Everyone take a breath. Or a lap. Or a shot. Whatever you need after about 13 hours of beautiful, nasty, contentious NBA Playoffs hoops. This first round was hyped up a lot before the games started, and it's lived up to the hype so far — and most series are only about halfway done. Oh yeah.
Updated NBA Playoffs bracket after wild Sunday
Knicks squeak by Pistons, take control of series
I don't think Knicks fans or Pistons fans had very much fun watching this game... but the rest of us did! We've been asking referees to let the players play for years, and the refs in this game decided to listen... in an extreme way. There was lots of contact on every possession in the second half, and the refs just let it happen. The teams adjusted, and it quickly turned into a beautiful game of hard-nosed basketball.
That aggression plus some outrageous shotmaking from Karl-Anthony Towns down the stretch made Game 4 perhaps the best game of the playoffs so far. New York is up 3-1 now, but these young Pistons have real pride, so expect another war at MSG in Game 5.
Wolves use late run to put Lakers on the brink
Down 10 entering the fourth, the Wolves could have played dead and accepted a series-evening loss. It wouldn't have been the end of the world for Minnesota, which would have still been tied with the No. 3 seed going into Game 5 — not a horrible position to be in.
Minnesota didn't do that. They tried to rid themselves of all the bad fourth quarters they've played over the past two years with a masterful twelve minutes of two-way hoops, outscoring the exhausted Lakers by 13 points in the final frame. Anthony Edwards took a step toward superstar status in this game, scoring 43 points and looking like the offensive engine that can win a team four series in a row.
Celtics beat Magic, look to close out series on Tuesday
Not many folks thought Orlando had a chance in this series, and maybe they never did. But a win in Game 3 at least made Game 4 more interesting, and when Game 4 was tied, 91-91, with under five minutes left, it looked like Orlando was going to make things really fun.
But then Jayson Tatum and Boston started to click in the clutch, and they put away Orlando late, eventually winning, 107-98.
Indiana breezes past Milwaukee as Damian Lillard suffers injury
The Pacers will likely beat the Bucks in this series — they're up 3-1 after stiff-arming Milwaukee in Game 4 — but the biggest story of this game, and now the series, is the potentially serious leg injury that Damian Lillard suffered in the first quarter. It was a non-contact injury, and NBA insider Chris Haynes said the Bucks fear it to be a torn achilles for Lillard. Horrible, horrible news for Lillard, the Bucks and the NBA at large. This game was hard to even pay attention to after Lillard's injury in the first quarter.