Official Release : 

Hourly employees at Barclays Center are the bedrock of the fan experience in the arena. Whether it's a big smile as fans enter the building or keeping the seats clean or making sure the concession stands are stocked with your favorite items, they are on the frontlines to make our fans feel special. They keep the lights on and the house clean, and they are the first ones to arrive and last ones to leave the building.

SALT LAKE CITY  -- The Utah Jazz announced Saturday that Rudy Gobert is donating more than $500,000 to support both the employee relief fund at Vivint Smart Home Arena and COVID-related social services relief in Utah, Oklahoma City and within the French health care system.

The Dallas Mavericks and Denver Nuggets tipped off in what could possibly be the last game in front of fans in the American Airlines Center and put on a dazzling shooting display. The Nuggets looked poised to jump out to a big lead up 27-21, but the Mavericks closed the quarter on a 12-2 scoring run and connected on 7-of-12 from behind the arc to take a 33-29 lead after one.

The Milwaukee Bucks let their backups have the game in this one with 60% of its normal starting lineup unavailable, and the Denver Nuggets played patty cake with them for three quarters before finally putting Milwaukee’s B Team away in the fourth, 109-95. Jamal Murray caught fire at the end of the third with a monster, poster-worthy dunk that was waived off and helped control the Bucks to start the fourth. Nikola Jokic, who had sleepwalked through the first 3 frames woke up for the fourth and finished off the win, while Denver got balanced contributions from Paul Millsap, Jerami Grant, Will Barton and Gary Harris. For a contender it wasn’t the beatdown it should have been, but the Nuggets did what they needed to and got out with a much-needed win.

Although this Raptors season has been characterized by team play, tonight’s game was defined by three individual performances. For three and a half quarters, the starting guards, Kyle Lowry and Norman Powell carried an offense that looked out of sync, bailing out the Raptors with stellar shotmaking. In crunch time, however, Pascal Siakam shook off a rough start to the game to close out the Kings with a dominant stretch to end the game, scoring 11 points in the final three minutes, leading to a 118-113 Raptors’ win.

Over the past five years no team has lost more games than the Phoenix Suns. They made zero playoff appearances, held zero all-stars, paid five head coaches, and, under one culturally pestilent owner, endured constant front office disruption.

Steph Curry’s NBA return for his first game since fracturing his hand in October was fun as hell, even though the Warriors lost, 121-113, to the Raptors at home. It took Curry until the second quarter to get rolling scoring the ball, but once he was on, he never let up.

The Houston Rockets defied convention at the trade deadline when they dealt away Clint Capela for Robert Covington, electing to permanently start a lineup without a traditional center. They’ve had substantial success since then, but the Clippers presented the toughest challenge to date: A team replete with big, physical wings to counter the Pocket Rockets.

While Zion Williamson’s 20-point game streak grows, New Orleans dropped the first leg of a back-to-back to the overhauled Minnesota Timberwolves at home Tuesday night.

With 23 games left in their regular season schedule, the Los Angeles Lakers have an opportunity to clinch a spot in the 2020 NBA playoffs as soon as Tuesday night. While they won’t know exactly where they’ll be seeded for a little while longer, they currently sit atop of the Western Conference — the same place they’ve been since the start of November — with a 5.5 game cushion over the No. 2 seed, the Denver Nuggets.