Four playoff games on tonight’s slate
- Orlando Magic at Detroit Pistons, Toronto Raptors at Cleveland Cavaliers, and Houston Rockets at Los Angeles Lakers make up Wednesday’s three-game playoff slate. - Orlando can close out Detroit with a Game 5 win, while Lakers-Rockets resumes with Los Angeles holding a 3-1 series lead. - San Antonio already eliminated Portland on Tuesday, trimming the original slate and setting a West semifinal berth. (nba.com)
Wednesday’s National Basketball Association playoff slate has three games, not four: Magic-Pistons, Raptors-Cavaliers, and Rockets-Lakers. (nba.com) (espn.com) Orlando visits Detroit in Game 5 at 7 p.m. Eastern with the Magic leading the first-round series 3-1. Orlando won Games 1, 3 and 4, including a 94-88 win on Sunday that put the top-seeded Pistons on the brink. (nba.com) Toronto plays at Cleveland at 7:30 p.m. Eastern in the only series on the board that is tied. The Cavaliers took the first two games, then the Raptors answered with a 126-104 win in Game 3 and a 93-89 win in Game 4. (nba.com) Houston faces the Lakers in Los Angeles at 10 p.m. Eastern, with the Lakers up 3-1 after splitting two games in Texas. Los Angeles opened the series with three straight wins before Houston’s 116-96 Game 4 response. (nba.com) The confusion around a four-game slate comes from Tuesday’s result in San Antonio. The Spurs beat the Trail Blazers 114-95 in Game 5 and ended that series 4-1, so Portland-Spurs is no longer on Wednesday’s schedule. (nba.com) (espn.com) Tuesday also pushed two other first-round series forward by a day. The Knicks beat the Hawks 126-97 for a 3-2 lead, and the 76ers beat the Celtics 113-97 to cut Boston’s lead to 3-2; both Game 6s are set for Thursday, April 30. (nba.com) (espn.com) The official National Basketball Association bracket lists Prime Video for Magic-Pistons and ESPN for Raptors-Cavaliers and Rockets-Lakers. ESPN’s schedule page also shows Prime Video for Orlando-Detroit, while the two later games appear without channel labels there. (nba.com) (espn.com) That leaves Wednesday as a hinge night for three different reasons: Orlando can advance, Cleveland and Toronto can break a deadlock, and the Lakers can move one win from the second round. (nba.com)
