Cleveland Cavs vs Indiana Pacers - Full Game Highlights | Game 2 | April 17, 2017 | NBA Playoffs
The Pacers head home, the Cavs move on, the Celtics even the score, the Bulls fall apart, ISO Joe rises, Westbrook lashes out and the Clippers clip hard. Here"s what happened Sunday in the NBA playoffs ...
JOE JOHNSON. AGAIN.
This, my friends, is why your favorite team keeps that veteran on the bench.
Fans always want something shiny and new. They want the youngster to get time, they want the rookies to be on the floor, they want athleticism over experience. But Joe Johnson showed on Sunday night why you want guys like him -- guys who have been in the league for over a decade and have been in these moments before.
Johnson scored 13 points and had three assists in the final seven minutes of Game 4 while the Jazz outscored the Clippers 25-11 to even the series. Johnson was patient, in control, deliberate. When the Clippers sunk off him for a second, he drained a 3-pointer. When he was matched up with a smaller opponent, he worked them in the post. He controlled the game in a way that only veterans know how to do, and delivered time and time again.
Johnson"s career has been underrated since his days in Phoenix. He has made the playoffs every year since 2008, and been a big reason why his squad qualified each year. His defense hasn"t slipped. His passing is still smart. He has added old-man strength and knows how to create and maintain space when rabid defenses are primed on him.
There"s no way to really define these things that make a player so good in clutch time. It"s not just shot making, it"s control of the game. Johnson is one of the best at it, and you"re not going to find it in any young kid. If the playoffs are a man"s game, then Joe Johnson is a certified adult, and the one that the Jazz needed, and had on Sunday, to tie the series.
A CAVALIER APPROACH TO THE FIRST ROUND
Ho-hum, another first-round demolition job for LeBron James, another early finish to the first round and more rest for his squad. In his wake, he leaves a Pacers team wondering if they"ll still have Paul George at the start of next season, let alone next summer when he"s a free agent. This isn"t the first time a team has had to come to grips with tough situations following a loss to King James. Facing James and realizing how big the gap is between your team and what he brings to the table has a startling impact.
The Pacers hung in this series, the point differential was the closest for a sweep in decades. But the Cavaliers had control of this series the whole way, except for the first half of Game 3. Indiana just never had the level of execution to match up. It wasn"t firepower, not this time. They had weapons, and the Cavs" defense remains vulnerable . They didn"t execute.
James did. Over and over. The Cavaliers got a few contributions, Kevin Love in particular was good. But this series was about James. He averaged 33 points, 10 rebounds, nine assists on 54 percent shooting from the field and 45 percent from deep. His free-throw shooting remains bizarrely off, and yet he dominated the Pacers, including hitting the go-ahead shot in Game 4 after the Pacers came back to tie.
The Cavs haven"t fixed anything, and their effort first-round won"t be enough going forward. But it was enough to end the Pacers" season, and earn the defending champs some needed rest before the next round.
The Cavaliers will face the winner of the Raptors-Bucks series, and that next series won"t begin until Monday, May 1, giving them a full week off.
WHEN EVERYTHING GOES WRONG
Everything went wrong for the Rockets to end Game 4 vs. the Thunder. They gave up an offensive rebound off a free throw. James Harden turned the ball over up four with 28 seconds to go. And yet ... more went wrong for the Thunder. OKC found a spectacular series of ways to lose this game. The Thunder led with 5:35 to go, a situation they had been great in the entire season. But they had three turnovers, all from Russell Westbrook, in that span.
After the Thunder managed to generate a 3-pointer off that rebound, the Thunder needed to foul. Instead, they let the ball get ahead of them, to Nene, under the rim, where they fouled him on a layup. Ballgame.
It was not the best executed finish to a ballgame.
In the end, the Thunder had the only kind of game they were going to win in these playoffs -- a close, ugly game. That"s where this team lives, and they still couldn"t close. That doesn"t bode well for this series, much less the 3-1 deficit they face.
For the Rockets, everything went wrong. James Harden had a horrible game. They were never good in the clutch this season, and they shot 11 for 35 from 3-point range. Everything about this game screamed "Rockets loss," and they found a way to win. That"s a big step for a team still finding itself. The Rockets found a way to win when nothing worked the way it"s supposed to for them, and that"s what great teams do.
Oklahoma City was right there, with the game they needed, and the chances they wanted. There"s a good chance there will be there again. But if they find a way to miss every opportunity, their season will end Tuesday in Houston.
CELTIC ORDER RESTORED
Boston evened its series with Chicago with a Game 4 victory Sunday and has all the momentum. The Bulls are completely overwhelmed since the Rajon Rondo injury and don"t have an answer for the Celtics" small-ball adjustments.
If the Celtics go on to win this series, assuming Rondo is unable to return, they will have beaten the No. 8 seed 4-2. That"s not a bad end result. The fact that the Celtics were down 0-2 and looked lost will be forgotten as the playoffs move along. Is their first round a success then? Are all the things the Bulls exposed in the first two games an illusion, caused by the Celtics" emotional turmoil? Or will another team find a way to exploit the things Chicago can"t now that Rondo"s out?
The Bulls still found a way into Game 4, nearly pulling even in the third quarter before an Isaiah Thomas deluge. Their lack of adjustments has been atrocious. Here"s what"s crazy in this series, though: a game 5 victory would reverse all the trends and switch it back to the Bulls having figured out the Celtics. If the Celtics win, the first two games were nothing but a blip for the 1-seed.
This series, more than any other, shows how narratives shift with each and every game in the playoffs.
Source: http://www.cbssports.com/nba/news/nba-playoffs-takeaways-cavaliers-use-their-brooms-okc-fumbles-big-opportunity/
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