Category: NBA

HOUSTON — Kevin Durant’s first Houston Rockets season did not go as intended.

On Friday night at Toyota Center, while his teammates attempted to force a decisive Game 7 against the Los Angeles Lakers, Durant sat on the bench in street clothes with a sprained left ankle. He could only watch as the Lakers shifted into cruise control and the Rockets staggered toward the end of their season.

When the final buzzer sounded on the Lakers’ 98-78 win, the Rockets were right back where they were at the end of last season: exiting the playoffs in the first round.

In Houston’s locker room after the game, players exchanged hugs and gifted each other jerseys, relics of a season that failed to meet the raised expectations set when the Rockets traded last summer for Durant, who was injured for all but one playoff game against the Lakers.

The Rockets have suffered first-round playoff exits in back-to-back seasons, both in series where coach Ime Udoka said it felt like his team "got behind the eight ball."

Against the Lakers, who were missing Luka Doncic, the Rockets lost the first three games – two without Durant – but avoided elimination by winning the next two games to force the series back to Houston for Game 6. Friday’s blowout 20-point loss was the Rockets’ lowest-scoring game of the season and among the lowest-scoring playoff games in franchise history.

Udoka highlighted the growth of Houston’s young core, including the group that started the last three games of the series against the Lakers – Alperen Şengün, Amen Thompson, Reed Sheppard, Jabari Smith Jr. and Tari Eason – and said he was proud of his team’s resilience to battle back in the series. But he also acknowledged that change is necessary going forward.

"We do need to address some needs," Udoka said. "The lack of shooting at times, whether it’s a backup point guard or our young guys did enough this year to kind of run that with Fred (VanVleet) back. And so we’ll take a look at all those things, I think, and have some very interesting conversations on having a little bit of more of a mix instead of some duplicates out there."

The Rockets’ fate this season was accompanied by plenty of hypotheticals. What if Durant had been healthy in the playoffs? What if the Rockets had not lost VanVleet, their starting point guard, and center Steven Adams to injuries earlier in the season?

Şengün said none of those questions crossed his mind in the dying moments of Houston’s season.

"We cannot think about (that) stuff. Whoever is in the court, we fight with them," Şengün said. "Losing them, it wasn’t good, but you stay with it. The goal is always same: just fight, go to the end. We did it with the young guys, including myself in the young guys, too."

In the end, the Rockets’ main issues boiled down to offense. In the playoff series against the Lakers, Houston shot 46.2% from the field in its two wins and 38.6% in its four losses. The Game 3 loss was particularly excruciating, a last-minute meltdown that felt achingly familiar to anyone who watched the Rockets struggle throughout the season to execute at the end of games.

In Game 6, the Rockets didn’t grab offensive rebounds at their typical rate and reverted to bad habits that plagued them earlier in the season. When the Lakers switched, the Rockets failed to create advantages and became stagnant. The ball stuck. Isolation play prevailed.

"It’s a team thing. It’s not any blame to them (players) or myself," Udoka said. "It’s a little combination of both, no doubt, understanding what works for us, what’s worked well, and then not deviating from that. So on me to get them into the sets, on them to run them and do the things we worked on leading into the series."

Udoka reportedly signed a six-year contract extension last summer. Udoka said he and Rockets general manager Rafael Stone will sit down "ASAP" to discuss the roster.

The Rockets have eight players under contract for next season, including Durant, but the team has plenty of decisions to make this summer. Thompson is extension-eligible ahead of his fourth NBA season while Eason, who was drafted by the Rockets with the 17th overall pick in 2022, will become a restricted free agent this offseason.

"I was drafted here, I’ve grown up here, my family’s here," Eason said. "I love Houston. As far as everything else, God knows."

When the Rockets were eliminated by the Golden State Warriors in last season’s playoffs, it was clear that Houston lacked a go-to scorer to catalyze the offense. Durant was brought in to solve that problem. This season, it’s not as easy to identify one main area of need, Smith said.

"I ain’t gonna say we need to make a trade or go out and get somebody, you know what I’m saying? I just think everything we need is in house," Smith said. "Everything that we need is on the bench, coaching us. Everything we need is on the bench behind us, coaching. I think we got it all, but it’s just on us to not have those mental lapses where we lose leads in the fourth quarter early in the season, where you have random three-game losses and stuff like that."

He continued, "I think maturity’s a big part of it but I think if everybody’s going into the offseason and do what they’ve been doing – that’s improving every year, get better, come back a little smarter, come back a little stronger, a little older – I think everything we need is in house right in front of us."

Whether the Rockets decide to run it back or go for a major change, the sting of how the season ended is sure to linger.

"Back-to-back first-round exits, it’s just – it’s rough," Thompson said. "It’s motivation, for sure. I feel like I’m going to be thinking about this all summer."

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: How a season built around Kevin Durant unraveled in the playoffs

HOUSTON — The Lakers did it.  

They clawed. They scrapped. They refused to give up. 

The team that was counted out reached the second round of the NBA playoffs after clinching its first-round series against the Rockets with a 98-78 win in Game 6 on Friday. 

What they went through over the last month transformed them, making them ready for their date with the reigning champion Thunder. 

Before everything went wrong for them, they had no chance. 

Now they do.

Game 6 was a huge test.

After the Lakers roared to a 3-0 series lead, the Rockets won the next two contests. Momentum had wildly swung. The Lakers had to win in Houston or else they’d face elimination. 

What was on the line?

Oh, just the Lakers’ reputation and LeBron James avoiding a dent on his legacy. No team in NBA history had ever blown a 3-0 series lead. 

How did they respond? 

The Lakers, who aren’t known as a great defensive team, held the Rockets to fewer than 80 points for just the 10th time in a playoff game since 2000. 

Deandre Ayton and Marcus Smart were bulldogs, preventing the Rockets’ scorers from getting hot. 

As for James, he wasn’t about to let the Lakers — or himself — free-fall into infamy. He met the moment with the perfect combination of poise and ferocity, single-handedly outscoring the Rockets in the second quarter, 14-13. 

As the Lakers huddled after the game, everyone bleated to honor him as the greatest player of all time (the GOAT). The 41-year-old James had just led all scorers for the fourth time this series, finishing with 28 points, seven rebounds and eight assists. 

“It speaks to his greatness,” Lakers coach JJ Redick said. “To me, he’s had the greatest career of any NBA player.”

It was the Lakers’ latest test amid a series of seemingly impossible quizzes that they’ve somehow aced over the last month. 

When the Lakers lost Luka Doncic (hamstring) and Austin Reaves (oblique) with five games remaining in the regular season, no one thought they had any chance in the playoffs. They were missing their leading scorers, who left a 60-point crater in their absence.  

But the Lakers have learned they’re so much deeper than they thought. 

James is still a superstar, ready and willing to be the first option. Luke Kennard’s talents extend far beyond the 3-point line. Ayton is capable of playing with force. Smart can look like the best defender in the league on any given night. Rui Hachimura and Jake LaRavia are capable of stepping up in big moments. 

For the Lakers, cutting off their two biggest limbs made the rest of their body grow stronger. 

It took a lot for this Lakers team to believe in itself. The negative noise was deafening. 

What they just accomplished is stunning. 

“It felt bleak,” Redick said. “… For us to be written off a few weeks ago and to win a playoff series is a big deal. And it just speaks to the character of our team and the leaders of our team. They didn’t let go of the rope.”

Now the Lakers may just be ready for the Thunder. It’s a crazy thought. But they’ve risen above the impossible. 

That can change a team. It can seed a belief that’s infectious. 

If Doncic returns in the second round of the playoffs, his teammates will no longer feel as though they live or die on his 40-point scoring flurries. 

Everyone in the rotation tapped into being the best version of themselves at various points this series. 

That’s powerful. 

There’s no denying that the Lakers have an enormous challenge ahead of them. Their last two games against the Thunder were disastrous. There was a 43-point loss on April 2, followed by a 36-point loss on April 7. 

But the Lakers are battle-tested now in a way they weren’t before. 

They’ve gone through something. They survived. They persevered. 

Everyone played a part in it.   

James proved he’s still James. 

Reaves returned from a painful oblique injury in Game 5 after pouring himself into getting back onto the court. There were some days he left his house at 7:30 a.m. and didn’t return until 7:30 p.m. after seeking various treatments. 

“Literally, did literally everything we could possibly do to get myself back in this opportunity,” said Reaves, who had 15 points on 7-for-14 shooting.

Then there’s Smart, who was on the verge of falling out of the league before resuscitating his career this postseason, including bottling up Kevin Durant in Game 2.

As for Ayton, his maturity and professionalism had fallen into question before he recently showed he can star in his role, including holding Alperen Sengun to 17 points on 5-for-12 shooting in Game 6.

Then there’s Kennard, who made people question whether he had been playing the wrong role his entire career after shining as a playmaker in the first two games of this series. 

There are so many success stories this postseason on the Lakers’ roster. They did this as a collective. They overcame adversity together. That makes them dangerous. 

They didn’t have a chance. Now they’re going to the Western Conference semifinals. 

It would be foolish to count them out again. 

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Mark Cuban was interested in getting his team back.

The billionaire sold 73 percent of his stake in the Mavericks to the Adelson family for $3.5 billion in December 2023 after 23 years as an owner, only to see the franchise’s fortunes take a turn for the worse in the years that followed — including the ill-fated trade of superstar Luka Doncic to the Lakers in February 2025.

Dallas, which has NBA Rookie of the Year Cooper Flagg, still missed the playoffs over the past two seasons, with a combined record of 65-99, after losing in the NBA Finals in 2023-24. 

Injuries to aging stars Anthony Davis and Kyrie Irving have been the main culprit.

The 67-year-old Cuban, who was outspoken against the Doncic trade, was asked by FrontOffice Sports if he was interested in buying back the club and was clear about his willingness to do so and the hurdles that way face. 

“If there was any chance of being able to do that anymore, I would, but that’s just not the game anymore,” he said.

Cuban, who still owns 27 percent of the team, noted that “a bunch of people” contacted him, unhappy with the direction of the franchise.  He was willing to do his part to get control of the team back if the Adelsons were interested in selling, but strongly believed that wasn’t a viable scenario.

“I was like, ‘Look, if you can get them to sell, I would be more than happy to contribute my equity, et cetera, et cetera, and help.’ But I didn’t expect that to materialize,” Cuban said. “I told them I didn’t think it would happen, that I didn’t think the Adelsons had any interest in selling. And they don’t.” 

Such a proposition could grow even more expensive in the coming years as the Adelsons have the option to buy 20 percent more of the Mavericks from Cuban within four years of ownership. 

Cuban, who saw the Mavericks win the 2011 NBA championship during his stewardship, expressed mixed feelings about the sale itself during an appearance on the “Intersections” podcast in late March.  

“I don’t regret selling,” Cuban said. “I regret who I sold to. I made a lot of mistakes in the process, and I’ll leave it at that.” 

Entering their first-round playoff series with the Rockets, the Lakers knew they had to take away their opponent’s superpower. 

During the regular season, the Rockets averaged an astonishing 15 offensive rebounds per game — the most in the NBA and the most by a team in 25 years. They also forced an average of 13 turnovers per game. Layer those together and you’re not just playing an opponent, you’re playing a second invisible game that is allowing them more shots, more chaos and more chances to bury you. 

Through the first four games of the series, the Lakers were losing that game badly. 

They gave up 21 offensive rebounds in Game 1. Then 17. Then 18. Their turnovers were piling up like traffic on the 110 freeway. 18, 20, 20 and then 23 turnovers in Game 4. By the time the dust settled, Houston had accrued 69 more possessions than the Lakers across the first four games. 

And yet somehow, despite flirting with disaster, and dancing with bad habits, the Lakers built a 3-1 series lead while hemorrhaging the very thing that defines playoff basketball: extra possessions. 

Which tells you everything you need to know: They were surviving these games, not solving them. 

“In order for us to win, we had to protect the ball and rebound,” LeBron James said. “We understood that giving them extra possessions is a kryptonite for any team. If you give them extra possessions and you don’t take care of the ball, it’s not going to be an ingredient for success against Houston.”

In Game 5, something shifted. 

The Lakers didn’t just compete on the glass — they punched back. They outrebounded Houston 41-34, and more importantly, they flipped the offensive rebound battle for the first time in the series, 13-6. 

What changed from the first four games?

Deandre Ayton. 

Ayton played like a man who finally understood his assignment.

He finished with 18 points, 17 rebounds and two blocks. He became the first Lakers player to have 15 or more points, 15 or more rebounds and at least two blocks in a playoff game since Pau Gasol in 2010. He also was the first Laker since Gasol in 2012 to have 10 offensive rebounds.

“You have to have some type of stop sign where enough is enough,” Ayton said. “I just tried to play as I am, the biggest dude on the court, and just go out and get every damn rebound.”

And that’s exactly what he did.

Even though they won the rebounding battle, they couldn’t get out of their own way. They shot 25% from 3 and lost the turnover battle again. They also lost the game 99-93, leaving the door open for a historic collapse. 

But in Game 6, they finally slammed it shut. 

Inside hostile territory in Houston, the Lakers finally put it all together for one game. They executed the game plan to perfection. They ended the Rockets’ season with a 98-78 victory.

They secured 15 offensive rebounds, their highest total of the series. They allowed only eight. They once again outrebounded the Rockets, 54-45. And for the first time all series, they won the turnover battle, committing just 10. 

“I challenged them before the game to box out and have their lowest turnover game tonight,” coach JJ Redick said. “The attention to detail was the important thing.”

That’s coach-speak for this: They finally did what I’ve been asking them to do all series.

Houston scored just 78 points — the lowest output by any team this entire postseason. Their superpower didn’t just disappear. It was taken away from them.

Ripped out of their hands by a Lakers team that decided, finally, that enough was enough.

Once again, Ayton was the anchor. He pulled down 16 rebounds and controlled the paint like it was his own personal property. 

“He played his ass off … he was locked in from the start to the finish,” said Marcus Smart of Ayton’s performance. 

Austin Reaves, fresh off a four-week absence because of an oblique injury, saw it the same way.

“I told him he was one of the biggest factors for us winning tonight … his physicality …16 rebounds is a big number.”

Ayton’s effort finally flipped the script, but it wasn’t just about him. The entire series was a team effort. Game 6 was about discipline, restraint and a veteran team choosing to take control over the narrative. 

“That’s the story of this playoff series for us,” Redick said. “Each guy had moments that helped us win the game. I thought the collective tonight was awesome.”

It took a while, but the Lakers finally figured out how to take away the Rockets’ greatest strength and beat them with it. 

Now they’re tasked with doing it again against the reigning champion Thunder. 

Only the Thunder don’t have one superpower, they have several. 

And if the Lakers want to shock the world and upset the champs, they’ll need to take away all of them. To do that, they’ll have to play every possession like it’s their last.

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In another year and another Sixers-Celtics Game 7, the Artist Formerly Known as Lloyd Free was determined to make a name for himself.

One of ‘em, anyway.

He is known now as World B. Free. Has been since December 1981, when he legally changed his name midway through a 13-year run as a freewheeling, shoot-first-and-ask-questions-later NBA guard. 

For the last 27 years Free, now 72, has served as the Sixers’ Ambassador of Basketball, making appearances throughout the Delaware Valley and on game nights glad-handing fans in every corner of Xfinity Mobile Arena.

But in the spring of 1977 he was still Lloyd, a second-year backup seeking minutes and shots on an ill-fated Sixers team headlined by Julius Erving, George McGinnis and Doug Collins. And Free was accorded both in the deciding game of an Eastern Conference semifinal set against Boston.

The game, which was played in the Spectrum, proved to be a rock fight. The Sixers shot 33 percent from the floor, the C’s 30 percent. The second half, in which Philadelphia outscored Boston 33-32, was particularly brutal, and the boxscore reflects the individual futility.

Erving shot 6-for-19, McGinnis 4-for-13 and Collins 3-for-11. Boston’s Jo Jo White was 7-for-24, while John Havlicek went 4-for-19 and Dave Cowens 5-for-16.

Free? He scored 27 points off the bench. And the Sixers won, 83-77.

“Lit ‘em up, yeah,” Free recalled as he breezed through a court-level corridor before Game 6 of the current Sixers-Celtics series. As always he was wearing a snazzy suit and a stylish hat. As always he was greeting the paying customers who bustled past, some of them by name.

“It was,” he added, “an unbelievable night — like, you know, I couldn’t miss. I couldn’t miss a shot. I went crazy on them.”

Here his memory betrayed him. He put up 27 shots, and made just 10. But the game went a long way toward earning him a nickname — “The Boston Strangler” — that was passed on to another Sixers guard, Andrew Toney, a few years later.

Free is OK with that.

“I’m not really talked about the way a lot of people are talked about,” he said, “even though I had the same kind of game. It’s good the way it is.”

He came to the Sixers as a second-round pick in 1975, from the Brownsville section of Brooklyn via Guilford College, an NAIA school in Greensboro, NC. On the NYC playgrounds the 6-foot-3 Free had been known as the “Prince of Mid-Air” because of his leaping ability. Also “All-World,” which in time would lead to his name change.

He believes his background prepared him well for the rigors of the NBA.

“Oh yeah, because I’m a street basketball player,” he said. “I’m from the streets. We played physical like that. Always played with older people that beat me all the time back there. So this was nothing when I came into the league.”

During that 1976-77 season he averaged nearly 22 points a game against Boston in four regular-season meetings, including a 36-point game. In the first six games of their playoff series, he scored at a 13.3 point-per-game clip.

The Sixers would go on to beat Houston in the Eastern finals, but fell to a Bill Walton-led Portland club in the Finals. And after the next season — a season in which Free again averaged over 20 a game against Boston, and 15.7 overall — he was traded to the Clippers for a 1984 first-round pick.

The Sixers used that pick, which was fifth overall, on Charles Barkley. And Free in the meantime got all the shots he wanted, not only with the Clippers (who were then in San Diego) but later the Warriors and Cavaliers as well. He even drifted back to the Sixers for 20 unproductive games late in his career, but overall he averaged over 20 a game for his 13 seasons, and at the time he retired his 17,955 points were 40th all time.

These days he appreciates the talent and tenacity of the Sixers young guards, Tyrese Maxey and VJ Edgecombe, and can only hope they have a full understanding of the challenges that arise this time of year.

“Playoffs, it’s such a different game, because everything slows down,” Free said. “More physical. You can get away with murder, but you have to adapt yourself every game.”

Especially Game 7. The one in 1977 is one of just two the Sixers have won against Boston, in eight tries. The other came in ‘82, when Toney scored 34 and Erving 29 to save the Sixers in a series they once led 3-1. That is also the last time Philadelphia beat Boston in a series of any length, having dropped the last six, three since 2018.

Now the question is, who makes a name for themselves Saturday night? And from which side? Because World B. Free knows all about such things — how reputations can be established and memories made. And how those things remain indelible, no matter how many years pass.

Well, the magic ran out last night for the Houston Rockets. After spending two games filling our hearts with the hope, the Rockets essentially laid an egg in Game 6, falling behind in the late first quarter after a somewhat decent start to the game, and they simply never got back into it.

The Lakers used a huge and demoralizing 27-3 run in the first half to essentially put the game away, and things just never got much better from there and ended Houston’s season early.

There’s not a ton to say about this one, as the Rockets’ offense was simply outmtached early and had no answers for a suffocating Lakers defense. Houston shot just 35 percent overall and made only 5 threes on the night. They also lost the rebounding battle, illustrating how bad Houston was whipped in this one.

They were led by Amen Thompson with 18 points, 8 boards and 3 blocks, while Alperen Sengun added 17 points, 11 boards and 2 blocks. Tari Eason had 14, Reed Sheppard had 10 but shot a horrendous 4-for-19 from the field. Jabari Smith rounded out the starters with 9 points and 12 boards, but he shot just 3-for-11 after being one of Houston’s best players earlier in the series.

The Lakers were led by LeBron James with 28 and Rui Hachimura with 21.

The Rockets season is now over, and the team faces a myriad of questions about their future. There are major questions about Ime Udoka, Kevin Durant, Tari Eason, Sengun, Sheppard, and just about anything could potentially be on the table trade wise.

Of course, the Rockets were more decimated by injuries than just about anyone, with Fred VanVleet, Steven Adams, Durant all finishing the year in street clothes. They could also choose to just run it back, though I don’t think that’s the best move with the Rockets losing in round one for the second straight year.

We’ll be talking all things offseason in a couple days after taking a few days to regroup ourselves. Thanks for sticking with us for another Rockets season!

The date is 12 March, and the Los Angeles Lakers are in the midst of a run that’s garnering a lot of well-deserved attention, in a month that sees them lose just two contests and win 15. The spirit of the locker room is at an all-time high, and it’s clear in talking to LeBron James, the 41-year-old storied veteran and greatest-of-all-time candidate who recently put his ego aside to accept a role as the team’s third option, that he believes what many around the NBA are starting to as well: his Lakers have a real shot at contention.

“As you get older, you appreciate the moment more than anything. When you’re younger, you think about what you’ve done in the past, or what’s to come in the future,” he tells me when I ask how he’s been able to be so present of late, in light of the ups and downs of a topsy-turvy Lakers season. “But the only thing that we know for sure is happening is the moment.”

The sentiment was more poignant than even James knew at the time. The wind would be swiftly and mercilessly knocked out of those buoyant sails just a few short weeks later, on 2 April, when in the throes of a biblical drubbing at the hands of MVP frontrunner Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and his class-of-the-conference Thunder, the door to the Lakers’ postseason was seemingly slammed in their faces in downtown Oklahoma City. The Lakers were already emotionally wallopped, outmatched by orders of magnitude, down 31 at half-time. And then, in the span of a couple of minutes in the third quarter, Luka Dončić and Austin Reaves, the team’s backcourt starters, were both sidelined indefinitely with injury. The blow was devastating. The season was over. That is, until it wasn’t.

Related: LeBron James is 41. And he’s somehow still carrying his team in the playoffs

As recently as a month ago, it appeared that James’s days as the No 1 option were behind him, and for good reason. He’s a quadragenarian, the oldest player in the NBA for two years running. He shares a team with Dončić, the 27-year-old perennial MVP candidate and heir apparent to the Lakers franchise. But when, just a few short weeks before the postseason was set to begin, the Lakers lost their two leading scorers, James was left with two choices: call it a season, or attempt to carry the team on his 6ft 9in frame, as he’d done so many times before.

Neither Vegas nor basketball experts gave the Lakers any chance against the Houston Rockets headed into their first-round series, in which they grabbed a commanding 3-0 lead before sealing the victory in six games in Houston on Friday night. The doubt was justifiable; the Lakers were at a clear talent disadvantage without Dončić and Reaves. (The Rockets’ Kevin Durant would end up missing five of the six games in the series.) And the upset was, to be sure, a true team effort, filled with storybook storylines galore: Luke Kennard, a trade-deadline castaway from Atlanta, essentially won Game 1. Marcus Smart, believed by many to be washed up when the Lakers acquired him last summer, proved wholly indispensable, as both a dirty work guy and an unlikely scoring resource. Deandre Ayton, the much-maligned center from the top of Dončić’s draft class whom Portland paid to go away last summer, was invaluable both defensively and on the glass. And JJ Redick, the “podcaster” second-year head coach who took immense flak after a disappointing debut postseason outing against the Minnesota Timberwolves last season, proved his mettle in this series as both a tactician and leader.

But the story of the series was James, who, in a critical Game 3, not only got a gutsy steal on the Rockets’ Reed Sheppard and hit a miracle of a three-pointer at the end of regulation, forcing the game to overtime (and ultimately a win), but did so mere minutes after going on a 10-0 Lakers run with hisown son, including a senior-to-junior highlight alley-oop. Throughout the series, James turned back the clock on both ends, averaging 23 points, eight assists and seven rebounds with nearly two steals per game. He was, by any measure, the best player on the floor. To say that no one has ever done what he’s doing at this age is an understatement. The truth is, no one has even come close.

“I’ve done it throughout my career, but they still have to accept it,” James said in the locker room after Game 6, on slotting back into a leadership role for the team on which he’d taken a step back. “For them to allow me to lead them, that means a lot to me.” Redick, clearly moved after witnessing, first-hand, yet another chapter in the LeBron James storybook, could only shake his head. “For him to do it again, to answer the bell again, it’s really … it’s baffling, in some ways,” Redick said Friday night, attempting to stifle a grin. “The leadership aspect, he just has this ability to set the tone for the entire group, and he did that again tonight, and our guys responded. And I’m really happy for him.”

Related: NBA playoff predictions 2026: the winner, key players and dark horses

Father Time is undefeated, so the saying goes. But, as it turns out, his record isn’t quite so simple. James, well into his third decade as the face of the league and anywhere between 10 to 20 years older than most of his competitors, has proved a formidable challenger. “I’m kicking his ass,” James deadpanned, chuckling, after the series clincher. Twenty-three rounds in, he has Time on the ropes.

Reaves, who was able to return from a severe oblique strain and provide reinforcements for the final two games of the series, said he doesn’t take what James is doing for granted. “I told him after the game, I’d like to think we have a pretty good relationship, [so] I went over to him and I was like, ‘You’re insane. The stuff that you’re doing … It’s not normal,’” he said. “With age, or whatever, he’s been in the league for 23 years … The way he can [still] control a game, it’s impressive. I don’t think you can say in words how special he was, not just tonight, but this series, this year. I’m just happy that I don’t have to play against him.”

The Lakers will go on to face the aforementioned thorn in their side, the Thunder, in the Western Conference semi-finals. Certainly, this would not have been part of the plan, had Los Angeles had their druthers about a round-two opponent, especially with Dončić still sidelined. But, then again, nothing for Los Angeles went according to plan this year. It was going to be a transitional year, until things started to click, and the chemistry was too potent to deny. Then it was destined to be a tale of woe, a “what if?” footnote in the briefly intersecting careers of two megastars at different points in their trajectories in James and Dončić. In any of a myriad possible timelines, this wasn’t LeBron James’s team to carry. In all but one of them, we had seen the last of a superhero run from him in the NBA postseason.

None of this was supposed to happen. But the basketball gods work in mysterious ways, and for the moment, the story isn’t over quite yet.

If you missed Game 6 the other night, keep it that way.

It was a disaster rolled into a catastrophe, then deep fried and dipped in calamity. And unfortunately, the Hawks (46-36) just need to own it until training camp rolls around in September.

After losing by 11, then 16, then 29 points in this series alone, surely the Hawks would compose themselves to fight to the bitter end.

Yeah…no.

One thing is abundantly clear: these Hawks were not ready for the big stage. A lot of work remains if they organization is to achieve something higher than “flatly embarrassed on national TV in an elimination game.”

At one point in the second half of the regular season, the Hawks mired in 10th place in the Eastern Conference. But the 20-6 stretch after the All-Star break had a lot of us (myself included) thinking they had found something special from within.

And then the Knicks gave them a painful reminder of how far they still need to go.

That’s not to say that there is nothing to take away from the post-All-Star break surge — or from the season at large. Jalen Johnson grew (offensively at least) into an elite, ‘first name on the team scouting report’ player. But his limitations were on full display in the New York series.

“It sucks,” Johnson had to say on media day about the crushing Game 6 defeat. “It’s a terrible feeling. It’s not the way you want the series to end, of course. A lot of fuel going into next season. A lot of fuel going into the offseason for everybody. We’re gonna make sure this never happens again, we never get this type of feeling again. Just a sick feeling to our stomachs.”

Nickeil Alexander-Walker was maybe the single biggest feel-good story of the season. He somehow doubled his scoring output while shooting more efficiently on a much bigger team role than the year previous, winning the Most Improved Player award.

He then shot just 9-for-28 (32%) from two in the playoff series.

The Hawks couldn’t get handle the ball nor create advantages well enough for playoff-level ball pressure. In the first half of Game 6 alone, the Hawks coughed the ball up an astounding 14 times and gave the Knicks 20 points off those turnovers.

They couldn’t deal with Mitchell Robinson physical presence off the glass (14 rebounds per 36 minutes in this series) or above the rim (11 dunks in 83 minutes). They had no answer for Karl-Anthony Towns (20 points per game on 74% true shooting) or OG Anunoby (17 points per game on 75% true shooting).

They lost their composure when things weren’t going their way on Thursday — to understate things mildly.

The whole team got beat in all facets by a clearly better team.

Game. Series.

But these humbling experiences will ultimately help players individually and the team going forward. Neither Johnson nor Alexander-Walker nor Dyson Daniels had ever been focal points in a playoff series, and clearly none were quite ready for the intensity and physicality at this level.

Additionally, the Hawks lost their starting point guard and center — both guys former All-Stars and possibly still All-Star-caliber when healthy — midway through the season, and the roster was essentially in a jumbled state starting from game 5.

What began as a promising season quickly turned into a transition year just two weeks in. You just can’t plan for these unforeseen circumstances.

Having said that, it calls into question whether the main options on offense have been extended too far — thrust into roles too large for their skillsets. Maybe Johnson isn’t a championship-level primary option and maybe Alexander-Walker as your number two scoring option isn’t quite it.

As we turn to the offseason, it’s extremely fortunate that the Hawks maintained a level of financial flexibility and draft asset accumulation that will benefit them greatly in the long run — maybe as soon as May 10th’s NBA Draft Lottery results. And the core of the team largely remains 25 years of age or younger.

“We’re not one player away from this,” general manager Onsi Saleh remarked about what the future holds at exit interviews. “The best iteration of this team is through development and our players currently getting better. We’re really excited about the future and what holds there. From the draft to the flexibility moving forward, all that stuff. We’re in a good position set up moving forward.”

This offseason will be a major test to see how the team builds upon a mixed but overall successful campaign. They have to keep looking for ways to improve around the edges to both up the talent level and fit on this roster. It won’t happen overnight.

It’s frustrating to be told to continue to have patience — believe me, I know. It’s been a lot of years since the Hawks were bona fide ‘contenders.’

Maybe the perfect series of events lines up this offseason to vault the team into that elite status in the NBA. But the results of their brief postseason journey left no question that there’s progress that still needs to be made.

The offseason has arrived for the Phoenix Suns, and the thought experiments are underway. What should this team do to get better? No one is immune to it, and no one should be. That’s part of fandom. You want a better situation, a more competitive team, and you start building ideas around how to get there. The offseason is where those ideas live.

I’ve already put out my preliminary manifesto on how I think the Suns should approach this. No specifics. No player targets, no trade machines. More of a vision document.

As this offseason gets going, there’s a name that keeps popping up in threads, comments, and conversations. A name that honestly surprises me. And here I am, once again writing why it makes no sense.

That name is Ja Morant.

I understand where it comes from. The Suns are thin at point guard, and that drives the conversation. There aren’t many traditional point guards left in the modern NBA, and true facilitators who run a team are rare. The position has evolved. It’s more about ball handling, decision making, and limiting mistakes. With so few options, it makes sense that people gravitate toward the names that exist.

What doesn’t make sense is why Morant is one of them.

We just watched a season in which this team checked some important boxes. They took real steps with their culture and identity. They operated with fiscal responsibility. They were competitive in a way that was actually enjoyable to watch. If you think Ja Morant is the answer, you missed the assignment. Or you didn’t read it. Or you’re trying to force square pegs into round holes using an outdated roster-building template.

Start with the on-court reality. Morant isn’t available. He hasn’t played more than 65 games in a season since his rookie year, when he played 67. His style is reckless at the rim, and that matters. You’re talking about a player whose athleticism is tied to how he plays, and that’s trending the wrong way over time. He’s a career 31.1% three-point shooter, and only 17.8% of his career points come from deep. The offensive value you’re paying for doesn’t stretch the floor. If that style keeps leading to missed time, why are you bringing that in? It’s simply not sustainable.

Defensively, it’s not good either. He’s a liability. His perimeter isolation defense grades out as a D, around the 26th percentile per BBall Index.

I’ll give him this: he can facilitate. His playmaking grades out as an A+. That’s the appeal. That’s the hook. The idea is simple: bring in a primary facilitator, let Devin Booker work off-ball, and get him back to his natural spot at shooting guard. That’s where he’s at his best. I understand that line of thinking. But it’s hard to facilitate when you’re in street clothes.

What makes it even harder to accept is the salary. Ja Morant is slated to make $42.1 million next year and $44.9 million the year after. With a $165 million cap, that’s 25.5%. Factor in the Suns’ dead money and Phoenix is effectively operating around $141.8 million, which pushes that number to 29.7%. From a financial responsibility standpoint, paying a premium for a player without a track record of health is not a path I want to go down. We’ve seen this movie. Bradley Beal is the example. The difference is that Morant doesn’t have a no-trade clause.

To acquire him, you’re moving multiple assets. The obvious starting point is Jalen Green because of the $36.3 million number next season. Strip it down to the on-court profile, and a lot of it overlaps. Both attack the rim. Both are suboptimal from three. Green actually grades out better defensively on the perimeter, a C+ in the 57th percentile. He’s younger. He has a reputation for being available. Last season was an outlier with 50 games missed. Before that, he missed one game in two and a half years. You’re moving availability, and likely attaching more to do it.

I see the ideas. Grayson Allen, Royce O’Neale, a sign-and-trade with Mark Williams. Why would Memphis want that? The Memphis Grizzlies have already started reshaping their core, moving on from Desmond Bane last offseason and Jaren Jackson Jr. at the deadline. The goal there is draft capital. They’re not looking to take back scraps. And if the price is draft capital on your end, that circles back to the same point. Trading picks for Morant is irresponsible.

The final reason I’m so against acquiring Ja Morant comes back to culture and identity. He misses games because of injuries, that’s true. He also misses games because of immaturity and a lack of accountability. We know the stories. We’ve seen the videos. Off the court, he has been an issue for the Memphis Grizzlies.

Who he surrounds himself with is his choice, and I respect that. You can still learn a lot about someone by the company they keep, and Morant keeps finding himself in trouble because of off-court behavior and poor decision-making. The accountability piece hasn’t been there. There’s an air about him that he’s above certain rules. It shows up in press conferences. It shows up in how he handles adversity.

Ja Morant explains what went wrong against the Lakers on Friday:
"Ask the coaching staff."
On what the Grizzlies could have done better:
"According to them (coaching staff) | probably shouldn't have played." pic.twitter.com/vMfrsDR7hC

— NBAbzy (@nbabzyy) November 1, 2025

That mindset runs counter to everything the Phoenix Suns are trying to build. This is a team leaning into connectivity. An organization trying to lay a foundation rooted in chemistry. Adding Morant pulls you in the opposite direction.

When I think about acquiring Ja Morant, I cringe. It feels like the people beating that drum got hit with one of those little red lights from Men in Black. They forgot who the Phoenix Suns were an offseason ago and how they got there. Acquiring Morant is bringing in the worst parts of Kevin Durant and Bradley Beal. You get the attitude and lack of accountability. You get the contract and the health concerns. Why go down that path again? Why live in that space again? Because he fills a positional need?

I get the desire for a facilitator. I don’t get the desire for that facilitator to be overpriced, entitled, unproductive, and unavailable. We’re going to spend plenty of time this offseason talking through what comes next for the Suns.

Morant isn’t it.

On Friday night, the Detroit Pistons made history. Facing elimination in Game 6 of the opening round of the 2025-26 NBA Playoffs, the Pistons found themselves down 24 points in the second half. But then their defense locked in, Cade Cunningham took over, and the Pistons came all the way back to force a Game 7 at home in Detroit. Their 24-point comeback set the franchise record for the biggest comeback in the postseason, and it was the largest comeback from a road team facing elimination since the 1996-97 NBA season.

In short, it was a comeback win Pistons fans won’t forget anytime soon—especially if they end up winning Game 7 on Sunday.

That got me thinking: What about our Cardiac Cats?

The Detroit Lions have had their fair share of thrilling comeback victories, especially in the modern era. So today’s Question of the Day is:

What has been the most memorable comeback victory in Lions history?

My answer: Three immediately come to mind.

First is the iconic comeback win in Matthew Stafford’s rookie season against the Cleveland Browns. Most people only remember Stafford’s iconic game-winning drive that featured him throwing a touchdown to Brandon Pettigrew with a dislocated shoulder on an untimed down. What you may not remember from that game is Detroit was down 24-3…. IN THE FIRST QUARTER. The Lions would go on to outscore Cleveland 35-13 the rest of the way.

WATCH THE HIGHLIGHTS OF BROWN/LIONS 2009 HERE

Then there were a pair of comebacks against the Dallas Cowboys. In 2011, Detroit trailed 27-3 early in the second half. But a pair of huge plays from the defense changed the trajectory of the game. Former Cowboy Bobby Carpenter kicked things off with a 34-yard pick-six. Later in the quarter, Chris Houston added his own pick-six. A pair of Calvin Johnson touchdowns later, and Detroit pulled off the miraculous upset.

WATCH THE HIGHLIGHTS OF COWBOYS/LIONS 2011 HERE

Two years later, the Lions did it again in the Stafford fake spike game. While the Lions were never down by more than 10 points in this game, it’s the manner in which they came back that makes it memorable. The Cowboys kicked a field goal with 1:07 left to go up 30-24. That left the Lions with 80 yards to go, no timeouts left, and needing a touchdown to win the game. You all remember the rest:

WATCH THE HIGHLIGHTS OF COWBOYS/LIONS 2013 HERE

What has been the most memorable Detroit Lions comeback victory that you can remember? Share your memories in the comment section below.

In Friday’s Brotherhood Playoff Action, Toronto shocked Cleveland in overtime, 112-110, Detroit roared back to pop Orlando, 93-79, and Los Angeles eliminated Houston, 98-78.

The big story of the night was RJ Barrett’s magnificent game-winner against the Cavaliers. Barrett didn’t shoot well overall, just 8-21/4-12, but he hit the only shot that people will be talking about. He also pulled down 9 rebounds, and passed out 3 assists.

Orlando led 62-38, and somehow let the Pistons come back to win by 14. The Magic missed 23 straight shots in the second half. That’s atrocious.

Detroit ripped off a 35-5 run during that stretch of futility. Paolo Banchero finished 4-20 from the field. He did grab 10 rebounds, but Orlando missed 51 shots, so there were plenty to go around.

Not for Wendell Carter, though: while he shot better (3-5), he only scored 9 points and had 0 rebounds.

After a great start to the series against the Rockets, Luke Kennard moved back to the bench once Austin Reaves was available. He got 29 minutes, but shot just 1-6 for three points.

With Cleveland’s loss, Tyrese Proctor is nearly out of the championship hunt. On Saturday, Boston hosts Philadelphia at home in Game 7, and we’ll find out if Jayson Tatum will continue his remarkable comeback or if he’ll start the off-season.

• RAPTORS POSTCAST: RJ Barrett’s MIRACLE bounce-shot in OT forces Game 7!
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• Kawhi Shot 2.0: RJ Barrett Hit An All Time Prayer Buzzer Beater To Keep The Raptors Season Alive And Force A Game 7 In Cleveland
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• Above-the-Rim Angle of RJ Barrett’s Game-Winner Is Absolutely Mesmerizing
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• Tyrese Proctor’s Change in Physical Appearance is Turning HeadsTyrese Proctor’s Change in Physical Appearance is Turning Heads
• “Get It Together”: Courtside Audio Captures Young Girl Calling Out Paolo Banchero & Co. During Magic Collapse
• Magic’s Paolo Banchero has no answer to ‘very bad drought’ in Game 6
• Magic meltdown: Orlando blows massive lead with historically inept second-half performance in loss to Pistons
• Bianchi: After Magic’s historic meltdown, how can they possibly beat Pistons in Game 7?
• Banchero, Mosley, Magic React to Devastating Playoff Defeat before Shifting to Game 7
• Paolo Banchero And Desmond Bane Explain Magic’s Stunning 24-Point Collapse In Game 6 Against Pistons
• Magic collapse in Game 6 vs. Pistons with NBA-record shooting futility
• Lakers Hope to Retain Luke Kennard in Free Agency 
• Lakers Eye Luke Kennard Re-Signing as Priority Move
• Lakers star’s prediction on trade deadline deal slowly paying off in NBA Playoffs
• Lakers Are Not Expected to Let Luke Kennard Walk This Offseason
• JJ Redick proud of Lakers for responding after getting ‘written off’
• JJ Redick Fires Up The Lakers With Bold Game 6 Message

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Game Seven. Two of the most heart-pumping words in all of sports. Under any circumstances, the Philadelphia 76ers playing a win-or-go-home game with the season on the line would make for an edge-of-your-seat viewing experience. However, tonight has the added element of coming against the rival Boston Celtics, with all of the history that entails. The Sixers haven’t eliminated Boston from the playoffs in my lifetime; 1982 was the last time Philadelphia sent the Celtics home packing. Meanwhile, in the 21st century alone, the Celtics have ended the Sixers’ season five times, including three times during the Process era. A win tonight would exorcise a lot of demons and be talked about for years to come, regardless of what happened in a second round and beyond.

We’ve taken an improbable road to get here. Boston went up 3-1 in this series, with a pair of 32-point victories in Games 1 and 4 that were frankly embarrassing from a Sixers perspective. Everyone was shoveling dirt on the Sixers’ season and wondering what the postmortem fallout would be from a roster and organizational perspective. All we asked was Philadelphia to show a bit of fight, like we saw in the Game 2 win and the close Game 3 defeat. Get dragged off kicking and screaming rather than meekly accepting your tickets to Cabo and filing off quietly.

Instead, something clicked in the second half of Game 5 and the Sixers discovered their identity. They’ve been a connected, disruptive defensive group, playing stout, one-on-one defense against Boston’s ball handlers to reduce the number of open perimeter looks that come as a product of overhelping. The work on the glass has improved, even winning the rebounding battle in Game 5. The offense looks cohesive, with Tyrese Maxey and VJ Edgecombe still attacking and not excessively deferring to Joel Embiid, and Paul George shifting effortlessly between tertiary floor spacer and guy who can create his own shots in isolation as needed. The previous two wins didn’t seem fluky or a result of shooting variance. Across the last five quarters, the Sixers flat-out looked like the better basketball team.

Of course, things could flip back just as easily. I would expect a team with the championship pedigree of the Celtics to have a better gameplan and effort than what we saw in Game 6. Jayson Tatum tweaked his calf in that loss, but the Celtics once again have a clean injury report heading into the series finale. Joe Mazzulla probably found an adjustment to make watching The Town for the 84th time. Jaylen Brown had time to watch some film and rediscover an offensive move that isn’t stiff-arming defenders in the chest. Boston won 56 games for a reason this season, and that was without Tatum for most of it.

So that’s the stage. Complete the 3-1 series comeback and this Sixers group will be heroes. The Team That Finally Beat Boston, on a level with the 2007 Phillies who came back to catch the Mets to win the division. These last two wins have taken us from Acceptance, back into a place where we dared to dream again. A loss now would be an all-too-familiar brand of heartbreak. We’ll find out whether it’s heroes or heartbreak tonight.

Game Details

When: May 2, 7:30 p.m. ET
Where: TD Garden, Boston, MA
Watch: NBC, Peacock
Radio: 97.5 The Fanatic
Follow: @LibertyBallers

Future Hall of Famer Chris Paul retired midseason after twenty-one seasons on the hardwood. Paul, considered one of the greatest point guards of all time, spent his last full season with the San Antonio Spurs. The pairing of CP3 with Victor Wembanyama was regarded as great mentorship.

One moment in particular always stuck out to me:

A more overt example of Paul giving Wemby “hands on” experience.

Paul made an appearance on the Pat McAfee Show and spoke about his time with San Antonio.

Chris Paul said the Spurs locker room last season was one of the funnest he’s been in:

"We played against the Knicks last year and the next morning he was at the park playing people at chess..That was one of the funnest locker rooms that I've ever been in"

(🎥: @PatMcAfeeShow) https://t.co/pquVSS8Byqpic.twitter.com/nL9BgJlDtv

— CP3REGION (@CP3REGION) May 1, 2026

It’s clear from his tone that he embraced his time with the Spurs and has esteen for the franchise.

After returning to Los Angeles, Paul was benched and subsequently traded by the Clippers last February. It came to light that he and Clippers head coach Tyronn Lue did not see eye to eye and CP3 aired his grievances publicly. Not the ending befitting a player of his caliber. Especially by the organization to which he gave some of his greatest years.

Paul has since joined the coaching staff at Campbell Hall High School in California, where his son plays. While he has shown little interest in coaching for the NBA, he has mentored many players. He’d be an asset to the Spurs as they navigate the next phases of development.

Who knows, CP3 may still have a window open to pick up an NBA ring.

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