Last Night In The NBA: A Great Day To Be Trailing In A Series

Happy Monday everybody and welcome to another edition of Last Night In The NBA where we catch you up on everything that went down from the night before in the Association. Sunday gave us four games on the schedule and for each one, there was a lot at stake. Some were looking to just stay alive in their series, while the others were facing very important Game 4s in an effort to not fall behind 3-1. Well, if you can believe it every team that was trailing their series won yesterday and all the games were wildly entertaining. Sounds fun right? Well if you missed it, here’s what happened

Boston Celtics 102 vs Milwaukee Bucks 104 (Series tied 2-2)

Full blog on this will be out later, but I have to say as someone who has a rooting interest in how this series turns out for one of the teams playing in it, I could be happier. One of these days the Celts will figure out how to stop Giannis/Middleton I am sure of it

Golden State Warriors 90 vs San Antonio Spurs 103 (GS leads 3-1)

Considering no game between these two had been all that close heading into Game 4, you weren’t crazy if you thought the Spurs would finish it off and get swept. Basketball is clearly the last thing they are thinking about right now, but instead they turned in a performance that would make Popovich proud

The was one of those performances from SA that didn’t really make all that much sense, in fact they looked very GS-ish while they pulled it out. Five total guys in double figures behind LMA’s 22/10, they were on fire from deep making 15 3s and they turned it over just 8 times. While the shooting may not be sustainable, at least this was the first time the Spurs showed life on the defensive end. Heading into this game GS had never scored fewer than 110 points, so to hold them to 90 certainly isn’t anything to sneeze at.

Also what a night from Manu. I cannot imagine no matter what team you root for that you could dislike Manu. Not only is he a HOF player, but he’s still effective as hell even at this age. The Spurs don’t win this game without Manu’s performance, something we’ve been saying a lot over the last few decades.

For GS, I suppose you would have preferred the sweep so that guys could rest, but really there’s no difference to me if they close it out in 5. As expected Durant was a monster with 34/13 on 12-28 shooting, but the Warriors as a team struggled, with just 3 players in double figures and 37/25% splits

It’s not often that both Klay and Draymond will combine to go 8-30 with 8 TOs, and the good news is that despite being a little banged up, Shaun Livingston was still, solid off the bench with 10 points on 5-9 shooting. People don’t talk enough about how important he is to that second unit. I wouldn’t be too upset as a GS fan, I mean SA was 33-8 at home during the year, and I think it’s fair to say that the Spurs role players probably don’t play as well on the road in a hostile GS environment in Game 5. HOU didn’t sweep their first round either, so as long as the Warriors don’t get stupid and make this a 6 or 7 game series, they should be fine.

Toronto Raptors 98 vs Washington Wizards 106 (Series tied 2-2)

If you’re a TOR fan how are you feeling this morning? A little nervous? Just as confident as ever? I’m genuinely curious. They had a chance to snag their first ever 3-1 playoff lead and blew it, and now return to TOR with none of the momentum and a potential to drop a series they once led 2-0 in. After doing such a great job at home in limiting the production of Wall/Beal, they’ve had a brutal time doing the same while in WSH, as those two guys once again were awesome, combining for 58 of the 106

Before the playoffs when people would talk about why WSH could be a series challenge for someone, they had these type of performances in mind. Even with the HORRIFIC call on Beal to foul him out with around 4 minutes left, the Wizards responded with a nice closing run led by Oubre and Wall that ultimately sealed the deal.

Remember, what are the two things that always plague this team. Their bench and their fourth quarter production. Well in this game they got 18 points from their bench which doesn’t seem like a lot but it was a timely 18, and in the fourth quarter they had their second highest point total of 26 points while holding TOR to their lowest of the game at 18. That’s exactly how you need to close out a game of this magnitude in a series this even. TOR went from looking unstoppable early to all the sudden on the ropes. John Wall was every bit the superstar they needed, finishing with 27/6/14, including the dagger baseline jumper to seal it.

For TOR, you’re seeing what can happen when a team relies on two guys, and those two guys have rough nights. Sure Lowry/DeRozan combined for 54 of the 98, but they did it on 17-44 shooting and had 6 TOs. Had DeRozan not gone to the line 18 times things would have looked even worse.

Normally when their two stars struggle offensively, the TOR bench is there to pick up the slack. Well, in this game they finished with just 22 points on 9-21 shooting with 5 TOs. No Fred VanVleet really hurt them, and it’s always going to be a tough spot when key shooters like CJ Miles finish with 2 points. In my opinion, the Raptors become easy to guard when only two guys have more than 7 FGA.

Defensively this was not the same TOR team we saw all year, I don’t know how you could think they were while they were giving up 40 points in the third quarter, and between the 45% and 31 FTA for WSH, they really got whatever they wanted on the offensive end. That has to concern you as well if you’re a TOR fan.

This could just be one of those series where every home team wins, we’ve seen WSH play in a series just like that recently, but of all the teams with pressure Game 5s on the schedule, none are as huge as this TOR/WSH matchup. TOR really needs to win it or the doubt will truly become reality.

Cleveland Cavaliers 104 vs Indiana Pacers 100 (Series tied 2-2)

The Pacers had their chances. Now, unfortunately, you have given Lebron & Co life, and I hate to be the one to tell you but that usually does not end well for the opposing team. To think that the Cavs won this game thanks to a JR Smith 70 footer is hilarious, and perfectly JR. Now we know why he took that shot on 4/20.

Of course it also helps when you have a guy like Lebron who can go off for 32/13/7 on 12-22 shooting and just 1 TO, but you have to give some of the fringe players credit. Cavs don’t win this game without those GIGANTIC Kyle Kover threes late (he finished with 18), or that little mini run Jordan Clarkson went on by himself while scoring 12 off the bench on 5-9 shooting.

To win a game like this on the road while Kevin Love shot just 2-10 goes to show what a missed opportunity this was for IND, but also should put a little of the focus on the fact that the Cavs actually defended. For so much talk about how bad CLEs defense is, IND has scored 98, 97, 92, and 100 points. I would kill for my team to have numbers like that on the defensive end. Because when the Cavs can prevent a team from dropping 110+, that means the game will be close, and when the Cavs play a close game they usually come out on top, you know because of that whole Lebron guy thing.

For IND, look you really could have used that 3-1 lead, I don’t know how else to say it. You almost had it too, with balanced scoring resulting in 7 players in double figures, the Pacers took care of the basketball finishing  with just 8 TOs, and hell they even made 10+ 3PM.

So what went wrong? Well, Oladpio did his best Westbrook impression and had a brutal final stretch. He finished just 5-20 from the field, everything looked rushed and forced to close the game, and when that wasn’t working the Pacers had no other options. It’s fair to say they need him to be at his super human levels of Game 1 and 2 if they want to pull this series out, and they stand no chance if he continues this series like he did the final minutes of Game 4.

It’s also too bad they wasted what was a fairly entertaining night from Lance. We all know he loves to not give a fuck and get under guys skin, and I would say last night may have been his masterpiece

If nothing else, I want this series to go 7 games just so we can more of this type of stuff. What a weird rivalry this is when it isn’t really a rivalry because Lance doesn’t win this matchup all too often. The fact that he still doesn’t care and goes right at Lebron trying to break him will never not make me laugh.

And that’s it! You’re now caught up on everything that went down last night in the NBA. We’re back tonight with just two games which kinda sucks, but they are good matchups in HOU/MIN and OKC/UTA. As always if you get busy and can’t watch that’s fine, just check back tomorrow morning and I’ll fill you in.