Soler will reportedly start serving that ban Wednesday, when the Angels play the third game of their four-game road series against the New York Yankees. He piled up three home runs and eight RBI in six games while appealing his initial suspension.
A day after the fracas in Anaheim, in which benches and bullpens cleared to break things up, an appealing López reportedly reached an agreement with MLB to reduce his seven-game suspension to five games. Both players were hit with undisclosed fines.
Here’s what happened before the fight between Jorge Soler and Reynaldo Lopez:
Jorge Soler has RAKED off Reynaldo López in his career with a .591 AVG and 4 homers. Today, Soler homered off Lopez in his first at bat. Then he got hit by a pitch in his second at bat. In this third… pic.twitter.com/267cHj2Sng
The brawl went down April 7 in the fifth inning of a 7-2 Braves win.
Soler, who notably earned World Series MVP honors while helping the Braves win a title in 2021, smashed a two-run home run against his former team in the first inning. It was his fifth homer off López, against whom Soler is now a career 14-for-23 hitter. Two innings later, López pelted Soler with a 96-mph fastball.
In the fifth frame, López missed on a pitch that played some chin music and hit the backstop. After Angels first baseman Nolan Schanuel stole second, the confrontation began to take form, first with a staredown between López and Soler. Eventually, Soler started to approach the mound. He picked up speed after López winged out his arms.
Soon enough, they were throwing hands. López was even swinging with the baseball still in his right hand. Amid the melee, Braves manager Walt Weiss tackled Soler to the ground, and Angels star Mike Trout pushed López away. Both Soler and López were ejected from the game.
“Obviously, I have good numbers against him,” Soler said afterward through interpreter Jobel Jiménez, per MLB.com. “After the home run and getting hit by a pitch after that, and then he missed way too high and close to my head.
“At this level, you can’t miss like that.”
López didn’t seem to see it that way.
“It’s just a shame, the situation and how things unfolded,” he said at the time through interpreter Franco García, according to The Athletic. “On my part, there was never any intent to hit him at any point.”
Soler homered against the Braves again less than an hour after the news of the original suspensions broke.
For a guy who is the tallest player in the NBA, Victor Wembanyama doesn’t seem to care much about ceilings.
Many doubted Wemby and the San Antonio Spurs’ legitimacy before the season. Vegas projections gave them just the 17th-best odds to win the championship and an over/under win total of 44.5. With Wembanyama leading the way with an impressive MVP case, they smashed that figure with 20 games remaining in the schedule. The team finished 62-20, the second-best record in the NBA.
They’re way ahead of schedule, and it’s clear they’re setting their sights higher:
They want a championship.
(Joseph Raines/Yahoo Sports Illustration)
Despite the Spurs outpacing their win projection by more than any other team in the league, the oddsmakers still aren’t totally sold on their title makeup. According to BetMGM, the team is +450 to win the NBA title, giving them implied odds of 18%, which is worlds better than the preseason prognostication, but still not a gushing review. They remain a distant second behind the reigning champion Oklahoma City Thunder, who currently show implied odds of 44%, more than double the Spurs’ figure.
A confidence gap that large, one would assume the Thunder have dominated the Spurs this season, but the complete opposite has happened. The Spurs have soundly overwhelmed Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s club, winning four of the five matchups this season, with three of those San Antonio victories coming by double-digits.
So what’s holding the Spurs back from a rosier outlook? Ah, playoff experience.
Speaking to ESPN’s Scott Van Pelt after a 40-point performance earlier this month, Wembanyama wasn’t on board with the idea that the Spurs’ inexperience will hurt them.
“We don’t have experience, right?” Wembanyama said. “Screw it.”
The 22-year-old is on to something. In an injury-riddled NBA where young teams are flourishing in an increasingly uptempo playoff environment, the Spurs are closer to a championship than it appears. In today’s NBA, the most-experienced playoff teams seem to be the ones getting screwed in the postseason. And the Spurs can use that to their advantage.
After LeBron James and Stephen Curry dominated the NBA Finals for nearly a decade, the league has seen a revolving door at the top. The league has crowned a new champion in each of the last seven years, the longest stretch of championship parity the league has ever seen.
Why can’t Wemby’s Spurs be the next in line?
The Spurs’ youth: A bug or feature?
Many point to the Spurs’ inexperience as the thing that will lead to their eventual downfall. This will be the NBA playoff debut for Wembanyama, a moment the basketball world has been waiting for with anticipation. At times, there will be Spurs lineups where the entire five-man group will have never played in the NBA playoffs before. Dylan Harper, Stephon Castle, Keldon Johnson, Devin Vassell and Julian Champagnie have never stepped foot in a playoff atmosphere in this league.
They do have some vets. Currently, the Spurs have a minutes-weighted average age of 25.4 years old, which is a tad “older” than the current Thunder roster, which checks in at 25.2 this season, per Basketball Reference. De’Aaron Fox, at 28 years old, has been in the playoffs once before with the Sacramento Kings, but that lasted only one series. The 33-year-old Harrison Barnes is the Spurs’ version of Alex Caruso, having won the 2015 championship with the Golden State Warriors and adding multiple postseason runs to his resume. If not Barnes, the Spurs have Luke Kornet, the backup center who won a championship ring with the 2022 Boston Celtics.
There’s no sugarcoating it, though. This Spurs team will be one of the least experienced clubs in the playoff field. According to Yahoo Sports research, the Spurs collectively have only 5,615 minutes of playoff experience, which is fourth lowest among the 20 postseason teams, with only the Charlotte Hornets, Orlando Magic and Toronto Raptors clocking in with less playoff playing time. In fact, the Spurs have less than half as many playoff minutes on their resume as the postseason average (11,356).
As for Finals experience, the Spurs have just three players who have reached that level of the postseason, which is even fewer than the youthful Hornets. And let’s just say that those three players — Barnes, Kornet and Kelly Olynyk — weren’t exactly in the Finals MVP conversations.
But here’s the twist. The team’s youth can no longer be considered a barrier to the Larry O’Brien Trophy. If anything, head coach Mitch Johnson and the team should be empowered by what they saw last June.
The 2025 NBA Finals was a matchup marked by relative inexperience. Gilgeous-Alexander, the Finals MVP, had never been in the NBA Finals and neither had the best player on the other team, Tyrese Haliburton. For the Thunder, the only player with Finals experience last season was Caruso.
As for their age, the Thunder made history by becoming the first Gen Z champion, led by a fleet of players who weren’t alive for the Bulls’ Jordan era. With an average age of 25.6 years old, they became the youngest NBA champion since the 1976-77 Portland Trail Blazers led by Bill Walton. Almost exactly the same age as this year’s Spurs.
The Spurs can take note that youth was on OKC’s side, just as it was with the Pacers, who outran their Eastern Conference opponents to the tune of 98.5 possessions per game, the fastest of any East squad. The Thunder ramped it up even more. Built on blazing speed and disruptive length, Thunder defenders covered 8.8 miles of ground per game last postseason, the most for any champion in the player-tracking era, according to NBA advanced camera data.
That should play into the Spurs’ favor as they are indeed led by players who are wet behind the ears.
The NBA’s uptempo playing style raises a philosophical question: Is youthful inexperience a bug or a feature? The way the NBA is trending, the answer isn’t so clear.
Is there a postseason tax?
Finals teams are increasingly getting younger and the game is getting faster. Warriors head coach and future Hall of Famer Steve Kerr told me last postseason that injuries are taking their toll, and it’s becoming more of a young man’s game.
“Who’s more likely to be able to withstand the rigors of the pace and space and the game-every-other-day schedule — the younger players or the older players?” Kerr said. “The younger guys are.”
At some point, experience becomes a tax. As chronicled at Yahoo Sports, Jayson Tatum’s Achilles’ tendon snapped last postseason after logging more minutes than any player since 2017-18. He was one of the most “experienced” players in the NBA and it may have caught up to him. Tatum was one of five players in the 2025 All-Star Game that missed at least one game due to injury in the playoffs, which would have been an extreme high in the 1990s but has lately become the norm. Consider that in a five-year span from 1994-2000 (there was no All-Star game in 1999), there were four injured All-Stars combined in the playoffs, which is fewer than we witnessed in last year’s postseason — or any of the postseasons since 2018.
And that’s not counting Haliburton, who technically didn’t miss a game with his Achilles tear in Game 7 of the NBA Finals, but otherwise couldn’t play in the biggest moments of his career. Damian Lillard, playing in his 10th playoff run, also tore his Achilles against Indiana in the first round, ending his tenure with Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Milwaukee Bucks earlier than expected.
All of these star injuries create variance in the playoffs and open up the playing field to more title contenders. This isn’t to say the four-seeded Pacers wouldn’t have sniffed the Finals if their path wasn’t paved with injury-riddled opponents. But it’s certainly a factor when considering their remarkable Cinderella run to the Finals. With Evan Mobley, Darius Garland and Donovan Mitchell hobbled last season, the Cleveland Cavaliers were missing star players in the conference semifinals against Indiana, and the Pacers promptly ran them off the floor.
Many expected the Celtics and Cavs to face off in the Eastern Conference finals and neither of them made it there in part because of injuries to their star players. Would things have been different if the stars were healthy? We’ll never know, and frankly, Pacers fans shouldn’t have to answer for it when they look up at the 2024-25 Eastern Conference championship banner.
But going forward, the injury variable is one that likely will continue to scramble the championship calculus.
There is a notion that teams have to have a playoff run under their belt before they can be taken seriously. Last year’s Thunder seem to be classic examples of this “you have to walk before you can run” concept, having been ousted in the Western Conference semifinals by the Dallas Mavericks in 2024 before going all the way last year. While that’s true, the Wemby Spurs actually have more playoff minutes under their belt than last year’s OKC team, which ranked second fewest in the playoff field.
The tide might be turning and we might be due for a Wemby run to the title. In fact, after the first round in the 2025 postseason, the less-experienced team went 7-0 in series matchups, including the NBA Finals when OKC topped the Pacers. All that so-called experience didn’t cash in for greybearded teams like Golden State, the Lakers and the Clippers, who were all first-round outs. While we’re here, let’s think about it. Are the extraordinary miles on the tires of the Warriors, Lakers and Clippers’ rosters considered a virtue or a burden? It can’t be both. In today’s NBA, the Spurs’ relative inexperience could just as well be seen as “fresh legs” that benefited the Thunder and Pacers last year.
There’s always a chance the Spurs are the ones who get hit with the injury bug. After all, Wembanyama barely made the 65-game cut for the big awards and Fox missed a chunk of the season with a hamstring injury. The health questions may already be hitting on some level with Harper leaving the season finale early tending to a thumb injury and Wembanyama missing late-season games with a rib contusion.
But the Spurs have broken the mold this season and seem poised to break through some more. The outcome of recent NBA Finals is a cemetery of closely cherished maxims. Teams can’t win the title with the 3-ball … until Steph happened. Cleveland is cursed … until LeBron came home. A 35-year-old coach can’t get Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum over the hump … until Joe Mazzulla did. The Thunder are too young … until last year happened. You get the idea.
One might think a 22-year-old can’t win it all in his first go-round in the NBA playoffs. But the new injury-riddled NBA demands us to expect the unexpected. If you put a ceiling on Wemby, he might just say screw it and break through that, too.
What do you primarily use Spotify for? Enjoying music? Keeping up with your favorite podcasts? Listening to audiobooks? Well, the next time you open it (at least on Android) you might just use it to shop for a book—not just an ebook, mind you, but a physical book.
Spotify is officially a bookseller
As reported by TechCrunch, Spotify is now selling physical books on its Android app to users in the U.S. and the U.K., with plans to roll out the feature to iPhones next week. The company first announced the initiative back in February, revealing that it was partnering with Bookshop.org to facilitate the transactions. This isn’t your typical corporate agreement, either: Bookshop.org is designed to connect buyers to their local independent bookstores, rather than some enormous conglomerate or distributor. Bookshop says that 50% of the book sale price goes directly to the publisher (who then pays the author), while 30% goes to the bookstore you choose upon purchase. Another 10% goes towards a profit-sharing fund that is distributed among all the bookstores the site works with.
It might seem a bit silly to think of buying a book through Spotify, an app originally meant solely for music. But like many platforms, Spotify has adapted and grown its offerings over the years. It already sold audiobooks, so why not print and e-books? In effect, Spotify is now directly competing with Amazon as a place you can go for all your literary needs, whether you prefer to read or listen to your books. Maybe a Spotify-branded e-reader is up next—though the last time Spotify tried to sell its own device, it didn’t end up working out too well.
Note that there isn’t a dedicated storefront for buying books on Spotify. Instead, you’ll see a “Get a copy for your bookshelf” button appear under individual audiobooks. When you choose this, you’ll be taken to that book’s Bookshop.org page.
Spotify’s “Page Match” and “Audiobook Recaps” are getting updates too
In addition to this news, Spotify also announced an update to Page Match, its feature that lets you sync your place in a book using your phone’s camera. Now the feature supports over 30 languages, including French, German, and Swedish. Spotify’s audiobook summarization feature, “Audiobook Recaps,” is also now accessible on Android. Previously, this feature was exclusive to iOS, and let users listen to a summary of what they had already listened to in an audiobook.
There have also been updates to audiobook charts across the app, which show customers which books are currently the top sellers. Audiobook charts recently launched in Germany, and users in the U.S. and U.K. now have a dedicated chart for the most popular kids and family-oriented audiobooks, too.
We have reached the 2026 NBA playoffs and it’s time to start handicapping Round 1 series angles. Hopefully, most of you are familiar with my work throughout the NFL season writing here on Yahoo, but the truth is that I am mainly an NBA guy handicapper. I even named my dog — a Great Pyrenees and Poodle mix — LeBron.
In betting, I approach the NBA exactly the same as my NFL. My goal is from the time my writeup is posted on the website until the time the game starts, that the bet and odds I beat the consensus closing line. Closing-line value (CLV) is the priority in my process, and because I mainly bet on NBA main markets that have tons of money traded on them, the pre-tipoff line becomes a very efficient measure of value.
Hopefully, the stellar NFL results will translate over to the hardwood. Here at Yahoo during the NFL season, I hit over 60% of my bets in write-ups (38-25), with average odds of -112 (52.8% breakeven rate) and grading at 1 unit per writeup, finished +11 units.
With Round 1 set to get underway on Saturday, here are a few futures bets to place now to get ahead.
No. 6 Atlanta Hawks (+240) vs. No. 3 New York Knicks (-300)
While it’s important to explore the basketball angle, this is pretty a straightforward (yet nerdy) math-based handicap. Follow me here …
The Knicks opened Game 1 as 5.5-point favorites against the spread and -210 on the moneyline. My first step is to find the true probability of a win based on the moneyline price, but remove the house cut of betting into MGM’s price (the vig). The true odds were -185, which translates to a 65% chance to win Game 1 — which means the Hawks inversely would have a 35% chance to win Game 1. Let’s hold this number to be true for Games 1,2,5 and 7 — which would all be played at Madison Square Garden.
The next step is to calculate the win probability for games in Atlanta. Using a playoff-weighted home-court advantage, the Hawks should be 2-point favorites in Games 3, 4 and possibly 6, which means a win probability of about 55% Atlanta and 45% Knicks.
Using (nerdy terms incoming) binomial distribution and recursive probability formulas to determine each team’s chances are to win four games first, the Knicks have a 64.12% chance to win the series and the Hawks 35.88%. Translating these to American betting odds, it shows a -179 Knicks and +179 for Hawks.
Getting the Hawks at +240 for the series, using the Game 1 prices as an anchor to math this out, is objectively a fantastic edge.
From a basketball perspective, Dyson Daniels is the perfect lengthy and physical guard to take the lead assignment on Jalen Brunson. Daniels has proven to give Brunson fits and the efficiency numbers against the Hawks bear that out. Jalen Johnson will take the first assignment on Karl Anthony-Towns, and Onyeka Okongwu will guard Josh Hart, leaving him open from 3 to add extra rim protection. The Hawks will allow Hart to beat them from deep.
On the offensive end, the Hawks have so many point-of-attack players that the Knicks will have nowhere to hide Brunson. Whether it is CJ McCollum, Nickeil Alexander-Walker, Johnson or Daniels, they have four players who can attack off the dribble and a big in Okongwu who can space the floor and shoot. The matchup shows why the Hawks rested all of their stars and did not prioritize seeding, because the six seed offered a better matchup than the five seed for Atlanta.
From a player prop perspective, Josh Hart over on points and 3s, and Okongwu over on 3s made are definitely going to be looks for me.
Bet: Hawks to win series (+240)
No. 4 Los Angeles Lakers (+475) vs. No. 5 Houston Rockets (-650)
Using the same math process as above, this series price should be closer to -1500.
Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves are two looming variables hanging over this series, as it’s still unknown if one or both of these players will play in it; Doncic is dealing with a hamstring injury and Reaves with an oblique injury. While getting to a Game 7 would make this sentence sound stupid, I actually think the Rockets going on the road to start this series creates an advantage.
It is very likely that Doncic and/or Reaves, if they were to return, would do so in the middle of the series. The Rockets will have a strong health edge for the first two games in Los Angeles, and will possibly return back home to Houston with a series lead before Doncic and Reaves return. The Lakers took two games in a row against Houston after the All-Star break when the Lakers started surging. Let’s remember the Rockets let go of fourth-quarter leads in both of those games, they were very tight and the Lakers are unlikely to be in mid-season form while returning one or two players from injury into a physical playoff environment. The Rockets ended the season hot, and they are the team to back here.
It’s common in the betting space to think no -650 line provides value because it is too expensive. I vehemently disagree with that. If the expected hit rate exceeds the implied odds, the bet is good no matter the price.
Bet: Rockets to win series (-650)
Title value bet: OKC Thunder to win the NBA Finals (+135)
While not a series bet, now is the time to bet on the Thunder to repeat as NBA champions. When the NBA regular season ended on Sunday, the Denver Nuggets beating the San Antonio Spurs was one of the last games to conclude. This forced Denver into the No. 3 seed and being on the opposite side of the Western Conference playoff bracket as Oklahoma City.
Now it is guaranteed that the Thunder will only face one of the Spurs, Nuggets or Timberwolves in the playoffs (the three biggest threats in the West), and it would be in the Western Conference finals. Simply getting to that series would make the Thunder an odds-on favorites to win the title.
This is a fantastic price to bet now, and one that won’t be available in a few days and likely for the rest of the season unless the Thunder find themselves losing late in a series.
The Charlotte Hornets have been both an incredibly exciting team to watch and one of the NBA’s best over the second half of the season. Charlotte went 18-9 after the All-Star break to make the NBA play-in tournament as the No. 9 seed, and the Hornets defeated the Miami Heat 127-126 on Tuesday night to stay alive in their hopes for making the playoffs.
Charlotte will face the loser of the Philadelphia 76ers-Orlando Magic game on Wednesday, and if the Hornets win, they’ll be the No. 8 seed and face the Detroit Pistons in the first round. It would be the first time Charlotte has made the playoffs since the 2015-16 season.
It would also mark another step on the path for one bettor to win $5 million.
A bettor at DraftKings placed a $12,500 futures wager on the Hornets to win the NBA title at 400-1 odds in early February, which would pay out $5 million if Charlotte wins the championship.
The Hornets have never made the conference finals, let alone the NBA Finals in the franchise’s history.
It’s admittedly quite a long-shot wager, as even if the Hornets make it to the postseason, they’ll have their hands full against Detroit, the top seed in the East. The Pistons were 3-0 against the Hornets in their regular-season matchups.
However, with the way Charlotte plays offense and its volume of 3s, perhaps there’s a path for the Hornets to pull a few upsets — and help put this bettor in at least a position to hedge his wager.
Sometimes scouting the free agent waiver wire can feel overwhelming, with the stats and the tape and the shifting roles, not to mention the Paradox of Choice. It’s a complicated world, and it’s easy to lose your balance and bearings.
Whenever I feel that dizziness in my fantasy games, I come back to two simple words: plausible upside.
You should always be looking to turn over the bottom piece of your fantasy roster, and plausible upside is all that really matters. We say plausible because you can’t wait for proof in this game; if you do, any pickup candidate will likely be long gone to an opponent. And we say upside because that’s where the cheddar is — the idea that a player could improve, blossom, outkick expectations. It’s likely more of your pickups will fail than click, but you only need to be right a handful of times to significantly impact your season.
With these themes in play, let’s talk about Mick Abel, the 24-year-old right-handed starter for the Twins.
Abel’s had an up-and-down professional career since the Phillies took him in the middle of the first round back in 2020. He’s consistently been listed on the prospect boards, though he never made it past No. 36 on any sheet. His career stats in the minors are underwhelming: 4.24 ERA, 1.367 WHIP. He always had juicy strikeout numbers, but he’s also walked 4.9 batters per nine innings, a bloated rate that’s hard to overcome.
Still, the skills would often flash. Abel posted a 2.31 ERA and 1.16 WHIP for Philly’s Triple-A club last year, and was the centerpiece of the Jhoan Duran trade last July. He was even better in five St. Paul starts (1.85/0.945), though brief stints with the Phillies and Twins (covering 39 innings) were not successful (6.23 ERA).
So Abel entered this year as a potential sleeper, likely to win a spot in the Minnesota rotation. Maybe the timing was right for the 24-year-old to harness his control and become a legitimate MLB pitcher.
After winning Minnesota’s No. 4 slot in camp, Abel had a slow liftoff. The Orioles and Rays knocked him around for nine runs over 7.1 innings. But he regrouped with six smooth, shutout innings against Detroit last week, and then came Tuesday’s gem against Boston:
7 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 10 K
We often talk about the idea that any pitcher who strikes out 10 in a game is likely worth an immediate pickup on spec alone. But when you tie those whiffs to zero walks — and this coming from a pitcher who’s generally battled control issues — then you really get excited. And to push it over the cliff, watch the video. Look at Abel dominating with an assortment of pitches — fastball, curve, slider, change. You can see why he was a first-round pick almost six years ago.
Perhaps Abel drew the Red Sox at the right time, a struggling offense, but the next assignment is even better. On Tuesday, he’ll throw against a Mets lineup that’s 28th in OPS and doesn’t have signature hitter Juan Soto. I’ll definitely have that game on a primary set, to watch both Abel and New York’s young ace, Nolan McLean. Must-see TV.
If Abel’s recent form has you curious, note he’s rostered in just 16% of Yahoo leagues. There are seats remaining on this bus.
While Abel’s story is just starting, we’re on the back-9 with Anaheim’s Jorge Soler. He’s in his age-34 season and he wasn’t an effective hitter last year (.215/.293/.387). But a back problem cost Soler about half of the 2025 campaign, and perhaps it cut into his production when he was on the field.
All I know is he looks just fine now. He’s already clubbed five homers on the year, and while a .231 average isn’t great, a .342 OBP and .508 slugging percentage plays anywhere. Here’s his home run from Tuesday night — let me know when it lands.
It’s a little too early to say it’s real, but the Angels lineup hasn’t been a joke. The LAA offense ranks sixth in runs and second in home runs. Six of the nine regulars have an OPS+ over 100. Zach Neto, a healthy Mike Trout, Jo Adell, Soler — there’s some fun in the OC.
Soler’s still a free agent in over half of Yahoo leagues. Although he’s primarily a DH, he does carry outfielder eligibility in our game.
In some of my head-to-head leagues, starting pitcher Spencer Arrighetti was a targeted player this week. He’s back in the Houston rotation and set to start Wednesday. Arrighetti’s profile is similar to Abel’s — big strikeout numbers, clunky walk totals. But the onboarding spot is a dream, a turn against the Rockies away from Coors Field. Colorado’s road stats are passable this year — albeit in a tiny sample — but consider the recent history. The Rockies have been last or second-to-last in road OPS for each of the past five years.
In some leagues, Arrighetti is a watch-and-react. In some other formats, he’s worth a grab before he ever throws a pitch. You can season to taste and decide for your pool. He’s currently 21% rostered in Yahoo leagues.
I’m going to do an extended bullpen audit on Friday, but save chasing is something fantasy managers think about every day. With that in mind, note that Jeff Hoffman and Trevor Megill both had blown saves Tuesday. The situation might be more pressing for Megill, given that he’s now allowed seven runs in two appearances, and the Brewers are openly considering a change.
Abner Uribe (who hasn’t been great himself) would be the first speculative add for Megill, though I wonder if Aaron Ashby (19 K in 12.2 innings) has some sleeper value. Louis Varland has been sharp for Toronto (10.1 IP, 0 R, 3 BB, 15 K) and makes sense if Hoffman needs a break or a role change.
While there is no shame losing to a highly competent offensive team like Charlotte in the play-in tournament, you can forgive every single Heat fan on Earth if they feel slighted today.
LaMelo Ball grabbing the ankle of Bam Adebayo, while the latter was airborne, causing the All-Star big man to fall to the floor on his backside and miss the rest of the game, is a tough pill to swallow. It’s even tougher that Ball wasn’t ejected in what should have been a clear Flagrant 2.
However, there’s nothing Miami can do about it, and now its season — which was overwhelmingly pedestrian — is over.
The organization had some solid finds, like the trade for Norman Powell, and some exciting moments, but overall the experience of Heat basketball was a resounding sigh. This team feels stuck. Perhaps it is.
Outside of a 53-win season in 2021-22, the Heat have won between 37 and 48 games since 2014-15 and have now been in the play-in tournament so often the league should name it after them.
Is this the summer they change their own fortunes? Here’s hoping.
2025-26 finish
Record: 43-39, 10th in Eastern Conference. Lost to the Charlotte Hornets in the play-in tournament.
Highlight of the season
C’mon, how could it be anything but Adebayo’s 83-point performance on March 10? Yeah, he was gunning for it shamelessly and was spurred on by everyone in the organization, but this was a random late-season game against the Wizards, which he turned into must-see TV. It was a cool moment, full stop.
Players signed for next season
Bam Adebayo
Tyler Herro
Davion Mitchell
Nikola Jović
Kel’el Ware
Jaime Jaquez Jr.
Kasparas Jakučionis
Key free agents
Andrew Wiggins (player option)
Norman Powell (UFA)
Pelle Larsson (team option)
Projected salary
$125,535,741
Projected draft picks
Nos. 13 & 41
Draft focus: We’ll see if the Heat make selections that fit their style, or if they make selections on behalf of others, as they continuously try to trade for a superstar. If they stick with these selections, they need to prioritize youth and high upside. Don’t go for an older rookie who doesn’t have the necessary potential to reach a higher level. Take a swing, regardless of position, and see if it hits.
Roster-building tools
This is a franchise that’s very expensive. The cap number does not include Wiggins, who can opt into $30.1 million, nor does it include whatever Powell re-signs for, assuming he’s retained.
If those contracts are added to the books, the Heat could find themselves in a situation where they will only have the tax MLE to play with, which likely won’t move the needle much.
Needs and goals
Well, we know what their goal is. It’s superstar or bust, and that has seemingly been their mantra for years.
They will absolutely be in the running for Giannis Antetokounmpo, as we know they were before the trade deadline, and he’s most likely their No. 1 priority this summer, as he both fulfills their goal and solves a huge need. It’s time for the Heat to do something.
The Western Conference’s fourth-seeded Los Angeles Lakers will take on the fifth-seeded Houston Rockets in the first round of the 2026 NBA playoffs. The two franchises haven’t faced each other in the postseason since 2020, when LeBron James’ Lakers dismantled James Harden’s Rockets en route to the championship.
What we know about the Lakers
The Lakers outperformed expectations all season, despite a porous defense (115.5 points allowed per 100 possessions) and a net rating (+1.5) that belied their standing. They were the NBA’s best team in the clutch, compiling a 22-8 record and a massive net rating (+26) whenever scores were within five points in the game’s final five minutes.
Credit Luka Dončić, an offensive supernova. He led the league in usage rate (38.1%) as well as field-goal attempts (22.8), 3-point attempts (10.8) and free-throw attempts (10.1) per game. He had the ball in his hands a lot, which is usually a good thing, since he led the Dallas Mavericks to the 2024 NBA Finals with a roster constructed for him.
These Lakers were originally built for LeBron James, before Dončić fell into their lap last season. It took the majority of this season for second-year head coach JJ Redick to sort out their dynamic, but once he did — leaning heavier into Dončić’s usage, slotting Austin Reaves in as a secondary playmaker and shifting James to arguably the league’s best third option — the Lakers took off, posting a 15-2 record for March.
Then, in an embarrassing loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder on April 2, the Lakers lost both Dončić (hamstring) and Reaves (oblique) to injury. The status of both for their first-round series remains in serious doubt, as Dončić is reportedly slated to be reevaluated this week, potentially thrusting a 41-year-old James back into a lead role.
What we know about the Rockets
If it has felt all year like the Rockets are missing something, it is because they are. Houston lost point guard Fred VanVleet to season-ending right ACL surgery in September and center Steven Adams to season-ending ankle surgery in January.
These were heavy blows for a team that fancied itself a championship contender in the aftermath of acquiring Kevin Durant over the summer. Gone was the guy who got them organized and the guy who got him more chances to get them organized.
So, Rockets head coach Ime Udoka went about constructing an offense from two All-Star pillars: Durant, the 37-year-old assassin, and Alperen Şengün, more of a bully. It featured fits and starts, especially in fourth quarters, largely dependent upon how much Udoka trusted second-year guard Reed Sheppard, which wasn’t often enough.
Amen Thompson is not such a bad starting point for a defense, either. He can hound Dončić, Reaves or James, depending on who has the ball. Houston’s length at wing, where Durant, Thompson, Jabari Smith Jr. and Tari Eason mostly patrol, helped it field a top-10 defense, despite the presence of Sheppard and Şengün on most units.
For much of the second half of the regular season, the Rockets were the team most everyone else in the top half of the Western Conference playoff bracket wanted to face, if only because they felt so disjointed. But on the campaign’s final day, with the possibility of facing the Denver Nuggets, Houston drew the hobbled Lakers instead.
Head-to-head
The Lakers won their regular-season series with the Rockets, 2-1.
Houston had its full contingent (sans VanVleet) for the first meeting on Christmas. A starting lineup of Durant, Smith, Eason, Thompson and Şengün ran the Lakers out of the gym, outscoring them by 25 over 13 minutes of a 119-96 win. That lineup is +38 (on 59/60/92 shooting splits!) in 25 minutes of two games against the Lakers this season.
The two teams met in Houston twice over a 48-hour span in March, as they were jockeying for seeding, and Dončić scored 76 points across a pair of narrow victories. The Rockets were without Şengün (and Adams) in the second of the three meetings.
Dončić and Reaves were practically staggered across all 96 minutes of the two wins, so it is hard to fathom, if neither are healthy, just how much of an onus falls on James.
Matchup to watch
LeBron James vs. Kevin Durant!
Honestly, why complicate this. These are two of the greatest, if not the two greatest, players of their generation. Assuming Dončić and Reaves are not available, at least for the start of this series, James and Durant will somehow be the offensive engines of this West’s Nos. 4 and 5 seeds at years 23 and 18 of their careers, respectively.
James and Durant have met three times in the NBA Finals and never on the same side of the playoff bracket. LeBron won the first meeting with a powerhouse Miami Heat team in 2012. KD won in 2017 and 2018 with his mighty Golden State Warriors.
Rockets forward Kevin Durant (7) dribbles as Los Angeles Lakers forward LeBron James (23) defends during the first quarter at Toyota Center.
IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect / REUTERS
This could be the coda to their rivalry. It likely will not be a deciding factor in it. Neither team is considered a serious championship contender, even with Dončić and Reaves. The offensive limitations of Houston, and the defensive limitations of Los Angeles, likely limit their ceilings, as do the ages of their superstar leaders.
James, even without Dončić and Reaves this season, is leading lineups that have outscored opponents by 11.3 points per 100 meaningful possessions, according to Cleaning the Glass. He can still do everything on a basketball court at the age of 41.
And we get to watch. Still.
Key question
Can LeBron shoulder the necessary load if Dončić and Reaves are limited?
James is still capable of carrying an incredible burden on his own — in limited minutes. He has spent about 18 possessions per game on the court without Dončić and Reaves this season, and the Lakers have had great success, outscoring opponents by 11.3 points per 100 meaningful possessions, per Cleaning the Glass.
At least Durant can share the load with Şengün. Thompson, Sheppard and even Smith, all of them can do — and have done — a little more with the ball than their roles call for in the absence of VanVleet and Adams. Houston still has weapons.
It is not the same with the Lakers. Dončić and Reaves do most of the creation now, and if they aren’t there, James will have to do it almost entirely on his own. Maybe Marcus Smart or Rui Hachimura can get themselves a shot, but the Lakers are built on role players — Deandre Ayton, Jaxson Hayes, Luke Kennard, Jake LaRavia — who can support Los Angeles’ three offensive dynamos with rim running or floor spacing.
There is no better player ever, maybe, at tying those pieces all together than James. In his prime, much like Dončić does now, James could shoulder a league-leading usage rate, orchestrating almost everything on the floor, practically for 48 minutes.
Remember how he carried the Cleveland Cavaliers to the 2018 NBA Finals? Durant does. That one wasn’t a fair fight. This one may be, if James can turn back the clock. It could be too much to ask of a 41-year-old frame. It’s incredible, really, that it’s come to this, if Dončić and Reaves cannot go: LeBron James, doing everything, once more.
Prediction: Rockets in six
On April 2, we were told the injuries to both Dončić and Reaves were pretty significant. Like, maybe a month-long or more. To think either will be available for this series, let alone at full strength, is a long-shot bet. Just ask the bookmakers.
The middle of April is prime buy-low season in fantasy baseball. We are deep enough into the season that some managers are losing their patience with slow starters, but we aren’t deep enough to take most of the small-sample data too seriously.
In most situations, it’s too early to make a buy-low deal for an elite player. Most managers will stick with their superstars through a short burst of struggle. By all means, feel free to shoot your shot with an offer for Julio Rodríguez, Ronald Acuña Jr. or José Ramírez. But don’t be surprised if those offers are quickly declined.
Targeting the next tier of players makes the most sense. Players selected in rounds 5-12 are good enough to make a major impact when they are playing well. But they also have a low enough ceiling to be traded when they are in a slump.
Here are some players who fit that description.
Ivan Herrera, C, Cardinals
As was mentioned in yesterday’s article about catchers, Herrera has shown much better skills this season than his results suggest. The 25-year-old hits second in a Cardinals lineup that has been better than expected and he should be a fine source of batting average and counting stats the rest of the way. Some managers may look at his .200 average and low homer total (one) and believe that he is a fringe asset at the position.
Alec Burleson, 1B/OF, Cardinals
At first glance, we are at the outset of another ho-hum season for Burleson. After all, he’s hitting .270 with two homers and a .786 OPS. But a deeper dive reveals some signs of encouragement. The 27-year-old has taken his plate discipline from good to elite by logging a 14.7% walk rate and an 8.0% strikeout rate. And he is hitting the ball harder than ever before (92.8 mph average exit velocity). His expected stats are much better than his actual marks. This could be the start of a breakout year.
Ketel Marte, 2B, Diamondbacks
In terms of March ADP, Marte is the best player on this list. Although the second baseman is off to a disappointing start (.212 average, .702 OPS), his 92.4 mph average exit velocity is the second-highest mark of his career and doesn’t correlate with his .208 BABIP. Marte may miss a bit of time each year, but he’s one of the most consistent hitters in baseball and should be hitting .270 by the end of April.
Trevor Story, SS, Red Sox
The buy-low window on Story (.471 OPS) should be wide open. After all, the shortstop disappointed fantasy managers for three straight years before finally exceeding expectations last season. Many managers who bought into the resurgence must be kicking themselves for drafting someone with such a lengthy list of injuries and unproductive stretches.
I would want a major discount on Story. But I haven’t lost sight of the upside he showed when he produced 25 homers and 31 steals last season.
Michael Harris II, OF, Braves
The trade offer for Harris is easy to write — he was mostly ineffective over the previous two seasons and is off to a slow start (.641 OPS) this year. But the underlying numbers show that Harris could be on the verge of taking his game to another level. He’s hitting the ball harder than ever before (92.1 mph average exit velocity) and has career-best marks in xBA (.304) and xSLG (.606). Harris swiped 20 bases in three of his four seasons and is ready to post a career-best homer total.
Kyle Bradish, SP, Orioles
Bradish is off to a disappointing start, mostly thanks to an elevated 14.8% walk rate. The rest of his stats look fine, including a 27.9% strikeout rate. He is keeping the ball in the yard (one homer allowed), and his 3.20 xERA is much lower than his actual mark (5.27). I would be excited to acquire Bradish, who logged a 2.78 ERA and a 1.05 WHIP across 44 starts from 2023-25, at a discount and hope that his walk rate comes down.
Jesús Luzardo, SP, Phillies
If there is one player I want to acquire on this list, it’s Luzardo. His 6.23 ERA may be more deceiving than the ERA of any other pitcher. The southpaw owns an impressive 26:4 K:BB ratio and has struck out at least seven batters in each of his starts. Luzardo has been felled by brutal luck (.359 BABIP) and terrible timing (46.5% strand rate). His fastball velocity is up this year, and he could perform at an ace level going forward.
Danny Palencia, RP, Cubs
Although Palencia has pitched well this year (0.00 ERA, 1.00 WHIP), some of his managers may be growing impatient with his lack of saves. The low total (one) is simply bad luck, as the Cubs are off to a slow start with an 8-9 record. Chicago is still expected to be a postseason contender, and Palencia is locked in as its closer. He’s an excellent candidate to accumulate 35 saves.
