Road teams and buzzer-beaters remain the story of this year's NBA playoffs.
And now, there's a giant injury concern for Golden State surrounding Stephen Curry's hamstring as well.
Tyrese Haliburton and the Indiana Pacers became the third road team in a two-day span to erase a big deficit, beating the Cleveland Cavaliers 120-119 after being down by 20 points. For the Pacers, it was another rally from seven points down in the final minute, just like the one they pulled off to oust Milwaukee in Game 5 of their first-round series. And for Haliburton, it was another game-winner — this time, a 3-pointer — with about a second left.
Golden State went into Minnesota and won Game 1 of that Western Conference series 99-88. The Warriors are now bracing for Curry — who left in the second quarter Tuesday night — to miss some time with a hamstring issue. He will be further examined on Wednesday.
Wednesday's slate has a pair of Game 2s: New York at Boston and Denver at Oklahoma City, the road teams both looking for 2-0 leads in those series.
Wednesday's national TV schedule
All times Eastern
7 p.m. — New York at Boston (TNT)
9:30 p.m. — Denver at Oklahoma City (TNT)
Thursday's national TV schedule
All times Eastern
8:30 p.m. — Golden State at Minnesota (TNT)
Friday's national TV schedule
All times Eastern
7:30 p.m. — Cleveland at Indiana (ESPN)
10 p.m. — Oklahoma City at Denver (ESPN)
Saturday's national TV schedule
All times Eastern
3:30 p.m. — Boston at New York (ABC)
8:30 p.m. — Minnesota at Golden State (ABC)
Betting odds
Oklahoma City (+170) is favored to win the NBA title, according to BetMGM Sportsbook, followed closely by Boston (+200).
Cleveland's odds took a big hit after it fell into a 2-0 series hole against Indiana. The Cavaliers are now at +1000, followed by Denver (+1300), Minnesota (+1400), Golden State (+1500), Indiana (+1600) and New York (+2800).
This is the closest the odds have been from lowest to highest so far in these playoffs. And Denver's odds, about two weeks ago, were around 125-1; backers who took advantage of that must be thrilled right about now.
Award season
On Monday, Kenny Atkinson of the Cleveland Cavaliers was announced as the NBA coach of the year. It was a sweep for Atkinson; he already had been announced as the winner of the award given out by the coaches' association.
On Tuesday, Oklahoma City's Sam Presti won executive of the year. And on Wednesday, Boston's Jrue Holiday won the NBA's social justice award — less than a week after he won the sportsmanship award for the second time in his career.
Other awards so far:
— Boston's Jrue Holiday won the sportsmanship award.
— 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.
The league has not announced when MVP, as well as the All-NBA, All-Rookie and All-Defensive teams, will be revealed.
Scoring leaders
The highest-scoring games by players so far in this year's playoffs:
48 — Donovan Mitchell, Cleveland vs. Indiana, May 6
43 — Jamal Murray, Denver vs. LA Clippers, April 29
43 — Anthony Edwards, Minnesota vs. LA Lakers, April 27
42 — Nikola Jokic, Denver at Oklahoma City, May 5
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
Key upcoming events
May 12 — Draft lottery, Chicago.
May 18 or 20 — Game 1, Western Conference finals.
May 19 or 21 — Game 1, Eastern Conference finals.
June 2 — Last possible date for Game 7 of Eastern Conference finals.
June 3 — Last possible date for Game 7 of the Western 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.
Stories of note
— Preview of Wednesday's games: Knicks-Celtics, Nuggets-Thunder.
— New Suns GM Brian Gregory ready to get started.
— Gregg Popovich's new job: ‘El Jefe’
— 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.
— A look inside the numbers of this season, headed into the playoffs
Comeback season
There have been four wins by teams that trailed by 20 points or more so far in these playoffs. That's the most in any postseason during the play-by-play era, which started with the 1997 playoffs.
The biggest deficits that were successfully overcome:
29 — Oklahoma City at Memphis, April 24 (Thunder won 114-108)
20 — Indiana vs. Milwaukee, April 29 (Pacers won 119-118)
20 — New York at Boston, May 5 (Knicks won 108-105)
20 — Indiana at Cleveland, May 6 (Pacers won 120-119)
Stats of the day
— Cleveland's Donovan Mitchell had the ninth playoff game with at least 30 field goal attempts and 20 free throw attempts. He was the first to do that since Carmelo Anthony in 2013. The last four players to record such a game (Mitchell, Anthony, Michael Jordan in 1986 and Wilt Chamberlain in 1966) all did so in losing efforts.
— Minnesota was 0 for 15 on 3-pointers in the first half of its game with Golden State on Tuesday. In the play-by-play era, that's the worst first half performance from beyond the arc by any team in any playoff game.
— Road teams went 2-0 on Sunday, 2-0 on Monday and 2-0 on Tuesday. And that's not all: all were underdogs, too. Since May 1, favorites, according to BetMGM Sportsbook, are 2-8, both outright and against the spread.
— Neither team shot 40% in Tuesday's Golden State-Minnesota game (Warriors .391, Timberwolves .395). It was the first playoff game in exactly two years where both teams shot that poorly; Miami (.389) defeated New York (.341) on May 6, 2023.
Quote of the day
“I'll take that fine, gladly.” — Indiana's Tyrese Haliburton, who expects to be fined for his celebration after hitting a 3-pointer with 1.1 seconds left to beat Cleveland on Tuesday night.
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AP NBA: https://apnews.com/nba
The Associated Press
