SAN DIEGO — In his first afternoon as a Los Angeles Dodger, Eric Lauer spent some time in left field reflecting on the reminders of his past. He was back in the ballpark where he made his major league debut eight seasons ago. Lauer’s onboarding process with his new team included a conversation with Dodgers pitching coach Mark Prior, who was Lauer’s minor league pitching coordinator when he was coming up through the San Diego Padres’ system.

“It was kind of like a full circle moment for us,” Lauer said as he began what he called a “fresh start” on Tuesday.

Lauer is here out of necessity, a byproduct of the Dodgers’ starting rotation depth that has crumbled since the calendar flipped to May.

The club did not have a single pitcher miss a turn through the rotation in April before Tyler Glasnow went down with back spasms, and before Blake Snell lasted just one start and needed elbow surgery. The Dodgers traded for Lauer, whom the Toronto Blue Jays designated for assignment six months after the left-hander was pitching against Los Angeles in the World Series.

Lauer is penciled in to make his first start for the Dodgers next Tuesday against the Colorado Rockies, though manager Dave Roberts said he will be available as length out of the bullpen as early as Wednesday.

He is the rotation insurance the Dodgers didn’t know they’d need. This could also be the change of scenery that Lauer wanted after he posted a 6.69 ERA in his first eight appearances (six starts) this season. The Dodgers see something in Lauer, who, last season, had a 3.18 ERA while shifting between the rotation and bullpen in Toronto.

That was before Lauer’s velocity dipped from 91.7 mph in 2025 to 90.4 mph this year. That will be some of the Dodgers’ focus with him, general manager Brandon Gomes said.

“We’ve had our guys take a look and we’ll sit down and talk through some stuff, see how much we can do on the fly,” Gomes said.

Lauer pinpointed some mechanical tweaks that he thinks could get him back to the baseline he set a year ago. It was encouraging when Prior presented him with some of the same ideas he already had in mind.

“I’m not 22 anymore, but I think he still has a good grasp on what makes me good and what can make me better,” Lauer said.

The Dodgers see some levers to pull. They also needed a starter and aren’t going to sacrifice giving Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Shohei Ohtani the rest that they’re used to between outings.

The organization is clearly slow playing River Ryan, as the prospect builds up after missing most of the last two seasons with Tommy John surgery. Glasnow has been shut down from throwing. Snell underwent surgery Tuesday to remove three bone spurs from his left elbow. He underwent the same NanoNeedle procedure that Tarik Skubal had earlier this month; the belief is that this will minimize the down time before he resumes throwing, but Snell is still going to miss time.

That leaves Lauer to soak up innings, something he welcomes.

Lauer’s 2026 in Toronto had been fraught. He voiced some frustration with his usage, suggesting that he did not get the type of raise he was seeking in arbitration because he didn’t finish 2025 as a starter. Five of his first six appearances this season came as a starter. After the Blue Jays used him following an opener on April 17, Lauer spoke up again, saying, “I hate it.”

Eric Lauer, on following an opener in today’s #BlueJays game: pic.twitter.com/C6SfeokKGM

— Mitch Bannon (@MitchBannon) April 18, 2026

The left-hander, asked about his past comments on Tuesday, said the full quote was taken “out of context.” Lauer said he has since “cleared up” his feelings with Blue Jays manager John Schneider and pitching coach Pete Walker.

“There was no ill will there, there was no hurt feelings,” Lauer said. “It was a very simple question, I thought, ‘How do you feel about an opener?’ I think if you ask most starters in the league, they would probably have the same response, that they don’t like it. But it doesn’t mean that I’m not willing to do it. It doesn’t mean that I’m not a team player. I’m not gonna have a problem if there is somebody in front of me. It’s part of the game, it’s become part of the game, and we’re all here to win ball games.”

The Dodgers want him to start games, at least until they get healthy. That much has been made clear to Lauer, who joined the team on Tuesday after experiencing travel issues.

“It’s good to just have that clarity and that understanding of, this is what we see out of you, this is where we’re going to use you, this is what we need, this is what we want,” Lauer said. “And when it lines up with what I want and what I feel I can do best to help the team, I think that’s a really good spot to be in.”

The Dodgers have already seen Lauer plenty, including last October. The left-hander tossed 5 2/3 scoreless innings against Los Angeles in the World Series, including 68 pitches in a Game 3 that matched the longest game in World Series history. The first person Lauer spotted in the Dodgers clubhouse Tuesday was Will Klein, who threw 72 pitches and got the win in the 18-inning marathon.

“He introduced himself,” Lauer said, “and I was like, ‘All right, I know you, I remember you.’”

Whose arm was more sore after that night, Lauer or Klein?

“I think his,” Lauer said with a laugh.

The Dallas Mavericks and Jason Kidd are parting ways, the team announced Tuesday, an abrupt ending to the franchise icon’s five-year run as head coach.

Kidd was hired in 2021 to lead a team with Luka Dončić as its centerpiece. The Mavericks went 52-30 games in Kidd’s first season in charge and made a surprise run to the Western Conference finals. Two years later, the Mavericks won the Western Conference and reached the NBA Finals, where they lost a six-game series to the Boston Celtics.

But the situation in Dallas deteriorated quickly after the Mavericks traded Dončić to the Los Angeles Lakers in February 2025, only eight months removed from the team’s finals run.

Former general manager Nico Harrison was the driving force behind the trade, but prominent voices inside the Mavericks organization — namely, minority owner Mark Cuban — alleged that Kidd influenced the trade more than he said publicly.

“That doesn’t justify it for our coach and our general manager to stand up and trade our best player,” Cuban said on the “Intersections” podcast in April.

Days later, Kidd said he was “not part of the process” and that he was made aware the deal was happening only “at the 11th hour.”

The Mavericks on Tuesday also parted ways with Matt Riccardi, who was the team’s assistant general manager when it made the Dončić trade and was promoted to co-interim general manager alongside Michael Finley upon Harrison’s firing in November.

Injuries ruined any chance the Mavericks had of succeeding after they traded Dončic. Anthony Davis, whom Kidd coached on the Lakers, suffered a left adductor strain in his first game with the Mavericks on Feb. 8, 2025. Weeks later, star guard Kyrie Irving tore the ACL in his left knee. Davis and Irving played a total of 25 minutes together in Dallas before Davis was traded to the Washington Wizards in February.

The Mavericks lost 30 of 37 games to close the regular season. On April 12, following Dallas’ regular-season finale against the Chicago Bulls, Kidd said it was difficult to evaluate the Mavericks’ last two seasons because of their litany of injury issues.

“We have to be healthy at some point,” Kidd said. “We want that to be next season. If that is, we can be judged.”

Per league sources, Kidd had interest in moving into a front office role with the Mavericks. The Athletic was first to report in February that was unlikely to happen.

In May, the Mavericks made a splash by hiring championship-winning executive Masai Ujiri as president and alternate governor. Ujiri was noncommittal about Kidd’s future with the Mavericks when asked May 5 if Kidd would be back for a sixth season as coach.

“He’s done a great job, but we are going to look at this thing from head to toe,” Ujiri said then.

In the Mavericks’ news release Tuesday, Ujiri said he believed “this is the right moment for a new direction for our team.”

“We have high expectations for this franchise and a responsibility to build a basketball organization capable of sustained championship contention,” Ujiri said. “We will conduct a thorough, disciplined search for our next head coach and continue to evaluate our entire basketball operations staff to ensure we compete at the standard Mavs fans expect and deserve.”

Last summer, the New York Knicks had interest in hiring Kidd as coach. The Mavericks declined to let Kidd interview for the job, however, and awarded him a contract extension in October. Because of the number of years and money remaining on Kidd’s deal — four years and $40 million, league sources said — there was skepticism in some corners of the NBA that the Mavericks would part ways with him now. But sources with knowledge of governor Patrick Dumont’s thinking insisted all along that Ujiri would have full control to shape the Mavericks organization as he saw fit, which Tuesday’s news made apparent.

Kidd forged strong relationships with both of the Mavericks’ stars, forward Cooper Flagg and Irving, in his time in Dallas. While Flagg, 19, just completed his rookie season and has three years remaining on his current contract, Irving has only one more year left on his deal before he can exercise a player option in summer 2027.

In his stops with the Denver Nuggets and Toronto Raptors, Ujiri chose to hang on to the coaches he inherited — George Karl and Dwane Casey — for multiple seasons. Yet in this instance, Ujiri didn’t push to retain Kidd.

The Mavericks must now find a coach as they continue building around Flagg. Kidd’s time in Dallas is over 15 months after the Mavericks traded Dončić, the superstar Kidd was hired to work with.

Kidd finishes his tenure as Mavericks coach with a 205-205 record.

NEW YORK —  For the second time in as many years, the New York Knicks are in the Eastern Conference finals and found themselves in overtime in Game 1.

The vibe, and the result, was much different this time.

The Knicks overcame a 22-point deficit in the fourth quarter to stun the Cleveland Cavaliers, 115-104, on Tuesday night. Jalen Brunson led all scorers with 38 points, including a heroic fourth-quarter effort that enabled the Knicks to wrestle away a victory from the jaws of defeat.

The Knicks trailed 93-71 with 7:40 left before Brunson got cooking. He scored 15 in the fourth and New York reeled off an 18-1 run to get within striking distance. Landry Shamet’s bouncing 3-pointer (remember Tyrese Haliburton from Game 1 of last year’s conference finals, here at MSG, that beat the Knicks?) with 45 seconds left tied the game at 99.

James Harden responded with a short jumper to regain the lead for Cleveland, only for Brunson to re-tie it at 101 on a short jumper of his own. The Knicks coasted in overtime, outscoring the Cavs 14-3.

Cleveland’s Sam Merrill had a clean look at a 3-pointer that rattled around the rim and off just before the buzzer sounded. The Cavs shot 5-of-17 in the final quarter as their lead collapsed. It was highly reminiscent of the game between these teams here on Christmas Day, in which Cleveland led by 17 in the fourth quarter and lost.

This loss hurts much, much worse for the Cavs, who were coming off a historic Game 7 in the second round Sunday in which they became the third team in NBA history to win a Game 7 on the road by 30 or more points.

The Knicks, meanwhile, hadn’t played since May 10 because they made such quick work of Philadelphia in the second round. Perhaps the layoff had something to do with them falling behind by three touchdowns.

But they got it together in time to set a whole new tone for this year’s conference finals, and devastate the Cavs in the process.

Donovan Mitchell led the Cavs with 29 points and Evan Mobley added 15 points and 14 boards. Mikal Bridges added 18 points for the Knicks, and Karl-Anthony Towns contributed 13 points and 13 rebounds.

Game 2 of the Eastern finals is at 8 p.m. (ESPN) Thursday at Madison Square Garden.

This story will be updated.