NBA

1:44 AM ET A year ago, the hardest thing in front of LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers was resurrecting a storied franchise that had missed the playoffs six consecutive seasons. And at the time, that seemed like a pretty steep hill to climb. There was no way to know what awful events lay

12:59 AM ET Tim BontempsESPN LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. — After the Boston Celtics walked into the locker room at halftime of Game 5 of the Eastern Conference finals against the Miami Heat, having produced a second straight lackluster first half in a series they trailed 3-1, they knew something had to change. So, before

7:00 AM ET All four teams are still afloat in the NBA’s conference finals — and things just keep getting spicier. The Boston Celtics kept their season going by beating the Miami Heat in Friday’s Game 5 121-108. The Denver Nuggets, meanwhile, are hoping to make yet another improbable comeback from a 3-1 series deficit,

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

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 add yet another comeback victory to the Denver Nuggets’ dream postseason run, he was going to have to go through LeBron James to do so. With the Los Angeles Lakers clinging to a four-point lead with just more than five minutes remaining

1:40 AM ET After watching LeBron James go to the line 14 times and seeing Jamal Murray hit the floor a few times without a whistle late in Game 4, Denver Nuggets head coach Michael Malone said his team might do what the Los Angeles Lakers did and reach out to the NBA about fouls.

7:20 AM ET The Denver Nuggets can rally from the depths in an NBA playoff series because Jamal Murray and Nikola Jokic methodically problem-solve opposing defenses. Your preferred coverage of the Murray-Jokic pick-and-roll might set them on their heels for the first half of Game 1, but they soon adjust. They poke and prod, downloading

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

7:20 AM ET The first three games of the Eastern Conference finals between the Miami Heat and the Boston Celtics have given us enough comebacks, drama, coaching adjustments and big plays to live up to expectations and then some. So what comes next? We asked our NBA forecast panel to assess the series and look

6:49 AM ET A year ago, Jimmy Butler was changing teams for the third time in three years. He didn’t make the All-Star Game for the first time in four years, and he had developed a reputation as an irritant or a malcontent or a difficult teammate — or all three. These days, Joel Embiid

12:00 AM ET Just four minutes and thirty-eight seconds into the second quarter of Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals, Denver Nuggets star Nikola Jokic retreated to his team’s bench having committed his third foul of the game. That’s when the team knew their 7-foot passing savant was in trouble. Five-thousand miles away, Dejan

2:16 PM ET NBA commissioner Adam Silver says his “best guess” is that the league will not begin its next season until 2021, emphasizing that “the goal is to play a standard season.” Silver discussed the NBA’s plans for the 2020-21 season amid the coronavirus pandemic Tuesday as part of a wide-ranging interview with CNN.

6:57 AM ET Anthony Davis is used to individual success. The 2012 No. 1 overall pick is a seven-time All-Star and four-time All-NBA player. This season, he finished second in Defensive Player of the Year voting and sixth for MVP, while being named first-team All-NBA and first-team All-Defense. But the 2020 NBA playoffs in the

9:06 PM ET NASCAR driver Denny Hamlin and Michael Jordan announced Monday night that they will field a car for the 2021 Cup Series season. Their driver: Bubba Wallace. “Bubba has shown improvement since joining the Cup series, and we believe he’s ready to take his career to a higher level,” Hamlin wrote. Added Jordan:

7:00 AM ET ON THE FIRST floor of a gray, block-like, four-story structure on the campus’ northwest corner, a dozen students shuttle into a three-hour class taught once a week on Monday mornings. It’s the early fall of 2015, and inside Tolman Hall, the longtime home of the University of California at Berkeley’s Graduate School

3:37 AM ET LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. — After his shot dropped to beat the buzzer, win the game and lift the Los Angeles Lakers to just two wins away from their first NBA Finals appearance since 2010, Anthony Davis shouted out one word that said it all: “Kobe!” Davis’ 3-pointer from the left wing