A masterpiece basketball weekend
Eight NBA playoff games, nine if you count Friday's play-in. So many good stories and great plays to remember.
Good morning. We had eight NBA playoff games this weekend, most of them were crazy good. Let’s basketball.
NBA Playoff Scores
Saturday
Heat 107, Bucks 109 (MIL leads 1-0) — A classic battle that lived all the way up to the billing. Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo struggled from the floor early, and Butler struggled on offense all game long with one instantly famous exception. But the Miami defense was tremendous with one instantly famous exception, and Duncan Robinson’s hot shooting kept the Heat attached.
Jimmy Butler did this to get the game to overtime.
Khris Middleton did this to end the game.
I’m all-in on this series.
Mavericks 113, Clippers 103 (DAL leads 1-0) — Incredible finish for Dallas on both ends to grab the Game 1 win. L.A. went up 98-95 with 6:08 to go and it felt like the Clippers were taking control. But — and is this familiar from a Clippers team in the playoffs? — they scored just five points over their last 13 possessions, albeit some of those quick threes as time ran out. Dallas finished on a 18-5 in the back half of the fourth to win … and Luka Doncic didn’t score a single point in that run. He did have a couple of nice assists and had been the best player on the court through three quarters. Great win for Dallas. Here are the full game highlights.
And in case you missed the game and didn’t watch those highlights, this open court dunk from Kawhi Leonard is just incredible and I cannot let anyone who reads Good Morning It’s Basketball today go without seeing it.
Celtics 93, Nets 104 (BKN leads 1-0) — Brooklyn started the game 0/10 from three and shot 1/13 from distance in the first half. Meanwhile, Boston was 9/17 from deep in the first half and went into the break up by six. And then in the third quarter each member of the Big Three hit a three within the first four minutes as Brooklyn took a lead and took over from there, growing the lead to as many as 17 in the fourth. That second half is what most of us thought this series would look like. We’ll see.
Blazers 123, Nuggets 109 (POR leads 1-0) — Portland hit almost 50% of its threes. Denver hit 30%. Ballgame. Facu Campazzo is a lot of fun for viewers and also for Damian Lillard when Damian Lillard sees Facu Campazzo guarding him. Well, in theory guarding him.
Sunday
Wizards 118, Sixers 125 (PHI leads 1-0) — Washington put up quite a fight as the vaunted Philly defense didn’t slow them down much. Bradley Beal had 33, Tobias Harris finished with 37, Ben Simmons went 6-15-15, which really shouldn’t be possible.
Lakers 90, Suns 99 (PHX leads 1-0) — This game was a lot. Anthony Davis had one of his worst games as a Laker — his offense was absent, the lineups with him at center didn’t really work as Deandre Ayton controlled the glass and paint, he had a few strong defensive rotations that changed some shots but not enough to save the Lakers. Chris Paul jacked up his right shoulder in the second quarter and could barely dribble or shoot the rest of the way. He also undercut his bestie LeBron, which served as a prelude to a scuffle involving Cam Payne, Alex Caruso and Montrezl Harrell.
After review, Payne picked up two technical fouls in the incident (for the initial bump on Caruso and throwing the ball at A.C.’s feet), Caruso and Harrell each picked up one. One of the softest ejections you’ll see in the NBA playoffs and it could have been critical given CP3’s injury if the Lakers could score or stop Devin Booker.
Speaking of which: Booker had 34-7-8 in his playoff debut. An incredible game, L.A. couldn’t do a damn thing with him. One of my absolute favorite players to watch, and he’s keeping it up on the big stage.
Mikal Bridges was fantastic, Dario Saric had some key plays, Ayton was truly at his best. The Phoenix Suns!
Hawks 107, Knicks 105 (ATL leads 1-0) — What a game! What a finish! Tough shooting nights for Julius Randle, R.J. Barrett and Reggie Bullock (a combined 15/47 from the floor and 3/17 from three) but Alec Burks and Derrick Rose went crazy off the bench, with Rose looking like a throwback version late. Rose tying a playoff game in the final 10 seconds with a floater? In 2021?
The Hawks weren’t anything close to perfect, but Trae Young had a spectacular playoff debut with 32-7-10, never out of control or doing too much. The massive crowd at Madison Square Garden chanted “f—k Trae Young” at the beginning of the game. Here was Trae’s answer to both Rose’s tying shot and to the New York crowd.
At the end there that’s Trae saying “it’s quiet as f—k in here,” a tremendous taunt to the fans. Look at the Spike Lee reaction shot.
Welcome back to the playoffs, Knicks fans!
Grizzlies 112, Jazz 109 (MEM leads 1-0) — What an incredible turnaround over the past week for the Grizzlies. Last Sunday, they lost to the Warriors to get bumped down to the No. 9 seed, which required them to win two straight games to even make the playoffs. Then they won those two close games … and now they’ve beaten the team with the best record in the NBA in Game 1. Dillon Brooks was spectacular in his playoff debut and Ja Morant took control down the stretch.
Rudy Gobert fouled out. Donovan Mitchell didn’t play after declaring he would, confusing everyone. Jazz in disarray?
WNBA Scores
Friday
Saturday
Storm 100, Wings 97 — Dallas almost beat the reigning champs behind the Arike Ogunbowale, the best scorer in the league, and … uh, Marina Mabrey? I did not know Marina Mabrey got down like this.
Sunday
Liberty 93, Sky 85 — Reigning Most Improved Player Betnijah Laney is out of control. She got cut by the Fever before last season. She’s scored 20+ in each of her first five games with New York, and the Liberty are 4-1.
Sun 72, Aces 65 — Connecticut is 5-0 and just beat Phoenix and Vegas on the road. Incredible start to the season for DeWanna Bonner, Jonquel Jones and the crew.
Schedule
All times Eastern.
Wings at Liberty, 7, Twitter
Heat at Bucks Game 2, 7:30, TNT (MIL leads 1-0)
Blazers at Nuggets Game 2, 10, TNT (POR leads 1-0)
Links
Adam Silver is feeling himself after the awesome play-in tournament and now Woj reports the league wants to re-open the midseason tournament idea with the players’ union.
Frank Vogel called CP3’s play on LeBron dirty, and CP3 disagreed. Whether you think a play like that is dirty or not completely depends on what you think of the players involved. So yeah … a lot of people are going to think that was a dirty play.
Trae Young’s dad was in the building for his son’s masterpiece game, and he was understandably proud.
Sopan Deb and Scott Cacciola on the psyche of the Knicks fan in the New York Times.
Victor Oladipo had surgery on his torn quad and could be back on the court in November.
In The Athletic, Marcus Thompson writes that the Warriors owe Steph Curry more next season. Agree. ($)
This seems like a year ago now but LeBron apparently violated health and safety protocols with a promotional event for his tequila brand last week, but wasn’t sanctioned by the league in any way.
And finally: Rudy Gobert should be embarrassed for this baseline flop after he fouled out of the game. Hilarious and ridiculous.
Be excellent to each other.