Philadelphia is waiting, and in Joel Embiid’s case, ailing.
The lone team with a ticket to the second round of the NBA playoffs will get some company over the next few days, possibly as early as Tuesday.
The 76ers finished off a sweep of the Brooklyn Nets over the weekend, despite being without their MVP candidate center. Embiid isn’t the only big name dealing with injury — all eyes will be on Miami on Monday and whether Milwaukee’s Giannis Antetokounmpo can play through his bruised lower back.
A good sign for the Bucks: Antetokounmpo was participating on-court with his teammates for a shootaround practice Monday morning, a clear indicator that he’s trying to play.
WHAT'S NEXT?
There are a pair of Game 4′s on Monday, with two lower-seeded teams holding an opportunity to take 3-1 series leads. Eighth-seeded Miami plays host to top-seeded Milwaukee in an East matchup, while the seventh-seeded Los Angeles Lakers then face second-seeded Memphis in a West contest.
Road teams hold the leads going into Monday, and then Tuesday, it’ll be three home teams that have a chance to join Philadelphia in the second round.
Boston hosts Atlanta, Denver hosts Minnesota and Phoenix hosts the Los Angeles Clippers. The Celtics, Nuggets and Suns all hold 3-1 leads.
At least one other possible clincher comes Wednesday when New York takes its 3-1 lead to Cleveland. There are also Game 5’s that night in the Grizzlies-Lakers, Heat-Bucks and Golden State-Sacramento series.
HOW TO WATCH?
— Monday’s Milwaukee-Miami and Memphis-Lakers games are on TNT
— Tuesday’s Atlanta-Boston and Clippers-Phoenix games are on TNT, and the Minnesota-Denver game is on NBA TV.
— Wednesday’s Lakers-Memphis and Golden State-Sacramento games are on TNT. The New York-Cleveland and Miami-Milwaukee games are on NBA TV.
— All those games will also be available through a team’s usual local broadcaster.
— The NBA Finals will be broadcast on ABC beginning June 1.
WHO WINS THE AWARDS?
We started finding out those answers last week when the league office began announcing award winners. More awards are coming this week, with Most Improved Player (finalists are Utah’s Lauri Markkanen, Oklahoma City’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and New York’s Jalen Brunson) coming Monday and Rookie of the Year (finalists are Orlando’s Paolo Banchero, Utah’s Walker Kessler and Oklahoma City’s Jalen Williams) coming Tuesday.
The NBA has not said when the MVP award — finalists are Philadelphia’s Joel Embiid, Denver’s Nikola Jokic and Milwaukee’s Giannis Antetokounmpo — will be announced.
The other winners so far this year:
— April 17: Memphis’ Jaren Jackson Jr. won defensive player of the year, with Milwaukee’s Brook Lopez finishing second and Cleveland’s Evan Mobley placing third.
— April 18: De’Aaron Fox of Sacramento was revealed as the inaugural winner of the new Clutch Player award. Miami’s Jimmy Butler was second and Chicago’s DeMar DeRozan was third.
— April 19: Sacramento’s Mike Brown got all the first-place votes, making him the first unanimous Coach of the Year. Oklahoma City’s Mark Daigneault was second and Boston’s Joe Mazzulla was third.
— April 20: Boston’s Malcolm Brogdon won Sixth Man of the Year, a race where Milwaukee’s Bobby Portis Jr. and New York’s Immanuel Quickley were the other finalists.
INSIDE THE NUMBERS
There have been only two playoff games decided by exactly one point in the last 365 days — and Golden State has won them both.
The Warriors beat Sacramento 126-125 on Sunday, the league’s first one-point playoff game since the Warriors won at Memphis 117-116 on May 1, 2022.
QUOTABLE
“I didn’t think we were going to go undefeated the whole postseason, so I’ll be curious to see how we react going home for Game 5.” — Denver coach Michael Malone, after his team lost in overtime at Minnesota on Sunday and missed out on a chance for a four-game sweep.