NBA Tipoff: Only a Game 7 Left in Round 2, with Cavaliers-Pistons on Sunday

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 — and it'll be the teams that finished with the two best records in the NBA this season.

Oklahoma City and San Antonio will play for the West title, their series beginning Monday on the Thunder's home floor.

Meanwhile, Detroit and Cleveland are headed to a Game 7 on Sunday for the right to play the Knicks for the East crown.

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There are no games on Saturday.

Saturday's schedule

— No games scheduled

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Sunday's schedule

— Game 7, Cleveland at Detroit, 8 p.m. EDT (Prime)

— Series: Tied, 3-3.

— Odds: Detroit by 4.5.

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.

Monday's schedule

— Game 1, San Antonio at Oklahoma City, 8:30 p.m. EDT (NBC, Peacock)

— Odds: Oklahoma City by 6.5.

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'll 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).

Friday's recap

— Pistons 115, Cavaliers 94 to tie series 3-3.

— Spurs 139, Timberwolves 109 to win series 4-2.

Conference finals schedule

The NBA Finals will start on June 3. And — thanks to San Antonio closing out Minnesota on Friday night — it's now certain that there will be at least two off days between the end of the conference finals and the title series.

— 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.

— 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).

— The Oklahoma City-San Antonio winner will have homecourt advantage in the NBA Finals.

Awards watch

Finally, a big update here — the MVP announcement is coming on Sunday night, with either Oklahoma City's Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, San Antonio's Victor Wembanyama or Denver's Nikola Jokic set to win the award.

Other awards handed out so far:

— Defensive Player of the Year: Wembanyama.

— Clutch Player of the Year: Gilgeous-Alexander.

— Sixth Man of the Year: Keldon Johnson, San Antonio.

— Sportsmanship Award: Derrick White, Boston.

— Most Improved Player: Nickeil Alexander-Walker, Atlanta.

— Rookie of the Year: Cooper Flagg, Dallas.

— Executive of the Year: Brad Stevens, Boston.

— Twyman-Stokes Teammate of the Year: DeAndre Jordan, New Orleans.

— Hustle Award: Moussa Diabaté, Charlotte.

Among the announcements still to come:

— Coach of the Year: San Antonio's Mitch Johnson, Detroit's J.B. Bickerstaff, or Boston's Joe Mazzulla.

— Social Justice Champion Award: Miami's Bam Adebayo San Antonio's Harrison Barnes, Boston's Jaylen Brown, Detroit's Tobias Harris or Cleveland's Larry Nance Jr.

— The All-NBA, All-Defensive and All-Rookie teams.

Betting odds

Defending champion Oklahoma City (-165) is favored to win the NBA title, according to oddsmakers.

The Thunder are followed by San Antonio (+300), New York (+600), Detroit (+3000) and Cleveland (+6000).

Key dates

— Monday: Western Conference finals begin on NBC and Peacock.

— Tuesday: Eastern Conference finals begin on ESPN and ABC.

— June 3: Game 1, NBA Finals on ABC. (Other finals dates: June 5, June 8, June 10, June 13, June 16 and June 19).

— June 23: Round 1, NBA draft.

— June 24: Round 2, NBA draft.

Quote of the day

“We have never seen the likes of this guy.” — Prime analyst Stan Van Gundy, raving about the defensive ability of Wembanyama.

Stats of the day

— Friday saw two teams (Detroit by 21, San Antonio by 30) win on the road by 20 or more points. There hadn't been two road teams win by 20 or more — after the first round of the playoffs — on the same day since April 9, 1972 (New York beat Baltimore by 24, Milwaukee beat the LA Lakers by 21).

— The Spurs have reached 70 wins on the season, including playoffs — the league-best ninth time they've done that since 1994-95. The league's other 29 teams have combined for 40 such seasons in that span.

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AP NBA: https://apnews.com/nba

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on May 16, 2026 06:50 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).