NBA Playoffs: The Underdogs Should Feel Good After Sunday’s Games

Sunday felt like the moment we’ve been waiting for since last year’s Conference Finals.

Without their marquee acquisitions, Boston made a remarkable run that almost culminated in a Finals appearance, but the best player in the league stonewalled their efforts in a forgettable game 7 that was earmarked by an abysmal shooting performance. This year, nearly back at full strength, they have another shot at arguably the new best player in the league.

Similarly, Houston nearly knocked out the champs, but a key injury and well-documented shooting slump in game 7 kept them from finishing the heist they’ve been planning since Golden State’s first run in 2014.

Sunday, both teams got their real first shot at redemption — a chance to prove that their fortunes truly would have been better with a different stroke of luck. Boston’s opportunity ended with an exclamation point, Houston’s with a question mark, but regardless, both teams should have a sense of confidence in what they brought to the table in Game One of the Second Round.

To date, Boston’s struggled to put together arguably the most impressive and forward thinking collection basketball talent east of Oakland. Blame it on Hayward’s brutal injury and mental recovery, or on Kyrie’s press conference pontification (for what it’s worth, my favorite of which was the rant on how “NBA celebrity” ruins the purity of basketball, all of which he said while wearing an Uncle Drew hat…).

Regardless of what you think it was, the problem appears to be clear: They had too many “guys”. Marcus Smart’s injury opened the door for a shorter rotation, more minutes for better, more versatile players, and, ultimately, playing time that quenches a weird room full of already-proven and hungry-to-prove-it egos.

The Celtics look like the team they’ve been destined to be since the beginning of last season, and that makes the rest of the Playoffs very, very interesting.(Its hard to say I was 100% confident this could happen, but I knew there was not a lot of historical president for this collection of talent — that fits so well on paper — not figuring it out.)

It’s only one game, but this team played their best “only one game” at the most important time possible.

Houston’s path to this point has been just as absurd and disorienting. Their loss last year also came with more heartbreak than Boston’s. Was 2018 their one chance to win a title in Harden-D’Antoni-Morey era? Was more than a few missed threes an indictment on their playing style and philosophy? Can Chris Paul hold up late in the season? If they couldn’t overcome that team in a mano-y-mano one-game slugfest, then when would they get their shot? Boston at least knew they were infusing talent into an already competitive squad, so they left the game 7 letdown with hope, where Houston left with questions of what could have been.

This year, after an 8–14 start that screamed of “bad playoff loss hangover”, Harden’s historic offensive run was the ultimate accentuation of Morey Ball, and it put him in a category with the likes of MJ and Kobe.

But to what end? With chaos stirring in Golden State all year, and Houston looking very “2014 Spurs”-y (in mindset, not playing style), this matchup has felt inevitable. And while maybe it’s not as satisfying in the long run to have them play in the Second Round, Game One felt like getting drowned by a firehose after a walk in the desert, even if it was borderline unwatchable.

But all of the fouls and chaos aside, Game 1 was pretty easy to explain: Houston played their game, and it almost worked. They slowed the pace, the Rockets’ best players were their key contributors, they held the Warriors to only 31% on 22 three point attempts, and D’Antoni’s squad were within one possession with the clock winding down.

This is the formula for success against a historically great collection of talent. You have to limit the amount of looks great players get, and bet on luck swinging your way at the end of a game. After all, there’s only one ball, so if you can make it Harden vs. KD, or Harden vs. Steph, you have to at least feel pretty good about your chances.

(And by the way, [*whispering] everything in the paragraph above is how the Cavs beat the Warriors in 2016, and it’s how the Rockets almost won last year.)

And yes, that means it’s repeatable, and that is the best thing Houston can take from Game One — not the fouls, not the bad luck, not the missed shots, but the repeatability of the formula that gave them a chance to win.

Couple this with Golden State’s injury concerns surrounding Klay and Steph, and Houston should feel confident the rest of the way. All the Warriors have done in the series so far is defend home court, which is what Number One Seeds should do.

Now, all of this could mean nothing if Kevin Durant continues to be the best player on the court. The “Harden vs. KD” battle I mentioned earlier? It swung HEAVILY in the Warriors’ favor in game one. But Houston, like Boston, is on the right track despite the tough loss.

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