2019 NBA playoffs
The 2019 NBA playoffs was the postseason tournament of the National Basketball Association's 2018–19 season. The playoffs began on April 13 and ended on June 13 at the conclusion of the 2019 NBA Finals. Format. Within each conference, the eight teams with the most wins qualified for the playoffs. The seedings were based on each team's record. Each conference's bracket was fixed; there was no reseeding. All rounds were best-of-seven series; the series ended when one team won four games, and that team advanced to the next round. All rounds, including the  NBA Finals, were in a 2–2–1–1–1 format. In the conference playoffs, home court advantage went to the higher-seeded team (number one being the highest). Seeding was based on each team's regular season record within a conference; if two teams had the same record, standard tiebreaker rules were used. Conference seedings were ignored for the NBA Finals: Home court advantage went to the team with the better regular season record, and, if needed, ties were broken based on head-to-head record, followed by intra-conference record. Playoff qualifying. On March 1, 2019, the Milwaukee Bucks became the first  team to clinch a playoff spot. Bracket. Teams in bold advanced to the next round. The numbers to the left of each team indicate the team's seeding in its conference, and the numbers to the right indicate the number of games the team won in that round. The division champions are marked by an asterisk. First Round. Eastern Conference First Round. Section::::(1) Milwaukee Bucks vs. (8) Detroit Pistons. This was the fifth playoff meeting between these two teams, with the Pistons winning all four of the previous meetings. Section::::(2) Toronto Raptors vs. (7) Orlando Magic. This was the second  playoff meeting between these two teams, with the Magic winning the first meeting. Section::::(3) Philadelphia 76ers vs. (6) Brooklyn Nets. This was the third playoff meeting between these two teams, but the first since the New Jersey Nets relocated to Brooklyn and became the Brooklyn Nets in 2012, with each team winning one series. Section::::(4) Boston Celtics vs. (5) Indiana Pacers. This was the sixth playoff meeting between these two teams, with the Celtics winning three of the first five meetings. Western Conference First Round. Section::::(1) Golden State Warriors vs. (8) Los Angeles Clippers. The Clippers trailed 94–63 with 7:31  remaining in the third quarter of Game 2. They would go on to outscore Golden State 72–37 en route to overcoming a 31-point deficit, the largest comeback in NBA playoff history. This was the second playoff meeting between these two teams, with the Clippers winning the first meeting. Section::::(2) Denver Nuggets vs. (7) San Antonio Spurs. This was the seventh playoff meeting between these two teams, with the Spurs winning five of the first six meetings. Section::::(3) Portland Trail Blazers vs. (6) Oklahoma City Thunder. Damian Lillard scored 50 points in Game 5 and finished off the series by  hitting a 37-foot three at the buzzer to break a 115–115 tie, sending the Blazers through to the Conference Semifinals. This was Lillard's second series-winning 3-pointer; his first came against Houston in 2014. He is the only player besides Michael Jordan to hit two series-winning field goals. This was also the last Thunder game to feature both Russell Westbrook and Paul George. This was the fifth playoff meeting between the SuperSonics/Thunder and the Blazers, but the first since the Seattle SuperSonics relocated to Oklahoma City and became the Thunder in 2008. The two teams  have split their previous four playoff matchups. Section::::(4) Houston Rockets vs. (5) Utah Jazz. This was the ninth playoff meeting between these two teams, with the Jazz winning five of the first eight meetings. Conference Semifinals. Eastern Conference Semifinals. Section::::(1) Milwaukee Bucks vs. (4) Boston Celtics. This was the seventh playoff meeting between these two teams, with the Celtics winning five of the first six meetings. Section::::(2) Toronto Raptors vs. (3) Philadelphia 76ers. As Game 7 came down to the final seconds, Joel Embiid cut a three-point Raptors lead to one with two free throws, then after Kawhi Leonard  split his free throws, Jimmy Butler led the fast break and made a layup with 4.2 seconds left to tie the game. After a Toronto timeout, Leonard was given the ball, dribbled around the perimeter and shot it from the baseline, just inside the three-point arc. The shot bounced four times on the rim before going in to give the Raptors the series win. It was the first buzzer-beater to win a Game 7 in NBA history, and only the second such shot in a winner-take-all playoff game, after Michael Jordan's shot to win the  Chicago Bulls' 1989 first-round series against the Cleveland Cavaliers. (In 1989, first-round playoff series were best-of-5 instead of the current best-of-7.) This was the second playoff meeting between these two teams, with Philadelphia winning the first meeting in the 2001 Eastern Conference Semifinals. Western Conference Semifinals. Section::::(1) Golden State Warriors vs. (4) Houston Rockets. All 6 games in the series finished with a differential of less than or exactly 6 points, making it the first playoff series in NBA history to accomplish this feat. This was the fourth playoff meeting between these two teams, with Golden  State winning the previous three meetings. Section::::(2) Denver Nuggets vs. (3) Portland Trail Blazers. Game three became the second playoff game in NBA history to go into quadruple-overtime, joining a 1953 game between the Boston Celtics and Syracuse Nationals. This was the third playoff meeting between these two teams, with each team winning one series. Conference Finals. Eastern Conference Finals. Section::::(1) Milwaukee Bucks vs. (2) Toronto Raptors. This was the second playoff meeting between these two teams, with the Raptors winning the first meeting in 2017. Western Conference Finals. Section::::(1) Golden State Warriors vs. (3) Portland Trail Blazers. This  was the third playoff meeting between these two teams, with Golden State winning the first two meetings. NBA Finals: (E2) Toronto Raptors vs. (W1) Golden State Warriors. This was the first meeting in the NBA Finals between these two teams. Media coverage. Television. ESPN, TNT, ABC, and NBA TV broadcast the playoffs nationally in the United States. During the first two rounds, games were split between TNT, ESPN, and ABC regardless of conference. TNT primarily aired games on Sunday through Wednesday, while ESPN on Friday and Saturday. For Thursday games, TNT had them in the first round and ESPN in  the second round. ABC then aired selected first and second round games on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. NBA TV also televised selected games in the first round on Tuesday through Thursday. Also in the first round, regional sports networks affiliated with the teams could also broadcast the games, except for games televised on ABC. The Western Conference Finals were televised on ESPN, while TNT televised the Eastern Conference Finals. ABC had exclusive television rights to the 2019 NBA Finals, which was the 17th consecutive year for the network. In Canada, the home market of the Toronto Raptors, national broadcast rights  were split approximately equally between the Sportsnet and TSN groups of channels, with some conflicting non-Raptors games airing on NBA TV Canada. Separate Canadian broadcasts were produced for all games involving the Raptors regardless of round or U.S. broadcaster. One TSN telecast of a conference semifinal game involving the Raptors was simulcast over the co-owned CTV broadcast network. For the NBA Finals, in addition to the Canadian cable telecasts, most games also aired on either Citytv or CTV 2 (broadcast networks co-owned with Sportsnet and TSN respectively), using the ABC feed for simultaneous substitution purposes. 2019 NBA