The second round of the NBA playoffs are well underway and despite there being no LeBron James or Stephen Curry to help carry the league as we make our way towards the conference finals, we’ve seen great performances so far from a whole new crop of stars in this round and the first round.
Of the teams still playing, you need look no further than players like Devin Booker, Donovan Mitchell and Trae Young as definitive examples that the future of the NBA is in good hands.
Both Booker and Mitchell are just 24 years old, with Young being only 22, and each have taken steps this post-season towards legitimate superstardom. And the fact that they play in markets that aren’t necessarily the most glamorous in Phoenix, Utah and Atlanta makes it all the better, too.
The more we can see from these players and their respective teams, the better for the league as it’ll give more casual fans chances to see what appears to be the next crop of NBA stars.
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1. Phoenix Suns
Since we’re on the topic of Booker, how good was he in the Suns’ sweep of the Nuggets? The kid averaged 25.3 points and 7.8 rebounds per game on 48.6 per cent shooting across the four games. When they clinched in Game 4, he put up 34 points and attempted 11 free-throws against the Nuggets as a clear sign of his aggression and desire to finish things for the Suns.
Chris Paul’s 37 points, and his arrival in Phoenix in general, has gotten all the deserved spotlight for the Suns. But given what Booker did in Round 1 against James and the defending champion Los Angeles Lakers, not to mention his heroics to lead the Suns to a perfect 8-0 record in the bubble last season, he’s proving himself to be one of the game’s premier young clutch performers.
And now, thanks to the sweep and what’s shaping up to be a dogfight of a series between the Jazz and Clippers, Booker, Paul and Suns can just sit back and rest up in advance of the conference finals, something that you have to believe should give this team an edge to make its first NBA Finals since 1993.
2. Philadelphia 76ers
Though not getting as much fanfare as the other Eastern Conference semifinal, the 76ers-Hawks series has been quietly chugging along. Philly is. looking every bit like the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference despite the fact the Sixers dropped Game 1, Joel Embiid is dealing with a meniscus tear and Danny Green is likely to miss the remainder of this series with a calf issue.
Historically, during this Embiid-Ben Simmons era of Philly basketball, this team has folded when faced with adversity, but that appears to be behind the Sixers now as evidenced by their Game 3 win in Atlanta when Embiid still managed to dominate despite being double-teamed and harassed constantly. The Hawks made a point to get the ball out of his hands and Embiid did so willingly, dropping eight dimes in the contest and still making his way to 27 points in the game. That’s a level of versatility and adaptability not seen from Embiid ever before in the post-season and it bodes well for the Sixers to possibly finish this series off quickly.
3. Milwaukee Bucks
Giannis Antetokoummpo and Bucks head coach Mike Budenholzer has received some heavy criticism for how they approach the game, respectively. But whether you believe the criticism is warranted or not, the fact remains that Milwaukee’s series with Brooklyn is tied up at 2-2 now with the momentum apparently shifting back in the Bucks’ favour.
The help that was non-existent for Antetokounmpo came back alive as the series shifted to Milwaukee, and with it so did the Bucks’ lockdown defence. Additionally, it looks like the Bucks will be aided greatly now by unfortunate injuries to the Nets, as it looks like both James Harden and Kyrie Irving will be unable to play in a pivotal Game 5 and perhaps beyond.
4. Utah Jazz
During this series with the Clippers, Mitchell has been looking like one of the most unstoppable forces in basketball.
Over the three games played, he’s averaging 37.3 points and shooting 50.6 per cent from the field and 47.2 per cent from three-point range on 12 attempts from deep per contest.
Yes, the Jazz did get demolished by the Clippers in Game 3 as Paul George finally came alive for Los Angeles, but that game felt more like an anomaly than anything else. If Mitchell’s ankle can hold up, the Jazz will always have a great chance to win as long as the game doesn’t get out of hand like it did on Saturday.
5. Los Angeles Clippers
The Clippers came away with a massive victory over the Jazz on Saturday as George had his best playoff game in what feels like forever, scoring 31 points and looking deadeye from deep, shooting six-for-10 from three-point range.
And beyond George’s heroics, the Clippers decided to play small again in their Game 3 victory to great effect as they managed to find ways to attack defensive player of the year, Rudy Gobert.
It’s not a guaranteed strategy, but if the Clippers can continue to get similar production and efficiency from George to complement the tear Kawhi Leonard’s been on and continue to get to the rim against Gobert, they’ll not only make this series with Utah a long one, but they’ll have a great chance to knock off the NBA’s best team this season.
6. Brooklyn Nets
Tired as the storyline may be, the narrative around Kevin Durant unable to get the job done without superstar talent to help him has reared its ugly head again. The noise will likely only get louder with the return timelines for both Harden (hamstring) and Irving (ankle) looking like they won’t allow either of the two stars to return before the end of this series with Milwaukee.
As talented as the Nets are, they’re an extremely top-heavy team that lacks depth because of the superstar talent their team is laden with. However, injuries have a bad habit of ruining the best laid plans, and in the case of the Nets, the injuries to Harden and Irving may well have just ended their season.
7. Atlanta Hawks
Third-year guard Young is in his first-ever playoffs and while it’s unlikely his Hawks will be able to get by the Sixers in the second round, this is a young man who we’re going to see a lot of in the future under the post-season’s bright lights dominating. He has a first-round victory under his belt and his playoff averages are 28.8 points and 9.8 assists per game so far — not to mention four of his eight playoff games have seen him explode for 30 or more points.
This is only the start of Young’s story.
Eliminated: Denver Nuggets
First of all, let’s get the obvious out of the way: that Flagrant 2 on Nikola Jokic, the 2021 MVP, was absolutely egregious and can’t happen.
In fact, it’s in this author’s opinion that the play was just a hard playoff foul and should’ve been assessed as a common foul. But given the way the league has gone, a flagrant was always going to happen in that situation and it should’ve been just a Flagrant 1.
With all that said, though, not even Jokic’s brilliance was going to prevent the Nuggets from getting swept aside by the Suns.
Jokic earned his MVP by keeping up the Nuggets’ level of excellence during the regular season even after Jamal Murray went down for the rest of the season, but it was all but a foregone conclusion that Denver’s title hopes sunk when Murray was forced out.
Getting swept by the Suns was a bit surprising, but the outcome of Denver falling to Phoenix, ultimately, was expected.
Now all the Nuggets can hope for is that Murray comes back next season without any lingering effects from his torn ACL.
