NBA Playoffs Open Thread – Wednesday, April 30

There’s only two NBA Playoff games tonight, but man, they’re good ones. Let’s get to it.

Golden State Warriors @ Houston Rockets – 4:30 PM PT / 7:30 PM ET

• Warriors lead the series 3-1
• Much like the Light the Beam Kings, it feels like the Rockets let this series slip away from them against the more experiences team, but Houston is a tough squad. I’m fascinated to see how they respond tonight with their season on the line. It could get ugly, physical, and wildly entertaining.

Minnesota Timberwolves @ Los Angeles Lakers – 7:00 PM PT / 10:00 PM ET

• Timberwolves lead the series 3-1
• No idea what to expect from either team tonight, but the Lakers sure have a lot to lose. Let’s all come together and hope they lose it.

And a quick thought on the Haliburton / Giannis fiasco, because one more person definitely needed to weigh-in on it: I’m actually kind of refreshed by how all parties responded to this? John Haliburton looked like a lunatic running up to Giannis like that after the game, a pretty clear case of something you shouldn’t do, but after that? A level of decency that is harder and harder to come by these days. Tyrese Haliburton was quick to denounce his fathers actions in his postgame press conference. Giannis handled the question about it perfectly in his postgame press conference. And then Papa Haliburton apologized seemingly sincerely on Twitter early this morning.

I’m not trying to give anyone too much credit for behaving like decent people, but I will give Hali and Giannis some props for acting like adults and choosing deescalation instead of escalation.