The NBA restart has been a win on pretty much every level. Not only has the league kept COVID-19 at bay, but the action on the court has also been downright scintillating.
Take Monday, for example.
Donovan Mitchell scored 57 points in Utah’s playoff opener, but Jamal Murray’s 36 points gave Denver a 135-125 win; Jayson Tatum (32 points) and Jaylen Brown (29) combined for 61 points in the Celtics’ 109-101 win over the 76ers; Fred VanVleet erupted for 30 points – on 8-of-10 shooting from three – to lead the Raptors to a 134-110 win over the Nets; and Luka Doncic scored 42 in Dallas’ 118-110 loss to the Clippers.
The action has been, in a word, incredible – and JR SportBrief knows why.
“There are no distractions,” he said on CBS Sports Radio. “There are no fans and family asking for autographs. People aren’t asking for tickets. People don’t have to deal with the extracurricular activities that the Seahawks rookie tried to engage in in his hotel. These players are focused strictly on basketball – and it shows in what we’ve seen. It shows in the offensive numbers that have been put up. It shows in the confidence level in tons of players throughout the rosters. It shows that there’s no travel. It shows that there’s no quote-unquote home-court advantage. These athletes are locked in, and they’re locked in at the highest level.
“So for something that we didn’t expect, especially earlier this year, a stoppage of the NBA season, a stoppage of pretty much all sports, I can expect and tell you one thing right now,” JR continued. “The NBA playoffs are here, and the competition is going to continue to heat up.”
That, however, is not necessarily good news for the Los Angeles Lakers (52-19), who open the postseason against the Portland Trail Blazers (35-39) on Tuesday. The Lakers went 3-5 in the bubble, while Damian Lillard has played like a man possessed, averaging 44.2 points and 8.8 assists over his last five games.
“Unfortunately if you’re a Lakers fan, I wouldn’t necessarily have the utmost confidence that they’re just going to go out and dominate,” JR said. “I still think the Portland Trail Blazers and the Lakers are going to have a pretty fun run. It might go six or seven games. The Lakers still play defense. The Blazers, not so much all the time. They may try to harass you and destroy you with threes on offense, but it should be a good one. But the Lakers [are] not ahead [of the competition]. At this point in time, I would probably lean toward the Milwaukee Bucks. I’d lean toward the Clippers and then the Lakers in that order.”