Sep 25, 2020 LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. — The Los Angeles Lakers are one win away from going to the NBA Finals for the first time since Kobe Bryant led them past the Boston Celtics a decade ago. As such, it was apt when, in describing how the Lakers are tempering their emotions in the

11:13 PM ET For the Boston Celtics, the first half of Game 5 of the Eastern Conference finals was a tractor pull. They shot 25 percent from the field in the first quarter. Coming off a simple pick-and-pop with Jayson Tatum, Kemba Walker sent the pass into the hands of assistant coach Scott Morrison on

7:20 AM ET When I first saw the series of passes that led to this Goran Dragic dagger in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference finals, two thoughts whipped through my brain: No. 1: Why are the Boston Celtics trapping Jimmy Butler on this pick-and-roll with Bam Adebayo? Boston closed with its center-less Best Five

6:51 AM ET DWYANE WADE SPENT just one season playing alongside Jimmy Butler in Chicago, but that was all that was needed to form a deep — and familiar — impression. “He’s a Heat guy,” Wade later told Erik Spoelstra, the coach of Wade’s longtime franchise, the Miami Heat. Spoelstra probably didn’t need the future

2:44 AM ET LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. — If Jamal Murray was going to add yet another comeback victory to the Denver Nuggets‘ dream postseason run, he was going to have to go through LeBron James. With the Los Angeles Lakers clinging to a four-point lead with just more than five minutes left in the

4:37 PM ET Tim BontempsESPN Toronto Raptors coach Nick Nurse won a championship in his first season as an NBA head coach. He won the league Coach of the Year award in his second. He will enter his third with a contract extension to keep him in Toronto for a long time. “I don’t know

12:57 AM ET Tim BontempsESPN LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. — The Boston Celtics needed to win Game 4 of the Eastern Conference finals to even this series at two games apiece. So why did they — and, in particular, Jayson Tatum — come out so flat in the first half, an effort that helped doom

12:37 AM ET The 2020 NBA playoffs have been a showcase of shocking comebacks, ungodly individual exploits, buzzer-beaters and beautiful team performances. But not every postseason game can be a work of art. Those instant classics linger in our memories, but every team that advances to the NBA Finals trudges its way through a bog

2:48 PM ET On Wednesday, a grand jury in Kentucky indicted officer Brett Hankison on three counts of wanton endangerment in the first degree in a shooting in March that killed Breonna Taylor. Two other Louisville Metro Police Department officers — Sgt. Jonathan Mattingly and officer Myles Cosgrove — also fired shots into Taylor’s apartment,

2:14 PM ET Associated Press LOS ANGELES — Vanessa Bryant, the widow of basketball star Kobe Bryant, has filed a lawsuit against the Los Angeles County sheriff, claiming deputies shared unauthorized photos of the crash that killed her husband, their 13-year-old daughter and seven others. After the Jan. 26 crash, reports surfaced that graphic photos