Trail Blazers coach Chauncey Billups said Thursday that rookie Donovan Clingan is nearing a return from a mild left ankle sprain.

The Blazers guard looked strong in the first half against the Clippers but fizzled in the second half of a blowout loss.

The Clippers routed Portland a night after beating Brooklyn at home by a franchise ... a special relationship with Blazers coach Chauncey Billups during Billups’ first season as Portland ...

Norman Powell scores 23 points, James Harden adds 19 and the Clippers follow up their 59-point blowout win by holding Portland to 37% shooting in a 118-89 road win.

Norman Powell scores 23 points and James Harden finishes with 19 points to lead the Clippers to a dominant, 118-89 win over the Portland Trail Blazers.

Damian Lillard makes a return trip to Portland as the Milwaukee Bucks look to win two in a row tonight vs. the Trail Blazers.

But instead of those left behind reduced to flailing and failing, the Miami Heat put together one of their best character wins of the season, battling back from a 14-point fourth-quarter deficit

Opponents paint a portrait of one of the NBA’s up-and-coming defenders so convincing that they are open about wanting him on their team.

Scoot Henderson easily had the best four-game stretch of his young career. And the Blazers decided to bench him. A Sizzling Stretch Starting with a stellar 39-point performance against the Brooklyn Nets on Jan.

Carter’s family, his former Nets teammates, ex-coach Lawrence Frank, team president Rod Thorn and fellow Nets number retirees Julius Erving, Bill Melchionni and Buck Williams were on hand to see Carter become the seventh Nets player with his number retired.

In the 2009-10 NBA season, the Thunder jumped from 23 wins to 50 wins. OKC was built around 21-year-olds Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook, 23-year-old Jeff Green and 20-year-olds James Harden and Serge Ibaka.

I don’t know if he’s a point guard.” A Western Conference scout said those words to me last week as Scoot Henderson was in the midst of one of the most encouraging stretches of a young career that has mostly seen more lows than highs.