"In a decisive and momentum-shifting Game 5 of the NBA playoffs, the Dallas Mavericks fell to the LA Clippers, allowing a record scoring night in the loss.
Just when it seems the series was just beginning to get even more interesting the Dallas Mavericks collapsed and the momentum shifted back in favor of the LA Clippers in the first round of the NBA playoffs.
The Clippers came full force Tuesday night and refused to let their foot off the gas in an absolute throttling of the Mavs in Game five.
Prior to Tuesday’s loss, in which Dallas gave up 154 points, the most points the Mavs allowed in a playoff game were: 1) 137 points against the Sacramento Kings on May 10, 2003, 2) 134 points against the LA Lakers on April 28, 1984, and 3) 133 points against the LA Clippers in Game 4 of this series on Sunday night. It also ties for the largest playoff loss in franchise history at 43 points, which happened at the hand of the LA Lakers on April 28, 1984, at Staples Center.
Everything that could go wrong, did go wrong.
In fairness, the Clippers had a historic night on the offensive end, being the first team in NBA history to score 150+ points on 60+ percent from the field and 60+ percent from 3-pt range in a playoff game. They also set multiple franchise records: most threes in a playoff game (22), most field goals in a playoff game (53), highest field goal percentage in a playoff game (63.1 percent) and their biggest playoff win (43 points).
Though this was just a blip on the radar on social media once video surfaced of Clippers’ Marcus Morris Sr. appearing to purposely step on the injured ankle of Luka Doncic."
"The Miami Heat swept the Indiana Pacers 4-0 in the first round of the NBA playoffs, leaving the Pacers searching for answers.
Before the playoffs began, all the NBA playoffs matchups were laid out and the Indiana Pacers vs Miami Heat series seemed to be on the top of the list as the evenest matchup along with the Jazz-Nuggets series. It turns out that Pacers vs Heat wasn’t anything like the series between Denver and Utah who went to a crunching Game 7 and ultimately Denver came out on top. In four games, the Miami Heat had swept their competition and it was a shock.
The shock wasn’t so much at Miami’s success as it was at Indiana’s failure. The Heat looked to be serious contenders in the East when they almost beat the Milwaukee Bucks in the NBA bubble seeding games until Milwaukee climbed back from their 20-point deficit. Likewise, we watched the Pacers all season and were impressed with how they played.
They even finished ahead of the Heat in the regular season in the fourth and the Heat being the fifth. The Pacers finished the season at 45-28 and the Heat 44-29. So, they were pretty even – very even – at least during the regular season, but this wasn’t the case in the playoffs.
The entire series was cringe-worthy. As we take a look at each game one-by-one, the Heat managed to come out the winner and the Pacers sat dazed and confused on how to approach their competition. It is not easy to see how this happened, but it is worth taking an analytical look at the series now that it is over. The expectations for the Pacers, to say the least, had dropped drastically by the end of it all."
Los Angeles Lakers Face MasksThe Boston Celtics (and 3 other teams) are having a bad start to free agency
"There’s been plenty of good and bad so far in NBA free agency, but the Boston Celtics and three other teams are off to terrible starts.
It’s the happiest time of the year in the NBA, and that fact is compounded with the combination of the draft and free agency in the same week. Of course, if it’s not a happy time, it’s the absolute worst time, and for a handful of teams (led by the Boston Celtics), it’s been downright awful.
Let’s take a look at just why the Celtics have had a terrible time so far, and then we’ll go on to a few other teams having just as bad of a time.
Why the Boston Celtics are having a miserable free agency
The Boston Celtics always seem to be on the verge of making a big deal for a star, only to decide they’re fine without a blockbuster trade and come up just short in the end. Over the last couple of seasons, it’s even worse than that. Not only have the Celtics been unable to swing a big deal for a star or two, they’ve been losing their own.
Last season they lost Kyrie Irving in free agency, receiving nothing in return. While considering how poorly the relationship was by the end of Irving’s time in Boston, it’s fair to say that getting him out of the locker room was a win by itself, but it’s still a poor result for a max-level player.
This time around, they lost Gordon Hayward also for nothing. He opted out of his $34 million 2020-21 salary, and while he and the team were apparently working to find a sign-and-trade in order to maximize him as an asset, he ended up departing to the Charlotte Hornets and signing a gigantic four-year, $120 million deal.
That contract is certainly an overpay and not something the Celtics should have tried to match, but losing top-end players and replacing them with nothing so far isn’t the best way to get back to the Eastern Conference Finals.
Maybe the Celtics will turn it around, but so far they’re one of our headlining teams for Bad Times During Free Agency."
Houston Rockets Face MasksMiami Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra’s smart game-planning has been a huge advantage in its series against the Milwaukee Bucks in the NBA playoffs. "The Miami Heat are up 2-0 in against the first seeded Milwaukee Bucks. They need to win twice more to earn an Eastern Conference Finals berth, a height that no one saw them reaching when they retooled their roster last offseason.
Several of the Heat’s newcomers have been impactful in Miami’s two victories against the Eastern Conference’s best team but one of the longest-tenured people in the Heat organization deserves credit as well: head coach Erik Spoelstra.
Miami’s two-time championship-winning coach has proven to be a cut above the rest yet again. The culture he fosters in the Heat organization pays dividends, attracting stars like Jimmy Butler and developing guys with few, if any, expectations to be big-time contributors at the NBA level into key starters (see: Bam Adebayo and Duncan Robinson).
While the play on the court is always the most important aspect of the game, coaching makes a tremendous difference, and it’s showing in this series. Spoelstra has run circles around Milwaukee’s Mike Budenholzer. Spo’s decisions have put the Miami Heat in a prime position to take the series while Bud’s have cost his team momentum and possibly the outcome of games.
For one, Spoelstra has managed his rotations better than Budenholzer, who still has a reluctance to play his best players through the entirety of crunch time.
Spoelstra has made minimal substitutions near the end of the fourth quarter. By roughly half-way through the final period, Spo has his key players in for the remainder of the game. Budenholzer has struggled with this.
With 5:06 left in Game 2, Middleton picked up his 5th foul. He was subbed out for Wes Matthews and subbed back in with 3:32 left. In that time, Matthews committed a turnover and two fouls, one of which was a shooting foul on Jimmy Butler, who made both free throws, extending the Heat’s lead to eight.
The absence of Eric Bledsoe in Game 1 doesn’t excuse some of Budenholzer’s rotation decisions. Pat Connaughton receiving 25 minutes in Game 1 and Marvin Williams receiving 21 minutes in Game 2 are huge lapses in judgment by last season’s Coach of the Year."
"As the Houston Rockets and Los Angeles Lakers face off in the second round of the NBA playoffs, here is a full breakdown of the series."
"James Harden and Russell Westbrook versus LeBron James and Anthony Davis. Small-ball versus a group of giants. Two high-scoring offenses and two of the league’s top 10 defenses. This NBA playoffs matchup in the second round between the Houston Rockets and Los Angeles Lakers has everything an NBA fan could ask for.
While this series between the Rockets and Lakers is sure to provide tons of excitement, the two teams had very different experiences in the first round.
After losing Game 1 to the Portland Trail Blazers many people thought the Lakers might be in trouble, including Charles Barkley who said they would get swept. But James and Davis had other plans. The duo took over the series, putting up incredible numbers, to help the Lakers win the next four games and make quick work of Portland.
On the other hand, it appeared as if the Rockets would cruise past the OKC Thunder after they got out to a 2-0 series lead. But things quickly changed and OKC pushed Houston to the brink of elimination, forcing a Game 7 in which the Rockets needed every single second of to come out on top.
The two different paths the Lakers and Rockets took to get to this point makes this series even more intriguing. The Lakers are fully rested but also have gone six days without playing a game that could hurt them. Meanwhile, the Rockets are still gassed from their first-round series but the fact that the series went seven could serve as a benefit because it let Westbrook get his legs back under him after missing four straight games.
This is just one of the many storylines to follow during this series. Continue reading to for a breakdown of a key matchup, key questions, and predictions for this second-round series"
Indiana Pacers Face Masks