Goeiedag, enchantée and welcome to this week's episode of Eight 2 Four presents: All-NBA Team of the Week. We’re halfway through the first round of the Playoffs and we’ve already seen some crazy swings. The Suns have to miss Booker for the rest of the first round and maybe longer, so all of sudden the lowly Pelicans could become a problem. The Grizzlies and Minnesota are playing the most insane series I have ever seen with both teams just putting on crazy stretches of basketball and going on stupid 20 to 0 runs. The Bucks have lost Middleton and could all of a sudden get into trouble against DeRozan and the Bulls. Like I said, it’s been nuts. This week, we’ve picked out the five players that are really sticking out, in a good way! Get ready for your All-NBA Team of the Week!
PICK #1
Our first pick of the week is Jalen Brunson of the Dallas Mavericks. When news came out that Luka Doncic was not going to be able to play in the first few games of this series, nobody expected Dallas to do anything against the Jazz. Then the series started and people remembered that Jazz are not a good Playoff team. The Mavericks were unlucky in the first game, but recovered in the second and restored home court advantage in Game 3. All without Luka, and against Donovan Mitchell and one of the best defenders in the league, Rudy Gobert. If you couldn’t name 3 players on the Mavericks roster outside of Doncic before this series, I wouldn’t blame you. But Spencer Dinwiddie, Reggie Bullock and especially Jalen Brunson, have sent the Jazz into a tailspin and are setting the charges that could blow up this entire franchise.
Brunson is averaging nearly 30 points per game, and more importantly, he does whatever he wants on the court with the Jazz defense. It was hard to watch, especially in Game 3, with Brunson and the other Mavericks beating the perimeter defenders and either cutting to the rim or finding the open man for the 3. Rudy Gobert can’t keep up, it looks like he’s trying to patch up a broken leg with a band-aid. But you can’t put it on him alone, the Jazz perimeter defense leaks worse than a sieve. Donovan Mitchell looks like he has forgotten how to play defense and Royce O’Neale and Mike Conley look like old men out there. Now that Luka is back for the Mavericks, you would expect that this series is all but over.
And it nearly was, if not for a well-timed alley-oop from Mitchell to Gobert in Game 4. I’m sure they’ll have dinner together after, or maybe not. The series is now heading back to Dallas, tied at 2 all, but the Mavericks definitely have the advantage. With Luka back, and immediately putting up 30 points and 10 rebounds in his first game, the Jazz are going to struggle. Brunson will have less opportunity to shine moving forward, but he has done what he can to keep Dallas alive in this series. If, or when, they move to the next round, it will be thanks to Brunson. Because if he hadn’t stepped up like he did, the Jazz would have swept the Mavericks, even being the disaster they are. Looking forward to the next round, Luka could have a clean run into the Western Conference Finals. If the Pelicans can knock off the Suns without Booker, the Mavs should be able to handle them. Or if the Suns hold on, the Mavs should be able to beat a tired and decimated Suns team. But now we’re really getting ahead of ourselves.
PICK #2
Our second pick of the week is Jordan Poole of the Golden State Warriors. The Warriors are absolutely cruising through their first round series against the Nuggets. Up 3 zip, beating the nuggets on average by nearly 15 points per game. Even though he is averaging nearly 30 points per game, Nikola Jokic has nothing left to give in the Playoffs. He has worked so hard in the regular season to get his team to Playoffs, that now that they’ve made it, he is too tired to make life hard for the Warriors. In fact, the Warriors are so good, they can afford to keep Curry on restricted minutes, he’s averaging about 25 minutes a game, slowly ramping up his total minutes. But more importantly, they are playing Curry, OFF THE BENCH! Poole has been favoured in the starting five, next to Klay, to give Steph time to get back into Playoff rhythm after his injury. And boy, was that a great move.
Jordan Poole is averaging nearly 29 points per game, and he’s shooting 7 3’s per game at nearly 60%, those are Klay and Steph numbers. Poole has officially become the third splash brother. Between the 3 of them, they average over 75 points per game. At the start of the season he was still a bit streaky, but now he can’t seem to miss a shot. Now, obviously, he’s not playing against the scariest bunch of players, we all know that. I think Nikola Jokic would rather play with some of the guys coming off the Warriors bench than what he has to start with. But as long as MPJ and Murray are out, Jokic has to do it on his own. My biggest surprise is that Bones Hyland is not getting more play time out there, it would be valuable experience for a rookie to be out there right now and he can’t do much worse than some of the other guys on the court.
The Warriors have a chance to finish this series with a sweep on Sunday, and give themselves plenty of time to start preparing for a clash with the Grizzlies. We have to remember that it was the Grizzlies who kept the Warriors out of the Playoffs last season, so there’s a bit of a rivalry brewing there. But hopefully Nikola Jokic can shine one more time in front of his home crowd this season, and give one more MVP performance before bowing out of the Playoffs gracefully. After the battles he has had this season, it would be a great ending to his story. But Poole’s story is only starting. If the 22-year old can take his form and performances into the second round and further, he is set for an amazing career. He could be exactly what the Warriors are looking for, when Steph and Klay decide to shoot themselves into retirement, you know, 10 years from now.
PICK #3
Our third pick of the week is Jayson Tatum of the Boston Celtics. Oui, I am ashamed. I was one of those people that believed the Nets were going to be able to pull off a massive stunt and work their way through the Eastern Conference. But right now, it looks like they are not even able to work their way through Boston. Going down 3 games in a row, KD and Kyrie have not looked like themselves in this series. KD looks flustered, is not getting to his spots, and is shooting only 36% off the floor. He still puts up 22 points per game, but if the Nets want to achieve anything worth mentioning these Playoffs, he needs to be averaging 40+ points. Kyrie is averaging slightly better percentages but is not getting to the line as much as KD. Anyway, enough about the Nets, I’m doing it again.
The true star in this series is Jayson Tatum. He is the reason these guys are not getting there offensively, leading the Celtics on both ends of the floor. Yes, Marcus Smart is the Defensive Player of the Year, and for good reason, but Jayson Tatum is the leader on the court. He is the one putting KD off his game and on the other end of the court he is proving to be unstoppable. KD was guarding him in Game 1, unsuccessfully, and he had Bruce Brown, the best defender on the Nets, on him the rest of the way, again with very little success. Brown is fantastic at playing bigger than his size, but he is just too small to guard Tatum. Tatum is averaging nearly 30 points per game, and 8 assists per game. He controls the game, and the whole series so far. In Game 3 today, he put up 39 points to steal the first game away from Brooklyn.
Both teams meet again on Monday in what could be the last game of the series. With the return of Robert Williams, the Celtics are again at full strength, even though he’ll need some time to play himself back into the line-up. Rumours are flying around that Ben Simmons will make an appearance for the Nets in Game 4, but it is very unlikely that it will make a difference. Hopefully for KD, it will prolong their Playoff run a bit, but he might be booking his holidays already, who knows? Boston and Tatum can’t plan their holidays just yet. They’ll need to play Giannis and the Bucks in Round 2 in what could be the deciding series in the Eastern Conference. If they can get past them, I reckon we’ll see Boston in the NBA Finals this year.
PICK #4
Our fourth pick of the week is Jimmy Butler of the Miami Heat. We all know that the Heat were the best team in the Eastern Conference during the regular season and yet, the only time people talked about them was when coach Erik Spoelstra wanted to fight his star player. The Heat were the most consistent team in the East so the first sign of trouble, staged or not, and everyone buried them. Even now, after dominating most of the series against the Hawks and the Bucks losing Middleton, the Heat are still not the favourites to come out of the East. But that is exactly what these guys want. I spoke about it on last week’s podcast, they thrive when they’re the underdog.
In a series against the 8 seed, the Atlanta Hawks, the Heat are anything but the underdogs. The Hawks have been up and down all season long and only just scraped into the Playoffs. This Heat team should have very little issues with the Hawks, especially if they can keep Trae quiet, like they did in the first 2 games in Miami. Trae is only averaging 19 points per game, that’s almost 10 full points per game less than what he averaged in the regular season. When you look at the Hawks' score lines, they average 102 points per game in total in this series, about 10 points per game less than in the regular season. See the correlation there? The Heat’s defense is tough and the Hawks are struggling to pick it apart.
A problem for Miami could be Kyle Lowry. The veteran point guard is questionable for Game 4 with a hamstring injury and he plays such an important role on this team. Then again, if Butler keeps averaging nearly 30 points per game, Tyler Herro adding 15 points per game off the bench and Duncan Robinson finally finding his shot, he’s averaging nearly 70% from deep in this series on 4 shots per game, he can’t miss right now. This Heat team might not even need Lowry to set the table for them. If they can grab Game 4 in Atlanta, this series is over, if they don’t, I would put it past Trae to cause the first upset of the Playoffs. But really, the Heat can slowly start looking ahead soon for a second round match-up against Philly.
PICK #5
Our fifth pick of the week is Joel Embiid of the Philadelphia 76ers. James Harden might not be playing at the level we expect but Embiid definitely is. He has been huge for Philly in the series against the Toronto Raptors so far, averaging 26 points and nearly 12 rebounds per game. We called it before the series started, the Raptors have nobody that can guard Embiid. I mean, they had VanVleet guarding Embiid at the crucial inbound in the final second of overtime in game 3. I think Embiid never had an easier 3 to make than that one, I’m not sure he even realised someone was there. It was obvious that the Raptors did not anticipate Embiid being the one rolling out of the pack to take that 3, making it all the more impressive that he did AND was able to sink it perfectly. He is not an average big guy, no, Joel is so much more than a big body under the rim. To me, that was the moment of the series and for Embiid the perfect revenge on the Kawhi-shot a few years back.
I already mentioned it, Joel is not getting any help from James Harden but at least he doesn’t have to do everything on his own. Tyrese Maxey, the young guard who’s a definite contender for Most Improved, has been playing at such a high level that Harden doesn’t need to. He’s playing more minutes than anyone on the Sixers roster, and he only trails Siakam in the series, he’s shooting 45% from deep and is nearly perfect from the free throw line. He’s contributing nearly 23 points per game, making him the second best scorer in this series. His incredible play allows Philly to roll through this series without having to take too many chances and expanding too much energy. And hopefully that is benefitting Harden. It will give him time to grow in these Playoffs and show up when he really needs to, like in a series against Miami for example.
Philly is up 3 to 1 in this series against Toronto, allowing the Raptors to run away with 1 game at home, mainly because Embiid was slightly hurt, and setting themselves up to complete the Gentleman’s Sweep at home on Monday. The Raptors will have to come up with something special if they still want to turn this series around but without Rookie of the Year, Scottie Barnes, a sick Gary Trent Jr and Fred VanVleet not knocking down shots, it will be difficult. Embiid and his guys can start looking ahead to their next matchup, which will likely be Miami, they’re up 2 to 1, unless Trae Young can tap into last year’s incredible performance. But if they do meet Miami, Embiid will have to face Bam Adebayo, a much better defender than what he’s used to. The Sixers will need a huge performance from both Maxey and Harden, if they want to get past Jimmy Buckets and Tyler Herro.
This is our All-NBA team of the Week. Please share our podcast and give us 5 stars. If you have any questions, you can contact the show on eight2fouroffice@gmail.com. Thank you for listening, ballers out!
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