20 Second Timeout

Injuries Dominate the Headlines in the Second Quadrupleheader of the 2023 NBA Playoffs

The NBA's second quadrupleheader of the weekend unfortunately featured injuries to two of the league's top players plus a key player for the Miami Heat: Memphis All-Star Ja Morant hit the floor hard after driving to the hoop versus the L.A. Lakers and injured his right hand to the extent that he could not return to action, and Milwaukee's two-time regular season MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo suffered a lower back contusion that ended his day in the second quarter versus Miami. Also, Miami's Tyler Herro--the Heat's third leading scorer during the regular season (20.1 ppg)--broke his hand and will probably miss the rest of the playoffs.

Injuries to key players are an X factor that can alter series--and seasons. Hopefully, Antetokounmpo and Morant will return to action soon, and Herro will be full strength for next season.

My recaps for Saturday's four games are here.

Here are my thoughts about Sunday's games: 

L.A. Lakers 128, Memphis 112

Anthony Davis (22 points, game-high 12 rebounds) and LeBron James (21 points, 11 rebounds) controlled the paint as the Lakers outrebounded the Grizzlies--who are without the services of injured big men Steven Adams and Brandon Clarke--45-34. The inside work of the Lakers' two superstars opened up opportunities for the rest of the Lakers. Rui Hachimura scored a team-high 29 points, Austin Reaves chipped in 23 points--including 14 points on 5-5 field goal shooting in the fourth quarter--and D'Angelo Russell added 19 points.

Jaren Jackson Jr. scored a game-high 31 points, but the Grizzlies need more than five rebounds and two blocked shots from their Defensive Player of the Year award candidate. Desmond Bane added 22 points and a team-high six assists, but he shot just 6-18 from the field. Ja Morant scored 18 points on 8-13 field goal shooting through the first three quarters, but he suffered his hand injury with 5:48 remaining in the fourth quarter, and the Grizzlies missed him down the stretch. Dillon Brooks (15 points on 5-13 field goal shooting) needs to talk less before the game and play better during the game.

The Lakers led 32-27 at the end of the first quarter, but Jackson Jr. powered his way to 11 second quarter points as the Grizzlies outscored the Lakers 38-27 in the second quarter to claim a 65-59 halftime advantage. 

Hachimura's 12 third quarter points on 4-4 field goal shooting helped the Lakers outscore the Grizzlies 37-25 to make the score 96-90 Lakers with 12 minutes remaining in regulation. The Lakers led 105-101 when Morant got hurt, but it would be naive to say that because the Lakers were ahead with Morant in the game that the Lakers would have won anyway; no one can say for sure what impact it would have had on both teams had Morant been available for the last half of the fourth quarter. 

Jackson Jr. hit a three pointer to pull the Grizzlies to within 113-112 at the 3:11 mark of the fourth quarter, but the Lakers finished the game with a 15-0 run in the final 2:36 to create a deceptively large final margin. It looked like TNT's game feed had been replaced with some combination of "Shaqtin' A Fool" and highlights (lowlights?) of the Washington Generals as the Grizzlies jacked up wild shots, turned the ball over, and forgot how to play defense.  

Many media members relentlessly bash Russell Westbrook while praising the players who the Lakers acquired for Westbrook, so let's look how those players did versus Memphis in game one. 

D'Angelo Russell had 19 points on 7-17 field goal shooting, plus seven assists. He is a career .349 playoff field goal shooter who shot .411 from the field in this game.

Jarred Vanderbilt had four points on 2-4 field goal shooting in 23 minutes.

Malik Beasley had zero points on 0-2 field goal shooting in 10 minutes. 

Morant's injury looms as a giant question mark over this series. I thought that the Grizzlies had enough to overcome losing Adams and Clarke, but if Morant is out or very hindered then the Lakers will probably win this series even if Westbrook's replacements continue to shoot .391 from the field.

Miami 130, Milwaukee 117

The Heat rode a scintillating all-around performance by Jimmy Butler (35 points and 11 assists--both game-highs--plus five rebounds and three steals) and blazing three point shooting (15-25, .600) to an upset win over the number one overall seed in the 2023 playoffs. Bam Adebayo had an excellent all-around game (22 points, nine rebounds, seven assists), and Kevin Love made a significant contribution off of the bench (18 points, eight rebounds). Khris Middleton led the Bucks in scoring (33 points) and rebounding (nine rebounds). Bobby Portis had 21 points and eight rebounds, while Jrue Holiday had a symmetrical double double (16 points, game-high 16 assists).

Full credit to the Heat, but Antetokounmpo's injury was a major factor in this game, and is potentially a major factor in this series if he is out of action or seriously limited the rest of the way. How bad was Milwaukee's defense without Antetokounmpo? In 82 regular season games, the Heat scored 130 points or more just three times, and they scored less than 100 points 14 times.

The Bucks, who had not played since April 9, looked rusty in the first quarter, shooting just 8-20 from the field and trailing 33-24. Antetokounmpo suffered his injury late in the first quarter, subbed out of the game immediately, and he returned in the second quarter but he played less than 90 seconds while hobbling around before checking out of the game for good. The Bucks never led in the second half.

Losing Herro is a major blow for the Heat, but the outcome of this series hinges on Antetokounmpo's health; if he is able to play even close to his usual standard, the Bucks could very well win the next four games in a row--but if he is absent or compromised, then the Heat have a great opportunity to advance, though they are unlikely to shoot as well as they did on Sunday.

L.A. Clippers 115, Phoenix 110

In case you forgot or did not know, Kawhi Leonard reminded the world that when he is healthy (and not load managing) he is as good as any NBA player from the past decade or so. Call him the "dynasty killer." He ended the Heat's dynasty, he ended the Spurs' dynasty (by leaving the team), and he short-circuited Toronto's opportunity to be a dynasty (by leaving the team). Many people expected this game to be a coronation for the Phoenix Suns and Kevin Durant, but Leonard stole the show with 38 points on 13-24 field goal shooting while also contributing five rebounds and five assists. Eric Gordon (19 points) and Norman Powell (14 points) provided timely scoring, but it all may have been for naught without Russell Westbrook's energy and hustle. Westbrook had 10 rebounds--including a game-high five offensive rebounds--plus a team-high eight assists along with two steals and two blocked shots. There is no doubt that the Clippers need Westbrook to shoot better than 3-19 from the field, but Westbrook's fingerprints were all over this win: he hit two free throws to extend the Clippers lead to 111-108 with 17.7 seconds remaining in regulation, and then on the Suns' next possession he not only blocked Devin Booker's shot but he recovered the ball and threw it off of Booker's leg so that the Clippers would obtain possession. Westbrook had two big offensive rebounds in the final 2:43, including one that he converted into an assist on a Leonard three pointer that extended the Clippers' lead to 103-99.

After the game, Clippers Coach Ty Lue mentioned that he told Westbrook that he did not care about Westbrook's shooting because of all of the other contributions that Westbrook makes to winning. Westbrook in turn told the media how great it is to play for a team that values him as an all-around player and does not harp in his shooting percentage--a not veiled at all shot at his former team, the L.A. Lakers.

Durant played very well in his Suns' playoff debut (27 points, nine rebounds, game-high 11 assists), and Booker had one of the best all-around games that I have ever seen him play. The numbers (26 points, three assists, four steals, three blocked shots) do not tell the complete story of the impact that he had at both ends of the court. Deandre Ayton (18 points, eight rebounds) did a solid job, while Chris Paul struggled with his shot (seven points on 2-8 field goal shooting) but he led the Suns with 11 rebounds and he placed second on the team with 10 assists.

The Clippers, playing without the injured Paul George, trailed by as many as nine points on the road in the third quarter but they did not flinch. Leonard is clearly the team's best player--and arguably the best player in the NBA--but it is fascinating to watch the Clippers feed off of Westbrook's energy not long after the Lakers (and the media members who serve as LeBron James' p.r. flunkies) did Westbrook dirty. 

Brian Windhorst, Dave McMenamin, Amin Elhassan, and everyone else who wrote or said nonsense about Westbrook should be forced to watch this game while writing over and over--Bart Simpson-style--"I will stop making inaccurate statements about Russell Westbrook." Westbrook is not washed up, he is not poisonous in the locker room, and he can make significant contributions to a winning team even when he is not shooting well. Those are all demonstrable facts evidenced not just in this one game, but throughout Westbrook's Hall of Fame career.

As Charles Barkley often notes, Westbrook plays hard, rarely misses games, and is adored by his teammates (with the obvious exception of LeBron James, who constantly provides reminders of why Pat Riley referred to "smiling faces with hidden agendas" after James fled the Miami Heat). 

The Suns have tremendous talent--but can that talent develop the needed chemistry and stay healthy enough to win four playoff series and capture the franchise's first NBA title? The Clippers showed in game one that they will not be an easy team to eliminate.

Denver 109, Minnesota 80

Look up beatdown in the dictionary, and you will find a picture of the Denver Nuggets pounding the Minnesota Timberwolves in game one. The final margin does not reflect the extent of Denver's dominance, nor do the individual player numbers. Nikola Jokic scored just 13 points on 6-12 field goal shooting, but he snared a game-high 14 rebounds, and he slickly dissected the Suns' defense with an impressive array of post moves reminiscent of Kevin McHale in his prime. Jokic dropped six dimes as well. Jamal Murray led the Nuggets in scoring (24 points) and assists (eight) as each Denver starter scored in double figures while playing 33 minutes or less. 

Anthony Edwards led Minnesota with an inefficient 18 points on 6-15 field goal shooting, which was par for the course as the Timberwolves shot 30-81 (.370) from the field. Karl Anthony-Towns had 11 points on 5-15 field goal shooting plus 10 rebounds, and Rudy Gobert scored eight points while grabbing a team-high 13 rebounds.

The Timberwolves are a talented team capable of playing better than this, but this game is a demonstration of the typical difference in class between the best team in the West and the eighth best team in the West.

Labels: Denver Nuggets, Jimmy Butler, Kawhi Leonard, L.A. Clippers, L.A. Lakers, Memphis Grizzlies, Miami Heat, Milwaukee Bucks, Minnesota Timberwolves, Nikola Jokic, Phoenix Suns, Russell Westbrook

posted by David Friedman @ 3:47 AM

2 comments