The NBA playoffs are underway.
Home teams swept Saturday’s four games, and one of the teams that lost has an even bigger problem on its hands - Houston is unsure when Kevin Durant’s new knee injury will allow him to play. Durant took some shots in warmups, but mobility evidently remains an issue and he sat out the Rockets’ loss to the Los Angeles Lakers.
Cleveland, Denver, New York and the Lakers - with LeBron James and Bronny James on the floor together as the first father-son duo to share the court in a playoff game - all protected home court for 1-0 series leads.
Donovan Mitchell (32 points for Cleveland in its win over Toronto) was Saturday’s high scorer and - surprise! - Denver’s Nikola Jokic had a triple-double in the Nuggets’ win. There have been 35 playoff triple-doubles since 2023; Jokic has 16 of them, while the other 407 players who have logged time in postseason games in that span have combined for 19.
There are four other series openers on Sunday: Philadelphia-Boston, Phoenix-Oklahoma City, Orlando-Detroit and Portland-San Antonio.
Saturday recaps
- Cavaliers 126, Raptors 113 to take 1-0 series lead. Donovan Mitchell hits 30 again.
- Nuggets 116, Timberwolves 105 to take 1-0 series lead. Chris Finch was displeased.
- Knicks 113, Hawks 102 to take 1-0 series lead. Jalen Brunson didn’t waste words.
- Lakers 107, Rockets 98 to take 1-0 series lead. Kevin Durant sidelined for Houston.
Stories of note
- Kerr unsure if he’ll coach Warriors next season
- Some news and notes going into the postseason
- Playoff preview: Thunder seeking another title
- Victor Wembanyama set for his postseason debut
- Heat equipment manager needs organ transplants
- Natalie Sago the 3rd female ref picked for playoffs
- The view from Vegas says the West is the best
Awards eligibility
Turns out, Minnesota’s Anthony Edwards was on at least one awards ballot - even though his appeal to get on the ballot for MVP, All-NBA and more was denied.
Edwards was eligible for the NBA’s clutch player of the year award. The reason: Finalists for that trophy were not determined by games played but rather by a polling of NBA coaches.
There were 14 players eligible for that award, the others being Boston’s Jaylen Brown, New York’s Jalen Brunson, Detroit’s Cade Cunningham, the Los Angeles Lakers’ Luka Doncic, Houston’s Kevin Durant, Oklahoma City’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Cleveland’s James Harden, Atlanta’s Jalen Johnson, Denver teammates Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray, the Los Angeles Clippers’ Kawhi Leonard, Philadelphia’s Tyrese Maxey and San Antonio’s Victor Wembanyama.
NBA awards voters had to turn their ballots in by Friday.
Sunday’s games
1 p.m. EDT - Game 1, Philadelphia at Boston (ABC)
3:30 p.m. EDT - Game 1, Phoenix at Oklahoma City (ABC)
6:30 p.m. EDT - Game 1, Orlando at Detroit (NBC/Peacock)
9 p.m. EDT - Game 1, Portland at San Antonio (NBC/Peacock)
Monday’s games
7 p.m. EDT - Game 2, Toronto at Cleveland (Peacock/NBCSN)
8 p.m. EDT - Game 2, Atlanta at New York (NBC/Peacock)
10:30 p.m. EDT - Game 2, Minnesota at Denver (NBC/Peacock)
Tuesday’s games
7 p.m. EDT - Game 2, Philadelphia at Boston (Peacock/NBCSN)
8 p.m. EDT - Game 2, Portland at San Antonio (NBC/Peacock)
10:30 p.m. EDT - Game 2, Houston at LA Lakers (NBC/Peacock)
Betting odds
Defending champion Oklahoma City (+115) is favored to win the NBA title, according to oddsmakers.
The Thunder are followed by San Antonio (+450), Boston (+600), Denver (+1100) and Cleveland (+1200).
Detroit, the No. 1 seed in the East but now the third betting choice on that side of the bracket, is +1700, just ahead of New York (+2000). After that, nobody has better odds than the Los Angeles Lakers (+8000). The Lakers were +2500 before Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves got hurt, then went to as high as +30000, and their odds got much shorter after Saturday’s Game 1 win over Houston.
The longest shots in the playoff field are Portland and Orlando (+75000).
Key dates
- May 2, 3 or 4: Conference semifinals begin.
- May 10: NBA draft lottery.
- May 10-17: NBA draft combine.
- May 17 or 19: Eastern Conference finals begin on ESPN and ABC.
- May 18 or 20: Western Conference finals begin on NBC and Peacock.
- June 3: Game 1, NBA Finals on ABC. (Other finals dates: June 5, June 8, June 10, June 13, June 16 and June 19).
- June 23: Round 1, NBA draft
- June 24: Round 2, NBA draft
Quote of the day
- “I was on the floor with my son, like in a playoff game. That’s probably the craziest thing that’s ever happened to me in my career. It was just so cool to be out there with him, and his brother and his sister and his mom in the building, and his grandma. That’s just insane. My mom gets to watch her son and her grandson during the playoffs. That’s crazy.” - the Lakers’ LeBron James, after he and son Bronny James played for 3 minutes, 50 seconds together in Game 1 against Houston.
Stats of the day
- Saturday was the 150th different day this season with at least four games on the schedule. Of those 150, it was only the third time that home teams went undefeated (4-0 Saturday, 6-0 on Dec. 28, 5-0 on March 9).
- The Lakers took only 66 shots Saturday against the Rockets. That was the fewest by any team in a playoff game since 2020 (coincidentally, that was the Rockets against the Lakers) and the fewest by any team in any game since Dec. 9, 2022 (Sacramento, vs. Cleveland).
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AP NBA: https://apnews.com/nba
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