5 surprises from the first weekend of the NBA playoffs

3. The T-Wolves didn’t get blown out

The Minnesota Timberwolves lost all four of their regular-season contests against their first-round opponent, the Houston Rockets, by an average of 15.8 points. Three of those four games were 18-point blowouts, which hardly portended a competitive first-round series.

In Game 1, however, the Timberwolves damn near stole home-court advantage despite a 44-point night from James Harden.

In Sunday’s 104-101 loss, Minnesota held an 86-85 lead with 6:49 remaining in the fourth quarter before a 9-0 Rockets spurt gave them a lead they would not relinquish. The Timberwolves still had a chance to tie the game and send it into overtime, though, as Chris Paul turned the ball over with 8.7 seconds remaining and Minnesota trailing by only three points.

There’s both a glass-half-full and glass-half-empty way for the Timberwolves to view their Game 1 loss. On one hand, staying that close despite only getting a combined 21 points from their top two stars, Karl-Anthony Towns and Jimmy Butler, is a miracle. On the other, the Rockets aren’t likely to shoot 10-of-37 from 3-point range again — they shot worse only five times during the regular season — nor is Minnesota likely to receive a combined 31 points from reserves Derrick Rose and Jamal Crawford again.

Still, for a Timberwolves team that allowed Houston to score 116 or more points in each of its four regular-season wins this year, giving up only 104 is a sign of progress. If Minnesota can replicate that and get more offensive production out of Towns and Butler, this series might be more competitive than expected.

Next: 2. The Sixers routed the Heat… without Joel Embiid