NBA Playoffs Begin: Knicks, Nuggets Win Game 1

The moment the New York Knicks walked into State Farm Arena on April 19, 2026, and held the Atlanta Hawks to 102 points — below their 115.3-point regular-season average — the message was clear: the Eastern Conference's second seed came to defend, not just score.

The Knicks won Game 1, 113-102, behind 27 points from Jalen Brunson and 19 from OG Anunoby, whose rim protection altered 11 Atlanta shots in the first three quarters. The Hawks' Trae Young finished with 24 points but shot 8-of-22 from the field as New York's switching scheme denied him the mid-range pull-ups he prefers in half-court sets. "We've been preparing for this all year," Knicks head coach Tom Thibodeau said after the game. "We know who they are and they know who we are. It's a seven-game war."

In the Western Conference afternoon game, the Denver Nuggets dismantled the Minnesota Timberwolves 116-105, with Nikola Jokić recording 24 points, 15 rebounds, and 9 assists — one rebound shy of a triple-double in less than 35 minutes. Anthony Edwards scored 29 for Minnesota in a performance that impressed even Nuggets fans; the problem was the rest of the Minnesota roster, which shot 34% from three-point range and contributed just 76 points combined while Jokić and Jamal Murray (22 points) orchestrated Denver's offense with the methodical patience that has defined two championship runs. Murray's three-pointer with 4:30 remaining turned a six-point Nuggets lead into a punishing 10-point margin that Minnesota never threatened.

“Murray's three-pointer with 4:30 remaining turned a six-point Nuggets lead into a punishing 10-point margin that Minnesota never threatened.”

The Eastern Conference's showcase opener — the Boston Celtics against the Philadelphia 76ers at the TD Garden — tipped off at 1 p.m. ET on April 19 as the game with the highest pre-playoff television interest in ESPN's internal tracking. Joel Embiid, who entered the series listed as questionable with a right knee contusion suffered in the play-in, started and played 31 minutes. Jayson Tatum scored 32 for Boston in a game the Celtics won 121-109 in what was less competitive than the final margin suggests: Boston led by 18 at the midpoint of the third quarter before Embiid's personal 11-2 run brought the 76ers within nine. Embiid finished with 26 points and 11 rebounds — a performance that will complicate every defensive adjustment Rick Carlisle makes for Game 2 on April 21.

The Cleveland Cavaliers opened at home against the Toronto Raptors in the day's other early game, winning 117-99 with Donovan Mitchell scoring 33. Toronto, the conference's eighth seed after surviving the play-in, had no workable answer for Cleveland's two-big lineup of Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen, who combined for 28 rebounds.

The Western Conference evening slate brought the Oklahoma City Thunder against the Phoenix Suns, a series with a storyline the league has been waiting months to tell: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, the reigning MVP, against Devin Booker, who led Phoenix into the playoffs on the back of a 31-point-per-game February stretch. OKC won Game 1, 112-103, with SGA scoring 35 and holding Booker to 21 on 8-of-20 shooting. The 20-year-old French forward Alexandre Sarr added 17 points off the bench — a detail that will concern Phoenix's coaching staff considerably more than the final score.

April 21 brings Game 2 across all four series that opened April 19, plus the first games for the Houston Rockets–Golden State Warriors and Los Angeles Lakers–San Antonio Spurs matchups, which begin their series that day. The question entering the second round of games is straightforward: which of these results was an anomaly and which was a statement. In at least three of the four cases — Knicks, Nuggets, Celtics — the answer looks like the latter.