The Maine Red Claws earned the No. 1 seed in the NBA Development League playoffs and will face the Fort Wayne Mad Ants in the first-round of the Eastern Conference playoffs.
The best-of-three series begins at 7 p.m. Tuesday in Fort Wayne. The series then shifts to Portland for Game 2 at 4 p.m. Saturday. Game 3, if necessary, would be played at 4:30 p.m. Sunday.
Game 1 will be televised on ESPNU and Games 2 and 3 will be televised on ESPN News.
The Red Claws finished the regular season with a 35-15 record. They went 10-1 in their final 11 games and clinched the top seed in the East with a 102-94 win over the Westchester Knicks on March 27.
Fort Wayne earned the No. 4 seed in the Eastern Conference with a 28-22 record.
The winner of the best-of-three series will advance to play the winner of the series between No. 2 Sioux Falls and No. 3 Canton.
In the Western Conference, Santa Cruz earned the No. 1 seed and opens against No. 4 Oklahoma City on Wednesday, and Austin earned the No. 2 seed and will face No. 3 Bakersfield starting Tuesday.
The Red Claws went 3-1 against Fort Wayne in the regular season. Maine won 81-80 on Nov. 16 when Tim Frazier, who recently signed to finished the season with the NBA’s Portland Trail Blazers, made a foul shot with .4 seconds left. Maine also won 110-106 on Dec. 4 and 87-86 on Feb. 17. The Mad Ants beat the Red Claws 109-104 on Jan. 31.
Tickets for Game 2 and 3 go on sale Monday and can be purchased by calling 210-6655 or visiting www.maineredclaws.com.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
