INGLEWOOD, Calif. (AP) — James Harden sat out for the Los Angeles Clippers against the Golden State Warriors on Monday night.
The 36-year-old guard had stiffness in his right shoulder and went through warmups before being ruled out. It's just the third game he has missed this season.
Harden is averaging 25.7 points — his most since 2019-20 when he led the NBA in scoring. He's seventh in the league with 8.0 assists per game and tied for 10th in minutes with 35.4.
Harden played major minutes when Kawhi Leonard missed 10 games in November with a sprained ankle and foot.
“I think definitely, just body fatigue, all the things he had to do as far as carrying the offense when Kawhi was out,” coach Tyronn Lue said before the game. “We didn't really have a secondary scorer. He had to do a lot for us.”
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Boston Celtics guard Derrick White, left, guard Jordan Walsh, right and Los Angeles Clippers guard James Harden, second from left, reach for a loose ball during the first half of an NBA basketball game Saturday, Jan. 3, 2026, in Inglewood, Calif. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)
TOKYO (AP) — Japan's nuclear watchdog said Wednesday it is scrapping the safety screening for two reactors at the Hamaoka nuclear power plant in central Japan after the plant's operator was found to have fabricated data about earthquake risks, in a setback to Japan's attempts to accelerate reactor restarts to boost nuclear energy use.
Chubu Electric Power Co. had applied for safety screening to resume operations at the No. 3 and 4 reactors at the Hamaoka nuclear power plant in 2014 and 2015. Two other reactors at the plant are being decommissioned, and a fifth is idle.
The plant, about 200 kilometers (125 miles) west of Tokyo, is located on a coastal area known for potential risks from so-called Nankai Trough megaquakes.
The Nuclear Regulation Authority said it started an internal investigation in February after receiving a tip from a whistleblower that the utility had for years provided fabricated data that underestimated potential seismic risks.
The regulator suspended the screening for the reactors after it confirmed the falsification and the utility acknowledged the fabrication in mid-December, said Shinsuke Yamanaka, the watchdog's chair. The NRA is also considering inspecting the utility headquarters.
“Ensuring safety is the first and foremost responsibility for nuclear plant operators and (data fabrication) is an act of betrayal to their task and one that destroys nuclear safety," Yamanaka said.
The scandal surfaced Monday when Chubu Electric President Kingo Hayashi acknowledged that workers at the utility used inappropriate seismic data with an alleged intention to underestimate seismic risks and apologized. He pledged to establish an independent panel for investigation.
The screening, including data that had been approved earlier, would have to start from scratch or possibly be rejected entirely, Yamanaka said.
The move is a setback at a time Japan's government seeks to accelerate reactor restarts to cope with rising energy costs and pressure to reduce carbon emissions.
Public opinion in Japan remains divided due to lingering safety concerns after the 2011 Fukushima Daiichi meltdowns.
Of Japan's 57 commercial reactors, 13 are currently in operation, 20 are offline and 24 others are being decommissioned, according to NRA.
This aerial photo shows Hamaoka nuclear power plant, owned by the Cubu Electric Power Co., in Omaezaki, central Japan, March 26, 2025. (Minoru Iwasaki/Kyodo News via AP)
