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The 2022 NBA playoffs have lastly arrived! After an unprecedented common season, that includes a number of the closes races in latest reminiscence, Saturday marked the start of what every of those 16 groups hope will likely be a two-month march to the NBA championship. And with a trio of unimaginable playoff debuts, what a starting it was.
Within the Western Convention, the No. 3-seeded Golden State Warriors had been paced by 22-year-old Jordan Poole, who led the Warriors to a 16-point victory over Nikola Jokic and the No. 6-seeded Denver Nuggets. And the seventh-seeded Minnesota Timberwolves, who defeated the LA Clippers within the No. 7 vs. No. Eight play-in sport, beat Ja Morant and the second-seeded Memphis Grizzlies behind an epic 36-point playoff debut from 2020 No. 1 decide Anthony Edwards.
Earlier within the afternoon, Donovan Mitchell and the No. 5-seeded Utah Jazz took on the No. 4-seeded Dallas Mavericks, who’re with out franchise celebrity Luka Doncic, dominated out of Recreation 1 on Saturday morning due to a strained left calf. There may be important concern as to Doncic’s availability for Recreation 2 as effectively, sources instructed ESPN.
Over within the East, the fourth-seeded Philadelphia 76ers crushed the fifth-seeded Toronto Raptors behind an explosive efficiency from second-year guard Tyrese Maxey, who poured in a game-high 38 factors on 21 pictures within the Sixers’ 20-point Recreation 1 victory.
Our NBA experts watched it all. Listed below are an important takeaways from every of the 4 video games on Day 1 of playoff motion.
More: Everything you need to know about the 16 teams still standing
No. 6 Denver Nuggets vs. No. Three Golden State Warriors
Game 1: Warriors 123, Nuggets 107: Poole’s offensive firepower continues to be worthwhile insurance coverage for Warriors’ title chase
For the previous three years, Jordan Poole has been asking his veteran teammates in regards to the playoffs. So when he took the courtroom Saturday in his first profession playoff sport, he was as prepared as he might have been. And he performed prefer it.
Poole scored a game-high 30 factors on 9-of-13 capturing, together with 5-of-7 from 3, a efficiency that noticed Poole go Stephen Curry for many 3s made in a playoff debut (Curry hit 4 in 2013). It was the second-most factors in a playoff debut in Warriors historical past, trailing simply Wilt Chamberlain, who scored 35.
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Jordan Poole goes for 30 factors in his playoff debut, main the Warriors to a dominant Recreation 1 win.
Though Curry was again within the lineup for the primary time since March 16, Poole, who averaged 18.5 factors and Four assists per sport this season, remained within the beginning lineup. There is no resolution when, or if, Poole will head again to the bench, with Warriors head coach Steve Kerr saying, “We’ll cross that bridge once we get there.”
Poole’s playoff debut continues his marketing campaign for Sixth Man of the 12 months, one which has solely accelerated over the previous month. From March till the tip of the common season, Poole shot 41.9% from Three on 85 makes — no different participant made greater than 74 — and poured in 24.7 factors per sport, on 47% capturing and 5.Four assists.
This eruption is not new for him, Kerr insists. He believes it goes all the way in which again to the ultimate play-in sport final season, when Poole scored 19 factors off the bench in a season-ending loss to the Memphis Grizzlies. For the Warriors to get again to title rivalry, they will want Poole to proceed to ascend — and quick. — Kendra Andrews
No. 5 Toronto Raptors vs. No. Four Philadelphia 76ers
Game 1: 76ers 131, Raptors 111: Tyrese Maxey is perhaps the important thing to the Sixers reaching the Jap Convention finals
Within the days main as much as the beginning of the first-round sequence between the 76ers and Raptors, the entire focus was on how James Harden would carry out in his first postseason along with his new staff.
Recreation 1, nonetheless, noticed a unique guard emerge because the star of the sport: second-year breakout star Tyrese Maxey, who completed with 38 factors on 14-for-21 capturing.
And, after his newest spectacular efficiency in a season filled with them, his play provides up an fascinating query: Is it Maxey, and never Harden, who’s Philadelphia’s second-best participant after Joel Embiid?
Anybody watching this sport would have a tough time arguing in any other case. Harden performed effectively, ending with 22 factors, 5 rebounds and 14 assists in 40 minutes. However he went simply 2-for-10 on 2-point pictures, and when he is not fouled on the rim, continues to look quick on offensive firepower.
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James Harden bounces a candy go to Tyrese Maxey by way of site visitors for a fast-break end.
Maxey, nonetheless, has no such downside. The 6-foot-2 guard, already one of many NBA’s quickest gamers, has gone from settling for one floater after one other as a rookie to exploding to the rim over defenders repeatedly. One motive for that? An inflow of area: After capturing simply 30% from Three final season on simply 1.7 makes an attempt per sport, he has greater than doubled his perimeter manufacturing, capturing 42.7% on greater than 4 makes an attempt per sport.
Saturday, Maxey went 5-for-Eight from deep — even with Toronto flooding defenders to him. And whereas there have been preliminary considerations about how he’d fare with Harden, the arrival of the 10-time All-Star has as an alternative unleashed Maxey as a devastating slasher and scorer — one the Raptors had no solutions for in Recreation 1.
The remainder of the postseason will not be this straightforward for the 76ers. They will not all the time have three turnovers in 48 minutes. They will not all the time hit 50% of their 3s.
However they’ll have Maxey’s velocity and power. And if he retains enjoying like this, it may very well be him — and never Harden — who’s the important thing to the 76ers lastly reaching the Jap Convention finals, and past, for the primary time in over twenty years. — Tim Bontemps
No. 7 Minnesota Timberwolves vs. No. 2 Memphis Grizzlies
Game 1: Wolves 130, Grizzlies 117: Memphis will not be capable to grind Minnesota’s top-ranked offense into submission
The Minnesota Timberwolves lit it up in Recreation 1 of their first-round sequence in opposition to the Memphis Grizzlies — and we should not have anticipated something much less. The Wolves had been the NBA’s best offense after New 12 months’s. In Recreation 1, it was an assault that even the Grizzlies — the league’s third-ranked protection since New 12 months’s — could not comprise.
Minnesota’s 130-117 win was a showcase within the depth of creativity of that offense. Anthony Edwards‘s first step propelled him into the center of the Memphis protection, however he completed with ease. He is a slasher who will preserve the Grizzlies up at night time for the subsequent couple of weeks. In Recreation 1, he additionally exacted loads of harm from the skin — 4 3-pointers. It is a participant filling out his sport on an enormous stage.
No matter plagued Karl-Anthony Towns as he struggled within the Wolves’ play-in win on Tuesday was extinguished early on Saturday. He drained pictures from deep, attacked from the perimeter, beat the Grizzlies’ assist protection and operated along with his feathery contact across the basket. When encountering our bodies on the nail, he whipped the ball again out to shooters for beauty from past the arc.
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Karl-Anthony Cities’ dad and Ja Morant’s dad have some enjoyable on the sidelines with a minute remaining.
The Wolves shared the ball, received high quality appears to be like on reversals and skip passes, and crashed the offensive glass. They stored their cool, picked their spots and hit huge pictures late.
The Grizzlies can take solace in the truth that they missed greater than a dozen shot makes an attempt within the fast basket space in Recreation 1, one thing they’re unlikely to do once more. However to win the sequence, they will want to determine the best way to sluggish the Wolves’ locomotive, as a result of any notion that the Grizzlies can use their physicality and rim safety to grind Minnesota into submission seems overly optimistic. — Kevin Arnovitz
No. 5 Utah Jazz vs. No. Four Dallas Mavericks
Game 1: Jazz 99, Mavericks 93: “We simply did not have sufficient offensive energy down the stretch.”
It should not come as any shock that the Mavericks’ offense sputtered whereas injured celebrity Luka Doncic wore a hoodie and watched from the bench.
The Mavs’ probabilities of advancing previous the primary spherical for the primary time since their 2011 title run take a significant hit if Doncic is munching popcorn throughout video games. Dallas’ hopes for playoff success hinge totally on its perennial MVP candidate placing on a present, which is not prone to occur Monday night time for Recreation 2, as a lot as Doncic and the Mavs’ medical workers attempt to expedite the therapeutic of his left calf pressure. Dallas coach Jason Kidd calls Doncic “everyday,” however the Mavs can be ecstatic if he is able to return by the point the sequence shifts to Salt Lake Metropolis.
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Royce O’Neale tells the Dallas crowd to cool down after splashing a 3-pointer within the fourth quarter.
The Mavs proved Saturday of their 99-93 Recreation 1 loss that they will make the Jazz play within the mud, virtually pulling off a double-digit comeback in opposition to a staff notably vulnerable to giving them up. Utah’s offense was ugly. Dallas prevented the NBA’s top-ranked offense from getting clear 3-point appears to be like and lobs to All-Star huge man Rudy Gobert — fairly an accomplishment to disclaim each weapons and make All-Star guard Donovan Mitchell (32 factors on 10-of-29 capturing) work so arduous to attain.
The Mavs’ downside, predictably, was their offense was even uglier. Doncic led the NBA in utilization charge for the second consecutive season for good motive. He is pretty much as good as anybody within the league at fixing defenses, a risk to attain in any respect three ranges and elite at establishing his teammates for dunks and 3s. And he is surrounded by position gamers who excel enjoying off him — however aren’t suited to persistently create offense, particularly with Gobert shutting down the paint.
“They did not rating 100 factors,” Kidd stated. “Whenever you do this in as we speak’s basketball, it tends to provide you an opportunity to win. We simply did not have sufficient offensive energy down the stretch.”
It is arduous sufficient to win within the NBA playoffs with a lone star when he is wholesome. — Tim MacMahon
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