Philadelphia is waiting, and in Joel
Embiid’s case, ailing.
The lone
team with a ticket to the second round of the NBA playoffs will get
some company over the next few days, possibly as early as
Tuesday.
The 76ers
finished off a sweep of the Brooklyn Nets over the weekend, despite
being without their MVP candidate center. Embiid isn’t the only big
name dealing with injury — all eyes will be on Miami on Monday and
whether Milwaukee’s
Giannis Antetokounmpo can play through his bruised lower
back.
A good sign
for the Bucks: Antetokounmpo was participating on-court with his
teammates for a shootaround practice Monday morning, a clear
indicator that he’s trying to play.
WHAT’S NEXT?
There are a pair of Game 4′s on Monday, with two
lower-seeded teams holding an opportunity to take 3-1 series leads.
Eighth-seeded Miami plays host to top-seeded Milwaukee in an East
matchup, while the seventh-seeded Los Angeles Lakers then face
second-seeded Memphis in a West contest.
Road teams
hold the leads going into Monday, and then Tuesday, it’ll be three
home teams that have a chance to join Philadelphia in the second
round.
Boston
hosts Atlanta, Denver hosts Minnesota and Phoenix hosts the Los
Angeles Clippers. The Celtics, Nuggets and Suns all hold 3-1
leads.
At least
one other possible clincher comes Wednesday when New York takes its
3-1 lead to Cleveland. There are also Game 5’s that night in the
Grizzlies-Lakers, Heat-Bucks and Golden State-Sacramento
series.
HOW
TO WATCH?
— Monday’s
Milwaukee-Miami and Memphis-Lakers games are on TNT
— Tuesday’s
Atlanta-Boston and Clippers-Phoenix games are on TNT, and the
Minnesota-Denver game is on NBA TV.
—
Wednesday’s Lakers-Memphis and Golden State-Sacramento games are on
TNT. The New York-Cleveland and Miami-Milwaukee games are on NBA
TV.
— All those
games will also be available through a team’s usual local
broadcaster.
— The NBA
Finals will be broadcast on ABC beginning June 1.
WHO
WINS THE AWARDS?
We started
finding out those answers last week when the league office began
announcing award winners. More awards are coming this week, with
Most Improved Player (finalists are Utah’s Lauri Markkanen,
Oklahoma City’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and New York’s Jalen
Brunson) coming Monday and Rookie of the Year (finalists are
Orlando’s Paolo Banchero, Utah’s Walker Kessler and Oklahoma City’s
Jalen Williams) coming Tuesday.
The NBA has
not said when the MVP award — finalists are Philadelphia’s Joel
Embiid, Denver’s Nikola Jokic and Milwaukee’s Giannis Antetokounmpo
— will be announced.
The other
winners so far this year:
— April
17: Memphis’
Jaren Jackson Jr. won defensive player of the year, with
Milwaukee’s Brook Lopez finishing second and Cleveland’s Evan
Mobley placing third.
— April
18: De’Aaron
Fox of Sacramento was revealed as the inaugural winner of
the new Clutch Player award. Miami’s Jimmy Butler was second and
Chicago’s DeMar DeRozan was third.
— April
19: Sacramento’s
Mike Brown got all the first-place votes, making him the
first unanimous Coach of the Year. Oklahoma City’s Mark Daigneault
was second and Boston’s Joe Mazzulla was third.
— April
20: Boston’s
Malcolm Brogdon won Sixth Man of the Year, a race where
Milwaukee’s Bobby Portis Jr. and New York’s Immanuel Quickley were
the other finalists.
INSIDE THE NUMBERS
There have
been only two playoff games decided by exactly one point in the
last 365 days — and Golden State has won them both.
The
Warriors beat Sacramento 126-125 on Sunday, the league’s first
one-point playoff game since the Warriors won at Memphis 117-116 on
May 1, 2022.
QUOTABLE
“I didn’t
think we were going to go undefeated the whole postseason, so I’ll
be curious to see how we react going home for Game 5.” — Denver
coach Michael Malone, after his team lost in overtime at Minnesota
on Sunday and missed out on a chance for a four-game sweep.
