{"id":726540,"date":"2026-05-05T19:09:25","date_gmt":"2026-05-05T19:09:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/726540\/"},"modified":"2026-05-05T19:09:25","modified_gmt":"2026-05-05T19:09:25","slug":"nba-tipoff-round-2-of-the-playoffs-continues-tuesday-with-cavs-pistons-lakers-thunder-pro-national-sports","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/726540\/","title":{"rendered":"NBA tipoff: Round 2 of the playoffs continues Tuesday with Cavs-Pistons, Lakers-Thunder | Pro National Sports"},"content":{"rendered":"

LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers begin their quest to try to take down the defending NBA<\/a> champion Oklahoma City Thunder on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the New York Knicks are on a historic heater.<\/p>\n

The NBA playoffs continue Tuesday with a pair of Game 1s in the second round, with the Lakers-Thunder and Cavaliers-Pistons getting their series started.<\/p>\n

The Thunder and Pistons are the top seeds in their respective conferences, though they had very different experiences in the first round. Oklahoma City crushed the Phoenix Suns in a four-game sweep<\/a> while the Pistons were pushed to seven games<\/a> before getting past the Orlando Magic.<\/p>\n

The Knicks get a day to rest after becoming the first team in NBA history to win three straight playoff games by at least 25 points. New York routed the Philadelphia 76ers 137-98 in Monday’s Game 1.<\/p>\n

Tuesday’s schedule<\/p>\n

\u2014 Game 1, Cleveland at Detroit, 7 p.m. EDT (Peacock\/NBCSN)<\/p>\n

Odds: Detroit by 3.5.<\/p>\n

Both teams are coming off seven-game grinds in Round 1, and will have to refocus quickly. At least it won’t be a long trip for the Cavaliers; by air, their flight to Detroit is only 96 miles.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Game 1, LA Lakers at Oklahoma City, 8:30 p.m. EDT (NBC\/Peacock)<\/p>\n

Odds: Oklahoma City by 15.5.<\/p>\n

A team with LeBron James, as a 15.5-point underdog, in a playoff game? The only thing that has come close to that in the last 15 years is when James and Cleveland were 12.5-point underdogs to Golden State in an NBA Finals game in 2018.<\/p>\n

Wednesday’s schedule<\/p>\n

\u2014 Game 2, Philadelphia at New York, 7 p.m. EDT (ESPN)<\/p>\n

Odds: New York by 6.5.<\/p>\n

Jalen Brunson scored 35 points in the opener as the Knicks rolled in Game 1. The 76ers \u2014 who had a gritty effort to overcome the Celtics in the first round \u2014 will need to bounce back with a similar performance.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Game 2, Minnesota at San Antonio, 9:30 p.m. EDT (ESPN)<\/p>\n

Odds: San Antonio by 9.5.<\/p>\n

Anthony Edwards made an unexpected return from a knee injury for the Timberwolves and helped the team to a Game 1 win. The Spurs will need a little more offense in Game 2 to supplement Victor Wembanyama’s monstrous defensive presence.<\/p>\n

Monday recap<\/p>\n

\u2014 Knicks 137, 76ers 98<\/a> for a 1-0 New York series lead. Philadelphia tries to respond after a beatdown<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Timberwolves 104, Spurs 102<\/a> for a 1-0 Minnesota series lead. Anthony Edwards to the Spurs: \u201cI’m back!\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

Awards watch<\/p>\n

A breakdown of this season’s NBA awards:<\/p>\n

\u2014 Twyman-Stokes Teammate of the Year<\/a>: DeAndre Jordan, New Orleans.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Hustle Award<\/a>: Moussa Diabat\u00e9, Charlotte.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Defensive Player of the Year<\/a>: Victor Wembanyama, San Antonio.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Clutch Player of the Year:<\/a> Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Oklahoma City.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Sixth Man of the Year:<\/a> Keldon Johnson, San Antonio.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Sportsmanship Award:<\/a> Derrick White, Boston.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Most Improved Player:<\/a> Nickeil Alexander-Walker, Atlanta.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Rookie of the Year:<\/a> Cooper Flagg, Dallas.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Executive of the Year:<\/a> Brad Stevens, Boston.<\/p>\n

Among the announcements still to come:<\/p>\n

\u2014 Most Valuable Player: Gilgeous-Alexander, Wembanyama or Denver’s Nikola Jokic.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Coach of the Year: Detroit’s J.B. Bickerstaff, San Antonio’s Mitch Johnson or Boston’s Joe Mazzulla.<\/p>\n

Betting odds<\/p>\n

Defending champion Oklahoma City (-140) is favored to win the NBA title, according to oddsmakers.<\/p>\n

The Thunder were followed by San Antonio (+350), New York (+900), Detroit (+1700), Cleveland (+2000) and the Los Angeles Lakers (+2500). Philadelphia (+3500) is next, followed by Minnesota (+10000).<\/p>\n

Some neighborly rivalries are underway<\/p>\n

Expect plenty of fans of visiting teams in the stands around the NBA during Round 2, especially in the Eastern Conference.<\/p>\n

By car, it’s only 100 miles between the arenas in Philadelphia and New York and only 168 miles between the arenas in Detroit and Cleveland. That means it’ll be relatively easy for fans who want to hit the road to do some cheering.<\/p>\n

The West series aren’t exactly drive-able. It’s 1,248 miles between arenas in San Antonio and Minneapolis, and 1,330 miles between the ones in Los Angeles and Oklahoma City \u2014 but Lakers fans are everywhere, so it surely won’t be all Thunder fans in OKC.<\/p>\n

Key dates<\/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

\u201cSame as last series. They don\u2019t get any extra points for going up big tonight,\u201d 76ers veteran Paul George said after their lopsided loss to the Knicks. \u201cWe\u2019ll be ready for Game 2.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stats of the day<\/p>\n

\u2014 Wembanyama had 11 points and 15 rebounds and set an NBA postseason record with 12 blocks in San Antonio’s Game 1 loss. He\u2019s the third player to get a triple-double in the playoffs including blocks since the league began tracking blocks in 1973-74.<\/p>\n

\u2014 The Knicks shot 63% from the field in their Game 1 win, including a blistering 51% (19 of 37) from 3-point range.<\/p>\n

AP NBA: https:\/\/apnews.com\/nba<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers begin their quest to try to take down the defending NBA…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":726541,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3789],"tags":[7,559,4034,192,4032,251,135,4033,4031,6,68184,68185,66],"class_list":["post-726540","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles-clippers","tag-basketball","tag-clippers","tag-la","tag-la-clippers","tag-laclippers","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-clippers","tag-losangeles","tag-losangelesclippers","tag-nba","tag-pro_national_sports","tag-pronational_sports","tag-sports"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116523549560380616","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/726540","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=726540"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/726540\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/726541"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=726540"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=726540"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=726540"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}