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These four guys, along with Enes Freedom, Sam Hauser, Josh Richardson and Grant Williams are all listed as out for their Christmas Day game against the Bucks, while Al Horford, Juancho Hernangomez, Jabari Parker and Brodric Thomas are all listed as questionable, all due to protocols. Romeo Langford and Marcus Smart are also questionable with injuries, which leaves the team with six available guys confirmed at the moment. This is a mess, and some signings seem inevitable if they want to play, so we’ll let you know when that happens.

Once again, Hart was able to make his presence felt despite not contributing much as a scorer. He led both teams in rebounds and led the Knicks in assists in the loss. Hart is certainly capable of getting hot, but his role is to do a lot of the other little things to help New York win. Expect him to continue to stuff the stat sheet for the remainder of this series.

Turner got off to a hot start to this game and contributed 11 points in the first quarter without missing a shot. Unfortunately, he wasn’t able to add much after that, and he sat almost the entire fourth quarter before returning for overtime. Though Indiana was able to steal Game 1 on the road, Turner will need to be much better than he was after the first quarter of this game if they hope to advance to the NBA Finals.

Nesmith was unstoppable in the fourth quarter. He scored 20 points, which came on six three-pointers and two free throws. That was enough to help send this game to overtime, and while he didn’t do more scoring, he made an impact on defense to help Indiana steal Game 1 on the road. 30 points matches his career high in any game, and his eight triples were a new career best in any game. Nesmith may not shoot like this often, but he got hot at the right time to help the Pacers take a 1-0 lead.

Towns started off his first conference finals appearance on a high note by setting a new playoff career high for points. Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough for the Knicks to get the victory and defend their home court. Towns struggled to hit shots from deep against Boston and only hit three triples in that series, which he surpassed in this game alone. They’ll need him to continue to shoot like he did in this game in order to tie this series up in Game 2 on Friday.

Brunson did everything he could to help the Knicks take Game 1, but it simply wasn’t enough. This was the ninth 40-point game of his playoff career and his second of this postseason. Two of Brunson’s seven turnovers came in overtime, and New York lost the turnover battle 15-7. They’ll need to clean that up in order to get back on track in Game 2 of this series on Friday. Expect Brunson to continue to pour in the points for the entirety of this series.

Seven games of this please. Haliburton hit an unreal shot at the end of regulation that bounced high in the air before falling in. His toe was on the line, which sent this game to overtime, and the Pacers were able to secure the victory to take homecourt advantage in the series. Haliburton had a phenomenal performance, which is what they expect of their All-Star. Haliburton will continue to lead the way as Indiana now sits three wins away from the NBA Finals. Game 2 will be on Friday in New York before the series shifts to Indiana for Games 3 and 4.

In a two-man race for the NBA’s most prestigious regular season award, SGA emerged victorious behind averages of 32.7 points, 5.0 rebounds, 6.4 assists, 1.7 steals, 1.0 blocks and 2.1 triples. He shot 51.9% from the floor, 89.8% from the charity stripe and 37.5% from beyond the arc. Gilgeous-Alexander powered Oklahoma City to the NBA’s best record with a franchise-high 68 wins and the top seed in the Western Conference. SGA finished as fantasy’s third ranked player on a per-game basis behind only Nikola Jokic and Victor Wembanyama.

Edwards briefly went to the locker room in the first half to tend to an ankle injury that’s bothered him since the first round series against the Lakers. The story of this game, though, was the 23-year-old shooting guard’s inability to stop the Thunder’s runs in the second half. Edwards was a game-worst -23 in 37 minutes and only attempted one field goal in the fourth quarter. He’ll need to have better games than this if the Timberwolves are going to make this a series.

Randle kept the Timberwolves afloat in the first half. Anthony Edwards headed to the locker room with an ankle injury in the first half, but Randle made five three-pointers and the Timberwolves were clinging to a four-point lead at halftime. That lead wasn’t nearly enough to withstand how the Thunder outplayed the Timberwolves in the second half, but ultimately Minnesota has to be satisfied with another quality performance from Randle in these playoffs.

Williams, 24, became the youngest player in NBA history with at least 15 points, five assists, five steals and zero turnovers in a playoff game. Much like Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, he struggled in the first half but was a major factor in the Thunder blowing out the Timberwolves in the second half. While Williams has struggled with inconsistency in these playoffs, when he turns it on, the Thunder are tough to beat.