5 Takeaways From The NBA Playoffs First Weekend

The first weekend of the 2013-2014 NBA Playoffs couldn’t have been more exciting. From an amazing cross-state rivalry series in California to the Portland Trail Blazers and Houston Rockets playing an overtime thriller on Easter night, this is why we learned to love the grand old game of basketball. 

While nothing has really been decided in any of the eight series, there is a lot we can take out of the first weekend of the month’s long NBA Playoffs. Let’s take a look at five things we learned from the initial weekend.

 

West is Best

Okay, okay…we knew this long before the playoffs actually started. With seven teams that won 50-plus games, the Western Conference promised to bring us some excitement in each round of the postseason. The eighth-seeded Dallas Mavericks took the San Antonio Spurs down to the wire in Game 1, putting up a double-digit fourth quarter lead before blowing it at the end. The Memphis Grizzlies put up a fight against Kevin Durant’s Oklahoma City Thunder before being dominated in the final stanza.

Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson took a back seat to Golden State’s big’s as the Warriors upset Chris Paul and the Los Angeles Clippers in Southern California on Saturday afternoon, putting Doc Rivers’ squad on notice. Meanwhile, LaMarcus Aldridge and Damian Lillard combined for 77 points in an overtime victory against Dwight Howard, James Harden and the home-standing Houston Rockets.

If you thought this weekend was crazy in the Western Conference, just wait to see how these series play out. At the very least, I can see two of them going the full seven games. At most, all four might go the distance. That’s the drama we all want in the best conference the game has to offer.

 

Indiana Pacers Aren’t Best

If you have been following along here at Sportsnaut, you know full well that I picked the Atlanta Hawks to upset the No. 1 seeded Pacers. While stopping short of patting myself on the back after just one game, it’s readily apparent that Indiana is currently in the midst of what promises to be a long series.

Jeff Teague and Paul Millsap combined to shoot 16-of-36 from the field and netted 53 points in the Hawks’ Game 1 upset over Indiana. While they were the top scorers for an underdog Atlanta team, it was team defense that won the day. Indiana shot 42 percent from the field and turned the ball over 15 times in the defeat. It also went a substandard 16-of-23 from the free-throw line.

Big men Roy Hibbert and David West shot just 8-of-19 from the field and turned the ball over a combined seven times in the loss. In reality, they were thoroughly outplayed by Pero Antic and the aforementioned Millsap.

This falls in line with the way Indiana has played recently. It entered the postseason 12-13 in its last 25 regular season games. Without a question, that’s not the look of a true No. 1 seed. While Atlanta is the only playoff team that finished the regular year with a losing record, it proved that it belonged on the road against a Pacers team that is struggling big time. It might be too early to pat myself on the back here, but the Pacers need to get it going in order to avoid one of the biggest playoff upsets in modern NBA history.

 

Expectations are Real in Golden State

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ss0L7pAM8hA

The Warriors might have been happy to still be playing basketball in May last year, but that’s simply not the case in 2014. As evidenced by rumors about Mark Jackson’s job security, the Warriors aren’t going to hang their hats on a 51-win regular season. Instead, they’re looking to not only go deep in the Western Conference playoffs, but earn a trip to the NBA Finals. While that might be farfetched, the talent is most definitely here.

With Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson combining to shoot 13-of-36 from the field and turning the ball over 11 times, you would think that Golden State didn’t stand a chance in Game 1. Instead, it was the likes of Harrison Barnes, Jermaine O’Neal and Draymond Green who helped the Warriors to a surprise Game 1 victory in Los Angeles on Saturday afternoon. The three combined to shoot 12-of-25 from the field with 33 points, 18 rebounds and six assists. They also did a bang up job guarding the paint without the services of Andrew Bogut.

If Golden State can win a game with the Splash Brothers performing the way they did on Saturday, there is no telling what it can do moving forward in this series. While it did help that Blake Griffin played just 19 minutes due to foul trouble, the Warriors’ lack of depth just didn’t seem to be that big of an issue. A win tonight in Los Angeles and the Warriors are really in the drivers seat here. After all, does anyone really think they’re going to lose two of three at home? I didn’t think so.

 

The Portland Trail Blazers Have Stars

If you live east of the Mississippi, you probably havent’ heard a whole lot about Damian Lillard and LaMarcus Aldridge in the Pacific Northwest. If so, shame on you. These are two of the best young players in the NBA and give the Blazers a real shot at coming out of the west when all is said and done. Those two combined for 77 points, 27 rebounds, seven assists and only four turnovers in a combined 91 minutes of play in Portland’s 122-120 overtime win over the Houston Rockets.

More than that, they outplayed one of the best tandems in the NBA in James Harden and Dwight Howard, who shot just 17-of-49 from the field. Those two will put up the numbers, but when you hold them to a combined .347 field-goal percentage, you are doing a damn good job.

The one question for Portland is whether it has the depth to go the distance in a series of best-of-seven sets. Its bench tallied just seven points on 2-of-14 from the field. What happens if either Aldridge or Lillard go cold? Until then, let’s just enjoy the show.

 

The Miami Heat Can Turn it on

Miami might have gone into the postseason losing six of its last eight games, but no one from the two-time defending champs were worried. With the championship pedigree that LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh and Ray Allen bring to the table, panic was the furthest thing from their mind.

Even as the Heat prepared for an under-manned Charlotte Bobcats team, the eye was on the real prize. Take care of business quickly in this series and enable the veterans to have extensive rest heading into the secound round of the playoffs.

It sure did look like the Heat weren’t really into it early on Sunday in Game 1 against Charlotte. When the first 12 minutes came to a conclusion, Charlotte was up by four points.

This enabled skeptics and haters of the two-time defending champs to come out in full force…

Others were more pragamatic (or sarcastic) about the early Bobcats’ lead…

Miami outscored Charlotte by 15 in the final three quarters to cruise to an 11-point victory. While not terribly impressive in the grand scheme of things, this series is nothing more than a warmup for the rest of the playoffs.

With Indiana struggling a great deal and not guaranteed to come out of its series against the Hawks, it appears that the Heat are favorites to come out of the Eastern Conference for the fourth consecutive year. In reality, they can just turn on the jets whenever they feel the need to. Game 1 against Charlotte was a prime example of this.

 

Photo: Jayne Kamin-Oncea, USA Today