We kicked things off with two stinkers of games between the Sixers/Nets and Raptors/Magic. Both young Eastern Conference teams(Nets & Magic) were put to playoff rest in unceremonious blowout losses to their clearly superior opponents. Toronto took home the W, 96-115 while Philadelphia concluded the series with a 100-122 win. Philly led by as much as 39 in the contest while the Raptors stretched the lead to as much as 35. The final scores weren't indicative of the respect carnage brought forth.
The Nets and Magic both got their one playoff win, which is good enough for their fans to hang their hat on as they look back on their overachieving seasons in the summer heat. If they got swept they still would've been thankful for the effort expended of earning a playoff spot, but the gap in excitement between getting blanked and stealing one on the road is a large one.
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The Sixers and Raptors will now face each other in the Eastern Conference Semi's, which is sure to be a back and forth battle of two highly talented squads. Toronto has more playoff experience among its key players like Kawhi Leonard, Kyle Lowry, Danny Green, Serge Ibaka, and Marc Gasol. Not to mention, their best player in Leonard is a Finals MVP.
This will be a serious opportunity for the Sixers to grow against a concise playoff squad who knows what they are. With Embiid's nagging injury, I'm not really expecting them to win. I think it'll be Raptors in five or six, but a healthy Embiid would all but assure this series would go to six or seven. Let's see though. Can we get the aggressive Ben Simmons that came out and dominated the Nets for 31-4-9 in Game 3? If that guy shows up, it'd throw a whole new element of uncertainty into the series' fate.
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Out west, the San Antonio Spurs fell to the Denver Nuggets 90-108. The first half stayed relatively competitive, despite the Nugs pulling away by 20+ a few times. It always felt like the Spurs could make a run if they just put their heads down and poured in stable offense with an energetic defensive effort. That thought never came to fruition. The Nuggets absolutely threw it down in the second half on their home floor thanks to big games from Jamal Murray (23-4-7) and Nikola Jokic (16-11-8).
It was a disappointing result for those pulling for the Spurs, but they'll get the Nuggets back home in San Antonio with the season on the line down 3-2. I don't expect the Nuggets to play as lights out on the road, much less in their first chance as a group on the road in an elimination game. We will see how the rest of this series plays out, but I'm still leaning towards the Spurs In 7 camp.
And for our last game of the night, we had arguably the greatest first round game of the last ten, maybe twenty years. The Blazers hosted the Thunder and were up 3-1 over OKC coming in. Win and the series is put to bed. The Trailblazers and Thunder were trading blows in a heated heavyweight battle with OKC's playoff life on the line. Paul George was hooping, Westbrook was balling, but Damian Lillard pretty much put the Blazers on his very back. He had 47 heading into crunch time
The Thunder orchestrated a magnificent run that saw them go up by fifteen with about five minutes left to go in the fourth quarter. Portland was looking cooked. The friendly home crowd had no energy. The stage was all set for the Thunder to run this back in OKC for Game 6....but the Blazers came back to life!
CJ McCollum and a host of other role players all made key plays on both ends of the floor to eventually tie the game up with one minute to play! Russell Westbrook took the ball in his hands - and it was to his ultimate detriment. He drove hard to the hoop for a wild layup but it bounced out into the hands of Portland. Damian Lillard got the ball in his hands with the shot clock off, 47 points to his name, and the fate of the series in his hands. With all that riding on the line, Damian Lillard pulled up FROM NEAR HALF FUCKING COURT and drained a step back three in Paul George's face as time expired! Game and series over! 50 points for Lillard! It was one of the most incredible shots I've seen!
Damian Lillard served up the most authoritative, no argument, no contest win over Russell Westbrook and Thunder nation on Tuesday night. He and Westbrook had been engaged in the most entertaining rivalry of this year's NBA playoffs between the whole mess up shit they were talking to each other before, during, and after games. It hit its shit-talking apex in Game 3 when Russ balled out in Oklahoma City for the Thunder's only win of the series, but Russ's overall performances didn't back up all the crap he talked to Lillard.
In all fairness, Lillard didn't talk nearly as much as Russ. He let his game do the talking, and nothing got the message across better than a coming back down fifteen in the fourth quarter, tying it, then nailing the most improbable buzzer beater from near half-court. Those of us lucky enough to witness that game live will be mentioning this shot when we talk to our grandkids about who Damian Lillard was.
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