The first round of the NBA playoffs usually brings the most intrigue and excitement. That’s because there’s 8 playoff series in all to digest. But that’s also because there are a lot of known and unknown scenarios that will play themselves out. Let’s dive in to a few of those storylines and see what they either taught us or reminded us of.
The Cavs, Thunder & Celtics are the real deal
These three teams came into the playoffs with the best records in the NBA. They were heavily favored to win their respective series. Except for some slight bumpiness by the Celtics against the Magic, all these teams lived up to expections. They made light work of their opponents and showed that they are indeed true contenders for the NBA title.
Luka Doncic has another level he needs to get to
No, I’m not talking about the whining and complaining on every call. That’s frustrating enough for sure. I’m talking about what everybody else is talking about, his conditioning. Sure, he’s not out of shape, he’s just not in top level professional athletic shape. And why would he be, he’s 26 years old and killing the whole league, on offense. Defense and having a higher motor is what needs to improve. His coach even said it, ” the team needs to get into Championship shape”. He’s talking to Luka. And now we see why Nico Harrison made the move he made. That doesn’t excuse him for not getting back a boatload more assets in the deal, but at least we understand Nico’s mindset more than before. Luka has to disciplined himself to become an even better conditioned athlete, physically and mentally, if he wants to lead the Lakers or any other team to an NBA championship.
The Bucks run is over
We probably already knew this but after 4 years of trying to get back to that Championship level, they have just never been able to get there again. They brought in Dame Lilliard and tried that out and that didn’t work. And that before he tore his achilles. Brook Lopez got old. They traded away Jrue Holiday and Khris Middleton to retool the roster around Giannis. That didn’t work out. And now they have limited resources to improve the roster with very little to no cap space to sign any free agents this summer. They are out of options. It may be time to look at a gigantic off season move.
The Nuggets stepped up
And Don’t trust the Clippers
I’ve made the mistake of trusting the Clippers to win big in the playoffs too many times before. I did not do that this post season. Although they played well in the series against Denver for the most part, the egg they laid in game 7 is not surprising at all. For some reason this team never gets over the hump, no matter who the coach is or no matter who is on the roster. I guess it’s just ingrained in their DNA.
What was that JJ Redick?
I thought JJ did a fantastic job of coaching the Lakers during the regular season. I thought he overthought things during the Postseason.
Who plays only five players during the whole second half of an intense playoff game? It was only game 4 of the 1st round! That didn’t backfire, but it didn’t exactly work out either. Although that lineup (Lebron, Luka, Austin, Finney-Smith & Rui) paid dividends, they obviously didn’t have enough juice down the stretch to play defense, rebound and scrore too. Sure they missed a couple of layups as JJ talked about. But missed layups happen when you are tired. Every basketball player knows that. I think he should have given that 5 at least some spot minutes of rest and trusted some players off his bench, like he did in game 5. But hey, he made a gamble and the gamble failed. Lesson learned.
Speaking of game 5, sure he played the bench players more in the 2nd half of that game. But the one player who didn’t play was the tallest rotation player on the team, Jaxson Hayes. And meanwhile, Rudy Gobert had a career playoff night (27 pts, 24 rebounds, 9 offensive rebounds) because there was no size out there to contest him on the boards. And of course, the small ball Lakers ran out of gas at the end and couldn’t finish in the 4th quarter again.
The Lakers should have won at least 2 games in this series. I think if the coaching substitutions and in game adjustements had of been better, they would have. But such is life for a 1st year head coach. He’ll learn and grow from this experience. But in order to do that, he needs to start taking some accountability too. Sometimes he needs to say “I failed” or “I got outcoached” or “I didn’t put the team in the best position to succeed”. Only time will tell if he starts to do that and what happens next season.
And that’s my rundown of what the 1st round of the NBA playoffs reminded me of or taught me this year. The 2nd round has already started off with some surprising 1st game results. I can’t wait to see how this plays out. Talk to ya soon.