Early playoff thoughts
The National Basketball Association (NBA) postseason is now rolling and so far it has been an eventful one with a number of standout moments.
One of such for this space is how the stars are taking center stage during this part of the NBA season as the case should be.
The openers surely had a lot of them league marquee names leaving their mark and making their presence felt.
Of those players, I am certainly high on the performance of league most valuable player candidate James Harden of the third-seeded Houston Rockets, who was stellar in leading his team in routing no. 6 team Oklahoma City Thunder, 11887, in Game One of their playoff series.
“The Beard” finished with 37 points, seven rebounds and nine assists while proving to be the motor that the rest of the Rockets took cue from in said game.
Another were John Wall of the Washington Wizards and Giannis Antetokounmpo of the Milwaukee Bucks, who led their teams to important opening wins and further highlighting that the breakthrough season they are having is no fluke.
Wall had 32 points, on 50% shooting on the field, and 14 assists in their 114-107 victory of the Atlanta Hawks. It was a game- long brilliance for the Washington star that made further case for himself as an All- NBA Team member when the season is all said and done.
Also should be in the All-NBA Team is Antetokounmpo, who was once again all- around with 28 points, eight rebounds and three assists in the Bucks’ 97-83 Game One upset of the higherseeded Toronto Raptors.
Other league stars who had it great in their initial foray in the 2017 playoffs while leading their teams to wins were LeBron James and Kyrie Irving of the Cleveland Cavaliers, Kevin Durant and Stephen Curry of the Golden State Warriors, Kawhi Leonard of the San Antonio Spurs and Jimmy Butler of the Chicago Bulls.
Had it solid but fell short initially were CJ McCollum and Damian Lillard of the Portland Trail Blazers, Russell Westbrook of the Oklahoma City, Paul George of the Indiana Pacers and Isaiah Thomas of the Boston Celtics.
On the flip side, while having stars delivering goes a long way, the importance of having a workable bench could not be more underscored in the playoffs as well.
The Utah Jazz definitely benefitted from such when they were able to outlast the Los Angeles Clippers in Game One of their series, 97- 95, even sans big man Rudy Gobert who suffered a knee injury early in the contest. To top things off, veteran Joe Johnson scored 21 points and drained the game-winning shot for Utah.
OKC and the Memphis Grizzlies, for their part, had a hard time in their openers when their respective benches were rendered “not enough” by their opponents.
Westbrook stuffed the stat line as usual with 22 points, 11 rebounds, seven assists and two steals, although his 26% shooting and nine turnovers were off, but the rest of the Thunder did not go with him when the Rockets pulled away for the win.
The same went for the Grizzlies, which got the numbers from stars Marc Gasol ( 32 points) and Mike Conley ( 13 points and seven assists), but not enough from their auxiliaries, particularly Zach Randolph ( six points and three rebounds) that expedited their demise in Game One against the Spurs.
Another story that is worth noting is the brave face that Boston All- Star Thomas is putting up amid a family tragedy.
With his younger sister Chyna involved in a car crash that immediately killed her just as the playoffs were about to start, one could only imagine the emotional struggle that Thomas is undergoing right now.
But through it all, the Celtics guard is soldiering on and doing his best to focus on their series with the Bulls, and actually almost carried his team to the victory in Game One with 33 points, six rebounds and six assists.
Boston coach Brad Stevens said he is leaving it to Thomas to decide whether to play or not and they as an organization has his back in this difficult time, which I think is the best way to go about the situation.
As of this writing, reports have it that Thomas will play in Game Two then fly to his sister’s funeral.
It is still early in the 2017 NBA playoffs and as has been proven time and again in the league more happenings are to take place from which various thoughts can be drawn from. The real season has begun.