The one-eight matchup between the Heat and the Bucks in the Eastern Conference playoffs seemed to be the biggest mismatch of them all, for a variety of reasons. Nothing took place during Miami’s 110-87 blowout victory on Sunday to change those [...]

The Thunder led 13-2 before the Rockets tied the game at 38, but Oklahoma City responded with a 14-1 run late in the first half. Houston hung around the fringe of striking distance before the Thunder made another 13-2 run midway through the [...]

NEW YORK (AP) – One New York hotel, two unhappy basketball teams. The Boston Celtics and Chicago Bulls are staying at the same location this weekend. Both lost their playoff openers Saturday, the Celtics falling 85-78 to the New York Knicks [...]

Despite what some Lakers fans think ownership does not have an unlimited pocketbook.  Even with their new cable deal. The Buss family has always run the Lakers like a business, just one that plays with more revenue than other teams. Yes, they [...]

Warriors forward David Lee is out for the season after tearing his right hip flexor against the Nuggets, according to Ken Berger of CBSSports.com: The Warriors were already in a hole after losing Game 1 to Denver, and they just sunk a lot deeper. [...]

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) – Paul George insisted a little rest and a new focus would make change everything for the Indiana Pacers. His made sure that prediction came true Sunday. Following the best season of his three-year career, George opened [...]

Northsiders score 3, get one free!

SEASON RECORDS Miami: 66-16, best record in the league and number one seed in the East Milwaukee: 38-44, eight seed in the East SEASON SERIES The Heat won three of the four matchups in the regular season, with one of the games in Miami going [...]

SAN ANTONIO (AP) – Manu Ginobili and Tony Parker scored 18 points each as the San Antonio Spurs led from early in the first quarter and beat the Los Angeles Lakers 91-79 on Sunday in Game 1 of their Western Conference first-round series. Tim [...]

LOS ANGELES — The Grizzlies finished the regular season second in the league in rebounding differential, but you wouldn’t know it sorting through the wreckage of their 112-91 loss to the Clippers to open the playoffs on Saturday. It’s [...]

NEW YORK — For three quarters of play, the Boston Celtics took every shot New York threw at them, and managed to fight back. But down the stretch, too many Boston mistakes proved to be too difficult a hurdle for the Celtics to overcome as [...]

SEASON RECORDS San Antonio: 58-24, two seed in the West L.A. Lakers: 45-37, seven seed in the West SEASON SERIES The Spurs took two of the three regular season meetings between the tams, however the Lakers won the most important (and most recent) [...]

Before the Knicks and Celtics tipped off the postseason at Madison Square Garden on Saturday, Paul Pierce and Carmelo Anthony stood together at center court, and each spoke briefly on the tragic Boston Marathon bombings that occurred earlier [...]

NEW YORK—This is why they play the games, as the old adage goes. On paper, it seemed as if the Bulls had drawn a favorable first-round playoff matchup against the Nets, a team they had beaten three out of four times during the regular season, [...]

BOX SCORE DENVER — Andre Miller scored a playoff career-high 28 points and sank a nifty layup with 1.3 seconds left that lifted the Denver Nuggets to a 97-95 win over the Golden State Warriors on Saturday. Miller drove left past rookie [...]

/ Getty Images The NBC Sports Group’s NBA experts, consisting of writers and analysts from ProBasketballTalk, Comcast SportsNet regional networks and Yahoo! Sports, chime in with live commentary on every NBA playoff game: Series breakdowns [...]

NEW YORK — For three quarters of play, the Boston Celtics took every shot New York threw at them, and managed to fight back. But down the stretch, too many Boston mistakes proved to be too difficult a hurdle for the Celtics to overcome as [...]

Despite how things ended for him in Orlando, or maybe in part because of just how honest he was publicly while dealing with the whole Dwight Howard situation in his final season has head coach there, Stan Van Gundy remains one of the more well-respected [...]

When Byron Scott took the Cleveland Cavaliers job in 2010 they didn’t know yet if LeBron James would stay or go — although he had to know “go” was a good possibility the way things had shaken out the season before. Scott, a veteran coach [...]

BOSTON — Playoff experience can, at times, be the difference between advancing to the next round or having to advance one’s plans for the summer. For the Boston Celtics, this has been an edge they’ve had over most opponents, in [...]

This is how deep the Denver Nuggets are — they’ve been hiding rookie Evan Fournier on their bench all season. He only got in sporadically during the season as the rookie worked on his game and getting stronger and used to the NBA speed (things [...]

Steve Nash has missed the Lakers’ last eight games due to a combination of a hip and hamstring injury, but said after practicing fully on Friday for the first time in weeks that he hopes to be able to go in Game 1 of his team’s first round [...]

If there is one thing we can guarantee about the NBA Playoffs — besides incessant TNT promos for their shows — is this: There is going to be a first-round upset. One of the top four seeds  — some of them have very difficult matchups that [...]

/ Getty Images The NBC Sports Group’s NBA experts, consisting of writers and analysts from ProBasketballTalk, Comcast SportsNet regional networks and Yahoo! Sports, chime in with live commentary on every NBA playoff game: Series breakdowns [...]

Are there really a lot of teams clamoring for the services of Mike Brown? We told you yesterday that the Cleveland Cavaliers were considering bringing back Mike Brown to coach the team after the firing of Byron Scott. I could see that. Despite [...]

The Brooklyn Nets have a sweet new arena in the Barclay Center. Madison Square Garden — home to the New York Knicks — just underwent a dramatic and expensive remodel. At this year’s All-Star Game, David Stern said there were just two [...]

Noah Graham / NBAE/Getty Images Rule No. 1 on how to ask Gregg Popovich a question: Do not ask if he’s happy. He’s not happy. There are no exceptions to this. Well, it’s possible that he might be happy when he’s with his wife or friends [...]

There are some first round series in the NBA playoffs, like the one between the Heat and the Bucks, for example, that are nothing more than foregone conclusions. But there are others where the lower seed has a more than legitimate shot at beating [...]

After weeks of trying to predict seedings and matchups while watching teams rest their perfectly healthy superstars, the playoffs are finally upon us. In no particular order, here are the story lines we’ll be watching when the postseason tournament [...]