In the other duels of the day, the Philadelphia Sixers host the New York Nets, the Cleveland Cavaliers host another New York team, the Knicks, and the Sacramento Kings host the Golden State Warriors.
On the last day, the Miami Heat and the Minnesota Timberwolves confirmed the forecasts and obtained the last available tickets in the postseason playoffs.
The Miami squad beat the Chicago Bulls 102-91 on their court and will play in the first round of the Eastern Conference with the Milwaukee Bucks, while the Timberwolves beat the Oklahoma City Thunder 120-95 also at home and will be the first opponent of the Denver Nuggets.
The Heat came close to missing out on the postseason for the first time since 2019, but two former Bulls members, Jimmy Butler and Max Strus, saved the team.
With his usual version of the playoffs, Butler led his team by scoring 31 points, giving five rebounds and providing three assists.
The experienced shooting guard received support from Strus, who peppered the Bulls with 31 points and seven 3-pointers.
For the Chicago team, veteran DeMar DeRozan led the offense by scoring 26 points, but the Bulls suffered from the bad night of guard Zach Lavine, who only managed 15 cards with a 6-of-21 statistic from the field, including no triple six times.
Chicago led the way (90-87) into the final three minutes, but Butler and Tyler Herro turned it around before Strus sealed the win with a three-pointer and three straight free throws.
The playoffs to the playoffs closed with the victory of the Timberwolves against the Thunder to meet in the first round with the Nuggets, leaders of the Western Conference in the regular season.
Frenchman Rudy Gobert returned to the Timberwolves for the decisive clash and, with 21 points and 10 rebounds, formed a luxury interior duo with Karl-Anthony Towns, who scored 28 points and caught 11 balls under the basket.
Anthony Edwards, the great reference of Minnesota, also excelled with 19 cards and 10 balls obtained near the perimeters.
Canadian Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Oklahoma’s main star, had a gray game with just 22 points, scoring 5 of 19 field goal attempts, as did Australian Josh Giddey, author of six points.
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