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The Houston Rockets, being the Rockets, like to do things The Hard Way. In their second championship season, 1994-1995, the Houston Rockets defeated more combined playoff opponent regular season wins en route to their title than any team in NBA history before, or since. Because of Hakeem Olajuwon’s injury that season, the Rockets didn’t finish with a great record 47-35.

In winning the Finals, they traveled the hardest playoff road of any team title winning team, ever. The Rockets never had home court advantage in any series. In the first round they faced the 60 win Utah Jazz, and won 3-2 (the first round was five games back then). In the second round they played the 59 win Phoenix Suns, and won 4-3, winning game seven in Phoenix. In the Western Conference Finals, they battled the 62 win San Antonio Spurs and the NBA MVP, David Robinson. They won that series 4-2. In the Finals they took on the 57 win Orlando Magic, who reached the Finals after defeating Michael Jordan’s Bulls in six game. The Rockets swept the Magic.

Why am I talking about these things? Because 1994-95 demonstrates that difficult things can be done in the NBA. The most difficult title path in NBA history was walked by the Houston Rockets. Today’s Houston Rockets face a similar, perhaps even less likely, uphill climb.

The Rockets started out a playoff series they were expected to dominate against an injured Lakers team 0-3. Well, that’s a tough row to hoe, but it’s doable, right? Not in terms of NBA history. The record of teams facing an 0-3 deficit is a morbid 0-160 in NBA history. Only 3 of those 160 series finished 4-3, with the usual case being that the winning team took at 3-0 lead, messed around, and then won. About 2% of all such series have gone to seven games.

The Rockets, then, would be facing an uphill climb, just to force game seven in Los Angeles. They’d have to do the literally unprecedented to win the thing.

There’s some reason to think they might, though. The first is, despite Luke “The Duck” Kennard and Marcus “The Dick” Smart going crazy early on, the Rockets have held the Lakers to an average of 97 points per game, throughout the series. The Lakers in the first two games made a high percentage of difficult shots. They didn’t do that in the next three games, but the Rockets, of course, gave away game three. In games four and five, without Kevin Durant, the Rockets played better offense, while maintaining their defense. It wasn’t good offense, mind you, but better than the dregs of games one and two.

That might be enough. So far the Lakers best player has been, surprise, 41 year old LeBron James. James, though in fantastic shape, is in fact 41 years old, and the last two games (if game seven happens) will both feature only one day of rest in between the contest, a day partly spent in travel. The whole Houston starting lineup, either the youngest, or second youngest, in NBA playoff history, is roughly half of James’ age. Energy and force might be the deciding factor (we can hope it isn’t specious free throws for the repugnant Austin Reaves).

The Rockets have to win tomorrow night in Houston, and then somehow overcome the collective desire of the NBA League Office and its broadcast partners, to knock the Lakers out of the playoffs. If any team can do it, though, it’s the contrary, strange, often painful to watch, Houston Rockets. It’s in the team DNA, after all.

The Cleveland Cavaliers exorcised some of their demons in their Game 5 win over the Toronto Raptors. They overcame a double-digit second-half deficit to pull out a much-needed victory. They now have a 3-2 lead as the series shifts back to Canada.

Despite the win, the series isn’t over yet. This Raptors team has found ways to continually pull themselves off the mat, even though they’ve been missing key players throughout this series.

The Cavs have a chance to show that they’ve learned from the mistakes that plagued them in games 3 and 4. And if they’re going to do that, they’ll likely need more from Donovan Mitchell.

Mitchell is having an uncharacteristically inefficient series, especially in the last three games. Since Game 3, he’s averaging just 18 points, three assists, and three turnovers on .351/.333/1.000 shooting splits. We’ll see if that changes in this closeout game.

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Who: Cleveland Cavaliers (3-2) at Toronto Raptors (2-3)

Where: Scotiabank Arena – Toronto, ON

When: Fri., May 1 at 7:30 PM

TV: Prime Video

Point spread: Cavs -3.5

Cavs injury report: None

Raptors injury report: Brandon Ingram – QUESTIONABLE (heel), Immanuel Quickley – OUT (hamstring)

Cavs expectedstarting lineup: James Harden, Donovan Mitchell, Max Strus, Evan Mobley, Jarrett Allen

Raptors expected starting lineup: Jakobe Walter, RJ Barrett, Jamison Battle, Scottie Barnes, Jakob Poeltl

Previous matchup: The Cavs defeated the Raptors 125-120 in Game 5.

Here’s a look at both teams’ regular-season impact stats via Cleaning the Glass.

Stop if you’ve heard this before, but turnovers were an issue for the Lakers in their loss on Wednesday.

While they weren’t quite at the level of their Game 4 disasterclass, the Lakers did turn the ball over 15 times in Game 5, resulting in 18 Rockets points. Most certainly, it was a team-wide issue, but one of the main culprits was Marcus Smart.

After having some strong showings earlier in the series, Smart was woeful in Game 5, turning the ball over a game-high six times. After the game, Smart was honest about his and the team’s shortcomings in taking care of the ball.

“We’ve been through this,” Smart said. “We understand this team and how they play and they’re very aggressive. We got to take care of the basketball. Myself, I had six turnovers and that’s unacceptable. Especially with only two assists, right? Especially against this team.

“So, you definitely got to take care of the ball. We got to do a better job. All of us, collectively, and that’ll help us for sure.”

At this point, you wouldn’t be blamed if this all feels like it rings a little hollow. Even before the postseason started, the Lakers were talking about needing to take care of the ball. Two weeks later, they’re still talking about needing to take care of the ball and they haven’t done it yet.

It’d be one thing if the turnovers were being forced by the Rockets entirely. While their pressure has ramped up, the Lakers are making plenty of unforced mistakes as well.

To his credit, head coach JJ Redick defended his players while still noting the team has to improve.

“It’s hard because the players see stuff on the court,” Redick said. “It’s easy for us to look back on film or armchair quarterback it. I do think we had two of those turnovers where we get a stop and throw the ball ahead out of bounds, Those are the kind of the ones that you wish you had back.

“But the turnovers, they come in all shapes and sizes. It’s about limiting them and you certainly have to give your guys freedom to make basketball plays. I would say, in general though, turnovers of aggression are OK. Turnovers of passivity are not.”

At the end of the day, the Lakers need to walk the walk instead of talking the talk. There’s a certain level of focus and attentiveness that is required in the playoffs and the Lakers aren’t showcasing that.

It’s what separates not just the title contenders from other playoff teams, but it’s the difference between the Lakers having this series already wrapped up and being on the brink of a Game 7.

Turnovers are not the sole reason the Lakers have lost two straight games. However, it’s emblematic of a bigger issue the team has had these playoffs.

You can follow Jacob on Twitter at @JacobRude or on Bluesky at @jacobrude.bsky.social.

The Oklahoma City Thunder just swept the Phoenix Suns out of the playoffs like crumbs off a kitchen counter, and somewhere in the Bay Area, a Warriors fan quietly exhaled for the first time since April 17th.

Think about what almost happened. The Warriors scraped and clawed through an injury-riddled 37-45 season, limped into the play-in tournament, and lost to these same Suns by 15. Jalen Green dropped 36 breezy points while Steph Curry spent most of the night getting hunting for the flamethrowing touch and never quite seizing it. Phoenix was the executioner. And the executioner just got executed.

By the best team in basketball.

The Thunder didn’t just beat the Suns in round one. They humiliated them, swept them clean, and did it with the kind of casual dominance that makes other rosters look at their own roster and feel embarrassed. OKC has now won 20 of their last 27 playoff games by plus-261 points, company that includes the dynastic Warriors of 2017-2018, the Showtime Lakers, and LeBron’s Cavs. That’s the conversation Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is in right now. That’s the machine the Warriors would have walked into.

And listen, We Believe happened. Baron Davis over Dallas was real, it was documented, and it still lives rent-free in every NBA fan’s memory palace. Eight seeds can win first-round series. The architecture of a seven-game series always leaves room for chaos.

But this Warriors roster in 2026 is not the 2007 crew. Bearded Baron had youth, fury, and an opponent that didn’t see them coming. This version of Golden State had a banged-up Steph, no Moses Moody, no Jimmy Butler, and a collection of players still figuring out who they are when the lights get brighter. Walking into an OKC first round would not have been a miracle waiting to happen. It would have been a closed casket.

The dynasty theology of this franchise has always been about knowing when you’re built to compete and when you’re built to survive. This was a survival season. All those injuries ensured the Warriors were always playing for the offseason, for the roster decisions ahead, for what comes next. Getting bounced in the play-in stings. Getting swept by the Thunder in round one in front of a national playoff audience would have stung differently, the kind of stings that leave a mark on perception heading into a pivotal summer.

Dub Nation doesn’t have to find out what that feels like. The Suns took the hit for them.

Quietly. Mercifully. In four games. THANKS PHOENIX, YOU TOOK ONE FOR THE TEAM!

The New York Knicks made some NBA playoff history on Thursday night.

Holding a 3-2 series lead entering Game 6, the Knicks came out and blitzed the Hawks in Atlanta, taking an 83-36 lead into the half. That marked the largest halftime lead ever held in an NBA playoff game, per ESPN.

Up 47 points at the half, and leading 117-64 after three quarters, the Knicks had a shot at authoring the biggest blowout win in NBA playoff history but ultimately came up just short with the entire second half effectively rendered garbage time. At one point they led by 61 points, a record in a playoff game in the play-by-play era, per ESPN.

The Knicks won 140-89, their 51-point margin of victory still easily good enough for a top 10 spot on the list of biggest playoff blowouts, and advance to the second round, where they will play the winner of the Celtics-Sixers series. The Knicks' 140 points are a franchise record for a playoff game, per ESPN.

Here's a look at the biggest blowouts in NBA playoff history:

Mitchell Robinson doesn't back down from a fight during games, and that attitude got the Knicks center ejected during Thursday's Game 6 against the Hawks.

With the Knicks up big in the second quarter, Robinson was on the floor while OG Anunoby was taking a free throw. Dyson Daniels of the Hawks tried to box out Robinson and seemingly gave the Knicks big man a strong elbow to the rib area. Robinson didn't take kindly to the move and got in Daniels' face and held the Hawks forward. Oneyeka Okongwu pulled Robinson off his teammate, but Daniels must have said something that caused Robinson to go after him again. Players, officials and coaches eventually separated the two, but both were eventually ejected.

Robinson, in his 8:35 minutes on the court, scored six points on 3-of-3 shooting while coming down with three rebounds and picking up two blocks. 

"It’s hard. I haven’t seen the film. It’s tough, when you’re up that big, stuff happens," coach Mike Brown said of the alternation after the game. "It’s hard if someone feels something that shouldn’t have happened to them happened, it’s hard to keep your composure in that moment. Our guys did a good job of that the rest of the game."

Mitchell Robinson and Dyson Daniels have both been ejected pic.twitter.com/JiQUu4mQoU

— Knicks Videos (@sny_knicks) May 1, 2026

The Atlanta Hawks' Dyson Daniels and New York Knicks' Mitchell Robinson were ejected as tempers boiled over in a one-sided first half Thursday night.

The ejections occurred with 4:39 remaining in the second quarter of Game 6 with the Knicks leading by 50(!) points. Up 72-22, Robinson was called for a loose-ball foul, and things exploded from there.

Robinson took exception to Daniels' actions when they were trying to box each other out after a free throw and the players latched on to each other. They were pulled apart, with several players and staff ending up on the court in the process, but they repeatedly tried to go after each other.

No punches were thrown and eventually cooler heads prevailed, but both players were ejected from the game after reviews.

CHAOS IN KNICKS-HAWKS 😳

Both Mitchell Robinson and Dyson Daniels were assessed with technical fouls and ejected from the game. pic.twitter.com/sjeATc59Pl

— ESPN (@espn) May 1, 2026

The Knicks lead the series 3-2 and are well on their way to punching their ticket to the second round.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Dyson Daniels, Mitchell Robinson ejected from Knicks vs Hawks

The Lakers’ defense, or lack thereof, has been a topic of conversation all season long. The narrative of Luka Dončić and Austin Reaves as poor defenders portrays the team as incapable of stopping anyone from scoring.

However, perception isn’t always reality.

In the postseason, the purple and gold has been a respectable defensive team with a defensive rating of 109.4, right at the median for playoff teams.

In Game 5, they held the Rockets under 100 points, a benchmark the winning team has reached every game this series. But it wasn’t enough as the Rockets won and extended this first-round matchup to at least six games.

After the defeat, Lakers head coach JJ Redick said the defense did its job and should’ve been enough to secure the result.

“You got to give [the Rockets] a lot of credit,” Redick said. “They made shots tonight, including some guys who normally don’t make threes. I think our defense, you hope 99 [points for Houston] is enough to win. We just couldn’t make shots. We missed some layups. Certainly had some good looks from 3 that didn’t go down.”

The Rockets shot 14-40 from 3-point range, a below-average performance. Los Angeles also outscored Houston in the paint 44-36. Add in the Lakers winning the rebounding battle 41-34 and Houston only grabbing six offensive boards and the stats certainly signal that a win was on the table for the Lakers.

It’s not just Redick stressing that defense has been good, the players are saying the same thing.

After their Game 4 loss, LeBron James said the defense wasn’t the problem and pointed out that turnovers were a much bigger negative for the team.

The Rockets might have scored enough to squeak out these pair of wins, but that’s more due to timely baskets by Houston and the Lakers’ inability to throw a pea in the ocean.

In this series, LA has held Houston under 100 points in three games. In the regular season, they only had seven times where they held opponents under the century mark.

The defense might’ve been good enough, but there are two sides to the game. And if you can’t reach at least 100 points in a playoff matchup, then losing is what’s going to happen.

“They made shots,” Marcus Smart said. “You tip the hat off to those guys. They made some shots tonight that they weren’t making in Games 1, 2 and 3. But we understood that. We knew that. We gave ourselves a chance, but we just fell short and it’s part of it. We got to put this one in the back of our mind and move on to the next one.”

The return of Austin Reaves should help the offensive side of things for the Lakers. He scored 22 points coming off the bench and will likely play even more in Game 6.

Los Angeles’ defense has been good enough all series long, and it’s why they are ahead 3-2. But if they want to close this out, they’ll need a bit more scoring to occur.

You can follow Edwin on Twitter at @ECreates88 or on Bluesky at @ecreates88.bsky.social.