NBA playoff guide: Who plays when, how to watch, what the odds are

Oh, what a Monday night in the NBA playoffs!

The Knicks were down 20 on the road against the defending champions. The Nuggets were down 14 on the road against this year’s title favorites. And none of it mattered — New York won Game 1 of an Eastern Conference semifinal series in Boston, while Denver won Game 1 of a Western Conference semifinal series in Oklahoma City.

How rare is that? It’s the first time in more than a decade that two road teams erased such a deficit to win on the same day in the NBA playoffs.

So just like that, the Knicks and Nuggets struck first in those series. Indiana won Game 1 on the road of its East semifinal series against Cleveland on Sunday. No pressure, Minnesota — but home teams have never gone a combined 0-4 in Game 1 of the conference semifinal round. The Timberwolves need to beat Golden State on Tuesday night when their Round 2 matchup opens to keep that from happening.

Tuesday’s slate has Indiana at injury-plagued Cleveland and the Warriors at the Timberwolves.

Tuesday’s national TV schedule

All time Eastern

7 p.m. — Indiana at Cleveland (TNT)

9:30 p.m. — Golden State at Minnesota (TNT)

Wednesday’s national TV schedule

All times Eastern

7 p.m. — New York at Boston (TNT)

9:30 p.m. — Denver at Oklahoma City (TNT)

Thursday’s national TV schedule

All times Eastern

8:30 p.m. — Golden State at Minnesota (TNT)

Betting odds

Oklahoma City (+175) is favored to win the NBA title, according to BetMGM Sportsbook, followed closely by Boston (+250).

After that, it’s Cleveland (+500), Minnesota (+1000), Denver (+2000), Golden State (+2500), New York (+2800) and Indiana (+3500).

This is the closest the odds have been from lowest to highest so far in these playoffs.

Award season

On Monday, Kenny Atkinson of the Cleveland Cavaliers was announced as this year’s NBA coach of the year. It was a sweep for Atkinson; he had already been announced as the winner of the award given out by the coaches’ association.

There are two other awards set to be revealed this week — executive of the year is Tuesday at 12:30 p.m. Eastern, and the social justice champion will be announced Wednesday at 11 a.m. Eastern.

Other awards so far:

— Boston’s Jrue Holiday won the sportsmanship award.

— Atlanta’s Dyson Daniels won most improved player.

— San Antonio’s Stephon Castle won rookie of the year.

— Golden State’s Stephen Curry won the Twyman-Stokes teammate of the year award.

— Golden State’s Draymond Green won the hustle award.

— Cleveland’s Evan Mobley won defensive player of the year.

— New York’s Jalen Brunson won clutch player of the year.

— Boston’s Payton Pritchard won sixth man of the year.

The league has not announced when MVP, as well as the All-NBA, All-Rookie and All-Defensive teams, will be revealed.

Scoring leaders

The highest-scoring games by players so far in this year’s playoffs:

43 — Jamal Murray, Denver vs. LA Clippers, April 29

43 — Anthony Edwards, Minnesota vs. LA Lakers, April 27

42 — Nikola Jokic, Denver at Oklahoma City, May 5

40 — Jalen Brunson, New York at Detroit, May 1

39 — Kawhi Leonard, LA Clippers at Denver, April 21

38 — Luka Doncic, LA Lakers at Minnesota, April 27

38 — Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Oklahoma City at Memphis, April 26

38 — LeBron James, LA Lakers at Minnesota, April 25

38 — Jalen Green, Houston vs. Golden State, April 23

Key upcoming events

May 12 — Draft lottery, Chicago.

May 18 or 20 — Game 1, Western Conference finals.

May 19 or 21 — Game 1, Eastern Conference finals.

June 5 — Game 1, NBA Finals. (Other games: June 8, June 11, June 13, June 16, June 19 and Game 7, if necessary, will be June 22.)

June 25 — NBA draft, first round.

June 26 — NBA draft, second round.

Stories of note

— Series preview for Timberwolves-Warriors and series preview capsule.

— Tuesday’s preview: Pacers-Cavaliers.

— Gregg Popovich’s new job: ‘El Jefe’

— Spurs coach Gregg Popovich steps down.

— Mitch Johnson takes over for Pop in San Antonio.

— Appreciation: Gregg Popovich changed the NBA.

— Grizzlies promote Iisalo to head coach, remove interim tag.

— A look inside the numbers of this season, headed into the playoffs

Stats of the day

— Boston missed an NBA-playoff-record 45 3-pointers in Game 1 against New York. The Celtics were 15 for 60 from deep, and a staggering 19 of their 20 shot attempts in the third quarter were from beyond the arc.

— Denver’s Nikola Jokic had 42 points and 22 rebounds in the Game 1 win at Oklahoma City. It was the first time anyone did that in a playoff game since Charles Barkley in 1992.

— A little perspective. Jokic is now the 29th player in NBA history (including regular season and playoffs) with a 42-22 game. Of those, 28 of them combined to do it 82 times. The other guy — Wilt Chamberlain — did it 180 times.

— The Knicks have five wins so far in these playoffs. And four have come by three points or less.

— Road teams went 2-0 on Sunday, then 2-0 on Monday.

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