Lady Gaga Versus The NBA: Who Gets The Stage?

For the Washington Wizards and their long-suffering fans, this has been a remarkable NBA season. The young upstarts and wily veterans of the Wiz teamed up to reach the playoffs for the first time since 2008, and advanced from Round 1 by handily defeating the Chicago Bulls. 

And on Monday, they beat up the No. 1-seeded Pacers in Indianapolis for their first second-round playoff win since 1982.

Now, though, comes a real challenge: A scheduling conflict that has the Wizards scheduled to be on their court at the Verizon Center on May 15, the same time Lady Gaga is scheduled to take the stage there.

• UPDATE: And the winner is ... The Wiz, as God intended! Gaga and her monsters will get the Verizon Center on May 12.

"I'm literally crying right about the possibility to postponing lady Gaga show in DC @verizoncenterpr please don't," Tweeted on of Lady Gaga's Little Monsters, the name she has given to her fans.

“I swear y’all better not postpone or cancel the lady gaga concert for a basketball game or you will have riots,” tweeted another.

“Fans are freaking out about it, cussing about it, screaming about it,” Mark James, 19, told The Washington Post when contacted by telephone. James was scheduled to fly from North Carolina to Washington the day before the concert. “It’s ridiculous.”

The Wiz could put an end to all of this cussing and screaming, of course. Up 1-0 over the Pacers, the could win the series in four games or five, and game six — the game scheduled at the same time as Lady Gaga — would be unnecessary.

The NBA announced Saturday that if the Wizards and Pacers haven't settled their series before May 15, Game 6 would be played that night at Verizon Center. 

“We are aware of the potential conflict and are working with the promoter in the event Game 6 is necessary,” the Wizards said in a statement over the weekend. “More information will be released when it becomes available.”

Adding to the angst of the Little Monsters: Many of the fans hoping to see her May 15 had tickets to her previous Washington show last February, which was canceled because of a health issue.

“I was like, ‘This is not happening. This is not happening to me again,’ ”  Hunter Nguyen, 18, from Silver Spring, told The Post. “I have a lot of friends who are going, a lot of friends who booked hotels from different cities that are coming to D.C. to see the show. We’re all pretty devastated right now, actually.”