On Wednesday night, the West’s 7-seed was taken by the Lakers as they edged out the Warriors in a thriller that saw LeBron James drill a game-winning three from the logo over Steph Curry while still dealing with eye issues saying he saw “three rims” on the shot. With the Lakers finally, officially, in the playoffs, the NBA announced the complete TV schedule for the entire first round of the 2021 NBA Playoffs that start on Saturday, even as the two 8-seeds are still to be decided on Thursday and Friday between the Wizards and Pacers and Warriors and Grizzlies.
When the league slow-rolled the playoff schedule release, it seemed obvious they and the TV partners wanted to see where the Lakers would likely end up, and as such it wasn’t a surprise to see the schedule drop moments after the final buzzer sounded on Wednesday. The Lakers will open in Phoenix on Sunday in the 3:30 p.m. slot on ABC, and the rest of the complete TV schedule with tip-times and dates for each first round series available below.
WEST
EAST
The three series that, for now, will have NBA TV games are, unsurprisingly, Sixers-IND/WAS, Clippers-Mavs, and Nuggets-Blazers. There are still game times to be worked out for the two 1-8 series, as the road games still need tip-times as Memphis and Golden State are in different time zones and games in Memphis could be earlier rather than later.
