NBA Playoff Schedule 2017: Round-by-Round Dates, TV and Live-Stream Guide

The NBA playoffs will finally begin on Saturday, April 15, when the Cleveland Cavaliers and Indiana Pacers tip off at 3 p.m. ET.

It should be another fun NBA postseason. On paper, it looks like the Golden State Warriors are the heavy favorites and that everyone else is playing for second, but anything can happen.

Here's a look at the round-by-round dates, television and live-stream guides and some analysis on three must-watch first-round series.

Round-by-Round Dates

Round	Start Date
Conference Quarterfinals	Saturday, April 15
Conference Semifinals	Monday, May 1
Conference Finals	Tuesday, May 16 (possible move to Sunday, May 14 or Monday, May 15)
NBA Finals	Thursday, June 1

Television Guide

Below is a list of all the first-round games with dates, times and television stations officially confirmed, via NBA.com.

Date	Time (ET)	Matchup	Game	Televison
Saturday, April 15	3 p.m.	Indiana at Cleveland	1	ABC
Saturday, April 15	5:30 p.m.	Milwaukee at Toronto	1	ESPN
Saturday, April 15	8 p.m.	Memphis at San Antonio	1	ESPN
Saturday, April 15	10:30 p.m.	Utah at L.A. Clippers	1	ESPN
Sunday, April 16	1 p.m.	Atlanta at Washington	1	TNT
Sunday, April 16	3:30 p.m.	Portland at Golden State	1	ABC
Sunday, April 16	6:30 p.m.	Chicago at Boston	1	TNT
Sunday, April 16	9 p.m.	Oklahoma City at Houston	1	TNT
Monday, April 17	7 p.m.	Indiana at Cleveland	2	TNT
Monday, April 17	9:30 p.m.	Memphis at San Antonio	2	TNT
Tuesday, April 18	7 p.m.	Milwaukee at Toronto	2	NBA TV
Tuesday, April 18	8 p.m.	Chicago at Boston	2	TNT
Tuesday, April 18	10:30 p.m.	Utah at L.A. Clippers	2	TNT
Wednesday, April 19	7 p.m.	Atlanta at Washington	2	NBA TV
Wednesday, April 19	8 p.m.	Oklahoma City at Houston	2	TNT
Wednesday, April 19	10:30 p.m.	Portland at Golden State	2	TNT
Thursday, April 20	7 p.m.	Cleveland at Indiana	3	TNT
Thursday, April 20	8 p.m.	Toronto at Milwaukee	3	NBA TV
Thursday, April 20	9:30 p.m.	San Antonio at Memphis	3	TNT
Friday, April 21	7 p.m.	Boston at Chicago	3	ESPN
Friday, April 21	9:30 p.m.	Houston at Oklahoma City	3	ESPN
Friday, April 21	10 p.m.	L.A. Clippers at Utah	3	ESPN2
Saturday, April 22	3 p.m.	Toronto at Milwaukee	4	TNT
Saturday, April 22	5:30 p.m.	Washington at Atlanta	3	TNT
Saturday, April 22	8 p.m.	San Antonio at Memphis	4	ESPN
Saturday, April 22	10:30 p.m.	Golden State at Portland	3	ESPN
Sunday, April 23	1 p.m.	Cleveland at Indiana	4	ABC
Sunday, April 23	3:30 p.m.	Houston at Oklahoma City	4	ABC
Sunday, April 23	6:30 p.m.	Boston at Chicago	4	TNT
Sunday, April 23	9 p.m.	L.A. Clippers at Utah	4	TNT
Monday, April 24	8 p.m.	Washington at Atlanta	4	TNT
Monday, April 24	10:30 p.m.	Golden State at Portland	4	TNT

Live-Stream Guide

Games will be live streamed in three locations: WatchESPN (ESPN, ESPN2, ABC), Live TV on TNT (TNT) and NBA.com/NBATV (NBA TV).

Three Must-Watch Series

1. Houston Rockets vs. Oklahoma City Thunder

The obvious battle to watch will be between the top two MVP candidates, Oklahoma City Thunder point guard Russell Westbrook and Houston Rockets point guard James Harden. Each of them should fill up the stat sheets every night.

That being said, this game will be decided by the supporting casts.

For Houston, shooting guard Lou Williams is the X-factor. He can get off the bench and score 30-plus on any given night, as he did when he posted 31 in a 137-125 over Oklahoma City in March this year.

Almost every other Rocket will be flying down the court and shooting three-pointers all game as Houston usually does. If the shots fall, then this series will be over quickly.

For Oklahoma City, its X-factor is center Enes Kanter, who is the third-leading scorer on the Thunder (14.3 points per game) despite only playing 21.3 minutes a night. One has to wonder if he'll get more run in the playoffs in order to provide OKC with a bigger scoring punch, as the Thunder largely struggle on offense outside Westbrook.

Westbrook is capable of putting the Thunder on his back and winning a game or two, but the Rockets' three-point barrage might be too much for OKC to handle.

2. Toronto Raptors vs. Milwaukee Bucks

Keep an eye on the winner of this series, who will very likely play the Cleveland Cavaliers in the second round. Don't be surprised if either Toronto or Milwaukee springs an upset over the Cavs given how well they played down the regular-season stretch.

The Raptors are a well-rounded team that has two fantastic scorers (DeMar DeRozan and Kyle Lowry), solid post play (Serge Ibaka and Jonas Valanciunas) and a deep bench (e.g. Norman Powell, Cory Joseph and P.J. Tucker). Toronto finished the season on a 12-2 stretch and looks poised for a deep postseason run.

Meanwhile, the Milwaukee Bucks have been fantastic ever since forward Khris Middleton returned to the team after missing the first half of the year with a hamstring tear. The Bucks finished the season by winning 20 of their last 30 games thanks in large part to Middleton and Giannis Antetokounmpo, who scored 22.9 points, grabbed 8.8 rebounds and dished 5.4 assists per game this year.

Toronto won three of four games over Milwaukee, but Middleton did not play in the Raptors' three wins. In fairness, Lowry was injured during the Bucks' victory, so it will be interesting to see how these teams fare at full strength (minus Bucks forward Jabari Parker, who is out for the year with a torn ACL suffered on February 8).

3. Washington Wizards vs. Atlanta Hawks

On paper, this looks to be the most competitive first-round series in the NBA playoffs.

The Atlanta Hawks have been up and down all year but finished the regular season with a four-game win streak, which included victories over Boston and Cleveland (twice).

The Washington Wizards looked like they were destined for the NBA draft lottery after a 7-13 start, but they bounced back to go 42-20 in their last 62 games to finish with the No. 4 seed in the Eastern Conference.

Atlanta has the advantage down low. Center Dwight Howard had no problem with Washington this year, scoring 14.3 points and grabbing 14.8 boards in four games against Washington. Hawks leading scorer, power forward Paul Millsap, is a steady presence who averages 18.1 points and 7.7 rebounds per game.

Washington is the clear leader in the backcourt, as point guard John Wall should have no issue against Hawks floor general Dennis Schroder, who ranks 86th in defensive real plus-minus, per ESPN.com. Bradley Beal has also enjoyed a breakout year, scoring 23.1 points per game on 48.2 percent shooting (both career highs).

The Wizards won the season series three games to one, but expect this playoff tilt to be more evenly matched. This series is the most likely to go the full seven games out of any NBA playoff matchup.