When you hit the game-winner in your first playoff home game…

THE LINEUP 🏀

What’s inside today’s edition? 

Hali For The Win: Tyrese Haliburton’s floater with 1.6 seconds left seals Indy’s OT win

Mavs Shut Down Clips: Dallas’ defense shines again as the Mavs take a 2-1 series lead

Wolves Go Up 3-0: Anthony Edwards helps Minnesota get its first 3-0 series lead … ever

Celtics-Heat Rivalry: Familiar foes are tied for the 5th time in their last 3 Playoff meetings

Closing Time? The Nuggets can be the first team to advance out of the First Round tonight

BUT FIRST … ⏰

Last night’s scores & what to watch today.

It’s day-to-night Playoff hoops as Cavs-Magic (1 ET | CLE up 2-1) tips off a TNT triple-header, followed by Thunder-Pelicans (3:30 ET | OKC up 2-0) and Celtics-Heat (6 ET | Tied 1-1).

Then switch over to ABC for Nuggets-Lakers (8:30 ET | DEN up 3-0) for the first elimination game of the Playoffs.

1. HALIBURTON’S GAME-WINNING FLOATER GIVES INDY 2-1 LEAD

Third Game’s A Charm: In just his third career Playoff game, Tyrese Haliburton picked up a pair of Playoff firsts — game-winner & triple-double — as he led the Pacers to a 121-118 OT win over the Bucks and 2-1 series lead. | Recap | Must-See Ending | 5 Takeaways

• The Moment: After Khris Middleton’s 3 sent the game to OT, another wild trey from Middleton had just tied the game again
• The Game-Winner: Game tied at 118. Pacers ball sideline out of bounds. 6.7 seconds left. Haliburton caught the ball in the backcourt, giving him a running start toward the defense and the basket
• He rejected a midcourt screen, got by Patrick Beverley with a crossover, and drove into the lane, pulling up at the foul line for a one-legged floater that fell as the whistle blew for an and-1
• Haliburton completed the three-point play to put the Pacers up three with 1.6 seconds left. See it from all angles
• Middleton didn’t have a third desperation triple in his bag, as his last-second shot missed to seal the win for Indy

Ready For The Moment: Despite having an off-shooting night (8-22 FG, 1-12 3P), Haliburton was ready to seize the opportunity in his home Playoff debut. “You know I was going to shoot it, no matter what.”

• We’ve Seen This Before: The In-Season Tournament gave us an early look at Haliburton in clutch situations in a Playoff-like atmosphere
• He electrified the crowd with a 4-point play in Indy’s quarterfinal win over Boston. And his dagger 3 against the Bucks in the semifinals sent Indy to the championship game

Haliburton (18 pts, 16 ast, 10 reb) posted his first Playoff triple-double (and second overall), while Myles Turner added a Playoff career-high 29 points to lead the Pacers.

Khris & Dame: Middleton (Playoff career-high 42 pts, 10 reb) kept the Bucks alive late with his clutch 3s, while Lillard added 28 points and eight dimes, but shot just 6-of-20 as the Bucks continue to play without Giannis.

Caitlin Clark In The House: Two days before she opens her first WNBA training camp, the record-breaking phenom was in the building to get the crowd revved up for the first Playoff game in Indy since 2019.

2. DEFENSE, TEAM EFFORT LEADS MAVS TO 2-1 LEAD

Another Defensive Gem From Dallas: For the second time in three days, the Mavericks held the Clippers to their second-lowest scoring game of the season.

After allowing just 93 points in Game 2, Dallas’ defense was even stingier on Friday as the Mavs won 101-90 to take a 2-1 series lead. | Recap | 5 Takeaways

• Luka Doncic (22 pts, 10 reb, 9 ast) and Kyrie Irving (21 pts, 19 in 2nd half) combined for 43 in the win. It was the first time both stars scored below 23 points and Dallas won (0-2 prior to Friday)
• Role Players Rise Up: Dereck Lively II (13), Derrick Jones Jr. (11), P.J. Washington (10), Daniel Gafford (8), Josh Green (8) and Maxi Kleber (3) combined for 53 points on 62.2% shooting

• 2nd Quarter Surge: Dallas took control of the game with a 36-18 2nd quarter, led by Doncic’s 12 points and five assists
• Not In My House: Daniel Gafford meets Paul George at the rim for a must-see block
• Harden Climbs Ladder: James Harden – who joined Norman Powell with a team-high 21 points – passed Magic Johnson for 16th on the all-time Playoff scoring list. Ivica Zubac added 19 for LA, which got a combined 16 points from Kawhi (9) and PG (7)

3. WOLVES HOLD FIRST 3-0 SERIES LEAD IN TEAM HISTORY

Wolves Put Suns On Brink: The Timberwolves picked the perfect time to have their first three-game Playoff win streak in franchise history.

Anthony Edwards scored a game-high 36 points, leading six Wolves with 13+ points as Minnesota never trailed and led by as many as 24 points in a 126-109 win. | Recap

• Ant Man Rises: In only his 14th career Playoff game, Edwards (393 total points) reached second place in Playoff scoring in team history, trailing only Kevin Garnett (1,049)
• Going Big: Rudy Gobert (19 pts, 14 reb) and Karl-Anthony Towns (18 pts, 13 reb) helped the Wolves dominate the glass, outrebounding the Suns 60-33
• Big 3 Drops 76: Bradley Beal (28 pts, 6 3s), Kevin Durant (25 pts) and Devin Booker (23 pts, 8 ast) combined for 76 points, but Phoenix’s star trio couldn’t overcome Minnesota’s balanced effort
• 🗣️ Gobert: “We’re just embracing the moment. We have only one goal in mind and we’re trying to make sure we don’t get distracted by the success or the ups and downs. We’re just locked in.”
• 🗣️ Booker: “We put ourselves in a hole and we’ve got to dig ourselves out of it. So that’s that.”

4. A TIED SERIES BETWEEN BOSTON & MIAMI … AGAIN

On paper, the Celtics-Heat series could look like a mismatch. A 1 vs. 8 matchup where Boston, coming off a record-breaking regular season, has a big edge.

• Boston finished 18 games ahead of Miami in the standings, sweeping the regular-season series 3-0
• The Heat needed two Play-In wins to secure the final seed
• Miami is playing without its 1st and 4th leading scorers in Jimmy Butler and Terry Rozier

But the Playoffs aren’t played on paper. And when it comes to this rivalry, records and seeds have not mattered.

• 🗣️ Heat Coach Erik Spoelstra On The Rivalry: “We say it all the time that new players come in, you’re inheriting this feeling that we have for them and they probably feel a certain way about us.
• “And you would never want to just go through an entire career and not have that. I know our guys embrace that. It’s good for competition, it’s good for the league and it’s good for the players and our guys love that.”

The Celtics and Heat enter tonight’s Game 3 tied in a series for the fifth time in their last three Playoff matchups.

• Last 20 Playoff Games: Tied 10-10 with an average score of 107-106 in favor of Boston
• Series Ties: 1-1 in 2024, 3-3 in 2023, 1-1, 2-2 and 3-3 in 2022

In addition to playing each other close, both teams have proven they can win on the road. In their last two Playoff series in 2022 and 2023, the Heat have gone 6-3 in Boston, while the Celtics have gone 5-2 in Miami.

• 🗣️ Jayson Tatum: “We just got a lot of history with them recently, at least since I’ve been on the team. Two Playoff series in the last three years. Just very physical, tough-minded, well-coached teams that compete at a very high level.”
• 🗣️ Celtics Coach Joe Mazzulla: “It’s cool. Anytime we play against each other there’s a heightened physicality, there’s a heightened respect for each other.”

5. NUGGETS GET FIRST CLOSE-OUT OPPORTUNITY

One lesson that the Nuggets took from last year’s title run is understanding the challenge of closing a team out.

After losing their first close-out game – Game 4 in Minnesota – Denver went a perfect 4-0 in close-outs the rest of the way, including a sweep of the Lakers in the Western Conference Finals.

• 🗣️ Jokic: “Last year when we played the fourth game (against the Lakers), it was probably the hardest game of our lives. It’s really hard to close a team out.”

Tonight in L.A. (8:30 ET, ABC), the Nuggets can be the first team to advance to the Conference Semifinals as they try to sweep the Lakers for a second straight year. Can L.A. rally?

• 🗣️ Denver coach Michael Malone: “We had to win four of those last year to win the championship so our guys understand that this will be the hardest game of the series.
• “They’re not going to go out without a fight, we know that. They have Hall of Famers, some of the all-time greats playing for them and their backs are against the wall.”

A year ago, the Nuggets edged out the Lakers 113-111 in Game 4 to reach their first NBA Finals. It took a triple-double from Jokic (30 pts, 14 reb, 13 ast) and a combined 47 points from Jamal Murray (25) and Aaron Gordon (22).

• In their five closeout games in 2023, Jokic nearly averaged a triple-double (32.2 ppg, 13.6 rpg, 9.4 apg), Murray put up 20/5/5 (23.8 ppg, 5.2 rpg 5.4 apg) and all five starters averaged 12+ ppg

While Denver holds a 3-0 lead on the Lakers again, they’ve trailed by double-digits in each game of this series, including their dramatic Game 2 win when they stormed back from 20 down leading to Murray’s game-winning fadeaway buzzer-beater.

• 4th Quarter Jamal: In 12 career Playoff games against the Lakers, Murray has averaged 8.3 points in the 4th quarter – tied for the sixth highest vs. a single opponent since 1997-98 (min. 10 games)
• He Joins: Kobe (9.5 pts/4th in 17 games vs. DEN), Dirk (9.2 pts in 13 games vs. POR), Durant (8.9 pts in 11 games vs. DEN), Kobe (8.7 pts in 30 games vs. SAS), D-Wade (8.6 pts in 12 games vs. DAL) and Kobe (8.3 pts in 16 games vs. SAC)

Will it come down to another second-half rally and another big 4th quarter from Murray to close this series out?