Tag: NBA Playoffs

Today in 2017: Nene’s perfect game leads Rockets to road playoff win

Nene scored 28 points on 12-of-12 shooting, which tied the all-time record for most made shots without a miss in NBA playoff history.

On this day in 2017, veteran backup center Nene had 28 points and 10 rebounds as the Houston Rockets held off the host Oklahoma City Thunder in Game 4 of their first-round playoff series.

Nene scored his 28 points on 12-of-12 shooting, which tied the all-time record for most made shots without a miss in NBA playoff history. He joined Hall of Fame center Wilt Chamberlain as the only NBA players to tally 20+ points and 10+ rebounds on 100% FG in a playoff game.

Houston rallied to a 113-109 victory (box score) behind a decisive 40-32 edge in the fourth quarter, giving the Rockets a 3-1 series lead.

Had the Thunder won, it would have tied the series and effectively made it a best-of-three contest. Instead, the Rockets grabbed a commanding lead and closed out the April 2017 series at home in Game 5.

Thunder guard and eventual 2017 MVP Russell Westbrook had 35 points, 14 rebounds, and 14 assists, while Houston’s backcourt of James Harden and Pat Beverley combined for just 22 points on 24.1% shooting.

Starting center Clint Capela registered a -25 in the plus/minus in his 18 minutes, and he was largely outplayed by Thunder big man Steven Adams — who had 18 points (80% FG) and seven rebounds.

But head coach Mike D’Antoni‘s three-man bench of Nene and reserve guards Eric Gordon and Lou Williams saved the day. Gordon and Williams each scored 18 points, while Nene had a historically efficient showing and was a game-high +24 in his 25 minutes.

The 2016-17 Rockets, who finished the regular season with a 55-27 record and as the Western Conference’s No. 3 seed for the playoffs, advanced to the second round before bowing out in six games to No. 2 San Antonio. Nene suffered a season-ending adductor tear in Game 4, and Houston then lost the next two games without him.

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Today in history: Rockets survive Westbrook’s 50-point triple-double

On April 19, 2017, Russell Westbrook had the only 50-point triple-double in NBA playoff history. But his team lost, so he didn’t care.

Three years ago today, the Houston Rockets survived an onslaught from future teammate Russell Westbrook in a Game 2 victory in the first round of the 2017 NBA playoffs over the Oklahoma City Thunder.

Westbrook, who went on to win the league’s 2016-17 MVP award, tallied 51 points, 13 assists, 10 rebounds, and four steals — representing the only 50-point triple double in playoff history.

Nonetheless, the Thunder were outscored by seven points in the final quarter as the Rockets won, 115-111 (box score), to take a 2-0 series lead. James Harden led Houston with 35 points and eight assists, while reserves Eric Gordon and Lou Williams scored 22 and 21, respectively.

In hindsight, the game might be most remembered for the postgame press conference at Toyota Center in Houston. Here’s how an exchange went between Westbrook and a reporter, just after the game went final:

Reporter: When you look at your line on the box score, how would you grade the line?

Westbrook: I don’t give a [censored] about the line. We lost.

The Rockets went on to win the first-round series, four games to one. And just over two years later, Westbrook’s competitive fire and desire to win helped lead him to Houston and a revived partnership with Harden.

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Highlighting the top 7 Warriors playoff performances from Game 1 of the opening round

Rick Barry, the Splash Brothers, Run TMC and Kevin Durant each contributed to memorable performances in playoff game one of the Western Conference first round.

The opening round of the playoffs marks a holiday weekend for hoops fans around the league. A mix of cinderella squads vying to play spoiler, while top-seeded teams attempt to make a run at the Finals usually makes for fireworks.

Saturday, April, 18 was the scheduled start date of the 2020 playoffs. However, with the season suspended with 17 games remaining due to the coronavirus pandemic, the start of the playoffs are on hold.

With no basketball on the slate, Warriors Wire looked back into some of the top moments from the first game of Golden State’s opening-rounds in playoff history.

Rick Barry, the Splash Brothers, Run TMC and Kevin Durant each contributed to memorable performances in game one of the Western Conference first round.

Pages: Page 1, Page 2, Page 3, Page 4, Page 5, Page 6, Page 7, Page 8

Today in history: Rockets crush Jazz in Game 1 of 2019 playoffs

James Harden had a game-high 29 points and 10 assists as the Rockets opened the 2019 NBA playoffs with a 32-point home victory over Utah.

One year ago today, reigning league MVP James Harden tallied a game-high 29 points and 10 assists as the Houston Rockets opened the 2019 NBA playoffs with a 32-point home victory over the Utah Jazz.

The Rockets won the fourth quarter by a commanding 39-19 margin, leading to a 122-90 final in Game 1 of the first round (box score).

Eric Gordon scored 17 points on 50% shooting, and his defense helped limit Jazz guard Donovan Mitchell to a 7-of-18 night (38.9%) from the field. Meanwhile, big man Clint Capela added 16 points (61.5% FG) and 12 rebounds on the interior against All-Star center Rudy Gobert.

Here’s a look back at the Game 1 recap by Salman Ali, along with the highlights from Toyota Center.

The Rockets won the series in five games. Dating back to 2018, Houston has now defeated Utah by a 4-1 margin in back-to-back NBA playoffs.

In the 2019-20 season, the Jazz (41-23) are currently in the No. 4 seed in the Western Conference, while the Rockets (40-24) are tied for the No. 5 spot. Should the 2019-20 campaign resume after its COVID-19 hiatus, a third consecutive meeting in the playoffs is very much a possibility.

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Today in Warriors history: Kevin Durant and Anthony Davis put on a show at Oracle Arena in 2018

Before facing off in the playoffs, Kevin Durant and Anthony Davis put on a show at the end of the 2017-18 regular season.

It’s been almost one month since the Golden State Warriors suited up for a regular-season game. With 17 games left on the schedule, the 2019-20 season was put on hold until further notice due to the coronavirus pandemic.

With no hoops on the radar, Warriors Wire is rewinding the clock back through Golden State’s history to find compelling matchups from the past.

Before each All-Star moved on to their new homes, Kevin Durant and the Warriors faced off against the Anthony Davis led New Orleans Pelicans.

April 7, 2018

In the final regular-season home game at Oracle Arena, five members of the Warriors squad were ruled out, including Stephen Curry, as the team prepared for a playoff run. However, one of the league’s most dynamic players was still in the lineup for Golden State.

Durant capped off Oracle’s regular season with 41 points on 16-on-26 shooting with 10 rebounds and five assists. Yet, the reigning Finals Most Valuable Player’s efficient double-double wasn’t enough against the gritty Pelicans.

Davis struck back with a double-double performance of his own. The Kentucky product tallied 34 points, 12 rebounds, four assists and two steals against the defending champions. Another Kentucky alum, Rajon Rondo added 12 points and 17 assists in the Pelicans 126-120 win in Oakland.

Watch highlights from Durant’s 41 point effort against New Orleans via House of Highlights via YouTube:

Although the Pelicans closed out Oracle Arena with an upset win, the Warriors got revenge in the playoffs. Golden State eliminated the Pelicans in the second round of the Western Conference postseason, 4-1.

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Report: Tournament-type event in Las Vegas only way to have NBA playoff

Sports Illustrated’s Chris Mannix reports all of the teams are aware that the playoffs as planned will not happen to crown a 2020 champ.

With the United States experiencing record unemployment and most of daily life has come to a halt or at the very least transferred to the virtual realm, the National Basketball Association remains hopeful that they can do something to crown a 2020 NBA Champion. However, the league is pretty clear across the board that nothing resembling an NBA postseason will be able to happen, even if conditions greatly improve during the coronavirus.

The best-case scenario is a one-location, tournament-type event that crowns a champion in Las Vegas, according to Sports Illustrated’s Chris Mannix.

The spread of COVID-19 would have to dip significantly in the coming months, or the NBA will be accused of prioritizing profits over safety. Said a high ranking team executive from a playoff team, “We all want to play. But we all know we can’t play until things are dramatically different.”

So even if hospitals get the proper amounts of masks and ventilators and tests, and the population at large takes social distancing seriously to slow the spread of coronavirus, the playoffs as we were expecting them will not happen. And there’s still a good chance that nothing happens at all and the season gets canceled in the way that college sports have been. That’s been made even more clear by moves by cities like Toronto, home of the defending NBA Champions, which banned public gatherings of people until July 1. Wimbledon, the iconic summer tennis tournament in London, was also canceled earlier this week.

Still, even an event at a central location, as Wimbledon is, with significantly fewer participants than a potential NBA tournament, would be quite complicated. The NBA tends to fly in their personnel to playoff sites from all over the country, meaning that not only would the players have to be tested and quarantine, so would any of the working staff who are taking care of the clock, gathering quotes or keeping score. That type of expenditure may prove to be too much, but the NBA is a multi-billion dollar business and it’s unlikely they will spare any expense in making sure they’re still worth it.

LeBron James has already declared that he has no interest in playing in such a scenario, both without fans and having to live quarantined in a hotel away from his family. But if that’s the only way to finish the season, that will be LeBron’s only opportunity, as well as that of every other team in the playoff picture, to claim the 2020 championship. And perhaps more importantly to the rest of the league, another opportunity to cash some portion of their paychecks for the rest of the season.

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NBA discusses possibility of shortened regular season, best-of-five playoff series (Hoopshype)

NBA fans could be looking at a best-of-five playoff series when the NBA resumes, instead of the standard best-of-seven.

NBA fans could be looking at a best-of-five playoff series when the NBA resumes, instead of the standard best-of-seven.

Report: NBA mulls shortening early playoff series to best-of-five

With the NBA unlikely to resume its 2019-20 season before June, options to compress the revised schedule include shorter playoff series.

Among many scenarios being considered by the NBA in the wake of its coronavirus-induced shutdown is shortening early playoff series to best-of-five, rather than best-of-seven, per ESPN‘s Adrian Wojnarowski.

The league office and its owners held a conference call late Tuesday with Vivek Murthy, the former U.S. Surgeon General.

According to Wojnarowski, Murthy expressed some optimism regarding the crisis based on recent social-distancing measures taken across the United States. In turn, that left owners with the impression that the 2019-20 NBA season could be resumed before July.

Wojnarowski writes:

Murthy told the board of governors that he was more optimistic in recent days, once state officials took the lead in trying to mitigate the transmission of the virus, sources said. Murthy’s words were consistent with those of other credible health officials, warning those on the call that the worst is yet to come.

“Basically, [Dr. Murthy] said: The only good news is that people are starting to stay home,” one high-ranking league official told ESPN. “No one left that call thinking we could be playing anytime soon.”

The NBA has been considering numerous contingency plans, which include playing only several more regular-season games and shortening early playoff series from best-of-seven to best-of-five, but everything remains fluid, sources said.

It is not yet clear whether fans would be allowed back in arenas, if the season were to resume in the summer.

At the moment, the Rockets (40-24) are tied for the No. 5 spot in the Western Conference standings with the Oklahoma City Thunder. But they would lose that two-team tiebreaker for playoff seeding, since the Thunder beat Houston in two of their three meetings this season.

Houston is only one game behind No. 4 Utah (41-23), whom the Rockets do have the tiebreaker against, and only two back in the loss column of No. 3 Denver (43-22). The potential tiebreaker situation between the Rockets and Nuggets is complicated, since the teams split their four meetings, and would likely depend on whether Denver wins its division.

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If the 2020 NBA playoffs were to begin today, the Rockets would enter as the No. 6 seed and without home-court advantage, starting with what could be a best-of-five series in the first round against No. 3 Denver.

The Rockets were supposed to have 18 games left in the regular season, which would normally leave plenty of time to make up the relatively small gap in the standings and move into a position for a top-four seed and home-court advantage in at least the first round of the playoffs.

But given what seems to be at least a three-month stoppage due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak, it appears unlikely that the NBA will play all 82 of its originally scheduled games.

Going by the original schedule, the league had roughly three months to go between the remaining regular-season dates at the time of the March 11 suspension and when the NBA Finals conclude in mid-June.

Unless the season resumes by the end of May, which seems unlikely based on current projections, then reducing the amount of games (in the regular season, playoffs, or both) would appear to be necessary for the league to crown its champion before football begins in September.

Thus, while the Rockets will likely have at least some opportunity to make up ground in the standings before the playoffs, it probably won’t be as much as they had planned. The league is aiming to wrap up the 2019-20 campaign by the end of August at the latest, in order to have at least some semblance of an offseason before the 2020-21 league year begins.

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