Thursday eliminated two more teams and sent one series to a Game 7. The New York Knicks set the largest halftime lead in NBA playoff history — up 47 points on Atlanta at the break, winning 140-89 in the franchise's biggest playoff victory ever — and advanced to the second round. Minnesota closed out Denver 110-98 behind Jaden McDaniels' 32 points, eliminating the Nuggets without Anthony Edwards, Donte DiVincenzo, Ayo Dosunmu, or Kyle Anderson — a shorthanded roster that somehow kept executing on the defensive end and went from 25 turnovers in Game 5 to just seven. And Philadelphia forced a Game 7 in Boston with a wire-to-wire 106-93 dismantling of the Celtics — Maxey's 30 points, George's best performance as a Sixer, and a Tatum health scare that the Celtics are downplaying heading into Saturday. Thursday closed the first round's most extraordinary night. The Knicks and Wolves are through. The Celtics-Sixers story still has one chapter left.

NBA Top Shot's playoff prediction game is live — head to nbatopshot.com/playoffs to get in on the action.

Here's how it works: wager your spendable credits on playoff outcomes to earn more. Miss your prediction? No sweat — your credits come back to you. Hit? Stack 'em up and redeem for packs, Moments, or merch at nbatopshot.com/playoffs/store.

Review your outcomes, check your credits, and redeploy them the next day (max 1,000 per day). Whether you “load the boat” with your top convictions, or spread out your plays, the goal is to maximize your credits each day.

Consistency will be key in earning credits toward the various rewards. But there are also other opportunities to earn credits to capture the rewards in the store.

New York Knicks 140, Atlanta Hawks 89

There is no clean way to describe what the Knicks did to Atlanta on Thursday. They built a 47-point halftime lead — the largest in NBA playoff history, breaking the previous record of 41 points set twice before — with the scoreboard reading 83-36 at the break. The lead reached 51 in the second quarter while Mitchell Robinson and Dyson Daniels were being separated after a brawl that sent both men to the locker room with ejections. The Knicks' 140 points were a franchise playoff record. The 51-point margin tied for the sixth-largest in NBA playoff history. All 15 Knicks players scored. Karl-Anthony Towns recorded his second triple-double of the series — 12 points, 11 rebounds, 10 assists — on only four field goal attempts. New York won Games 4, 5, and 6 by 16, 29, and 51 points respectively after losing Games 2 and 3 by one point apiece. This series contained multitudes.

OG Anunoby led all scorers with 29 points in just 27 minutes — hitting from deep, attacking close-outs, and being everywhere the defense needed him to be — in a performance that would have headlined any other Thursday night. Brunson scored efficiently in a limited role before giving way to reserves. Every element of the Knicks' roster contributed in a first half that had State Farm Arena emptying before the third quarter began. The Hawks' 36 first-half points were among the fewest any team has scored in a playoff half in the modern era.

For Atlanta, Quin Snyder said after the game he simply couldn't explain it. CJ McCollum, who had defined the series with back-to-back clutch daggers in Games 2 and 3, was irrelevant long before the game was decided. Jalen Johnson had moments of scoring in a lost cause. Nothing the Hawks attempted could stop the avalanche. The ejection of Daniels — who clashed physically with Robinson over a loose ball and had to be physically restrained while coaches and teammates pulled him away from courtside fans — captured the frustration of a team being completely overwhelmed in a closing game they had expected to be competitive. Atlanta won Game 2 & 3 by one point each. They lost Game 6 by 51 on their own floor.

New York advances to the Eastern Conference semifinals where they will face either the Celtics or the 76ers.

NYK 140 · ATL 89

Minnesota Timberwolves 110, Denver Nuggets 98

Minnesota played Game 6 without Anthony Edwards, Donte DiVincenzo, Ayo Dosunmu, and Kyle Anderson. Three rotation players and their best; their starting guard who scored 43 in Game 4, and their best bench weapon — unavailable for an elimination game at home. Jaden McDaniels answered with 32 points, four rebounds, and five assists in the best performance of his playoff career, carrying a depleted Timberwolves lineup through a game that Denver never got the lead in after the first quarter. Minnesota had just seven turnovers after committing 25 in Game 5. Rudy Gobert finished with 10 points, 13 rebounds, and 8 assists in a complete, anchoring performance. The Wolves won by 12. Against all odds, they're going to the second round for the third consecutive season.

Terrence Shannon Jr. — starting in place of both Edwards and Dosunmu — scored 24 points and 6 rebounds in a breakout performance that nobody could have scripted. Shannon had played sporadic minutes all series; on the most important night Minnesota needed him, he was their second-best player. Randle added 18 points and 5 assists as the steady interior presence. Naz Reid provided 15 off the bench. The Wolves limited Jamal Murray to 12 points on 4-of-17 shooting — the worst performance of the series from Denver's second star. They forced 13 Nuggets turnovers. And in the fourth quarter, when Jokić got into a skirmish with Jaylen Clark and Reid that resulted in technical fouls for all three, Denver's spirit fractured along with the momentum they needed.

Jokić finished with strong counting stats, as he always does, but this was a game defined by Minnesota's defensive IQ and Denver's inability to create anything of value around their superstar. Murray's 4-of-17 night made it two ugly shooting performances in three games for the player who needs to be the second option when Jokić is being schemed. Gordon returned from his calf injury but couldn't generate enough — the Nuggets' bench contributed next to nothing against a Wolves defense that had solved Denver over the course of six games in a way no team had managed in recent memory. The Timberwolves eliminated the Nuggets for the second time in three seasons. They'll face San Antonio in the second round.

MIN 110 · DEN 98

Philadelphia 76ers 106, Boston Celtics 93

They never trailed. Maxey scored 30 points and Paul George had 23 in what Nick Nurse called his best performance as a Philadelphia 76er — George making five threes, orchestrating the offense around Embiid, and delivering a behind-the-back pass to Edgecombe in the third quarter that ended with an emphatic dunk and a Xfinity Mobile Arena eruption that the Celtics couldn't recover from. Philadelphia led 58-49 at halftime, pushed to 23 in the third, and the Celtics' all-bench closing lineup went through the motions against a Sixers team that was the better team from tip to buzzer.

Embiid's 19 points, 10 rebounds, and 8 assists were the engine — he scored the Sixers' first five points, posted Neemias Queta repeatedly in the second half, and consistently found open shooters when Boston tried to collapse. George's five threes were the perimeter complement that made Boston's coverage decisions impossible. Maxey was the closer, attacking in the second half and finishing as the game's leading scorer. The Sixers' Big Three combined for 72 points, 22 rebounds, and 16 assists in their most complete collective performance of the series. Edgecombe added energy off the bench including that third-quarter dunk and a pair of fourth-quarter threes.

Boston's night was defined by Jaylen Brown's foul trouble — picked up his third foul on an offensive charge drawn by Kelly Oubre Jr. in the second quarter and was largely neutralized thereafter, finishing with 18 points — and Tatum's health scare. Tatum went to the locker room in the third quarter and did not return for the fourth, finishing with 17 points in 28 minutes. Mazzulla insisted postgame that Tatum was fine — that he was simply getting treatment and stretched — but the image of their franchise player leaving the floor in a Game 6 with the series on the line will hang over TD Garden on Saturday. Tatum's availability and effectiveness in a Game 7 is the defining variable of a Boston team that now, despite leading this series 3-1, must win a seventh game in their own building to survive.

The Sixers have now won three consecutive games after being down 3-1. Only the Minneapolis Lakers in 1959 have won a playoff series after losing two games by 30 or more points.

Series tied 3-3. Game 7 is Saturday in Boston.

PHI 106 · BOS 93

Thursday was the first round's crescendo — and it played accordingly. Two of the first round's most compelling storylines ended: the Knicks, after a series that swung from one-point heartbreaks to a 51-point blowout, are through. Minnesota, playing their fourth consecutive playoff game without their best player, found enough in McDaniels and Shannon to close it out. And Philadelphia, which has been written off twice in this series, is one win away from eliminating the second seed on the road in Game 7.

What the first round produced in full — thirteen days, all but one series going at least five games, injuries reshaping brackets in real time, individual performances that defied every reasonable expectation — was the kind of sustained drama that validates the format. Cunningham averaged 30 points per game against an 8-seed and his team is on the brink. Embiid returned from an appendectomy and put up back-to-back elite playoff performances. McDaniels, who has spent most of his career as a defensive role player, scored 32 in a closeout game without his team's four of their players on the floor. McCollum went from MSG villain with two clutch daggers to six points in a 51-point blowout loss. The first round does not resolve cleanly. It reveals things.

Four teams are through: OKC, SAS, NYK, MIN. Three more series could conclude Friday. One Game 7 awaits Saturday. The first round ends with more questions than answers — about Tatum's health, about Durant's availability, about what Detroit can do on the road against an 8-seed, and about whether Cleveland can finally close out a Toronto team that has refused to go away. Thursday answered two of them definitively. The rest is Saturday.

Stud of the Day: Jaden McDaniels, Minnesota Timberwolves — 32 points, 4 rebounds, and 5 assists in a Game 6 elimination game without Edwards, DiVincenzo, Dosunmu, and Anderson. He was the best player on the floor in a game where Minnesota had every reason to fold and chose not to. After a career spent as a defensive specialist, McDaniels delivered the offensive performance of his life on the biggest night of his team's season.

Dud of the Night: Atlanta Hawks (team) — Down 47 at halftime of an elimination game on their own court. Ejected a player in the second quarter. Lost Games 4, 5, and 6 by 16, 29, and 51 points after winning Games 2 and 3 by one point apiece. The McCollum-sparked comeback in Games 2 and 3 was real. This ending was not the same team. Atlanta now starts their vacation earlier than they would prefer.