{"id":458,"date":"2026-05-16T13:35:01","date_gmt":"2026-05-16T13:35:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=458"},"modified":"2026-05-16T13:35:01","modified_gmt":"2026-05-16T13:35:01","slug":"nba-tipoff-only-a-game-7-left-in-round-2-with-cavaliers-pistons-on-sunday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=458","title":{"rendered":"NBA tipoff: Only a Game 7 left in Round 2, with Cavaliers-Pistons on Sunday"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n
San Antonio Spurs guard Devin Vassell (24) and forward Victor Wembanyama (1) celebrate a score against the Minnesota Timberwolves during the first half of Game 6 of an NBA basketball second-round playoffs series in Minneapolis, Friday, May 15, 2026. (AP Photo\/Abbie Parr)<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n

New York has to wait a bit longer to find out its Eastern Conference finals opponent. But in the Western Conference, the final is set \u2014 and it\u2019ll be the teams that finished with the two best records in the NBA<\/a> this season.<\/p>

Read more Hearts one point away from becoming Scottish champion and ending 41-year rule by Celtic and Rangers<\/a><\/p>\n

Oklahoma City and San Antonio will play for the West title, their series beginning Monday on the Thunder\u2019s home floor.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Detroit and Cleveland are headed to a Game 7 on Sunday for the right to play the Knicks for the East crown.<\/p>\n

There are no games on Saturday.<\/p>\n

\u2014 No games scheduled<\/p>\n

\u2014 Game 7, Cleveland at Detroit, 8 p.m. EDT (Prime)<\/p>\n

\u2014 Series: Tied, 3-3.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Odds: Detroit by 4.5.<\/p>\n

Cleveland has won five consecutive Game 7s, including two on the road. Detroit is 6-1 in its last seven Game 7s. Both teams won a Game 7 in Round 1 and the winner will be the 20th team in NBA history to prevail in multiple Game 7s in the same postseason.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Game 1, San Antonio at Oklahoma City, 8:30 p.m. EDT (NBC, Peacock)<\/p>\n

\u2014 Odds: Oklahoma City by 6.5.<\/p>\n

The Spurs went 4-1 against the Thunder (the teams played five times because of the NBA Cup) during the regular season. If the series goes the full seven games, it\u2019ll mark only the second instance in the last 30 years of two teams meeting 12 times in the same season (Golden State and Houston did it last season).<\/p>\n

\u2014 Pistons 115, Cavaliers 94<\/a> to tie series 3-3.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Spurs 139, Timberwolves 109<\/a> to win series 4-2.<\/p>\n

The NBA Finals will start on June 3. And \u2014 thanks to San Antonio closing out Minnesota on Friday night \u2014 it\u2019s now certain that there will be at least two off days between the end of the conference finals and the title series.<\/p>\n

\u2014 The Eastern Conference finals will start Tuesday, then have Game 2 Thursday, Game 3 on May 23, Game 4 on May 25, Game 5 on May 27 (if necessary), Game 6 on May 29 (if necessary) and Game 7 on May 31 (if necessary). Detroit will host Games 1, 2, 5 and 7 if it reaches that series; otherwise, New York will play host to Cleveland in those four games.<\/p>\n

\u2014 The Western Conference finals will start Monday in Oklahoma City, with Game 2 there on Wednesday. Game 3 is at San Antonio on Friday, Game 4 is at San Antonio on May 24, Game 5 is at Oklahoma City on May 26 (if necessary), Game 6 is at San Antonio on May 28 (if necessary) and Game 7 would be May 30 in Oklahoma City (if necessary).<\/p>\n

\u2014 The Oklahoma City-San Antonio winner will have homecourt advantage in the NBA Finals.<\/p>\n

Finally, a big update here \u2014 the MVP announcement is coming<\/a> on Sunday night, with either Oklahoma City\u2019s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, San Antonio\u2019s Victor Wembanyama or Denver\u2019s Nikola Jokic set to win the award.<\/p>

Read more Robert Lewandowski to leave Barcelona at end of the season<\/a><\/p>\n

Other awards handed out so far:<\/p>\n

\u2014 Defensive Player of the Year<\/a> : Wembanyama.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Clutch Player of the Year:<\/a> Gilgeous-Alexander.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Sixth Man of the Year:<\/a> Keldon Johnson, San Antonio.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Sportsmanship Award:<\/a> Derrick White, Boston.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Most Improved Player:<\/a> Nickeil Alexander-Walker, Atlanta.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Rookie of the Year:<\/a> Cooper Flagg, Dallas.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Executive of the Year:<\/a> Brad Stevens, Boston.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Twyman-Stokes Teammate of the Year<\/a> : DeAndre Jordan, New Orleans.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Hustle Award<\/a> : Moussa Diabat\u00e9, Charlotte.<\/p>\n

Among the announcements still to come:<\/p>\n

\u2014 Coach of the Year: San Antonio\u2019s Mitch Johnson, Detroit\u2019s J.B. Bickerstaff, or Boston\u2019s Joe Mazzulla.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Social Justice Champion Award: Miami\u2019s Bam Adebayo San Antonio\u2019s Harrison Barnes, Boston\u2019s Jaylen Brown, Detroit\u2019s Tobias Harris or Cleveland\u2019s Larry Nance Jr.<\/p>\n

\u2014 The All-NBA, All-Defensive and All-Rookie teams.<\/p>\n

Defending champion Oklahoma City (-165) is favored to win the NBA title, according to oddsmakers.<\/p>\n

The Thunder are followed by San Antonio (+300), New York (+600), Detroit (+3000) and Cleveland (+6000).<\/p>\n

\u2014 Monday: Western Conference finals begin on NBC and Peacock.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Tuesday: Eastern Conference finals begin on ESPN and ABC.<\/p>\n

\u2014 June 3: Game 1, NBA Finals on ABC. (Other finals dates: June 5, June 8, June 10, June 13, June 16 and June 19).<\/p>\n

\u2014 June 23: Round 1, NBA draft.<\/p>\n

\u2014 June 24: Round 2, NBA draft.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have never seen the likes of this guy.\u201d \u2014 Prime analyst Stan Van Gundy, raving about the defensive ability of Wembanyama.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Friday saw two teams (Detroit by 21, San Antonio by 30) win on the road by 20 or more points. There hadn\u2019t been two road teams win by 20 or more \u2014 after the first round of the playoffs \u2014 on the same day since April 9, 1972 (New York beat Baltimore by 24, Milwaukee beat the LA Lakers by 21).<\/p>\n

\u2014 The Spurs have reached 70 wins on the season, including playoffs \u2014 the league-best ninth time they\u2019ve done that since 1994-95. The league\u2019s other 29 teams have combined for 40 such seasons in that span.<\/p>

Read more Mourinho receives Arbeloa\u2019s blessing amid talk of return to Real Madrid<\/a><\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP NBA: https:\/\/apnews.com\/nba<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

New York has to wait a bit longer to find out its Eastern Conference finals opponent<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":456,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-458","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting"],"yoast_head":"\nNBA tipoff: Only a Game 7 left in Round 2, with Cavaliers-Pistons on Sunday - Moving Insider USA<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=458\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"NBA tipoff: Only a Game 7 left in Round 2, with Cavaliers-Pistons on Sunday - Moving Insider USA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"New York has to wait a bit longer to find out its Eastern Conference finals opponent\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=458\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Moving Insider USA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-05-16T13:35:01+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/5b88891bf6e8ce4007492f59ef073ba9-scaled.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2560\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1707\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=458#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=458\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/22d40ab81790f6a361021763bb56ef03\"},\"headline\":\"NBA tipoff: Only a Game 7 left in Round 2, with Cavaliers-Pistons on Sunday\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-05-16T13:35:01+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=458\"},\"wordCount\":843,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=458#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/05\\\/5b88891bf6e8ce4007492f59ef073ba9-scaled.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Interesting\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=458#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=458\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=458\",\"name\":\"NBA tipoff: Only a Game 7 left in Round 2, with Cavaliers-Pistons on Sunday - Moving Insider USA\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=458#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=458#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/05\\\/5b88891bf6e8ce4007492f59ef073ba9-scaled.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-05-16T13:35:01+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/22d40ab81790f6a361021763bb56ef03\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=458#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=458\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=458#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/05\\\/5b88891bf6e8ce4007492f59ef073ba9-scaled.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/05\\\/5b88891bf6e8ce4007492f59ef073ba9-scaled.jpg\",\"width\":2560,\"height\":1707,\"caption\":\"San Antonio Spurs guard Devin Vassell (24) and forward Victor Wembanyama (1) celebrate a score against the Minnesota Timberwolves during the first half of Game 6 of an NBA basketball second-round playoffs series in Minneapolis, Friday, May 15, 2026. 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