Hoops News Blog

The youthful Atlanta Hawks are starting to grow up. Joe Johnson scored 24 points, Jamal Crawford had 18 and the Hawks pulled away in the fourth quarter for a 97-86 win over the Boston Celtics on Friday night. "We needed to beat a good team on the road for our confidence level," Atlanta coach Mike [...]

LaMarcus Aldridge had 20 points and 13 rebounds, helping Portland to an 86-78 victory over a New Orleans team on Friday night that lost Chris Paul to a sprained ankle while trying to adjust to new head coach Jeff Bower. The Hornets trailed for most of their first game since the firing of Byron Scott [...]

A little confrontation woke Dirk Nowitzki right up. Nowitzki scored 15 of his 20 points in a tense third quarter and also grabbed 11 rebounds to lead the Dallas Mavericks to a 89-77 victory over the Minnesota Timberwolves on Friday night. Nowitzki only had a quiet five points and five rebounds in the first half [...]

While coach Jerry Sloan was addressing the media, a giddy group of Utah Jazz players could be heard laughing in the adjacent locker room. They had plenty of reasons to be thrilled. Carlos Boozer had 24 points and 12 rebounds, Wesley Matthews added a career-high 16 points and the short-handed Utah Jazz ran past the [...]

Chris Paul had to be helped off the court by teammates after apparently injuring his left ankle late in the third quarter of the Hornets' home game against the Portland Trail Blazers on Friday night. Moments after setting up Hilton Armstrong's dunk, Paul appeared to land on Joel Przybilla's foot, before falling hard to the [...]

Stephen Jackson scored 23 points, three other players had 22, and the Golden State Warriors sent the New York Knicks to the worst 10-game start in franchise history with a 121-107 victory Friday night. Monta Ellis, Kelenna Azubuike and Corey Maggette all had 22 for the Warriors, who easily improved to 1-1 on a five-game [...]

Dwight Howard had 26 points and 12 rebounds and Matt Barnes added 13 points and 13 rebounds and the Orlando Magic put away the winless New Jersey Nets 88-72 on Friday night. New Jersey got a triple-double from point guard Rafer Alston, the first triple-double of his career, but the Nets fell to 0-9. They [...]

The Houston Rockets have assigned center Joey Dorsey to the team's developmental league partner and waived forward Pops Mensah-Bonsu on Friday. The 6-foot-8 Dorsey, who has not appeared in a game with the Rockets this season, will join the Rio Grande Valley Vipers. The Rockets took over basketball operations of the Vipers in June.

Tim Duncan and Tony Parker appear closer to returning to the San Antonio Spurs after missing two games with ankle injuries. Parker and Duncan practiced Friday and were listed as questionable for Saturday's game against Oklahoma City. Neither has played since hurting their left ankles in a loss last week at Portland.

Don Nelson planned to be retired now, not running what he calls "a very difficult team to coach so far." Seems it's still getting harder. The San Francisco Chronicle reported that Nelson stormed out of practice Thursday after a dispute with guard Monta Ellis, the latest headache for the NBA's most dysfunctional team.