{"id":613670,"date":"2026-04-19T03:17:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-19T03:17:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/613670\/"},"modified":"2026-04-19T03:17:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-19T03:17:08","slug":"2026-nba-playoffs-live-updates-lakers-vs-rockets-score-as-first-round-gets-started","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/613670\/","title":{"rendered":"2026 NBA playoffs live updates: Lakers vs. Rockets score as first round gets started"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbssports.com\/nba\/news\/2026-nba-playoff-bracket-matchups-schedule\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">2026 NBA playoffs<\/a> have arrived. The first round tipped off Saturday with four Game 1s. The Cavaliers took care of the Raptors in the day&#8217;s opener, with Donovan Mitchell and James Harden combining for 54 points in a 13-point victory. The Nuggets followed suit at home, pulling away from the Timberwolves behind 30 points from Jamal Murray and a triple-double from Nikola Joki\u0107.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Later Saturday, the Knicks used a dominant second half to cruise past the Hawks 113-102 at Madison Square Garden. Jalen Brunson and Karl-Anthony Towns combined for 53 points in the win for New York. The night will wrap up with the Lakers hosting the Rockets without Luka Don\u010di\u0107 or Austin Reaves. On the Houston side, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbssports.com\/nba\/news\/kevin-durant-injury-rockets-lakers-nba-playoffs\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Kevin Durant is out with a knee injury<\/a>\u00a0he sustained this week in practice.<\/p>\n<p>The postseason field has already been trimmed from 20 teams to 16 as the Play-In Tournament wrapped up Friday night. The Heat, Clippers, Hornets and Warriors were all knocked out during the play-in, while the 76ers, Magic, Trail Blazers and Suns made the playoff field.<\/p>\n<p>NBA playoff schedule, scores: April 18<\/p>\n<p>Odds via FanDuel<\/p>\n<p>Game 1: No. 4 Cavaliers 126, No. 5 Raptors 113Game 1: No. 3 Nuggets 116, No. 6 Timberwolves 105Game 1: No. 3\u00a0New York Knicks\u00a0113 vs. No. 6 Hawks 102Game 1: No. 4 Lakers (+2.5) vs. No. 5\u00a0Houston Rockets, 8:30 p.m., ABC\/<a href=\"https:\/\/www.fubo.tv\/welcome\/leagues\/191276?irad=356361&amp;irmp=416484&amp;sharedid=HTW\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">fubo<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>CBS Sports will have live updates, analysis and highlights throughout the day&#8217;s action. Follow along below.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The 2026 NBA playoffs have arrived. The first round tipped off Saturday with four Game 1s. The Cavaliers&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":613671,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[434],"tags":[6703,49,48,230955,2357,2898,8223,230958,230957,8231,14102,459,230954,230952,2699,230953,2901,230956,82,10676],"class_list":{"0":"post-613670","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-atlanta-hawks","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-cavs-vs-raptors","12":"tag-cleveland-cavaliers","13":"tag-denver-nuggets","14":"tag-houston-rockets","15":"tag-knicks-vs-hawks","16":"tag-lakers-vs-rockets","17":"tag-los-angeles-lakers","18":"tag-minnesota-timberwolves","19":"tag-nba","20":"tag-nba-playoff-scores","21":"tag-nba-playoff-updates","22":"tag-nba-playoffs","23":"tag-nba-playoffs-live-updates","24":"tag-new-york-knicks","25":"tag-nuggets-vs-timberwolves","26":"tag-sports","27":"tag-toronto-raptors"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/613670","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=613670"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/613670\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/613671"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=613670"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=613670"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=613670"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}