Kristaps Porzingis

The highly rated French center scored 15 points in his first official game but the San Antonio Spurs fell to a 119-126 defeat by the Dallas Mavericks

The Frenchman with the San Antonio Spurs is big news in the League, but his team is far from playing at the level of the teams like Denver, Phoenix, Milwaukee, and especially Boston

Boston gave up two key pieces, point guard Malcolm Brogdon, the NBA’s reigning Sixth Man of the Year, and forward Robert Williams, and Portland gets two future first-round draft picks

Murray joins a long list of NBA players who considered playing in the World Cup but could not because of injury issues or other rest-related concerns

On Tuesday, Porzingis announced that he would not play for Latvia in the World Cup because of the issue

The deal comes on the heels of trades in which Washington agreed to send Bradley Beal to Phoenix and Kristaps Porzingis to Boston

The Wizards won despite the absence of Bradley Beal and Kyle Kuzma and pulled within 2 1/2 games of Chicago for the final play-in spot in the Eastern Conference

Neither team led by more than six before halftime. Denver opened up a 21-point lead after outscoring Washington 39-16 in the third quarter

Kristaps Porzingis scored 30 points for the Wizards, who lost for the sixth time in seven games

Washington (32-37) moved percentage points ahead of Chicago (31-36) for the final play-in spot in the Eastern Conference.