NBA playoffs predictions and play-in tournament schedule live updates: Bracket, odds, draft lottery and stats

It has been a tremendous season of revival for the Minnesota Timberwolves. They will host Game 1 of a playoff series for the first time since 2004, saw Rudy Gobert reassert himself as a dominant defensive force and Anthony Edwards explode as a bona fide superstar. They entered Sunday with a chance to grab the No. 1 seed with a win over the Phoenix Suns and a loss by either Denver or Oklahoma City. Both the Thunder and Nuggets had easy wins against opponents with no interest in competing.

A win over Phoenix would have clinched the No. 2 seed, but still may have resulted in a matchup against the Suns. It appears as if this was their destiny to see their best season since Kevin Garnett's heyday draw the worst possible matchup for them.

Karl-Anthony Towns has spent nine years with the Timberwolves and he smiled in the locker room after the game when he said it was "the Minnesota way."

"There's no better team to be playing in the first round than a team that we struggled with all year," said Towns, who had 10 points on 3-of-8 shooting with five turnovers in his second game back from a torn meniscus. "If there was ever a time for this team to earn its shot at a parade here or to get to the second round, it's only right that it would be against the team that we found most difficult for ourselves this year."

Read the rest of my story here.

In Cleveland, where the Cavs were in second in the East at the All-Star break, only to go 12-17 after, Donovan Mitchell, Caris LeVert and Darius Garland were all held out against the Charlotte Hornets, who only dressed nine players and one rotation player. But early in the first quarter, the Cavs' lone ballhandler in uniform, Craig Porter Jr., sprained his ankle and could not return. The Cavs led by 13 early in the fourth, when coach J.B. Bickerstaff pulled most of his remaining rotation players, and Cleveland closed with a lineup in which its only offense seemed to be Tristan Thompson — yes, Tristan Thompson — trying to put the ball on the floor to make something happen.

Not even against a lineup of end-of-benchers and G Leaguers, like the one the Hornets had on the floor at the end, would such a silly idea work. The Cavs lost 120-110 in Hornets coach Steve Clifford's last game and were roundly booed by home fans in the closing moments.

"It was difficult (to watch), but we had our plan in place with what we were gonna do with our guys," Bickerstaff said afterward. "(Our starters) were gonna play those three quarters, and then Craig not being out there made it a little difficult to organize and score in the fourth quarter, but we wanted to stick to our plan, and no matter what was going to happen we were going to give our guys an opportunity to play."

With a win, the Cavs would have leaped over the Bucks for third and would have avoided the Celtics until a potential conference finals match.

Read more here.

More than a decade ago, when the dregs of the NBA raced to the bottom for a chance at consensus No. 1 pick Anthony Davis, one team chose not to participate in the tankathon.

The New Orleans Hornets, a group desperate for a future star, didn’t strategically lose to close the season. Instead, they caught fire, winning eight of their final 13 games and hurting their lottery odds. Throughout the stretch, head coach Monty Williams repeated the same mantra: "Don’t mess with the game or it will mess with you."

A month after completing the 2011-12 season with the NBA’s fourth-worst record, the Hornets won the lottery, landing them Davis. The basketball gods have a funny way of paying back those who do right by them.

Twelve years later, the New York Knicks are hoping to receive similar treatment.

They concluded their season Sunday with a 120-119 overtime win against the Chicago Bulls, the Knicks’ fifth consecutive victory. It ensures them their first 50-win season since 2012-13 and the second-best record in the Eastern Conference, a spot they snatched both because they sought it and because no one else did.

Being the No. 2-seeded team means New York will face the victor of Wednesday night's Play-In Tournament game between the Philadelphia 76ers and Miami Heat, two teams that aren't your usual seventh- or eighth-place finishers.

The Sixers just got reigning MVP Joel Embiid back from injury and haven't lost since. They are 31-8 when Embiid is in the lineup. The Heat are notorious for outplaying their regular-season record in the playoffs, never in a more obvious way than they did last spring when they jolted to the NBA Finals as a No. 8 seed, a run that included a second-round trampling of the Knicks.

Of course, as the rest of the league swerved away from two giants, New York didn’t care to avoid anyone.

"The object is to win," head coach Tom Thibodeau said. "Put everything you have into winning. That's the bottom line."

Read the rest of my story here.

Adam Silver wants parity — and this season, he sure got it.

Sunday’s season-ending NBA slate of games created a remarkable statistical improbability. Thanks to some last-minute gamesmanship by a few teams, a whopping 14 teams ended with between 46 and 51 wins this season. That’s nearly half the league.

The full list:

• 51 wins: Clippers
• 50 wins: Knicks, Mavericks
• 49 wins: Suns, Pelicans, Bucks
• 48 wins: Cavaliers
• 47 wins: Magic, Pacers, Lakers, 76ers
• 46 wins: Kings, Warriors, Heat

There’s a psychological phenomenon known as “illusory superiority” where everyone overestimates their own qualities compared to everyone else. In short: everyone thinks they’re above average, which is of course impossible. Except, it was pretty close to true in the NBA this season.

Yes, the decrepit bottom of the NBA helped prop everyone else’s records up. But had that not happened, we still likely would’ve had a cluster of teams in the middle. That’s what happened last season when 14 teams won between 40 and 48 games.

The likely cause, then, is not something that will go away anytime soon. The Play-In Tournament has given more teams hope for a postseason berth while incentivizing the need to finish sixth or higher (aka, above average). On top of that, the inaugural In-Season Tournament also likely contributed to teams clustering together; it’s no accident to me that four of those 13 “above average” teams comprised the final four of the IST.

This is Adam Silver’s NBA, for better or worse. Historically, dynasties, and not parity, has led to the most national interest in the sport. But with the fragmentation of media, abundance of game availability and presence of streaming services — with a new media right deal on the horizon — perhaps these are different times. Time will tell if parity equals popularity.

1 Celtics vs. 8. Play-In Winner

2 Knicks vs. 7. 76ers/Heat

3 Bucks vs. 6 Pacers

4 Cavaliers vs. 5 Magic

7 76ers vs. 8 Heat

9 Bulls vs. 10 Hawks

The Oklahoma City Thunder are two years removed from a 24-win season. They've played this season with a starting lineup that's 25 years old or younger, one of them a rookie, joined by another rookie who played 82 games off the bench.

And now they're the Western Conference's No. 1 seed.

The Thunder secured the conference's top spot on Sunday, a gigantic 49-point blowout win against the Dallas Mavericks. (Dallas, with nothing to play for, rested the top eight players in its rotation.) Still, Oklahoma City needed to win to make it certain.

"I just thought we had a serious, business-like approach today," Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said.

Now, Oklahoma City heads into a first-round series against the team that comes in eighth after the Play-In Tournament is complete. Sure, the Thunder are young and most of its players will be competing in the postseason for the first time. But the team's success this year stands out far more than any measurement of their age.

"I don't care how old (or young) we are," Daigneault said. "Our advantage is how our guys compete in the way they do and how committed they are to doing that."

Oklahoma City's matchup could end up being any of the Phoenix Suns, Los Angeles Lakers, Sacramento Kings or Golden State Warriors. By week's end, the Thunder will know.

"When we wake up Tuesday morning, we're 0-0. It's a new season, everything that we did in the regular season doesn't matter except opponent and seeding," Daigneault said. "We'll go into it with great respect for our opponents, but great respect for ourselves."

Anthony Davis said "there’s no doubt I'm gonna play (on Tuesday)." He left today's game vs. New Orleans early while holding his back.

Darvin Ham said Davis suffered a "spasm" and he's "extremely optimistic" about Davis being available for Tuesday's Play-In game.

With today's loss to the Lakers, the Pelicans will drop to the No. 7 seed in the West and host the 8th-seeded Lakers once again on Tuesday in the 7-8 Play-In game. The winner will go on to face the defending champion Denver Nuggets in the first round of the playoffs.

New Orleans had hopes of locking up the 4 seed a few weeks ago. Instead, it'll be the third season in a row this franchise heads to the Play-In Tournament.

Despite nearly finishing with a triple-double (12 points, eight rebounds and eight assists), Zion Williamson played one of his worst games in weeks on both ends of the court. He turned the ball over four times in the first half and he gave up several buckets on defense by failing to stay in front of his man.

The Pels are heading into one of their biggest mental tests of the season as they prepare for Tuesday's rematch against a Lakers team that's handed them their two most devastating losses of the season. It's gut-check time in New Orleans.

With the Lakers' win over the New Orleans Pelicans to close out the regular season, Los Angeles will enter the Play-In tournament as the No. 8 seed and stay in New Orleans to face the No. 7 Pelicans on Tuesday.

The primary concern for the Lakers despite the result is the health of Anthony Davis, who exited the game at the 5:22 mark with an apparent injury. As Davis held his lower back, he gingerly walked to the scorer's table before crouching down and having the team’s training staff stretch out his right leg. Davis has dealt with hip and groin issues this season. The Lakers are 2-4 without Davis this season.

That said, if Davis can play on Tuesday, Los Angeles should feel confident given the regular-season results against the Pelicans. They won the season series 3-1, with all three wins being blowouts. If the Lakers win that game, they set up a rematch with the No. 2 Denver Nuggets, who have won seven straight games against Los Angeles. If they lose to the Pelicans, they'd return to Los Angeles, where they’d host the winner of the No. 9-10 game between the Sacramento Kings and Golden State Warriors.

Meanwhile, at the bottom of the standings ... San Antonio took itself from third to fifth in lottery odds and potentially moved its picks down two spots while winning its final two games, while Charlotte and Portland will have a coin flip for the fourth position (if neither moves up in the lottery) because the Hornets somehow won in Cleveland today.

After today's ugly loss to the Lakers, the Pelicans are going to end the season with a 21-19 record at home.

The Chicago Bulls (20-21) are the only team among the top 10 seeds in each conference with fewer home wins than New Orleans.

After a season of revival that saw them in contention for the No. 1 seed down to the final day of the regular season, the Minnesota Timberwolves were blasted by the Phoenix Suns, 125-106.

Their reward? A rematch with Phoenix in the first round, the 3-6 matchup. The Wolves are 0-3 against the Suns this season, making this pretty much the worst possible matchup they could have drawn in Round 1. In those three games, the Wolves have never been within single digits in the second half.

It was ugly from the start on Sunday. The Wolves tied an NBA record with 19 turnovers in the first half to fall behind by 22 points. On the other end, the No. 1 defense in the league had no answer for the Suns' talented trio of veteran scorers. Bradley Beal had 36 points, Devin Booker scored 23 and Kevin Durant had 15 on 6-for-14 shooting.

The Suns will enter this series brimming with confidence, and two of the three best players in the series. If Beal plays like he did on Sunday, it will be an even steeper uphill climb for Minnesota.

Anthony Edwards was held to 13 points and just seven shots and Karl-Anthony Towns had 10 points in his second game back after missing 18 with a torn left meniscus.

The Wolves will host Game 1 of a playoff series for the first time in 20 years. But there will be a whole lot of nerves as they prepare for this series after three wipeouts by Phoenix.

The NBA playoff picture came down to the final day of the regular season. Now that the dust has settled, here are the matchups:

Play-In Tournament

WEST (Tuesday)

(8) Los Angeles Lakers (47-35) at (7) New Orleans Pelicans (49-33)

(10) Golden State Warriors (46-36) at (9) Sacramento Kings (46-36)

EAST (Wednesday)

(8) Miami Heat (46-36) at (7) Philadelphia 76ers (47-35)

(10) Atlanta Hawks (36-46) at (9) Chicago Bulls (39-43)

Playoff matchups

(1) Boston Celtics (64-18) vs. (8) Play-In Winner

(2) New York Knicks (50-32) vs. (7) Heat/76ers Winner

(3) Milwaukee Bucks (49-33) vs. (6) Indiana Pacers (47-35)

(4) Cleveland Cavaliers (48-34) vs. (5) Orlando Magic (47-35)

(1) Oklahoma City Thunder (57-25) vs. (8) Play-In Winner)

(2) Denver Nuggets (57-25) vs. (7) Lakers/Pelicans winner

(3) Minnesota Timberwolves (56-25) vs. (7) Phoenix Suns (49-33)

(4) LA Clippers (51-31) vs. (5) Dallas Mavericks (50-32)

The Athletic decision desk is calling Phoenix over Minnesota and the Lakers over the Pelicans.

Suns will be sixth seed and play Minnesota again in first round

Lakers and Pels will play again in the same arena in 48 hours for the 7-8 play-in game.

Results also locks in Warriors at Kings as your 9-10 game in the West.