NBA Playoffs picks, odds, how to watch Wednesday: Warriors, Wolves go for series wins on the road

So we have Stephen Curry guarding a 3-1 lead, and LeBron James facing a 3-1 deficit. These NBA Playoffs are playing the hits.

Curry, Draymond Green and Jimmy Butler won Game 4 through down-to-the-wire intensity and an inspired final stop. James had a fantastic Game 4 of his own, a 27/12/8 line with three steals and three blocks across 46 minutes (at 40 years old!). He still finds himself one loss away from an early offseason.

The Golden State Warriors will try to close out the stone-throwing Houston Rockets on the road. Then Anthony Edwards looks to continue his playoff rampage, and his Minnesota Timberwolves are still underdogs visiting the pressurized Los Angeles Lakers. With some of the first-round series wrapping up, Wednesday night’s slate allows us to lock in on two elimination games back-to-back.

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Golden State Warriors at Houston Rockets Game 5

Warriors lead series 3-1

Series odds: Warriors -1000, Rockets +650

To evoke Golden State representative Too $hort, it really was just another day for one of basketball’s greatest playoff performers. Any and every day is a good one to be Jimmy G. Buckets:

He returned from a muscle contusion Monday to lead the Warriors with an efficient 27 points on 12 shots, adding six assists with zero turnovers and hauling in the decisive rebound off Alperen Şengün’s missed hook shot. Butler got his joy back, as Buddy Hield would say. A modest Curry game (17 points, three assists) was corrected by a Brandin Podziemski breakout (26 points and a team-best 40 minutes). Golden State is now one win away from the second round, and a season once drowning in bad vibes could start looking like a classic.

Through four games, Curry’s at 51/41/94 shooting splits, and Butler has 12 dimes to just one turnover in his three efforts. Green added another notch in his gaudy wrestling heel belt, flexing and swaggering to the crowd after that one-on-one stop of Şengün.

Houston’s season has been marked by an unglamorous but unshakable hustle, and this group is ahead of schedule in terms of both winning games and developing identity. Pushed toward the edge of the cliff, the second-seeded Rockets will come home and try to do what they do best: grind down the action and crash the boards.

As was the case all season, both Fred VanVleet and Jalen Green are shooting below 40 percent, warping the rhythm and putting Şengün in tough spots. In his first postseason minutes, the 22-year-old center is averaging an impressive line of 22.3/11.5/4.3, with nearly as many steals (7) as turnovers (9). Houston has almost doubled Golden State in offensive rebounding. So, it’s go big or go home, as some say (does anyone still say that?).

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Minnesota Timberwolves at Los Angeles Lakers

Timberwolves lead series 3-1

Series odds: Timberwolves -500, Lakers +375

Sunday’s tense Game 4 had J.J. Redick doing his best Tom Thibodeau impression. The lineup of LeBron James, Luka Dončić, Rui Hachimura, Austin Reaves and Dorian Finney-Smith played all 24 minutes of the second half. It was brilliant, of course, until it wasn’t: the offense looked strained, had two deflating late giveaways and finished 5-for-18 in the fourth quarter. With that frenzied, packed-out afternoon crowd, Minnesota’s 116-113 win felt close to momentous, and a Game 5 win would be real validation for the Julius Randle/Karl-Anthony Towns blockbuster. Things are far from over considering LA’s top talent, and the Lakers have been fighters on Figueroa since the Dončić trade.

Right, Dončić, the very guy who spoiled Minnesota’s march to the conference finals a year ago. So far, he’s getting his usual buckets (30.8 points per game on 46.5/36.8/93.5 splits), but his assists are down and his turnovers way up. James has been far more efficient (26.3 points per game, 2.2-to-1 assist/turnover ratio, with more makes than misses through Sunday), and he has nine blocks to the Timberwolves’ combined 13. Austin Reaves is coming off his best game of the series, though it ended with him clanking the potential game-winner from the corner.

Edwards has been balling out against the league’s glamour franchise. He’s a few ticks shy of averaging a 30 piece, with increased playmaking and a boosted defensive intensity. Randle, maligned for his poor playoff showings in New York, has looked like a relaxed and confident second option (47.6 percent from the field, 45.5 behind the arc). Naz Reid is second to Edwards in made 3s for the series, even though he’s sixth in minutes and fourth in usage. Really, it must be said… Naz Reid.

A win in their home gym gives life to these Lakers, and it would extend a surreal season that’ll be remembered for its where-were-you-when moments, plural. A loss would mean a second-straight first-round exit for LeBron’s Lake Show. Let’s see what unfolds in Wednesday’s high-drama nightcap.

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(Photo of Stephen Curry: Ezra Shaw / Getty Images)

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