Mavs’ Porzingis held out of Game 4; Doncic starts

Royce Young ESPN Staff Writer Close Covers the Oklahoma City Thunder for ESPN.com Follow on Twitter It started with a party. With the grand opening of the Jones Assembly, a chic music bar in a hip, developing area and a new symbol of cultural and civic evolution in Oklahoma City, the Thunder said hello

Back in 2013, Kevin Durant was a 24-year-old scoring machine who had just finished another All-Star season for a 60-win Thunder team. Oklahoma City entered the playoffs as the No. 1 seed in the Western Conference, looking to avenge a 4-1 series loss in the previous year’s NBA Finals to LeBron James

The mother of Dwight Howard’s 6-year-old son died nearly six weeks ago due to an epileptic seizure, the Los Angeles Lakers center says. Although Howard has spent the NBA’s hiatus dealing with the difficult task of explaining Melissa Rios’ death to their son, he is also grateful for the chance to heal from the loss without the daily grind of the NBA schedule. ”It’s been one of the toughest things I’ve ever had to deal with,” Howard said.