Good morning! Here are the plays everybody will be talking about Thursday.
March Madness comes to the NBA. Because of the NBA's timeout rule that allows teams to then inbounds the ball at mid-court, you don't see really long game-winning, buzzer-beaters at the pro level as often as you do at the college level. But with the Denver Nuggets down two and out of timeouts to the Philadelphia 76ers, they had to go the full length of the court. That, combined with some ugly dribbling, led to Emmanuel Mudiay sinking the prayer of a shot from near mid-court for the win (via Altitude Sports).
LeBron can still fly. With the Toronto Raptors losing a big game to the Boston Celtics, the Cleveland Cavaliers were able to stretch their lead in the Eastern Conference to 2.5 games with 11 games to go and LeBron did it in style. James had a couple of high-flying dunks on the night, but this is the one that got Austin Carr yelling (via Fox Sports Ohio).
Hope for the Lakers. The Lakers lost another game, falling to the Suns 119-107, but we are starting to see glimpses of hope for their future. D'Angelo Russell has been coming on strong towards the end of his rookie season, averaging 18.3 points over the last 13 games. He can also unleash a gorgeous long-distance bounce pass when needed (via Comcast Sportsnet and Bleacher Report).