One Key Takeaway From Every NBA Playoff Series After Opening Weekend
Two days have passed since the tipoff of the NBA playoffs, and eight fantastic games have set the stage for what prepares to be an excellent opening round. Seven of the eight games went according to plan—the Pacers handled the Bucks, Nuggets vs Clippers was a nail-biter, the Knicks outlasted the Pistons, the Thunder demolished the Grizzlies, the Celtics took care of the Magic, the Cavs overwhelmed the Heat, and the Warriors withstood the Rockets. Only one game went against expectation—the Timberwolves absolutely schooled the Lakers in their own building and flipped the betting odds on the series considerably.
Expected or unexpected, each game has given us plenty to think about going into the game twos in the next few days. It’s not necessarily an overreaction Monday, but rather a takeaway Monday—I don’t want to make any claims I’ll regret in 24 hours.
Here are my biggest takeaways from each game one of the playoffs.
Pacers vs Bucks
Key Takeaway: These teams are polar opposites and it favors Indiana.
The Bucks four starters aside from Giannis Antetokounmpo were Ryan Rollins, Taurean Prince, Kyle Kuzma, and Brook Lopez. In the entire game, they combined for 14 points, eight rebounds, and six assists (a typical Nikola Jokic half). Giannis had 36 points and 12 rebounds, and his team was town 79-52 midway through the third quarter.
Indiana was motored by Tyrese Haliburton who only had ten points but made his impact felt with 12 assists to five different players. Six Pacers scored in double figures. Nobody scored more than 22 points, but their group effort found a way to overwhelm Milwaukee’s one-man show.
Damian Lillard is expected to return for game three of this series, but I don’t think he will be able to swing the pendulum back in Milwaukee’s direction with how much depth the Pacers have.
Nuggets vs Clippers
Key Takeaway: The Clippers don’t match up with the Nuggets as well as I thought.
I figured that the Clippers would hound Jamal Murray with their physical defenders and that Ivica Zubac would contain Nikola Jokic, and so far I have been wrong. Murray had six wide-open shots (no defender within six feet) in game one which was second among 143 players who received at least 10 minutes this weekend. He only made one of them which won’t happen again. As for Jokic, there’s no containing him. He had a casual 29, 12, and 9 and shot 50% from the field.
There are other matchups that I failed to consider. When Zubac is off the floor, which he was for nine minutes on Saturday, LA has to play Nicolas Batum or Ben Simmons at center. Batum is a bit fragile on defense and only stands at 6’8”. Simmons is an offensive liability no matter how many weapons he has around him.
Bogdan Bogdanovic also looks unplayable in this series due to the Nuggets constantly targeting him on defense, and Norman Powell seems to be struggling with the same issue.
Knicks vs Pistons
Key Takeaway: The Pistons can’t contain the Knicks’ offense for four quarters.
Detroit used their physicality to make the Knicks somewhat uncomfortable for three quarters, but it’s very hard to keep New York, a team loaded with offensive threats, in the dark forever.
In the fourth quarter, the Knicks scored 40 points and outscored the Pistons by 19—both figures are the second-highest of any quarter in any game this weekend. In the fourth quarter alone, Jalen Brunson scored 12 points despite being face-guarded by a great defender in Ausar Thompson, Cam Payne had a legacy quarter, dropping 11 points of his own, Josh Hart chipped in eight points 4-for-5 shooting, and Karl-Anthony Towns had seven.
Though the Pistons were able to keep the Knicks in check for most of the game, they stood no chance of guarding the Knicks once multiple players started making shots. The Knicks’ offensive outburst led to a 21-0 run in the fourth quarter which was the third longest unanswered scoring run in the playoffs since 1998.
Lakers vs Timberwolves
Key Takeaway: The Lakers must compete in the bench battle to win this series.
The Timberwolves bench outscored them 43-13 in game one. Though Naz Reid’s 8-for-12 shooting, 23-point performance might be a mirage, the combination of Reid, Donte DiVincenzo, and Nickeil Alexander-Walker barely scored above their combined scoring average for the season, leading me to believe that their bench might score 53 points tomorrow night.
The Lakers bench was non-existent. Gabe Vincent made one shot in 25 minutes, Jarred Vanderbilt had two points in 14 minutes, and worst of all, Dorian Finney-Smith had three points in 33 minutes on 1-of-5 shooting. Outside of garbage time baskets, the Lakers’ bench was outshot by 14 field goals to three.
Los Angeles had the second-lowest scoring bench in the NBA this season, so this was to be an expected department of struggle. However, they need their bench to compete against Minnesota’s three guys who can all win Sixth Man of the Year in any given year.
Thunder vs Grizzlies
Key takeaway: The Grizzlies are a broken team.
Memphis looks absolutely lifeless with Tuomas Iisalo in charge. In the third quarter of today’s game when the Thunder were up by as many as 51 points, Tim Legler said that Lu Dort purchased rent on the entire left side of the entire three-point arc. That’s because he had four wide-open three-point looks in the span of two minutes. Whether it was an offensive rebound, a drive-and-kick, a fast break, or something else, nobody on the Grizzlies made any effort to contest Dort.
The body language in huddles was terrible and the players were not playing cohesively or with any spirit. I understand there were issues in Memphis with coaching philosophies, but firing Taylor Jenkins might have done irreversible damage to this version of the Grizzlies. He had them playing with grit and heart, and Iisalo has shown no ability to get that out of his players.
Sometimes, after a beatdown like this one, the losing team comes back with a big punch in game two. However, throw the fact that the Thunder are one of the best teams of all time aside, and I still think the Grizzlies will come out with low energy and ultimately get demolished again.
Celtics vs Magic
Key Takeaway: Orlando’s front office is failing Paolo Banchero and Franz Wagner.
For the second straight year, Paolo Banchero is playing his best ball in the playoffs. He had 36 points and 11 rebounds on Sunday after averaging 27.0 PPG in seven playoff games last season. Unlike last season, Franz Wagner came along for the ride and scored 23 points of his own. The rest of the Magic only combined for 27 points. For perspective, the Rockets and Grizzlies were the only two teams to score fewer points than the Magic this weekend, and their teams outside of their two best players combined for 52 and 59 points, respectively.
Magic GM Anthony Parker has surrounded Banchero and Wagner with minimal talent and little to no shooting. Not a single player on the Magic aside from those two scored over seven points, which includes Kentavious Caldwell-Pope who has completely lost his jumper, Wendell Carter Jr. who scored just four points, and Cole Anthony, Anthony Black, and Gary Harris, who were all expected to be impactful guards for the Magic.
It’s not just that the supporting cast isn’t making shots—they are hardly taking any in the first place. Nobody took more than six shots while Wagner took 24 and Banchero hoisted 27. In the end, those two took 63% of the Magic’s shots which is by far the most by the two best players on a team so far in the playoffs. They are absolutely carrying the team at the moment.
Cavaliers vs Heat
Key Takeaway: Mitchell, Garland, and Jerome are the NBA’s best three-guard rotation.
What other team has guard rotation with a consistent All-NBA nominee, an All-Star caliber number two, and a sixth man of the year candidate? The answer is nobody. The Celtics, Knicks, and Lakers are probably the teams that get the closest to Cleveland. But Boston lacks the superstar that Cleveland has in Mitchell, New York doesn’t have a clear number two at guard, and LA has no bench depth behind Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves.
In game one against the Heat, Mitchell dropped 30, Garland scored 27, and Jerome poured in 28 including 16 fourth-quarter points. Their 85 combined points were the most by three players on the same team all weekend, and made them the first trio this decade to accomplish that feat.
The three shot a combined 31-for-51 in the game and combined for 70.2% of Cleveland’s points.
Rockets vs Warriors
Key Takeaway: The Rockets need Jalen Green and Fred VanVleet to play better.
Jalen Green almost made me sick last night. He is surrounded by high-IQ players and coaches who make a living on the defensive end, think twice before taking unnecessary shots, and survey the entire floor on offense. Green would catch the ball at the top of the key, sprint into a forest of Warriors’ defenders, and chuck the ball at the backboard hoping for a phantom foul call.
Green shot 3-for-7 on shots inside five feet last night and 0-for-8 everywhere else. While watching Green made me want to claw my eyes out, his partner in crime, Fred VanVleet, was arguably worse on the stat sheet. He went just 4-for-19 and 2-for-13 from three.
Overall, the Rockets’ starting backcourt combined for just 17 points, shooting 7-for-34 from the field and 2-for-17 from three. Steph Curry alone had 31 points on 12-for-19 and 5-for-9 shooting. Neither VanVleet nor Green have what it takes to match Curry in this series, but if they aren’t even going to combine for Curry’s output, the Rockets are done for.
We’ll be able to expand on two of our takeaways tonight after Knicks vs Pistons at 7:30 PM and Nuggets vs Clippers at 10:00 PM. I’ll be back with more playoff reactions later in the week!