The Second Round of the NBA Playoffs Has Begun, and Real Basketball Is Finally Here
For the first time in nearly a decade, the Eastern Conference Champion (and Western Conference Champion, too, depending on who you ask) is far from a sure thing. After a lackluster finish to the regular season and an uninspiring first round of the playoffs, basketball nerds and casual fans everywhere have been craving games worth watching.
Sure, Dame gave us moments, and the Clippers gave us hope, but has there been real intrigue beyond easily the most yawn-inspiring 7 game series in NBA history?
Beyond manufactured drama, the answer is no, definitively no. The media-generated narratives were worth talking about and listening to — sort of — but the basketball was barely watchable (a problem the NBA needs to start worrying about). Today, that changed. With a Round 1, Game 7 still rolling on my TV as I write this, the start of the second round has me Tyler Hansbrough levels of geeked up.
Sure, the game wasn’t all that close, but the matchup involved two teams who actually belong on one of the largest stages in the sport, and that alone was enough to keep me compelled.
So with more of the most anticipated round of the playoffs in years still to be played, what do we make of Game 1? Are the Sixers done with their “feel-out Game”? Has Kawhi vanquished Toronto’s curse? Should Brett Brown call up LeBron to have him sit on their bench in Game 2 to gain a mental edge? (I hear he has time.) All we know for sure so far is that Tobias Harris can’t be the man tasked with guarding Leonard all series… Can. Not. Happen.
When the game ended, the first thing I wondered was: Is any of this replicable for Toronto, or was this just a fluke? It felt like Philly had chances to keep it close, but they just couldn’t. Was this simply the home team protecting their house? The box score was pretty telling:
The Sixers out-rebounded the Raps, out-shot Toronto from three, and also created more assists than the Nick Nurse’s squad. So how did they still lose by 13? They shot about 12% worse from the field than the Raptors. To some, that’s an off shooting night, and will get closer to their average eventually. But if you watched the game, then you saw that the Raptors defense — especially when the starters for both teams were on the floor — was lights out.
Plus-Minus bares this out, as only one Sixer’s starter — Joel Embiid — had a “positive impact” on the game, with a plus-4. Meanwhile, every Raptors starter was plus-15 or better, three of them nearing plus-30 territory.
So yes, everything else was mostly equal or swung Philadelphia’s way, but the simple stats like the score, plus-minus, and FG percentage tell you that Toronto’s defense — when it comes to best player against best player matchups — is very replicable.
The Raptors can and should be able to do this three more times, and not just defensively. They didn’t ride the wave of an unconscious three-point shooting night from a no-name role player. They had two star performances from their best players, which is something they’ve had almost every step of the way these playoffs, and an outcome most teams should expect from their go-to guys. The rest of their team was fairly pedestrian shooting the ball, which is why the score wasn’t closer to 20 or even 30. Their scoring numbers even suggest that there’s more in the tank for Toronto on the offensive end of the floor.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m confident this series won’t be a sweep, but Toronto showed a level of focus and defensive intensity that we haven’t seen in these playoffs until now. (No, I’m not counting Boston’s pine cone war with Indiana as a clinic in defensive strategy, effort, and execution.)
Finally, real basketball is here.
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