Fact: pancakes ruin basketball dreams

Good morning. Let’s basketball.

BALLIN: Ricky O’Donnell introduces you to Lonzo Ball, the SoCal kid as unique a prospect as we’ve seen in some time. He’s a 6’5 point guard heading to UCLA who rifles outlet passes and has embraced the Currian shooting style. Can’t wait to see him in the Pac-12.

CHILL: All the panic over the Cavaliers not living up to wildly outrageous expectations seems misguided.

MAN: Someone has got to tell D.J. Stephens that no one invited him into The Eternal Dunk Contest with Zach LaVine and Aaron Gordon.

SCORES GALORE ...

BKN 87, CLE 107
ORL 114, IND 94 (Damn, Orlando)
CHI 103, HOU 100
DEN 95, NOP 101
LAC 117, OKC 119
BOS 109, POR 116

PLAYOFF PICTURE: Bracket and updated tiebreaker guide here. Chicago’s totally still in this after two narrow wins. The C’s are slipping toward and might end up as the No. 6 seed after all. The Rockets continue to make life difficult from themselves, and the Blazers are inching up on Memphis for No. 5. It begs the question: would you rather see Memphis-L.A. (winner gets Golden State) and OKC-Portland (winner gets S.A.) or Memphis-OKC (winner gets S.A.) and Portland-L.A. (winner gets G.S.)? I think I want to see Blazers-Clippers enough to nod to the latter scenario.

GUARDING STEPH: The fascinating story of Warriors security manager Ralph Walker, who was a fifth-round pick decades ago and was on the Oakland Police detail that responded to the Latrell Sprewell-P.J. Carlesimo incident.

BEATING THE BEST: Alex Wong on the importance of the 1995-96 Raptors beating the history-making Bulls to growth of basketball in Toronto.

HUMBLEBRAG: Dennis Schroder totally locked his keys in his car so he could show off his car on Instagram.

HITTING THE WALL: Jesus Gomez on the fundamental issues the Wizards need to fix.

MARCH GLADNESS AND MARCH SADNESS: Mike Rutherford with the best and worst of March Madness to date.

[PEACE SIGN]: Chris Herring on why Arron Afflalo might not be long for New York.

WAIT, WHAT? Jason Terry, who is currently playing for the Houston Rockets, interviewed for the coaching gig at UAB. This dude interviewed for the job on Thursday and then went out and played 18 minutes that night! This feels unprecedented.

WELPVILLE: Why it’s so bad Syracuse and North Carolina are meeting in the Final Four.

LOOK, YOU TRY TO DUNK ON A SUSPICIOUS PANCAKE, YOU GET A LINK IN GMIB.

ACCURATE: Russ Bengtson writes that the Lakers have no winners.

YEP: Dave Zirin on where the Lakers can stick their bro code.

THE GREATEST JORDAN DUNK TATTOO OF ALL-TIME (GJDTOAT).

ON THE AIR TONIGHT: Your ESPN doubleheader features Cavaliers-Hawks at 8 p.m. ET followed by Celtics-Warriors at 10:30. Mavs-Pistons and Raps-Grizz are two other games of note. No primetime ABC game Saturday due to the men’s Final Four, but Sunday gives up OKC-Houston (3:30 p.m. ET). The women’s Final Four is Sunday night; UConn plays at 6 Eastern.

Happy Friday. See you next time.