The Cleveland Cavaliers don’t have much to play for at this time of the season. They’ve secured home-court advantage in the first round of the playoffs and don’t have much of a chance of moving up from the fourth spot to the third with three games left in the season. As of now, that doesn’t seem like it’s going to deter the Cavs from trying to finish strong.

The Cavs could have their full complement of players for Wednesday’s game against the Atlanta Hawks, which could be a preview for their first-round matchup. Cleveland has no players on the injury report due to rest.

That said, Donovan Mitchell could be missing the game with an ankle injury. He twisted his ankle late in the win over the Indiana Pacers on Sunday and sat out against the Memphis Grizzlies the following evening. After Sunday’s game, he told reporters that his ankle was fine and that it wasn’t even worth asking him about. We’ll see if he’s able to go on Wednesday.

The Cavs might be getting two key players back for Wednesday. Both Dean Wade (ankle) and Jaylon Tyson (toe) have been upgraded to questionable. Wade has missed the team’s last seven games. Tyson has been absent for the last nine.

Thomas Bryant will be missing this game with a calf strain.

Unlike the Cavs, the Hawks do have something to play for. Three and a half games separate spots five through 10 in the Eastern Conference standings. The Hawks are likely to get the fifth seed, given they’re a game and a half up on the Toronto Raptors, but there’s a chance that they could fall into the Play-In Tournament depending on how the final three games go.

As such, Atlanta won’t be resting any of their rotation players either. Jock Landale is the only player on a standard contract who will be missing Wednesday’s game.

Victor Wembanyama has been listed as doubtful for Wednesday’s game against the Trail Blazers, but “there’s confidence” he will suit up for one of the Spurs’ last three games, achieving award eligibility, according to ESPN’s Shams Charania.

Wembanyama suffered the injury when he collided with Paul George in the second quarter of the Spurs’ Monday night win over the 76ers. Initially, he went to the locker room only to return to the game before asking to be subbed out before the break. He was ruled out for the second half due to what was described by the team as a rib contusion.

The big man underwent X-rays, which came back negative, but he was expected to have additional tests, according to what Charania said in an earlier appearance on ESPN’s NBA Today. It seems the results were encouraging, since he hasn’t been listed as out for the next game. Still, being listed as doubtful means he’s very unlikely to play.

Rib contusions don’t tend to cause many missed games, with the average time sitting out being 4.4 days and 1.1 games, according to Jeff Stotts of In Street Clothes, an athletic trainer who has been documenting NBA injuries for years.

The Spurs have three games left and have claimed the second seed in the West. Normally, they would err on the side of caution even if everything looks good and shut down Wembanyama for the rest of the regular season. The problem is, not suiting up against the Trail Blazers, Mavericks, and Nuggets could cost Wembanyama some very important individual accolades.

Wembanyama needs to play 20 minutes or more for one more game to get to the misguided 65-game threshold the NBA imposes to be eligible for end-of-season awards. If he does, he’s the favorite to win Defensive Player of the Year, an MVP candidate, and a likely first-team All-NBA selection. Playoff success is the ultimate goal, but Wemby deserves recognition for a fantastic year, which could be denied if he can’t play at least once more in the regular season.

Stephon Castle has also been listed as doubtful for the matchup against the Trail Blazers due to right knee soreness, per the Spurs’ injury report.

Wembanyama is averaging 24.8 points, 11.5 rebounds, 3.1 assists, a steal, and a league-leading 3.1 blocks in just 29.2 minutes per game this season.

CHICAGO (AP) — A day after the Chicago Bulls fired their top two basketball executives, president and CEO Michael Reinsdorf made it clear: He wants coach Billy Donovan to remain in his job.

Reinsdorf said Tuesday that candidates can pretty much forget about bringing in their own coach, assuming Donovan chooses to return after this season.

“If I interview someone and they’re not sold on Billy and they’re not sold on a Hall of Fame coach, they’re not sold on a person who has won championships in college, who has gone deep in the playoffs with Oklahoma City, who I believe every year with the Chicago Bulls given the team he was given I think he achieved really good results,” Reinsdorf said. “Not the results that we wanted, but that’s not because of Billy. If someone’s not interested in Billy as our coach … then they’re probably not the right candidate for us.”

The Bulls made sweeping changes to their front office on Monday, firing executive vice president of basketball operations Arturas Karnisovas and general manager Marc Eversley after a six-year run produced just one playoff appearance.

The 60-year-old Donovan has consistently said he still has a passion for coaching. He will meet with ownership after the season to discuss his future.

Donovan could seek another NBA coaching job or return to the college game, though the most prominent opening is off the table with North Carolina hiring Michael Malone. The Bulls could also give him a bigger say in basketball operations while continuing as coach.

“I don’t think it’s going to take Billy a long time to come to a conclusion on what he wants to do,” Reinsdorf said. “I don’t think the draft or any of that’s going to come into play. The season ends next week. We’ll sit down with Billy as soon as possible, and we’ll find out where his head’s at.”

Donovan told reporters prior to the Bulls’ game at Washington on Tuesday that he needs to see what the organization’s plan is before he makes a decision.

Donovan had a 467-411 record in 11 seasons as an NBA head coach with Oklahoma City and Chicago when the day began. He led Florida to back-to-back NCAA championships during a 19-year run, and was inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in September.

Donovan was arguably the top candidate on the market when the Bulls hired him in September 2020, a few months after Karnisovas and Eversley got their jobs. Chicago was 224-254 during their tenure. The Bulls entered Tuesday at 29-49 and missing the playoffs for the fourth straight year.

“We want to build this for the long term, so I don’t want to be just good for one or two years,” Reinsdorf said. “I want it to be year in and year out, we have a chance to be competitive and win. Maybe some of those years we can go all the way. But it’s about long-term success, not just one- or two-year windows.”

Reinsdorf said he is looking for someone who is “process-oriented” and “not afraid to pull the trigger” to lead the basketball operation. He also wants a better communicator.

“I want someone who’s really strong in communication not just internally within the organization, but also externally when he’s talking to people like you, talking to our fans,” Reinsdorf said. “I think that’s really important. What are we trying to accomplish? What is the plan? Our fans have a right to understand what we’re trying to accomplish so I think that’s incredibly, incredibly important.”

Reinsdorf said the Bulls will hire a search firm, something they didn’t do last time, and that longtime head of basketball operations and current advisor John Paxson will assist in the process. He will also get to meet candidates in person, which he couldn’t do last time because of the pandemic.

Reinsdorf is not sure if the chain of command will remain the same, with a basketball operations chief and a general manager reporting to that person.

“I’m not making that decision now,” he said. “When we start talking to candidates and we start talking to people, I want to hear what their thoughts are. How are they going to build out their organizations? I think that’s really important.”

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AP NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/NBA

MILWAUKEE (AP) — Milwaukee Bucks guard Kevin Porter Jr. has undergone arthroscopic surgery on his right knee and will miss the rest of the season.

The Bucks announced that Porter had undergone the procedure Tuesday in Vail, Colorado. Dr. Tom Hackett at The Steadman Clinic performed the surgery.

“It started eight minutes into the first game (of the season),” Milwaukee coach Doc Rivers said before the Bucks’ game in Brooklyn against the Nets. “When you look at how he played overall, he had a hell of a year and was going to have even a better year but the injury thing caught him eight minutes into our first game and he never really recovered from that.”

The 25-year-old Porter last played on March 17. He has averaged 17.4 points, 7.4 assists and 5.2 rebounds in 38 games this season.

Rivers said Porter told him Sunday that “man, I didn’t come through for you.”

“And I said, ‘No, you’re fine. You just got injured. It’s part of the game and it happens,’” Rivers replied.

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AP freelance writer Denis Gorman in New York contributed to this report.

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AP NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/nba

Cade Horton is done for the year.

The burgeoning Chicago Cubs starting pitcher is set to undergo season-ending surgery after sustaining damage in the ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow, manager Craig Counsell announced Tuesday.

Horton, the runner-up for the 2025 NL Rookie of the Year award, dazzled during his first start of the 2026 campaign, allowing just two runs and one walk over 6 1/3 innings against the Washington Nationals on March 28.

About a week later, on April 3, the right-handed hurler exited in the second-inning vs. the Cleveland Guardians. That’s when Horton’s velocity dropped. He called for an athletic trainer and then left the game with what was later described as a forearm strain.

When speaking to reporters Tuesday, Counsell didn’t specify what procedure Horton will have, and the third-year Cubs skipper said a date for the operation hasn’t been set yet, according to MLB.com.

The Cubs selected the 24-year-old Horton with the No. 7 pick in the 2022 MLB Draft.

Injuries have been a problem for Horton throughout his career. In 2021, as a freshman at Oklahoma, he had Tommy John surgery. He experienced a shoulder setback in 2024, and last year he was sidelined for the playoffs due to a rib issue.

His star potential is undeniable, evidenced by his head-turning first season in the bigs. In 2025, Horton recorded a 2.67 ERA across 118 innings. Along the way, he spun 29 straight frames of shutout ball, recording the longest scoreless innings streak of the season.

Losing Horton is a major blow to a Cubs pitching staff already dealing with several injuries.

On Monday, the team’s Opening Day starter, Matthew Boyd, landed on the 15-day injured list due to a biceps strain. Lefty Justin Steele is healing from his own elbow procedure, which he had last spring. Steele is in line for a return to the majors in the first half of this season, even by Memorial Day, according to ESPN, and Boyd is reportedly expected back sooner than that. Horton has a much longer wait ahead of him.

For the time being, the Cubs will turn to Javier Assad and Colin Rea to make up for lost innings, per The Athletic.

Last week, when the Los Angeles Lakers lost to the defending NBA champion Oklahoma City Thunder by 43 points, Luka Dončić and Austin Reavessuffered injuries that will keep them out at least through the remainder of the regular season.

Five days later, the Lakers are taking on the Western Conference-leading Thunder again, and this time they won’t even have LeBron James in the lineup.

James, who is managing a left foot injury, will miss Tuesday night’s showdown in L.A., the Lakers announced hours before tip-off.

ESPN’s Dave McMenaminreported that, more specifically, James is dealing with left foot soreness. L.A. has already clinched the Pacific Division title and a spot in the playoffs. At 50-28, the Lakers are currently fourth in the West. They’re only a half-game back of the Denver Nuggets, whom they hold a tiebreaker over.

L.A. has four regular-season games remaining. That includes Tuesday’s game versus the Thunder, which marks the first of three games in four nights for JJ Redick’s injury-riddled squad.

Dončić is nursing a left hamstring strain, and the Slovenian superstar is reportedly in Europe seeking specialized medical treatment to speed up his recovery from a setback that interrupted an MVP-caliber campaign. In his first full season with the Lakers, Dončić has posted a league-leading 33.5 points per game. He went off in March, averaging 37.5 across the month, but now he has to wait and see if he’ll even be eligible for the NBA’s end-of-season awards.

Since he finished one game shy of the league’s 65-game minimum for those honors, Dončić’s camp applied for an “Extraordinary Circumstances Challenge,” citing the two games he missed for the birth of his second child.

Dončić’s injury diagnosis is a Grade 2 hamstring strain, and he’s out indefinitely at the moment. Reaves, meanwhile, is working his way back from a Grade 2 oblique strain and is reportedly expected to miss four-to-six weeks. Like Dončić, Reaves has enjoyed a career year in 2025-26. He’s averaging 23.3 points, 5.5 assists and 4.7 rebounds per contest.

Dončić and Reaves are the Lakers’ top scorers this season. James is third on that leaderboard. After a 134-128 defeat to the Dallas Mavericks on Sunday, the 41-year-old described the gut check he experienced when learning his teammates’ injury news.

“It was a shot to the heart obviously and to the chest and to the mainframe with Luka,” James said, via McMenamin. “We got that news kind of quick. … AR was kind of dealing with the [oblique] pain. … We knew he was going to get an MRI, but, yeah, I woke up from my nap yesterday and then saw that news, and I was like, ‘S***.’”

Now James, too, will be out of the Lakers’ lineup for their latest bout with the Thunder.

James, a 22-time All-Star in his NBA-record 23rd season, has appeared in 57 games this season. He missed the first 14 with sciatica, a pain that travels along the sciatic nerve, which runs from the lower back, through the glute and down the leg.

We have a jam-packed episode of The Dunker Spot coming your way! First, Nekias Duncan and Steve Jones look at the top-six in the Western Conference (Thunder, Spurs, Nuggets, Lakers, Rockets, Wolves) and share their biggest questions for each team as we inch closer to the playoffs. From there, the guys shift to the WNBA and react to the Chicago Sky’s shocking trade of Angel Reese to the Atlanta Dream. They explore the logic behind it, evaluate the trade package itself, and discuss Angel’s fit with the Dream. Sticking with the W, the guys give their big takeaways from Friday’s expansion draft and catch up on other news.

If you ever have NBA or WNBA questions, email us at dunkerspot@yahoo.com.

3:33 Oklahoma City Thunder 14:19 San Antonio Spurs 22:12 Denver Nuggets 27:00 Los Angeles Lakers 33:20 Houston Rockets 41:43 Minnesota Timberwolves 47:38 Dream acquire Angel Reese 01:12:46 Expansion Draft reaction 01:21:11 Other WNBA news (Mystics, Aces, Liberty)

🖥️ Watch this full episode on the Yahoo Sports NBA YouTube channel

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