NBA Eastern Conference 1st Round Review

Eastern Conference 1st Round

Man, man, man. What a start to the the first round of the 2021-22 NBA playoffs. Even though we haven't came to an end to this round just yet, man do we have a surplus to talk about.

Let's talk about the biggest surprise of the playoffs so far. The Brooklyn Nets getting swept by the burning hot Boston Celtics. Let me just say, I thought that the Nets had a chance, but I knew that this surging Celts squad had it all handled. The biggest revelation for me has to be the defensive stardom that the young star, Jayson Tatum, showed against Kevin Durant and the superb coaching from the first year coach in Ime Udoka. I knew the Celtics were a top of the line defensive team, honing the 2021-22 DPOTY in Marcus Smart, but I did not know that Jayson was that great of a defender. Kevin Durant shot 32/83 in this 4 game series, so without the thought of Jayson's defense, this should tell you the story within itself. Jayson's DR (defensive rating) rose up by ten points from 106 to 116 just in the playoffs after the first round. It is deranged to see a defensive rating rise that quick, but with the defensive stalwart he showed to be this series, I can not say anything about the quick increase. In all of my years watching Kevin Durant play, I have honestly seen him be this bad twice. The whole Kevin Dur-can't time back in OKC and here. There was so many sequences in this series where he was getting locked up, especially that one possession where there was about 33.9 seconds left in Game 1 where Kevin went for a crossover pullup and JT stayed with him and blocked the pull up jay.

Here's stats of Jayson Tatum guarding Kevin Durant, per the NBA tracking data:

• 27:01 matchup time

• 120.9 possessions

• 10 points

• 2/15 FG (13.3%)

• 0/4 3PT (0%)

• 10 turnovers

• 2 blocks

• 2 shooting fouls

Jayson is showing why he is a top 10 player in the most prestigious basketball league in the world, and you know what, I totally am in agreeance.

Now let's talk about this superb coaching from the first year guy in Ime Udoka. This man coached circles around another first year coach in Steve Nash. Starting the year, this team got off to a bad start and everybody pointed the finger at Ime. Well let me tell you, Mr. Udoka turned this team into a monster that is going to be very hard to stop. With the 9th best defensive rating in the league, we knew that this team was a force to be reckoned with on the defensive side of the rock. Steve couldn't coach this Nets team by any means, and it showed. Bruce Brown was going off all series but he'd rather have Kyrie and Kevin run isolation all game. Ime put the keys in Jayson's hand and told him to ride this team into the next round with your star-stricken talent, and that is exactly what he did for this team. I am excited to see what Ime has in store for this young Celtics team next series against the former champion Milwaukee Bucks.

Speaking of the Bucks, let's talk about how they beat the Bulls in 5. We all knew that the Bulls weren't going to pull a rabbit out the hat in this series. I mean with the big injury to their franchise PG in Lonzo Ball during the season and the during series loss in Alex Caruso, all they had to look to was Zach Lavine, DeMar DeRozan, and the remains of what this offense was at the start of the season. I mean this series they showed a little bit of promise, but it wasn't enough to give me any hope that they could beat the Bucks. But the big thing for me was the way that Zach and DeMar played. Zach went from averaging 24.4 points on 47% shooting through the regular season, to 19 points on 42% shooting in the 5 games against the Bucks. I mean it doesn't seem like that big of a decrease but from watching the condensed offensive highlights of this series, it just didn't seem like Zach was himself. He was missing open shots, not getting to the rim like we know him to do, and he just wasn't taking advantage of the defensive matchups that they were throwing at him this series. There was many possessions where Zach had the frailer Grayson Allen on him and he just passed out of it when he could have bullied him to the rim. Enough on Lavine, let's talk about the playoff struggler DeRozan. He went from averaging 28 points on 50% shooting through the regular season to averaging a mere 20 points on 41% shooting. He just could not find his touch from the field in this series. We all know about why they call him DeMar DeFrozen, because of the lack of playoff success and the scoring struggles he has had there, but here in this series, he didn't make it any better. He was looking like an MVP candidate during to the season to now just looking like the average NBA star again, like he was back in SA. I believe that he can pick it up next year, but he needs to take into account that he has to take this team to the next level next year or else.

No need to talk about the Bucks honestly, in the way they played. I knew that they were going to win this series, but my one big takeaway from this series has to be the loss of Khris Middleton. There was news that was released today (April 28th) that he is indeed likely to miss the whole series against the Celtics. A huge blow to the offense, even though he started the playoffs in a slump, he played two games. Spraining his MCL, he put this team in a weird spot here against the hottest team in basketball in the Celtics. Can't wait to see what this series has in store.

What a disaster class from the All-Star PG Trae Young. I mean that is the biggest takeaway here. The Heat end up winning this series in 5 games, and the sad part is that Kyle Lowry and Jimmy Butler didn't even play in the last game, and somehow the Hawks and Trae couldn't even piece it together down the stretch. He averaged 28 points on 46% from the field throughout the regular season, and in the playoffs, this man played the most unacceptable basketball ever in his life. He went from that to an abysmal 15.4 points on 32% shooting through 5 games. To compare his statistics in his playoffs, Trae's TOV% raised up by almost 14 points which is just impermissible. With the Clint Capela decline, we saw Deandre Hunter step up in this series, but he just could not help push them through.

And in the Heat's case, they played significantly well in this series. Jimmy played great, Tyler Herro being the Wonder Boy he is, and the surprise that led the Heat to the win in game 5, Victor Oladipo. After only playing 8 games all season, he comes into the playoffs in his second game back, and puts up 20 points to piggyback this depleted team to the next round after some slight injuries to key players in the starting lineup. Can't wait to see what this team can do against the 76ers.

Well, I thought this series was going to seven, but I was wrong. One of the runner ups for MVP this year, Joel Embiid, put this series to rest in 6 games. The Raptors were missing Fred VanVleet and Scottie Barnes for the last two games of the series and even without them, this diminished Raptors team still found some way to put up a fight. A huge thing to be seen from this season for the Raps has to be the crazy year that their rookie Scottie Barnes had. He won Rookie of the Year this season averaging 15.3 PPG, 7.5 REBS, and 3.5 AST on a crazy 49% from the field on 12 attempts per game. His assist numbers don't truly show his influence on the offensive side of the ball. Scottie is one of the most talented guys from this draft class and is possibly my favorite guy from this class so I'm very big on him. But let's talk about the winners of this series, the 76ers. One of the biggest surprises from this series has to be the way the young stud combo guard Tyrese Maxey played. His true shooting percentage jumped up 4% during the playoffs so did his PPG from the season to the playoffs and that comes to show that he is cleaning James Harden's saddening play here in these playoffs. The 6ers have a blossoming, youthful guard to look forward to here in the next few years.

Eastern Conference was a tad bit better than the West when it came to watching the games, especially the Celtics. But for sure, these second round matchups will be a showdown to keep your eyes on.