'll see," Embiid said about his status ...

LeBron James didn't do it with a sky hook, but the moment was still incredible: With a 15-foot fadeaway in the closing seconds of the third quarter, LeBron became the NBA 's all-time leading scorer on Tuesday.  It came in a loss to the Thunder, but for one night, even as the Lakers scrap for a postseason berth, nobody cared much about the outcome. LeBron finished with 38 points, two more than the 36 he needed, putting him at 38,890 for his career.  Sports are defined by number s. Rings. Points. Home runs. For 39 years, the amount of time that Kareem Abdul-Jabbar held the mark, the NBA 's all-time scoring record became arguably the most hallowed record in all of Sports . You can put the home run record up there. Wayne Gretzky's total points. Off the top of my head, I'm not sure what else. Just a remarkable achievement for a remarkable athlete.  Below...

The Dallas Mavericks may not have had much of a choice once they knew Sunday they could acquire Kyrie Irving in a trade with the Brooklyn Nets. But that doesn't mean they're immune from the same disastrous ending other teams have experienced after putting their faith in him. Irving is a player who, on paper, certainly surrounds Luka Doncic with the level of talent he needs to have a realistic shot at postseason glory. But in reality, Irving has often been a star whose skill and promise have led instead to drama, disappointment and ultimately failure. The guy can ball. This could  work. But it's been a long time since he's won anything of note. That was the sense around the NBA Sunday as news spread, and CBS Sports confirmed, that the mercurial Nets point guard was heading to the Mavericks for Spencer Dinwiddie, Dorian Finney-Smith, a first-round pick and several second-round picks. ...

The 2023 NBA trade deadline is Feb. 9 at 3 p.m. ET. This means that trade season is upon us. Already, there has been one notable swap -- the Los Angeles Lakers acquired forward Rui Hachimura from the Washington Wizards last week in exchange for three second-round picks and Kendrick Nunn. Next, the Lakers will probably trade LeBron James. Just kidding! He's not even eligible to be traded before the deadline, and you probably didn't even read that because you came here for the list of names. I could have said that the Lakers are heavily rumored to trade James, Anthony Davis and four of their championship banners for the copy machine that was once (sort of) traded for Kyle Korver, and it wouldn't matter one bit. Anyway, here are 55 trade candidates leading up to next week's deadline: What's going on in Utah? The Jazz hit reset last summer, and now they have a boatload of draft picks and flexibilit...