Here's the situation: New York closed out their second round series early and has been sitting on the couch eating popcorn while Cleveland and Detroit drag this thing into a Game 7. Two overtimes, ending at the exact same moment as a separate playoff thriller, road wins, swings of momentum — this series has had everything except a resolution.
The double-OT chaos that had the whole sports calendar tangled up at once.
Having both OT’s end at the exact same time is brutal. What a night for sports
The Pistons refused to go quietly. They punched back in an elimination spot to force a winner-take-all, and now Jalen Duren is supposedly playing with his confidence back. Meanwhile the Knicks are getting the kind of rest that usually only exists in All-Star Weekend pamphlets, which is exactly the joke being made all over the timeline.
The running gag about New York's mid-playoff vacation while Cleveland and Detroit keep slugging it out.
So with Game 7 still on the schedule and Detroit very much alive, you'd think the networks would be hedging. Nope. ABC apparently couldn't help themselves and ran a Cavs vs Knicks Eastern Conference Finals promo, the kind of thing that usually shows up AFTER the matchup is set, not before.
The promo clip itself, dropped while the second round isn't technically over.
Now, is it tinfoil hat hour? Probably not — ad ops cuts these promos for every possible bracket scenario and somebody almost certainly hit the wrong button on the wrong night. But the optics are bad when Pistons fans are watching a national network skip over their team like they're already eliminated. Detroit's whole identity this series has been nobody-believes-in-us energy, and now they get to point at an actual TV graphic doing exactly that.
Kenny Atkinson calling his shot on closing it out.
Cleveland's head coach is publicly saying the Cavs handle business in 7, ABC is essentially saying the same thing through a promo department, and the Knicks are sitting back hoping all of it ages well. If Detroit pulls the upset Tuesday, that promo clip becomes one of the great network bloopers of the spring. If the Cavs close it out, nobody remembers any of this by tipoff of Game 1.