The Knicks’ playoff opponent is officially set.

With Boston beating Orlando, Miami beating Atlanta, and Toronto beating Brooklyn on Sunday, New York is officially set to meet the Hawks in the first round of the 2026 NBA Playoffs.

Atlanta played the Knicks tough during their regular season matchups. 

While New York took the series 2-1, the two victories were three point games and the loss was by 12. 

The latest meeting was earlier this week, when New York hung on to end the Hawks’ 13-game home winning streak. 

This will be the fourth time that they face-off in the playoffs. 

The most recent one was when Trae Young and the Hawks eliminated New York in five games in 2021. 

Now with Young out of town and a much different roster, Jalen Brunson and the Knicks will look to flip the script.  

The Milwaukee Bucks are moving forward without head coach Doc Rivers. The team reportedly split with Rivers on Sundayafter going 32-50during a miserable 2025-26 NBA season, according to ESPN’s Shams Charania.

The decision ends Rivers’ two-and-a-half seasons with the team. Rivers had one final season left on his initial contract with the Bucks.

Expectations were exceptionally high when Rivers was hired as the team’s replacement for Adrian Griffin, who was fired during the 2023-24 NBA season despite leading the team to a 30-13 record. At the time, Bucks general manager Jon Horst said Rivers was brought in to push the team to another championship, and cited “urgency” as one of the reasons Griffin was let go despite a strong record.

Rivers and the Bucks went 17-19 down the stretch and lost in the first round of the playoffs that season.

Rivers experienced more success the following year, posting a 48-34 record with the team — one loss fewer than the previous season. The Bucks once again lost in the first round of the playoffs.

While both results were disappointing, especially considering why the team hired Rivers in the first place, things really fell apart this season. After an offseason of indecision, the Bucks ultimately decided to hold onto superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo. It proved to be a terrible choice.

Antetokounmpo struggled with multiple injuries during the regular season, playing in fewer than 40 games for the first time in his NBA career. Despite rumors the Bucks would trade Antetokounmpo at the trade deadline, a deal never materialized.

Things came to a head at the end of the season. With Antetokounmpo dealing with a knee injury, the star publicly complained about the team not allowing him to return to play. It reached a point where the players’ union got involved, signaling what is very likely the end of Antetokounmpo’s time with the franchise.

While Rivers didn’t factor into that situation, he was far from blameless for the team’s struggles this season. A bombshell report from Charania in April painted the Bucks as an organization in need of an overhaul.

Sources told Charania the entire year “felt like a funeral” thanks to the Antetokounmpo situation and another source said, “This is as toxic of a team situation as any in the league.”

Rivers was specifically called out in the piece for holding a meeting at a crucial point in the season and told players to look up his résumé and history of success in the league. In that meeting, Rivers called out Kyle Kuzma for defensive lapses, leading to Kuzma being benched later that night.

Instead of inspiring the team to play better, the meeting rubbed Bucks players the wrong way, per Charania.

The session was among a number of instances that rubbed large parts of the locker room the wrong way and continued the theme of a season long disconnect between Rivers and the players, according to team sources.

In another meeting, Rivers reportedly called out guards Ryan Rollins and Kevin Porter Jr. for selfish play. Rivers reportedly intended to empower both players with the meeting, but that message wasn’t clear. Following the contest, the team needed a players-only meeting to clear the air, per Charania.

Over his 27 years in coaching, Rivers has emerged as one of the most successful NBA head coaches of all time. His contributions in that role led to Rivers being elected to the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in 2026. Rivers has a .580 winning percentage as a head coach, and his 1,191 career victories rank sixth on the all-time list. He’ll officially be inducted into the Hall in August.

But Rivers’ teams developed a reputation for premature exits in the playoffs. Rivers’ teams have lost in the first round of the NBA playoffs nine times. In eight of those instances, his teams were the higher seed.

He did break through with the Boston Celtics in the 2007-08 NBA season, however, winning a championship with the team. He led the Celtics back in the NBA Finals in the 2009-10 season, where the team lost to the Los Angeles Lakers in seven games.

With the Bucks, though, it was more of the same. After two first-round playoff exits and a miserable 2025-26 season, the team decided to go a different direction at head coach.

The Milwaukee Bucks are moving forward without head coach Doc Rivers. The team reportedly split with Rivers on Sundayafter going 32-50during a miserable 2025-26 NBA season, according to ESPN’s Shams Charania.

The decision ends Rivers’ two-and-a-half seasons with the team. Rivers had one final season left on his initial contract with the Bucks.

Expectations were exceptionally high when Rivers was hired as the team’s replacement for Adrian Griffin, who was fired during the 2023-24 NBA season despite leading the team to a 30-13 record. At the time, Bucks general manager Jon Horst said Rivers was brought in to push the team to another championship, and cited “urgency” as one of the reasons Griffin was let go despite a strong record.

Rivers and the Bucks went 17-19 down the stretch and lost in the first round of the playoffs that season.

Rivers experienced more success the following year, posting a 48-34 record with the team — one loss fewer than the previous season. The Bucks once again lost in the first round of the playoffs.

While both results were disappointing, especially considering why the team hired Rivers in the first place, things really fell apart this season. After an offseason of indecision, the Bucks ultimately decided to hold onto superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo. It proved to be a terrible choice.

Antetokounmpo struggled with multiple injuries during the regular season, playing in fewer than 40 games for the first time in his NBA career. Despite rumors the Bucks would trade Antetokounmpo at the trade deadline, a deal never materialized.

Things came to a head at the end of the season. With Antetokounmpo dealing with a knee injury, the star publicly complained about the team not allowing him to return to play. It reached a point where the players’ union got involved, signaling what is very likely the end of Antetokounmpo’s time with the franchise.

While Rivers didn’t factor into that situation, he was far from blameless for the team’s struggles this season. A bombshell report from Charania in April painted the Bucks as an organization in need of an overhaul.

Sources told Charania the entire year “felt like a funeral” thanks to the Antetokounmpo situation and another source said, “This is as toxic of a team situation as any in the league.”

Rivers was specifically called out in the piece for holding a meeting at a crucial point in the season and told players to look up his résumé and history of success in the league. In that meeting, Rivers called out Kyle Kuzma for defensive lapses, leading to Kuzma being benched later that night.

Instead of inspiring the team to play better, the meeting rubbed Bucks players the wrong way, per Charania.

The session was among a number of instances that rubbed large parts of the locker room the wrong way and continued the theme of a season long disconnect between Rivers and the players, according to team sources.

In another meeting, Rivers reportedly called out guards Ryan Rollins and Kevin Porter Jr. for selfish play. Rivers reportedly intended to empower both players with the meeting, but that message wasn’t clear. Following the contest, the team needed a players-only meeting to clear the air, per Charania.

Over his 27 years in coaching, Rivers has emerged as one of the most successful NBA head coaches of all time. His contributions in that role led to Rivers being elected to the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in 2026. Rivers has a .580 winning percentage as a head coach, and his 1,191 career victories rank sixth on the all-time list. He’ll officially be inducted into the Hall in August.

But Rivers’ teams developed a reputation for premature exits in the playoffs. Rivers’ teams have lost in the first round of the NBA playoffs nine times. In eight of those instances, his teams were the higher seed.

He did break through with the Boston Celtics in the 2007-08 NBA season, however, winning a championship with the team. He led the Celtics back in the NBA Finals in the 2009-10 season, where the team lost to the Los Angeles Lakers in seven games.

With the Bucks, though, it was more of the same. After two first-round playoff exits and a miserable 2025-26 season, the team decided to go a different direction at head coach.

The Toronto Raptors entered Sunday’s season finale against the Brooklyn Nets knowing that a win would secure the final guaranteed spot in the Eastern Conference playoffs.

The Nets didn’t put up a fight. Playing against a Nets starting lineup consistently entirely of backups, the Raptors secured a 136-101 win to clinch the final guaranteed playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.

And thanks to the Atlanta Hawks losing to the Miami Heat, the Raptors passed the Hawks for the No. 5 seed, sending Atlanta to No. 6.

Magic, 76ers relegated to play-in

The Orlando Magic and Philadelphia 76ers also entered Sunday with a shot at the final guaranteed playoff spot, but both teams needed the Raptors to lose. The 76ers beat the Milwaukee Bucks, 126-106 and would have earned that playoff spot had the Raptors lost. The Magic suffered a 113-108 loss to the Boston Celtics.

With its win and Orlando’s loss, Philadelphia leapfrogged Orlando for the No. 7 seed and will now host a play-in game (Wednesday, 7:30 p.m. ET) between the two teams. The winner of that game will secure the No. 7 seed in the East, and the loser will move to a must-win game against the 9/10 winner (Hornets vs. Heat, Tuesday, 7:30 p.m. ET) for the No. 8 seed.

All play-in games will be streamed on Amazon Prime.

Nets make it easy for Raptors

Like many teams with little or nothing to play for Sunday, the Nets did not field a competitive lineup on Sunday. All of their regular starters had the day off. Backups Trevon Scott, E.J. Liddell, Drake Powell, Malachi Smith and Ben Saraf started and anchored a eight-man Nets rotation.

With a playoff post on the line, the Raptors played their starters, and they had little trouble securing the win after opening a 70-61 halftime lead. RJ Barrett led Toronto in scoring with 26 points, while Brandon Ingram tallied 25 points and 9 rebounds. Scottie Barnes posted a triple-double with 18 points, 12 rebounds and 12 assists

The league has been under fire for fielding non-competitive games during the stretch run of the regular season as teams rest their starters for various reasons including improving their NBA lottery odds or jockeying for preferred playoff positioning. Sunday’s result that allowed the Raptors to coast into the East’s final playoff spot will only amplify that criticism.

Eastern Conference playoff and play-in matchups

Playoffs

1) Detroit Pistons vs. (8) play-in winner
(2) Boston Celtics vs. (7) play-In winner (76ers or Magic)
(3) New York Knicks vs. (6) Atlanta Hawks
(4) Cleveland Cavaliers vs. (5) Toronto Raptors

Play-in

(7) Philadelphia 76ers vs. (8) Orlando Magic
(9) Charlotte Hornets vs. (10) Miami Heat

The Toronto Raptors entered Sunday’s season finale against the Brooklyn Nets knowing that a win would secure the final guaranteed spot in the Eastern Conference playoffs.

The Nets didn’t put up a fight. Playing against a Nets starting lineup consistently entirely of backups, the Raptors secured a 136-101 win to clinch the final guaranteed playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.

And thanks to the Atlanta Hawks losing to the Miami Heat, the Raptors passed the Hawks for the No. 5 seed, sending Atlanta to No. 6.

Magic, 76ers relegated to play-in

The Orlando Magic and Philadelphia 76ers also entered Sunday with a shot at the final guaranteed playoff spot, but both teams needed the Raptors to lose. The 76ers beat the Milwaukee Bucks, 126-106 and would have earned that playoff spot had the Raptors lost. The Magic suffered a 113-108 loss to the Boston Celtics.

With its win and Orlando’s loss, Philadelphia leapfrogged Orlando for the No. 7 seed and will now host a play-in game (Wednesday, 7:30 p.m. ET) between the two teams. The winner of that game will secure the No. 7 seed in the East, and the loser will move to a must-win game against the 9/10 winner (Hornets vs. Heat, Tuesday, 7:30 p.m. ET) for the No. 8 seed.

All play-in games will be streamed on Amazon Prime.

Nets make it easy for Raptors

Like many teams with little or nothing to play for Sunday, the Nets did not field a competitive lineup on Sunday. All of their regular starters had the day off. Backups Trevon Scott, E.J. Liddell, Drake Powell, Malachi Smith and Ben Saraf started and anchored a eight-man Nets rotation.

With a playoff post on the line, the Raptors played their starters, and they had little trouble securing the win after opening a 70-61 halftime lead. RJ Barrett led Toronto in scoring with 26 points, while Brandon Ingram tallied 25 points and 9 rebounds. Scottie Barnes posted a triple-double with 18 points, 12 rebounds and 12 assists

The league has been under fire for fielding non-competitive games during the stretch run of the regular season as teams rest their starters for various reasons including improving their NBA lottery odds or jockeying for preferred playoff positioning. Sunday’s result that allowed the Raptors to coast into the East’s final playoff spot will only amplify that criticism.

Eastern Conference playoff and play-in matchups

Playoffs

1) Detroit Pistons vs. (8) play-in winner
(2) Boston Celtics vs. (7) play-In winner (76ers or Magic)
(3) New York Knicks vs. (6) Atlanta Hawks
(4) Cleveland Cavaliers vs. (5) Toronto Raptors

Play-in

(7) Philadelphia 76ers vs. (8) Orlando Magic
(9) Charlotte Hornets vs. (10) Miami Heat

White Sox pitchers these days have to feel something like the cavalry riders of Lord Tennyson’s vivid description of the Charge of the Light Brigade: Galloping hopelessly into a unrepentant line of cannonfire (or Cannon-fire, in today’s case) knowing that offensive support is minimal and death is more or less certain.

The Kansas City Royals lineup isn’t exactly a valley of death these days, but the situation that Will Venable threw Jonathan Cannon into this afternoon might as well have been. Dating all the way back to his college days at Georgia, 116 of Cannon’s last 120 appearances have come as either a starting pitcher (111 games) or a bulk reliever (5 games). Yet, for reasons that may become clear in today’s postgame press conference but are not so to this author, Cannon was thrown into a two-on, one-out situation in the third inning of this afternoon’s game, despite his role as opener having been seemingly planned for the better part of a week now. To be sure, some of the blame for today’s chaos lies with Sean Newcomb, who failed to retire either of the lefties that he was brought in specifically to handle. Nonetheless, it felt to me like an abdication of a manager’s top priority as an authority figure: Put your players in a position to succeed. Point blank.

The reason I’m saying this is to ask the question: Why the hell would you take a guy who’s only ever been a starter and instead of giving him a clean inning as he surely expected, stuff him into a pressure situation that he’s actually not all that well suited for? Cannon pitches to contact, for the most part — if it were the eighth inning, you wouldn’t think of bringing him on in the same situation, because it’s one that very clearly and obviously calls for bat-missing ability.

Thrown into an entirely unfamiliar situation, surely with the added pressure of trying to make good on a major league chance that he failed to win out of Spring Training, Cannon walked all three batters he faced before being removed from the game in what the White Sox later called a “right hip contusion.”

Yet, somehow, the White Sox actually won this game.

While Cannon’s struggles may have been a consequence of his unconventional usage, Venable got away with it partly because Grant Taylor was absolutely filthy in his fourth appearance as an opener. Excitingly, the powers-that-be in the Sox dugout let him get a second inning of work, leaving Taylor with two perfect innings on his final line.

Less excitingly, the latter two of Cannon’s three walks resulted in runs scored, which leveled the game at two runs apiece not too long after the Sox had struck first with Tanner Murray’s first major league bomb, a towering fly ball that just kept carrying until it left the yard:

The last two walks wound up giving the Royals a 3-2 advantage, but Brandon Eisert managed to work his way out of Cannon’s jam. One must give Eisert credit where it’s due: Dropping back down to the minors after a full year spent putting up a very acceptable league average ERA in the bigs has to be tough psychologically, and Eisert responded admirably to his number being called for the first time this year.

The back-and-forth carried on for virtually the entire game. The Cannon sequence was highly discouraging, but it didn’t take long for the Sox to pick their spirits up again when Colson Montgomery found a barrel on a hanging breaking ball and turned a 3-2 deficit into a 4-3 Sox lead:

Unfortunately, Eisert’s second inning out of the pen didn’t go quite as well as his initial relief of Cannon. After the lefty allowed two runners to reach base in the fifth inning, Jordan Hicks came on and came this close to holding the lead before Bobby Witt Jr. did what Bobby Witt Jr. does and gave the Royals a 5-4 lead:

Apropos of nothing, when was the last time you saw not one but both teams walk in a run in the same inning? I couldn’t tell you myself, but it did happen today when John Schreiber and Daniel Lynch IV couldn’t quite find the zone enough to hold Kansas City’s lead, with the tally that would ultimately be the game-winner scoring on a White Sox-esque wild pitch:

Meanwhile, after Hicks allowed Eisert’s runners to score, the Sox bullpen put up an incredibly game effort in holding on to a hair’s-breadth lead, with Bryan Hudson, Jordan Leasure, Lucas Sims and Seranthony Domínguez fully shutting down the Royals offense, none of them allowing a single hit in salvaging the split for the South Siders.

Given the Kauffman Stadium losing streak (12 games!) the White Sox entered this series with, a split doesn’t seem like such a terribly bad outcome after all. Last year’s Sox team didn’t win their sixth game until April 24. In 2024, it took until April 28. It was April 15th in 2023. Progress is being made! We think, at least.

The squad gets the day off tomorrow as they travel back to Chicago for a brief three-game homestand against the Tampa Bay Rays. The next first pitch — and the first pitch of Noah Schultz’s MLB career — comes on Tuesday at 6:40 p.m. Central time, and we’ll see you there!

Logan Gilbert needed this game almost as much as I needed Logan Gilbert to have this game. I’ll admit I was nervous at the beginning when the game started with Jose Altuve hitting a line drive into centerfield. But things quickly turned around when Josh Naylor deked a move back to first base that sent Altuve scrambling back. When Altuve realized Naylor was faking, he loped back toward second, and at that exact moment, with Altuve relaxed and leaning toward second, Gilbert struck. It notched Gilbert just the second pick-off of his career, with Altuve caught so flat-footed he didn’t even try to get back. According to Gilbert, the move was planned and was called from the dugout, with Naylor’s deke, Cal’s read and call for the pick-off with a glove drop: “Basically, everyone else picked him off. I just threw the ball.”

Despite his limited role in the affair, it still elicited a huge smile from Gilbert, who thought it was his first in MLB, saying, “I was about to throw the ball out, but I didn’t know if that would like, look bad.” I think the moment might have served as a hardware reset for him because the rest of his performance was, in my view, his best since his breakout 2024.

The key, as I’ve been obsessing over, was Gilbert’s slider. He picked up his first strikeout today—against Yordan Álvarez—on an 89-mph slider with more bite than I’ve seen on a Gilbert slider in a year. It was the first of five whiffs against it on just eight swings, with another three called strikes, for a CSW% of 47%. He even used it to put five batters away, something he used to rely on it for in his best seasons.

Just as exciting as the slider was the bounceback in Gilbert’s four-seamer velocity, regularly sitting 96-97 all game, a mile-per-hour faster than he sat at for most of last year, even before his injury. And there may be more in store, as he usually gains most of his velocity as the season rolls along.

He only had two bad PAs all game. The first came against Isaac Peredes in the third, in which he got away with three inside pitches to the pull-happiest hitter in baseball. That’s a better bet in T-Mobile Park in April than at Enron Field where those pitches are liable to end up in the Crawford Boxes, but it’s bad pitching regardless. The sequence ended on a hit off a cutter (a Gilbert pitch I’m coming to hate again). The second bad PA did more damage but seemed like a flukier sequence. Despite his fastball being hot both before and after this at-bat, he was at 95 three separate times pitching to Yainer Diaz in the fourth, the final one being parked in the bullpens. But it was the only run Gilbert gave up all day.

Other than those blemishes, this was a vintage Logan Gilbert start. He was even efficient for the first time in what felt like forever, never taking more than 15 pitches in any of his seven innings. After a 2025 in which he struggled to put batters away, he was cruising today. It was the result of a real change in approach: In the run-up to today’s game, he focused on being more efficient, saying he tried to act as though “if they swing, it’s a good thing.”

He wanted to just stay in the zone “instead of just trying to out-stuff everybody.” I’m going to try to write about this later this week, but this totally tracks with when he struggled to put batters away last season. As a preview, I’m thinking my thesis will be: was the issue that all Logan’s tinkering made his arsenal too good?

But getting back to today, he probably even had some left in the tank after his seven innings, getting pulled at 85 pitches. It was the first time he’s pitched seven innings since Opening Day of last year. “Didn’t know it’d been that long,” he said after the game. “That doesn’t feel great.” 

Of course, much as I wanted more out of him, the Astros were there to serve as a walking (pun intended) reminder of what happens when you don’t take care of your pitchers. After drawing 17 walks in the first two games, the Mariners offense started today in much the same fashion, facing literally Cody Bolton, who’d taken Hunter Brown’s place in Houston’s rotation. Brendan Donovan led off by reaching on a hit-by-pitch and Naylor walked to set up an RBI single from Randy Arozarena. They kept it going in the second, loading the bases on a trio of walks with nobody out. But just as they got Bolton on the ropes, he too left the game with the trainer. The back tightness that took him out today marks the seventh Astros starter with an injury issue.

The Mariners only cashed one of those runs in, but they kept getting opportunities, loading the bases again in the third, and scoring another pair of those runners on a Cole Young RBI walk and a Donovan sac fly. But despite having scored four, it felt like they were wasting a lot of chances, leaving nine runners on base through five innings. That’s enough LOBsters in the pot to make you nervous no matter how well Logan was pitching. I had to keep reminding myself they had, in fact, scored four times.

Things got even dicier in the sixth when Julio Rodríguez was thrown out at the plate. But they finally broke through on the next batter, when a Luke Raley double scored two, including Randy Arozarena losing his helmet rounding second but scoring from first.

The Mariners certainly could have scored more today given their eight hits and nine walks, but six was enough. Those nine walks bring their total to 26 over just 25 innings of offense against the Astros this series.

Josh Naylor earns today’s Sun Hat Award for providing a perfect bookend with an unassisted double play in the ninth, once again putting down a Jose Altuve who’d gotten too far off first base. This time it was Naylor’s turn to smile. As Gilbert put it, “Sometimes you can have fun out there. That’s OK.”

CLEVELAND (AP) — Nae’Qwan Tomlin scored a career-high 26 points and the Cleveland Cavaliers led wire-to-wire, defeating the Washington Wizards 130-117 Sunday in the regular-season finale for both teams.

Rookie Jaylon Tyson was two assists shy of a triple double with 22 points, 11 rebounds and eight assists as the Cavaliers rested most of their key players because they were locked into the fourth seed in the Eastern Conference. Max Strus — who missed the first 67 games due to a broken left foot — played 18 minutes in the first half and had 10 points and five rebounds.

The Cavaliers (52-30)— who will face Toronto in the first round — have won 11 of their last 14 games and are 35-14 since Dec. 29. They have 15 straight wins over Washington, the second-longest winning streak against any team in franchise history.

Washington’s Jamir Watkins had a career-high 24 points, while Sharife Cooper and Bub Carrington scored 20 apiece. Carrington is the first NBA player since Karl Anthony Towns in 2016-17 to appear in all 82 games in each of his first two seasons.

The Wizards (17-65) ended the season on a 10-game losing streak and dropped 26 of their last 27. Their only win during that stretch was on March 25 against Utah.

Cleveland scored a season-high 43 points in the first quarter. Tomlin’s 3-pointer put the Cavaliers up 55-31 with 6:41 remaining in the second quarter before the Wizards started rallying back. They went on a 16-5 run over the last four minutes of the first half to get within 65-55 at halftime.

The Wizards pulled within 99-97 early in the fourth quarter on a driving layup by Cooper but could not tie or take the lead.

Up next

Wizards: Wait to see if they will have first pick in the draft when the NBA draft lottery is held in May.

Cavaliers: Will face Toronto in the first round of the playoffs.

___

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

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Paul Reed finished with 26 points, six rebounds, three assists and three blocks and Tobias Harris scored 24 points in limited minutes Sunday, propelling the Eastern Conference’s top seeded Detroit Pistons past the Indiana Pacers 133-121.

Reed was 11 of 11 from the field and made all four of his free-throw attempts on a night the Pistons shot nearly 70% from the field and from 3-point range in the first half. Harris was 9 of 12 from the field and 4 of 4 on 3s. Cade Cunningham flirted with a triple-double in the first half before finishing with seven points, eight rebounds and 14 assists.

The Pistons have won three straight and six of seven and posted their highest first-half scoring total of the season with 81 points. Detroit earned its 60th victory for the third time in franchise history and the first time since 2005-06.

Obi Toppin and Quenton Jackson each scored 21 points to lead the Pacers, who closed the season with 19 wins — the lowest total in the franchise’s NBA history.

Before the game, All-Star guard Tyrese Haliburton thanked fans for their support during a trying season, one in which he did not play because of the torn Achilles tendon he suffered early in Game 7 of last year’s NBA Finals. He has participated recently in five-on-five workouts, has been shooting during pregame warmups and is on track to return next season.

The Pacers proved no match for Detroit, which wanted to build momentum heading into the postseason. And it didn’t take long for the Pistons to pull away.

They took a 21-11 lead then used second quarter runs of 13-0 and 9-0 to take an 81-63 halftime lead before pulling out to a 90-66 lead early in the third.

The game was marred late when Pacers forward Jalen Slawson was ejected following a blindside collision with Pistons forward Isaiah Stewart, which resulted in a shouting match between the coaching staffs.

Up next

Pistons: Will find out their first-round opponent later this week.

Pacers: Will wait for the NBA Draft Lottery on May 10.

___

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