With the regular season now offically in the books, it's time to focus on the postseason, which begins Saturday. The 2011 NBA playoff schedule for the Eastern Conference's first round was released late Wednesday night (previously, only the dates and times for Games 1s had been known).
The Boston Celtics open their series with the New York Knicks Sunday night, at 7 p.m., at TD Garden. Game 2 is set for Tuesday night, and then Games 3 and 4, at Madison Square Garden, are scheduled for Friday and Sunday. Four games in eight days -- welcome to the NBA Playoffs. And if it goes seven games, the deciding contest would be May 1, a full two weeks after Game 1.
But for an older team like Boston, that's welcomed. CelticsBlog put it best: "Just look at those glorious days off in between games."
Here's the complete schedule for the Celtics-Knicks series.
Game 1: Sun., April 17 in Boston, 7 p.m., TNT
Game 2: Tue., April 19 in Boston, 7 p.m., TNT
Game 3: Fri., April 22 in New York, TBD, ESPN
Game 4: Sun., April 24 in New York, 3:30 p.m., ABC
Game 5: Tue., April 26 in Boston, TBD
Game 6: Fri., April 29 in New York, TBD
Game 7: Sun., May 1 in Boston, TBD
Visit SB Nation for complete playoff schedules for both the Eastern Conference and Western Conference. And click here for a pdf of the NBA Playoff bracket.