The second round

All top four teams in both conferences advanced and things are getting interesting headlined with Boston’s manhandling of the league’s top team, Houston’s controversial loss, and Kawhi Leonard’s dominance.

Normally, when someone attempts a jump shot and a defender jumps forward to his landing spot, the likeliest to happen is for the shooter to fall on his butt and in many cases, foot injuries happen.  Yes, a foul will be called.

James Harden is no ordinary shooter as he is an elite talent and knows and find ways to get his shots in.  Yes, he’s a foul-bait genius and a master flopper that when he launches a shot, Harden extends a foot or leans towards a defender to initiate contact and dramatically drops on the hardwood.  Most of the time he gets the benefit of the officials’ decision.

In their physically intense second round duel with the Golden State Warriors, the Houston Rockets failed to lift off.   There were several non-calls on Harden’s attempts which could have given the Rockets free throws and maybe the game, considering the Warriors were also not playing like they’re supposed to.  Except of course Kevin Durant.  There were also missed calls on Golden State so it was not all about Harden asking for fairness.

Long story short, the refs had erred and maybe were thinking that those actions were typical Harden flops and exaggerations and did not get the results he wanted.  Let’s see what today’s Game 2 bring us, how coach Mike D’Antoni make adjustments and let other players produce when his main offensive weapon gets the same treatment.  This is no ordinary series and could have been worthy of the Western Conference Finals.

Out in the East, the Boston Celtics fenced off the driving lanes and played physical on potential regular season MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo to a “low” 22 points. Boston don’t ‘Fear the Deer’ when they held down Milwaukee to less than 100 points, considering that the Bucks are one of the league’s top offensive and defensive teams, very uncharacteristic of them. 

The Celtics are on a 5-game roll after sweeping Indiana and has taken home court advantage with a 22-point blowout win in this series.  Playoff veterans Kyrie Irving and Al Horford plus top talents Jayson Tatum, Gordon Hayward and Jaylen Brown are getting cohesive offensively and defensively.  Sharing the ball evenly and with players alternately making life miserable for Giannis, Boston could advance to the Conference Finals, unless Milwaukee finds a way today to solve their problem.

In the last seven playoff games, Kawhi Leonard averaged 33 points and proved that indeed he is one of the best players in the league, leading the Raptors to a 108-95 victory over Philadelphia.  Alternately rested for 22 games in the regular season, Toronto got peak performance from their interim face of the franchise when it mattered most.  Interim because theirs is no guarantee that he’ll still be a Raptor next season. 

Unlike Game 1, Toronto’s bench were quiet and they need to produce to back up Leonard who’s the game’s top scorer with 35.  The Raptors provided good defense on Tobias Harris and Ben Simmons who only scored a combined 13 points.  Although Joel Embiid was controlled by Marc Gasol down low, Jimmy Butler made up for a sub-par Game 1 performance and erupted for 30 points, giving the Sixers their first victory in Toronto since 2012.  The bench mob for both teams will be critical in this series.

Denver and Portland are still doing their thing as I write this.  From a tight game, the Nuggets had started to pull away starring the trio of Paul Millsap, Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray.