The NBA playoffs hit closeout week starting Monday. Five of the eight first round series have a team facing elimination by Wednesday, and the second round bracket sets Friday with games starting Saturday. The Lakers go into Tuesday night down 3-1 in Houston, the team they beat in seven games last spring and the one matchup the front office tried hardest to avoid in the play-in. The Rockets won Game 4 on Sunday by 19 behind 23 points and 7 rebounds from Amen Thompson and a 17-steal team performance that was the highest of the postseason so far. Reaves played 38 minutes and scored 8 on 3-of-13 shooting, and the Lakers shot 39 percent as a team for the second straight game.
In the East, Cleveland leads Toronto 3-1 with Game 5 in Cleveland Tuesday. The Cavaliers have been the most efficient team in the playoffs by net rating and have not trailed in any of their three wins by more than four points at any point. Boston leads Atlanta 3-1 with Game 5 in Boston Wednesday and would advance to face the winner of the Knicks-Pistons series, which Detroit currently leads 3-2 with Game 6 in New York Tuesday. Cunningham is averaging 28-7-7 in the series and the Pistons have been the surprise team of the bracket, but the Knicks bench depth has them favored to push it to a Game 7 in Detroit Thursday.
The Western Conference closeouts are tighter. Oklahoma City leads Memphis 3-1 with Game 5 in Oklahoma City Monday night. Gilgeous-Alexander has scored 30 or more in every game of the series. Memphis has played without Morant since Game 2 with a hamstring strain that the team has listed as week-to-week. Denver leads the Clippers 3-1 with Game 5 in Denver Tuesday, and the Clippers have been outscored by 14.8 points per 100 possessions when Leonard sits, which is the worst on-off split among any rotation player still in the playoffs.
The most watched closeout of the week is the Lakers-Rockets Game 5 in Houston Tuesday. ABC has the broadcast and Sunday's Game 4 drew 5.2 million viewers, the highest for a non-finals NBA game on a Sunday since 2018. The pressure on the Lakers is squarely on the second unit. Russell, Hachimura, and Vincent combined for 18 points on 6-of-22 shooting in Game 4. If the Lakers do close the gap and force a Game 6 back at Crypto.com Arena, the second round seeding still leaves them with the Thunder waiting, a matchup that has not gone past five games in any of the three regular season meetings this year.
The second round bracket sets Friday based on whatever the closeouts produce. Cleveland would face the Detroit-New York winner. Boston would face Milwaukee, who eliminated Indiana in five games last week. The Western Conference second round is where the real chaos sits. Oklahoma City would face the Lakers-Rockets winner. Denver would face Minnesota, who finished off Phoenix in five and gets a full week of rest going in. The Timberwolves had the best defensive rating of any team in the first round at 102.4 points per 100 possessions and have been the most popular pick among NBA writers to come out of the West.
Television numbers across the first round have been the highest in seven years. The TNT and ABC primary windows have averaged 4.1 million viewers per game, up 18 percent from last spring. ESPN reported that the Boston-Atlanta and Cleveland-Toronto Game 1 broadcasts each cleared 3.5 million viewers, and the streaming numbers on the league's app set a postseason record on the opening Saturday with 12.3 million total minutes watched. The next ratings test is the Lakers-Rockets Game 5 Tuesday, which is the only game on the schedule that night and gets the full prime-time window on ABC.
Injury status across the closeout games matters for next round more than this round. Morant for Memphis is the most cited but his team is going home. The bigger question is Tatum, who rolled his ankle in Game 3 and was on the injury report for Game 4 as questionable but played 36 minutes and scored 28. Boston has said he is on track to play Wednesday but has not committed to his minutes load. Embiid in Philadelphia missed all of the first round with a knee issue and the team has now been eliminated, but the franchise has not given a timeline on whether he gets a procedure this offseason or rehabs through the summer.
What to watch the rest of the week: Lakers-Rockets Tuesday in Houston, the Detroit-New York Game 6 Tuesday in New York, the Cleveland-Toronto Game 5 Tuesday in Cleveland, and the Oklahoma City-Memphis Game 5 Monday night. By Friday morning, the second round bracket will be set. By Saturday afternoon, the first three teams of the conference semifinals will be playing.