Jimmy Butler wiped out Eastern Conference favorites in a stunning Match 1. Chris Paul turned back the clock to save the Oklahoma City Thunder. And two best of seven series in the first round of the Western Conference playoffs will be decided by the winner who takes all game 7.
Bubble Basketball, it turns out, doesn’t disappoint.
The NBA playoffs continue Tuesday night in the Disney World bubble in Orlando, where the Boston Celtics will look to take a 2-0 lead over the Toronto Raptors, while the Denver Nuggets and Utah Jazz will finish their riveting streaks with a must-play 7 game.
Here’s what’s happening in the league:
• Two All-Stars starred in the playoffs on Monday: Butler and Paul, who won the Miami Heat and Thunder respectively, with incredible individual performances. For Butler, who scored 40 points in a surprising Race 1 win over the Milwaukee Bucks, the moment only reinforced the fact that he found a perfect solution in South Beach, according to ESPN:
“It’s hard to explain how much (Pat) Riley and coach Erik Spoelstra love Butler. They’ve had some players like this for the past 25 years.
“Alonzo Lutto. Tim Hardaway. (Dwyane) Wade. Udonis Haslem.
“But they never fell faster and harder than they did for Butler, the kind of hard-nosed, team-focused, no-nonsense leader they would create in a lab if they could. Even Wade, who has taken on some sort of role as captain emeritus, is in love. “
• Meanwhile, Paul stunned during a 28-point nonassist exit where he scored 15 points in the fourth quarter. The Thunder have Chris Paul to thank … and not just for forcing game 7, according to The Athletic:
“The Thunder can thank Paul for pulling Luguentz Dort aside for encouragement during a Game 5 shooting crisis that put the team in an offensive hole. They can thank him for being proud of Darius Bazley on and off the pitch. On the day between losing the Thunder in Game 5 and winning the Game 6 saves of the season, Paul talked about how the 20-year-old rookie was one of two Thunder players involved in the matches when the NBA players left last week.
“Investment. Paul was not supposed to have any in the Thunder after being traded last summer, but early in his tenure showed he wouldn’t be sulking in Oklahoma City. His big deal and the shadow of his bad playoff exit. from Houston made it difficult for the trades to materialize. Instead of forcing his exit and getting the Thunder to accept a deal for a few cents on the dollar, Paul has increased his value by injecting spirit into a franchise looking for its next chapter. “
• The Nuggets feel relaxed as they take on Game 7, and ESPN’s Zach Lowe offers an in-depth look at the winning ending takes it all:
“It’s hard to overestimate how much Utah embarrassed Denver for four games. The Nuggets at that point were conceding 131 points for 100 possessions, 16 points less than the league’s most permeable regular season defense. Michael Malone, the Denver coach, was playing schematic and whack-a-mole matchup. Nothing worked.
“League skeptics were wondering if any team down in the first round – without the home court advantage to back them – could make it. The Nuggets would never do that. This core showed its grit before it even entered the postseason.
…
“Murray instills unstoppable confidence in the Nuggets. Keep coming. His chest is always swollen. He was taking superstar shots before he even smelled stardom, like he had a right to it. You might laugh when he missed it: who does this guy think he is? Murray, meanwhile, was amazed they hadn’t entered. Fear has died out to Jokic, who is more willing to take post-season matches by the throat instead of waiting for them to come to him. Utah’s Donovan Mitchell matched Murray blow for blow, giving us one of the biggest one-on-one doubles in playoff history (though they rarely defend each other). “
• The arrival of the NBA playoffs, of course, means it’s an almost silly season in the league… and fans will soon be teased by commercial rumors and free agent dreams. On that note, Bleacher Report set the worst trade for any team in the past decade, which, for the Blazers, means canceling the unfortunate move of acquiring Aaron Afflalo on the 2015 trade deadline:
“Afflalo wasn’t supposed to be the center of attention in Portland, but rather the second team spark to complete one of basketball’s best starting five. But that plan went wrong after Wesley Matthews suffered an Achilles tear less than a month later. Suddenly, Afflalo was tasked with being a main piece for Portland, and it was never put together for him or the Blazers. They were 36-17 at the time of the exchange, they only went 15-14 the rest of the course and were bounced out of the opening round in five games. “
• Athletic’s Joe Vardon is one of the few journalists who cover games inside the bubble, and he offered some images and sounds behind the bubble of the dramatic and entertaining Game 6 match between the Rockets and the Thunder:
“The way Chris Paul and James Harden looked at each other was the kind of shared appearance usually reserved for divorce court, moments before custody was awarded.
“What a drama. Paul’s hard gaze and Harden’s long gaze, former Rockets teammates who no longer get along, seconds away from Paul’s new team forcing a match 7 against the old one. The internet has absorbed it.
Except the look you thought you saw … it didn’t really happen. From my seat in the arena on Monday, for the Oklahoma City Thunder 104-100 win over Houston in Game 6, I could see Paul looking down at Thunder manager Billy Donovan with 3.8 seconds left. end. What the TNT camera showed was Paul and Harden standing next to each other on the foul line, while Danilo Gallinari was about to take the free throw of the match, staring at each other’s daggers. But their eyes never met. “
…
“I sat on the sidelines, as usual, inside the bubble and took copious notes, making sure to document what you couldn’t see or hear on TV. Paul, a famous speaker, is reason enough for the exercise. But Harden and Westbrook, as high-wattage superstars, provide reams of good material. The Rockets are world-class complainers for referees. Dennis Schroder’s trashy speech has nuances. Let’s hope match 7 on Wednesday lives up to this. “
• The Ringer takes a look at the great awakening of the NBA:
“The NBA is proud to be a leader on issues relating to the dismantling of racism. When the league resumed its season this summer, kidnapping its players at Walt Disney World amid nationwide protests against police killings of black citizens, it echoed the message of the Black Lives Movement. Players wear slogans like “Say Their Names” on the back of their jerseys and “Black Lives Matter” is emblazoned on the pitch for television audiences. While many gamers felt uncomfortable playing in a bubble as the dual crisis of pandemic and racism impacted their families and communities back home, they felt their platform would allow them to amplify messages of racial fairness. But blending exposure and visibility with action, especially radical action at times that require it, has long been a source of concern and criticism among the organizers of the Black Lives Movement. “
• CBS Sports reveals what it’s like to be a virtual fan in the bubble, stating that technology is nothing without the humanity behind it:
“Once you start the game, you watch the broadcast on your laptop or device, but an interesting part is that you are about a minute ahead of other fans watching on their TV – appropriate given the whole” life in the future “theme. I’m not ashamed to say that more than once I’ve texted friends making incredibly accurate predictions about what they were about to watch on their screens: ‘I don’t know why, but I just have a feeling Jayson Tatum will miss a 28 jump jump with the foot on the next possession Call it intuition.
Unfortunately, my Nostradamian exploits did me no favors with my selfless text chain.
You are encouraged to cheer and interact with other fans in your section, and another fascinating aspect of being a virtual fan is that the players on the pitch can really hear you, more or less. Don’t worry if you reflexively and impulsively shout that Joel Embiid is a bum, players can’t hear genre-specific comments. Instead the sound of all virtual fans is mixed together to create ambient crowd noise in Disney arenas. So even though you are potentially thousands of miles away, you can still literally be part of the game. “
• Brandon Ingram was named best player in the NBA, the first time a New Orleans pelican has earned the honor.
– Joe Freeman | [email protected] | 503-294-5183 | @BlazerFreeman | Sign up for Oregonian / OregonLive newsletters and podcasts for the latest news and top stories.
