The 2017 NBA Playoffs have arrived. Here’s the Saturday schedule:
Happy NBA Playoffs!
Good morning. We have that and more in Saturday’s NBA newsletter.
Bob Donnan-USA TODAY Sports
Pacers at Cavaliers, 3 p.m. ET, ABC
Bucks at Raptors, 5:30 p.m. ET, ESPN
Grizzlies at Spurs, 8 p.m. ET, ESPN
Jazz at Clippers, 10:30 p.m. ET, ESPN
What a magical time of year!
LINKS GALORE
Paul Flannery had one of the 100 official NBA awards ballots this season, which is a huge honor for SB Nation. We’re proud of Paul! Here, he explains why he voted for Russell Westbrook as MVP.
Mike Prada has a super rad list of 31 cool things to watch for in the playoffs, from the Boston Loop to the Toronto Weave and everything in between.
My 21 bold predictions for the playoffs. I think the Raptors are going to the Finals, and the Warriors are going undefeated.
Awesome crowdsourcing here: The Dream Shake is tracking all of the publicly announced MVP votes and compiling the results. It looks like Russell Westbrook is on track to beat James Harden as of now, though I imagine more Harden and Kawhi Leonard might be more likely to announce their votes as this point given the aggressiveness of some Westbrook backers.
I don’t think a Players’ Tribune plea for his teammate to win MVP will move the needle, but Trevor Ariza calling Harden “Bearded Picasso” is life-affirming! Bearded Picasso!
The Knicks! New York’s favorite team had exit meetings on Friday. Phil Jackson acknowledged that he would attempt to trade Carmelo Anthony this summer and implied that Melo was the reason the Knicks don’t win (which is a vicious self-own). Melo responded by posting a Leo DiCaprio photo and some crying emojis on Instagram. Kristaps Porzingis liked the post ... and then skipped exit meetings out of frustration with the franchise. Nice work, Phil!
Russell Westbrook’s rebounds are rather useful, as this Seth Rosenthal video shows. Speaking of Westbrook, Ricky O’Donnell has a timeline of the incredible journey Russ took us on this year.
Lynn Swann is the athletic director at USC. His women’s basketball coaching search is ... not going well.
Bill Simmons takes us on a real trip explaining his MVP vote for James Harden. Some of those older MVP races are fascinating to read about.
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