{"id":714048,"date":"2026-04-19T16:58:32","date_gmt":"2026-04-19T16:58:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/714048\/"},"modified":"2026-04-19T16:58:32","modified_gmt":"2026-04-19T16:58:32","slug":"nba-postseason-guide-schedule-stories-betting-odds-how-to-watch-and-more","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/714048\/","title":{"rendered":"NBA postseason guide: Schedule, stories, betting odds, how to watch and more"},"content":{"rendered":"

The NBA playoffs are underway.<\/p>\n

Home teams swept Saturday’s four games, and one of the teams that lost has an even bigger problem on its hands \u2014 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.<\/p>\n

Cleveland, Denver, New York and the Lakers \u2014 with LeBron James and Bronny James on the floor together as the first father-son duo to share the court in a playoff game \u2014 all protected home court for 1-0 series leads.<\/p>\n

Donovan Mitchell (32 points for Cleveland in its win over Toronto) was Saturday’s high scorer and \u2014 surprise! \u2014 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.<\/p>\n

There are four other series openers on Sunday: Philadelphia-Boston, Phoenix-Oklahoma City, Orlando-Detroit and Portland-San Antonio.<\/p>\n

Saturday recaps<\/p>\n

\u2014 Cavaliers 126, Raptors 113 to take 1-0 series lead. Donovan Mitchell hits 30 again. <\/p>\n

\u2014 Nuggets 116, Timberwolves 105 to take 1-0 series lead. Chris Finch was displeased. <\/p>\n

\"Los<\/p>\n

Los Angeles Lakers forward LeBron James looks to make a pass during the first half of an NBA basketball game against the Utah Jazz, Sunday, April 12, 2026, in Los Angeles. Credit: AP\/Jayne Kamin-Oncea<\/p>\n

\u2014 Knicks 113, Hawks 102 to take 1-0 series lead. Jalen Brunson didn’t waste words. <\/p>\n

\u2014 Lakers 107, Rockets 98 to take 1-0 series lead. Kevin Durant sidelined for Houston. <\/p>\n

Stories of note<\/p>\n

\u2014 Kerr unsure if he’ll coach Warriors next season <\/p>\n

\u2014 Some news and notes going into the postseason <\/p>\n

\"Phoenix<\/p>\n

Phoenix Suns head coach Jordan Ott, left, talks with Suns guard Jordan Goodwin during the second half of an NBA play-in tournament basketball game against the Portland Trail Blazers, Tuesday, April 14, 2026, in Phoenix. Credit: AP\/Ross D. Franklin<\/p>\n

\u2014 Playoff preview: Thunder seeking another title <\/p>\n

\u2014 Victor Wembanyama set for his postseason debut <\/p>\n

\u2014 Heat equipment manager needs organ transplants <\/p>\n

\u2014 Natalie Sago the 3rd female ref picked for playoffs <\/p>\n

\u2014 The view from Vegas says the West is the best <\/p>\n

Awards eligibility<\/p>\n

Turns out, Minnesota’s Anthony Edwards was on at least one awards ballot \u2014 even though his appeal to get on the ballot for MVP, All-NBA and more was denied.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

NBA awards voters had to turn their ballots in by Friday.<\/p>\n

Sunday\u2019s games<\/p>\n

1 p.m. EDT \u2014 Game 1, Philadelphia at Boston (ABC)<\/p>\n

3:30 p.m. EDT \u2014 Game 1, Phoenix at Oklahoma City (ABC)<\/p>\n

6:30 p.m. EDT \u2014 Game 1, Orlando at Detroit (NBC\/Peacock)<\/p>\n

9 p.m. EDT \u2014 Game 1, Portland at San Antonio (NBC\/Peacock)<\/p>\n

Monday’s games<\/p>\n

7 p.m. EDT \u2014 Game 2, Toronto at Cleveland (Peacock\/NBCSN)<\/p>\n

8 p.m. EDT \u2014 Game 2, Atlanta at New York (NBC\/Peacock)<\/p>\n

10:30 p.m. EDT \u2014 Game 2, Minnesota at Denver (NBC\/Peacock)<\/p>\n

Tuesday’s games<\/p>\n

7 p.m. EDT \u2014 Game 2, Philadelphia at Boston (Peacock\/NBCSN)<\/p>\n

8 p.m. EDT \u2014 Game 2, Portland at San Antonio (NBC\/Peacock)<\/p>\n

10:30 p.m. EDT \u2014 Game 2, Houston at LA Lakers (NBC\/Peacock)<\/p>\n

Betting odds<\/p>\n

Defending champion Oklahoma City (+115) is favored to win the NBA title, according to oddsmakers.<\/p>\n

The Thunder are followed by San Antonio (+450), Boston (+600), Denver (+1100) and Cleveland (+1200).<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

The longest shots in the playoff field are Portland and Orlando (+75000).<\/p>\n

Key dates<\/p>\n

\u2014 May 2, 3 or 4: Conference semifinals begin.<\/p>\n

\u2014 May 10: NBA draft lottery.<\/p>\n

\u2014 May 10-17: NBA draft combine.<\/p>\n

\u2014 May 17 or 19: Eastern Conference finals begin on ESPN and ABC.<\/p>\n

\u2014 May 18 or 20: Western Conference finals begin on NBC and Peacock.<\/p>\n

\u2014 June 3: Game 1, NBA Finals on ABC. (Other finals dates: June 5, June 8, June 10, June 13, June 16 and June 19).<\/p>\n

\u2014 June 23: Round 1, NBA draft<\/p>\n

\u2014 June 24: Round 2, NBA draft<\/p>\n

Quote of the day<\/p>\n

\u2014 \u201cI 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.\u201d \u2014 the Lakers’ LeBron James, after he and son Bronny James played for 3 minutes, 50 seconds together in Game 1 against Houston.<\/p>\n

Stats of the day<\/p>\n

\u2014 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).<\/p>\n

\u2014 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).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The NBA playoffs are underway. Home teams swept Saturday’s four games, and one of the teams that lost…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":714049,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3772],"tags":[208,7,75,306,473,305,193,3846,164,135,150,189,6,179,471,474,2148],"class_list":{"0":"post-714048","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cleveland-cavaliers","8":"tag-atlanta-hawks","9":"tag-basketball","10":"tag-boston-celtics","11":"tag-cavaliers","12":"tag-charlotte-hornets","13":"tag-cleveland","14":"tag-cleveland-cavaliers","15":"tag-clevelandcavaliers","16":"tag-golden-state-warriors","17":"tag-los-angeles-clippers","18":"tag-los-angeles-lakers","19":"tag-miami-heat","20":"tag-nba","21":"tag-oklahoma-city-thunder","22":"tag-portland-trail-blazers","23":"tag-san-antonio-spurs","24":"tag-wires-bot"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116432439072160495","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/714048","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=714048"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/714048\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/714049"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=714048"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=714048"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=714048"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}