Seven conclusions at the beginning of the NBA playoffs
The first postseason games passed and it is time to get the first conclusions: anxious to continue with the playoffs?
Successful or wrong, here we are going.
We finally saw real basketball, with players using their possibilities to the fullest. Maybe this is what is claimed to Adam Silver months ago (years?) And that is at dropper in regular season. In fact, we even understood – in part – a Nico Harrison: The defense wins championships. Or at least put everyone closer.
Between Saturday and Sunday, six teams of the 16 at stake scored 100 points or less. Let’s think that the best defensive efficiency of the NBA in regular season was Oklahoma City Thunderwhich allowed 104.7 points every hundred possessions. This allows us to understand that in playoffs it is seriously played, with an intensity really very different from that of previous months.
It is too 82 games to reach this situation: either competitiveness is improved in the first stage of the League with creative changes or the number of matches must be lowered. You can’t expect so much for fun. After the first aftersembly weekend, the facts are in sight.
It is one thing to win, and another is to win by 51 points of difference. That kind of victories, the most loose fifth in playoffs in the history of the NBA, is also a message. This young team is serious.
The most important thing about the triumph was that they did not need a Shai Gilgeous-Alexander In stellar plane: only 15 points, with 4-13 in field shots. That clear the team class that is OKCstarting with his defense – limited Memphis Grizzlies to 80 points – and its amount of offensive variables.
So much so that, as AM850 stats points to us, they had 37 assists, the second largest in a playoff match throughout the history of the franchise, which also includes, of course, the myth called Supersonics.
Luka Doncic has serious defensive problems
The Minnesota Timberwolves They beat Los Angeles Lakers And it was surprise. For the expectation in Los Angeles and because they did it comfortably. To ruin a show like that was, for the nostalgic, something like Ivan Drago knockering Apollo Creed in Rocky IV.
Minnesota was very accurate with the shots at a distance, with the intense defense, but also with a strategy that resulted in Anthony Edwards as a destabilization piece: the attacker who matched with Luka Doncic He curta Edwards to provoke the switch and that the Wolves escort with the Slovenian SUV is left.
Doncic did not have the legs, nor the suddenness, nor the speed to avoid the breakdown of that first line: the shots of the archers at 45 degrees or in the corners arrived. And when he gave him the subway, he punished Antman without opposition. Yes, of course, the issue of offensive rebounds, the matching problem with Jaxson Hayesbut this did not have, nor seem to have, solution.
Clippers-nuggets is the best first round series
Overtime in clippers-nuggets game 1 on espn đ„ pic.twitter.com/MWDBG1odeu
– AM850 (@espn) April 19, 2025
If they had no chance to see it, look for the first game and see it, even if they are deferred. It was spectacular, because it could be for the The clippersbut ended up for Denver Nuggets with extra time included. Two super couple teams, with high yields, emotion, adrenaline, intensity, nerves. There was everything.
And ended up unlocking it Harvey Dent (two faces). Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde: Russell Westbrook. The player who makes you laugh or cry equally. He had three positive actions at the close of the game that allowed the triumph to Denver, with intensity, energy, and a determining burden on the offensive rebound.Nikola Jokic? Phenomenal as always, beyond errorsing two key free throws.
On the other side, James Harden, Kawhi Leonard, Norman Powell, Ivica Zubac. It is a spectacular series that deserves to go to six or seven games. We will see what fate holds us.
Warriors still have what
It is a battle against time. Veterans against young people. The NBA that goes against the one that arrives. That is what happens with Golden State Warriors against Houston Rockets. Stephen Currywith 37 years, Draymond Green and Jimmy Butler IIIwith 35. That is the Big Three that aims to make history once more. It goes from point to, but they know the land of playoffs like nobody. They know what is the course of the river that guides to El Dorado.
The Rockets, inexperienced, ran against a luxury defense in the first postseason game. But they will adjust. The world wants to continue seeing Curry, Butler and Green some more rounds.
A long series is expected, in any case. This just begins. Who gives more? Rockets will adjust and change on the fly. Warriors have what. That said, it is a matter of enjoying the last bullets that remain in the bedroom.
Celtics and Cavaliers are comfortable in the east
Maybe to Cleveland Cavaliers It cost them a little more in intensity than Boston Celtics In their first game, but both are emerging to advance to the second round without suffering. They are simply better than their rivals.
Of course, in postseason we can surprise ourselves, but the signs are very favorable for the first and second of the Eastern Conference. The Celtics broke their parity on Sunday with the Orlando Magic in the third quarter and the cavaliers in the closing before the Miami Heat.
Of course, someone will say that this is a hypothesis and not a conclusion, but experience, individualities, and what is exhibited in the debut of the tie, invite you to think about a clear path.
The Pistons can beat the Knicks
Could The Pistons Stun The Knicks In Round 1? đ€ pic.twitter.com/t3kb2Wochz
– AM850 BET (@ESPNBET) April 17, 2025
Yes, it is true, they lost the first game for a great recovery of the team of Tom Thibodeau. Something as true as they could have won at Madison Square Garden, despite the loose match of Cunningham cunning (8-21 in TC). They were eight points up in the last quarter, with 9:16 for playing in the game, and collapsed with a 21-0 partial catastrophic against. Crazy.
Beyond the rebirth of Jalen Brunson In the second half, which gave air to the New York Knicksthe Detroit Pistons They must take care of their own problems: they suffered a 0-10 passage in TC in the defining period, something that was paid, of course, with the defeat. Reason? We can attribute it to lack of experience at determining times.
It is clear that Knicks must work and much to overcome the set of JB BickerStaff. It is not as attractive as Clippers-Stunnderbut everything would seem to indicate that this key can have several dispute games.
