NBA Playoff Schedule 2013: Where and When to Catch This Weekend's Action

We may see the first teams eliminated from the 2013 NBA Playoffs this weekend.

Venues are shifting to the underdogs’ home floors, but will that be enough for them to avoid being dispatched early by a four-game sweep?

The only NBA schedule locked in stone, for sure, are this weekend’s Game 3 and 4 matchups. Oklahoma City at Houston and Indiana at Atlanta are the only Game 4 matchups that will take place on Monday.

After it’s over, though, we’ll likely see multiple teams staying home and others heading back home to enjoy some down time while they await their second-round opponents.

Is it possible that highly accomplished franchised like the Boston Celtics and Los Angeles Lakers could be shown an early exit from contention?

This weekend will have several intriguing potential elimination games.

Below, we’ll break down those potentially shocking matchups and provide the schedule to make sure you catch all of the action.

Weekend Playoffs Schedule (via NBA.com)

*All times in ET

Eastern Conference

	Away	Home	Time	TV
Friday
	New York	Boston	8 p.m.	ESPN
Saturday
	Brooklyn	Chicago	2 p.m.	TNT
	Indiana	Atlanta	7 p.m.	ESPN
Sunday
	Miami	Milwaukee	3:30 p.m.	ABC
	New York	Boston	8 p.m.	ABC

Western Conference

	Away	Home	Time	TV
Friday
	San Antonio	L.A. Lakers	10:30 p.m.	ESPN
	Denver	Golden State	10:30 p.m.	ESPN2
Saturday
	L.A. Clippers	Memphis	4:30 p.m.	TNT
	Oklahoma City	Houston	9:30 p.m.	ESPN
Sunday
	San Antonio	L.A. Lakers	7 p.m.	TNT
	Denver	Golden State	9:30 p.m.	TNT

A full (tentative) playoff schedule is also available courtesy of Sports Media Watch.

Sweep Alerts

New York Knicks at Boston Celtics, Sun., April 28 at 8 p.m. (ABC)

The Boston Celtics are finally feeling the hurt of losing point guard Rajon Rondo for the season back in January. New York is simply too explosive on the offensive end of the court for the Celtics to keep up.

Defensively, the Knicks are also stifling the C’s by allowing just 49 points combined in the second half of both of the first two games of the series.

Without Rondo, the aging Celtics superstars are finding it difficult to generate offense to keep up with a Knicks team that hit an NBA record 847 three-pointers in 2013.

San Antonio Spurs at Los Angeles Lakers, Sun., April 28 at 7 p.m. (TNT)

Nobody really believed the L.A. Lakers would upset the second-seeded San Antonio Spurs without Kobe Bryant. Did they?

Backup center Jordan Hill returned for the Lake Show in their Game 2 loss, but he was limited after playing his first minutes since hip surgery sidelined him in January.

The Lakers could certainly steal a game at the Staples Center to avoid the upset, but getting swept on Sunday seems like the more likely result at this point.

Miami Heat at Milwaukee Bucks, Sun., April 28 at 3:30 p.m. (ABC)

The Miami Heat sweeping the Milwaukee Bucks is more or less a foregone conclusion at this point. That statement isn’t intended to be derogatory towards the young Bucks.

It’s a daunting task for any team to overcome the odds of winning a single game, let alone beating the defending champs in a seven-game series.

Miami is a vastly more talented team overall and will likely wrap things up and await the winner of the Brooklyn Nets and Chicago Bulls series.