I think it's safe to say that winter is gone, no fakeouts. Sunday in the 70s. A breeze pressed a cherry blossom into my hand. By the time I returned home from work, the fog had dissipated. I opened the front door, letting in the birdsong. I had leftover spaghetti with a glass of lemonade. Then I grabbed a beer and an ice cream and settled in for some PLAYOFF BASKETBALL ACTION, BABY! TWO! second round game sevens: Bucks and Celtics. Suns and Mavericks.
I hadn't watched a full game of the Milwaukee-Boston series. Milwaukee: The defending champs led by an MVP candidate. Boston: An interesting story. The team struggled early in the regular season. From my own amateur observation, they seemed disorganized, ineffective on offense and defense. Saddled with a losing record, there was talk of breaking up their two stars, Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown. Then in the second half of the season, they became one of the best teams in the league. Marcus Smart won Defensive Player of the Year. And they secured a spot in the playoffs. The outcome of the game didn't come as a shock. The Bucks were missing a star, Khris Middleton (knee injury). Giannis Antetokounmpo didn't put up his usual superstar numbers: missed layups, a crowded interior. Barely any of the team's 3s went down. The Celtics, on the other hand, had several players in double figures (the leading scorer was a role player named Grant Williams, who had the biggest game of his life). The team made many 3s and never stopped applying defensive pressure. For a moment, it looked like a Celtics bench player had managed to seriously injure himself at the end of the game, when the victor was already clear. Then he came back and made a 3. Now they're off to Miami to face the Heat. Prediction: Jayson Tatum will be looking for revenge against Bam Adebayo.
As for the Suns and Mavericks, I doubt any game will be more shocking. The Suns, the team that dominated throughout the regular season and ended it as the number one seed, were of course favored but there was a note of caution from most every basketball expert: Luka Dončić, the current face of the Mavericks franchise, is a superstar, the best player in the series, known for being at his best in the clutch. So maybe, just maybe. Still, I expected a hardfought, back-and-forth game decided in the final minutes or seconds of the 4th quarter. Instead the Mavericks went into Phoenix and stomped the Suns. Jawdropping. At halftime, Dončić had as many points as the other team (27). Let me repeat: The Suns had 27 points at halftime. 27. The Suns contained no one - not Dončić, Spencer Dinwiddie, or eventually Jalen Brunson. The Mavericks rained 3s. On the other side: For a long stretch, Deandre Ayton, Devin Booker, and Chris Paul, star players, had a combined 0 FGs. All three would end up having a bad night. No one on the Suns showed any life. When the Mavericks had possession of the ball, I began to think: that's going in. When the Suns had possession: that's not. Dončić smiled through the night, seemingly at ease in hostile (and increasingly quiet) territory. He had the representative play of the night, sending his defender, Cam Johnson, sliding along the floor and draining a 3 as Johnson looked on helplessly. (Dončić didn't need to play much if any of the 4th quarter.) Key commentary: Kevin Harlan remarks on the hot weather in Phoenix. Reggie Miller pauses and says, well, the Suns's shooting is cold. I can't remember any time in the regular season or postseason when the Suns looked like they couldn't take control of the game. And the team, practically unrecognizable, fell apart at the worst imaginable time. The only thing they managed to do was anger Boban Marjanović, a Mavericks player who doesn't seem to get many minutes and is praised every time he steps on the floor for being a nice, gentle giant. A sour ending to a sour ending. It was so bad it erased the previous worst game of the playoff season, which is now lost to NBA history, or should be.
They closed out, losers.
The cat is so clingy! Can't be petted enough. I've been using a pillow as a shield and my D is good. I'm hoping the same is true for the Warriors. Let's go, Warriors.
