NBA Playoff Check-In

 The NBA first round has been awesome. I am partially annoyed that the best series are in the west coast and I can't keep myself awake to watch a lot of these late games. I also more or less lost a weekend of basketball to hockey, but that was super fun so no regrets there. Either way, I am still kinda locked in to a few series and thought today would be a good day to check in on how some of these are going. 

Honorable Mentions 

I could probably write a bunch about these teams, but why, I didn't even watch their series'

• The Cavs smoked the Heat and did exactly what they needed to do in the first round, took care of business. I can't stress enough how little respect they'd get if they struggled even a bit in this series, so respect to them for showing up
• The Magic are making it tough on the Celtics, but everyone knows who's winning that series barring disaster
• The Thunder, like the Cavs, took care of business. Both the Thunder and Cavs now get to watch on as the teams remaining in the first round are somehow all in tough physical series that should wear them down 
• The Nuggets and Clippers series has been amazing, probably the best one and I encourage you to just go watch the games and read real people's thoughts on it! I haven't been able to watch any of the games in their entirety which I am really sad about and I don't want to do this series an injustice by writing a bunch. Still no clue who will win, bet it goes 7. 

Pistons/Knicks

I've pretty much committed myself to Pistons hate, and it's paid off pretty well so far! It's funny though, if a few possessions go differently this series could be a 4-0 Pistons sweep and that's not even an exaggeration. Game 1 the Pistons went into the 4th quarter with a big lead then completely shrunk away from the moment. The first playoff game for a young team tends to go this way, can't rag on them too hard especially in a road game. Game 2 on the road they responded beautifully and held it together just enough for a narrow victory. Game 3 was a mess of brutal officiating on both sides. Ultimately the Pistons got a chance to tie the game with 0.5 seconds left that was gifted to them in an extraordinarily questionable way. The Knicks, up 1 with 0.5 on the clock, saw Jalen Brunson get fouled and sent to the free throw line. He made the first and missed the second on purpose to run the clock, but the clock operator started the clock too early. The officials decided that means the Pistons get to inbound the ball, which to me is insane. They threw that chance away when Jalen Duren threw the inbound pass out of bounds. Game 4 Tim Hardaway Jr was clearly fouled on the last shot in a 1 possession game, it wasn't called and the Pistons lose. 

The games have all been close yes, but the Pistons are down 3-1 and are heading to the Garden to try and fight off elimination. Despite the closeness of the games and the officiating, the Pistons do have warts that have been exposed that could have made this series look a lot different. Jalen Brunson has averaged 33.3 points, 8.8 assists and 4.3 rebounds in the 4 games this series, insane numbers. The Pistons are supposed to have a young guard stopper in Ausar Thompson, Jalen Brunson is amazing and he isn't just going to be stopped, but the Pistons haven't even slowed him down and that could spell death for them in the first round. Ultimately, it's a young team going against an experienced one and this probably was always going to be the outcome. In a year where people weren't hyping the Pistons to me every day, I probably would've routed for them as the underdog. The nail in the coffin for me was Yahoo Sports sending me a notification talking about how the Pistons made themselves into contenders, at 44 wins, as a 6 seed, in the east. Give me a break. Anyway, Pistons did a great job making this a really fun and hard fought series and they deserve a lot of credit. Now take care of business Knicks so I don't have to hear about them again. 

Warriors/Rockets

I am going to be brief with this series, as I will with all the west coast ones, I just don't have the stamina to stay up for these full games unfortunately. Since they played last night though I wanted to point out how hilarious this series is as a neutral fan. You've got dirty and physical play from both sides and an endless amount of chirping. In game 3 I saw Dillon Brooks purposefully try and smack Steph Curry's injured thumb on a 3 point attempt, then when he missed it, he kept swiping at his hand as Steph was backpedaling, dirty for sure but also really funny. In game 4 Draymond Green picked up an early technical foul, which as avid NBA fans know makes him invincible. He proceeded to execute the most shenanigans imaginable, absolutely daring the refs to eject him while they swallowed their whistles. There was a play where Draymond fell somehow with his legs on top of Tari Eason, kept his legs on his head to prevent Eason from getting up, when Eason finally got up Draymond kicked up towards Eason's crotch region, then tried to lift Eason's leg as he got up. The refs reviewed this play and opted to give Draymond a flagrant foul instead of a tech which kept him in the game. If you think I am exaggerating, just watch. Dirty as heck, also extremely hilarious!

Anyway, no real thoughts about this series just thought the back and fourth of physicality was funny, especially after coming off of a weekend of hockey where we saw a fight spill into the bench, carrying a ref with them, resulting in a fine of a measly $5,000. Rockets got delt a tough one, I think they probably win a series against anyone else in the play-in but the Warriors have that veteran presence and a Draymond Green who's evidently allowed to do whatever he wants. Series not done yet, but I would be surprised if it goes past 6.

Pacers/Bucks  

I have spent a lot of time hating the Bucks the last 2 seasons, but today I can't really do that. Damian Lillard has been the target of my roasts for much of the last 2 years in my group chats and friend groups, but seeing a guy tear his Achilles always sucks. Unfortunately for NBA fans, it's unlikely we ever get prime Dame again, one of the coolest players in the NBA for a long time and an extremely exciting shot maker. Get well soon Dame.

With that said, I didn't think the Bucks could win this series even with Dame. I will keep this one short because I've already said all I need to say about this series. The Pacers just have way too many good players compared to the Bucks who have almost none. It warms my heart to see the media narrative come back around to calling the Middleton for Kuzma swap stupid, something I said right away when I saw it happen. We're now getting to the territory of Giannis likely asking for a trade. He's been extremely loyal for his career but his second best player for next season is who? Gary Trent Jr? AJ Green? It's bleak in Milwaukee and without their own pick until 2031, they probably should be looking to replenish the war chest. Masai Ujiri famously has a relationship with Giannis, are we ready to do 2021 all over again Raps fans?

Lakers/Timberwolves

The series I was the wrongest about so far! As you can see from the theme of this article, I have trouble staying up to watch the late games and so keep that in mind when reading this section. Lots of talk has been made about JJ Reddick playing 5 guys for the entirety of the second half in a close loss in game 4. I think he's getting unfairly hated for that decision though. The Lakers clearly only have 5 guys that JJ trusts and even though it's the first round, I respect the coach for being bold enough to roll with them even though the result didn't work out. The story of this series, which admittedly has been presented to me on multiple podcasts, is Anthony Edwards is straight up outplaying Luka and LeBron. Lots of talk will be had about Ant's scoring and defense, and for good reason because they've been awesome, but I am even more impressed by his ball security. Throughout the regular season Ant averaged 4.5 assists to 3.2 turnovers - a 1.4 Ast/Turnover ratio. In the postseason so far Ant has averaged 5.8 assists to just 1.5 turnovers - a 3.9 ratio. For Luka Doncic the numbers are completely flipped. Regular season he had 7.5 assists to 3.7 turnovers with the Lakers but in the playoffs he's averaging 5 assists to 4.5 turnovers. Anthony Edwards being the better decision maker than Luka Doncic in a series was not what I expected at all, and I wanted to give credit where it's due to a player I am pretty hard on. 

I still would not be so quick to call this series over. While LeBron looks old, the Lakers look shallow and Luka is getting torched on defense, we've seen these guys climb out of holes before and we've seen the Wolves let up when they feel comfortable before. I wouldn't be surprised at this point if the series is over in 5, but I will not rule out LeBron until I see him eliminated, been burned too many times before. 

And that's that! What a fun first round. I love watching basketball stress free without my team to worry about.