NBA playoff guide: Who plays when, how to watch, what the odds are
From left to right, Los Angeles Clippers guard Bogdan Bogdanovic, forward Kawhi Leonard and guard Ben Simmons look on as time runs out in Game 7 of an NBA basketball first-round playoff series against the Denver Nuggets,Saturday, May 3, 2025, in Denver. Credit: AP/David Zalubowski
Sunday's story: Round 1 ends and Round 2 begins.
Technically, Round 2 in these NBA playoffs starts before Round 1 ends. The first conference semifinal series — No. 1 Cleveland vs. No. 4 Indiana in the East — will be played just before the Game 7 in the West between Golden State and Houston.
Denver, the No. 4 seed in the West, got into the second round by winning a Game 7 over the Los Angeles Clippers on Saturday and earning a matchup with top-seeded Oklahoma City. The Nuggets-Thunder series starts Monday, as does the East series between Boston and New York.
Sunday's national TV schedule
All times Eastern
6 p.m. — Indiana at Cleveland (TNT)
8:30 p.m. — Golden State at Houston (TNT)
Monday'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 p.m. — New York at Boston (TNT)
9:30 p.m. — Denver at Oklahoma City (TNT)
Tuesday's national TV schedule
All time Eastern
7 p.m. — Indiana at Cleveland (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
9:30 p.m. — Minnesota at Houston (TNT) OR Golden State at Minnesota (TNT)
Betting odds
Oklahoma City (+140) is favored to win the NBA title, according to BetMGM Sportsbook, followed closely by Boston (+195).
After that, it's Cleveland (+500), Minnesota (+1600), Golden State (+3000), Denver (+3500), New York (+5000), Houston (+5000) 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.
On Monday, the NBA coach of the year (Cleveland's Kenny Atkinson, Detroit's J.B. Bickerstaff or Houston's Ime Udoka) will be announced at 6:30 p.m. Eastern on TNT. There are two other awards this week — executive of the year is Tuesday at 12:30 p.m. Eastern, and the social justice champion will be announced Wednesday at 11 a.m. Eastern.
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:
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 Sunday's Game 7: Warriors-Rockets.
— Series preview for Cavaliers-Pacers and series preview capsule.
— 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.
— 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
—Teams making five or more 3-pointers than their opponents are 14-4 so far in these playoffs.
—The LA Clippers' James Harden played 47 minutes in Game 6 of the Clippers-Nuggets series, the most he ever logged in a non-overtime game. He scored seven points, tying his second-lowest total this season.
—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 one Game 7 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.
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