The Denver Nuggets secured a play-off berth for the first time in six years after a 114-105 win against the Boston Celtics.

Kemba Walker scored a career-high 60 points for the Charlotte Hornets but it still was not enough to top the Philadelphia 76ers on Saturday night.

The NBA starts again on Tuesday night with a high-profile doubleheader.

To watch LeBron James play basketball is to witness the qualities that distinguish the truly great player in every sport.

The assignment for Boston Celtics forward Marcus Morris in his first start this post-season was easy to explain but nearly impossible to execute: Guard LeBron James and keep the four-time NBA MVP from running the Celtics out of their own gym in the NBA’s Eastern Conference finals for the second year in a row.

Gods make their own importance

It didn’t take the hurlers of Dublin, Tipperary, Clare and Galway long to discover Boston’s list of priorities last Friday when they landed for the Fenway Classic Super 11s.

House of Pain have fond memories of playing in Ireland, despite spending time in the back of a garda van, writes Ed Power

LeBron James is edging closer towards the summit of the NBA all-time top scorers list with 27 points in the Cleveland Cavaliers' 114-84 win over the Miami Heat.

Last Wednesday night, assistant manager Jay Larranaga sat on the bench to watch his Boston Celtics beat the New Jersey Nets by three points in an NBA season-opener.

The Golden State Warriors' NBA play-off win over the Houston Rockets was overshadowed by another injury for reigning MVP Stephen Curry.

Petitioning for pizza cam to be a thing.

At an NBA play-off between the Atlanta Hawks and the Boston Celtics on Tuesday, the dreaded kiss cam made an appearance.

Between Mr Sepp ‘Steering The Ship’ Blatter (see elsewhere on this page), Mr Patrick ‘Golf Balls’ Neary (see the finance/comedy section) and Mr REDACTED REDACTED’REDACTED (see various legal eagles), it hasn’t been a great few days for prominent personages.

There’s little in sport as distasteful, as sly and scurrilous sledging, yet little as smile-inducing as a bit of witty in-game trash-talking either.

On Monday, the Boston Celtics were the surprising beneficiaries of one of the most generous systems in professional sport.

To cheer or to jeer, that is the question, writes Kieran Shannon.

Las Vegas will trump Croke Park as the venue for “The Notorious” Conor McGregor’s Ultimate Fighting Championship featherweight title showdown against Jose Aldo. 

TODAY 

Some say the logo is the ultimate expression of freedom. Melanie Rehak on how a $30bn firm got it for peanuts.

I only caught up with the Setanta Sports series about referees recently, and it was well worth the effort.

Maybe now he’ll make it onto the Good Wall.

Sometimes like in boxing there are matchups that the hurling public craves but doesn’t get.

You can observe a lot just by watching,” the quote machine that is Yoggi Berra offered and reading a book on and with Dennis Bergkamp in recent days, we’re guessing the Dutchman would agree.

The Atlanta Olympics brought a huge influx of Irish to that great southern city in 1996.

One of the signposts welcoming traffic to Brooklyn from Queens calls on those who pass by to “Believe the Hype”, paraphrasing that classic Public Enemy hip-hop track.

He’d won over the judges but Danny O’Connor’s face and entire demeanour seemed more like a swollen tribute to some sort of courageous defeat.

They have a phrase in American sport: “the Face of the Franchise”.

NBA player Jason Collins caused a stir in the US this week by becoming the sport’s first active player to come out as gay, writes John Riordan

When the members of the LA Lakers team that won the 1971-72 NBA title got together last year to reminisce about the good old days, one question dominated the event: would there ever be a season like theirs?

At the end of last year this column took up the cudgels again in the GAA statistics battle, invoking Jorge Luis Borges in an effort to stimulate the debate.

Michael Jordan turns 50 on Sunday and there couldn’t be a more appropriate day to do it.

Ger Noonan can’t believe it’s been that long.

ESPN has to be careful how it goes at the best of times.

Chris Brown has been spending time with Rihanna's family.

He’s now, if not fitter, richer and happier than when he played.

Until this season, the Los Angeles Kings ice hockey team were really only known for one saga: the infamous big-money acquisition of Wayne Gretzky, a move that shocked the sport and tore the heart out of a city and a country in the late 1980s.

Sprung from the bench, he destroyed the New Jersey Nets with 25 points and seven assists.

YOU could call it one of the great White Coat scenarios in all of sport.

PICK OF THE DAY

CHRISTMAS DAY is the jewel in the crown of the NBA season but this year it will bring with it a bigger gift than ever: basketball’s return from the brink.