The opening week of the NBA playoffs delivered the kind of disorder that ratings executives quietly cheer and coaches publicly dread, with the Sacramento Kings and Orlando Magic each pulling off a Game 1 road victory before higher seeds reasserted themselves Thursday night.

Sacramento, the seventh seed in the Western Conference, ambushed the second-seeded Denver Nuggets 112-104 on Tuesday behind 34 points from guard Keegan Murray and a defensive stretch that held Denver scoreless for nearly five minutes of the fourth quarter. The Nuggets, missing center Nikola Jokic for the first eight minutes after he picked up two early fouls, never fully recovered their offensive shape.

“You give a young team confidence in the first 12 minutes of a playoff series and they will believe anything,” said Marcus Halliday, a longtime NBA scout who has consulted for three Western Conference front offices. “Sacramento came in believing they had nothing to lose. By halftime they were playing like they expected to win.”

Denver responded Thursday with a 121-99 rout to even the series, though head coach Michael Malone, addressing reporters after the game, declined to call it a course correction. “We played one good half on Tuesday and one good game tonight,” Malone said. “That’s two halves out of the eight we’ll need to win this series. Nobody on our side is taking a victory lap.”

In the East, Orlando’s Game 1 win over the Milwaukee Bucks was even more startling. The Magic, who slipped into the playoffs as the eighth seed after a March surge, beat Milwaukee 98-95 on a contested Paolo Banchero pull-up jumper with 2.3 seconds remaining. Giannis Antetokounmpo finished with 38 points and 14 rebounds, but the Bucks shot 6-for-29 from three-point range and turned the ball over 19 times.

Milwaukee evened the series Wednesday 117-104, with head coach Doc Rivers shifting Khris Middleton into the starting lineup and tightening the rotation to nine players. Game 3 in Orlando is scheduled for Saturday night.

The other Western series have largely followed seeding. Oklahoma City, the top seed, dispatched Memphis in both games of its opening pair by double digits, with rookie guard Dillon Hayes joining Shai Gilgeous-Alexander in the backcourt and posting 19 points in Game 2. The Los Angeles Lakers and Minnesota Timberwolves split their first two games, with LeBron James, in what he has hinted may be his final postseason, putting up 31 points and 12 assists in a Game 1 Lakers win.

In the East, the Boston Celtics opened against Miami with two comfortable wins, Jayson Tatum averaging 33 points across the pair. The New York Knicks and Philadelphia 76ers, locked into a third matchup in four years, have split their first two games, with Joel Embiid playing through what the team described as a left knee contusion sustained in Game 1.

The opening weekend overlapped with a noisy stretch of the MLB regular season, now into its fourth week and producing standings few analysts predicted in spring. The Detroit Tigers, projected by most preseason models to finish near .500, entered Thursday’s slate at 16-6, leading the American League Central by four games and on pace for the franchise’s best start since 2013. Ace right-hander Tarik Skubal, coming off his Cy Young campaign, has logged a 1.84 ERA across five starts.

In the National League, the Cincinnati Reds at 15-7 have built an early lead in the Central on the back of shortstop Elly De La Cruz, who entered Thursday hitting .329 with eight home runs and 11 stolen bases. Reds manager Terry Francona, in his third season with the club, told reporters this week that the team’s pitching depth, not its hitting, would determine whether the start was sustainable. “April standings are weather. We need to see what we look like in late June,” Francona said.

The Los Angeles Dodgers, as expected, sit atop the NL West, though at 14-8 they have looked less dominant than oddsmakers anticipated. The Houston Astros, the New York Yankees and the Atlanta Braves have all started near .500, with the Yankees in particular drawing criticism in New York talk radio for a bullpen ERA above 5.00 through the first 22 games.

The early-season volatility has reshaped futures markets in Las Vegas. Caesars Sportsbook trader Renee Caldwell said in a phone interview that money has poured in on Detroit and Cincinnati to win their divisions, while World Series odds on the Dodgers, Yankees and Braves have all drifted slightly outward. “It’s still April,” Caldwell said, “but enough of our recreational players are paying attention that the lines have to move.”

Off the diamond and the hardwood, the broader sports calendar has begun its spring expansion. The NHL playoffs began Monday, with the Florida Panthers, Edmonton Oilers, Boston Bruins and Colorado Avalanche entering as conference favorites. The NFL draft is set to begin Thursday in Pittsburgh, where the Tennessee Titans hold the first overall pick and are widely expected to select University of Texas quarterback Quinn Ewers.

NBA league officials said Game 3s across all eight first-round series will tip off between Friday and Sunday, with the league announcing television windows for the second round once the brackets clarify. The next round, officials said, would be seeded based on regular-season record rather than the traditional bracket structure for the first time, a change approved by the Board of Governors last summer.