ABC mistakenly hypes up Knicks-Cavaliers for Eastern Conference Finals Game 1

Somebody at ABC hit the wrong button on Saturday.

The Detroit Pistons defeated the Cleveland Cavaliers in Game 6 of their playoff series on Friday night, setting up a do-or-die Game 7 with the winner taking on the New York Knicks, who have been hanging out for a while since sweeping the Philadelphia 76ers.

The conference finals will be broadcast on ABC and ESPN, and the folks who put together the promo package have had plenty of time to prep them. Presumably, they made two versions of the promo to hype Game 1 of the ECF, one featuring the Pistons and one featuring the Cavaliers. And once Game 7 is over and they know who won and who advanced, they can start promoting.

Unfortunately, they started the promo machine a little early on ABC affiliates across the country.

ABC wants to get you hyped up for Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals between the Knicks and the… Cavaliers? pic.twitter.com/YLj9NvDXTA

— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) May 16, 2026

“The Cavs eye another upset,” the promo begins, presuming that they’d already knocked off the top team in the Eastern Conference.

Lest you think this was a case of your local affiliate making a mistake, a quick look around the country shows that the incorrect commercial ran on ABC affiliates from Alabama to California, South Carolina, and Alaska.

We imagine someone over there has caught the snafu by now and fixed it. And we can also assume that once the tongue-lashing is over, whatever process failed to make that happen is about to be sorted out.

The Pistons are a 4.5-point favorite at home against the Cavaliers in Sunday’s Game 7. But if Cleveland does win, expect a lot of conspiracy theorists to start up their “The NBA is fixed” engines…