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Kevin Pelton
There is no precedent in the history of the League for what we have seen on the opening days of the semifinals of the NBA conference.
The road teams won all four games 1 for the first time, then they returned to win both the match 2 of the Eastern Conference.
That improbable result was particularly remarkable due to the domain that the first two East teams enjoyed during the regular season. THE Cleveland Cavaliers AND Boston Celtics Each has won over 60 games, an average of 12 more than the lower seeds Indiana Pacers AND New York Knicks.
While the East series takes a free day before resuming Friday-Indiana and New York take their 2-0 at the 3 and 4 games at home and we have gone wrong for the favorites and what tells us about the possibilities that Boston and Cleveland returns to reach a matchup of the eastern finals that seemed inevitable a week ago.
Cavs-Pacerswhere “spida” needs help – fast
Like three of the four victories on the Game 1 road, the triumph of Indiana was marked by a 3 -point aerrant shot. The Pacers went 19 out of 36 (53%) beyond the arch, while the Cavaliers-Ci ranked second in the percentage of 3 points during the regular season-they shot 9 out of 38 (24%).
Unlike the others, Rust was not really an explanation, since the Indiana finished its victory in five games on Milwaukee Bucks A day after Cleveland completed his swept of the Miami Heat.
The shooting gap was close to a degree in Game 2, when the Pacers fired 39% to 28% of the Cavaliers. And despite the absence of appetizer Darius GarlandDefender recently coined of the year Evan Mobley and key reserve De’andre HunterCleveland appeared ready for even the series, at the head of 17 points late in the third quarter and seven before things went haywire. The last minute characterized a pair of cavaliers turnover and two indi’s offensive rebounds outside the free shots for the institution Tyrese Haliburton‘S Winning performance of the game.
But the position of Indiana is not as commander as it might appear. Of the four higher seeds that go down 2-0 at home since 2021, three reacted to force the 7-where two of these, the Celtics in the finals of the 2023 conference e Denver Nuggets In the matchup last year with the Minnesota timberwolvesHe lost the ending of the series at home.
1:13
Donovan Mitchell on the loss of Cavs: here’s how the playoffs are
Donovan Mitchell breaks his emotions and what the knights have to do in a press conference after the defeat of the game 2 against the pacer.
Of course, Cleveland’s situation makes the game 3 on Friday a must-win, putting the spotlight on the knights’ injuries. Hunter and Mobley suffered theirs in the fourth quarter of the game 1, while Garland has lost the last four games of the team dating back to the first round.
If Donovan Mitchell Dens a cloak as he did for the first 47 minutes of game 2, Cleveland can certainly win without them. But reintroducing Mobley is particularly key. Although Indiana cooled inside the arch Tuesday, the team scored 50 points in the paint: you are more than Cleveland has allowed any other playoff game and 26 in the fourth quarter only.
Hunter’s absence is inactive because it would be Mobley’s logical substitute in training. Without Hunter, the Cavaliers played only two players higher than 6 feet and 5, the starting center Jarrett Allen and fill the power forward Dean Wade. This left the second unit of Undanced Cleveland.
The knights showed the opportunity to win without Ghirlanda, but his return would take some of Mitchell’s offensive load. For Dan Feldman of The NBA podcast “Dunc’d on Basketball”Mitchell’s game 2 performance was only the sixth in the Stathead.com database with a rate of use of at least half of the games of his team in a playoff game with at least 20 shooting attempts. This means that any other Cleveland game with Mitchell on the field ended on average with him shooting, turning the ball or going to the free shooting line. (Given this responsibility, it is no wonder that Mitchell wore late.)
From the point of view of the matchup, I do not think that the two opening victories of the Pacer suggest that they should be favored with respect to the knights at full resistance on a neutral court.
But Indiana needs to win only two of the next five games, three of which will be at home, and it is not clear how healthy will soon be. As a result, the pars are now the clear favorites to return to the east finals.
Celtics-Knickswhere the 3 is failing the champions
As noted, at least the Celtics have experience in this situation, having fallen 3-0 at Miami Heat in 2023 before gathering to force the game 7-and then lose at home. In fact, this is the fourth time that To the Horford-Era Celtics Team went down 2-0 at home since it happened to the Celtics against both the Chicago Bulls (a return victory) and the Cavaliers (a loss of five games as a loser who enters the series) in 2017.
In a sense, it is not surprising. In the last four playoffs, including their loss in the 2022 finals and the race to the title of last season, Boston has been dramatically better away from the TD Garden. The Celtics are 22-9 (.710) in the road playoff games since then, obtaining at least one road win in all 12 the series so far. No other team is more than three games above .500 on the road in that archolism.
1:12
Celtics coach breaks the failures of the final minute against Knicks
Joe Mazzulla explains what went wrong for the Celtics in the last few minutes against the New York Knicks in the game 2.
At the same time, Boston is only 23-16 at home in the last four playoffs. Only the Heat (11) has two -digit house losses since then, granting that the Celtics have played many more playoff games of any team in the last four years.
Given that context, Boston lost the game 1 at home in a team that swept 4-0 in a dominant series of the regular season seemed a cause of concern. Since the Celtics have lost a playoff record 45 3 points, the fact that they even forced the extraordinary could be considered impressive.
Challenging the typical rebound, the Poor external recovery aimed at game 2. Boston took many less 3s (40 out of 94 shots, compared to 60 of 97 in game 1) but he made them again with a 25%clip. Celtics are only the second team in the last six years to shoot 25% or worse in the first two games of a series of playoffs, joining 2021 Atlanta Hawks In their loss of east finals for dollars.
To a certain extent, the attention on Boston’s 3 misses is overrated and reflects the fact that they are traced separately in the score of the box. The Celtics shot even worse (8 out of 33, 24%) on attempts by 2 points outside the limited-senior area the benefit of the extra point for the blows they made.
Many of these missed came Jayson Tatumwhich went 0 out of 5 out of 2S not painted. Tatum e Jaylen Brown I lost all five 2 non -paintings who attempted in the fourth quarter while Boston resorted to Hero Ball with New York who cut the command. Only eight of the 24 shots of the Celtics in the last period have been the opportunities for help, for monitoring of Geniusiq.
Despite Boston’s reputation to fight in close matches, the Celtics actually had the third best offensive score of the NBA in clutch situations this season (score within five points in the last five minutes or in extraordinary). And the net evaluation of Boston Plus-47 in the clutch during the race of the 2024 title he led all the teams.
Because the Celtics are largely healthy – apart from the center KRISTAPS PORZINGIS‘Corso-e disease have checked the first three quarters of both games with a differential combined plus 21 in that interval, they are in an equally good position as a team down for 2-0 at home can be. Surprisingly, Boston still has The best chances of winning the East A Espn Bet.
But the reigning champions head to New York without momentum and with little margin of error.