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

The Indiana Pacers are now just one win from the NBA Finals, and the Oklahoma City Thunder are one victory away from their spot in the title round as well.

The Pacers got a triple-double from Tyrese Haliburton to beat the New York Knicks on Wednesday night and take a 3-1 lead in the Eastern Conference finals. They can clinch the East title as early as Thursday, when the series resumes at Madison Square Garden.

The Thunder can wrap up the West title on Wednesday against the Minnesota Timberwolves.

A near-perfect game from Haliburton

Indiana guard Tyrese Haliburton in Game 4: 32 points, 12 rebounds, 15 assists, four steals, zero turnovers.

— Since steals and turnovers both began being tracked by the NBA, no player had finished a game with such a stat line.

— The only players to have that many points, rebounds, assists and steals (which have been charted since the early 1970s) in game are Nikola Jokic (twice), LeBron James, Magic Johnson and now, Haliburton.

SGA is the MVP

A recap of Oklahoma City’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s winning of the NBA MVP award.

The story: Gilgeous-Alexander tops Jokic for MVP award

The reaction: SGA tears up when talking about his wife

Steve Nash speaks: Canada’s 1st MVP thrilled to see SGA follow him

The notebook: Jokic finishes top-2 for 5th straight year, Giannis’ streak ends, LeBron gets votes

Wednesday’s national TV schedule

8:30 p.m. EDT — Minnesota at Oklahoma City (ESPN)

Thursday’s national TV schedule

8 p.m. EDT — Indiana at New York (TNT)

Friday’s national TV schedule

8:30 p.m. EDT — Oklahoma City at Minnesota (ESPN), if necessary

Saturday’s national TV schedule

8 p.m. EDT — New York at Indiana (TNT), if necessary

Betting odds

Oklahoma City (-425) is an even bigger favorite now to win the NBA title, according to BetMGM Sportsbook. Indiana (+450) remains the second choice, followed by New York (+3000) and Minnesota (+5000).

The Thunder are an 8.5-point favorite over Minnesota on Wednesday.

Conference finals schedules

East (all 8 p.m. EDT) — Game 1, Indiana 138, New York 135, OT; Game 2, Indiana 114, New York 109; Game 3, New York 106, Indiana 100; Game 4, Indiana 130, New York 121; Game 5 at New York on May 29; Game 6 at Indiana on May 31; Game 7 at New York on June 2.

West (all 8:30 p.m. EDT) — Game 1, Oklahoma City 114, Minnesota 88; Game 2, Oklahoma City 118, Minnesota 103; Game 3, Minnesota 143, Oklahoma City 101; Game 4, Oklahoma City 128, Minnesota 126; Game 5 at Oklahoma City on May 28; Game 6 at Minnesota on May 30; Game 7 at Oklahoma City on June 1.

Award season

The All-NBA team had Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Nikola Jokic, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Jayson Tatum and Donovan Mitchell on the first team, and LeBron James — at 40 years old — making an All-NBA team for the 21st time.

Other awards this season:

— The All-Defensive team

— Shai Gilgeous-Alexander won the MVP award.

— Stephon Castle was a unanimous All-Rookie team selection.

— Oklahoma City’s Sam Presti won executive of the year.

— Cleveland’s Kenny Atkinson won coach of the year.

— Boston’s Jrue Holiday won the social justice award and 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.

Scoring leaders

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

48 — Donovan Mitchell, Cleveland vs. Indiana, May 6

44 — Nikola Jokic, Denver at Oklahoma City, May 13

43 — Donovan Mitchell, Cleveland vs. Indiana, May 9

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

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

43 — Jalen Brunson, New York vs. Indiana, May 21

42 — Jayson Tatum, Boston at New York, May 12

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

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

40 — Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Oklahoma City at Minnesota, May 26

39 — Jalen Brunson, New York vs. Boston, May 12

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

39 — Pascal Siakam, Indiana at New York, May 23

Key upcoming events

June 1 — Last possible date for Game 7 of the Western Conference finals.

June 2 — Last possible date for Game 7 of 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.

Draft lottery

Dallas had 1.8% odds to win the No. 1 pick in the draft lottery — but overcame those odds and now has the opportunity to draft Cooper Flagg. The Mavericks won the lottery last Monday night in Chicago.

— Flagg, just a kid from Maine, hasn’t forgotten his roots

— From Rutgers to the lottery for Harper, Bailey

— A Chinese teen is a draft hopeful, and has big shoes to fill

— Mavs win lottery

— Rick Welts has seen this before

Comeback season

The Knicks — again — added to the list in Game 3 of the East finals.

There have been six wins by teams that trailed by 20 points or more so far in these playoffs. That’s the most in any postseason during the play-by-play era, which started with the 1997 playoffs.

The biggest deficits that were successfully overcome:

29 — Oklahoma City at Memphis, April 24 (Thunder won 114-108)

20 — Indiana vs. Milwaukee, April 29 (Pacers won 119-118)

20 — New York at Boston, May 5 (Knicks won 108-105)

20 — Indiana at Cleveland, May 6 (Pacers won 120-119)

20 — New York at Boston, May 7 (Knicks won 91-90)

20 — New York at Indiana, May 25 (Knicks won 106-100)

Last-second Pacers rallies

Indiana has pulled off three last-minute rallies from at least seven points down to win in these playoffs:

— April 29: Trailed Milwaukee 118-111 with 34.6 seconds left in overtime, won 119-118.

— May 6: Trailed Cleveland 119-112 with 48 seconds left, won 120-119.

— May 21: Trailed New York 121-112 with 51.1 seconds left in regulation, won 138-135 in overtime.

Stats of the day

— Indiana is 0-3 in Game 3s in the playoffs and 11-0 in all other games (3-0 in Game 1s, Game 2s and Game 4s, and 2-0 in Game 5s).

— Jalen Brunson is now the first Knicks player with nine 30-point games in a single postseason. He had 31 in Game 4; Bernard King had eight 30-point games in the 1983-84 playoffs.

— Indiana’s Bennedict Mathurin had 20 points in 12:29 of play in Game 4. That’s a postseason first, at least since minutes began being tracked.

— The Timberwolves enter Game 5 of the West finals having outscored the Thunder 935-933 this season, including regular season. But it’s the Thunder who are 5-3 in those games.

— The Knicks were 13-0 this season entering Wednesday when they scored 27 or more points in all four quarters. They did it again Wednesday, and lost.

Quote of the day

“At these high levels, these guys do amazing things. When you can get a stop and an rebound, it almost feels like an anomaly sometimes.” — Indiana coach Rick Carlisle.

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