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It’s the first day of the playoffs and we already have superstars barking at each other, clutch shots, and a bunch of sequences.
Starting off in Minnesota, the home crowd was fired up for this one, but it was KD who came out firing at the start of the game.
The Timberwolves tried Karl Towns on him in the first few minutes but there was no way he could hang with Durant defensively so a change had to be made.
They however survived the hot shooting in the first quarter by imposing their size, and dominating in the paint and on the rebounds.
The huge size difference allowed them to grab 24 more rebounds, which led to a 20 to 6 discrepancy in second chance points.
The Timberwolves also crushed Phoenix inside, finishing the game with a 52 to 34 advantage in points in the paint.
So, when Phoenix couldn’t sustain the hot start in the second quarter, Minnesota pounded them down low.
This gave them a 10 point lead at halftime, even with a quiet Edwards at 10 points at the break. But nobody was prepared for what he did in the third. Ant began toying with Grayson Allen and even Booker, shaking him off with some phenomenal footwork.
So then, Durant said enough is enough, I got him. But Edwards said…
Unbelievable, Edwards demolished KD as well and he let him know about it.
Maaan this is an absolutely amazing scene and I wish I was there honestly.
This explosion took Minnesota up by 19 and they never looked back, cruising to a 25 point win in game 1.
And boy, do I wish it was this easy for my Knicks, but Philly stormed out to a 13 point lead on the shoulders of Joel Embiid who was unstoppable to start the game.
New York needed a spark, and it was Bogdanovic and Mcbride off of the second unit who quickly shot them back into this game.
Philly fans could not even imagine that what’s about to come would take them from euphoria to a gut punch in the blink of an eye because…
Maaan this was tough even as an opposing fan, I just want this dude to be fully healthy and show us everything he can do.
As he limped off to the locker rooms, the Knicks continued their run, and went from a 13 point deficit to being up by 12 at halftime.
This was encouraging to see however Embiid was not the main factor in the Sixers comeback. But rather…
Lowry had 12 points in the period, with Maxey matching him point for point, the guards led the surge and made this a dramatic finish in the fourth.
It was obvious that Embiid was impacted by the injury, but that didn’t stop from fighting.
This allowed Philadelphia to ultimately retain possession leading to…
And on defense they made it clear, that they want the ball out of Brunson’s hands, but…
This three was just the beginning of a wild ride because…
What a shot by Josh Hart in the clutch to give New York a 7 point lead in this incredible finish which ultimately would be enough for the Knicks to seal the deal in game 1.
The most important thing however would be the health and availability of Joel Embiid moving forward as this series completely depends on that.
Moving on to last year’s conference finals matchup, where the Lakers came out strong in Denver, led by Lebron and AD who combined for 14 of 21 in the first half, creating mismatches and causing the Nuggets some trouble.
Denver especially experienced some problems during the non Jokic minutes, as Murray had a bad first half and couldn’t hold his team down with Nikola on the bench.
So in a bit of a shocker, this was a 12 point lead for LA by the middle of the second quarter announcing a possible upset in the series opener.
However this sounded the alarm that woke up the championship unit of the Nuggets, and as soon as they came out of that time out storming back and playing their familiar brand of basketball.
Despite the Nuggets coming back from that scary deficit, Lebron James still had the final say in the first half.
But the Lakers had no idea that a similar run was waiting for them in the third quarter as well, as KCP threw an avalanche of threes causing the arena to explode.
Denver won this period 32 to 18, and coming into the final 12 minutes, the Lakers were facing an uphill battle on the road.
Anthony Davis did everything he could to pull his team back into the game, and LA came to down by 6 in the middle of the fourth, but he had 0 support from his team, and there’s no way that 1 guy beats the Nuggets by himself, so Denver held on and took a 1 nothing lead in this series.
And here’s the summary of the hardest series to watch: The Cavs had control for the entire game led by Donovan Mitchell who’s one guy that the Magic don’t have, and this might end up being the difference in this matchup.
The first day of the playoffs was crazy, following the wild sequence of events that took place in the play in. You gotta check out exactly what happened right here. Talk to you in the next one. Peace out.