Oklahoma City Thunder – Denver Nuggets : 119-121
Denver leads the 1-0 series
What upset. What a heist! The Nuggets spilled a game that seemed badly embarked despite the small gap in the score. The Thunder seemed to be in control, sure of his strength, carried by his defense, by Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (33 points, 10 rebounds, 8 assists) and by the power of his group … until the last five minutes. There, everything collapsed little by little. Possession by possession. The Canadian suddenly found himself alone to put points when he was well surrounded until then. Apart from a float from Isaiah Hartenstein, no other Oklahoma City player marked (outside of SGA therefore) in the minutes defined as “clutch time” by the NBA.
Denver took advantage of it. The 2023 champions spent an 8-0 to return to a small length (115-114) on a basket awarded with a huge Nikola Jokic (42 points, 22 rebounds, 6 assists), yet well embarrassed by opposing defense during most of the meeting. Even there, the Thunder held out. Jalen Williams blocked an attempt by Aaron Gordon, author of an offensive rebound after a three-point shot failed by Russell Westbrook. Nuggets could have returned to these two actions. There followed a chain of free throws … and two failures of Chet Holmgren which cost very expensive. In the process, Westbrook raised the ball speed to serve Gordon. The latter did not hesitate to draw behind the arc despite the gap from a point. He put it, two seconds from the buzzer.
Already decisive during the previous series, Gordon (22 points, 14 rebounds) still shows how precious it is for his team. The Thunder has just taken a hit with this defeat, its first since the start of the playoffs and only the fifteenth this season.
-Boston Celtics – new York Knicks : 105-108
New York leads the 1-0 series
45. Like the number of three-point shots failed by the Celtics last night. A (sad) new NBA record. 60 attempts, 45 missed. The reigning champions did not find the target and could not create work-study in their game. Thus, they bowed at home against the Knicks for their first match of the conference semi-finals in the East. Despite all their awkwardness, the game was tightened until the end and it took an extension to determine a winner.
The craziest thing is that Boston counted up to 20 points ahead during the meeting (75-55). New York did not drop and took advantage of the bricks stacked by his opponents to come back little by little in the part under the leadership of Jalen Brunson and Og Anunoby, 29 points each. They are still they who gave the advantage to their team at the start of the extension.
The Celtics lost Kristaps Porzingis, sick, at the break and it felt. Joe Mazzulla’s training lacked an option in the racket to change his angle of attack a little. Thus, she was content to circulate the ball on the outskirts and to draw from afar: out of the 49 shots attempted after half-time, 37 were taken behind the arc. For only 10 successful. Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown scored 23 points each but sorely lacking in precision (5 out of 25 cumulative for the two stars).
