Cade Cunningham had 32 points and 12 assists with a team high plus-29 and Tobias Harris added 30 points on 5 of 7 from 3-point range. For Detroit, Cade Cunningham finished with 39 points, but the All-Star point guard was held to four assists and three turnovers; Tobias Harris added 17 points. The numbers to the left of each team indicate the team's seeding in its conference, and the numbers to the right indicate the number of games the team won in that round. All rounds, including the NBA Finals, were in a 2–2–1–1–1 format with regards to hosting. The NBA Board of Governors adopted a format starting in 2021 to have a play-in tournament involving the teams ranked 7th through 10th in each conference. Ben Golliver ranks every player who could take the court in this year's NBA Finals, starting with each team's MVP. Hope you take my pointers below into consideration.
Backup big man Jaylin Williams added 18 points on five three-point shots and Alex Caruso added 15 on three 3-pointers. Isaiah Hartenstein scored just 10 points, but had 13 rebounds, including 8 offensive, and Alex Caruso added 17 off the bench, as the team lost forward Jalen Williams in the first half due to a recurring hamstring strain. Due to the absence of star Embiid, Maxey and Paul George played 46 and 42 minutes, respectively, and struggled shooting the ball in the fourth quarter. The Rockets shot poorly throughout the game, shooting just 35% from the field and making just 5-of-28 3-pointers; in particular, Reed Sheppard went 1-for-10 from three. Nikola Jokić had 28 points, 10 assists and nine rebounds to lead the Nuggets, but Jamal Murray struggled and finished with just 12 points on 4-for-17 shooting.
They then jump into the biggest storylines over the final week of the regular season, including the drama between the Milwaukee Bucks and Giannis Antetokounmpo, the playoff races to watch and the mounting injuries hampering the Los Angeles Lakers' playoff hopes. The Miami Heat and team president Pat Riley will be in the market for a superstar this offseason, including the Milwaukee Bucks' Giannis Antetokounmpo, per ESPN's Shams Charania. Thunder guard Jalen Williams has suffered a Grade 1 sprain to his left hamstring and will be reevaluated on a weekly basis. They've spent this past week conducting exit interviews with players and staffers, and are gearing up for the offseason. Embiid had an emergency appendectomy two weeks ago in Houston, and has been out since, although he appeared on the bench for last week's play-in victory at home against the Orlando Magic. DiVincenzo shot 38% on 3-pointers this season and made 3.0 per game, which is more than Julius Randle, Jaden McDaniels and Rudy Gobert combined.
When Do The Nba Finals Begin?
Jayson Tatum, who had 17 points and 11 rebounds, suffered a left calf injury in the game and did not return. From there, Philadelphia outscored Boston 28–11 in the fourth quarter, with the Celtics shooting 3 of 22 in the quarter. Boston dominated Philadelphia on the boards 51–30, while shooting 45% from 3-point range on 53 attempts, whereas the 76ers went just 9–30. Tatum, Jaylen Brown who finished with 20 points, and Pritchard scored all of the Celtics' 39 points in the third quarter to push their lead to 31 entering the fourth. The Celtics got within two points in the fourth quarter before an 11–0 run put the 76ers back in front by 13 with just over four minutes to play. Rookie V. J. Edgecombe made six of Philadelphia's 19 3-pointers and scored 30 points overall on 12-for-20 shooting, to go along with 10 rebounds. Boston's defense held strong against the 76ers, limiting them to just 18 points in the first quarter, and an abysmal 17 percent shooting from 3-point range, with Philadelphia going just 4–23 from beyond the arc.
Ranking Every Player In 2026 Nba Finals
In their weekly intel file, ESPN's Tim Bontemps and Brian Windhorst talked to coaches, front offices and scouts to gauge the growing hype around the San Antonio Spurs' playoff run. ESPN's Jeremy Woo and Tim Bontemps talked to executives across the league about the upcoming 2026 NBA draft, including whom they believe will be taken with the first overall selection, what concerns front offices have with prospects and best fits. Brian is joined by ESPN's Tim Bontemps and Tim MacMahon to go over this season's final edition of the MVP straw poll, including whether Victor Wembanyama still has a chance to catch reigning MVP, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, for the award. In the scenario Maxey is named All-NBA this season, he would become eligible to sign a four-year, $300 million supermax extension in the 2027 offseason if he is also named All-NBA next season. The Pelicans, who have been eliminated from playoff contention, have four games left on their schedule. New Orleans Pelicans forward Zion Williamson has reached another financial benchmark for games played. "I don't know who's going to still have their jobs in Chicago by the end of next week," Brian Windhorst said on the podcast.
Players Of The Week & Month
Facing a potential 3–1 series deficit on the road, the Knicks took the lead in the first quarter and never relinquished it, with a comfortable 14-point lead at halftime en route to a 114–98 victory to even the series at 2 apiece. During this period, NBC's broadcast erroneously displayed New York having one timeout remaining, despite it already being used with 10.2 seconds remaining. McCollum had missed two free throws, as the Hawks led by one with 5.6 seconds remaining, but Mikal Bridges missed a contested jump shot that would have given the Knicks the win. CJ McCollum became the latest Madison Square Garden villain, as he jawed former teammate Jose Alvarado and Knicks fans while leading a late fourth quarter surge to even the series at 1 apiece. Karl-Anthony Towns added an all-around performance of 25 points, 8 rebounds and 3 blocks, as all 5 Knicks starters finished in double figures. A two point game at halftime, the Knicks' lead grew to as much as 19 in the fourth quarter. The duo of Joel Embiid and Tyrese Maxey led the way for Philadelphia, as they held off a fourth quarter rally by Jaylen Brown and Boston. The 76ers picked up their first playoff series win over the Celtics since 1982 (which was also a Game 7 in Boston) and their first Game 7 win since 2001, with a 109–100 road victory.
Brian is joined by ESPN's Tim Bontemps, Tim MacMahon and Iman Shumpert to cover the New York Knicks winning the 2026 NBA Finals, including Jalen Brunson's Finals MVP run, his case for greatest Knick of all time and what's next for the San Antonio Spurs. Talks surrounding a Giannis Antetokounmpo trade have intensified over the past week to 10 days, ESPN's Brian Windhorst said on "Get Up." He'd be willing to extend his contract if he were traded there too, league sources say. Unrestricted free agent center Jaxson Hayes has assured at least one way to continue playing with Los Angeles Lakers superstar Luka Doncic, as Hayes received his passport at the Slovenian embassy in Washington this week. ESPN's Anthony Slater went deep in a story on Wednesday on what's ahead for the Golden State Warriors this offseason. Brian is joined by ESPN's Tim Bontemps and Tim MacMahon to cover some of the biggest storylines of what could be a busy NBA offseason. The 20-year-old Arizona guard has declined workouts with select teams in the top 10, including the Sacramento Kings (No. 7), league sources said.
Both teams struggled from beyond the arc, going a combined 21-for-70 (30 percent) on 3-pointers. In the losing effort, Anthony Edwards finished with 22 points, 9 rebounds and 7 assists; Donte DiVincenzo scored 12 points on 4 3-pointers. Julian Champagnie continued his sharpshooting going 5-for-7 from three-point range, while rookie Dylan Harper added 17 points off the bench on 6-for-9 shooting. Castle finished with 33 points, whereas Harper scored a career-high 27 points off the bench, becoming the second youngest player to score 20-plus points in a playoff game off the bench, only behind an 18-year-old Kobe Bryant. Jalen Green had 21 points on the night for the Suns but shot 1 of 8 from 3-point range and had 7 turnovers, as the Thunder took a comfortable 2–0 series lead with the series heading to Phoenix. Following a tightly contested first quarter, the Thunder opened up a 26-point lead at the start of the fourth quarter, albeit losing Jalen Williams for the night due to a left hamstring injury.
Ayo Dosunmu fit in well in Minnesota after arriving via midseason trade, and he will presumably replace DiVincenzo in the starting lineup for the remainder of Minnesota's playoff run. He was one of just four players in the NBA to start all 82 games, and he offered a skill set otherwise missing from the players who surround Anthony Edwards in Minnesota's starting lineup. Without Edwards for multiple weeks, the Timberwolves might need to hope that the Portland Trail Blazers upset San Antonio to have a chance to reach the conference finals for the third consecutive season. There's very little shooting and playmaking talent left in Minnesota's lineup, and Julius Randle — who has been only OK against Denver, averaging 17.5 points and 3.5 assists per game on subpar efficiency — will need to step up in Edwards' stead. That might not be a tenable arrangement on offense, unless Dosunmu can continue posting career highs in points going forward.
"Twenty-five points on 15 shots, like I said, 12 assists and a lot of the assists are where he's manipulating the defense and making the reads, and he's making tough passes that, as the guys said, only the really good players can make that read and that pass, and he did it on multiple occasions." They then move on to react to Brad Stevens' Jaylen Brown news conference and the rationale being presented before closing on summer league performances and what they're looking forward to in Las Vegas this week. Then the duo breaks down the Donovan Mitchell extension, including whether it makes sense for the Cavaliers and whether it will impact their pursuit of LeBron James. ESPN's Brian Windhorst discussed LeBron James' free agency on "First Take," including what the superstar could be looking for in his next home and how teams are feeling about their potential hopes of signing him. ESPN's Shams Charania reported on "NBA Today" that teams interested in signing LeBron James this offseason have been sending voice note pitches to Rich Paul, James' agent.
Regardless of whether or not that is possible though, I'm very happy this plugin exists, and it is super simple to use. I have been looking for a way to have closed captions with speaker recognition, and this plugin is the closest I have ever been able to get to that. Eg, if my mic was labeled "Name" and set to Track 3, then I set Track 3 to be the caption source for the plugin, could the captions then read "Name Hello, I am being captioned" ? This I think is a long shot, but I was wondering if in future it would be possible for a label of sorts to show up at the beginning of the captions when using a track this way, such as the name of the OBS source? I've been using this plugin for years lmct+pokies and love it. Awesome plugin but would love support added to Replay Buffer.
Aside from Murray, Denver's starters combined to shoot 4 of 20 from 3-point range, contributing to the continuous shooting woes for the Nuggets. Star center Victor Wembanyama took just seven shots but had 14 rebounds and 6 blocks. The Spurs outscored the Blazers 61–43 in the second half, which included a 21–7 run in the third quarter to cut the deficit to 1 in the fourth quarter, before being able to pull away with the victory. Devin Vassell, who finished with 16 points and 12 rebounds, missed a 3-pointer with two seconds remaining that would have tied the game and sent it to overtime. The San Antonio defense held Portland in check, with the Blazers shooting just 10-for-38 from three-point range while being out-rebounded 45 to 38. Oklahoma City was led by the newly awarded Clutch Player of the Year Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who finished with 37 points on much improved efficiency from Game 1. Devin Booker scored 23 points for Phoenix, while Dillon Brooks and Jalen Green both shot the ball poorly, with both scoring 18 and 17 points, respectively. RJ Barrett led the Raptors with 25 points, with Ja'Kobe Walter adding 20 and Jamal Shead scoring 18 off the bench.
With the loss, despite making it to the Conference Finals, the Cavs finished their playoff run with an 8–10 record. The Knicks finished their dominant Eastern Conference playoff run with a 130–93 win over the Cavaliers to punch their ticket to the NBA Finals for the first time since 1999. Cleveland built a 22-point lead in the fourth quarter, but New York outscored them 30–8 to finish regulation. After Victor Wembanyama got ejected in the second quarter due to a flagrant foul 2 on Naz Reid, San Antonio took an 8-point lead entering the fourth quarter, but could not help but struggle against the surging Edwards. Behind Anthony Edwards' 36 points (16 in the fourth quarter), the Timberwolves avoided a 3–1 deficit and rallied past the Spurs to tie the series 2–2. After San Antonio took a 7-point lead headed into the fourth quarter, Minnesota made multiple comeback attempts but fell short each time, as the Spurs ended an 8-game losing streak at Target Center and took a 2–1 series lead. In just his second road playoff game, Victor Wembanyama took the spotlight with 39 points, 15 rebounds and 5 blocks, becoming only the fourth NBA player to achieve this feat in the playoffs.
And on Sunday morning, he reported that four-time All-Star Anthony Edwards would miss multiple weeks after hyperextending his left knee. Brian is joined by ESPN's Tim Bontemps and Tim MacMahon to break down the weekend's Game 7's, including the Philadelphia 76ers completing the comeback against the Boston Celtics and their chances against the New York Knicks in the semifinals. ESPN's Dave McMenamin spent time with the Cleveland Cavaliers during their opening week in the Eastern Conference finals to report on where the franchise stands eight years after LeBron James left for the second time. ESPN's Brian Windhorst stated on NBA Today he expects the Cleveland Cavaliers to make "significant changes" to the roster during the offseason, including a potential trade for Giannis Antetokounmpo. Appearing on "Get Up" on Monday morning, ESPN's Brian Windhorst said he thinks Milwaukee Bucks MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo would prefer to be traded to the Miami Heat this offseason. There are plenty of intriguing players who could surprisingly fall out of the top 10, including Arizona guard Brayden Burries, who league sources said is expected to be among the lottery prospects working out for the Warriors next week. He will turn 24 in September and is only three months younger than current Warriors wing Gui Santos and is a week older than former Warriors wing Jonathan Kuminga, who just finished his fifth NBA season.
