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Los Angeles Lakers star Anthony Davis won't play Sunday against the Washington Wizards because of a foot injury, The Athletic's Shams Charania says.

ESPN's Dave McMenamin reported Davis is expected to undergo an MRI on the injury.

Davis appeared to suffer an injury to his foot in the first quarter of the game when his leg collided with Nuggets star Nikola Jokic. He didn't return to the game after halftime, finishing with 10 points in 17 minutes as the Lakers went on to win 126-108.

Davis has missed time with flu-like symptoms, lower back tightness and a left calf contusion this season, and injuries are nothing new for the future Hall of Famer. He appeared in just 40 games last season and 36 in 2020-21.

In fact, the 29-year-old has never played more than 75 games in a season and has reached the 70-game mark just twice since he entered the league as the No. 1 overall pick in the 2012 NBA draft.

That hasn't stopped him from building a resume that includes a championship, four All-NBA selections, eight All-Star nods, three block titles and a spot on the NBA 75th Anniversary Team.

The Kentucky product's individual brilliance is one reason there is still hope in Los Angeles despite a slow start to the season, and he is averaging 27.4 points, 12.1 rebounds, 2.6 assists, 2.1 blocks and 1.3 steals per game.

While the Lakers can't realistically expect to replicate Davis' production while he is sidelined, look for Thomas Bryant to see more playing time.

The Philadelphia 76ers won their fourth straight game with a 118-106 victory over the Stephen Curry-less Golden State Warriors on Friday at Wells Fargo Center.

Jordan Poole's 29-point night wasn't enough for the Warriors as the duo of Joel Embiid and James Harden took over down the stretch.

Embiid finished with 34 points, 13 rebounds, four assists, four steals and two blocks in 36 minutes. He made 11-of-23 shots from the floor and 2-of-3 shots from deep. It was his sixth straight game with 30-plus points.

Harden, meanwhile, finished with 27 points, nine assists and five rebounds in 37 minutes, making 8-of-15 shots from the floor and 4-of-8 shots from behind the arc.

NBA Twitter was quick to praise the veteran big man for his performance against the reigning champions:

https://twitter.com/yoda/status/1603940747585150977

Really nice dynamic between Embiid and Harden tonight. Kuminga took Harden to try to contain the ball, and Harden quickly tossed ball-handling duties to Embiid, who has taken the rock down the floor himself the last few trips and gotten the Sixers good looks.

— Austin Krell (@NBAKrell) December 17, 2022

Joel Embiid been making 30, 10 & 5 look like a walk in the park this season. He playing at a ridiculous level right now

— kingtisemedia (@kingtisemedia) December 17, 2022

Embiid proved tonight why he is the front runner for MVP against the defending champs✅

Wasn't even close.

— Matt Downs (@cmattdowns) December 17, 2022

Love Embiid. Top 5 in the NBA right now.

— Nick (@Jironick_) December 17, 2022

James Harden and Joel Embiid are very good at basketball

— Deric (@somewhatderic) December 17, 2022

https://twitter.com/chessyfan_19/status/1603939813282963458

@JoelEmbiid MVP!

— Joe Dorsey Jr. (@JoeDorseyJr) December 17, 2022

https://twitter.com/GibblerJames/status/1603938207690899458

https://twitter.com/yoda/status/1603947908671442950

When Embiid plays this well, the Sixers can compete with any team in the NBA. Come the end of the season, the big man might very well be MVP for the first time after finishing second to Nikola Jokić in 2021-22.

The Sixers moved to 16-12 with the win. They'll be back in action at home Monday against the Toronto Raptors.

If the Los Angeles Lakers are going to make a trade, it's not going to be until the end of December at the earliest, according to The Athletic's Jovan Buha.

However, Buha added that the Purple and Gold "have an urgency to get a deal done sooner than later," but they are "at the mercy of the trade cycle and the other teams' developing motives."

The Lakers have been one of the worst teams in the Western Conference this season, entering Friday's game against the Denver Nuggets with an 11-16 record. Having to fill out their roster with players on veteran minimum deals has really hurt their chances of capitalizing on having both LeBron James and Anthony Davis in L.A.

While the Lakers are looking to bring in some players, everyone aside from James and Davis is likely on the trade block. Buha lists Russell Westbrook, Patrick Beverley and Kendrick Nunn as the names that stand out.

The Lakers have long expressed interest in trading Westbrook since he turned in a subpar performance in 2021-22. However, The Athletic's Shams Charania reported Thursday that Westbrook's improvement throughout the month of December "has made it increasingly unlikely that he will be traded before the league's Feb. 9 deadline."

The 34-year-old became L.A.'s sixth man in late October, and he has averaged 15.2 points, 7.9 assists and 5.8 rebounds since then. Additionally, he's averaging 28.2 minutes per game.

It's not surprising that the Lakers could be interested in moving Beverley and Nunn as both players have been disappointing this year.

Beverley, who was acquired in a trade from the Minnesota Timberwolves, is averaging 4.6 points, 3.7 rebounds and 2.4 assists in 21 games while shooting 30.3 percent from the floor and 25.4 percent from deep.

Nunn, meanwhile, is averaging 5.3 points, 1.2 rebounds and 1.1 assists in 23 games while shooting 35.9 percent from the floor and 27.7 percent from deep.

In terms of players the Lakers might be interested in bringing in, they have been linked to Bojan Bogdanović, Evan Fournier, Cam Reddish, DeMar DeRozan, Kyle Kuzma, Myles Turner, Buddy Hield, Kyrie Irving and Doug McDermott, per Buha.

The Purple and Gold would also have interest in Kevin Durant, Damian Lillard and Bradley Beal if they were made available.

In any circumstance, the Lakers need to decide whether they would be open to parting with their 2027 and 2029 first-round draft picks. If they make those selections available, the return would be more significant.

The NBA announced it fined the Miami Heat $25,000 for breaking league rules.

Miami was punished "for violating league injury reporting rules. The Heat failed to disclose an accurate game availability status for several players prior to its game vs. Oklahoma City on Dec. 14 at Paycom Center."

Despite the fine, Miami won Wednesday's contest against the Thunder thanks to Tyler Herro's heroics.

He drilled the go-ahead jumper with five seconds remaining of the 110-108 win and finished with 35 points behind a blistering 9-of-17 shooting from deep. Miami hit 24 three-pointers as a team, which proved to be the difference.

Herro was one of six players on the Heat to score in double figures, and Bam Adebayo posted a double-double of 15 points and 13 boards.

Miami didn't have Jimmy Butler or Gabe Vincent in the win.

The Heat have won three in a row after an abysmal 12-15 start to the season, which has propelled them into eighth place in the Eastern Conference standings. They are also closing the gap on some of the top contenders and are just 3.5 games behind the third-seeded Cleveland Cavaliers.

Miami is surely in NBA-Finals-or-bust mode after reaching the Eastern Conference Finals in two of the last three seasons. It reached the 2020 NBA Finals inside the Walt Disney World Resort bubble, although it fell short against the Los Angeles Lakers.

Next up for the Heat is a Saturday showdown with the San Antonio Spurs.

Draymond Green owes plenty to Stephen Curry seeing how the all-time great guard has helped lead him to four championships, but one performance, in particular, stands out from the 2022 NBA Finals.

During an appearance on Throwing Bones for Uninterrupted, Green opened up about his own struggles at Boston's TD Garden and how Curry helped him break out of it.

"At Game 3, I was f--king rattled," Green said. "I heard everything you could possibly hear in that arena."

The Michigan State product noted fans in Boston called him the N-word on multiple occasions as he finished a Game 3 loss with just two points, four rebounds and three assists.

"I've been booed damn near in every arena in the NBA, that was a different thing," he said. "So going into Game 4 down 2-1, I'm just like I just need to come in here and stabilize myself. Shoutout to the GOAT Stephen Curry because in Game 4 I still wasn't myself, but I rallied enough to be better. And then he carried me."

Green had just two points on 1-of-7 shooting from the field in Game 4, although he impacted the contest in other ways with nine rebounds, eight assists and four steals.

Golden State also earned a 10-point win because Curry was brilliant with 43 points, 10 rebounds and four assists behind 14-of-26 shooting from the field and 7-of-14 shooting from deep. Green recognized that he would have been the target of plenty of criticism with another loss and was thankful for his teammate's clutch showing.

"His performance was all so I didn't get murdered," he said. "… If we would have lost, I would have gotten murdered."

It put Curry on track for the first NBA Finals MVP of his illustrious career.

The pairing has won four championships together and, along with Klay Thompson and head coach Steve Kerr, form the backbone of Golden State's modern-day dynasty. Defeating the Celtics was quite the challenge, although Green settled in as the series continued.

He threatened a triple-double with 12 points, 12 rebounds, eight assists, two blocks and two steals in the closeout performance in Boston during Game 6.

But he certainly hasn't forgotten Curry's showing in Game 4.

Sacramento Kings head coach Mike Brown has been fined $25,000 for "aggressively pursuing and directing profane language toward a game official," during the team's Dec. 14 game against the Toronto Raptors, the NBA announced Friday.

The incident occurred during the third quarter of Sacramento's 124-123 win over Toronto. Brown was given two technical fouls and ejected from the game.

Brown was enraged after Terence Davis was called for a shooting foul and De'Aaron Fox was given a technical foul for arguing with an official during the third quarter of the game.

The 52-year-old then ran onto the court to confront the officials before players and coaches followed to hold him back. The Raptors were given five free throws as a result of Brown's two technical fouls, Fox's technical foul and Davis' shooting foul.

The entire ordeal could have cost Sacramento the game, but it rallied in the fourth quarter for the victory.

The Kings enter Friday's game against the Detroit Pistons sixth in the Western Conference with a 15-12 record. The team has seen significant improvement since finishing 12th in the conference last season with a 30-52 record.

Brown is in his first season as head coach of the Kings and is hoping to lead the team to a playoff appearance for the first time since 2006.

Before being hired by the Kings, he spent six seasons as an assistant on Steve Kerr's staff with the Golden State Warriors. He previously held various other roles across in the NBA, including serving as head coach of both the Cleveland Cavaliers and Los Angeles Lakers.

The New York Knicks have made the playoffs just once since the 2012-13 campaign when they reached the Eastern Conference semifinals, and they've been stuck in mediocrity since despite immense pressure to turn things around.

That type of pressure appears to be deterring some free agents from wanting to sign with the Knicks.

An agent told Brian Wacker of the New York Post:

"It's almost become a thing around the league; is there a sense of urgency or is it just like every other year? Guys like [playing] there, but at least when it comes to free agents, there's a lot of, is someone gonna come save the Knicks? That scares some guys off."

The Knicks are desperate to make a deep playoff run, which is something they haven't done since they reached the Eastern Conference Finals in 2000. They reached the NBA Finals in 1999 but fell to the San Antonio Spurs and haven't won a title since 1973.

While some free agents are reportedly hesitant to sign with the Knicks, the team did manage to land point guard Jalen Brunson in free agency ahead of the 2022-23 campaign. Of course, Brunson's father is an assistant on Tom Thibodeau's staff, but the former Dallas Maverick has spoken openly about not feeling overwhelmed.

"For one, it's not really pressure to me," Brunson told reporters in September of playing in New York. "I'm just going out there and playing basketball the way I've played for a long time. And two, I'm just going to be myself. I'm ready to go. Whatever it takes."

Additionally, if free agents are going to sign in New York, the Knicks are going to explore every available option on the trade market. In fact, Jake Fischer of Yahoo Sports reported Wednesday that the Knicks "have been described by league personnel as one of the more active teams in early trade conversations" this year.

As the franchise searches for upgrades to a roster that has underperformed this season, the Knicks have reportedly made Evan Fournier, Derrick Rose, Cam Reddish and Immanuel Quickley available.

It's unclear what type of return the team could get with those players. However, it has a surplus of draft capital over the next few drafts with nine total first-round picks in the next five drafts, which it could use to land top-tier talent.

If the Knicks are going to part with any of those picks, it must be for a player they believe can help change the trajectory of the franchise, otherwise it would be best to hold onto those picks to land some of the top players in the next several drafts and build for the future.

New York enters Friday's game against the Chicago Bulls sixth in the Eastern Conference with a 15-13 record. Things are trending upward for Thibodeau's squad, which has won five straight games.

James Harden is one of the best players of his generation, but he is missing a championship from his resume in part because of struggles during close-out games in the postseason.

He discussed the topic during an interview with Yaron Weitzman of Fox Sports.

"I've had a few bad games in close-out games. Not all of them have been bad," he said. "Quite frankly, a lot of the times our team wasn't good enough to compete for championships, if you want to be honest.

"There's only so much I can do."

There is no doubt the Philadelphia 76ers guard is a future Hall of Famer.

His list of accomplishments includes the 2017-18 MVP, three scoring titles, an assist title, seven All-NBA selections, 10 All-Star Game nods, a Sixth Man of the Year and a spot on the NBA's 75th Anniversary Team.

However, some of his contemporaries such as LeBron James, Kevin Durant, Stephen Curry, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Anthony Davis, Kawhi Leonard and others have incredible resumes that also include at least one championship.

The only time Harden even made the NBA Finals was during the 2011-12 campaign when he came off the bench for the Oklahoma City Thunder.

His Houston Rockets, Brooklyn Nets and Philadelphia 76ers teams, in which he had a much larger role, all fell short during the playoffs to this point.

Bleacher Report's Andy Bailey delved into some of Harden's close-out game struggles after he went an ugly 4-of-9 from the field and attempted a mere two shots after halftime when the 76ers were eliminated by the Miami Heat in the second round of last season's playoffs.

In addition to pointing out he has shot just 40 percent from the field and 25.3 percent from deep in the last nine elimination games, Bailey noted "some of his single-outing stinkers in that sample are hard to forget."

He was 2-of-11 from the field with 12 turnovers in a 2015 loss to the Golden State Warriors and also went 2-of-11 from the field two two years later in an elimination loss to the San Antonio Spurs when he was in Houston.

Perhaps he can change the narrative this season on a 76ers team that is sitting in fifth place in the Eastern Conference standings and will be in championship-or-bust mode with the Harden and Joel Embiid combination.

Unless he does, the close-out struggles will always be a part of his narrative.

While the Golden State Warriors will be without Stephen Curry for at least two weeks because of an injured left shoulder, the two-time NBA MVP was happy to learn he wouldn't need surgery.

Speaking to reporters Friday, Curry described feeling a sense of relief after an MRI determined surgery wasn't necessary.

"Surgery would've been 4-6 months," he said. "Nobody was trying to deal with that right now."

Per Shams Charania of The Athletic and Stadium, Curry will be reevaluated in two weeks after suffering a labral injury in his left shoulder.

The injury occurred in the third quarter of Golden State's 125-119 loss to the Indiana Pacers on Wednesday. Curry attempted to swipe the ball from Jalen Smith with his left hand, but he pulled his arm back and immediately grabbed his left shoulder.

Curry was on pace to have one of his best games of the season before the injury. He finished with 38 points, seven rebounds and seven assists in 30 minutes. The eight-time All-Star is tied for fifth in the NBA in scoring average (30.0 points per game) and is having a 50/40/90 season.

Losing Curry makes Golden State's attempt to climb up the Western Conference standings much more difficult. The defending NBA champions are 14-15 this season.

Jordan Poole, who has started each of the past six games, will likely see his playing time increase. The 23-year-old has been playing well, averaging 24.0 points on 44.3 percent shooting over his previous seven games.

Klay Thompson is also rounding into form after a slow start. He's making 44.2 percent of his three-point attempts in 10 starts since Nov. 20.

The Warriors could help offset the loss of Curry by improving on defense. They rank 15th in defensive rating (113.0) and 26th in points allowed per game (116.8).

Based on the two-week timeline, Curry will miss at least seven games. The earliest he could return is Dec. 30 for a home game against the Portland Trail Blazers.

James Harden's time with the Brooklyn Nets didn't last long, and one issue was his friction with Kevin Durant during the 2021-22 campaign.

"Harden and Durant, according to multiple Nets sources, butted heads during the season," Yaron Weitzman of Fox Sports reported. "Durant didn't think Harden was in peak physical shape, and told him as much."

Harden came to Brooklyn in January 2021, creating an exciting lineup of superstars alongside Durant and Kyrie Irving. In February 2022, Harden was shipped to the Philadelphia 76ers in a deal that brought back Ben Simmons.

Despite high expectations for the trio in Brooklyn, the team failed to reach their potential, reaching just the second round of the playoffs in 2021. The Nets finished as the seventh seed in the Eastern Conference last year after trading away Harden, eventually losing in the first round.

"The whole two years was a low point. I've never really had to deal with something like that," Harden said of his time in Brooklyn. "My body, mentally, physically … It was a lot going on. I mean, basketball is everything to me."

In addition to reported conflicts with Durant, Harden also had issues with the Nets training staff.

A hamstring injury kept the guard off the court during his final weeks with the team before being traded to Philadelphia.

Hamstring issues also cost Harden over a month in 2020-21 regular season. He later missed three playoff games as the Nets lost to the Milwaukee Bucks in seven games.

Despite his miserable time in Brooklyn, Harden remains close with Durant. The former teammates spent time together at Harden's 33rd birthday on a yacht.

"Me and him are cool," Harden said of Durant. "We went on a couple summer trips together."