It's another busy Sunday in the first round of the 2023 NBA playoffs. Four series are in action throughout the day, and the Knicks started things off with a Game 4 win at home. The Warriors then evened their series against the Kings, as Stephen Curry scored 32 points in a Game 4 victory. In the day's remaining games, the Celtics will try to bounce back against the Hawks after a Game 3 loss, and the Nuggets have the chance to become the second team to reach the second round as they go for a sweep over the Wolves on Sunday night.

The top-seeded Denver Nuggets are one win away from advancing to the Western Conference semifinals after a workmanlike 120-111 Game 3 road win over the Minnesota Timberwolves on Friday night. The Nuggets resisted an early barrage from an energetic Wolves group, taking a lead in the second quarter that they would never relinquish en route to a 3-0 series lead.

The Atlanta Hawks bounced back from a disappointing start to the playoffs with a 130-122 win over the Boston Celtics in Game 3 of the teams' first-round series. No team has ever come back from an 0-3 deficit in the NBA playoffs, and by avoiding that hold the Hawks kept their slim hopes of a comeback alive. 

The Los Angeles Clippers host the Phoenix Suns in Game 3 of the first-round matchup on Thursday night in the 2023 NBA playoffs. The Suns (45-37) finished the regular season as the No. 4 seed, while the Clippers (44-38) were right behind them in the fifth spot. The teams have been going back and forth all campaign long, splitting the four regular season matchups 2-2. Paul George (knee) remains out for the Clippers, while Cameron Payne (back) is questionable for the Suns. Kawhi Leonard (knee) has also been ruled out of Game 3 due to a knee sprain.

On Thursday Twitter began removing the checkmarks of verified accounts unless they paid for a Twitter Blue subscription, but NBA star LeBron James kept his blue check even though he previously said he would never pay for it. However, it turns out James may be getting a complimentary subscription.

BROOKLYN, N.Y. — Philadelphia 76ers All-Star guard James Harden was ejected from the Game 3 win over the Brooklyn Nets Thursday night after hitting Royce O'Neale below the belt as he was driving to the basket. The officials gave Harden a flagrant 2 foul, which is an automatic ejection, forcing the Sixers guard to head back to the locker room at the end of the third quarter.

The 2023 NBA playoffs rolled on Wednesday night with a trio of Game 2s. Things started in Memphis, where the second-seeded Grizzlies topped the Lakers without the services of Ja Morant. There was another star injury to watch in Milwaukee, where Giannis Antetokounmpo missed Game 2 due to a back injury but the Bucks took care of business without him. Wednesday's action closes out in Denver, where the top-seeded Nuggets are hoping to cruise to another win against the eighth-seeded Timberwolves. 

SACRAMENTO -- From an outside perspective, the solution seems so simple. In the Golden State Warriors' Game 1 loss to the Sacramento Kings on Saturday, they were outscored by 14 points with Steph Curry on the bench. The Warriors lost by three.

From one perspective, the first weekend of the NBA playoffs was a chaotic mess. Most the 16 teams hadn't played in a week. Their opponents have used all of that time to game-plan against everything they've shown in the regular season. The pressure gets to some players and teams more than others. Team-wide strengths fade. Weaknesses are magnified. All eight opening round games were played within roughly a 36-hour period.

The Oklahoma City Thunder will aim for another upset victory when they face the Minnesota Timberwolves on Friday night. Oklahoma City won its third straight game on Wednesday, keeping its season alive with a 123-118 win at New Orleans. Minnesota blew a 15-point lead in its 108-102 loss to the Lakers on Tuesday, but it covered the spread as an 8-point underdog. The winner of Friday's game earns a date with top-seeded Denver in the first round of the 2023 NBA Playoffs. Rudy Gobert (back) and Karl-Anthony Towns (calf) are questionable for Minnesota, while Jaden McDaniels (hand) and Naz Reid (wrist) are out.

The Philadelphia 76ers, Boston Celtics, New York Knicks and Sacramento Kings all scored Game 1 wins on Saturday as the NBA playoffs got underway. 

Playing in their first playoff game in 17 years, the host Sacramento Kings beat the defending champion Golden State Warriors, 126-123, Saturday night. Earlier in the day, the 76ers took a 1-0 lead on the Brooklyn Nets in Philadelphia with a 121-101 victory. That was followed by the Boston Celtics' 112-99 drubbing of the visiting Atlanta Hawks, and the contest was not as close as the score would indicate. In the last Eastern Conference matchup of the day, the New York Knicks upset the host Cleveland Cavaliers, 101-97. Below is the daily playoff schedule as well as the results that are in so far, including dates, times and TV info. 

The Minnesota Timberwolves will be playing for an opportunity to secure the No. 8 seed in the Western Conference and a first-round matchup when they square off against the Oklahoma City Thunder on Friday night. However, the status of a couple of their key contributors is up in the air. 

You don't often see the No. 6 seed as an overwhelming favorite to beat No. 3, but welcome to the wild and wacky Western Conference playoffs! Sacramento Kings fans will spit malevolent venom, deservedly so, at those picking the defending champions to win their first-round series, but, as we know, the Warriors are no ordinary six-seed.

We recently covered the most important five-man lineups in the Eastern Conference. The exercise was relatively straightforward. There are three bonafide championship contenders in the East followed by two frisky underdogs. After that? There's just not much worth exploring. The Brooklyn Nets barely clung to a top-six seed thanks to wins accumulated by players no longer on their roster. The Miami Heat can't put the ball in the basket. The Atlanta Hawks may have beaten them in the play-in round, but got humiliated by that same Heat team in the first round a year ago. We knew who was worth covering and who wasn't.

The 2023 NBA Play-In Tournament will conclude Friday night, with the Chicago Bulls and Miami Heat battling for the East's No. 8 seed in the early game followed by Western Conference's Oklahoma City Thunder facing the Minnesota Timberwolves in the nightcap. The winners will take on the top seeds in their respective conferences, the Milwaukee Bucks and Denver Nuggets, in the first round of the playoffs on Sunday. On Tuesday, the Atlanta Hawks secured the No. 7 seed and will open their series against the defending Eastern Conference champion Boston Celtics at 3:30 p.m. ET Saturday while the West's No. 7 seed, the Los Angeles Lakers, will meet the Memphis Grizzlies on Sunday at 3 p.m ET.

With the 2022-23 NBA regular season now in the books, the basketball betting market is hotter than ever. CBS Sports will be providing daily picks for the duration of the postseason. Sam Quinn will make at least one pick for every game between now and the NBA Finals. All lines courtesy of Caesars Sportsbook.

For the most part, road teams are loving the NBA's Play-In Tournament. The visiting Chicago Bulls and Oklahoma City Thunder survived the first leg of their postseason/pre-playoff tests Wednesday, sending the Toronto Raptors and New Orleans Pelicans into the lottery. No. 10 Chicago mounted a huge second-half comeback to stun No. 9 Toronto, 109-105, and now head to Miami to face the Heat in Friday's early game. The winner will get the East's No. 8 seed and open a first-round series against the top-seeded Milwaukee Bucks on Sunday afternoon. 

Well, the Minnesota Timberwolves' chances of beating the Los Angeles Lakers in their play-in matchup on Tuesday just got bleaker. After punching teammate Kyle Anderson during the Wolves' regular season finale on Sunday, ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski reports that Minnesota has suspended Rudy Gobert for one game making him unavailable for Tuesday night's matchup. 

It's win or go home, literally, for the Toronto Raptors and Chicago Bulls. As the No. 9 and No. 10 teams in the East, a win will give them an opportunity to extend their season for one more game, a loss will end it. With stakes that high, both teams will be playing desperately as they try to get a shot a claiming the No. 8 spot in the East playoffs.

With the Atlanta Hawks in Miami to take on the Heat in the Eastern Conference's first play-in game Tuesday, Trae Young found himself being asked about his future in Atlanta. 

Remember what the Timberwolves did last July?

The NBA regular season wrapped up Sunday, and we now have all the play-in matchups set as well as the 4-5, 3-6 series in each conference. The top two seed in each conference will have their first-round opponents determined via the play-in tournament. 

Minnesota Timberwolves center Rudy Gobert was sent home by the team after throwing a punch at teammate Kyle Anderson during a timeout in the second quarter of their vital 113-108 win over the New Orleans Pelicans on Sunday. Anderson, who was not seriously hurt, remained in the game as the Wolves went on to clinch the No. 8 seed in the Play-In Tournament. 

At over 39 years old and set to turn 40 before the end of the calendar year, LeBron James has now spent more than half his life as a star player in the NBA with still seemingly more to contribute. With 20 seasons of professional basketball now to his credit, James' longevity is beginning to add to his legacy. And there's one person in particular that James has to thank for that.

Things change quickly in the NBA. Less than a year ago, Luka Doncic was leading the Dallas Mavericks to the Western Conference Finals, but on Friday, Doncic played only a quarter as the Mavericks completed their historic two-month collapse from No. 4 seed to the lottery. Dallas went 9-17 after acquiring Kyrie Irving from the Brooklyn Nets, sacrificing their defense and depth in the process, and their franchise player is reportedly starting to get impatient.

Entering play on Friday night, the Dallas Mavericks still had an outside shot at qualifying for the play-in tournament. They were one loss back of the No. 10 Thunder, who do hold the tiebreaker, making that an effective two-game deficit with two to play. The Mavs needed to win their last two and have OKC lose its final game vs. the Grizzlies. 

Joel Embiid secured the NBA's season scoring title on Friday night without even playing. Luka Doncic was the only guy who could catch Embiid, and he ended his season with 13 points in 13 minutes as the Mavericks no longer have a shot at the playoffs. 

Below is a comprehensive snapshot of where things stand in the Western Conference playoff and play-in races entering the final day of the regular season on Sunday, including a look at all the seeding scenarios. 

A Western Conference affair has the Phoenix Suns (44-35) hosting the Denver Nuggets (52-27) on Thursday night. This is the final of four matchups between these clubs, with Denver owning a 2-1 advantage. They last played on March 31 when the Suns beat the Nuggets 100-93. Denver sits as the No. 1 seed in the West, while Phoenix sits in the fourth spot. Denver is sitting its entire starting lineup of Nikola Jokic, Jamal Murray, Michael Porter Jr., Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and Aaron Gordon. Phoenix has no injuries to report.

Utah Jazz All-Star Lauri Markkanen is preparing to fulfill his military mandatory service in Finland during the offseason, he told ESPN. The Nordic nation requires all of its male citizens to complete such service before turning 30.

Former Sixth Man of the Year Ben Gordon was arrested Tuesday morning on weapons and threatening charges at a Connecticut juice shop, per the Stamford Advocate. Gordon, who was arrested on the same day as his 40th birthday, is being charged with three counts of carrying a dangerous weapon, and two counts of misdemeanor second-degree threatening. He's also being charged with interfering with an officer, sixth-degree larceny and disorderly conduct.

If anything is going to make Warriors fans feel better about the egg their team laid in Denver on Sunday, it's the Andrew Wiggins news. He's coming back! 

On Saturday, the NBA and its players agreed to coexist peacefully with a new collective bargaining agreement. The deal ensures that we won't have a lockout until 2029 at the earliest, but labor stability is just about the only constant at play here. The new collective bargaining agreement is going to tweak virtually every element of roster-building in some significant way. Trades, free agency, the NBA Draft and even the salary cap itself will undergo significant changes once the new deal takes effect this offseason. It might take years to feel the full impact of those changes.

When it comes to winning NBA MVP Awards, Golden State Warriors star guard Stephen Curry knows a thing or two. Curry is a two-time MVP winner, and he became the first unanimous MVP winner in league history in 2016. Curry isn't in the running for the award this season, but he does have an opinion regarding who should win the NBA's most prestigious individual award. 

MILWAUKEE -- The Milwaukee Bucks entered Sunday night's showdown with the Philadelphia 76ers fresh off a 41-point loss to the Boston Celtics that matched the second-worst defeat of the Mike Budenholzer era. That was bad news for the Sixers. The Bucks, eager to get back on track, were the best version of themselves en route to a wire-to-wire 117-104 win. 

Below is a comprehensive snapshot of where things stand in the Western Conference playoff and play-in races entering play on Tuesday (no games Monday). This post will be updated throughout the remainder of the regular season or until all seeds are clinched. 

Below is a comprehensive snapshot of where things stand in the Eastern Conference playoff and play-in races entering play on Tuesday. (There are no games Monday.) This post will be updated throughout the remainder of the regular season or until all seeds are clinched. 

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The experts predicted a victory for the Golden State Warriors, but it's no sure thing at this point. They currently hold a 2 to nothing lead over the San Antonio Spurs.

How many highlight rebounds can you remember? It's a rare occurrence, especially without a putback dunk to follow. Rebounds are rarely glamorous like dunks or creative like passes. They're just the result of a player being in the right position at the right time and executing a fundamental skill. Well, that's the case most of the time. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander got a bit more innovative in Friday's game against the Indiana Pacers.

In what very well could've been a first-round playoff preview, the New York Knicks defeated the Cleveland Cavaliers on Friday, 130-116, behind a career-high 48 points from Jalen Brunson. 

In the NBA, players' priorities can change as their careers continue, and that's the case when it comes to Phoenix Suns star forward Kevin Durant. Earlier in his career, Durant was concerned with how he was perceived and the legacy he would leave behind, but he says that no longer concerns him. 

Below is a comprehensive snapshot of where things stand in the Eastern Conference playoff and play-in races entering play on Friday. This post will update daily throughout the remainder of the regular season or until all seeds are clinched. 

Below is a comprehensive snapshot of where things stand in the Western Conference playoff and play-in races entering play on Friday. This post will update daily throughout the remainder of the regular season or until all seeds are clinched.