TAKE note, The Beard James Harden and the Houston Rockets.The road to the National Basketball Association (NBA) championship will still have to pass through the Bay Area.The reigning NBA titlist Golden State Warriors zoomed to a 2-0 lead against the New Orleans Pelicans in their best-of-seven West semifinal (second round) duel with twin victories at the friendly Oracle Arena.
In the series opener, the Dubs crushed the Pelicans, 123-101, behind 2017 NBA Finals Most Valuable Player awardee Kevin Durant, who chalked up 26 points and 13 rebounds, and do-everything Draymond Green, who registered a triple-double with 16 points, 15 rebounds and 11 assists.
In Game Two, the 6-foot-9 Durant again paced the Warriors offense with 29 points along with seven dimes and six boards. And while his Splash Brother mate Klay Thompson (10 points on 4-for-20 field shooting, including 2-for-11 from beyond the arc) faltered miserably, two-time NBA MVP Stephen Curry made his playoff debut after a 16-game absence (including the final 10 games of the regulars) due to a left knee injury with a bang, collecting 28 points (8-15 FGA, 5-10 3FGA, 7-7 FTA) and seven rebounds in 27 minutes off the pines. Green flirted with another T-D with 20 scores, 12 assists and nine rebounds.
The Pelicans, the only playoff team to sweep their first-round series, also produced three 20-point scorers in Game Two and played the Warriors close until midway through the fourth quarter. New Orleans meal ticket Anthony Davis (25 points, 15 rebounds, five assists and three blocks) and 2-guard Jrue Holiday (24 points, eight rebounds and eight assists) bounced back from sub-par shooting efforts in the series opener, playmaker Rajon Rondo (22 points, 12 assists, seven rebounds and five steals) posted Rondo playoff numbers and Montenegro-born Nikola Mirotic (18 points and nine caroms) played well despite going just 7-for-16 from the field (including 3-for-8 from three-point land).
But unlike in its previous series against Portland, New Orleans’ pace-and-space offense simply could not overcome Golden State’s explosiveness that is built around its crispy passes and swift ball movement.
In Game Two, the Warriors came up with 36 assists out of their 43 field goals. The Pelicans actually did not fare badly in that department, coming up with 48 fielders off 33 point-scoring passes.
The series shifts to the Smoothie King Center in the Big Easy for Game 3 on Saturday, May 5 (Manila time), and Game 4 on Monday, May 7 (MT).
It looks like this series will be over in five games and Golden State, holder of the Larry O’Brien title hardware in two of the last three years, will be advancing to the next round to face the playoffs’ top-seeded Houston Rockets in the West finals.
The Rockets currently own a 1-0 lead over the Utah Jazz in their own conference semifinal series and look to go up 2-0 when they once again host Game Two today (Manila time) at the Toyota Center. Utah has exciting rookie guard Donovan Mitchell as the primary scoring option and intimidating 7-foot-1 French Rudy Gobert in the middle but the Jazz are like chickens without heads as Spanish playmaker Ricky Rubio, the glue that sticks the team together with his court generalship, could be out of the entire series due to a left hamstring strain he sustained in the series-clinching Game Six of their first-round, 4-2 success against the Oklahoma City Thunder.
Meanwhile, the Cleveland Cavaliers, the three-time defending East champions who have faced the Warriors in the NBA Finals for an unprecedented three consecutive years, have grabbed a 1-0 lead over the Toronto Raptors in their conference semifinal showdown, quickly seizing home-court advantage away from the conference top seeds following their come-from-behind 113-112 overtime decision in the series opener at the Air Canada Centre.
It was one “road” game that LeBron James and Cavaliers needed to steal. The Wine City outfit never led until the opening minute of the five-minute extension, trailing by as much 14 points in the first stanza when the Raps shot nearly 62 percent from the field.
Up by 108-107, Cleveland tallied five straight points – a triple from 2-guard Earl (J.R.) Smith III and a putback by seldom-utilized frontliner Tristan Thompson – to move ahead, 113-107.
Toronto subsequently scored the next five points and had one last opportunity to win the game but guard Fred VanVleet, just off the bench in time for Toronto’s final play, misfired on an uncontested triple with 3.4 seconds remaining in OT. Cleveland got the rebound and LeBron sued for time with 0.3 ticks left.
The 33-year-old James actually did not shoot well, going just 12-for-30 from the field, including 1-for-8 from beyond the arc, and 1-for-6 from the charity stripes) but he still wound up with the 21st playoff triple-double of his NBA career (trailing just Earvin “Magic” Johnson’s 30 on the all-time league list) with 26 points, 13 assists and 11 rebounds in 47 tiresome minutes.
James, however, got a lot of lift from his supporting cast. The much-maligned J.R. Smith came up with 20 points (6-11 FGA, 5-6 3FGA) and forward Kyle Korver contributed 19 scores (7-17 FGA, 5-12 3FGA) to give Cavs coach Tyronn Lue three double-digit scorers in his starting lineup.
Moreover, the reserves played another huge role in Cleveland’s first-game success against Toronto.
The Cavs’ substitutes outscored the Raptors’ much-vaunted reserve corps, 37-35.
Forward Jeff Green collected 16 points (4-4 FGA, 1-1 3FGA, 7-8 FTA) in 28 minutes and Thompson, whose off-court activities were a fodder for sensational entertainment news and may have been a distraction to Lue and the team, was big with 14 points (5-8 FGA, 4-4 FTA) and 12 boards (nine of them on the offensive end) in 26 minutes as he was returned to the second unit (following a starting act in Game Seven of the club’s first-round series against Indiana) as Lue gave guard George Hill a starting post and reverted Kevin Love to the middle.
Toronto seeks to bounce back and square the series at 1-1 when it again plays host to Game Two on Friday, May 4 (MT).
In the other East second-round playoff matchup, the injury-depleted but resilient Boston Celtics look to go up, 2-0, against the surprising Philadelphia 76ers when they host Game Two Friday, May 4 (MT). The Celts shellacked the 76ers, 117-101, in the first game.