NBA playoff guide: Who plays when, how to watch, what the odds are
On his three-point attempt, Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry (30) is fouled by Houston Rockets forward Tari Eason (17) in the third quarter of Game 6 of an NBA basketball first-round playoff series Friday, May 2, 2025, in San Francisco. Credit: AP/Santiago Mejia
The East is set: Seeds 1, 2, 3 and 4 are in the semifinals.
In the West, the 1 seed is there. So is the 6 seed. And the rest are still up in the air.
While the Eastern Conference waits — it'll be top-seeded Cleveland and fourth-seeded Indiana in one semifinal — the Western Conference doesn't even have matchups yet in these NBA playoffs.
Top-seeded Oklahoma City finds out its matchup on Saturday: it'll play either fourth-seeded Denver or fifth-seeded Los Angeles Clippers, with that series starting at OKC.
And sixth-seeded Minnesota doesn't yet know who — or where — it'll play to open Round 2. The Timberwolves get the winner of the series between No. 2 Houston and No. 7 Golden State, which will end on Sunday night.
The Rockets went into San Francisco and pulled away late to beat the Warriors, winning their second straight elimination game and getting back to Houston for Game 7.
Saturday's national TV schedule
All times Eastern
Miami Heat guard Tyler Herro (14) fights for the ball in overtime of an NBA play-in tournament basketball game against the Atlanta Hawks, Friday, April 18, 2025, in Atlanta. Credit: AP/Brynn Anderson
7:30 p.m. — LA Clippers at Denver (TNT)
Sunday's national TV schedule
All times Eastern
6 p.m. — Indiana at Cleveland (TNT)
8:30 p.m. — Golden State at Houston (TNT)
Fans react as Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry (30) celebrates after making a 3-point basket during the second half of an NBA play-in tournament basketball game against the Memphis Grizzlies in San Francisco, Tuesday, April 15, 2025. Credit: AP/Jeff Chiu
Monday's national TV schedule
All times Eastern
7 p.m. — New York at Boston (TNT)
9:30 p.m. — Denver-LA Clippers winner at Oklahoma City (TNT)
Betting odds
Oklahoma City (+150) is favored to win the NBA title, according to BetMGM Sportsbook, followed closely by Boston (+200).
After that, it's Cleveland (+500), Minnesota (+1600), Golden State (+2500), the Los Angeles Clippers (+3000), New York (+4000), Denver (+4000), Houston (+6000) and Indiana (+6600).
Award season
On Thursday, Boston’s Jrue Holiday was named the league’s sportsmanship award winner for the second time.
Other awards so far:
— 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.
— Cleveland’s Kenny Atkinson wins NBCA coach of the year award.
The league has not announced a schedule for other awards — including MVP and coach of the year — along with All-NBA, All-Rookie and All-Defensive teams.
Scoring leaders
The highest-scoring games by players so far in this year's playoffs:
43 — Jamal Murray, Denver vs. LA Clippers, April 29
43 — Anthony Edwards, Minnesota vs. LA Lakers, April 27
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
Sunday — Round 2 of the playoffs starts.
May 12 — Draft lottery, Chicago.
May 18 or 20 — Game 1, Western Conference finals.
May 19 or 21 — Game 1, Eastern 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 Saturday's game: Clippers-Nuggets.
— 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.
— Damian Lillard has Achilles tendon surgery.
— Defending champ Celtics say Jrue Holiday remains day-to-day.
— Giannis Antetokounmpo has a decision to make. Stay or go?
— A look inside the numbers of this season, headed into the playoffs
Stats of the day
—No franchise has three instances of overcoming a 3-1 series deficit in the NBA playoffs. Houston has a chance to be the first on Sunday night when it hosts Game 7 against Golden State. The Rockets did it in 1995 and 2015. Denver and Boston also have pulled off such a comeback twice; seven other franchises have done it once.
—With only two Game 7s left to play, this will be the fifth consecutive year that exactly 43 games were needed to complete the first round of the NBA playoffs.
—Sunday's game will be the 12th between the Warriors and Rockets this season. They'll be the first teams to meet 12 times in a season since the Rockets and San Antonio did in 1994-95. It's almost impossible now because no team plays another more than four times in the regular season — but with the way the NBA Cup schedule worked out, Houston and Golden State played five times in the regular season.
—On Saturday, Denver's David Adelman will become the 110th Game 7 coach in NBA history (and got there in just his 10th career game). Clippers coach Tyronn Lue will look to join Red Auerbach as the only coaches to win their first five Game 7s; Lue is 4-0, Auerbach was 8-0 in his career. Lue will try to become the first coach to win three Game 7s on the road.
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