Throughout the NBA play-offs, The National’s resident NBA dudes Jonathan Raymond and Kevin Jeffers will be breaking down the key talking points of the night before. Below, the takeaways from Sunday night’s action in the 2016 post-season:
• Read more: 2016 NBA Play-offs – Previews, predictions and what we learned day-by-day
Sunday, April 17 scores:
Cleveland Cavaliers 106-101 Detroit Pistons (Cavaliers 1-0)
Miami Heat 123-91 Charlotte Hornets (Heat 1-0)
San Antonio Spurs 106-74 Memphis Grizzlies (Spurs 1-0)
Los Angeles Clippers 115-95 Portland Trail Blazers (Clippers 1-0)
The Cavaliers are going to have to work for this
Detroit can hang with Cleveland. That’s the bad news for LeBron James and Co.
The good news is that the Cavs absorbed the very best of the Pistons on Sunday night. They watched everyone on the Pistons from Reggie Jackson to Marcus Morris to Stanley Johnson to Kentavious Caldwell-Pope get hot at various moments.
And they emerged with a win.
In a reversal of previous seasons, there are no creampuffs in the East this year. They’re all limping around to 20- and 30-point thrashings out West.
The Cavs trailed at some point in every quarter, they were down five or more points on three different occasions, and they were up only four with less than two and a half minutes to go. Still, they won.
They beat back a Detroit team who shot 51 per cent from three (regular season: 34.5), who less exploited Cleveland defensive weaknesses and more just hit a bunch of shots.
Most importantly, the Cavaliers looked excellent themselves offensively. LeBron James and Kyrie Irving were dazzling with their ball-movement, Kevin Love was incorporated smoothly and productively and they scored at a rate of 117.5 points per 100 possessions for the night (regular season: 108.1).
If the bad news was that Cleveland will have to stay near the top of their game to hold off Detroit, the really, really good news is that they looked more than up to it.
Spurs still have their legs
Tony Parker’s coast-to-coast lay-up past the helpless-in-transition Grizzlies five minutes into the Spurs’ Game 1 win was a view into an aging team who have kept a lot in the tank for this post-season.
“That’s the explosion that you want to see if you’re Gregg Popovich,” said TNT commentator Reggie Miller, of the Spurs coach.
There were more such moments: in 34-year-old Boris Diaw flashing his big-man fleetness-power combo in a second quarter shuffle-post-up-hook thing over Vince Carter; in Tim Duncan, 39-year-old, moving-like-a-giraffe-these-days Tim Duncan, throwing down a breakaway dunk.
Luckily for San Antonio, against this aimless Memphis team, they will be able to continue saving their legs. None of their starters had to play more than 30 minutes in Sunday’s 32-point win, and Duncan (22), Parker (21), Diaw (21) and Ginobili (21) were all able to greatly conserve their time on court.
Deng does a good Bosh impression
Luol Deng was all-action in Miami’s opener with Charlotte, a game the Heat took control of and ran away with from the start.
Battling inside, cannoning toward the rim, nailing threes – Deng’s 31 points and seven rebounds were very reminiscent of injured teammate Chris Bosh and the role he has played in so many Heat play-off runs.
Bosh is out, possibly for the whole post-season, with blood clots. But his influence is felt in the form of Deng, the Sudan-born Great Britain international who has refashioned himself late in his career with the Heat from more of a traditional swing man to a 3-and-D stretch power forward. Just as Bosh did to find a role in which he finally began to really thrive in the two-titles-winning triumverate with LeBron and Wade.
Charlotte’s a streaky team, and if they get hot might be able to steal a game in this series, but they don’t have the length, experience or breadth of skill-sets to really compete with the Heat. Not to mention Miami’s cohesiveness or sense of identity.
Also keep an eye out for: Justise Winslow’s Dwyane Wade impression. His Eurostep drive to the hoop in the second quarter had sensei Wade’s finger prints all over it. The 12-time all-star has an excellent pupil to work with, too.
Blake can still fly
Nineteen points, 12 rebounds, six assists and no shortage of power basketball from Blake Griffin, who flew high and showed no sign of the injuries that kept him out of nearly 50 games this season.
Check out some of his highlights from last night. They're worth the click.
Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
The Grizzlies lost to the Spurs by 32. The Trail Blazers lost to the Clippers by 20. It’s a heck of a race out West to see who can rack up the best point differential in the first round, with the Warriors (plus-26) right in the thick of it and the Thunder (plus-38) setting the early lead pace.
If anyone in any of those series wants to just forfeit now (Blazers, who have the potential to show a little something still, aside), we won’t complain.
Follow us on Twitter @NatSportUAE
Like us on Facebook at facebook.com/TheNationalSport
