For Thunder and Cavaliers, it's still a waiting game to see who they'll face in Round 1 of playoffs

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For Thunder and Cavaliers, it's still a waiting game to see who they'll face in Round 1 of playoffs

2025-04-17 01:35 Last Updated At：02:41

Oklahoma City and Cleveland are the top seeds in the NBA playoffs, which comes with some perks. They'll have home-court advantage for at least three rounds and, presumably, an easier path than others to advancing.

It also comes with a challenge: They'll have just one full day to really prepare for Game 1.

Some teams will have a full week to prepare for their first playoff foe. Some teams get four or five days. But given the way the play-in tournament is structured, the Thunder and Cavaliers won't know their foes until late Friday night — then will open Round 1 matchups against those opponents on Sunday, with only one practice day to lock in on a game plan.

“It's tough. It's interesting,” Milwaukee coach Doc Rivers said. “There were years where I had that issue and it's definitely more challenging.”

The exact same scenario didn't hold the Thunder back a year ago. New Orleans won the Western Conference's elimination play-in game for the No. 8 seed on a Friday, started a series at top-seeded Oklahoma City on Sunday, the Thunder squeaked out a win in Game 1 and went on to sweep the matchup with a couple of blowouts in there.

And just like last year, the Thunder are spending these extra days working on themselves.

“It’s a unique situation to have this much time in between games and to not know your opponent," Oklahoma City coach Mark Daigneault said. "Now, our opponent won't be able to prepare. We’ll both have the same amount of time to prepare. We both have Saturday and then we play Sunday. So, you’re in no disadvantage. But we definitely learned from last year on how to manage the week.”

The Cavaliers won't present any information on opposing personnel to their players until after the opponent is locked in. Cavs coach Kenny Atkinson did get one piece of information very late Tuesday night, that his team's Game 1 will be at 7 p.m. on Sunday.

It could have been as early as 1 p.m., depending on what the league and its broadcast partners wanted. To Atkinson, those few extra hours can make a difference.

“We'll have more time to maybe dive into personnel a little more,” Atkinson said.

The Cavs have had an assistant coach assigned to each specific team all season, so work is being done on all three of their possible Round 1 opponents. Atkinson won't start thinking about possible matchups until later this week.

“I think there is an organization to it, a real organization," Atkinson said. “And it’s multi-faceted. ... We have things we’ve been working on, things we think will translate to playoffs.”

There are four matchups — Indiana-Milwaukee and New York-Detroit in the East, the Los Angeles Lakers-Minnesota and Denver-the Los Angeles Clippers in the West — that have been set since the end of the regular season. Those teams get a full week to get ready for Round 1, knowing their opponents. All of those series open on Saturday.

The No. 2 seeds in each conference learned their opponents on Tuesday night, when Orlando earned the right to play Boston and Golden State won its way into a playoff meeting with Houston.

Had the Magic or Warriors lost Tuesday, they would have had to play elimination games on Friday. Winning to open the play-in tournament allowed both teams a chance to take a little bit of time to exhale.

“It took 83 games, but we're right where we want to be — which is back in the playoffs and we've got a chance,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said. “But maybe most importantly, we get the time to rest and prepare because these guys need that desperately right now.”

Oklahoma City will play either Memphis, Sacramento or Dallas in Round 1 of the West playoffs. Cleveland will play either Atlanta, Chicago or Miami in Round 1 of the East playoffs. Sometime Friday night, the Thunder and Cavaliers will finally know who it is.

Neither club seems overly worked up about the uncertainty that they're dealing with this week. And it hasn't been much of a problem in the past, either; since 2021, when this version of the play-in tournament began, No. 1 seeds are 6-2 in Game 1s against No. 8 seeds, plus have gone on to win that opening series seven of eight times — the exception being when Miami upset Milwaukee in 2023.

“It's the first round,” Cavaliers forward Tristan Thompson said. “No disrespect to those teams, but we're supposed to win that series.”

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

Indian and Pakistan troops swap intense artillery fire

2025-05-09 23:57 Last Updated At：05-10 00:00

SRINAGAR, India (AP) — Indian and Pakistani soldiers exchanged heavy volleys of shells and gunfire across their frontier in Kashmir overnight, killing at least five civilians in a growing military standoff that erupted following an attack on tourists in the India-controlled portion of the disputed region.

In Pakistan, an unusually intense night of artillery exchanges left at least four civilians dead and wounded 12 others in areas near the Line of Control that divides Kashmir, local police official Adeel Ahmad said. People in border towns said the firing continued well into Friday morning.

“We’re used to hearing exchange of fire between Pakistan and India at the Line of Control, but last night was different,” said Mohammad Shakil, who lives near the frontier in Chakothi sector.

In India, military officials said Pakistani troops barraged their posts overnight with artillery, mortars and gunfire at multiple locations in Indian-controlled Kashmir. They said Indian soldiers responded, triggering fierce exchanges until early dawn.

Two people were killed and four others injured in Uri and Poonch sectors, police said, taking the civilian death toll in Indian-controlled Kashmir to 18 since Wednesday. Pakistan said Indian mortar and artillery fire has killed 17 civilians in Pakistan-administered Kashmir in the same period.

Indian authorities have evacuated tens of thousands of civilians from villages near the volatile frontier. Thousands of people slept in shelters for a second consecutive night.

Tensions between the nuclear-armed rivals have soared since an attack on a popular tourist site in India-controlled Kashmir left 26 civilians dead, mostly Hindu Indian tourists, on April 22. New Delhi has blamed Pakistan for backing the attack, an accusation Islamabad rejects.

On Wednesday, India conducted airstrikes on several sites in Pakistani territory it described as militant-related, killing 31 civilians according to Pakistani officials. Pakistan said it shot down five Indian fighter jets.

On Thursday, India said it thwarted Pakistani drone and missile attacks at military targets in more than a dozen cities and towns, including Jammu city in Indian-controlled Kashmir. Pakistan denied that it carried out drone attacks. India said meanwhile it hit Pakistan’s air defense systems and radars close to the city of Lahore. The incidents could not be independently confirmed.

The Indian army said Friday that Pakistan fired about 300-400 drones overnight in violation of Indian airspace to target military installations in nearly three dozen sites along the western borders. India brought down a number of the drones using "kinetic and non-kinetic means,” Wing Commander Vyomika Singh of the Indian air force told a news conference.

Meanwhile, social platform X in a statement on Thursday said the Indian government had ordered it to block users in the country from accessing more than 8,000 accounts, including a number of “international news organizations and other prominent users.”

The social platform did not release the list of accounts it was blocking in India, but said the order “amounts to censorship of existing and future content, and is contrary to the fundamental right of free speech.” Later, X briefly blocked access to the Global Affairs Account from which it had posted the statement, also citing a legal demand from India.

India’s biggest domestic cricket tournament, the Indian Premier League, which attracts top players from around the world, was suspended for one week. Pakistan also moved its own domestic tournament to the United Arab Emirates because of the tensions.

Panic also spread during an evening cricket match in northern Dharamsala city, where a crowd of more than 10,000 people had to be evacuated from the stadium and the game called off, according to an Associated Press photographer covering the event.

Meanwhile, several northern and western Indian states, including Punjab, Rajasthan, Indian-controlled Kashmir, shut schools and other educational institutions for two days.

Airlines in India have also suspended flight operations from two dozen airports across northern and western regions until May 15, India’s Civil Aviation Ministry said.

The impact of border flare up was also seen in the Indian stock markets. In early trade on Friday, the benchmark Sensex tanked 662 points to 79,649 while Nifty 50 declined 215 points to trade at 24,058.

As fears of military confrontation soar and worried world leaders call for de-escalation, the U.S. Vice President JD Vance has said that a potential war between India and Pakistan would be “none of our business.”

“What we can do is try to encourage these folks to de-escalate a little bit, but we’re not going to get involved in the middle of war that’s fundamentally none of our business and has nothing to do with America’s ability to control it,” Vance said in an interview with Fox News.

Saaliq and Roy reported from New Delhi and Ahmed reported from Islamabad. Associated Press writers Ishfaq Ahmed and Roshan Mughal in Muzaffarabad, Pakistan contributed to this report.