Steve Aschburner

3 days ago | nba.com | Steve Aschburner

Download the NBA App2025 NBA playoffs scheduleNBA playoffs: Bracket & complete coverageIt’s hard enough to win an NBA playoff game with your best player, the focal point of your offense for about a decade, sitting on the bench in street clothes. It’s even more difficult when you lose your best defensive player to disqualification-by-fouls down the stretch and have your most effective scoring weapon go missing for 24 of the game’s 48 minutes.

5 days ago | nba.com | Steve Aschburner

Download the NBA App2025 NBA playoffs scheduleNBA playoffs: Bracket & complete coverageMINNEAPOLIS – Never mind whatever it is that’s going on with zany road-team advantage over in the Eastern Conference. It was left to Oklahoma City first, then the Minnesota Timberwolves to impose some order out West on what began in this round as homecourt chaos. The Wolves’ 117-93 victory over Golden State Thursday at Target Center wasn’t as bloated as what the Thunder did to Denver a night earlier.

1 week ago | nba.com | Steve Aschburner

Download the NBA App2025 NBA playoffs scheduleNBA playoffs: Bracket & complete coverageMINNEAPOLIS – It was “different,” Minnesota coach Chris Finch acknowledged, that his Timberwolves didn’t know for a few days which opponent they’d be facing in their Western Conference semifinals series. After all, they had polished off the Lakers in five games in the first round, while the Houston-Golden State series went the max of seven before the Warriors emerged Saturday night.

1 week ago | nba.com | Steve Aschburner

• Download the NBA AppOne team took just four games to reach this Western Conference semifinals series. The other needed all seven (or at least, six and three quarters to blow open the clincher over the L.A. Clippers). Beyond that, there hasn’t been a lot to separate Oklahoma City and Denver lately – they split four games this season, are 8-8 since 2021-22 and, as far as head-to-head playoff history goes, have won two series each. The semis is as far as both of them got a year ago.

1 week ago | nba.com | Steve Aschburner

Download the NBA App2025 NBA playoffs scheduleNBA playoffs: Bracket & complete coverageTNT’s announcers sounded a lot more emotionally invested Wednesday in the whereabouts of Golden State’s starters late in Game 5 than Warriors coach Steve Kerr looked. Kerr had pulled his first unit with 5:50 left in the third quarter, not necessarily a white flag but a nod to reality at Houston’s Toyota Center. The Warriors, down 27 points at halftime, had slipped a bit more to trail by 29.