Breaking down the 2nd round

With three out of the four 2nd round series 2 games in, I figured it was time to go over what we have seen in those series. Plus, thoughts on the Stephen Curry injury.

Curry’s Injury

With Game 2 on the same day as this publishing, I don’t want to dive too deep into Warriors-Wolves.  However, we have to talk about the Stephen Curry injury.  Curry is expected to miss at a minimum a week with a hamstring strain.  This is obviously a huge loss for the Warriors.  They’ll need to find creative ways to generate offense, during these playoffs, their offense has plummeted from 118.1 points per 100 possessions to just 95.5 points per 100 when Curry is off of the floor and it falls to 89.4 when both Curry and Jimmy Butler are on the bench.  It will be big for the Warriors if Buddy Hield is hitting threes, they’ll need his offense to extend the series to a point when they can get Curry back.  Game 2 is Thursday at 8:30pm/EST on TNT.

Pacers 2, Cavaliers 0

These Pacers are really impressive.  They can score at will and their defense has vastly improved from last season.  Of course, the Cavaliers were missing Evan Mobley, Darius Garland and De’Andre Hunter in game 2 but the Cavs had a 20 point lead in game 2 and a 7 point lead with under a minute to go.  Mitchell was incredible during game 2 because he is incredible, 48 points, 9 assists, 5 rebounds and 4 steals on 50% from the field, he kept Cleveland in the game pretty much single handedly.  The injuries don't change anything about how impressive the Pacers are.  Aaron Nesmith has scored 40 points over the first 2 games of the series and is shooting 9/14 from three during Indiana’s two wins.  Tyrese Haliburton remains an incredible player, he is the engine that makes the Pacer offense go.  He perfectly missed the last free throw in game 2 to grab his own miss and hit the step back three to win the game.  This series is far from over.  Of course, this depends a lot on the Cleveland injuries but the Cavaliers didn’t win 64 games by accident.  This is a really good basketball team that’s offense was the best in the NBA all season, it is an absolute machine when it is at its best.  You can’t count a team out when they score like Cleveland does.  Game 3 is Friday at 7:30pm/EST on ESPN.

Thunder 1, Nuggets 1

That is how a team should answer a devastating game 1 loss, 149-106 Oklahoma City absolutely dominated the game.  Let’s start with game 1, I thought the Thunder should not have fouled up three so early, obviously hindsight is 20/20 but 13 seconds leaves too much time on the clock.  The 2nd time they fouled was the real crime.  Denver had Nikola Jokic on the bench, you have the best defense in the league against a team that was 20.4 points 100 worse with Jokic on the bench during the regular season.  Instead the Thunder fouled, allowing Joker to get back into the game, you know how the rest of it ended.  Jokic was incredible during game 1, with 42 points, 22 rebounds and 6 assists during the game, he dragged his team to a victory.  However, this Thunder team is a different machine and they showed it on Wednesday.  Their defense was the best in the league by 2.5 points per 100.  The gap between the Thunder and number 2 (the Magic) was bigger than the gap between number 2 and number 7 (the Warriors).  Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is likely going to win the league MVP and he looked like it on Wednesday scoring 34 points on 11/13 from the field and was a +51 for the game.  The Thunder have been the best team all season and that has continued into the playoffs.  I wouldn’t be shocked if they took both games in Denver.  Game 3 is Friday at 10:00pm/EST on ESPN

Knicks 2, Celtics 0

I have seen this horror movie from the Celtics before.  Sure their shot luck has been brutal during this series but that doesn’t change that they are better than this Knicks team.  New York’s defense has been awesome, the trio of OG Anunoby, Josh Hart and Mikal Bridges has totally mucked the game up for Tatum and Brown.  Yet, Boston still led both these losses by 20 points in the 2nd half.  The Celtics have to make more shots in the painted area.  On paint shots outside of the restricted area the C’s shot 5/21.  That has to be better.  These are the defending champs melting down like this, it is inexcusable.  The series isn’t over, the 2023 Celtics and 2024 Nuggets both forced a game 7 on their home floor after falling down 0-2 so I do think that Boston can get back into the series, and so can the Cavaliers.  Yet if the Celtics are going to take some of the shots they took at the end of both game 1 and 2, they are going to lose the series.  Game 3 is Saturday at 3:30 on ABC.