After hitting two game-winners in the first round, Jamal Murray added another iconic shot to his 2024 Playoff mixtape…

THE LINEUP 🏀

What’s inside today’s edition? 

Nuggets Tie It Up: Denver got another win in Minnesota to send the series back home 2-2

3rd Biggest Playoff Win: Indiana tied its series with New York with a 32-point home win

Kings of the Road: Boston has been the best road Playoff team over the past 3+ years

Pivotal Game 4 in Dallas: Can the Mavs go up 3-1 or will the series go back to OKC 2-2?

Hawks On The Clock: Atlanta beat the odds to win the 2024 NBA Draft Lottery

BUT FIRST … ⏰

Last night’s scores & what to watch today.

Tonight’s TNT doubleheader features a pair of Game 4s, starting in Cleveland (7 ET) as the Cavs try to even the series with the Celtics, and ending in Dallas (9:30 ET) as the Mavs try to defend home court to take a 3-1 lead on OKC.

1. NUGGETS EVEN SERIES WITH ANOTHER ROAD WIN

After Denver led by as many as 16 points in the 2nd quarter, the Wolves cut the lead to seven on an Anthony Edwards 3 (giving him 23 pts in the half) with 48 seconds left.

Then, in less than a single shot clock, the Nuggets got three buckets to lead by 15 at the break.

• 20 seconds: A cross-court pass from Nikola Jokic to Kentavious Caldwell-Pope for an open 3
• 1.6 seconds: A Jokic steal forced by a double on an Ant drive led to a ¾ court pass to a streaking Michael Porter Jr. for a dunk
• 0.0 seconds: Jamal Murray intercepted a pass in the backcourt, took one step and launched a 55-footer that splashed through the net. Don’t miss the slow-mo
• The buzzer sounded with the Minnesota crowd in stunned silence

The Nuggets kept the Wolves at bay the rest of the way. Minnesota closed the lead to six points in the final 30 seconds, but a Jokic layup sealed the 115-107 win to tie the series at 2-2. | Recap

• Jokic (35 pts, 7 reb, 7 ast) and Murray (19 pts, 5 reb, 8 ast) combined for 54 points and 15 assists, but the star of the night was Aaron Gordon. Best of Jokic, Murray and AG
• AG scored 27 points while shooting 11-of-12 from the field and adding seven boards and six assists
• He became the 3rd player ever to record 25+ pts, 5+ reb, 5+ ast and 90%+ shooting in a Playoff game, joining Chris Paul (April 28, 2022) and Mitch Richmond (May 2, 1989)

Denver overcame a Playoff career-high 44 points from Edwards, who bounced back from a 19-point performance in Game 3 by hitting his first four shots of Game 4.

• Edwards (44 pts, 5 reb, 5 ast) became only the 3rd player with multiple 44/5/5 games at age 22 or younger, joining Luka Doncic (5x) and LeBron James (2x)
• 🗣️ Ant After the Loss: “We didn’t think it was gonna be easy”

What’s Next? The series shifts back to Denver for a pivotal Game 5 on Tuesday (10:30 ET, TNT).

• Teams that win Game 5 of a 2-2 best-of-seven series have gone on to win the series 81.9% of the time (190-42)
• The road team has won each of the first four games for the 12th time in Playoff history and the first time since 2021
• Can the Nuggets break that trend, or can the Wolves win a third straight game in the Mile High City?

2. INDY NOTCHES 3RD LARGEST PLAYOFF WIN IN TEAM HISTORY

With the Pacers still buzzing after winning an instant-classic Game 3, Tyrese Haliburton had a prediction for Sunday’s Game 4.

“Everyone’s going to be amped for that game,” Haliburton said. “It’s Mother’s Day. All our moms are going to be there. I’m excited.”

In front of a frenzied Indiana faithful – a crowd that included Haliburton’s mom – the Pacers raced out to the biggest halftime lead in franchise Playoff history and finished with their third-largest Playoff win ever, beating the Knicks 121-89 to tie the series at 2-2.

Haliburton led six Indy players in double-figures with 20 points, while T.J. McConnell became just the 7th player in the past 30 years to come off the bench and post at least 15 points & 10 ast in a Playoff game. | Recap

• TJ In Elite Company: McConnell became the only Pacer to go for 15+ pts & 10+ ast off the bench in a Playoff game
• 🗣️ Haliburton on TJ: “There’s not many people in the NBA better at doing what he does, and that’s bringing energy.”
• 32-Point Margin: Indy’s only two larger Playoff margins of victory came over the Cavs in 2018 (34) and the Lakers in 2000 (33)
• No Place Like Home: Indy extended its home win streak to 10 games, tied for the 4th longest in the NBA this year – behind only the Celtics (20- and 13-game streaks) and Rockets (11)

On Lock Early: Indy roared out to a 34-14 lead after one, led by Haliburton’s 8 pts, 5 reb & 60.9% teamwide shooting in the opening quarter. From there, the Pacers just added to their lead.

• Indiana went up by as many as 43 at one point, the largest lead of any team this postseason
• Alec Burks led New York in scoring with 20 points, and Jalen Brunson scored 18 as the Knicks shot just 33.7% from the floor and 18.9% from 3
• The Knicks were once again without OG Anunoby, who suffered a hamstring injury in Game 2
• 🗣️ Brunson: “Yeah, we’re short-handed, but that doesn’t matter right now. We have what we have. So there’s no we’re short-handed, there’s no excuse. We lose, we lose.”

Back To NYC: After both teams protected home court through four games, one of the most iconic Playoff rivalries heads back to Madison Square Garden (Tues, 8 ET on TNT) … and, at 2-2, familiar territory.

• Run it Back: This marks the fourth time that the Pacers & Knicks have been tied 2-2 in a Playoff series
• That’s the most of any Eastern Conference rivalry
• What Happened Before? The Knicks won the 1993-94 ECF in 7 games and the 1998-99 ECF in 6, while the Pacers took the 1999-00 ECF in 6

3. KINGS OF THE ROAD

Over the past 3+ postseasons, no team in all of the NBA has a better road Playoff record than the Boston Celtics.

And it’s not even close.

In tonight’s Conference Semis Game 4 (7 ET, TNT), they’ll look for their second straight win in Cleveland, a perfect 4-0 record in visitors’ buildings in the 2024 Playoffs … and a 3-1 series lead.

• Tops, By Far: Boston’s 17-10 mark on the road isn’t just the highest win percentage (.630) since 2020-21 – coming into Sunday, it was the only winning record for any team with at least 5 road games
• Denver now sits a game over .500, at 11-10, after Sunday’s win

To get there, the Celtics will look to channel the energy that carried them to the Game 3 win – the second straight series in which they’ve answered a Game 2 loss with a double-digit W in the next game.

• Jayson Tatum & Jaylen Brown combined for 61 points in the W, as the Celtics shot 51.2% from the floor and held Cleveland to just 65 points after the 1st quarter
• 🗣️ Tatum: “We were just trying to get a win, understanding that we didn’t play as well as we wanted to in Game 2. And it was a great test and opportunity for us to come out and respond and play better and play harder and all those things.”

The Cavs, meanwhile, will look to do what they did to come back from a Game 1 loss – starting with making a few more shots.

• Donovan Mitchell dropped 33 points – the fifth time in a row the postseason’s 5th leading scorer has dropped 29 or more – but as a club, the Cavs struggled against a swarming Boston defense
• Hot & Cold: While Game 2 saw the Cavs shoot a postseason team-best 54.7%, Games 1 & 3 saw them shoot 41.1% and 42.9% – their 2nd and 3rd lowest marks of the Playoffs, respectively
• 🗣️ Mitchell: “For us, just being able to finish … we missed a lot of shots at the rim, myself included, missed a lot of shots that I think we just got to make.”

4. A PIVOTAL GAME 4 LOOMS IN DALLAS

Everything, said Luka Doncic, hurts.

“I’m just battling out there,” he said.

The Mavs’ superstar – and 2023-24 NBA scoring king – has labored through the Conference Semis, fighting through injury after injury. But on the way to a 2-1 series lead over top-seeded OKC, with Game 4 looming tonight (9:30 ET, TNT), the cast around him has risen up.

• Clutch Kai: Kyrie Irving’s 22 points in Game 3 included this clutch, signature lefty finish – as Irving’s now put up two straight games with a NetRtg of 9.3 & above, in 41.5 mpg
• P.J.’s Moment: A Mav for 3 months, P.J. Washington’s coming off two of the best performances of his career – racking up a Playoff career-high 29 in Game 2, followed by 27 in Game 3
• 🗣️ SGA on P.J.: “He’s hooping. We’ve got to turn that water off if we want to win this series, for sure.”
• 🗣️ Kyrie on Luka: “He used his voice very well tonight. You could tell he wanted to win, and that’s all we need from Luka. For us, it’s just continuing to feed him that energy that he can trust who he’s around and he can trust that when the ball leaves his hands, other good things are going to happen.”

Battling Back: OKC, the youngest Western Conference champs in history, now faces a tall task: beat the Mavs in Dallas to tie up the series, and avoid a 3-1 deficit.

• After winning Game 1, the Thunder have given themselves a chance to win the past two games – but the veteran Mavs have prevailed in the clutch
• 🗣️ OKC coach Mark Daigneault: “I’ve really never seen this team out of character. Especially the next day. Maybe in a game or in a moment of a game we’ll break character. But we’re always good the next day. We have to improve through the series.”
• Inside & Out: OKC shot 45.7% from 3 in the opener, but just 33% in the last two games. Meanwhile, the Thunder’s top-10 offense in pts in the paint has fallen off by 8 per game. Can the Thunder figure out the physical Mavs defense?
• 🗣️ SGA: “I think we can be sharper on both ends of the floor, in terms of 50-50 balls and communication. I think we’re trying to do the right thing. I just think that execution and focus, those two areas, is where we can really take a step.”

5. HAWKS WIN DRAFT LOTTERY, SET TO PICK 1ST OVERALL

The Hawks secured the No. 1 pick in the 2024 NBA Draft after winning Sunday’s 2024 NBA Draft Lottery presented by State Farm, despite coming in with a 3% chance to have the ping pong balls go their way. | Watch The Drawing

• 🗣️ Hawks GM Landry Fields: “It was a shock. When I first saw that it wasn’t us between 10 and 12, that launched us into the top four. I was like, all right, we’ve got a real shot at this thing.”
• B/R Mock Draft: Who could go in the Lotto? Tap for Bleacher Report’s latest Mock Draft 
• Draft FAQs: Get up to speed on all you gotta know about the NBA Draft presented by State Farm, happening over two days for the first time ever on June 26-27
• Happening Now: The Draft Combine in Chicago tipped off Sunday. Find the 78 players participating here

Hawks, Wizards, Rockets Top 3: Tap here for the full order of the 14 teams in the Lottery and the full 1-58 Draft Order.