After the Atlanta Hawks finished off a stunning late-game comeback to take down the New York Knicks 107-106 in Game 2 of their first-round series in the 2026 NBA Playoffs, NBC didn’t exactly hurry to go to the nightcap between the Minnesota Timberwolves and Denver Nuggets on Monday.
First, NBC had a postgame interview with Atlanta’s CJ McCollum and spent over two minutes wrapping up the Hawks-Knicks broadcast from Madison Square Garden.
That was followed by a commercial break that went for three minutes and 15 seconds.
Roughly five and a half minutes after the final buzzer in the Hawks-Knicks game, NBC finally showed the Timberwolves-Nuggets Game 2 broadcast. The Timberwolves-Nuggets game was tied 5-5 with under 10 minutes remaining in the first quarter when NBC finally showed the action.
NBC took over five minutes to get to the Timberwolves-Nuggets game after the Hawks-Knicks game ended.
The Wolves-Nuggets broadcast finally showed up with the game tied 5-5 and under 10 minutes remaining in the first quarter. https://t.co/wQFUW07nuN
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) April 21, 2026
Why is NBC still showing ads when the Nuggets and Wolves have been playing for two minutes?! Utterly ridiculous.
— Will Petersen (@PetersenWill) April 21, 2026
The Timberwolves-Nuggets game was also available on Peacock from the get-go, but when the expectation is that the game will be shown on NBC at the conclusion of the Hawks-Knicks game, even a lot of Peacock subscribers are likely locked in on NBC, waiting for the game away from the Peacock app. It’s an inconvenience for viewers and something that isn’t a great look for NBC with its return to NBA coverage to begin the playoffs.
NBA fans will just have to hope that this isn’t a regular occurrence when NBC televises consecutive playoff games, which includes Tuesday night when Game 2 of the Houston Rockets-Los Angeles Lakers series (10:30 p.m. ET tip-off) follows Game 2 of the Portland Trail Blazers-San Antonio Spurs (8 p.m. ET tip-off) series on NBC.
About Matt Clapp
Matt is an editor/writer at The Comeback and Awful Announcing.
He can be reached by email at mclapp@thecomeback.com.