11:53 PM ET Dave McMenamin Close ESPN Staff Writer Lakers and NBA reporter for ESPN. Covered the Lakers and NBA for ESPNLosAngeles.com from 2009-14, the Cavaliers from 2014-18 for ESPN.com and the NBA for NBA.com from 2005-09. Ohm Youngmisuk Close ESPN Staff Writer Ohm Youngmisuk has covered the Giants, Jets and the NFL since 2006.

4:18 PM ET LOS ANGELES — Now that LeBron James‘ first season with the Los Angeles Lakers is over, the Lakers’ next step will be to hire a new head coach. The Lakers fired Luke Walton on Friday after the team finished a frustrating and disappointing 37-45 in a season that began with massive expectations

10:29 PM ET THESE ARE GOING to be anxious playoffs. There are stresses within the high-stakes games naturally, but there’s also another layer that is perhaps unique to this season. It’s the pressure of the aftermath and it will mount by the day, by the loss and, oddly in this unusual season, even by the

9:38 PM ET Orlando Magic forward Jonathan Isaac has cleared the NBA’s concussion protocol and will be available to play in the team’s playoff opener Saturday in Toronto, the team announced Thursday night. Isaac is believed to have been hurt on Orlando’s win Sunday against the Celtics. He was struck in the jaw and experienced

2:05 PM ET Associated Press CHICAGO — Chicago Bulls forward Lauri Markkanen has been cleared to resume full basketball activities after missing the final two weeks of the season because of a heart problem. The Bulls announced Thursday that he was cleared after examinations by cardiologists at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago and Johns

3:07 AM ET Playoff basketball is back! It has been a long regular season (177 days, to be exact), but the postseason has arrived, and it looks a lot different than it did a year ago. For the first time since 2010, a team not led by LeBron James will emerge from the Eastern Conference,

10:13 PM ET Dirk Nowitzki gazed at the floor as he limped through the tunnel and toward the American Airlines Center home locker room, his sore knee throbbing and thoughts swirling in his head that he might have just played his final playoff game after his Dallas Mavericks were on the wrong end of a

12:24 PM ET Duke Blue Devils guard RJ Barrett has made the decision to leave after his freshman season to enter the NBA draft, he announced Wednesday on social media. “It was amazing to play for Coach K, play for the brotherhood,” Barrett said in a video posted to Twitter and Instagram. “It was a

2:59 AM ET LOS ANGELES — Magic Johnson had the title he’d always wanted. He had the power to guide one of the most important franchises in sports, carte blanche. Anything he wanted to do as President of Basketball Operations for the Los Angeles Lakers, he had the power to do. Fire the coach. Trade

8:51 PM ET Tim BontempsESPN MIAMI — Dwyane Wade‘s final game at American Airlines Arena — and possibly the final game of his Hall of Fame career — started off with a bang. The Miami Heat, with whom Wade has spent 14-plus seasons of the 16 he has been in the league, honored Wade with