Thunder and Spurs only teams advanced
- Oklahoma City and San Antonio are still the only teams through after the first round’s opening wave, leaving six NBA playoff series alive on April 30. - The Thunder swept Phoenix 4-0, the Spurs beat Portland 4-1, and every other matchup sits either 3-2 or headed into Game 6. - That guarantees six first-round series reach at least six games — the deepest opening round since 2014.
The NBA playoffs are usually thinned out by now. Not this year. As of Thursday, April 30, only the Oklahoma City Thunder and San Antonio Spurs have actually finished their first-round business, while the other six series are still dragging the bracket deeper into the week. Basically, the playoffs have turned into a league-wide stress test — and almost everybody is still taking it. (nba.com) ### Who’s actually through? Just two teams. Oklahoma City swept the Phoenix Suns 4-0, and San Antonio beat the Portland Trail Blazers 4-1. That means the West semifinals have one side of the bracket ready to go, while both teams wait for the Lakers-Rockets and Nuggets-Timberwolves series to finally resolve. (nba.com(nba.com)30, the first round usually has more separation. This year, six of eight series are guaranteed to last at least six games. That hasn’t happened since 2014. It’s a simple stat, but it captures the whole mood of this postseason — nobody is getting an easy exit, and even higher seeds keep getting pulled back into danger. (cbssports.com) ### Which series are still alive? A lot of them, and they’re all tight in slightly different ways. In the East, Orlando leads Detroit 3-2, Boston leads Philadelphia 3-2, New York leads Atlanta 3-2, and Cleveland leads Toronto 3-2. In the West, Houston has cut the Lakers’ lead to 3-2, and Minnesota lead(cbssports.com)ole bracket. (nba.com) ### What happened right before today? The last few days kept extending everything. Detroit stayed alive with a 116-109 Game 5 win over Orlando behind Cade Cunningham’s 45 points. Cleveland escaped Toronto 125-120 to move ahead 3-2. Houston beat the Lakers in Game 5 to turn what looked like a short series into a real problem. And on April 28, Philadelph(nba.com)e, the same night San Antonio closed out Portland. (nba.com) ### Why does the Thunder-Spurs detail matter? Because it shows how split this playoff field is. Oklahoma City and San Antonio handled business like clean contenders. Everyone else is stuck in the mud. The Thunder already know they’ll face either the Lakers or Rockets. The Spurs already know they’ll get either the Nuggets or Timberwolves. Those teams no(nba.com)t, prep time, and a chance to watch the chaos from the couch. (nba.com) ### Is this about parity or underperformance? Probably both. Some lower seeds are just better than their seed line suggests, and some favorites haven’t been able to land the knockout punch. Houston forcing a Game 6 against the Lakers is a good example. So is Philadelphia hanging around against Boston. The catch is that once a series gets extended, pres(nba.com)ite goes from “in control” to “why is this going seven?” (espn.com) ### What happens tonight? Three Game 6s are on the board for Thursday: Knicks-Hawks, Celtics-76ers, and Nuggets-Timberwolves. That means the list of teams still alive could finally start shrinking tonight — or this weirdly durable first round could get even messier. (espn.com) ### Bottom line The headline is simple: only the Thunder and Spurs are through. But the bigger story is the shape of the bracket. The 2026 first round hasn’t produced many quick verdicts — it’s produced resistance. And that usually makes the next two weeks a lot more interesting. (nba.com)
