The Weekside: The NBA Playoffs First Round Hasn’t Been Pretty

It was the worst of times. And it was the worst of times. Sixteen teams have been “battling” in the first round, and though it hasn’t all been beautiful to watch, it has still been entertaining.

San Antonio Spurs 2, Los Angeles Clippers 2

The series to save the playoffs has been our only hope and it has been superb. The teams are trading blows like a couple of Klitschkos, and unfortunately this isn’t boxing so there aren’t enough belts to go around and one team will have to go fishing after this is over.

Nevertheless there has been enough great play and drama on both sides in the first four games to fill a whole playoff run for most teams. Through it all, the brilliance of Kawhi Leonard has been the stand-out story. It’s funny that a player who already won an NBA Finals MVP can have another breakout performance — in the first round even — but that’s exactly what Leonard is doing.

He is averaging 24.3 points per game thus far on 63.0% shooting, but even those lofty numbers don’t do his play justice. He just won the Defensive Player of the Year award, and that doesn’t give him enough credit for being the most imposing force we have seen on the wing since Metta World Peace was called Ron Artest. With his size, length, strength, quickness, agility, instincts, and understanding of space and time, he is simply a terror. And when he is also scoring this easily, it brings the Spurs to a level that we didn’t see until late in the regular season.

In Game 2, Kawhi was hitting fadeaways like a late-career Michael Jordan as he tortured J.J. Redick. And for a player his age, one of the most impressive feat may have been was when he used his body perfectly to go at DeAndre Jordan in the paint. Most perimeter players never learn such tricks. But Leonard already has and is now unleashing them against one of the most imposing shot blockers in the NBA.

His 32-point performance in Game 3 was the sublime icing on top of everything. It was a career playoff high for Leonard, as he made 13-of-18 shots on a night when the gym was his.

In a series featuring seven probably Hall of Famers (counting the two coaches), it is the 23-year-old with cornrows from San Diego State University most responsible for brining this showdown to another level.

Of course all the other expected showcases have also been on display: Blake has dunked over everyone, Tim Duncan has looked half his age at times, Chris Paul has further cemented himself as the best point guard since Magic, Manu Ginobili has thrown unthinkable passes, Kawhi has tried to steal the ball in ways only he can, the Clippers bench has been hilarious.

Then there has been the unforeseen: Austin Rivers had the game of his life, Blake made a costly error, and Kawhi even smiled.

There are so many stats and tactical ways to look at these games. But the best way is to just watch, with a boxscore closed and eyes open. We will only get two or three more of these, and this could wind up being the best matchup until 2016.

Enjoy — and hope for overtimes.

Washington Wizards 4, Toronto Raptors 0

What can you say? This series has been the exact opposite of West’s best, and the Raptors may be the saddest franchise in the NBA. They set a record for wins in a season by piling up 49 victories this year and the team was a bit disappointed it couldn’t make it an even 50. Then the postseason came and went — and the Dinosaurs are still sitting on 49.

But while things are dismal for the city everyone thinks is Canada’s capital, life is grand in seat of U.S. government. The Wizards took the first two games in Toronto then came home and finished off the Raptors in D.C because, as Paul Pierce said, he “didn’t want to go through Customs again.” The final game was an absolute rout, with Washington scoring more points through three quarters (102) than Toronto did all game (96).

Now, the team is scorching hot (shooting 48.2% in the playoffs), scoring at will (110.3 points per game), and has four players averaging at least 15 points a night (Bradley Beal, John Wall, Marcin Gortat, and Pierce). They have all the confidence in the world, a point guard who cannot be stopped, and no reason to think they can’t knock off the scuffling Hawks.

Golden State Warriors 4, New Orleans Pelicans 0

STEPH CURRY, ANTHONY DAVIS, KLAY THOMPSON, ANTHONY DAVIS, DRAYMOND GREEN, ANTHONY DAVIS, STEPH CURRY, ANTHONY DAVIS.

STEPH CURRY, ANTHONY DAVIS, KLAY THOMPSON, ANTHONY DAVIS, DRAYMOND GREEN, ANTHONY DAVIS, STEPH CURRY, ANTHONY DAVIS, KLAY THOMPSON, ANTHONY DAVIS, DRAYMOND GREEN, ANTHONY DAVIS, STEPH CURRY,

And Anthony Davis.

Atlanta Hawks 2, Brooklyn Nets 1

The Hawks haven’t inspired much confidence while taking a 2-1 series lead over the Nets. Neither team has lost on its home court yet, and after Lionel Hollins’ team beat Atlanta by 9 on Saturday in Brooklyn, the three-game point differential only favors the Dirty South squad by 4.

Nothing matters but Ws in the postseason, of course, but it’s a telling figure for a Hawks team that won by 5.4 per game in the regular season, which was good for fourth best in the NBA. And now the Hawks could get mired in a longer-than-necessary series with a team that lost 44 games this year.

Their might not be that much cause for concern, however. Atlanta missed a ton of open shots all game — from all areas of the floor. A lot of traditionalists are rooting against the Hawks out of the side of their mouth under the “win by the 3, die by the 3” mantra and that could happen. But it seems a lot more likely that their percentages revert to the mean and they blow out the Nets at least once in the next two games on the way to a five-game gentleman’s sweep.

Houston Rockets 3, Dallas Mavericks 1

The Mavericks — for some reason — won Game 4 to avoid the sweep. I don’t know why the want to drag out this trainwreck of a postseason any longer, but they will live to see another day.

Now that Rajon Rondo has been banished, they seem to have caught some fire, with a newfangled starting lineup — with J.J. Barea and Al-Farouq Aminu inserted — helping re-create the early-season offense that inspired so much hope in those long-forgotten days or yore. Though it is almost certainly too late to mount a comeback in this series (no team has ever come back down 3-0), anything can happen when the scoring is coming this easy for both sides.

Each team has scored at least 99 points in every game, with the Dallas putting up 121 last night, and the Rockets winning Game 3 by the tally of 130-128. This series may be as noncompetitive as most of the others, but at least they’re scoring buckets.

And better still, Dwight Howard and Josh Smith put on a show in Game 2. As Rajon Rondo sat on the sidelines watching — what would be his last game as a Maverick — Smoove kept throwing lob after lob to his former AAU teammate. I lost count to be honest (it was a lot), and the live action started to look like replays much in the way Germany’s 7 goals against Brazil in the World Cup all blended together after awhile.

In a way, it was the perfect microcosm for the first round: Not competitive and almost cruel in taking advantage of an overmatched opponent — but entertaining and a great showcase for the best athletes in the world.

Chicago Bulls 3, Milwaukee Bucks 1

The Bulls should be resting by now. They had the chance to close out Milwaukee on Saturday, and looked like they were about to head to overtime to try to end the Bucks’ year. Then, with 1.3 seconds left, Derrick Rose got lost Jerryd Bayless under the hoop for a game-winning layup.

While it was the one major blackeye on an otherwise triumphant return the postseason for Rose, the game did inspire some hope for Jason Kidd’s young team. Not in this series. This thing is all but over. But a Bucks team built on length and defense managed to force 28 turnovers by Chicago.

Even if that effort only got them one more game this year, that is a moment of success that they can build off next year as they try to transform themselves from first-round fodder to formidable foe.

But more so, this series is just dull outside of Jimmy Butler doing a “Kawhi East” impression and Rose re-discovering himself just like Dwight is doing in Houston.

Memphis Grizzlies 3, Portland Trail Blazers 0

The Trail Blazers are rough to watch. They were annihilated twice in Memphis then even couldn’t put up much more of a fight in Portland in Game 3. Though they managed to get it marginally close by the end, the Grizzlies has a 13-point lead at the half. It was obvious that the Blazers were just going to be limping their way to a sad ending.

It’s a shame.

The Western Conference was supposed to be such a competitive, anybody-can-win field this season. The first round was going to be one for the ages. Instead, we will have one great series (Clippers/Spurs) and three that were never even close. The second round should prove better, but it is too bad that injuries (to Portland and Oklahoma City) and a poorly thought out trade (Dallas for Rondo) ended up submarining a lot of these teams — and most of our enjoyment.

Cleveland Cavaliers 4, Boston Celtics 0

Given Kevin Love’s dislocated shoulder and J.R. Smith’s upcoming suspension, the Cavaliers will be shorthanded against the Bulls in next round. That will be a big hurdle for a Cleveland team that is going through its first playoff run together and hasn’t faced adversity with their season on the line. Ethan Skolnick of Bleacher Report brought up a great point after the Love injury, noting the similar scenario LeBron found himself in during his second year in Miami when Chris Bosh got hurt.

In the 2012 playoffs, Bosh went down in Game 1 of the second round against the Pacers and essentially missed the whole series. The Heat were lucky to come through with a win in the opener but they lost home-court advantage by falling in Game 2 then went down 2-1 in the series as the Pacers took the next contest in Indiana. Things were looking dismal for the Voltron team that finally seemed to have everything together after scuffling in year one then collapsing against the Mavericks in the NBA Finals. This regular season had been a breeze and now they were going to trip up against the upstart Pacers.

Indiana’s pick-and-roll defense was flummoxing Dwyane Wade and LeBron was getting beat up while trying to battle down low with David West. But they made changes, mixing up James’ positions and then LeBron invented a floater out of nowhere to toss raindrops over Roy Hibbert.

The exact adjustments and hurdles will be different this time as LeBron tries to win while an All-Star-caliber power forward watches from the sidelines. But there is a precedent for him making it through — and winning his first title with a new team a few weeks later.

Next: Out of Bounds