NBA Playoffs Recap 12 — Second Round Matchups
Spurs/Rockets and Cavs/Raptors both look intriguing
One of the downsides to Toronto’s mid-season slump, as well as the injury to Kyle Lowry’s wrist, is that the team finished in third place instead of second place. This on its own wouldn’t be terrible, but the Cavaliers’ swoon in March dropped them to second place and right into the Raptors’ bracket. Now, these two teams will play in the conference semifinals.
On the other side of the bracket, the Spurs finished off the Grizzlies to lock in their own second-round series. San Antonio vs. Houston is a matchup that many have looked forward to for months, and it’s nice to see that no first-round upsets will preclude it. The Rockets’ torrid offense and fire-bombing shooters will be a nice stylistic contrast to this slow, measured Spurs team.
My immediate inclination is to pick the Spurs and Cavs in this round. They’re both the better team in their respective matchups, largely because each boasts the best player. Since I would rank the teams in the order of SAS, HOU, CLE, TOR, I think the Rockets are the most likely to pull off an upset.
However, I don’t want to count out the Raptors, and there are some truly fascinating storylines surrounding this team right now. The Raptors, like so many other playoff teams, are facing a massive roster crunch this summer. In order to justify the massive payroll that Lowry and Serge Ibaka will command. Giving out this much money always hurts, but it’s much more palatable if you can hang more than a second-round playoff exit on these players.
But beyond roster considerations, the Raptors have also been building toward this showdown all season. It’s so easy to forget, but at the beginning of the season, this team had the best offense in the league. Toronto has know all year that it will have to knock off Cleveland to get to the finals, and adding P.J. Tucker and Ibaka were moves aimed solely at building up for this series. Even if the team hoped to meet the Cavs in the conference finals instead of semifinals, they knew they’d have to match up at some point.
Over in the West, we get another matchup of MVP candidates, as Kawhi Leonard battles James Harden. The Spurs actually haven’t been amazing this postseason, which is encouraging for the Rockets, but Leonard has been insanely good. He nearly beat the Grizzlies all by himself in game four, and was instrumental in the game six win.
These two teams play markedly different styles, which makes their matchup all the more interesting. The Rockets go all-out on offense, raining down three-pointer after three-pointer. The Spurs, with an elite defense, might be the perfect team to counter this style. San Antonio is also great at shooting three-pointers as well, they just don’t do it with the frequency of Harden and his teammates. The Spurs lost a disappointing second-round series last year. I doubt that will happen again.
