NBA Playoffs picks, odds, schedule for Monday: Knicks at Celtics, Nuggets at Thunder Game 1s

The favorites in each of the conferences start their second-round series on Monday. The Boston Celtics open the night against the New York Knicks in a regional rivalry. Then, the Oklahoma City Thunder host the Denver Nuggets, who aren’t far removed from a Game 7 win against the LA Clippers.

The Celtics aren’t the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference, but are favored to make the NBA Finals, especially after Cleveland’s Game 1 loss at home to Indiana on Sunday. Meanwhile, the Thunder are not only favored in the West, but also to win the NBA title.

Here’s a look at each game, with picks from our staff.

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New York Knicks at Boston Celtics

Series odds: Celtics -800, Knicks +550

Given the Knicks’ run as a playoff team in four of the past five seasons, it feels a little surprising that these teams last met in the postseason in 2013. The Knicks won that first-round series, but it would be a shock if they win this one.

Boston got by Orlando in five games and looked like a defending champion in that series. The Celtics are a big step up from the young Detroit Pistons team that outplayed the Knicks for significant portion of that series.

The Knicks won all three games in Detroit in the first round to take that series in six games. It would be a major upset if they keep that going in TD Garden. As the defending champions who won 10 more games in the regular season, of course Boston enters as the favorite. Beyond that, the Celtics also won all four meetings in the regular season.

In the most recent matchup, the Celtics won by two in overtime in Madison Square Garden. The other three games were not very competitive.

What can New York do to make this is a competitive series? In the April 8 meeting, Jalen Brunson and Karl-Anthony Towns combined for 61 points. That would be a start.

Jayson Tatum was on fire for Boston in the first round. He averaged 31.3 points per game in four games. Throw in the expected return of Jrue Holiday after the guard missed the final three games against Orlando and Boston will be a tough out for Tom Thibodeau’s team.

Expert picks

Denver Nuggets at Oklahoma City Thunder

Series odds: Thunder -800, Nuggets +550

Denver is fresh off obliterating the Clippers in a Game 7 to get to this series. That was just two days ago and the reward is to travel to the team that won 68 games in the regular season.

The Nuggets aren’t likely to be intimated though. Denver is still just two years removed from a title and Oklahoma City hasn’t made the conference finals since Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook led the franchise there in 2016. Plus, these teams split four meetings in the regular season.

Both Oklahoma City and Denver have players that command the full attention of opposing defenses. Nikola Jokić manipulates teams masterfully no matter how they choose to try to stop him. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is the player who could win NBA MVP despite Jokić having arguably the best season of his career.

Both stars are also triple-double machines, although only one of them has shown that so far in the postseason. Jokić had three triple-doubles last round. SGA started slowly in the first two games, not that it mattered with the Thunder seemingly able to blow Memphis away whenever they wanted to. After shooting 14-for-42 in the first two games at home, SGA cranked it up with two 30-plus point nights to close out the series.

We won’t see a lot of Jokić and SGA going head-to-head, but seeing these two superstars lead their teams against one another in the postseason should be good theater.

Expert picks

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(Photo of Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum: Maddie Meyer / Getty Images)

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