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New York Times
12-04-2025
- Sport
- New York Times
NBA Eastern Conference playoff matchups set: What to expect from each series
By James Edwards III, Eric Nehm, Hunter Patterson, Josh Robbins and Jenna West The Eastern Conference postseason matchups were locked in Friday night with key wins from the Milwaukee Bucks and the Chicago Bulls, two days before the NBA's regular season ends. Milwaukee secured the No. 5 seed with a 125-119 win over the Detroit Pistons at Little Caesars Arena. Giannis Antetokounmpo led the Bucks with 32 points, 11 rebounds and 15 assists. Detroit will be the No. 6 seed. Advertisement The Bulls will go to the Play-In Tournament as the No. 9 seed after beating the Washington Wizards 119-89. Chicago will face the Miami Heat (No. 10) in the tournament for one of the East's final two spots. The Orlando Magic and the Atlanta Hawks earned the Nos. 7 and 8 seeds, respectively, in the other Play-In Tournament matchup. The Cleveland Cavaliers and Boston Celtics enter the playoffs as the Nos. 1 and 2 seeds, respectively. On March 5, Cleveland became the first team in the NBA to clinch a playoff berth while on a 12-game win streak. Despite losing to the Cavaliers, the Knicks locked up the No. 3 seed after the Pacers lost to the Magic. Indiana will be the No. 4 seed. No. 1 Cavaliers No. 2 Celtics No. 3 Knicks versus No. 6 Pistons No. 4 Pacers versus No. 5 Bucks No. 7 Magic at No. 8 Hawks (winner to face Celtics) No. 9 Bulls at No. 10 Heat (loser eliminated) Bulls-Heat winner at Magic-Hawks loser (winner to face Cavaliers) Despite a 50-win season, the Knicks go into the playoffs unable to find their stride to end the season. New York wanted to end the regular season playing its best basketball, and the team got nowhere near it. Now, New York goes into a series against the young, feisty Pistons, who defeated the Knicks three times during the regular season. The Knicks have the experience, and that should, in the end, allow them to prevail. But New York has struggled all season with teams that play fast and defend at a high level, which is what Detroit has done all season. Ultimately, New York's star power and experience should win out, likely setting up a second-round matchup with the Celtics. — James Edwards III, Knicks beat writer Simply put, this was the most impressive Pistons season in nearly two decades. After struggling to notch 14 wins last year, the sixth-seeded Pistons (44-37) have tripled their win total. This is Detroit's first time securing a top-six seed in the Eastern Conference since 2008, the last time the Pistons reached the conference finals. Advertisement Detroit has had the Knicks' number all season long, winning the season series 3-1 after Thursday's victory. The Pistons' franchise cornerstone, Cade Cunningham, was particularly comfortable against New York this season, averaging 30.8 points, 8.3 assists and 5.0 rebounds while shooting 56.3 percent and 52 percent from distance in four games against the Knicks. The playoffs are a different beast altogether, but the Pistons will enter this matchup confident in their chances. — Hunter Patterson, Pistons beat writer While this is not what the Bucks imagined at the start of the season, this is where they had to set their sights at the start of April. After Damian Lillard went to the injured list with right calf deep vein thrombosis, the Bucks dropped four straight games to end March. They needed to salvage something from this regular season and get themselves a winnable matchup in the first round of the playoffs with Lillard's status for the postseason still in question. The Bucks went 0-10 against the top 3 teams in the Eastern Conference, but they put together a 3-1 record against the Indiana Pacers. While they've had success against the Pacers in the regular season, the Bucks will not underestimate Indiana in the postseason. As the sixth seed last season, the Pacers upset the Bucks in the first round as Antetokounmpo missed the whole series and Lillard missed Games 4 and 5. After beating the Bucks last season, the Pacers also beat the Knicks and made a surprise run to the Eastern Conference finals. They will not be able to surprise anyone this season, though, with home-court advantage against the Bucks. — Eric Nehm, Bucks beat writer For the first time since 2020, the Pacers will host a first-round playoff series. No matter what happens in the regular-season finale Sunday, the Pacers will have more wins than they did last season while finishing higher position in the standings. Following a run to the Eastern Conference finals last season, Indiana knows it has the postseason mettle to do it again this year. Advertisement After a slow start, the Pacers have been one of the Eastern Conference's best teams in 2025. Since Jan. 1, only the Celtics (36-12) and Cavaliers (35-13) have compiled a better record than the Pacers' 33-13 mark. They are playing great at the moment and will be a tough out for any team in the postseason. — Nehm Orlando leads the regular-season series against Atlanta 2-1 heading into the teams' now-meaningless matchup in Sunday's regular-season finale. Of note: On Feb. 10, the Hawks defeated the Magic 112-106 on Orlando's home floor despite 68 combined points by Magic forwards Paolo Banchero and Franz Wagner and a horrendous game from Atlanta's Trae Young, when he made only six of 17 shots and turned the ball over nine times. On Tuesday, the Magic defeated the Hawks 119-112 in a hard-fought, entertaining game in which the Magic's normally weak 3-point shooting went 14-of-34 (41 percent) from beyond the arc. Will any of Atlanta's perimeter players other than Young provide enough supplemental scoring to loosen Orlando's elite defense? And can Orlando get at least average 3-point shooting to complement Banchero and Wagner? — Josh Robbins, senior NBA writer Chicago seems to have the edge here. The relatively new-look Bulls — and we say 'new look' because of the team's trade-deadline decision to part with Zach LaVine — have won nine of their last 12 games. Were most of those games against bottom-feeding teams? Yes. But positive momentum is still positive, and it seems like the young nucleus of Coby White, Josh Giddey and Matas Buzelis is jelling with more experienced teammates Nikola Vučević and Kevin Huerter. In addition, the Bulls won all three of their previous matchups against the Heat this season. In those three games, Giddey averaged 26.0 points, 10.3 rebounds and 10.0 assists. Josh Giddey's triple-double boosts the Bulls to No. 9 in the East! 🔥 28 PTS🔥 16 REB🔥 11 AST🔥 3 BLK🔥 2 STL🔥 57.9 FG% The @chicagobulls are now JUST 0.5 GB of No. 8 ATL. — NBA (@NBA) April 10, 2025 Miami has won eight of its last 11 games, a stretch that includes Wednesday night's 119-111 loss to the Bulls. Will the Heat's more extensive postseason experience, with Bam Adebayo having played in 74 playoff games and Tyler Herro having played in 46, carry the day over the less experienced Bulls? — Robbins
New York Times
13-02-2025
- Sport
- New York Times
Kyle Kuzma, Josh Hart, other NBA players detail an ugly side of sports gambling
The Bounce Newsletter | This is The Athletic's daily NBA newsletter. Sign up here to receive The Bounce directly in your inbox. Valentine's Day is tomorrow. If you haven't made arrangements and it's meaningful to your significant other, work a miracle. If you haven't scoped a flower situation, do that today. If you don't have to worry about any of that, don't let your Friday night involve the Celebrity Game at all. We're better than that, and I believe in us. NBA bettors seem unhinged toward players For years, the NBA has embraced gambling. From commissioner Adam Silver writing an op-ed about changing the U.S. sports gambling laws in 2014 to his league announcing co-sponsorships with FanDuel and DraftKings in 2021, the NBA has seen sports betting as a way to increase revenue and interest in the game. But as James Edwards III wrote in a great article, there is a very ugly side to how bettors react to losing. Advertisement Players like Jalen Brunson, Isaiah Stewart, Josh Hart and more spoke on the record about the despicable messages they'll get on social media regarding bets that don't cash for certain 'fans.' From racist messages to mentioning family members/children to outright death threats, failed gamblers missing out on prop bets or game results are as brave as their anonymous social media accounts allow them to be. There's a lot of good insight in Edwards' article, but this particular quote from newly acquired Bucks forward Kyle Kuzma made me laugh. 'I don't really read the messages. It might be on Twitter. I think it's really funny, honestly, because, yeah, you can win money, but you're also wasting money, too, at the same time. It's funny because I said something the other day, and it's like we get threats and we get called names, and people never think about like maybe they're bad at picking the parlays?' Maybe they're bad at picking parlays? It's such a funny reaction to some of the heinous stuff players are being sent. And it's true. Maybe those people are just bad at picking their parlays. I didn't gamble on sports even before I wasn't allowed to because of my job. I never felt comfortable with it. Remember the big scene in 'Uncut Gems' in which Adam Sandler's character bet on a ridiculous parlay? I know what happens in the movie now, and it still gives me anxiety to watch that. Edwards wrote about how the league tries to monitor social media activity as much as possible, but there's only so much the NBA can do. Fans berating players over failed bets in the arenas isn't handled by team security. It's left up to arena security. It leaves me thinking about how the NBA is doing quite a bit to make sure this is something that adds to the experience, but they also need to prioritize protecting the players on some level. There were three other things from the article I absolutely loved: I highly recommend reading it. And please, as Kuzma said, be responsible when 'picking the parlays.' Clock ticking for Cleveland? ⏱️ Title window closing? Jason Lloyd says the Cavs (44-10) have three postseasons to win it all. Then, it gets messy. 🤝 Trade deadline wrap-up. John Hollinger ranked all 30 teams and how they did at the deadline. The Wolves finished second without making a trade. 🏀 Globetrotters history. Lynette Woodard debuted for the Harlem Globetrotters 40 years ago. She helped set an incredible legacy. Advertisement 🙃 Awkward return? Dalton Knecht reflects on returning to the Lakers after last week's rescinded trade with the Hornets. ⏰ Clutch-time struggles. Read about how Anthony Edwards is delivering everywhere for the Timberwolves — except in close games. 🏀 Kuminga's future. Jimmy Butler's arrival on the Warriors might have changed their future with Jonathan Kuminga. Will they still pay him? 📺 Don't miss this game tonight. Thunder (44-9) at Timberwolves (30-25), 8:30 p.m. ET on TNT. The Wolves just had an embarrassing home loss, and OKC comes to town. Gamesmageddon: 30 teams, 15 games There are nights in which the NBA schedule is kind of heavy, and you're wondering, 'How am I going to cover all of these?' You focus on what you can and then try to make up for what you missed the next day. Then, there are the rare nights like last night in which literally everybody played. All 30 teams in 15 games. Because that's how the math works out. I had the four-box going on the TV, a game on the iPad and a game or two on the laptop. It was madness. But I think I was able to pull significant moments and things to know from all 15 matchups. Here's what you need to know from NBA Gamesmageddon! Knicks 149 (36-18), Hawks 148 (26-29), OT: Ever since their playoff series in 2021, there has been a different energy when Trae Young comes to Madison Square Garden to face the Knicks. Once again, both sides delivered a truly awesome game. The Knicks were up six points with 18 seconds left in the fourth quarter. A Georges Niang 3-pointer, Dyson Daniels steal, free throw from Daniels, Atlanta offensive rebound and two free throws from Young all of a sudden made it a tie game. It almost didn't make sense how it happened. In overtime, Brunson hit a pull-up jumper with 11 seconds left for New York to go up one, and then, a Mikal Bridges block followed by a missed 3 by Niang secured the frantic victory for the Knicks. Karl-Anthony Towns had 44 points and 10 boards. Brunson added 36 points and eight assists. Five different Hawks scored at least 20, and Young finished with 38 points and 19 assists. Give us a playoff series of these two again, please. Celtics 116 (39-16), Spurs 103 (23-29): Boston jumped on San Antonio with a 37-19 first quarter, and the Celtics never really had to look back too much. Jayson Tatum was fantastic with 32 points, 14 rebounds and seven assists. Victor Wembanyama had 17 points and 13 rebounds. The Spurs are 2-3 with De'Aaron Fox. Advertisement Bucks 103 (29-24), Wolves 101: No Giannis Antetokounmpo. No Damian Lillard. This might be the worst home loss of the year for the Wolves. Never mind. I forgot the Wizards won in Minneapolis earlier this season. Pacers 134 (30-23), Wizards 130 (9-45), OT: Jordan Poole had 42 points, but it wasn't enough to steal a win against Indiana. The Pacers got 59 points off the bench from Obi Toppin (31) and Bennedict Mathurin (28). Pistons 128 (29-26), Bulls 114 (22-33): The Bulls were down by 49 to the Pistons in their last game. This is called progress! Chicago shot 19 of 88 from 3 in its last two games against Detroit. Thunder 115, Heat 101 (25-27): The Heat were up by 10 going into the fourth. OKC opened the final period with a 24-0 run and won the quarter 32-8. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander had 32 points in the game. Nets 100 (20-34), 76ers 96 (20-34): No Joel Embiid. No Tyrese Maxey. Kelly Oubre and Quentin Grimes both had 30 points. It was not enough to beat Brooklyn, though. Philly, just tank the rest of the season and get Embiid the knee surgery he requires The games never stopped, so we don't either! We continue the Gamesmageddon recap with the Mavericks (29-26) hosting the Warriors (27-27) last night. The final 18 minutes of this game were pure chaos. A little less than halfway through the third quarter, Kyrie Irving had a stretch making three straight 3-pointers to push the Mavs to a 15-point lead. It looked like the Warriors were going to get dominated by the Mavs. There was no Anthony Davis, Daniel Gafford or Dereck Lively II in this one. At times, there were lineups that made this look like a '6-foot-7 and under' league. Eventually, the Warriors made a run and chipped away at this deficit to take the lead by one with 3:31 left in the game. It happened on Steph Curry's 3-pointer, as he and Jimmy Butler each scored 11 points in the fourth. But Irving kept scoring, Naji Marshall hit a big bucket to take a two-point lead with 25 seconds left and Irving took a charge against Butler on what would have been the game-tying drive. Irving finished with 42 points, and we got reports during the game that Mavs fans had 'Fire Nico' signs taken away, but the fans weren't ejected. Progress? Advertisement Jazz 131 (13-40), Lakers 119 (32-20): Yes, Luka Dončić and LeBron James played. And the Lakers got smoked in the first three quarters. Lauri Markkanen scored 32 points as Walker Kessler added 16 points, eight boards and six blocks. Rockets 119 (34-20), Suns 111 (26-28): Amen Thompson had a triple-double, Kevin Durant dropped 37 points and the Rockets shut the Suns' water off in the fourth with a 35-19 advantage. Clippers 128 (30-23), Grizzlies 114 (36-18): The Clippers scored 41 points off 22 Memphis turnovers. The Grizzlies needed Ja Morant and some Stickum. Nuggets 132 (36-19), Blazers 121 (23-32): Jamal Murray dropped 55 points on 20-of-35 shooting! We barely even noticed that Nikola Jokić had 26-15-10. Magic 102 (27-29), Hornets 86 (13-39): The most exciting part of this game was Nick Smith Jr. and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope getting ejected right before halftime. Cavs 131, Raptors 108 (17-38): Lopsided quarters ruled the night! Cleveland had a 41-17 first-quarter lead to put this one away early. Seven different Cavs scored in double figures. Kings 119 (28-26), Pelicans 111 (12-42): The big three of DeMar DeRozan (24), Zach LaVine (23) and Keon Ellis (27 off the bench) carried Sacramento to the win. Whew! That was 15 games! 📫 Love The Bounce? Check out The Athletic's other newsletters.
