The No. 1 seeds are taking care of business in the second round of the playoffs. Both the Detroit Pistons and Oklahoma City Thunder took 2-0 series leads on Thursday.
Both teams are riding winning streaks in the playoffs. Oklahoma City is 6-0 in this postseason while the Pistons have won five in a row since falling behind 3-1 to the Orlando Magic in the first round.
On Friday, the San Antonio Spurs and New York Knicks hit the road. The Spurs are looking to regain home court advantage in the series against Minnesota while the Knicks can deal a devastating blow to Philadelphia and go up 3-0.
This story will be updated throughout the second round as the odds change with the results for every game.
Eastern Conference
No. 1 Detroit Pistons vs. No. 4 Cleveland Cavaliers
Pistons lead series 2-0
Game 3: 3 p.m. ET, Saturday
Series odds: Pistons -400, Cavaliers +300
The Pistons won both games at home to start this series and neither game was all that different. In both, the Pistons led most of the way, but didn’t create big separation and finished with 10-point victories.
Cleveland is now 0-5 on the road this postseason. The good news for the Cavaliers is that they are 4-0 at home and have two home games coming up.
Cade Cunningham had 25 points and 10 assists in the win (and the best plus-minus of the game at plus-13 if you’re into that stat). Even 31 points from Donovan Mitchell weren’t enough to keep Cleveland in it. James Harden was 3-for-13 from the field and 0-for-4 from 3-point range.
Harden is the epitome of Cleveland’s home-road splits this playoffs. At home, he is averaging 22.8 points per game while shooting 12-for-28 (42.9 percent) from 3-point range. On the road, he is averaging 17 points per game while shooting 7-for-31 (22.6 percent) from beyond the arc. It’s not unusual to play better at home, but that is a drastic difference.
Cleveland is favored at home in Game 3 by 4.5 points and it feels like a must-win.
No. 3 New York Knicks vs. No. 7 Philadelphia 76ers
Knicks lead series 2-0
Game 3: 7 p.m. ET, Friday
Series odds: Knicks -1000, 76ers +650
Well, at least Philadelphia kept it close this time. After four straight blowout wins in the playoffs, the Knicks were finally tested. New York still prevailed, though, and now is in full command of the series with a 2-0 lead.
Game 2 went down to the final minute, and neither team held a lead greater than seven points, but even then, the 76ers weren’t within three points in the final three minutes.
The big storyline from Wednesday’s game was the absence of Joel Embiid. Injuries once again kept the Philly star out of action. In a game decided by just six points, he could’ve been a difference maker. The 76ers had four players play at least 40 minutes in his absence.
The series shifts to Philadelphia for a pair of games, but now the 76ers have to win four out of five, and Embiid’s injuries are again a problem.
Western Conference
No. 1 Oklahoma City Thunder vs. No. 4 Los Angeles Lakers
Thunder lead series 2-0
Game 3: 8:30 p.m. ET, Saturday
Series odds: Thunder -5000, Lakers +1800
Rinse and repeat. The Thunder didn’t blow away the Lakers until the final five or so minutes, but in the end it was another comfortable win for Oklahoma City.
The Lakers led at halftime, granted by only one, but the Thunder still won Game 2 by 18 and led for the last 18 minutes of the game.
The closest game for OKC this postseason was a nine-point win that closed out the sweep of Phoenix last round. Both wins over the Lakers have been by 18.
The Suns and this version of the Lakers are not real title contenders, but Oklahoma City is still dominating this teams like it should. Unless Luka Dončić makes a miraculous recovery and is immediately at 100 percent, this series is a mismatch.
At least Austin Reaves finally looked back in form with a 31-point night on 10-for-16 shooting. Perhaps the fact that Reaves was that good and LeBron James had 23 points, six assists and three steals and the Lakers still lost by 18 is the best demonstration of the disparity between these teams.
The Thunder are favored by 8.5 points on the road in Game 3. Yikes.
No. 2 San Antonio Spurs vs. No. 6 Minnesota Timberwolves
Series tied 1-1
Game 3: 9:30 p.m. ET, Wednesday
Series odds: Spurs -300, Timberwolves +245
If Game 1 was a warning for the Spurs, Game 2 should be causing all kinds of alarm bells for the Timberwolves. The Spurs won by a ridiculous 38 points to even the series.
San Antonio looked like a 60-win team against a No. 6 seed still not quite at full strength. Anthony Edwards played only 24 minutes in his second game back from injury, although that number would have been higher had Minnesota not already lost the game early in the second half. Ayo Dosunmu came back from a calf injury that kept him out of the last two games, although he was 0-for-4 from the field in 10 minutes.
Victor Wembanyama didn’t have 12 blocks in this game (he had two), but he did have a double-double (19 points, 15 rebounds), and almost every Spurs role player had one hot streak in the game.
The best encapsulation of how lopsided this game was is that no player on either team even played 30 minutes. Anyone important enough to rest got rested early in this one.
The Spurs were favored to win the series even after dropping Game 1 at home. After evening the series with a demolition of Minnesota, the Spurs jumped to strong favorites at -300.
