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Two losses in two games and Steve Nash is hurt. This is not how the Lakers wanted to start the regular season. After Portland overwhelmed the Lakers’ defense in the third quarter to take a 16-point lead, the Trail Blazers kept the Lakers at bay in the final quarter to comfortably secure the win Wednesday night at the Rose Garden in Portland, Ore.

Well, that's worked so far: James Harden scores 37 points, hands out 12 assists and grabs six rebounds in his first game for Houston as the Rockets down the Pistons 105-96.

Dwight Howard missed a two-handed dunk on his first shot, and the night never got much better for the Los Angeles Lakers. When Howard and Steve Nash took their places alongside Kobe Bryant and Pau Gasol under the Hollywood spotlight, the Lakers opened a season of enormous expectations with an equally big dud of a performance. Darren Collison scored 17 points, Brandan Wright added 14, and the Dallas Mavericks spoiled the Lakers debuts of Howard and Steve Nash with a 99-91 victory over Los Angeles on Tuesday night.

The Oklahoma City Thunder have traded Sixth Man of the Year James Harden to the Houston Rockets, breaking up the young core of the Western Conference champions.

Deputy Commissioner Adam Silver will replace Stern, who has been commissioner since February 1984.

Seven-time NBA All-Star Tracy McGrady says he is headed for China to play for the Qingdao DoubleStar Eagles in the Chinese Basketball Association. McGrady, 33, will be the highest-profile player in the CBA. Because he played with Chinese basketball star Yao Ming during their days with the Houston Rockets, he is well known in China, and his contract has been the top news on China's major sports news sites.

Dwight Howard has been cleared for limited five-on-five scrimmages with the Los Angeles Lakers in his latest step back from offseason surgery. Howard won't play in the Lakers' next preseason game Wednesday night against Portland in Ontario, Calif.

Stop the flop. The NBA will penalize floppers this season, fining players for repeated violations of an act a league official said Wednesday has "no place in our game."

In a continuation of the massive growth of sports programming options, the Southern California area will see the launch of not one, but two new regional sports networks through Time Warner Cable beginning today.

Miami Heat star Dwyane Wade says he felt numb as a child when he watched his mother inject herself with heroin. "My mom didn't know I had seen her shoot up," he said. Jolinda Wade managed to overcome her addiction. But her son's new book, "A Father First: How My Life Became Bigger Than Basketball," offers his perspective on her drug use for the first time.