The NBA playoffs take center stage in the sports world over the next three days. There are 11 total games and the possibility that a couple of first-round series could be decided by Sunday, April 27. Who stays and who goes home may come down to a couple of unfortunate injuries suffered by star players Jimmy Butler and Ja Morant.
How will these injuries affect the matchups?
The Golden State Warriors and Houston Rockets are in the midst of an old-school, physical series. Warriors forward Jimmy Butler was hurt after a hard fall in game two on Wednesday night, April 23. The series is tied, and Butler may miss a crucial game three on Saturday, April 26, but head coach Steve Kerr wants no sympathy.
“This is the playoffs,” Kerr said. “This is, you know, it’s an incredibly physical sport. Stuff happens. People get injured, and it’s all part of it, and there’s no time to lament anything. You can feel bad for your player, but you have to move on to what’s next.”
It will be tough for the Warriors to beat the 2-seed Rockets without “Playoff Jimmy.” He’s averaging 18 points per game, but more importantly, he gives the Warriors a strong option that draws defenders away from sharpshooter Steph Curry. Since Butler’s debut with Golden State on Feb. 6, the Warriors have a 25-8 record.
Will the Thunder/Grizzlies series be a sweep?
The Memphis Grizzlies will also have a tough time winning without their star, Morant.
They built a 29-point lead on the Oklahoma City Thunder on Thursday, April 24, when the point guard took a scary fall of his own attempting a dunk. The Thunder proceeded to pull off the second-largest comeback in NBA playoff history and now lead the series three games to none. They’ll go for the sweep Saturday in Memphis.
“They built a 29-point lead in a half, so we knew, like, all we had to do was build our own 29-point lead, you know what I mean?” Thunder point guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander said. “So, like, if they could build it, we can erase it, and that’s how we see it, and that’s what we did. We just had to plug away at it.”
What other teams are playing well?
As dominant as the Thunder have been in their first-round series, the top two teams in the Eastern Conference have been equally impressive. Boston and Cleveland both have 2-0 series leads. The Celtics will try to make it 3-0 Friday, April 25, in Orlando, and the Cavaliers will try to do the same Saturday in Miami.
Meanwhile, the Los Angeles Lakers and Minnesota Timberwolves are tied at a game apiece as they move their series to Minneapolis. The two games thus far have been complete opposites. And here’s something for the stat nerds: superstar Anthony Edwards had nine assists in the first game, and the Timberwolves won easily. In Game 2, he had zero assists, and his team struggled to keep pace with the Lakers. Head coach Chris Finch admitted as much after practice Friday.
“I thought we fell back into a lot of poor habits in game two, you know, offensive decision making, shot selection, complaining to the refs, all that led to poor transition defense, ball holding,” Finch said.
