TAMPA, Fla. -- A determination has not been made as to whether Tampa Bay Buccaneers star pass-rusher Jason Pierre-Paul will need neck surgery, but coach Bruce Arians says the best-case scenario would be that the defensive end is out five to six months.

"I think [the evaluation] is still ongoing, and like [GM] Jason [Licht] said, we've got our fingers crossed and praying for him," Arians said, speaking for the first time since Pierre-Paul was involved in single-car crash in Broward County last week.

Sources told ESPN's Adam Schefter that Pierre-Paul suffered a fractured neck, which could force him to miss the season. Last year, Pierre-Paul led the team with 12.5 sacks, becoming the first Buccaneers player to reach double-digit sacks since 2005.

"[It's] very unfortunate," Arians said. "All we can do is just pray and hope for the best and hope it's one of those five- or six-month things and go from there."

On May 2 at 2:35 a.m., Pierre-Paul and a passenger, James Harold Thompson, were traveling southbound on Interstate 95 when Pierre-Paul lost control of his Ferrari and veered off the roadway to the left, colliding with a concrete barrier.

Pierre-Paul was not given a citation. The Florida Highway Patrol told ESPN that they did not deem that he was distracted, nor did they suspect impairment, which is why a field sobriety test wasn't conducted.

The official crash report states that slippery road conditions and rain contributed to the crash. Both men were transported to Broward Health Medical Center with injuries deemed "non-incapacitating," according to the official crash report.

Arians said he talked to Pierre-Paul after the accident.

"[I told him] he has my prayers and just stay positive," Arians said.

As for how they will replace Pierre-Paul, Arians said, "I don't know what the answer is yet, if he's gonna play, if he's not gonna play. [You] just practice with the guys you have, just like if anybody else gets hurt, on the field or off the field. You march on."

Before his right calf injury on Wednesday, Kevin Durant wasn't just leading the Golden State Warriors in scoring, he was the leading scorer in the entire NBA playoffs. As the Warriors face the Houston Rockets on the road in Game 6 (Friday, 9 p.m. ET on ESPN) without KD, how they replace his incredible 34.2 points per game this postseason is the biggest immediate question.

Can Golden State find new, reliable ways to score? In a series in which all five games have been decided by six or fewer points, the answer to that question may determine who makes it to the Western Conference finals. Points are the ultimate currency in these games, and Durant has scored a whopping 29 percent of the Warriors' points this postseason.

His shot chart leaves little doubt that he's one of the best scorers in the world, but he's also by far the Warriors' most proficient 2-point threat. Durant has made 90 2-pointers in the playoffs; Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson have combined to make 91.

Still, if there's one team that can absorb his loss, it's the superteam from Oakland. Any conversation about replacing KD has to hit on three key elements: scoring, depth and defense.

All eyes will be on Curry -- the two-time MVP and greatest shooter known to man -- to ignite the offense. His usage rate this postseason is 25.2 percent, lower than that of Pascal Siakam. Curry is averaging 23.5 PPG. He has to take charge, and both his usage and his scoring have to surge.

That won't be easy. Curry has never averaged more than 28.3 PPG in the playoffs, so it's unreasonable to expect him to replace more than a fraction of Durant's scoring load, particularly in a world where Houston can now assign a lot more defensive attention to slowing down his splashy ways.

From Houston's perspective, Durant's absence frees up the defensive resources of PJ Tucker. Per Second Spectrum tracking, Tucker has matched up against Durant more than twice as often as any other Houston defender in this series. With Durant sidelined, Tucker will likely spend more time hounding Curry and Draymond Green.

Tucker has a way of reducing the effectiveness of both of those dudes. Each of the two Warriors has exhibited downticks in usage, shooting efficiency and scoring when being defended by him over the past two seasons.

Replacing KD's 34 points per contest is a massive task, and it's going to be a team effort. Curry and Thompson must be on the front lines of that push. They both scored 25 or more points apiece for the first time this postseason in Game 5, which is encouraging. It's also a good barometer to watch: The Dubs have gone 9-3 during their playoff appearances when both Splash Brothers drop at least 25.

But it's not just about the scoring.

No Warrior has played more minutes this postseason than Durant, and given the fact that this team was already dangerously thin following the DeMarcus Cousins injury, depth is a major concern here. Head coach Steve Kerr has a total of 240 minutes to distribute among his team in Game 6. Thus far, Durant has chewed up 16 percent of that time. Where will those minutes go?

In the Houston series, Kerr has largely relied on an eight-man rotation that includes the Hamptons 5, Shaun Livingston, Kevon Looney and Alfonzo McKinnie. But after KD went down in Game 5, Jonas Jerebko cracked the rotation, and Looney played nine of the game's final 14 minutes. These fellas are fine players. But not only do they represent a huge step down on the offensive end, they're a downgrade on defense as well.

The most underrated component of Durant's game is his ability to deter buckets. He has turned into an awesome defensive piece for Golden State. The same combination of smarts, skills and length that makes him a terrifying scorer also makes him versatile and effective on defense.

Per Second Spectrum tracking, he spent more than 75 percent of his time defending Tucker, Eric Gordon, James Harden and Chris Paul in this series. Those just happen to be Houston's top four scorers against the Warriors. The loss of Durant the defender means the Rockets can hunt for better matchups for their top scorers.

Durant's replacements have to step up on defense as well as offense, and dudes like Jerebko and Looney don't scare anyone on that end.

Although Andre Iguodala does the lion's share of the work defending Harden, Durant has arguably done the best work while matching up with Harden over 10 times per game this series.

Check this out:

Durant is one of the best two-way players in the world right now, which means his effectiveness is virtually impossible to completely replace. But if anyone can do it, it's the defending champs.

They have found ways to win through injuries in the past. One of the perks of being a superteam is that the proverbial next men up are named Curry and Thompson.

The Los Angeles Lakers will interview former Memphis Grizzlies coach J.B. Bickerstaff for their head-coaching position Friday, a source confirmed to ESPN.

The Lakers have been regrouping since Wednesday's breakdown with head-coaching candidate Tyronn Lue. Bickerstaff will become the sixth candidate to interview for the Lakers' vacancy created by Luke Walton's departure last month, joining Monty Williams, Juwan Howard, Jason Kidd, Lue and Frank Vogel.

Bickerstaff was fired as Grizzlies coach in April. He had just finished his first full season on the job after taking over as interim coach in the 2017-18 season.

The 40-year-old Bickerstaff was 48-97 in two seasons with the Grizzlies, never making the playoffs. His only other NBA head-coaching experience was as interim in Houston in 2015-16, when he went 37-34.

The Lakers' interview process is expected to include controlling owner Jeanie Buss, general manager Rob Pelinka, team adviser Kurt Rambis, director of special projects Linda Rambis and chief operating officer Tim Harris, as well as Lakers co-owners Joey Buss (president of the organization's G League affiliate) and Jesse Buss (the Lakers' director of scouting).

The Los Angeles Times first reported the Lakers' scheduled interviews with Vogel and Bickerstaff.

Information from ESPN's Dave McMenamin and Adrian Wojnarowski was used in this report.

PHILADELPHIA -- Sixers center Joel Embiid's flagrant foul from the final minutes of the Philadelphia's Game 6 win over the Toronto Raptors Thursday night will not be rescinded, league sources told ESPN.

The play, which occurred late in the fourth quarter when Embiid's hand hit Raptors center Marc Gasol in the face when the two were jostling for a rebound of a free throw, earned Embiid his third flagrant foul point of these playoffs.

"I mean's its annoying, it's stupid," Embiid said after Thursday's game. "I feel like the one in Brooklyn should be rescinded and tonight, it's just basketball. I didn't mean to do it. I just happen to hit him in the face I guess and didn't mean to do it.

"It just happened. A lot of things like that happen. I got hit in the face in the first half by Pascal [Siakam] but kind of like the same situation that wasn't a flagrant. I saw the video of it I mean it doesn't look that bad. ...It's tough. I guess I get one more and I'm gone for one game. So I got to look out for it, but that's definitely, this one and in the one in Brooklyn that I feel like I didn't deserve."

Embiid picked up flagrant one fouls in both Game 2 and Game 4 of Philadelphia's first round victory over the Brooklyn Nets -- both times for hitting Nets center Jarrett Allen. In Game 2, he elbowed Allen in the head executing a post move. In Game 4, he fouled him on an attempted layup, which led to an on-court skirmish that resulted in the ejections of Sixers star Jimmy Butler and Nets forward Jared Dudley.

The global 4x100m gold medallist wants to put down a marker at this weekend’s IAAF World Relays

CJ Ujah might be using this weekend’s IAAF World Relays as a chance to test his form, but he’s also very aware that it is an opportunity for the GB team to make a real mark at the start of another important season.

The event offers Ujah his first outdoor race of the year, where the main aim is just “to get my legs moving and see where I am with my training and how it’s all going”. But he adds: “The British boys want to put down a marker and hopefully qualify for the Olympics.”

The 25-year-old Enfield & Haringey sprinter was Diamond League 100m champion in 2017, but 2018 was a learning curve as he experienced a false start in the World Indoors and then a fourth-place finish in the European Championships 100m before a relay win.

“2018 was a big learning year for me,” says the 2013 European junior champion. “I changed so much including basing myself in Arizona. It didn’t quite work out but I don’t have any regrets about trying it.

“As I look at 2019, I think the next three years are massive for me.

“I know what I can do in a world-class field as I approach 2019 and look ahead to 2020 and 2021.

“I have moved back to Loughborough to my old coach, Jonas Dodoo, who got me to where I am.”

While Ujah has clear ambitions in individual events, he is delighted to be part of the world champion sprint relay squad.

“We are quite a young squad and we’ve learnt a lot together,” says Ujah, who teamed up with Adam Gemili, Danny Talbot and Nethaneel Mitchell-Blake to win the world title in London in 2017.

“Some of us have grown up together, juniors into seniors. So we’re pretty close and get on well together and we learnt from the years that we didn’t do so well. I don’t think we would be where we are today without those years of learning.

“Sometimes you have to go a bit backwards to go forwards but we are definitely heading in the right direction, with no complacency and everyone doing what they need to do. It’s just about going out there and running your best race.”

As he talks about the relay squad, he is excited but recognises that none of the 2017 gold medallists can take their place for granted.

“That’s a fact but that’s what keeps the fire burning and makes us want to do better,” says Ujah, who is joined in Yokohama in the GB World Relays 4x100m squad by Gemili, Mitchell-Blake, Harry Aikines-Aryeetey, Sam Gordon and Richard Kilty.

“I know that if I’m not ready to go out there, others are. But I’m certainly in the mix and hoping each and every time to go on the track and compete for my country.

“They call us the golden generation of British sprinting and it is strong and competitive group, a great thing to be part of.”

This is his second time at the IAAF World Relays, having been in Bahamas in 2017, and he is hoping to do better.

“2017 didn’t go quite as well as we thought it would but then look what happened at the world championships that year,” he says. “This year we have a new face in the squad in Sam Gordon and he is fitting in really well.”

On this year’s event, he adds: “I’m sorry we haven’t entered a team in the 4x200m and I hope we will in the future because we’ve got the strength in depth for two squads.

“So I’d like to see us in the 4x100m and the 4x200m, having a bit of fun and taking some of the pressure off ourselves, because I think that if we take the pressure off and have fun with it we always surprise ourselves with our performance.”

Simona Halep continued her bid to regain the world number one ranking by beating Switzerland's Belinda Bencic to reach the Madrid Open final.

The world number three overcame a second-set fightback from 18th-ranked Bencic to win 6-2 6-7 (2-7) 6-0.

Romania's Halep, 27, will overtake Naomi Osaka at the top of the rankings if she wins the title.

She will play either Kiki Bertens or Sloane Stephens - who she beat in last year's French Open final - on Saturday.

Halep has reached the Madrid final four times in her career and won the title in 2016 and 2017.

Bencic, who beat Japan's Osaka in the quarter-finals, had won her past two meetings against Halep.

However, Halep, who describes clay as her favourite surface, was dominant in the final set.

Dominic Thiem saved match points to end Roger Federer's clay-court return and reach the Madrid Open semi-finals.

Swiss Federer saved match points in his quarter-final on Thursday but squandered two of his own in the second-set tie-break against Thiem.

Austria's Thiem eventually came through 3-6 7-6 (13-11) 6-4 to set up a meeting with world number one Novak Djokovic.

Fifth seed Thiem previously beat 20-time Grand Slam champion Federer in the Indian Wells final in March.

Fourth seed Federer, 37, was playing in his first clay-court tournament for three years.

Thiem, a predominantly clay-court player who lost to Rafael Nadal in last year's French Open final, recovered from a slow start against Federer.

He created five break points on the Federer serve in the second set, but the Swiss held to force an eventual tie-break.

Federer had match point at 8-7 and 10-9 in the tie-break but Thiem saved them both and won four of the final five points to ensure a deciding set.

Thiem broke Federer early and went on to serve out the match at the second attempt.

He will play Djokovic on Saturday after the Serb received a walkover to the semi-finals.

Djokovic had been set to face Marin Cilic but the Croat pulled out after suffering with food poisoning.