There are 4 video games on Saturday, 4 extra on Sunday, because the two-month push towards an NBA identify starts. And one of the expected first-round matchups can have Kevin Durant and his Phoenix Suns taking up Kawhi Leonard and the Los Angeles Clippers.
WHAT’S THE NBA PLAYOFF SCHEDULE?
Sacramento has waited virtually 17 years for a playoff sport. Fittingly, the Kings should wait via 3 different video games Saturday prior to they in any case hit the ground.
Saturday: Brooklyn at Philadelphia, then Atlanta at Boston, then New York at Cleveland, then Golden State at Sacramento.
Sunday: Los Angeles Lakers at Memphis, then both Miami or Chicago at Milwaukee, then the Los Angeles Clippers at Phoenix, then both Minnesota or Oklahoma City at Denver.
WHO ARE THE FAVORITES?
Let’s get started with this: FanDuel Sportsbook has odds that counsel it is going to be a Milwaukee vs. Phoenix matchup within the NBA Finals. The Bucks are the identify favorites, and rightfully so since they posted the NBA’s supreme regular-season file and feature home-court merit for the whole lot in their keep within the postseason. Boston has the second-best odds of successful a identify, adopted via Phoenix 1/3, Golden State fourth and Denver and Philadelphia tied for 5th.
The lower-seeded staff is appreciated in each and every collection — except for the Golden State-Sacramento matchup, the place FanDuel’s odds say the sixth-seeded Warriors are important favorites over the third-seeded Kings.
For those who truly need to plan forward, FanDuel may be providing odds at the NBA draft. If you sought after to guess $5,000 on Victor Wembanyama being the No. 1 pick out … you’ll win $25 if you are proper.
WHAT ARE SOME TOP MATCHUPS?
There are some matchups with severe big name energy within the first around, together with:
— LeBron James vs Ja Morant within the Lakers-Grizzlies collection.
— Kawhi Leonard vs. Kevin Durant within the Clippers-Suns collection.
— Stephen Curry vs De’Aaron Fox within the Warriors-Kings collection.
HOW TO WATCH
— NBA playoff video games will probably be broadcast on ESPN, ABC, TNT and NBA TV.
— The NBA Finals will probably be broadcast on ABC starting June 1.
THE IN-LAWS
A couple of days with the in-laws awaits Brooklyn’s Seth Curry. His better half’s father is Philadelphia trainer Doc Rivers; Seth Curry and his daughter Callie had been married since 2019.
RECAPPING THE SEASONS
A glance again on the steady season, the place free-throw taking pictures set information and scoring got here as simply because it has at any level within the closing 50 years:
— Chronology of the season, together with a couple of 71-point video games from Donovan Mitchell and Damian Lillard.
— LeBron James passes Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, turns into NBA all-time scoring chief.
QUOTABLE
“Can’t speedy ahead to the top of the race. That’s a part of human nature and if you have enjoy of having to the mountaintop and completing the process, you know how arduous it’s to do this and the volume of effort mentally and bodily it takes to move via an 82-game season and 4 rounds. of the playoffs. — Warriors guard Stephen Curry, at the psychological problem of successful a identify.
WHO ARE THE PLAYOFF REFEREES?
The NBA decided on 36 referees for Round 1 of the playoffs, with Ray Acosta and Aaron Smith making their debuts as individuals of the playoff personnel.
No girls made the playoff checklist, regardless that 3 got here shut. Lauren Holtkamp, Ashley Moyer-Gleich and Natalie Sago have been all tabbed as playoff alternates.