Hello everyone.
Nba Playoffs first round pairings.
This time we start with Western Conference.
First pair is First and Eight seed.
Oklahoma City Thunder and New Orleans Pelicans.
It was sweep for Okc. Oklahoma won all four games and goes to semifinals.
Oklahoma team was real surprise this season.
Second pair is Nuggets and Lakers. Defending champions were too much for Lakers. Lebron and Davis managed to get one win in this series. With score of 4 - 1 Nuggets with Jokić advance to second round and they have good chance of winning it all. For Lakers some trade talks are around. Will they add one more all star caliber player or will Lebron go somewhere else? We have this summer to see.
This was one of most entertaining pairs.
La Clippers and Dallas Mavericks. These two teams have a bit history since in last 4 year Playoff they played three times against each other. Last year Mavs missed playoff but this year with Kyrie and Luka and excellent addition on trade deadline (Gafford and PJ Washington) are very good team. Clippers have Paul Geroge, Kawhi,Harden and Westbrook but that did not help. Worth saying is that Kawhi was injured and did not play some games. With 4 -2 Dallas advanced in next round.
Last matchup of the Western Conference is Minnesota Timberwolves and Phoenix Suns. It was 4 - 0 for Minnesota. Honestly I was expecting to Suns be better and go to next round. Big three of Durant, Booker and Beal did not manage to win against Nba best defense and young Antony Edwards.
Jusuf Nurkić played decent but this year Phoenix did not meet expectations.
Head coach is fired these days and we will see will there be roster changes.
Eastern Conference
First matchup is Boston Celtics and Miami Heat. With Jimmy Butler out with injury Miami did not manage to get more then one win. It was 4 - 1 for Miami.
Jaylen and Tatum are motors of Boston team and with healthy Porzingis (out with injury) they can go for all this season. Jrue Holiday is very good addition for them.
Second Matchup is Milwaukee Bucks and Indiana Pacers. Bucks lost 4 - 2. Giannis was injured and they miss some pieces in defense. Pacers are good team and they advance this round.
Second seed Knicks and Seventh seed Philadelphia was nice matchup. New York Knicks won 4 - 2. Jalen Bronson plays like superstar. They mean business this year. Philadelphia has good team but Joel Embiid was back from injury and they need more good players around him. Some roster changes incoming.
Closest matchup in first round was between Cleveland Cavaliers and Orlando Magic. It was close matchup and they were 4th and 5th seed respectively.
Cleveland won 4 - 3. Only matchup that went to 7 game series. Experience won for Cleveland and Orlando will be interesting to watch next season.
Round two is in progress. Some teams are already in Conference finals and waiting for their matchups. That may be covered later.
Some individual stats of the seasson.
Luka Dončic won scoring title with 33.9 points per game.
Domantas Sabonis was first in rebounds with 13.7 rebound per game.
Tyrese Haliburton led Nba in assists with 10.9 per game.
Victor Wembanyama led league in blocks with 3.6 blocks per game.
De'Aaron Fox and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander led league in steals with 2 steals per game.
Stephen Curry had Nba best 357 3 pointers made.
Grayson Allen led Nba in 3 point percentage with 46.1.
Couple surprises here. Victor Wembanyama is rookie and people were wondering how he will do in Nba. So far so good. And Grayson Allen leading Nba this season in 3 point percentage was interesting. So good season for Grayson Allen.
So is your team still playing or are they finished their journey this season?
What was biggest surprise so far in Playoffs?
Lets talk basketball. Comment ...
Photo and edit of the photo by @sammy00