Assign variable in if condition statement, good practice or not?

I see no proof that it is not good practice. Yes, it may look like a mistake but that is easily remedied by judicious commenting. Take for instance:

if (x = processorIntensiveFunction()) { // declaration inside if intended
    alert(x);
}

Why should that function be allowed to run a 2nd time with:

alert(processorIntensiveFunction());

Because the first version LOOKS bad? I cannot agree with that logic.

I wouldn't recommend it. The problem is, it looks like a common error where you try to compare values, but use a single = instead of == or ===. For example, when you see this:

if (value = someFunction()) {
    ...
}

you don't know if that's what they meant to do, or if they intended to write this:

if (value == someFunction()) {
    ...
}

If you really want to do the assignment in place, I would recommend doing an explicit comparison as well:

if ((value = someFunction()) === <whatever truthy value you are expecting>) {
    ...
}