The opening day of the 2016 NBA playoffs is in the books. Here's what we learned.
The East looks fun and close! The two Eastern Conference games were well-played by all four teams and featured games that were close inside the final five minutes. The Raptors'stars just wet the bed, yes, but their defense and role players both showed up. No matter. The Raptors now find themselves in a familiar playoff crisis, writes our James Herbert from Toronto.)
The Pacers, meanwhile, played well enough to put themselves in a position to let Paul George wipe out the Raptors, and he did precisely that. George was the best player on the floor, scoring 27 of his game-high 33 points in the second half as Indiana stole home-court advantage.
The Hawks and Celtics played down to the wire, and the game featured a 17-point Boston comeback. Even when down four with under ten seconds remaining and no timeouts,Isaiah Thomas hit a transition pull-up 3-pointer to cut it to one. That series looks close,destined for seven if you ask me. More on that in a moment.
Really, as good as the West's top teams looked, it's notable that the Eastern Conference, as it has all year, looked very balanced. Its lower seeds weren't competitive merely because the top seeds were incompetent; again, they all played well. It's a sign of how the competitive balance has shifted, even if the heavy artillery remains in the West. Meanwhile ...The West is a bunch of blowouts. Stephen Curry outscored the Rockets by himself in the first quarter, and in fact was the leading scorer in the game with 24 points on five 3-pointers despite playing less than 20 minutes -- the first guy to do that in a playoff game since Ray Allen in 2013. The Warriors were up 20-plus in a blink of an eye. Curry didn't play the entire second-half -- and is questionable for Game 2 with a sprained ankle -- and yet Golden State completely dominated. Houston showed once again why it's a complete clownshow and made everyone, many of their own fans included, wish they weren't even watching. (For more on the punchline that is the Houston Rockets, read Zach Harper's dispatch from the Oracle beatdown.)
In Oklahoma City, the Thunder demolished the Mavericks in one of the most lopsided affairs in NBA playoff history. (It ranked as the third-biggest Game 1 blowout ever.) Dallas simply had no chance. So not only are the Thunder and Warriors awesome, which we knew coming in, but the bottom half of the West looks quite weak. With the Grizzlies' injury-riddled mess facing the Spurs tomorrow, only the Blazers have a chance of being a competitive lower seed in a Western series. If the Clippers, however, demolish Portland, as they very well might, it's only going to make these West series' that much more depressing to get through. But that second round ... oh my.
OKC had the best performance. The Warriors were dominant to be sure, but the Thunder pasted the Mavericks. They held Dallas to 11 points in the first quarter, 33 in the first half, and led by as many as 44 points in the second half. It was a level of destruction you rarely see in a playoff game, especially a 3-6 matchup, and it was a complete statement game.
The Mavericks got the Thunder's best swing, and they absolutely shattered when it connected.
Stephen Curry's ankle is making everyone nervous. As mentioned, Curry "tweaked" his ankle and is questionable for Game 2 vs. Houston. Curry landed awkwardly contesting aJames Harden jumper and didn't return for the second half. Any time you hear the word ankle in the same sentence as Curry you get a bad feeling, but he actually has been supremely healthy the last few years and is pretty much over the ankle issues that once threatened to derail his career.
Still, he's human. And this proves just how fragile greatness can be. I don't expect this to be an issue. I think he'll play in Game 2 and generally continue to light all things on fire. But it's something to watch for sure.
Celtics-Hawks was the best game. A back-and-forth affair that saw the Hawks dominate the first half (holding Boston to just four points off turnovers as Atlanta controlled every facet of the game) before the Celtics staged one of their patented bull rushes in the second half. The Celtics scrapped and clawed their way back into it behind Isaiah Thomas andMarcus Smart, who hit 3-pointers as if this wasn't something to look to the sky for answers about. Smart was 5 of 10 overall and 3 of 6 from deep, and the Celtics will need a lot more of that if they're without Avery Bradley, who appeared to suffer a pretty nasty hamstring injury and could well be out for a while.
In the end, Jeff Teague made the plays to win, but the overall sense is that this series is likely to go to the wire. Boston proved it can take Atlanta's best shot and respond in kind, while Atlanta proved it can shoot badly and still win, something it struggled with last year.
The Raptors still can't win a playoff game. Toronto fell apart again, for the third year in a row with a home Game 1 loss. They blew a lead behind an absolutely atrocious performance from Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan.
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