The NBA playoffs are officially underway, with Saturday’s first-round action featuring four games and three teams (so far) picking up wins.
The No. 3 New York Knicks erupted with a furious scoring barrage in the fourth quarter against the No. 6 Detroit Pistons for a 123-112 victory at Madison Square Garden.
Earlier in Denver, the No. 4 Nuggets beat the No. 5 Los Angeles Clippers 112-110 in a hard-fought, overtime thriller in which Russell Westbrook played the hero.
In Indianapolis, the Indiana Pacers rolled out to a 67-43 halftime lead and cruised to a 117-98 victory over the Milwaukee Bucks to take a 1-0 lead in their first-round series.
The Minnesota Timberwolves face the Lakers in Los Angeles (8:30 p.m. ET on ABC) in the final game of the night Saturday.
Knicks 123, Pistons 112
How New York surged down the stretch
The Knicks came into this series with many believing that they had four of the best five or six players. It didn’t appear that way early on. New York and Detroit battled back and forth for most of the game due to the likes of Tobias Harris and Tim Hardaway Jr. catching fire, while Knicks players not named OG Anunoby struggled to get much offensively.
New York’s game plan to take away Cade Cunningham and force others to beat them looked like it wasn’t going to work as Detroit led by as many as nine points going into the fourth. However, the Pistons turned the ball over down the stretch, those role players missed shots and New York got huge contributions from Cam Payne, who scored 14 points in 15 minutes, and Josh Hart, who scored 13 points, dished out six assists and grabbed seven rebounds.
Jalen Brunson, who scored 34 points but shot 44.4 percent from the field, likely won’t shoot as poorly as he did in Game 1, but New York will likely need every bit of its “others” to hold off this Pistons team. — James Edwards III
extended to a 21-0 run ⚡️ pic.twitter.com/Os6YrjWHRj
— NEW YORK KNICKS (@nyknicks) April 20, 2025
Pistons fade late as lack of playoff experience shows
The Pistons’ group of veterans played well enough to keep them afloat until about midway through the fourth quarter when the Knicks went on a 21-0 run. Cunningham had difficulty finding a rhythm during his first playoff game, posting 21 points on 8-of-21 shooting, 12 assists, six rebounds and six turnovers.
Malik Beasley added 20 points on 6-of-12 shooting from 3-point range. Tim Hardaway Jr. chipped in 19 on 3-of-8 from distance. But eventually, Detroit looked like a team with an average age of 25.2 that largely lacked playoff experience. Excluding the majority of the fourth quarter, the Pistons will need to replicate the first three quarters of Saturday night. And Cunningham will need to look like the All-Star version of himself that showed up all season long.
It was an ugly way to lose a game Detroit looked to be competing neck-and-neck in. But this is the Pistons’ first opportunity to learn from postseason missteps with this group. What matters most for Detroit is how it responds on Monday and the rest of the series. — Hunter Patterson
Nuggets 112, Clippers 110, OT
The difference-maker in Game 1? Russell Westbrook
Westbrook can be erratic. He’s prone to turnovers and taking bad shots. He misses layups and easy shots at an alarming rate. He can be great and horrific, often in the same game.
But when he is at his best, he is still incredibly impactful.
The Nuggets don’t beat the Clippers in Saturday afternoon’s Game 1 without Westbrook. He shot 5-of-17 from the field and missed shots he should have made. But he made some of the biggest plays of the game. His 3-pointer with 23 seconds remaining in regulation gave the Nuggets a 98-96 lead. He kept numerous plays alive with weak-side offensive rebounds. He brought point-of-attack defense to a game where the Nuggets weren’t defending well.
Everything Denver hoped he would be when the Nuggets signed him in the offseason matriculated Saturday. Here’s the difference. When Westbrook was playing on the ball, the results weren’t pretty. When he played off the ball, and moved without the ball, and flashed to the middle to counter the Clippers doubling Nikola Jokić and Jamal Murray, he essentially won the game for the Nuggets.
That’s how he is going to have to play going forward. Forget about creating off the dribble. Focus on being a connector and playing off the two best players on the team. Westbrook did that in the second half and overtime, and because he did, his team has a 1-0 lead in what should be a close series. — Tony Jones
CLUTCH 👌 pic.twitter.com/nKB5xGxteO
— Denver Nuggets (@nuggets) April 19, 2025
Zubac is a problem for Jokić, Nuggets
The effect of Ivica Zubac is real, and the Nuggets are going to have to figure out how to handle his presence in the paint going forward in this series, even with a 1-0 lead.
In Game 1, he displayed a significant ability to make Jokić work, by bumping him off his spots and presenting resistance at the rim. Jokić, because he’s the best player in the NBA, was still dominant. But Zubac kept him from being otherworldly. More than that, Zubac’s defense at the rim deterred a number of drives to the basket by other Denver players.
Jokić defended well, especially in the second half, and really increased his impact level in the second half. It’s clear that the Clippers are a deeper team than Denver in this series, and that Los Angeles has multiple ways to find offense. And that means Jokić is going to have to be the best player in this series by a significant amount. The Zubac effect meant that a tired Jokić missed two big free throws with less than two minutes remaining, free throws that could have given Denver a three-point lead. The Zubac effect meant a bad shooting night for Murray, in part because of Kris Dunn’s defense, but also in part because he couldn’t get easy looks at the rim.
The Nuggets will have to be better and quicker in getting into their offensive sets, especially down the stretch. Denver also can’t afford to spot the Clippers a 15-point lead, as it did in the first half, because of lackluster defense. Denver won Game 1 because it was able to defend at a high level for three quarters. The Nuggets put Game 1 in peril because they didn’t defend at all for the first 18 minutes.
This series is one game old and fatigue may already be a factor. Game 2 will be on Monday night at Ball Arena, but you could already see the tired legs in overtime of Game 1. It’s a product of two older rosters, but also a product of the emotion and the physicality that went into Game 1. Whichever team can deal with that the best will have a big advantage in Game 2. — Jones
Clippers hurt by lack of ball security
This series is about the possession battle, especially for the Clippers. The Nuggets have the best player in the series in Jokić. And he’s the best player because he leads an offense that is the only one in the NBA that makes more than half of its attempts.
The equalizer for the Clippers, besides how strong their offense has developed since March began, is that they are one of the best defensive rebounding teams in the league and one of the best at forcing turnovers, too. On the flip side, the Nuggets have struggled with turnovers.
The Clippers had an 18-point second quarter. But that’s when they started getting crushed in the possession battle. Denver forced eight second-quarter turnovers, bringing that lead down to four by halftime. At the end of the third quarter, Jokić got a steal and a bucket. In the fourth quarter, Westbrook’s activity on the offensive glass kept the ball in Denver’s hands, essentially extending the game. And then in overtime, Westbrook blew up LA’s ATO.
Denver forced 20 turnovers to LA’s 11, and had 12 offensive rebounds to LA’s 11. That’s essentially 10 extra possessions in a game that was single digits before the last free throws Denver had to ice the game.
The possession battle is about focus. Lock in on protecting the ball, lock in on securing rebounds. LA didn’t do that despite holding the Nuggets to 43.6 percent from the field. As a result, the Nuggets lead 1-0. — Law Murray
Pacers 117, Bucks 98
Pacers make Giannis work for every point
Giannis Antetokounmpo exploded toward the rim in the third quarter of Saturday’s playoff opener, as he had several times while racking up points in the paint. This time, though, Pacers center Myles Turner wasn’t having it. When Antetokounmpo attempted to shoot, Turner got two hands on the ball for the block and forced a jump ball. The home crowd erupted as Turner temporarily preserved his team’s 25-point lead en route to the convincing victory. Antetokounmpo still finished with a game-high 36 points, but Indiana made it tough on him by throwing several bodies at the two-time league MVP, who finished 8-for-15 at the free-throw line.
The Pacers also contained Antetokounmpo’s playmaking by double-teaming him and desperately closing out on shooters whenever he swung the ball. Antetokounmpo entered Game 1 averaging 10.4 assists over his last 10 regular-season games, but he was limited to just one assist and five turnovers Saturday. Milwaukee showed some life in the fourth quarter by knocking down four 3-pointers to cut Indiana’s lead to 12, but the Bucks shot just 9-for-37 on 3-point attempts (24.3 percent) overall, which was their third-lowest mark in any game this season.
If the Pacers hope to take a commanding 2-0 series lead Tuesday, this is the blueprint they’d like to follow when defending Antetokounmpo. However, Damian Lillard’s potential return would certainly make the Pacers change their approach. — James Boyd
THIS PLAY FROM MYLES TURNER TO FORCE A JUMP💪🔐 pic.twitter.com/OtAkUkB9AW
— NBA (@NBA) April 19, 2025
Mathurin’s playoff debut
Bennedict Mathurin was sidelined last year during the playoffs due to a torn labrum and had to watch from the sideline as his team advanced to the Eastern Conference finals for the first time in a decade.
“I was in a sling,” Mathurin said earlier this week. “I was bringing cookies to the plane.”
This time around, as Indiana tries to prove last year’s postseason run wasn’t a fluke, Mathurin is fully healthy, and he shone off the bench in his playoff debut. The 2022 No. 6 pick scored nine of his 13 points in the second quarter, highlighted by a transition 3 that gave the Pacers a 56-41 lead. Mathurin’s role has fluctuated this season as he’s transitioned from being a starter to a key reserve. But the scoring punch he provided, while making all eight of his free-throw attempts, helped the Pacers roll past the Bucks.
Indiana, appearing in its first playoff series with home-court advantage in 11 years, had six players score in double figures. In addition to Mathurin, Pascal Siakam paced the team with 25 points, Turner added 19 points and four blocks, and Tyrese Haliburton finished with 10 points and a game-high 12 assists for his fifth career playoff double-double. — Boyd
Giannis can’t do it all by himself
The Bucks did nearly everything wrong defensively in the first half. The Pacers scored 26 points in the paint. They got out on the run and put up 15 points on fast breaks. Indiana made 61 percent of its shots in the first half. One of the league’s most efficient offenses got everything it wanted for the first 24 minutes.
On the other end, Antetokounmpo was forced to do everything by himself. And he tried to do it, but he couldn’t pull off the impossible. Giannis drew nine fouls on Pacers defenders and scored 19 points, but it wasn’t enough as the Bucks went 2-for-16 from behind the 3-point line. Things got better for the Bucks in the second half, but not by much, as Game 1 of this series was essentially over by halftime.
The Bucks made a push in the fourth quarter with a unit featuring Antetokounmpo and four 3-point threats — Kevin Porter Jr., Gary Trent Jr., AJ Green and Bobby Portis — off the bench, but it wasn’t enough. That lineup has been one of the Bucks’ best in the final few weeks of the season, but the Bucks are going to have to find something else that works if they want to upset the Pacers in this series.
Milwaukee needs to find a way to make things tougher on the Pacers defensively for the entire game. And on the other end, they are going to need to find Antetokounmpo some help. The two-time MVP scored 36 of the Bucks’ 98 points, while the Bucks went 8-of-35 from the 3-point line and two starters (Taurean Prince and Kyle Kuzma) played 20-plus minutes without scoring. Maybe that extra help comes in the form of Lillard, but if he can’t play in Game 2 on Tuesday, the Bucks will need more from the rest of the roster. — Eric Nehm
(Photo: Sarah Stier / Getty Images)
