For the first time since 2000, the New York Knicks are in the NBA final four.
It'll be the Knicks and the Indiana Pacers in the Eastern Conference finals, after New York — fueled by 20,000 people inside Madison Square Garden and what seemed to be many more shutting down 33rd St. and 7th Ave. outside the world's most famous arena — eliminated defending champion Boston on Friday night.
With that, the field is down to five. Indiana-New York — a rematch of the 2000 East finals — on one side of the bracket, and either Oklahoma City or Denver taking on Minnesota in the West finals.
The Thunder-Nuggets game is Sunday in Oklahoma City, but Nuggets forward Aaron Gordon is "in doubt" for Sunday's game after suffering a left hamstring strain, according to several outlets.
Saturday's national TV schedule
No games scheduled.
Sunday's national TV schedule
All times Mountain
1:30 p.m. — Denver at Oklahoma City (Denver7)
Monday's national TV schedule
No games scheduled.
Tuesday's national TV schedule
All times Mountain
6:30 p.m. — Minnesota at Oklahoma City or Denver (ESPN)
Betting odds
Oklahoma City (+110) remains the favorite to win the NBA title, according to BetMGM Sportsbook. New York (+350) jumped into the second-choice spot after clinching its trip to the East finals.
From there, it's Minnesota (+450), Indiana (+650) and Denver (+900).
Conference finals schedules
Now we know the schedules for Round 3 of the NBA playoffs, the conference finals.
New York has home-court advantage over Indiana in the East finals. Game 1 is Wednesday, followed by Game 2 on Friday, Game 3 on May 25, Game 4 on May 27, Game 5 on May 29, Game 6 on May 31 and a Game 7 would be June 2. All those games are 8 p.m. Eastern starts on TNT.
The West finals schedule will see the Oklahoma City-Denver winner having the home-court edge on Minnesota: Game 1 will be Tuesday, and Game 2 will follow on Thursday.
From there: Game 3 is May 24, Game 4 is May 26, Game 5 is May 28, Game 6 is May 30 and Game 7 would be June 1.
An Indy doubleheader
Mark your calendars, then start your engines.
For the first time since 2013, Indianapolis will play host to the Indianapolis 500 and a Pacers home game on the same day.
It'll happen May 25. The race starts the day, then Game 3 of the East finals is that night in Indy.
Award season
There's no word yet on when the NBA will announce this season's MVP. It'll be Oklahoma City's Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Denver's Nikola Jokic or Milwaukee's Giannis Antetokounmpo.
Also coming in the next few weeks: the All-NBA, All-Rookie and All-Defensive teams.
Other awards so far:
— Oklahoma City's Sam Presti won executive of the year.
— Cleveland's Kenny Atkinson won coach of the year. He also won the same award from the National Basketball Coaches Association.
— Boston's Jrue Holiday won the social justice award and 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.
Scoring leaders
The highest-scoring games by players so far in this year's playoffs:
48 — Donovan Mitchell, Cleveland vs. Indiana, May 6
44 — Nikola Jokic, Denver at Oklahoma City, May 13
43 — Donovan Mitchell, Cleveland vs. Indiana, May 9
43 — Jamal Murray, Denver vs. LA Clippers, April 29
43 — Anthony Edwards, Minnesota vs. LA Lakers, April 27
42 — Jayson Tatum, Boston at New York, May 12
42 — Nikola Jokic, Denver at Oklahoma City, May 5
40 — Jalen Brunson, New York at Detroit, May 1
39 — Jalen Brunson, New York vs. Boston, May 12
39 — Kawhi Leonard, LA Clippers at Denver, April 21
Key upcoming events
Tuesday — Game 1, Western Conference finals.
Wednesday — Game 1, Eastern Conference finals.
June 1 — Last possible date for Game 7 of the Western Conference finals.
June 2 — Last possible date for Game 7 of 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.
Draft lottery
Dallas had 1.8% odds to win the No. 1 pick in the draft lottery — but overcame those odds and now has the opportunity to draft Cooper Flagg. The Mavericks won the lottery on Monday night in Chicago.
— Flagg, just a kid from Maine, hasn't forgotten his roots
— From Rutgers to the lottery for Harper, Bailey
— A Chinese teen is a draft hopeful, and has big shoes to fill
— Rick Welts has seen this before
Stories of note
— Stephen Curry ponders his ‘basketball mortality’
— Phil Knight not interested in buying Trail Blazers
— Pat Riley speaks: On Heat future, on Jimmy Butler, on being 80
— These are the playoffs of the big comeback, where no 20-point lead is safe.
— 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.
— A look inside the numbers of this season, headed into the playoffs
Comeback season
There have been five 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)
20 — New York at Boston, May 7 (Knicks won 91-90)
Stats of the day
— Boston's loss means this will be the seventh consecutive year without a back-to-back champion in the NBA. Golden State was the last of those in 2017 and 2018.
— Including playoffs, OG Anunoby is now the sixth player in Knicks history with 200 3-pointers in a season. The others: Donte DiVincenzo (328 last season), John Starks (247 in 1994-95), Evan Fournier (241 in 2021-22), Jalen Brunson (237 last season) and Julius Randle (235 in 2022-23).
— The Celtics finished the season with 1,613 3-pointers, which is 13 shy of the NBA-record total they made last season. Those 13 missing 3s obviously add up to 39 points; they lost Game 6 to New York by 38 points.
Quote of the day
“This is the price you pay for trying to go after something. And that’s how it goes.” — Boston coach Joe Mazzulla, after the Celtics were eliminated by the Knicks.
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AP NBA: https://apnews.com/nba
