Sunday’s story: Round 1 ends and Round 2 begins.
Technically, Round 2 in these NBA playoffs starts before Round 1 ends. The first conference semifinal series - No. 1 Cleveland vs. No. 4 Indiana in the East - will be played just before the Game 7 in the West between Golden State and Houston.
Denver, the No. 4 seed in the West, got into the second round by winning a Game 7 over the Los Angeles Clippers on Saturday and earning a matchup with top-seeded Oklahoma City. The Nuggets-Thunder series starts Monday, as does the East series between Boston and New York.
All times Eastern
6 p.m. - Indiana at Cleveland (TNT)
8:30 p.m. - Golden State at Houston (TNT)
PHOTOS: NBA playoff guide: Who plays when, how to watch, what the odds are
All times Eastern
7 p.m. - New York at Boston (TNT)
9:30 p.m. - Denver at Oklahoma City (TNT)
All time Eastern
7 p.m. - Indiana at Cleveland (TNT)
9:30 p.m. - Minnesota at Houston (TNT) OR Golden State at Minnesota (TNT)
Oklahoma City (+140) is favored to win the NBA title, according to BetMGM Sportsbook, followed closely by Boston (+195).
After that, it’s Cleveland (+500), Minnesota (+1600), Golden State (+3000), Denver (+3500), New York (+5000), Houston (+5000) and Indiana (+6600).
On Thursday, Boston’s Jrue Holiday was named the league’s sportsmanship award winner for the second time.
Other awards so far:
- Atlanta’s Dyson Daniels won most improved player.
- San Antonio’s Stephon Castle won rookie of the year.
- Golden State’s Stephen Curry won the Twyman-Stokes teammate of the year award.
- Golden State’s Draymond Green won the hustle award.
- Cleveland’s Evan Mobley won defensive player of the year.
- New York’s Jalen Brunson won clutch player of the year.
- Boston’s Payton Pritchard won sixth man of the year.
- Cleveland’s Kenny Atkinson wins NBCA coach of the year award.
The league has not announced a schedule for other awards - including MVP and coach of the year - along with All-NBA, All-Rookie and All-Defensive teams.
The highest-scoring games by players so far in this year’s playoffs:
43 - Jamal Murray, Denver vs. LA Clippers, April 29
43 - Anthony Edwards, Minnesota vs. LA Lakers, April 27
40 - Jalen Brunson, New York at Detroit, May 1
39 - Kawhi Leonard, LA Clippers at Denver, April 21
38 - Luka Doncic, LA Lakers at Minnesota, April 27
38 - Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Oklahoma City at Memphis, April 26
38 - LeBron James, LA Lakers at Minnesota, April 25
38 - Jalen Green, Houston vs. Golden State, April 23
Sunday - Round 2 of the playoffs starts.
May 12 - Draft lottery, Chicago.
May 18 or 20 - Game 1, Western Conference finals.
May 19 or 21 - Game 1, 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.
- Preview of Sunday’s Game 7: Warriors-Rockets.
- Series preview for Cavaliers-Pacers and series preview capsule.
- Spurs coach Gregg Popovich steps down.
- Mitch Johnson takes over for Pop in San Antonio.
- Appreciation: Gregg Popovich changed the NBA.
- Grizzlies promote Iisalo to head coach, remove interim tag.
- Damian Lillard has Achilles tendon surgery.
- Giannis Antetokounmpo has a decision to make. Stay or go?
- A look inside the numbers of this season, headed into the playoffs
-Teams making five or more 3-pointers than their opponents are 14-4 so far in these playoffs.
-The LA Clippers’ James Harden played 47 minutes in Game 6 of the Clippers-Nuggets series, the most he ever logged in a non-overtime game. He scored seven points, tying his second-lowest total this season.
-No franchise has three instances of overcoming a 3-1 series deficit in the NBA playoffs. Houston has a chance to be the first on Sunday night when it hosts Game 7 against Golden State. The Rockets did it in 1995 and 2015. Denver and Boston also have pulled off such a comeback twice; seven other franchises have done it once.
-With one Game 7 left to play, this will be the fifth consecutive year that exactly 43 games were needed to complete the first round of the NBA playoffs.
-Sunday’s game will be the 12th between the Warriors and Rockets this season. They’ll be the first teams to meet 12 times in a season since the Rockets and San Antonio did in 1994-95. It’s almost impossible now because no team plays another more than four times in the regular season - but with the way the NBA Cup schedule worked out, Houston and Golden State played five times in the regular season.
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