Commentary

NBA Playoffs Arrive Saturday To Thrill And Amaze Fans For 9 Weeks

For basketball fans, the best part of the TV year starts on Saturday.

It is the NBA Playoffs, scheduled to start with four first-round series Saturday on ESPN (and ABC in prime time) and three first-round series Sunday on TNT.

They are the two rights holders to the NBA Playoffs, with ABC again snaring the grand prize -- the Finals in June.

The NBA Playoffs are likely the longest post-season playoffs in professional sports, although confirmation was hard to come by in an online search. The NHL post-season comes close.

This year’s NBA Playoffs are reportedly scheduled to stretch from Saturday, April 15, to Sunday, June 18 -- a period of nine weeks. They will consist of 15 best-of-seven series over four rounds. 

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If every series extended to seven games, the playoffs would potentially total 105 games, according to arithmetic performed by the TV Blog, for whom math was never a great subject. This number of games has never been achieved, however.

Six additional games are being played this week to determine the playoff eligibility of four additional teams. Two games already qualified earlier this week -- featuring the Atlanta Hawks and L.A. Lakers. The other two will be determined in games scheduled for Friday (April 14). 

Sixteen out of 30 NBA teams make the playoffs each year -- eight from each conference, east and west.

Citing data from iSpot.tv, published reports say combined sales revenue for the 2022 NBA Playoffs for Disney (ESPN/ABC) and Turner Sports amounted to $842 million. Sponsors included AT&T Wireless, State Farm, Google Pixel, Kia Motors and Taco Bell.

ESPN’s Saturday series start at 1:10 p.m. Eastern with the Nets vs. the 76ers, followed by the Hawks-Celtics at 3:30 p.m., the Knicks-Cavaliers at 6 p.m. and the Warriors-Kings at 8:30 p.m. The Warriors-Kings will also be seen on ABC.

TNT’s Sunday series start at 5:30 p.m. Eastern with the Bucks vs. the winner of the Bulls-Heat play-in game on Friday, followed by the Clippers-Suns at 8:30 p.m., and the Nuggets vs. the winner of the Thunder-Timberwolves play-in game at 10:30 p.m.

As always, ESPN’s lead broadcast team (pictured above) are (l-r) former Knick Mark Jackson, former Knicks Coach Jeff Van Gundy, and Knicks regular-season play-by-play announcer Mike Breen. 

They will have a presence throughout the entire playoffs on ESPN. Whether the Knicks themselves will last as long is anybody’s guess.

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