Last Night In The NBA: What A Difference It Makes When Your Stars Show Up

Happy Thursday 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. By now you’ve probably noticed the trend, we had just 3 games last night, and with how good all of the games were, it’s really too bad there were only that many. I’ve long thought that the league shouldn’t expand the playoffs, but I need more of this type of shit on a nightly basis. Oh well. Last night was a night for the stars to come out and do their thing and it was awesome to watch. If you missed it, here’s what happened

Indiana Pacers 97 vs Cleveland Cavaliers 100 (Series tied 1-1)

Look it’s no surprise and we can all agree that Lebron is not only the best player on the planet, but when he decides it’s time to put the team on his back in order to secure a win, he’s most likely going to come through. We saw it in the Finals and we saw it in Game 6 in 2012 in Boston. That was the type of Lebron that we got last night, and one that is truly terrifying

He finished with 29 at the half, scored like 16 of their first 19 points, and went 17-24 from the field and 10-13 from the line. You knew after dropping Game 1 like they did that this type of performance was coming from Lebron, and the question now moving forward is how many more times is he going to have to have games like this. At the end of the day they just won by 3 points, and this was with IND turning it over 17 times and going 6-22 from the deep.

As a team CLE had just 3 players in double figures and got virtually nothing from their bench, and when you combine that with a 5-16 performance from Love, you have to feel pretty good as a Cavs fan. Chances are they play better as this series goes on, and when you can always rely on Lebron to just bail you out is an ace no other team has. If the Cavs are going to be able to hold a team to under 100 points on a consistent basis, they are going to be hard to beat 4 out of 7 times because nobody has an answer for Lebron, and if their one major weakness isn’t actually a weakness, it’s a wrap for everybody.

Also keep an eye on Kevin Love for Game 3. Between his knee and his wrist, something is up.

For IND, look it’s tough to stomach for this reason. From the second quarter through the end of the game the Pacers outscored the Cavs 79-67. Their problem was the 33-18 hole they were in after the first quarter. A big reason for that hole? The two fouls on Oladipo that game within the first 2 minutes of this game. He had to check out with 10:58 in the first quarter down 4-0, and two minutes later it was 13-0. Four minutes later it was 19-3. I think we can all agree that losing Oladipo was a gigantic factor in how this game started.

As a team the Pacers shot 52.6% from the field, and their starters were for the most part pretty efficient. No player shot under 50%, in fact just one guy on the entire roster (Sabonis) finished under 50%. That’s impressive

At the end of the day IND did what they had to do and stole home court. They go back to IND happy, or at least they should be, because they were 27-14 on the year in their own building. You imagine their role players will be better at home, and Oladipo will get that hometown love that he didn’t get in CLE. This series is anything but over, in fact quite the opposite. If the Pacers really want to put pressure on, just win at home baby.

Utah Jazz 102 vs Oklahoma City Thunder 95 (Series tied 1-1)

What you thought OKC was going to run away with this series based on their Game 1 win? How quickly you forgot just how good the Jazz are.

Five players in double figures, three starters with at least 20 points, and that elite level Jazz defense went into OKC and stole home court. Even as OKC made a comeback in that third quarter, you had to love how the Jazz closed out this game with a 28-16 fourth quarter. I know personally I was nervous Mitchell wasn’t going to play after getting an MRI, and I don’t even really care about the Jazz all that much. Well he did play and was the best player on the floor with his 28/6/2 on 10-25 shooting. Add in the play of Rubio which was a ridiculous 22/7/9 and Favors abusing ever OKC big to the tune of 10/16 with 8 OREB, this was pretty much the definition of an ass kicking.

A pretty important win as well considering the Jazz are a solid 28-13 at home this season and OKC is more of a .500 team on the road. You knew that the team that gave up 116 points in Game 1 wasn’t going to be the type of defense the Jazz played all series, I would say last night is a little better representation of how dominant they can be on that end. Gobert was back to being his usual monster self with 13/15/3/2/3 and really being the anchor to everything they do defensively. The Thunder better be careful because they could be down 3-1 in a blink of an eye.

For OKC, look it’s hard to win in the playoffs if you can’t score, and you can’t score if you can’t shoot. Finishing the game with 40/31% splits sure didn’t help, and with no player on the roster scoring more than 19 points, this was an offensive performance the Thunder are going to want to forget

Westbrook/Melo/George combined to go 19-58 which I would say is the opposite of good. What’s funny is everyone else on the roster shot the ball pretty well. Adams was 4-5, Brewer 4-8, Grant 6-10, but as always, this team goes as far as their Big 3 will take them. It doesn’t take a basketball expert to say that if those three have nights like last night offensively, the Thunder are cooked.

The one thing they have to control that has nothing to do with their offense is how they protect the glass. Allowing a total of 15 OREB and 20 second chance points was a big reason why they blew this game. Before the Thunder worry about making their shots, they should focus on making sure they get all of the ones the Jazz miss.

Minnesota Timberwolves 82 vs Houston Rockets 102 (HOU leads 2-0)

Make it now 6 straight wins over the Timberwolves for HOU. That is impressive as hell. Even more impressive was they blew this team out with just four players finishing in double figures, and James Harden shooting 2-18. Imagine that, you FINALLY get an off night from Harden, and you lose by 20 points. That is defeating as hell

So how did they do it? Well Chris Paul went nuts for 27/8 on 10-18 shooting, and former Celtics legend and Houston native Gerald Green picked up the slack for the second unit with 21/12 off the bench including 5 3PM. We think of HOU as this offensive juggernaut but their defense was crisp and active, making every MIN star player basically a non factor. If you are an oppoising team and you watched this game last night, you’re probably shaking your head as to how to beat HOU. Perhaps it’s mostly their opponent, but if this team is going to win games even while they shoot 36/30%, then what can anybody do?

I do think it’s interesting that it was Harden that saved CP3 in Game 1, and then in Game 2 it was the other way around. Imagine what this team looks like when they both have good games at the same time? It’ll probably look like the team that was the best in the league the entire year. You want to convince me things are different this year HOU? Sweep this shit.

For MIN, I get that they are happy to be there given their drought, but let’s call a spade a spade. They have been downright awful in two games this post season. On this night they finished with 38/27% splits and 16 TOs while just three players were in double figures. Wiggins/Towns/Butler combined to go just 11-29 from the field and if you can believe it KAT went for just 5/10 on 9 FGA, which were the second more shots of any starter.

How has KAT been in his first ever crack at the playoffs? Well, not great

I mean what is that? Did someone steal all of KAT’s basketball ability? He is too good a player to have a start like this, and in my opinion it’s more than just him not demanding the ball. He was a team worst -21 and if he was smart he should listen to Chuck and Shaq

It was too bad they couldn’t build off their 23-18 first quarter lead, but you can’t have this type of offensive showing on the road against a team like HOU and think you’re going to win. The good news is they return home to a crowd that should definitely be rocking. I feel like MIN just needs to win one to break the seal, they do that and use the crowds momentum who knows maybe they tie this series up. But if guys like KAT and Jimmy Butler are going to keep not showing up, then really they should have just let DEN win that final game of the season because at least that offense would have been entertaining to see.

And that’s it! You’re now all caught up on everything that happened last night in the NBA. We’re back tonight with three more games, PHI/MIA, POR/NO, and GS/SA. It should be another great night of basketball and as always if you can’t watch just check back tomorrow and I’ll bring you up to speed.