Opening Weekend of the NBA Playoffs

What an exciting weekend of basketball! Some stars had their shine while others were lack-luster, but it shaped up to be a very exciting weekend to watch in the NBA. 

The Warriors built a big lead early and did just enough to hang on to it in Saturday’s 106-99 victory in Game 1 of the first round series with the Pelicans.

A capacity crowd decked out in gold T-shirts from Kaiser Permanente had plenty to cheer about early, as the Dubs led by as many as 15 in the first quarter. They padded that margin to 25 in the third quarter, and they wound up needing every inch of that advantage.

The Pelicans slowed the game down in the fourth quarter, and the Warriors left a lot of points at the free throw line to allow New Orleans back in the game. The Pelicans chipped away at their deficit and cut it to as few as four with 8.4 seconds left in the game, but free throws from Stephen Curry and Harrison Barnes put it away for the Warriors.

Curry got it started when he banked home a runner for the team’s first points of the game. That shot ignited a 14-1 run early in the game and the Dubs went on to dominate the entire first period. Curry had 11 of his 34 points in the opening quarter, and the Warriors yielded just 13 points in the frame, setting a franchise record for fewest points allowed in the first quarter of a postseason game.

New Orleans responded in the second quarter with an 8-0 run to open the period, but the Warriors would soon go on another game-defining run. Klay Thompson scored the first eight points of the quarter for the Warriors and the Dubs closed the half on a 15-2 run. Andrew Bogut was all over the court in the first half, impacting both ends of the floor on his way to a 12-point, 14-rebound and 5-assist performance.

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Memphis never trailed in an easy 100-86 victory vs. Portland on Sunday in Game 1 of their NBA Playoff series on Sunday. Here's what you need to know about the Grizzlies' rout of the Trail Blazers.

LaMarcus Aldridge and Chris Kaman drove the Blazers to 24 points in the second quarter...a veritable treasure trove compared to their first-quarter drought. But Jeff Green and Mike Conley spurred their team to 33. Memphis scored over 1/3 of their regular-season average in just 12 minutes of play They figured that if Aldridge wouldn't yield to Randolph, they'd just try Damian Lillard and friends. It worked. Portland trailed 58-39 at the half.

Throughout the season the third period has been LaMarcus Aldridge time. Up or down at intermission, Portland sets the tone for the second half by feeding their superstar. Aldridge obliged them with 11 points in the third tonight but nothing came easy. Every possession was hard-fought.

Almost everything that could go wrong for the Blazers, did. Portland shot 34% from the field, 31% from the arc. Memphis outscored them 52-38 in the paint, 15-6 on the break. The Grizzlies committed only 8 turnovers. Portland ended up -5 at the foul line. The only thing Portland did well was double up the opponent in offensive rebounds, 16-8. But missing 63 shots will do that to a team.

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Blake Griffin accelerated through the paint and threw down a vicious dunk right on Aron Baynes' head in the third quarter. A few minutes later, Griffin did it again to the same poor San Antonio center.

After three years of early-round failures, the Los Angeles Clippers are hungry for their first major taste of postseason success. As Griffin proved, they'll jump all over the defending champion Spurs as many times as necessary to advance.

Chris Paul scored 32 points, Griffin added 26 points and 12 rebounds, and the Clippers surged in the second half for a 107-92 victory Sunday night in their first-round series opener.

Jamal Crawford added 17 points as the Clippers stayed comfortably ahead down the stretch, meeting the defending champs' challenge to start off a difficult postseason-opening matchup for two powerful teams.

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The Rockets got the series opener when they surged in the fourth quarter, taking advantage of the defense the Mavericks typically use on Harden to get open shots around him. Harden had 24 points, scoring 15 from the line. But he also moved the ball, not only collecting 11 assists, but often triggering the ball movement that provided just enough scoring down the stretch to make up for the buckets the Mavericks were getting at the rim when Howard was out.

“They were putting two on the ball,” Rockets coach Kevin McHale said. “We got it to the middle, got it to the weak side. Brew made a couple big shots. Trev (Ariza) made a big 3 with the clock running down. Against the two on the ball, you just have to move it. I think we did a pretty good job of that.

“James is a handful. He demands a lot of attention out there. When they’re doing that and he gets off the ball and moves it, it helps our offense.”

The Rockets got many of those open shots from their shooters with the Dallas championship rings. Jason Terry keyed the Rockets’ flying start to a 15-point first-quarter lead. Brewer was essential to their finish, scoring 13 of his 15 points in the fourth quarter when he made three 3-pointers.

One of the biggest questions entering the first-round series between the Milwaukee Bucks and the Chicago Bulls was this: What kind of Derrick Rose will we see? The aggressive, attacking Rose, circa 2010 MVP, or the guy who so often defaulted to 3-point shots after multiple knee injuries? If Game 1 was any indication, Rose's response was bad news for the Bucks.

Derrick Rose's first playoff game since 2012 went about as well as the Bulls could have hoped for, as he put up 23 points and added seven assists. Rose outplayed his counterpart in Michael Carter-Williams by a long shot.

The Bucks never could quite recover against an impressive and efficient Bulls effort, 30 assists on 38 field goals, a 52-41 rebounding edge and 12 of 32 threes. The Bulls did commit 19 turnovers that led to 25 Bucks points, which is the Bucks’ primary offense. But the Bulls had Pau Gasol, Joakim Noah and Taj Gibson all with double figure rebounds, Gibson seven on the offensive boards, and the signs once again after three years of pain and heartache that perhaps they can begin to plot and plan and dream again.

Image Credit: Nathaniel S. Butler/NBAE/Getty Images

It was an encouraging performance for the Nets, but they still fell to the Hawks 99-92.

"As I told the team after the game, if you don't believe you can play in this series, you should believe it now. We played hard. I had no fault with the effort of our guys. We just have to be smarter and execute better."

The Nets, who were able to use their size to their advantage, finally began to settle in at the start of the third quarter. They started getting stops on defense and gaining confidence on offense. They were within striking distance in crunch-time, but Kyle Korver (21 points, 5-for-11 3-point range) or Jeff Teague (17 points, 6-for-12 shooting) always had an answer.

Overall, Brooklyn shot 5-for-20 from beyond the arc, went just 15-for-22 at the free-throw line and committed 17 turnovers, which led to 24 Atlanta points.

That the Hawks shot just 43 percent from the field, went 10-for-30 from 3-point territory, gave up 12 offensive rebounds and 54 points in the paint and still won speaks to their resolve. Paul Millsap (six points, 2-for-11 shooting) looked rusty in his return from injury, Al Horford (10 points, 10 rebounds) tweaked his finger yet it didn't matter. DeMarre Carroll (17 points) was his usual solid self, while speedy backup Dennis Schroder (13 points) also made his impact felt off the bench.

Atlanta shot 46.6 percent from the field in the regular season and 38 percent from 3-point range. It stands to reason that the Hawks will hit those numbers more often times than not for the rest of the series.

Image Credit: Mark Duncan/ Associate Press

The Cleveland Cavaliers passed their first playoff test Sunday, knocking off the Boston Celtics 113-100 in front of a sold-out Quicken Loans Arena crowd.

While the final score left no doubt about which team was superior, much of the game did. The Cavaliers trailed by four points at the end of the first quarter, appearing rusty after playing just one starterless game in the previous four days.

Kyrie Irving roared into the postseason, leading all scorers with 30 points on 11-of-21 shooting from the field and 5-of-9 from deep. He also chipped in three rebounds, two assists, a steal and a blocked shot. Despite all of his work with the basketball, Irving registered just a single turnover.

Isaiah Thomas, the Boston Celtics' 5'9" reserve point guard put up 22 points, five rebounds and 10 assists, joining Oscar Robertson and LeBron James as the only players in history to register such numbers in their playoff debuts. Boston led the Cavaliers by five points with Thomas in the game—the only Celtics contributor with a positive plus/minus rating.

Kevin Love struggled to get going in his playoff debut, connecting on just two of 11 shots in the first half. He lost the ball on multiple occasions, either by mishandling or by watching an opponent knock it away.

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For years, the Toronto Raptors baffled the Washington Wizards. They couldn’t figure them out in the District or in Canada, in overtime or in regulation. But they entered Saturday’s Game 1 against the nemesis confident that the past, seven losses in the last eight meetings, did not matter, that they could solve the puzzle. And on Saturday they did, utilizing a game plan unseen during the regular season to claim a 93-86 overtime victory.

Wizards' coach Randy Wittman used Paul Pierce at power forward for long stretches after utilizing the veteran there for just 4 percent of Washington’s regular season minutes. He played Marcin Gortat in the fourth quarter after Gortat was absent following the third period in the teams’ three regular season meetings. He elected Kevin Seraphin as his second man off the bench over Kris Humphries when Gortat encountered foul trouble, and he granted Otto Porter Jr. crunch-time minutes in his playoff debut one month after Porter was buried at the end of the bench.

“I said something before the game to them,” Wittman said. “You don’t know, first playoff game, this could be an ugly game, could be a pretty game, but if it’s ugly, then we have to be able to win it without our defense.”

Washington is 6-1 on the road in the postseason dating from last year under Wittman, the first coach in NBA history to post such a mark in his first seven road playoff games. The Wizards seized home-court advantage from their opponent for the third straight series and will return to Toronto on Tuesday night seeking to bring a commanding 2-0 advantage back to Washington.

“We’re going to try to get greedy,” Pierce said. “We didn’t come up here to try to get one game. We came up to take it one game at a time. We got Game 1, and now we’re trying to get Game 2.”

Christine O'Connor

@christineeeeO