Welcome to an NBA playoff edition of Hater Report: A breakdown of some of the players, teams and trends in the postseason that are drawing the ire of yours truly. If you’re not a fellow pessimist, proceed with caution.
The NBA playoffs are in full swing, and while we’ve gotten some exhilarating games, there have also been some aspects worth shining a light on and calling out. It’s to be expected; not every team or player delivers must-watch performances every night. But man, we have had some stinkers in the first round.
Between the Toronto Raptors and Cleveland Cavaliers doing their best impression of a youth kids basketball game where no one scores, to an embarrassing effort from the Houston Rockets against a Los Angeles Lakers team without two of their best players. These trends and topics deserve the full hater treatment, so without further ado, here’s a playoff edition of Hater Report.
Injuries, injuries and more injuries
The NBA championship contention formula has become about two things in equal parts: be a good team and get lucky with injuries, whether that’s with your own team staying healthy or your opponent(s) not. It sucks, but this is the reality. The season is too long for the way the game is played today. It’s too fast and too spaced out, with too many great athletes applying too much force to their bodies to cover all that ground without getting hurt.
That mentioned, it’s hard to see the league shortening the season. Money rules everything. Fewer games mean fewer dollars, and when push comes to shove, the players aren’t going to want to take a pay cut, either. So we play 82 games and players sit out a bunch of them along the way, and then multiple series will still be impacted as much by who’s off the court as who’s actually able to stay on it.
Just look down the list: Kevin Durant has missed three of the four games against the Lakers, and he’s already been ruled out for Game 5 on Wednesday. Austin Reaves may go for the Lakers, but so far, neither he nor Luka Doncic has played a minute in these playoffs. Assuming the Lakers finish off the Rockets, they’ll most likely be without Dončić against the Oklahoma City Thunder. So that series is basically over before it starts. Unless, of course, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander gets hurt on the other side. Sadly, it’s all too possible.
The Minnesota Timberwolves were looking good up 3-1 (now 3-2) on the Denver Nuggets, but now Donte DiVincenzo has a torn Achilles and Anthony Edwards is likely out for the rest of the series, and perhaps beyond if they get past Denver, after hyperextending his knee. Meanwhile, Denver is without Aaron Gordon (calf). Gordon missed Game 3, tried to go in Game 4 but was largely ineffective, and missed Game 5. Peyton Watson hasn’t played a minute. Those are two major cogs in the Nuggets’ wheel.
The Philadelphia 76ers were without Joel Embiid for the first three games of their series vs. the Boston Celtics. Victor Wembanyama missed a game with a concussion, but he’s back and the San Antonio Spurs have advanced to the second round.
Dating back to the season, the Golden State Warriors were on everyone’s list of at least fringe contenders until Jimmy Butler tore his ACL and Stephen Curry proceeded to miss two-plus months with a knee issue. The Indiana Pacers were one win from the championship last season and then Tyrese Haliburton blew his Achilles in Game 7 of the Finals — which altered the Eastern Conference playoff picture, as did the Celtics’ Jayson Tatum returning earlier than expected from his own torn Achilles.
One way or another, injuries are at the center of the postseason conversation. Again. For all the teams who are still alive, all they can do is cross their fingers that one of their main guys isn’t the next up to go down. — Brad Botkin
James Harden’s turnovers
Here we go with the Harden playoff narrative writing itself again. He has 24 turnovers in this series against the Raptors. Over the last two games, he has more turnovers than made baskets (15 to 11). This is a theme. Not a one-off.
Donovan Mitchell hasn’t played well in the last two games, either — a credit to the Raptors pressure defense. But in the end, the Cavs traded a 26-year-old Darius Garland for a 36-year-old Harden because they know their time to win is right now. Harden needs to play better. If he pulls another late-series disappearing act as he did with the Sixers and Clippers, and like we saw even in his prime years with Houston, the Cavs are in big trouble. — Brad Botkin
Derrick White’s shooting
White is 7 for 33 from 3 in this first-round series vs. the Sixers. That’s 21.2%. He has made only 29.8% of his shots overall for 8.2 points per game. A lot of these aren’t even close.
Removing their Game 1 blowout, the Celtics have lost White’s minutes by 17 points over the last four games. White had an extremely poor shooting season, finishing with 39/32 splits and by far the worst true-shooting percentage of his career. He’s still made a number of big plays (including a huge offensive rebound that led to Tatum’s dagger 3 in Game 3), and despite his shooting woes, the Celtics were still a much better team with him on the court this season than when he was off.
But this goes beyond this series with Philadelphia, which Boston leads 3-2 heading into Game 6. Even if the Celtics move on, they will need more from White to keep winning and potentially compete for the championship. He’s not just a shooter. He’s usually a great secondary creator, too, and the Celtics need him to get his confidence back to start attacking those opportunities against shifting defenses. — Brad Botkin
Jalen Duren’s disappearing act
The Detroit Pistons’ offense is disproportionately dependent on Cade Cunningham creating everything, but Duren is an All-Star and potential All-NBA player who averaged just under 20 points per game this season and is supposed to be a second source of reliable offense.
In this first-round series vs. the Orlando Magic, check out the production decline:
Duren is eligible for a five-year, $240 million max extension this summer, and until this series, it looked like a lock. But now? You can’t realistically have more than two max players and put a legit contending roster around them in this apron era, and if the Cunningham-Duren duo can’t even beat the Magic in the first round, it’s pretty hard to imagine them being a championship team.
This isn’t entirely Duren’s fault. He’s not a typical No. 2 option who can create like a No. 1 only in lesser volume, like, say, an Austin Reaves or CJ MCCollum when he was in Portland with Damian Lillard. His production is a byproduct of Cunningham’s creation, and with so little spacing around Cunningham because nobody outside of Duncan Robinson can really shoot in Detroit, he’s operating inside a rugby scrum in this series.
As a result, Duren’s open rolls to the basket aren’t nearly as plentiful. The paint is packed. And he’s not going to create a ton one-on-one. He has been good defensively, particularly at the rim, but his offense has been a massive disappointment for a Pistons team in dire need of a reliable wingman. — Brad Botkin
Nikola Jokić has looked human
If it weren’t for a pristine Game 5 performance, in which Jokić went for 27 points, 16 assists and 12 rebounds on 60% from the field, this section would be far more scathing than it’s about to be. Jokić led the Nuggets in a win-or-go-home situation in typical MVP fashion, though it certainly helped that the Timberwolves were practically handing the Nuggets the ball on every possession, en route to a disgusting 25 turnovers.
But let’s rewind before that Game 5 win that kept the Nuggets alive. In the three losses the Nuggets have racked up in this series, the typical otherworldly performances we’re used to seeing from Jokić have looked incredibly human, and not in a good way. In Games 2-4, Jokic shot just 33.8% from the field, and in Game 3, he had more turnovers (4) than assists (3). He’s shooting abysmally from 3-point range, just 19% on over six attempts per game, which has certainly compounded his offensive struggles.
But a tip of the cap should go to Rudy Gobert, who has at times neutralized the three-time MVP. It’s not just Gobert’s presence that is contributing to the amount of success he’s having against Jokić. He’s legitimately living up to the nickname “Stifle Tower” through this series. When guarding Jokić, Gobert has limited the Nuggets star to just 22 of 60 from the field (36.7%), well below the 56.9% he averaged in the regular season. He’s forced the low-turnover big man to cough the ball up 10 times and has registered a couple of blocks against Jokić. He’s also cut the number of paint touches the Nuggets get from 23.9 in the regular season to 18.4.
Gobert probably isn’t getting enough credit for what he’s doing, perhaps because of a long-standing reputation of getting flamed by other players, most notably when he’s expected to defend a guard in space. But those problems don’t exist against Jokić, just look at how he’s able to recover against Jokić and still block his shot, which results in transition points for the Wolves:
Because Gobert doesn’t have to use lateral speed as much to keep up with the Nuggets star, and can instead use his size and strength to stay attached to him, it’s going to result in blocks like this where the four-time Defensive Player of the Year can rely on his length to impact Jokić’s shot:
This probably changes if Jokić is able to connect on more 3s consistently than he has been, because then Gobert will actually be forced to choose between taking away his jumper or a drive to the rim. But until that happens, Jokić will continue to struggle trying to get shots up over Gobert in the paint. — Jasmyn Wimbish
Houston’s abysmal offense
The Rockets have been a nightmare offensively in the playoffs. This was supposed to be a layup series against a Lakers team without two of its best players in Dončić and Reaves. And yet, this team is down 3-1 to a 41-year-old LeBron James and a host of role players that are playing significantly above expectations.
An offense that ranked eighth in the regular season, scoring 117.5 points per game, sputtered to 104.9 through the first three games of the series. They were held to below 100 points twice, against a Lakers defense that finished the regular season ranked 20th on that end of the floor. Only the now-eliminated Portland Trail Blazers and the Magic are shooting worse than the Rockets so far at just 41.6% from the floor, and their 3-point shooting has been practically nonexistent at 31.3%. Even the Magic are shooting the ball better than that from deep.
Rockets’ offensive woes
|
FG%
|
47.9%
|
41.6%
|
|
3P%
|
36.4%
|
31.3%
|
| APG |
25.4 |
21.8 |
|
OFF RTG
|
117.5
|
104.9
|
Yes, Durant has been out for three of the four games, but even in his lone appearance, the Rockets still lost. Besides, if the Rockets lose this series, it won’t be because Durant was out, at least not entirely. It will be because this team has no offensive identity outside of the 37-year-old forward. Far too many times have we seen this young core of players get frazzled on a possession only to toss the grenade to Durant to bail them out. You take Durant off the roster and this team is void of a credible secondary option who can step up in crunch time.
You can call it learning opportunities for a young team that is still growing, but Rockets coach Ime Udoka had a point after a Game 3 collapse in which Houston gave up a six-point lead with 46 seconds left and somehow lost the game in overtime. Udoka called for his team to “grow up,” not accepting the excuse that this team is “young,” given that most of them have at least four years of experience under their belts.
But what do you expect from a team void of a natural point guard and an offense so reliant upon Durant’s offensive genius to get points? The Amen Thompson at point guard experiment helped improve his skills as a passer, but he’s not the level of playmaker the Rockets need at that position for what they hoped would be a championship roster. There’s not a (healthy) player on this roster who can act as a pressure relief valve or someone who can organize the offense in times of adversity.
We knew this would be an issue as soon as Fred VanVleet tore his ACL prior to the start of the season. But the Rockets never addressed that glaring need, even at the trade deadline when there were several credible options. Just look at what Ayo Dosunmu is doing in Minnesota, you can’t tell me he wouldn’t help this Rockets offense right now.
The point guard issue is solved as soon as VanVleet returns next season, but if the Rockets were using this playoff series to evaluate their younger players, this performance doesn’t instill a ton of confidence going forward. — Jasmyn Wimbish
