9 takeaways from this weekend’s 3 potential NBA Finals previews

This weekend, the sweet people who make the NBA schedule gifted us three interconference games that could seriously be previews of the 2019 NBA Finals.

It’s not often we get to see high-stakes bouts between the league’s best teams all clustered together on national TV, but the weekend’s contests did not disappoint. The Celtics, Rockets and Thunder have to feel good about how they measure up to the league’s greatest teams just over two months from the playoffs. On the other hand, the Warriors are finding their absolute peak and the Raptors and Bucks just keep chugging along in a weakened East.

Here’s what this weekend showed us across three marquee matchups:

Harden and the shorthanded Rockets beat another great team

Without Chris Paul and Clint Capela, Houston just keeps going. Friday night marked James Harden’s 23rd straight game scoring 30 or more points and maintained an early lead throughout this home tilt against the reigning Eastern Conference finalists, winning 121-119.

Serge Ibaka is still a liability

From the jump, Houston devoted extra attention to Kawhi Leonard and Kyle Lowry, leaving Ibaka in position to score. While a move to center helped the veteran big man this year, shading away from him is still the game plan for good teams, as it has been his whole career. He just can’t do enough with the ball in his hands, and his 27.3 percent 3-point shooting isn’t scaring anyone this year.

Leonard and Danny Green did their job Friday night, knocking down jumpers and attacking the Rockets’ occasionally porous defense, but Ibaka needs to be able to keep defenses honest as a spot-up shooter and by making good decisions with the ball in his hands. Ibaka also turned the ball over three times, including on an offensive foul late in the fourth quarter, and fouled out of the game. He needs to be better for the versatile Raptors to get to their unpredictable best.

Kenneth Faried fits right in

Faried’s job was going to be easy filling in for Capela so long as Harden kept setting opponents aflame — roll hard to the basket, catch and finish down low, protect the rim. In many ways, it’s the type of role Faried needed his whole career and Capela’s success made it easy to predict Faried could fill in serviceably. He was more than serviceable Friday night, however, especially down the stretch, finishing with 21 points, 14 rebounds and two blocks.

Houston’s starting unit is made up of guys who will at least hold their own in isolation situations, meaning the center in those lineups has an easier job helping. The Raptors probably made it too easy on Faried at certain points by playing one-on-one basketball to try to regain the lead, but Faried did his job against a great scoring team over and over in the fourth quarter.

Rockets weather a bad shooting night

At one point midway through the fourth quarter — before a bomb from Austin Rivers off the bounce with 6:44 to go in the final period — the Rockets had missed 13 consecutive 3s. Overall, Houston shot 21.7 percent from deep and still maintained an 11-point lead with about two minutes to play.

They offset their poor 3-point shooting by getting to the line (nearly doubling Toronto’s free throw attempts) and pouring in layups and dunks. Be dead, the myth that Daryl Morey’s Rockets just shoot 3s. Faried played a huge part in their efficiency around the basket and overall the Rockets made 20 of 25 shots at the rim, according to Cleaning the Glass. Harden made all 15 of his free throw attempts, including nine in the fourth quarter, to keep the game out of reach for the Raptors.

Teams are going to have to start asking themselves, just like they do with Kevin Durant or LeBron James or Steph Curry, who is going to defend Harden. Green did a great job outside for the Raptors, contesting just about everything Harden put up from 3, but couldn’t keep the MVP frontrunner in front of him.

Toronto also tried Norman Powell, Pascal Siakam and O.G. Anunoby intermittently on Harden but none fared much better, and Harden bested Siakam on a couple plays defensively as well. Houston is back to its winning formula — play hard, take the right shots and stymie teams with a switching defense — and their victory Friday kept them even with Portland for home-court advantage in the first round of the Western Conference playoffs.

Squabbling Celtics have to like what they did against the defending champions

Kyrie Irving kept the game within reach for about 46 minutes until Golden State’s relentless execution and talent advantage proved too much for the Celtics, who lost, 115-11, at home.

A tale of two wings

Golden State had no interest in guarding Jaylen Brown, who is shooting 32 percent from distance this year:

While on the other side, the particular strengths Boston has been building two for years shined against Kevin Durant. Despite the beautiful spacing DeMarcus Cousins’ entry into the starting lineup provides, Durant was goaded into some bad shots and saw hands in his face where he usually wouldn’t.

Marcus Morris deserves a ton of credit for his contract-year performance, turning into one of the most valuable 3-and-D pieces in the NBA. His strength and length posed serious issues for Durant, who finished just 10-23 from the field. If Morris can keep this up in the playoffs, the poor play from Brown and Gordon Hayward will be less of a concern as Boston trims its rotation.

Cousins/Thompson two-man game is beautiful

Just a little wrinkle that will be fun to watch: Cousins will serve the same function for the most part as the previous starting big men for the Warriors, Zaza Pachulia and Andrew Bogut, operating from the elbows, screening for the team’s shooters and protecting the rim. The terrifying part about Cousins joining Golden State wasn’t what he would do for them but what they could do for Cousins’ game.

The first great example of that is the Warriors busting out a two-man game between Cousins and Klay Thompson that could be even more devastating than the Joel Embiid-JJ Redick combo that fuels Philadelphia’s offense. Cousins’ size and commitment to screening sets up fantastic looks for Thompson but each is a willing enough passer to continue probing the set to find an even better shot if the first disappears:

Crunch time can’t just be Kyrie time

Before the game, Brad Stevens told the media this was a game that would allow the Celtics to “see where they were at.” He has to feel great about the franchise’s decision last summer to acquire Irving and now to see the immense advantage he gives them over where they were late last season, winning but with a formula that felt fallible — and was in Game 7 of the East finals.

But it will take more than Irving’s brilliance to down a team like the Warriors. Irving’s 13 points kept Boston close for much of the final frame but ultimately he turned the ball over three times in the fourth and missed his last two shots, giving Golden State a road victory over their potential Finals counterpart.

Second-year scorer Jayson Tatum, who was Boston’s offensive fulcrum during last year’s playoff run, put up just one shot in the fourth quarter of the game. Hayward, who missed all of last season with a scary leg injury and is still working his way back, attempted just one shot in the final period and sat the final seven minutes of the game. It was, instead, veteran Marcus Smart who joined Irving in taking the biggest shots of the game, nailing a monster 3 with 1:08 remaining to tie the game at 111.

It was also Smart who, on the next offensive possession, caught a pass from Irving wide open after his man left him to pressure Irving and took another 3 in stride — and missed it off the rim. Smart also slipped while chasing down a rebound after Draymond Green missed both free throws to give Boston one last chance. They couldn’t seize it.

You have to be nearly perfect to beat the Warriors. We learned this in the 2017 NBA Finals and again during last year’s West finals — great teams fail against this dynasty. You have to build up your lead when they’re missing shots or when their best players are on the bench so that when they inevitably rain in shots you’re still in the game. You have to take care of the ball and make open looks. The Celtics did just about every one of those things, executing nicely for nearly all of the game, but whiffed on key plays that highlighted the differences between a Boston team still building chemistry and the Warriors machine.

Oklahoma City dominates another ABC Sunday afternoon

Great teams bring out the best in the Thunder it seems, as they shut down Giannis Antetokounmpo’s game and picked up a 118-112 home victory over Milwaukee.

Paul George is the best Thunder player

There is no question about this anymore. Russell Westbrook, struggling through the worst shooting season of his career with no choice other than to keep bombing away to maintain the integrity of the Thunder offense, is no longer the top dog in OKC. George is a legitimate first-team All-NBA candidate and a two-way monster who impacts every play.

He quieted Khris Middleton for most of the first half Sunday and turned up the temperature late with his help defense to squelch a late comeback by Milwaukee. Altogether, George had three steals but as always you felt him on almost every play.

Offensively, as it was last weekend when the Thunder took down Philadelphia on national television, George closed the game. Situations that would have normally resulted in pull-up jumpers for Westbrook the past two seasons turned into more efficient open looks for George using his quickness and strength.

George finished with 36 points, including an incredible 8-of-12 on 3s.

Russ off the ball

Coach Billy Donovan put the ball in Dennis Schroder’s hands frequently to juice Oklahoma City’s offense, even with Westbrook on the court. That turned Westbrook’s shooting opportunities into smoother catch-and-shoot looks (which he rarely takes) and the results were promising.

Early in the second half, with about nine minutes left, Donovan subbed in Schroder and sent Westbrook off the ball, allowing him to spot up for 3s rather than pull up and also freelance on the offensive glass as he loves to do so much.

Perhaps Donovan will return to this look — not only with Schroder alongside Westbrook on the court but handling the ball and running the offense — to get Westbrook back into rhythm. The 2016-17 MVP is shooting just 42 percent from the field and 24 percent from 3 this season. While George has been pulling games out late, Oklahoma City needs peak Westbrook to win multiple playoff series this spring.

OKC’s biggest advantage is in the frontcourt

One writer recently remarked to me that a Steven Adams post-up used to be a terrifying sight to behold — and a victory for the opposing team. But Adams has built up his handle and his finishing ability to the point that any time he catches the ball around the basket he is a threat to score. Indeed, Adams scored 10 points in the third quarter to power the Thunder and showed why he is a nightmare to deal with.

Backing him up, Nerlens Noel has been a (cheap) revelation for the Thunder this year. His two blocks against Milwaukee were huge, though he still leaves something to be desired switching out onto quicker guards. Bucks guard Eric Bledsoe attacked him in the second quarter on a drive that highlighted Noel’s struggles in that area but when he is stationed around the basket, he’s a pain.

Perhaps the best big man for the Thunder on Sunday was Jerami Grant, who offered up one of the better defensive performances against Giannis Antetokounmpo we’ve seen all season. Antetokounmpo was 0-6 from the field in the first half for just four points and finished with 27 on 22 shots and just four assists.

Grant has the quickness to backpedal and corral Antetokounmpo’s drives while maintaining the length to contest his shot at the rim. Hardly anyone is long or fast enough to do this — Grant showed he is, finishing with five blocks.