Sunday, April 14, 2019

Four Games, Three Upsets

It's certainly looking like the the NBA Playoffs will be exciting and unpredictable, as we saw three clear upsets right at the very first day.

The second seeded Toronto Raptors led by two points with less than a minute left but still succumbed to the surprising Orlando Magic, 104-101. Kawhi Leonard and Pascal Siakam had their usual effective games but got nothing from All-Star Kyle Lowry (0-7). The Magic's big guns (Vucevic, Gordon) had okay games but came out on top because of the unheralded DJ Augustine, who topscored with 25 points on an efficient 9-13 clip.


In an earlier game, the third seeded Philadelphia Sixers were upended by the relentless Brooklyn Nets, 111-102. The Nets were led by All-Star D'Angelo Russell, who had 26 points, while his counterpart Ben Simmons scored just 9 points. As opined in an earlier article, Russell or Simmons would be the lynchpin on which team would win and, for today, Russell was the better player.

In the final game of the day, the seventh-seeded San Antonio Spurs showed their championship pedigree by holding on to win on the road, 101-96, against the second-seeded Denver Nuggets. DeMar Derozan and LaMarcus Aldridge led the Spurs with 18 and 15 respectively but also got solid contributions from the rest of the team. Nikola Jokic ended the game with a triple-double (10-14-14) while the trio of Jamal Murray, Gary Harris, and Will Barton all had solid games with 17, 20, and 15 points each but turned over the ball repeatedly in the fourth period.

The only game to end as expected was the game between the top-seeded Golden State Warriors and the eight-seeded LA Clippers, wherein the Warriors won 121-104. Kevin Durant and Patrick Beverley were also both ejected so, yeah...as expected.

Tomorrow should be another wild one so stay tuned.


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