APTOPIX Lakers Thunder Basketball

Oklahoma City Thunder's Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (2) is fouled driving to the basket by Los Angeles Lakers' Austin Reaves (15) as LeBron James, right rear, follows behind on the play in the second half of Game 2 in a second-round NBA basketball playoffs series Thursday, May 7, 2026, in Oklahoma City.

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NBA tipoff: Round 2 continues Friday with Knicks-76ers, Spurs-Timberwolves

NBA tipoff: Round 2 continues Friday with Knicks-76ers, Spurs-Timberwolves

What a difference a year makes. Home teams are 7-1 entering Friday in the NBA's conference semifinals. Detroit is up 2-0 on Cleveland, Oklahoma City is up 2-0 on the Los Angeles Lakers, New York is up 2-0 on Philadelphia and San Antonio got a 1-1 split with Minnesota. In other words, games went largely as seedings suggested they would. That wasn’t the case last season, when home teams went 2-6 in Games 1 and 2 of the conference semifinals. This is only the third time in the last 16 postseasons when home teams went 7-1 to start Round 2.