David “Smokey” Gaines, the former Harlem Globetrotters and ABA player who coached at Detroit-Mercy and San Diego State, has died. He was 80.

The Brooklyn Nets hired Steve Nash as their coach Thursday, putting the Hall of Fame point guard in charge of the team that hopes to have Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving together next season.

The Houston Rockets take on the Los Angeles Lakers in the Western Conference second round with a 1-0 lead in the series. The Rockets won the previous matchup 112-97. James Harden scored 36 points to help lead Houston to the victory and Anthony Davis totaled 25 points in defeat for Los Angeles.

Kawhi Leonard scored 29 points and the Los Angeles Clippers rolled past the Denver Nuggets 120-97 on Thursday night in Game 1 of the Western Conference semifinals.

Denver Nuggets head coach Michael Malone has criticized the National Basketball Association’s (NBA) policy that prevents the families of coaches entering the bubble-like campus near Orlando, where the season resumed amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Now with the microscope on Giannis and the Milwaukee Bucks down 2-0 to the Miami Heat. That series could be the series that changes everything for Giannis who has expressed himself many times that winning a championship is his only goal

The Miami Heat did it again — and have the Milwaukee Bucks, the No. 1 overall seed in the NBA playoffs, on the brink of leaving the bubble weeks earlier than they anticipated. The biggest fourth-quarter margin in NBA playoff history 115-100 to take a 3-0 lead in the Eastern Conference semifinal series.

OG Anunoby was the hero for the Raptors, and finished with 12 points and 10 rebounds in a very solid game overall. But Kyle Lowry was the one who kept them in it all night long, finishing with 31 points, six rebounds and eight assists, including the in-bounds pass on the game-winner over the outstretched arms of Tacko Fall.