I did not know what to write about so I decided to write some thoughts about some of the series’ that have been more competitive and compelling.
Here come the New York Knicks. After their 102-93 win on Sunday afternoon, the Knicks took a 3-1 series lead over the Cavaliers. They looked dominant at times in the 2 wins at Madison Square Garden and with the play of Jalen Brunson, Julius Randle, RJ Barrett, and Mitchell Robinson, New York looks like they can make a dream run. The free agency signing of Jalen Brunson has changed everything for the Knicks. Brunson has become New York’s best player this season, averaging 24.0 points, 6.2 assists, and 3.5 rebounds in a breakout season after many questioned the Knicks for giving him a $100 million contract. In the playoffs, Brunson has outplayed Darius Garland and Donovan Mitchell, hitting big shots throughout and leading the Knicks to having the Cavs on the brink of elimination. RJ Barrett has also had massive games in games 3 and 4, averaging 22.5 points, and 5 rebounds over the 2 Knick wins. Sunday was the best playoff game of Barrett’s young career, as he scored 10 fourth quarter points, where he scored on a bunch of tough shots, including a tough layup over Jarrett Allen that extended the Knicks lead to 7 and then he hit the dagger with 48 seconds left to put the Knicks up 10. New York’s defense has had one goal throughout the series, do not let Donovan Mitchell beat us, make it be the rest of the guys, and aside from game 2 and the 3rd quarter of game 4, they have not. Darius Garland has not been all that good, aside from game 2 and the 3rd quarter of game 4, and with Mitchell being held in check Cleveland has needed him to step up. Josh Hart and Quentin Grimes (before his injury) have drawn the Mitchell matchup and held Donovan in check, after his 38 point performance in game 1, with averages of 16.7 points, 7.7 assists, and 4.3 rebounds over the past 3 games. New York still has to close out the Cavs though, the defense needs to stay where it is, with Mitchell Robinson and Isaiah Hartenstein playing the way they have, it has allowed New York to open up the 3 games to 1 lead. The bigs need to keep playing the way they have, making sure the high/low game of Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen can’t get going. Along with keeping Donovan Mitchell in check, New York should be able to advance to the 2nd round.
Warriors-Kings is FUN, so very fun. Game 1 was so good, game 2 Draymond stomped on Domantas Sabonis, game 3 was the Steph Curry show, and game 4 was an all-time classic. Steph calling a timeout in the last seconds of the game when Golden State had no timeouts was shocking, so shocking. They should have had a timeout too because the challenge they lost the last timeout on was a bad challenge, you could see Draymond Green saying to Steve Kerr ‘don’t challenge it’ on the ABC broadcast, but still, 4-time champion and 2-time MVP Steph Curry should know how many timeouts his team has. He also went too fast on the last Golden State offensive possession, as he shot the ball with 11 seconds left on the shot clock and 15 seconds on the game clock in a game where Golden State led by 1. De’Aaron Fox was incredible, with 38 points and the shot that cut the Golden State lead to 1 was unbelievable, a 29 footer that was nothing but net with 30 seconds left. Curry and Green did a fantastic job defensively on the very last play to make sure that Fox not only would not be able to shoot but that the only pass he would be able to make would be to Harrison Barnes, which I was unsure why he was on the court to begin with but he was the in-bounder. Now, Barnes did have a wide open look but I’d rather Barnes take that shot if I am Golden State than either of De’Aaron Fox or Malik Monk, who was on the other wing. Now, if Barnes makes that shot it is an all-time moment as the former Warrior gets revenge but he did not and now we have a best of 3 that is going to be epic.
After the Clippers took game 1 behind a dominant Kawhi Leonard showing where he scored 38 points with 5 rebounds and 5 assists, it looked like the Clippers could beat the Suns even without Paul George. However, after a game 2 loss, the Clippers announced that Kawhi Leonard would be out for game 3 with a sprained right knee and then after he missed game 4, the Suns were able to take control of the series with a 3-1 lead. This does not change the fact that the Suns don’t look like a team that should be favored to beat the Denver Nuggets. The Nuggets are so good and with Jamal Murray starting to look like he is back, Denver looks like the better team. Let’s start with the size in the backcourt. Jamal Murray is listed at 6’4” and 215 lbs. Kentavious Caldwell-Pope is listed at 6’5” and 205 lbs. that is going to give Chris Paul and Devin Booker problems on both sides of the court. Denver has big guards and with Micheal Porter Jr. and Aaron Gordon rounding out the starting 5, Denver has a lot of length surrounding Nikola Jokic, who brings a lot of problems himself. My guess is that Denver has Murray guard Chris Paul, Caldwell-Pope guard Devin Booker, Gordon guard Kevin Durant, Porter Jr. guard Deandre Ayton, allowing Nikola Jokic to roam around and guard whoever the fifth guy on the court is. Thus, allowing Jokic to hover around the rim and block shots. Now, I don’t trust either bench, but I trust Jeff Green, Bruce Brown, and Christian Braun more than I trust whoever Phoenix is putting out there and Monty Williams still has no idea who that is. I think the Nuggets have more answers for the Suns than the Suns do for the Nuggets, though Devin Booker and Kevin Durant may be so good that it does not matter. I cannot wait for this series to start.
I don’t know how to end this so I’ll just say the ending to game 4 of Nuggets-Timberwolves was the most shocking and the least shocking thing ever at the same time. I could not believe what was happening but it being the Minnesota Timberwolves allowing that comeback was not surprising in the slightest, Karl-Anthony Towns is so lucky Jokic missed that first free throw because what are you doing reaching in that situation?
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