NBA News

The first round of the 2026 NBA playoffs tips off on Saturday. Can LeBron James carry the load for the Lakers? Which version of James Harden will we see this postseason? Let’s break down one key question in each series. East: 76ers-Celtics • Hawks-Knicks • Raptors-Cavaliers West: Blazers-Spurs • Wolves-Nuggets • Rockets-Lakers EASTERN CONFERENCE (7) 76ers vs. (2) Celtics Key …

Want to get more Covers content? Add us as a preferred source on your Google account here. FanDuel is giving its customers the option to protect against injury-induced losses throughout NBA playoff games. Advertisement Bet Protect+ is a new optional feature that will either give customers refunds for straight bets or remove parlay legs if a player leaves the game …

He’s probably going to be the runaway, if not unanimous, choice for defensive player of the year. He’s going to make this season’s All-NBA team. He’s going to get some MVP votes. He’s already a global superstar. Victor Wembanyama has met every expectation. Except, perhaps, his own. Advertisement He came to the San Antonio Spurs three years ago as the …

The Eastern Conference’s second-seeded Boston Celtics play the seventh-seeded Philadelphia 76ers in the first round of the 2026 NBA playoffs. The Atlantic Division rivals met in the postseason three times from 2018-23, and the Celtics’ combination of Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown advanced against Joel Embiid’s Sixers each time. Schedule | Odds | Celtics breakdown | 76ers breakdown Head-to-head | …

Golden State Warriors star Stephen Curry put on an all-time performance Wednesday against the Los Angeles Clippers, and proved anyone and everyone who ever doubted him, or the Warriors, wrong again. Curry scored 35 points, including a go-ahead 3-pointer with under a minute left in the game, to lead Golden State to a 126-121 victory to eliminate the Clippers and …

Kevin Durant is in an especially jovial mood following a late February triumph over Utah, a night off in the NBA. After scoring 18 points, he arrives inside the Rockets’ locker room, which as usual is boisterous and rambunctious, heavy in Generation Z. Durant’s station, wedged between 23-year-old Amen Thompson and 24-year-old Tari Eason, is a daily reminder of how …

It feels like the difference between the NBA’s regular season and playoffs becomes more stark every year. While high-scoring games and tanking talk dominated the national discourse over the league’s 82-game slog, there was quietly a fascinating championship race bubbling beneath the surface. There are several viable contenders in both conferences this season, and if the play-in tournament is any …

The Golden State Warriors visit the Phoenix Suns tonight at the Mortgage Matchup Center in a winner-take-all NBA Play-In finale to decide the eighth seed in the NBA’s Western Conference. The winner secures a first-round playoff date against the top-seed and defending NBA Champion Oklahoma City Thunder. The loser’s season ends tonight. Golden State enters this matchup riding the momentum …

CLEVELAND — The Cleveland Cavaliers played an uninspired first 43 minutes against a tanking Indiana Pacers team that only had nine available players in early April. The final five minutes were different. Cleveland was up four with five minutes to play before hitting the accelerator. They scored 11 points over the next three minutes to push their lead to 13 …

The New York Knicks can take solace that Trae Young is nowhere to be found in their Eastern Conference first-round playoff series against the Atlanta Hawks, and thus, Knicks fans don’t have a chance to spit on him because he was torching their team. Young is in a Washington Wizards uniform after a January trade, but when he was in …

The playoffs bring out something different in us. Suddenly, media and fans alike have takes they need to get on record — not because it’s right, necessarily, but because there’s a chance it might be. And if it is, well, you’ll be hearing about it for the next six months. The other 480 takes that didn’t quite land? Those quietly …

The Phoenix Suns now await the Golden State Warriors tonight in Downtown Phoenix. It’s a game we didn’t want, but we got it anyway. Phoenix finished the regular season 45-37, good for the 7th seed. Golden State finished eight games behind them at 37-45, which locked them into the 10th seed. As we all know, the Suns dropped their first …

INDEPENDENCE — Basketball isn’t an individual sport, but you might not know that if you just watched First Take or listened to sports-talk radio. Individuals are judged solely on whether or not their teams come through in the postseason. And while that’s an important part of the conversation, one player can only do so much. “You know the American way …

The turn this Lakers’ season took, it should go down as one of the franchise’s great what-ifs, coulda-woulda-beens, we’ll-never-knows … Shared regret for a legion of Lakers fans who were, for the full 15-2 month of March, vibing with their team, screaming excitedly like 6-year-olds and riding hard on the MVP campaign trail for Luka Doncic. Advertisement But then things …

Who would you rather have in a Game 7: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Nikola Jokić or Victor Wembanyama? Wemby will no doubt be the answer to this question at some point in the (perhaps not-too-distant) future. But for now, I defer to those with at least some playoff experience. For my money, Jokić still reigns supreme as the best player alive, and …

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The Lakers spent six months building and working toward the opportunity to make some noise in the playoffs. And then Los Angeles’ hopes and plans all collapsed during one quarter in Oklahoma City earlier this month. Advertisement Luka Doncic made a move toward the Thunder’s basket, but stopped suddenly and hopped gingerly off the floor with …

Tony Bradley hadn’t played much for the Pacers in the postseason at that point last year, and he wouldn’t play in the Eastern Conference finals until the second game, but he still watched as Tyrese Haliburton’s last-second heave stunned the Knicks by forcing overtime in Game 1. And Bradley saw how that draining result — the Knicks’ double-digit lead late …

I had to crack up laughing when I saw the Gil’s Arena crew post a video about Draymond Green’s lockdown defense on Kawhi Leonard entitled, “How A Podcaster ENDED Kawhi’s Dream Season”. Green is arguably the greatest defender of his generation, so him playfully being referred to by his side gig dropping hot pods on YouTube is a nod to …

Latvian big man Kristaps Porziņģis had arguably his best game with the Golden State Warriors last night against the Los Angeles Clippers, notching 20 points, 5 rebounds, and 5 assists on 8-of-12 shooting from the field (3-of-6 on threes). However, his availability is up in the air for tomorrow’s tilt against the Phoenix Suns. Should Porziņģis be unavailable tomorrow, it …

Send in your questions now for this week’s episode of The Pindown: A Detroit Pistons Podcast to discuss everything Pistons. Submit your question to the comments section here or on X/Twitter to @TheRealWesD3 and/or @blakesilverman. Join us live on Saturday afternoon for the show where we’ll preview the Pistons’ postseason. We’ll know who the Pistons play in the first round by the time we record, …

Toronto Raptors (46-36, fifth in the Eastern Conference) vs. Cleveland Cavaliers (52-30, fourth in the Eastern Conference) Cleveland; Saturday, 1 p.m. EDT LINE: Cavaliers -8.5; over/under is 219.5 EASTERN CONFERENCE FIRST ROUND: Cavaliers host first series matchup Advertisement BOTTOM LINE: The Cleveland Cavaliers host the Toronto Raptors to open the Eastern Conference first round. Toronto went 3-0 against Cleveland during …

Houston Rockets (52-30, fifth in the Western Conference) vs. Los Angeles Lakers (53-29, fourth in the Western Conference) Los Angeles; Saturday, 8:30 p.m. EDT LINE: Rockets -5.5; over/under is 207.5 WESTERN CONFERENCE FIRST ROUND: Lakers host first series matchup Advertisement BOTTOM LINE: The Los Angeles Lakers host the Houston Rockets to open the Western Conference first round. Los Angeles went …

Atlanta Hawks (46-36, sixth in the Eastern Conference) vs. New York Knicks (53-29, third in the Eastern Conference) New York; Saturday, 6 p.m. EDT LINE: Knicks -5.5; over/under is 216.5 EASTERN CONFERENCE FIRST ROUND: Knicks host first series matchup Advertisement BOTTOM LINE: The New York Knicks host the Atlanta Hawks to open the Eastern Conference first round. New York went …

Charlotte Hornets (44-38, ninth in the Eastern Conference) vs. Orlando Magic (45-37, eighth in the Eastern Conference) Orlando, Florida; Friday, 7:30 p.m. EDT LINE: Hornets -3.5; over/under is 218 PLAY-IN GAME: The Magic and Hornets square off to decide the eighth seed in the Eastern Conference. Advertisement BOTTOM LINE: The Orlando Magic and the Charlotte Hornets take the court for …

Golden State Warriors (37-45, 10th in the Western Conference) vs. Phoenix Suns (45-37, seventh in the Western Conference) Phoenix; Friday, 10 p.m. EDT LINE: Suns -3.5; over/under is 219.5 PLAY-IN GAME: The Suns and Warriors square off to decide the eighth seed in the Western Conference. Advertisement BOTTOM LINE: The Phoenix Suns host the Golden State Warriors for the NBA …