NBA

6:42 AM ET EARLY IN THE first quarter of Game 1 of the NBA Finals, the heavily favored Los Angeles Lakers appeared lethargic, disjointed. Coach Frank Vogel called time, down 23-10, and made some substitutions. One of them, 34-year-old Rajon Rondo, who shot 41.8% in the regular season, surveyed the floor, noted the Miami Heat‘s

9:55 AM ET Before the Los Angeles Lakers‘ first official training camp practice, Frank Vogel and his staff gathered the team in their film room for a PowerPoint presentation on what their defense would look like. Vogel wanted them to be the league’s most physical team — echoes of the “smashmouth basketball” vision that guided

2:22 AM ET LeBron James has never seen a more “dominant duo” than Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant. But nearly two decades after Shaq and Kobe dominated the early 2000s with their three consecutive titles, the Los Angeles Lakers might have the closest thing to that legendary tandem. James and Anthony Davis dominated the Miami

2:17 AM ET LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. — Despite being in a 0-2 hole after being dominated by the Lakers for most of Game 2 of the NBA Finals, the Miami Heat are holding onto a belief that they can find a way to win. Sure, they played Friday’s game without one of the team’s

1:12 AM ET Long before Kobe Bryant grudgingly attended the Los Angeles Lakers’ free agent pitch meetings for Dwight Howard in 2013 and LaMarcus Aldridge in 2014, he identified a rare talent who could eventually want to inherit the mantle Bryant left with the franchise. Bryant was the elder statesman on the 2012 Olympic team

8:00 AM ET THE OTHER DAY in practice, Miami Heat forward Andre Iguodala caught the ball on the wing, looked toward the corner and fired a pass to Derrick Jones Jr. under the basket for an easy dunk. It was not what he was supposed to do. The ball was moving and finding energy with

6:55 AM ET The Miami Heat and Los Angeles Lakers have combined to play in nine of the past 15 NBA Finals series — including seven consecutive from 2008 to 2014 — without ever facing each other. That is, until Game 1 on Wednesday, the first time the two teams met on the NBA’s biggest

10:58 PM ET On Thursday, Doc Rivers snatched an opportunity to sculpt a young tandem — Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons — whose stardom would tantalize any coach, but who have yet to make good on their talent. Rivers enters a Philadelphia 76ers organization with title aspirations that believes an upgrade on the bench can

5:46 PM ET After a rapid courtship and negotiation, Doc Rivers has reached agreement on a deal to become the next coach of the Philadelphia 76ers, sources told ESPN on Thursday. Rivers’ deal with the Sixers comes only three days after departing the LA Clippers. It also returns him to the Atlantic Division where he’ll

2:30 AM ET The Miami Heat started the game sending a double-team at Anthony Davis, but it didn’t take long to discover that there wasn’t much they could do to slow down the Los Angeles Lakers‘ superstar big man. In his NBA Finals debut, an animated Davis dominated, scoring 34 points, grabbing 9 rebounds and

12:47 AM ET The Los Angeles Lakers made a loud statement with a 116-98 Game 1 win over the Miami Heat in the NBA Finals. LeBron James recorded 25 points, 13 rebounds and 9 assists, Anthony Davis added a game-high 34 points and 9 rebounds, and the 3-pointers were dropping for the Lakers, who turned

6:57 AM ET It has been 345 days since the NBA tipped off its 2019-20 season, but we’re finally here: Game 1 of the Finals is Wednesday night (9 p.m. ET on ABC). LeBron James, Anthony Davis and the Los Angeles Lakers solidified their status as a title contender early in the season and backed

7:30 AM ET After much springtime bloviating, there will be no asterisk on this NBA championship. If anything, it will be more badge of honor — a mark of perseverance through isolation, mental strain, and the internal discord of performing a job in the entertainment industry while issues of social and racial justice roiled outside

6:09 PM ET LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. — Like a parent being asked to rank their favorite children, Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James wanted no part in assigning special value to a 2020 NBA championship, should he win it against his former team, the Miami Heat. “It’s no extra meaning to winning a championship,

7:00 AM ET The 2020 NBA Finals feature one of the league’s most iconic players matching up against the franchise that helped carve his amazing legacy. But these Finals aren’t just about LeBron James versus Pat Riley and Erik Spoelstra. They’re about two red-hot basketball teams facing off for a historic championship in an unprecedented

6:45 AM ET An hour before the 2019 NBA Finals tipped off in Toronto — the first time the league’s showcase event had been played outside the United States — commissioner Adam Silver reminded those watching that basketball’s founder, James Naismith, was a Christian missionary who brought the game to China and Europe in the

7:50 PM ET The risk profile on next season, already trending toward the red, just got hotter for the LA Clippers. After a devastating postseason collapse along with the crashing realization that both Kawhi Leonard and Paul George can become free agents next summer, parting with Doc Rivers Monday has only increased the stakes. This

5:18 PM ET Doc Rivers is out as head coach of the LA Clippers, sources told ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, following a season that fell well short of championship expectations after the team landed All-Stars Kawhi Leonard and Paul George last summer. Against the Denver Nuggets, the Clippers squandered a 3-1 lead in the Western Conference