NBA 2016 Playoff Chronicles: Big Ups, Big Downs
NBA Playoff Chronicles is an irregular celebration of all things National Basketball Association during the 2016 Postseason, courtesy of the wit and whim of the Wildcard. So… expect more Dirk Nowitzki poems and Steven Adams Moustache highlights than you can handle.
Ray of Sunshine, Ray of Hope
You know what one of my very favourite things about the playoffs is? Seeing unlikely heroes stand up and drive their team to victory. J.J. Barea is the all-timer there, back in 2011 (at least for me) but while he had every chance of a repeat unlikely influence based on the end of his regular season with the Mavs, he’s currently injured. We did get our first rare hero though, and with all due respect to Kent Bazemore, that man, that unheralded man, was Raymond Felton.
Yes, the same Ray Felton that looked washed up three years ago at the Knicks. The same one that was done on felony gun charges. The same one that looked like if he really was packing then it was probably his lunch before anything else, man. Dude was kinda fat. But some hard work under Gandalf Carlisle and he had a pretty productive season, now here he is winning playoff games.
Ray Ray had 21 points and 11 rebounds including some massive late plays when nobody else seemed able to make any. It was his day, it was his podium game.
Hey but I’m digging Corey Joseph off the bench for the Raptors too. Toronto predictably overturned that loss in G1 with a powerful G2 effort but even still, Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan were not at their best. A combined 8 of 32 in the first and 9 of 31 in the second. That clearly needs to improve and, again, it should. But in the meantime Joseph has chipped in with 34 points in two game coming off only 14 shots. Huge stuff from the 24 year old former Spur – who averaged 8.5 points per game in the regular a career high.
Another sneaky one was how well 19 year old Stanley Johnson did guarding LeBron James. Nobody can guard LeBron James, but Johnson really muscled up, it was fun to watch.
Meanwhile Tim Duncan just had the first performance of his 243 game playoff career in which he didn’t make a single field goal, and speaking of not making field goals, I present Kevin Durant’s shot chart from the Mavs G2:
Going Hungry
The other day the Mavericks scored just 11 points in the first quarter against the Thunder. The Grizzlies also scored 11 points in the first against the Spurs in G2. The Celtics, in their second game, somehow managed to top that with a 7 point opening Q against the Hawks. 3 of 23 shooting. Boston can play with ATL but down Avery Bradley their roster of role players really glares – this is a good squad of players but they need a number one dude in there. Luckily for them there are a few options in free agency. Kevin Durant is a longshot but maybe DeMar DeRozan? Harrison Barnes? Al Horford, even? Watch that space.
Sounds like Bradley is out for the series with that dodgy hammy. Let’s see if Brad Stevens can find himself a Ray Felton, or if maybe he’s willing to go away from his usual scheme and play slow. Horford and Milsap can grind so that might be counterintuitive but those small guards were getting blocked all over the place. So far through two games the Hawks have led for 91:32 minutes out of 96.
Backtracking & Back Beating
Right so maybe Portland aren’t gonna give the Clippers a real challenge. As hard as it is to write off a team with Damian Lillard in it, and as much as they’ve defied the odds all season, there’s only so much you can do against any team when you cannot rebound. DAJ and Blake, one of those two will have a 20-board game this series. It’s the same problem that Dallas has against OKC – everyone loves to go small these days but you still need to get those defensive rebounds and if you don’t have Draymond Green to do that then there’s no hope. Not only do Portland and Dallas not have a rebounding stretch forward (the Mavs at least have Dirk to play some five and commit murders out of the pick and roll) but neither has a centre that’s gonna do it against these opponents either. I mean, even though the Mavs incredibly won that game two, they were a split second away from losing and why? Couldn’t get a rebound.
About that Mavs win, look at the slaying that preceded it. Look at all the slayings in the game ones:
- Thunder +38 vs Mavs, G1
- Heat +32 vs Hornets, G1
- Spurs +32 vs Grizzlies, G1
- Warriors +26 vs Rockets, G1
- Clippers +20 vs Blazers, G1
(Not to mention Spurs +26 vs Grizzlies, G2)
Day two of the playoffs featured three of those games, one of four such days in NBA Playoff history with three 20+ maulings like that. The last was in 1999 and there were two in 1985. Across the first games of each of the series the average winning margin was 20.5 points and that makes this year the most one-sided set of game ones ever. It’s been a weird season and that’s only continuing now.
Which makes Dallas’ win over OKC just the fourth occasion in playoffs history that a team overturned a 35+ loss in the first game to win the second – and they did it on the road too.
DeAndre Airballed a FT
Good Luck There, Barnesy
Close But No Cigarillo
Quotables:
Stan Van Gundy: “A couple calls have upset our guys. They've got to understand, LeBron's LeBron. They're not going to call offensive fouls on him. He gets to do whatever he wants. They've got to understand that."
Kevin Durant: “That’s fake shit”
Russell Westbrook: “That’s for people that don’t play”
They were talking about this, by the way. Charlie Villanueva of the Dallas Mavs (and also rookie Justin Anderson) getting in the way of Russ and Cam Payne’s pre-game dance ritual. Probably deliberately, or at least it will have been from Charlie V – who, yes, didn’t play. But Anderson did and he came up with a match winning block, so yeah.
OH, CHARLIE V RESPONDED!
Kevin Durant: “Just missed ’em. Just missed ’em. Everything looked good for me. Coach drew up some good plays. Teammates set great screens. Russell delivered the ball perfect. It’s on me after that. I’ve just got to make ’em next game.”
Draymond Green: “As far as Steph being in the next game, I know he doesn't want to miss two games. But at the end of the day, there is no reason for him to be out there.”
Dirk Nowitzki: “We let ’em know we’re here to fight. Obviously, with their talent and their team and their roster, they’re still the heavy favourites. But we let ’em know this is not going to be an easy walkover.”
LeBron James: "It's not about me versus Stan. It's about his teams versus the teams that I've been on and I'm not having an individual matchup with Stan or an individual matchup with Stanley [Johnson] or any other Stan they can possess."
DeMar DeRozan: “That’s the beauty of the game. Everything’s not always gonna go your way. The best part about it is when you can make that adjustment next go-round and understand you still can be effective the same way if you don’t get to the free-throw line. So that’s all good.”
Steven Adams: "Gotta let it go, mate. Treat it like an ex-girlfriend."
Hero Ballers:
Ray Freakin Felton (DAL):
21 PTS (8/16 FG), 11 REB, 3 AST – G2 vs OKC
Luol Deng (MIA):
31 PTS (11/13 FG, 4/6 3PT, 5/7 FT), 7 REB – G1 vs CHA
Kevin Love (CLE):
28 PTS (10/22 FG, 4/8 3PT, 4/5 FT), 13 REB – G1 vs DET
Chris Paul (LAC):
28 PTS (10/19 FG, 2/5 3PT, 6/6 FT), 6 REB, 11 AST – G1 vs POR
Klay Thompson (GSW):
34 PTS (8/20 FG, 3/8 3PT, 15/16 FT), 3 REB, 5 AST – G2 vs HOU
Jonas Valanciunas (TOR):
23 PTS (10/18 FG, 3/4 FT), 15 REB – G2 vs IND