Saturday's four playoff games featured two wins by the road team, and two road teams won on Sunday as well--but the one road team that many people expected to win came out flat, and lost to a team whose starting point guard played most of the game with one arm.
Here are thoughts and observations about each game from the second quadrupleheader of the 2021 NBA playoffs.
Philadelphia 125, Washington 118
Tobias Harris scored 28 first half points on 12-19 field goal shooting en route to a playoff career-high 37 points on 15-29 field goal shooting, and Joel Embiid overcame foul trouble to finish with 30 points on 9-16 field goal shooting. Ben Simmons only scored six points but he led both teams in rebounds (15) and assists (15). Philadelphia's "Big Three" is not only big in production but also in terms of size, as Embiid is 7-0, Simmons is 6-11, and Harris is 6-8.
Bradley Beal led the Wizards in scoring (33 points on 13-23 field goal shooting) and rebounds (10), while Russell Westbrook contributed 16 points, a team-high 14 assists, and five rebounds. Westbrook shot 7-17 from the field and had a game-high six turnovers, including three turnovers in the final 4:29.
The 76ers used their size advantage to generate points in the paint early in the game, and then they drilled three pointers whenever the Wizards trapped to contain a player in the paint. The 76ers jumped out to a 17-8 lead at the start of the game, and it was apparent that the Wizards' best chance was to speed up the pace to score in the open court. The Wizards used a 10-0 run to go up 26-22, with Ish Smith and Davis Bertans providing a lift off of the bench. The eighth seeded Wizards stayed competitive throughout the contest, but they could not generate enough offense or string together enough stops to prevail.
Foul trouble limited Embiid to 30 minutes, and that helped keep the score close. He finished with a game-best +20 plus/minus number, and at one point in the first half the 76ers were +13 with Embiid in the game and -10 with Embiid on the bench. It is evident that the Wizards cannot guard Embiid, so his ability to stay healthy and his ability to stay out of foul trouble could turn out to be the two biggest factors in this series.
Phoenix 99, L.A. Lakers 90
In a game featuring several veteran future Hall of Famers with much playoff experience, the star of the game was playing in his first playoff game. Devin Booker showcased his all-around skill set with a game-high 34 points, a team-high tying eight assists, and seven rebounds while playing 45 minutes. Booker shot 13-26 from the field, and proved that he can beat double teams not only by scoring but also by making plays for his teammates. One of those teammates, Deandre Ayton, scored 21 points on 10-11 field goal shooting while grabbing a game-high 16 rebounds.
The Suns played with great energy and enthusiasm, but the Lakers looked lethargic. LeBron James led the Lakers in scoring (18 points on 6-13 field goal shooting) and assists (10) but he did not make an imprint on the game. Anthony Davis was missing in action for most of the game, finishing with 13 points on 5-16 field goal shooting, plus seven rebounds.
The Suns outscored the Lakers 32-25 in the first quarter, including a 10-0 advantage in fast break points. The Suns extended that margin to 38-29 before Chris Paul suffered a right shoulder contusion and had to leave the game at the 9:19 mark of the second quarter. The Suns were still up by nine (44-35) when Paul returned with 5:32 remaining in the second quarter. It was immediately apparent that Paul could barely use his right arm, though the commentators did not discuss this very much until deep in the second half--and the Lakers did not seem interested enough to figure out that it might be a good idea to test Paul's ability to dribble, shoot, and defend. The righthanded Paul repeatedly dribbled up the court using his left hand, and on the few occasions that he dribbled with his right hand he handled the ball with all of the dexterity of Edward Scissorhands. Paul attempted one shot during his first half return to action and he missed horribly. He played defense as if his right hand were tied behind his back, yet no one on the broadcast team thought to at least bring up (1) the possibility that playing one handed could hurt his team and (2) the Lakers should have been targeting Paul not to hurt him but to exploit his obvious limitations.
Early in the third quarter, Paul made an awkward looking midrange shot, and Jeff Van Gundy belatedly mentioned that not only was Paul having trouble dribbling with his right hand but he was not able to shoot using his normal shooting stroke. It also seemed like Paul had great difficulty accurately making a pass covering a distance longer than 10 feet; he spent most of the game laboring to bring the ball up the court with a left handed dribble only to then make a short drop off pass and then camp out far away from the action. Paul finished with seven points, eight assists, and four rebounds, but he accumulated most of those numbers before he suffered the injury.
The defending champion Lakers lost to a team playing four on five!
This is not meant to take away any credit from Booker, Ayton, and the rest of the Suns who played their hearts out, but it is not hard to picture Bill Russell or Michael Jordan rather forcefully telling their teammates exactly how and why they are not going to lose a game to a team playing with a one-armed point guard. For those too young to remember or know, Russell's comment about the famous Willis Reed game was that if he had been Wilt Chamberlain he would have taken it as a personal insult that Reed thought that he could step on the court in an NBA Finals game and play against him on one good leg.
Paul seemed to take a stab at evening the odds by using his left arm to hook James' left arm and then undercut/pull down James as the two players chased a missed James free throw at the 9:01 mark of he fourth quarter. ABC's Jeff Van Gundy, referencing the odd 10 second count violation called against Giannis Antetokounmpo on Saturday, noted that if the referees are going to enforce seldom-enforced free throw rules then they should do so consistently; Paul entered the three point arc prior to James' shot hitting the rim, James crossed the free throw line before his shot hit the rim, and other players also committed violations on the play, but none of the violations were called. James crashed hard to the floor after Paul pulled him down, and James immediately grabbed his left shoulder. With James, you are often not sure at first if he is flopping, or a little banged up, or actually injured. While James writhed on the floor, Paul offered his right arm (!) to help him up, and Phoenix' Cam Payne got into an altercation with the Lakers' Alex Caruso, inspiring Montrezl Harrell to run halfway across the court to push Payne. It took several minutes of replay review to sort everything out, with the end result being that Paul received a common foul for undercutting James, Caruso received one technical foul, Harrell received one technical foul, and Payne received two technical fouls (with the accompanying automatic ejection).
Phoenix led 86-77 prior to the Paul foul and the ensuing skirmish, and the Lakers never got closer than seven points the rest of the way. Paul continued to play one-armed, the Lakers continued to play lethargically, and the result was never in doubt.
I did not think that the Lakers could win three series without home court advantage to get back to the NBA Finals, but they will have to play better than this just to make it out of the first round. On the other hand, the Suns did not manage to score 100 points against a Lakers team that barely seemed interested for most of the game, and the Suns did not even win by double digits despite Ayton dominating Davis. It remains to be seen how limited Paul will be the rest of the way--but he has a history of getting hurt and/or wearing down during the playoffs, which is one of the explicitly stated reasons that I picked the Lakers--and it also remains to be seen if the Lakers will adjust their game plan if the Suns brazenly insist on playing four on five.
Atlanta 107, New York 105
Trae Young's playoff debut in Madison Square Garden could not have gone better. He finished with 32 points, 10 assists, and seven rebounds, joining LeBron James as the only players to post at least 30-10-5 in their first playoff game. Young topped off his statistical dominance by hitting the game-winning floater with less than a second remaining in regulation, becoming just the second player in the past 25 years to hit a go-ahead field goal in the final 10 seconds of the fourth quarter or overtime in a playoff debut (Dwyane Wade is the other player).
It may have been reasonable to assume that the Knicks' Julius Randle would be the best player in this series, but his playoff debut did not go well as he scored just 15 points on 6-23 field goal shooting, though he did grab 12 rebounds and dish for four assists.
The Hawks jumped out to a 22-11 first quarter lead, and they led most of the way, though New York rallied to go up by as much as seven, and the Knicks led by 103-100 with 1:11 left in the fourth quarter.
Both of these teams are playoff neophytes, and this looks very much like a series that will last six or seven games.
Memphis 112, Utah 109
Donovan Mitchell did not play due to his ankle injury, and the Jazz shot just 12-47 from three point range; without Mitchell, they just could not generate enough offense, and they also had trouble matching up with the Grizzlies' dynamic guards Ja Morant and Dillon Brooks. Mitchell has not played since April 16, but he had been expected to play in this game and when he was a late scratch even his teammates were surprised.
Brooks scored a game-high 31 points on 13-26 field goal shooting, while Morant added 26 points on 11-21 field goal shooting. Bojan Bogdanovic led Utah with 29 points on 8-16 field goal shooting, but he missed a three pointer at the buzzer that could have sent the game to overtime.
This was a choppy game in which Memphis led by as many as 17 points and Utah led by as many as 14 points. Utah outrebounded Memphis 50-42, but squandered those extra possessions with missed three pointers and turnovers (16, compared to Memphis' nine). Even though the Jazz built a double digit lead without Mitchell, if he does not make a healthy return soon, the Jazz could be in trouble.
That's the article: Brief Recaps of Sunday's Playoff Quadrupleheader
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