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The playoffs are skyrocketing with wild endings, and ludicrous individual games.
So we gotta start with the absolute crazy finish between the Thunder and the Pelicans.
New Orleans were of course without Zion but they were able to hang in this game mainly because the young and inexperienced OKC guys couldn’t really put them away.
And not only that but this is a chance to go up by 4 in the final minutes…
Hold on you gotta rewind that. Nance had his dunk rimming out and missing a golden opportunity here unbelievable.
At this moment the Thunder are 5 minutes without a field goal, and the crowd is anxious.
So OKC goes to Shai to try and fix things…
This sets up one of the wildest offensive sequences that I’ve seen in the clutch with a bunch of completely wide open looks…
This madness was only stopped by a shot clock malfunction, so when they return, we have yet another chance for New Orleans to take the lead…
Woooow what a block by Chet preventing what would have been a sure bucket. And this opens up the opportunity on the other end…
Yeaah look at him ice cold look after the crucial bucket and the foul. And of course he knocks it in.
But on the other end, it’s CJ Mccollum with a quick response from the baseline to get this game back down to 1. Aaand with all the pressure in the world on him, the rookie Holmgren misses the first at the line as the drama continues. So down by 2 and 14 seconds to go, the Pelicans have one last try to tie or take the lead. And this is where the chaos ensues.
Oh my goodness…inches away from the win, OKC survives in a frenetic finish and takes the lead in this series.
This is RateGame, an app that I’m a part of, and the users on there rated this game at 8.8 which is the highest so far for these playoffs. Amazing.
Moving on to a highly anticipated matchup
between the Clippers and the Mavs, we saw two former MVPs on one side turning back the clock and dominating the game, and on the other, a team that was ranked 3rd in made 3’s during the regular season went 2 for 18 from deep in the first half.
Dallas simply couldn’t hit anything in the first half, like there was some kind of a lid on the rim. They went 9 for 41 from the field, that’s 22% shooting, this sounds more like some celebrity contest efficiency, not like an NBA contender. Scoring just 8 points in the 2nd quarter they fell into a 26 point hole at the break. And as the saying goes, you can’t win a basketball game in the first half, but you can certainly lose one.
This is what concerns me about the Mavericks in this series, the entire offensive load is on Luka and Kai, and when they both have a bad shooting game like they did in the first half, it’s game over. There is no real 3rd option who can hold the team competitive when the top guys are struggling. For them to even have a chance of moving past the Clippers, players like P.J. Washington and Tim Hardaway must step up scoring wise.
On the other side, the Clippers were missing Kawhi Leonard, and their second best man in Paul George started the game struggling himself. But this team is so deep, that they have multiple guys who can win games by themselves. And last night it was Harden.
The beard was cooking at the start, hitting his first 4 shots from downtown. He was hitting stepback 3’s, driving inside for some of his signature floaters, and even drawing fouls like it was 2017.
Another key player in this game was Ivica Zubac, who was feasting inside the paint, especially in the 1st quarter.
Zubac had a monster game with 20 PTS and 15 REB on 58.8% shooting. There wasn’t a single guy on the other side that coach Kidd could put on him in order to contain him.
Luka and Kyrie tried their best in the 2nd half, hitting some incredible shots to push for a possible comeback, as they both finished with 30+ point games, but the rest of their teammates combined for only 33 points on 27.7% shooting, and that was the story of the game as the Clippers won game 1, and are looking to take a commanding 2-0 lead on tuesday when they meet again.
I thought I was low on this game, rating it a 5.4 but it got an average of 4.1
Anyway moving on to the Bucks and the Pacers where I thought that Indi would be able to steal this game without Giannis. But just watch these shots:
Wooow I don’t know if I’ve ever seen so many bad misses.
The Pacers shot 3 for 18 from downtown in the first half. That’s a miserable 16%.
And look at how wide open a lot of these were. Without a doubt it’s the nerves that got to this young and inexperienced team in the playoff opener.
They were a 37 and a half percent three point shooting team for the season, no way you miss this many open looks.
And on the other end it was the complete opposite as Damian Lillard went out of control:
Dame exploded for 35 points in the first half, going blistering hot 11 for 19 from the field and 6 for 10 from downtown.
21 апр 2024
