Category: Basketball

The Orlando Magic are trying to close out the Detroit Pistons in their NBA first-round playoff series. One more victory by the Magic and they will advance to the second round to face the winner of the Toronto Raptors-Cleveland Cavaliers series. The Pistons are favored by 10.5 points, with the over/under set at 211.5.

How to watch Orlando Magic vs. Detroit Pistons

• Date: Wednesday, April 29

• Time: 7 p.m. ET / 4 p.m. PT

• Where: Little Caesars Arena, Detroit, Michigan

• TV Channels: Amaz

• Live Stream:NBA League Pass | Follow on Yahoo Sports

Odds

• Spread: Detroit Pistons -10.5

• Moneyline: Detroit Pistons -425 (77.3%) / Orlando Magic +320 (22.7%)

• Over/Under: 211.5

Series results, schedule (all times Eastern)

Game 1:Magic 112, Pistons 101
Game 2:Pistons 98, Magic 83
Game 3:Magic 113, Pistons 105
Game 4:Magic 94, Pistons 88
Game 5: Wed., April 29, at Detroit (7 p.m., Amazon)
*Game 6: Fri., May 1, at Orlando (time and network TBD)
*Game 7: Sun., May 3, at Detroit (time and network TBD)

*if necessary

ATLANTA — The admission was telling. 

There was no deflection or talking around the subject. No pointing to other problems. Dyson Daniels said it plainly. 

“I just think their mindset was to come out and try to bully us and be physical,” he said. “And they did that.”

It’s not often NBA players acknowledge being bullied. They don’t usually like having their manhood or machismo questioned. 

But it’s become glaring and unavoidable — the Knicks are manhandling the Hawks. 

They had an 18-point advantage in points in the paint during their 126-97 Game 5 win over the Hawks Tuesday night at Madison Square Garden, which gave them a 3-2 series lead heading back to Atlanta. They owned the glass, with 21 more rebounds. It helped them to an 11-point advantage in second-chance points. 

“One of the things that we said we gotta do, we gotta box out,” coach Mike Brown said. “And we [only] gave up five offensive rebounds, which to that team is huge, because they’re one of the best offensive rebounding teams in the league. … We talked about boxing out. Our guys did an unbelievable job on the glass. I tell you, OG [Anunoby] and [Karl-Anthony Towns] were monsters. Between the two of them, they had 22 defensive rebounds. They both had a double-double. They were phenomenal. It’s huge for us to keep these guys off the glass.”

Coming into the series, most expected the Knicks to have a significant size advantage, particularly with Towns and the Hawks’ lack of a big man who can match up with him. It took a little while to materialize, but over the last two games, the Knicks have beaten up the Hawks and imposed their will. 

After two straight one-point losses, the Knicks have responded with two straight blowouts. Their physical edge has been central to it. 

“We’ve done a great job,” Towns said of what changed from Games 2 and 3 to Games 4 and 5, “executing with our physicality.”

As a result, it’s allowed the Knicks to dictate the game flow to a style that better suits them. The young and athletic Hawks love to run and score in transition. But the Knicks have bottled them up and forced them to play in the half-court, where their size advantage can be utilized. The Hawks had just four fast-break points Tuesday and seven in Game 4. 

It’s been key to the Knicks defensive turnaround the past two games. They are forcing the Hawks to play in a style they are not comfortable with. 

The decision to switch Josh Hart onto CJ McCollum plays into it. Hart is a much bigger, stronger and more physical defender than Jalen Brunson, who began the series guarding McCollum and struggled mightily. Hart’s physicality turned McCollum, who finished with six points on 3-for-10 shooting from the field, into a nonfactor Tuesday.

“Their defense never really let us establish consistently how we need to play to beat them,” Hawks coach Quin Snyder said. “And we have to be more committed, it’s really like imposing your will on the offensive end. Moving and passing, you can feel possessions where that occurs and that’s when we’re efficient or have success. We had some shots that didn’t go in that’s always in play, but for us I think we need to execute on who we are and what we’ve done to be a good team. That’s hard when you play against a team of their caliber. That level for us, we didn’t hit it. And again, they had a lot to do with that.”

The uptick in physicality has meant the Knicks have taken fewer 3-pointers — they shot just 26 Tuesday, way down from their regular-season average of 38.2. Brown has constantly stressed his desire for the Knicks to take tons of 3-pointers, but with the way they are finding easy points in the paint, he said he “loves” the adjustment. 

It’s not even just the Knicks who traditionally thrive inside who have been effective there. It’s been across the board. 

“We just gotta take a stand,” Onyeka Okongwu said. “Obviously Brunson, KAT do their thing, but we can’t let dudes like [Jose] Alvarado get into the paint. 

“Overall, we just gotta play through it. We can’t let their physicality take us out of what we want to do. That’s it.”

With the Hawks now facing elimination, the Knicks expect some sort of response in the physicality department. 

“They’re probably gonna be aggressive again offensively in terms of crashing the glass, trying to get extra possessions, playing in transition,” Jordan Clarkson said. “I know they’re gonna try to bring a lot of force down there, so we gotta be prepared and we know what’s coming. We’ll be ready.”

As long as the Knicks are in fact ready, there is little the Hawks can do to combat their physical edge. 

The Toronto Raptors and Cleveland Cavaliers meet in Game 5 of their first-round playoff series. Toronto evened the series on Sunday with a 93-89 victory in Game 4. The Cleveland Cavaliers are favored by 8.5 points, with the over/under set at 216.5.

How to watch Toronto Raptors vs. Cleveland Cavaliers

• Date: Wednesday, April 29

• Time: 7:30 p.m. ET / 4:30 p.m. PT

• Where: Rocket Arena, Cleveland, Ohio

• TV Channels: ESPN

• Live Stream:NBA League Pass | Follow on Yahoo Sports

Odds

• Spread: Cleveland Cavaliers -8.5

• Moneyline: Cleveland Cavaliers -375 (75.9%) / Toronto Raptors +300 (24.1%)

• Over/Under: 216.5

Series results, schedule (all times Eastern)

Game 1:Cavaliers 126, Raptors 113
Game 2:Cavaliers 115, Raptors 105
Game 3:Raptors 126, Cavaliers 104
Game 4:Raptors 93, Cavaliers 89
Game 5: Wed., April 29 at Cleveland (7:30 p.m., ESPN)
*Game 6: Fri., May 1 at Toronto (TBD)
*Game 7: Sun., May 3 at Cleveland (TBD)

*if necessary

When breaking down a playoff series, one can occasionally overthink things. They may look at matchups, schemes, depth, injuries, past matchups, and analytics. I’m guilty of that myself, and even did that for the Knicks’ current series against the Hawks. But Games Four and Five served as a friendly, but very loud, reminder that in basketball, sometimes it just comes down to who has the best player.

That isn’t always the case—ask Detroit. But, more often than not, the team with the best player on the court tends to prevail. And in the Knicks’ case, they have the best player, the second-best player, and they even have a strong argument for having the third-best player in the series. However you want to rank them, Jalen Brunson, Karl-Anthony Towns, and OG Anunoby have cases, to varying degrees, for being the top three players in the series.

For New York, while it took a couple of games longer than fans would have liked, this realization—that they not only have more depth and experience, but also possess much more talent up top—has resulted in back-to-back convincing wins. For Atlanta, though, this has resulted in a challenge they don’t seem to quite have the answers for.

In Game Four, the Hawks started out putting Dyson Daniels on Brunson again and made life for the captain difficult. But unlike the past couple of games, the Knicks finally took what the defense was giving them. Instead of Brunson having to initiate everything, he was delegated to playing off the ball more. We saw him set more screens, use his gravity for the betterment of the team, and act as a decoy at times. And the team finally leaned on Towns to be the catalyst of their offense.

The big man was patient and deliberate, and the team greatly benefited from his offensive process—one that saw him score at ease while also racking up 10 assists. The other beneficiary was the other undoubted top-three player in the series. Anunoby picked apart a good Hawks defense by masterfully timing backdoor cuts, hitting open threes, and attacking closeouts by imposing his physicality.

And as many had preached, playing through Towns not only helped the team, it made Brunson’s job easier in the long run. The Hawks, who were out of answers for Towns, started Game Five with Daniels now on him. And that allowed Brunson to get back into a groove early. When the point guard went on his fourth-quarter rampage, Daniels was back on him, but it’s difficult for a defender, no matter how good they are, to stop an offensive force like Brunson when he is in the kind of rhythm he was in.

Now, Quinn Snyder and the Hawks, with their season on the line, are tasked with the difficult challenge of trying to slow down more than just one of these guys. It’s plausible that any of them could just have a bad game. But if those three continue to trust the process and trust each other, all they will need to do is take what the defense gives them and attack.

If the Hawks want to put Daniels on Brunson again, New York should gladly play through Towns, look for cuts, and then clear out for him to attack the paint if the initial actions don’t work out. Not a single player on the Hawks roster can stop Towns consistently, and they’ll be forced to give up a big scoring effort or get in foul trouble trying to stop him from doing so.

Conversely, if the Hawks decide to put Daniels back on Towns, their best bet might as well be to just pray that Brunson has an off game. And as somebody who has seen Brunson heat up late in playoff series and send teams home with big games, that might not be a plausible strategy either.

Regardless of what the Hawks do, though, the Knicks should have all of the answers and counters. All they need to do is be smart and execute.

On January 19, the Knicks got absolutely blasted by the Dallas Mavericks in an embarrassing game at home on Martin Luther King Jr. Day. In the postgame recap, I likened it to an extremely similar game in an extremely similar situation against the same opponent in the same arena a few years ago. That game led to the permanent benching of Derrick Rose and Cam Reddish and sparked a turnaround the next night.

Of course, the Knicks then emphatically ended their 2-9 nightmare slump with a 54-point blowout over the rival Nets that featured one big rotation change. Jordan Clarkson, who signed with the Knicks in July after agreeing to a buyout with the Utah Jazz, was now out of the rotation after several games of increasingly bad play.

After his NBA Cup heroics and microwave scoring potential sparked optimism to start the year, he had become the new Evan Fournier. While Fournier was benched nearly a month before the Mavs catastrophe, he shares more similarities to Clarkson than the divisive Reddish and ultimate vet Rose.

He played a total of seven minutes in the next five games combined, all in garbage time. But midway through that stretch, Deuce McBride went down with a knee injury that turned into a multi-month absence due to core surgery, and while Mike Brown initially decided to give his minutes to Tyler Kolek and a mix of more run for Landry Shamet and Mo Diawara, he eventually turned back to the veteran to get some run right before the trade deadline, where he performed admirably.

But when Jose Alvarado came into the fold in early February, he was once again pushed out of the rotation, as the Knicks’ bench took shape as Alvarado, Shamet, Mitchell Robinson, and a mix of Diawara and Jeremy Sochan.

That was until March 8 in Los Angeles, when the Knicks’ offense was being handcuffed by a fiery Lakers team without LeBron James. Needing a spark, Mike Brown called on Clarkson, who did his best in an eventual loss. While it didn’t immediately lead to re-entering the rotation, it was a start. A few days later, he took advantage of a Josh Hart injury for a memorable return to Utah.

From there, he was back. He played meaningful minutes in the team’s final 15 games of the season, emerging as Diawara endured growing pains and Alvarado struggled to entrench himself in the rotation, even when McBride returned as the season drew to a close. But it wasn’t the microwave scoring that had earned Coach Brown’s trust; it was a total reinvention of who he is as a player.

For much of Clarkson’s career, he’s only been known for scoring. He doesn’t pass, he doesn’t defend, he doesn’t do the little things. There’s a reason that Mike Breen was so disgusted with him when he played with Utah. He was there to do a very specific role, and since he wasn’t doing it, he was benched.

But what if he started to do those little things? That’s likely what went through Clarkson’s brain after he got benched, and you saw the change immediately.

All of a sudden, Clarkson was picking up full court. He was pressuring ballhandlers. The effort we were seeing was drastically different, and it looked like a player who knew he was playing for his job.

He was still taking a fair amount of shots, but the dumb shots were dwindling. He shot 52.5% from the field after being reinserted in the rotation after being a pitiful 42.8% into early March. He was also passing more, putting up multiple games with at least four assists.

And while this, coupled by him becoming a paint-scoring machine, is good enough to warrant consideration off the bench, he’s also decided to channel his inner Josh Hart and become a rebounding machine.

Offensive rebounds:
First 56 games: 41 (993 minutes)
Last 21 games: 30 (364 minutes)

He’s grabbed nine through five playoff games. He had at least four on two different occasions in the final month of the regular season.

He’s suddenly become a key part of a Knicks team that has championship aspirations, while being a completely different player than he has been his entire career.

The near-34-year-old looked doomed to be in Fournier’s shoes, out of the league once his contract expired, to suddenly looking like a desirable vet for a team next season. But that’s not what’s on his mind right now. He’s been given a new lease on life and, after a half-decade in the doldrums of a tanking Utah team, he’s finally somewhere that’s trying to win and has reinvented himself to do so. It’s certainly admirable.

The Cleveland Cavaliers will try to maintain homecourt advantage in the series as they take on the Toronto Raptors in Game 5.

Share your thoughts as the game unfolds. If you aren’t a member of the community, sign up so you can talk to your fellow Cavalier fans and make your voice heard!

Go Cavs!

There’s no more clarity in Steve Kerr’s situation following a reported meeting with the Warriors’ top decision-makers earlier this week.

According to an ESPN report on Wednesday, Kerr met with owner Joe Lacob and general manager Mike Dunleavy Jr. on Monday.

The meeting lasted two hours, per ESPN, but while both sides told the outlet it was “productive,” they weren’t able to reach a resolution.

Kerr, whose contract expired at the end of the season, will continue talks with Golden State management next week, according to ESPN.

In 12 seasons, Kerr, 60, has won four NBA championships and this past year became the fourth-fastest coach to win 600 regular-season games.

However, according to multiple reports, Warriors brass believe some stylistic changes are in order following only their second below-.500 finish under Kerr, with Steph Curry not getting any younger.

Kerr, meanwhile, was upfront immediately following the Warriors’ elimination to the Suns in the play-in tournament that he would understand if the organization was ready to move on.

Kerr said after the game, almost two weeks ago, that he would take some time to think before sitting down with Lacob and Dunleavy, which seems to have taken place Monday.

People close to Kerr told ESPN the coach was still “torn” about his preference, while those with the team told the outlet that whatever the conclusion, it would be a “basketball decision.”

The bottom line seemed to be that neither side was in much of a hurry.

The Warriors will know their fate in the draft lottery next Sunday, which could factor into Kerr’s decision. They have the 11th-best odds and a 9.4% chance at moving into the top four. If the ping pong balls break the right way, they would have a valuable asset to potentially bolster a roster for Curry’s final years.

Here are the NBA playoff games for Wednesday, April 29, 2026:

• Orlando Magic at Detroit Pistons — 7:00 PM ET (Prime Video)  
• Toronto Raptors at Cleveland Cavaliers — 7:30 PM ET (ESPN)  
• Houston Rockets at Los Angeles Lakers — 10:00 PM ET (ESPN)  

That’s your full slate for today. Enjoy the basketball!

New York Post may be compensated and/or receive an affiliate commission if you click or buy through our links. Featured pricing is subject to change.

After avoiding elimination with a win in Game 4, the Houston Rockets will try to do so again in tonight’s Game 5 against the Los Angeles Lakers.

Even without Kevin Durant, who missed his third game of the series with an ankle injury (he’ll miss his fourth tonight), the Rockets dominated from the jump and led by as many as 26 points at one point. Amen Thompson led all players with 23 points and 7 assists, part of a balanced starting lineup where all five players scored at least 16 points. The Rockets’ defense also forced the Lakers into 23 turnovers.

The Lakers may gain a huge piece of offense back with the return of Austin Reeves. Reeves, who has been out with an oblique strain since April 2. He was listed as a game-time decision ahead of Game 4, but the Lakers are optimistic that he’ll be ready to go for tonight’s game.

Even with the Game 4 victory, every win is a must-win for the Rockets, who coud be eliminated with the Lakers’ next win. If the Lakers win tonight, they’ll face the defending champion Oklahoma City Thunder in Round 2, but a Rockets win will bring the series back to Houston for Game 6.

Lakers vs. Rockets start time:

Tonight’s Lakers vs. Rockets playoff game is scheduled to tip off at 10 p.m. ET tonight, April 29.

How to watch Lakers vs. Rockets for free:

If you don’t have cable, you’ll need a live TV streaming service to stream the game for free.

DIRECTV is our top pick for watching basketball live for free — its five-day free trial includes ESPN (plus every other channel you’ll need for the NBA season including local channels). When the trial is over, you’ll pay as low as $49.99/month and gain access to over 90 live channels.

If you aren’t ready to commit to a full-on subscription, you can try a Sling Orange Day Pass. Priced at $4.99, you’ll get 24 hours of access to all Sling TV Orange has to offer, including ESPN. Sling also offers weekend and week-long passes for its Orange plan, which offer between three and seven days of access.

Lakers vs. Rockets first round playoff schedule

• Game 1:Lakers 107, Rockets 98
• Game 2: Lakers 101, Rockets 94
• Game 3:Lakers 112, Rockets 108
• Game 4:Rockets 115, Lakers
• Game 5: April 29*
• Game 6: May 1*
• Game 7: May 3*

* if necessary

NBA Playoffs key dates:

• April 18: NBA Playoffs First Round begins
• June 3: Game 1 of the NBA Finals

Why Trust Post Wanted by the New York Post

This article was written by Angela Tricarico, Commerce Streaming Reporter for Post Wanted Shopping, Page Six, and Decider.com. Angela keeps readers up to date with cord-cutter-friendly deals, and information on how to watch your favorite sports teams, TV shows, and movies on every streaming service. Not only does Angela test and compare the streaming services she writes about to ensure readers are getting the best prices, but she’s also a superfan specializing in the intersection of shopping, tech, sports, and pop culture. When she’s not writing about (or watching) TV, movies, and sports, she’s also keeping up on the underrated perfume dupes at Bath & Body Works and testing headphones. Prior to joining Decider and The New York Post in 2023, she wrote about streaming and consumer tech at Insider Reviews.

The clock is ticking on the Detroit Pistons’ 2025-26 season much earlier than anticipated. Detroit faces elimination against an imposing Orlando Magic defense and, frankly, the Pistons’ nonchalance and self-immolation. Fun fact: the Pistons are holding Orlando to the worst field goal percentage in the NBA Playoffs and averaging nearly four more blocks per game than the next closest team. Detroit’s problem is that its field goal percentage is fourth-worst, and they are combining that poor shooting with 18.3 turnovers per game. If Detroit could get out of its own way and hit a few shots, they’d be the team up 3-1. Do I have confidence they can reverse those trends? Not really.

Game Vitals

When: 7 p.m. ET
Where: Little Caesars Arena, Detroit, Michigan
Watch: Prime Video
Odds: Pistons -10.5

Projected Lineups

Detroit Pistons (1-3)

Cade Cunningham, Duncan Robinson, Ausar Thompson, Tobias Harris, Jalen Duren

Orlando Magic (3-1)

Jalen Suggs, Desmond Bane, Tristan da Silva, Paolo Banchero, Wendell Carter Jr.

DETROIT (AP) — Orlando Magic forward Franz Wagner was out of the lineup with a strained right calf against the Detroit Pistons in Game 5 of their first-round playoff series on Wednesday night.

“It changes things in a big way,” Magic coach Jamahl Mosley said.

Wagner had 19 points in two-plus quarters before he departed late in the third quarter of Game 4 with the injury. Orlando went on to beat Detroit 94-88 on Monday night, putting the Eastern Conference's top-seeded team on the brink of elimination.

He averaged nearly 17 points and 5.5 rebounds over the first four games of the series. The former Michigan star, who is from Germany, was limited to 34 games during the regular season due to injuries and averaged 20.6 points per game.

Wagner was replaced in Game 4 by Jamal Cain, who had a powerful dunk over Jalen Duren early in the fourth quarter and a one-handed tip-in dunk that put the Magic ahead with 4:55 remaining.

“We have to make sure we’re at our best no matter who they put on the floor,” Pistons coach J.B. Bickerstaff said.

___

AP NBA: https://apnews.com/nba

PHILADELPHIA — Both the Celtics and 76ers will be at full strength when they face one another for Game 6 on Thursday night. The Celtics have a completely clean injury and have no players sidelined for the fourth consecutive game.

The 76ers will also be at full strength; the only player on their injury report is Joel Embiid, who is listed as probable. He will play in his third consecutive game after missing almost three weeks as he recovered from an emergency appendectomy.

Joel Embiid will look to continue his strong play on Thursday

Embiid was phenomenal in Game 5, exploding for 33 points, 18 of which came in the second half. He shot 12 of 23 from the field and 9 of 10 from the line, while also tallying 8 assists and 4 rebounds. In the second half, Embiid made 7 of 10 field goal attempts.

“Give him credit, he played well,” Jayson Tatum said. “He put a lot of pressure on us, especially on the defensive end. We’ll go back and watch the film and make some adjustments and be ready for Game 6.”

Kelly Oubre Jr. was questionable ahead of Game 5 as he deals with an adductor strain, but he was not on the injury report ahead of Game 6. Oubre has been largely tasked with guarding Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum, but has struggled on the offensive end; he’s averaging 9 points while shooting 38.3% from the field and 15.8% from three in the series.

Celtics-76ers will tip off at 8pm ET on Thursday night at the Xfinity Mobile Arena.

Luka Doncic is now more than four weeks removed from the Grade 2 hamstring strain he suffered April 2 against the Thunder. 

The original unforgiving recovery timeline was four to eight weeks.

A biological boundary to return to sports, and for athletes like Doncic, whose game is defined by quick and sudden stops and starts, recovery can take even longer. 

Despite that, Doncic has begun his return-to-play protocol and is slowly ramping back up on the court. 

Doncic has taken an aggressive approach to his recovery, even by superstar standards. After suffering the injury, he took a trip to Spain for advanced treatment hoping to expedite the recovery process. 

During the Lakers first round series against the Rockets, Doncic was able to ease back into shooting and controlled movement on the court.

However, as Lakers’ head coach J.J. Redick said on Tuesday, Doncic has yet to be upgraded to one-on-one action yet. 

In the return-to-play ladder, that step is an important threshold. It’s where actual competition begins.

Austin Reaves recently returned from an oblique injury and he began one-on-one drills roughly a week before he stepped back onto the court. 

Thankfully for Reaves, he had a clean progression with no setbacks. If Doncic is able to follow that same arc — and that’s a big if — then his timeline could rapidly increase. 

Unfortunately for the Lakers, time isn’t on their side. 

The Western Conference semifinals are set to begin between May 2 and 4. 

A return for Game 1 at this point, especially for a player whose game depends on torque, deceleration, and violent changes of pace, seems unlikely. Depending on when the series begins, Game 2 seems doubtful as well.

But a potential Game 3 back in Los Angeles could be a pivot point.

Provided that Doncic begins one-on-one action soon, and he’s on a similar progression as Reaves was, then closer to the five-week mark seems more plausible. 

Until then, the Lakers fragile math equation remains the same.

Continue to win and survive in the postseason so Doncic can come back and make an impact later in the series.

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