ORLANDO, Fla. - Miami Heat star Jimmy Butler celebrated Tyler Herro's 37-point outburst in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference finals by wearing the rookie's high school jersey to the team's practice the following day.

After the Heat clinched a spot in the NBA Finals two games later, Butler dug even deeper into his closet for the perfect sartorial...Read more

ORLANDO, Fla. - The uber-competitive Pat Riley that Magic Johnson knows from winning four championships when Riley was the coach of the Showtime Lakers in the 1980s is the same man who helped rebuild the Miami Heat into a contender for the 2020 NBA title.

The driven Riley that Johnson knows, who became one of the best executives in the NBA, ...Read more

LeBron James was asked Tuesday what he thought of Heat president Pat Riley, and his initial answer was a safe and non-committal, "That's such a broad question."

Broad questions are where these NBA Finals start Wednesday. Can the Miami Heat's fun, fresh and team-oriented run continue? Will the NBA's usual star power win out with the Los Angeles ...Read more

ORLANDO, Fla. - The Clippers and the Lakers built their summers of 2019 around the pursuit of stars, the Clippers landing free agency's biggest get, signing Kawhi Leonard while dealing for Paul George.

The Lakers pushed their chips all-in on Anthony Davis and spent those early days of free agency getting dragged along by Leonard, their top ...Read more

If the Charlotte Hornets end up with LaMelo Ball, you can count on this:

He will show no lack of confidence and conviction.

In a 24-minute media session Monday, Ball said ...

- He doesn't need to fix his shooting form, which was widely criticized from his play last season in Australia.

- He is a fit for any NBA team - from the title ...Read more

ORLANDO, Fla. - Doc Rivers is out as coach of the Clippers, according to people with knowledge of the situation but not authorized to speak publicly.

The Clippers built a contender around Southland natives Kawhi Leonard and Paul George last summer, and then finished second in the Western Conference this season. They were eliminated in the ...Read more

Who doesn't love 2020?

(Wait, don't answer that.)

Who didn't have a weekend for the ages?

(Assuming your tax returns weren't released.)

Who you got now in a South Florida sports scene crammed with winning stories: the Miami Heat or Los Angeles Lakers in the NBA Finals? The Miami Marlins or Chicago Cubs in the baseball playoffs? Miami or (...Read more

The primary recurring theme for the Miami Heat during these NBA playoffs has been winning, from the 4-0 sweep of the Indiana Pacers in the first round, the 4-1 thrashing of the top-seeded Milwaukee Bucks in the second, to closing out the Boston Celtics 4-2 in the Eastern Conference finals.

But in the background, there has been the recurring ...Read more

Frank Vogel wasn't Lakers executives' first choice for the coaching job during the turbulent spring of 2019. Tyronn Lue was the frontrunner to succeed Luke Walton, but Lue rejected a three-year offer to coach a team that was coming off a non-playoff finish and was thrust into turmoil when Magic Johnson unexpectedly resigned as president of ...Read more

The Miami Heat, winners of just 44 games in the abbreviated regular season and the No. 5 seed in the Eastern Conference, have done the improbable. A year after missing the NBA playoffs entirely, the Heat is heading to the NBA Finals for the first time since 2014.

Miami finished off a series victory with the Boston Celtics on Sunday, hanging on ...Read more

So here we are, having come full circle through the calendar within the confines of a single season, Pat Riley addressing the media on the eve of training camp on Sept. 27, 2019 about what might follow, with the Miami Heat still with unfinished business a year later.

Looking back, Riley, as is typical, largely (but not completely) proved ...Read more

ORLANDO, Fla. - When Anthony Davis jumped into a mob of his teammates to celebrate his "Mamba Moment" earlier in the Western Conference finals, he cemented himself a place in Lakers' history.

But "Mamba Moments" don't have to always be so dramatic, the commitment to winning showing up at all times throughout the course of the game. And while ...Read more

LeBron James signed with the Los Angeles Lakers to help the once-proud organization regain its shine. In the fourth quarter of Game 5 of the Western Conference finals, he made clear again and again and again that he was going to make good on his word.

James stepping back. James with a fadeaway. James pulling up.

Soon after, NBA personnel began...Read more

Home sweet home.

After a decade spent wandering through a wasteland of turmoil and tragedy, basketball's marquee team has regained its familiar spot on the NBA's biggest stage.

Back to the house of the Big Dipper and Mr. Clutch, back to the address of Magic and Kareem, back to the digs of Kobe and Shaq.

At long last, the Lakers are back in ...Read more

This time it was Bam Adebayo's teammates who stepped in to block the shot. It was the one the Miami Heat center took at himself.

They were having none of it, insisting Adebayo is more the reason why the Heat hold a 3-2 lead on the Boston Celtics in the best-of-seven Eastern Conference finals than, as he insisted, why they lost Friday night's ...Read more

The goal this season and in these playoffs has never been a 3-for-all. It's simply a factor of the composition of the Miami Heat roster.

But for an offense so reliant on the long ball, the misses tend to be magnified, as they are now in the Eastern Conference finals.

"Our game is deeper than us just making threes or not," Heat coach Erik ...Read more

LEXINGTON, Ky. - Throughout the recruiting process for five-star power forward Daimion Collins, whenever a college coach has expressed interest, his Texas high school coach has asked why.

What is it that has attracted so many top-flight Division I programs to Collins? According to Atlanta (Texas) High head coach Jarrod Boston, the answer is ...Read more

Nothing's lost.

Nothing's changed.

Nothing's really threatened by Friday night, not really, not beyond the Miami Heat missing out on their first chance to close out Boston in the Eastern Conference finals and advance to the NBA Finals.

Sometimes the magic is on the other side this deep in a season. That's all. No one from the Heat wants to ...Read more