NBA playoff guide: Who plays when, how to watch, what the odds are
By The
Associated Press
The Minnesota Timberwolves are back in the NBA's final four, returning to the Western Conference finals. The Oklahoma City Thunder could join them with a win on Thursday night.
And in the East, Boston — in its first game since Jayson Tatum ruptured his Achilles tendon — stayed alive against New York.
The NBA playoffs started with 16 teams, and the field is now down to six. Minnesota made the West finals for the second consecutive season, beating a Golden State team that won Game 1 of the matchup with the Timberwolves — then went 0-4 in the games where Stephen Curry couldn't play because of his strained hamstring.
Minnesota awaits the Oklahoma City-Denver winner in the West finals.
The Indiana Pacers still await their matchup for the East title as well. Boston staved off elimination by topping New York, cutting the Knicks' lead in that series to 3-2.
The only game Thursday is the Thunder-Nuggets matchup.
All times Eastern
8:30 p.m. — Oklahoma City at Denver (ESPN)
All times Eastern
8 p.m. — Boston at New York (ESPN)
No games scheduled.
Oklahoma City (-135) is now an even bigger favorite to win the NBA title, according to BetMGM Sportsbook. And Minnesota (+550) jumped into the second-choice spot after clinching its trip to the West finals.
From there, it's New York (+600), Indiana (+650), Boston (+1500) and Denver (+3000).
Now we know — almost, anyway — the schedules for Round 3 of the NBA playoffs, the conference finals.
The Boston-New York winner will have home-court advantage over Indiana in the East finals. Game 1 is Wednesday, followed by Game 2 on May 23, Game 3 on May 25, Game 4 on May 27, Game 5 on May 29, Game 6 on May 31 and a Game 7 would be June 2. All those games are 8 p.m. Eastern starts on TNT.
The West finals schedule is nearly set, with the Oklahoma City-Denver winner to have the home-court edge on Minnesota: Game 1 will be either Sunday or Tuesday, depending on whether Oklahoma City wins Thursday, and Game 2 will follow two days later.
From there: Game 3 is May 24, Game 4 is May 26, Game 5 is May 28, Game 6 is May 30 and Game 7 would be June 1.
Mark your calendars, then start your engines.
For the first time since 2013, Indianapolis will play host to the Indianapolis 500 and a Pacers home game on the same day.
It'll happen May 25. The race starts the day, then Game 3 of the East finals is that night in Indy.
There's no word yet on when the NBA will announce this season's MVP. It'll be Oklahoma City's Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Denver's Nikola Jokic or Milwaukee's Giannis Antetokounmpo.
Also coming in the next few weeks: the All-NBA, All-Rookie and All-Defensive teams.
Other awards so far:
— Cleveland's Kenny Atkinson won coach of the year. He also won the same award from the National Basketball Coaches Association.
— Boston's Jrue Holiday won the social justice award and the sportsmanship award.
The highest-scoring games by players so far in this year's playoffs:
48 — Donovan Mitchell, Cleveland vs. Indiana, May 6
44 — Nikola Jokic, Denver at Oklahoma City, May 13
43 — Donovan Mitchell, Cleveland vs. Indiana, May 9
43 — Jamal Murray, Denver vs. LA Clippers, April 29
43 — Anthony Edwards, Minnesota vs. LA Lakers, April 27
42 — Jayson Tatum, Boston at New York, May 12
42 — Nikola Jokic, Denver at Oklahoma City, May 5
40 — Jalen Brunson, New York at Detroit, May 1
39 — Jalen Brunson, New York vs. Boston, May 12
39 — Kawhi Leonard, LA Clippers at Denver, April 21
Sunday or Tuesday — Game 1, Western Conference finals.
May 21 — Game 1, Eastern Conference finals.
June 1 — Last possible date for Game 7 of the Western Conference finals.
June 2 — Last possible date for Game 7 of Eastern Conference finals.
June 5 — Game 1, NBA Finals. (Other games: June 8, June 11, June 13, June 16, June 19 and Game 7, if necessary, will be June 22.)
June 25 — NBA draft, first round.
June 26 — NBA draft, second round.
Dallas had 1.8% odds to win the No. 1 pick in the draft lottery — but overcame those odds and now has the opportunity to draft Cooper Flagg. The Mavericks won the lottery on Monday night in Chicago.
There have been five wins by teams that trailed by 20 points or more so far in these playoffs. That's the most in any postseason during the play-by-play era, which started with the 1997 playoffs.
The biggest deficits that were successfully overcome:
29 — Oklahoma City at Memphis, April 24 (Thunder won 114-108)
20 — Indiana vs. Milwaukee, April 29 (Pacers won 119-118)
20 — New York at Boston, May 5 (Knicks won 108-105)
20 — Indiana at Cleveland, May 6 (Pacers won 120-119)
20 — New York at Boston, May 7 (Knicks won 91-90)
— Minnesota put on the best postseason 2-point shooting performance in NBA history on Wednesday night. The Timberwolves shot 76.6% on 2s, going 36 for 47 on shots from inside the arc. The previous record in that department was 75.6% by Philadelphia in a 2022 playoff win over Toronto. Julius Randle was 11 for 12, Rudy Gobert 8 for 9 and the Wolves’ reserves were a combined 7 for 8 on 2s in the series-clinching win over the Warriors.
— From 1996 through 2023, zero No. 6 seeds made the conference finals. It now has happened twice in two seasons: Indiana last year and Minnesota this year.
— The Warriors went 0-6 in their final six road games without Stephen Curry this season, losing them by an average of 15.3 points.
“We had a shot, but things didn't go our way. But like I said, Minnesota deserves the credit. They were the better team.” — Golden State coach Steve Kerr.
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