Monday Morning Clip May 16, 2022

With yesterday’s games, there will not be a repeat Conference Champion in either conference. It’s particularly shocking that both are out considering that both were up 3-2 in their respective series before dropping Games 6 and 7. On one end, I went into these series wanting to see Milwaukee and Philadelphia in the Eastern Conference Finals strictly for the chance to see Giannis and Embiid play each other for two weeks straight. I was also cheering for Phoenix in this series because I thought they would be a tougher team to beat in any series moving forward, but I clearly am not going to get what I want. On the other end, Boston and Dallas represent the opportunity for a new team to come out of their respective conferences. It also gives Tatum and/or Doncic a shot at firmly establishing themselves among the league’s highest echelon with a trip to the finals. There’s also the potential for legacy teams with new looks returning to the Finals with Miami (who made the finals in 2020) and Golden State (2015-2019). It’s not the conference finals that I expected, but it’s one I’m more than happy to watch for the next two weeks.

NBA

Boston 109, Milwaukee 81

Boston wins series 4-3

Milwaukee hit just four of their 33 three-point attempts while Boston hit 22 of their 55 attempts. Grant Williams led Boston’s barrage by hitting seven of his 18 attempts en route to 27 points. Despite Milwaukee’s struggles shooting, they led in this game as late as 1:09 remaining in the first half. From there, Boston took off, outsourcing Milwaukee by 10 in the third and 13 in the fourth to run away with it. In addition to Grant Williams, Jayson Tatum had 23 points, 8 assists, and 6 rebounds, Jaylen Brown had 19 points and 8 rebounds, and Marcus Smart had 10 assists and 7 rebounds despite hitting just 2 of his 9 shots for 11 points. For Milwaukee, Giannis Antetokounmpo had 25 points, 20 rebounds, and 9 assists and Jrue Holiday had 21 points and 8 assists. 

Dallas 123, Phoenix 90

Dallas wins series 4-3

Dallas got off to a hot start by outscoring Phoenix 27-17 in the first quarter, but the domination began in earnest during the second quarter when Dallas outscored Phoenix 30-10. The vast majority of Dallas’ scoring came from three players - Luka Doncic hit 12 of his 19 shots (6 of his 11 three-pointers) for 35 points and 10 rebounds, Spencer Dinwiddie hit 11 of his 15 shots (5 of his 7 three-pointers) for 30 points in 25 minutes, and Jalen Brunson hit 11 of his 19 shots for 24 points. No one else scored more than six points for Dallas. For Phoenix, Cam Johnson led the team with 12 points, while Booker and Chris Paul scored 11 and 10 points, respectively. Booker hit just three of his 14 shots.

NBA Series Wrapped

Boston vs. Milwaukee

Without Khris Middleton, Giannis and Jrue Holiday carried even greater burden’s in this series. They both managed to score, with Giannis averaging 33.9 points (along with 14.7 rebounds and 7.1 assists, but also 5.1 turnovers) and Jrue averaging 21 points. However, their efficiency suffered, with Giannis and Jrue making 45.1% and 36.4% of their shots in the series compared to 56.8% and 40.7% in their series with Chicago. They felt Middleton’s absence quite a bit in their 3-point shooting - they hit less than 30% of their three-pointers in four of their seven games. Because of their poor shooting, they weren’t able to run away with any games. Two of their three wins were by 3 points or less. On the other end, Jayson Tatum showed up, scoring 27.6 points per game along with 6.3 rebounds and 5.4 assists. Jaylen Brown also averaged 22 points and hit 43.8% of his three-pointers. On top of that, big performances from role players like Grant Williams in Game 7 and Al Horford in Game 4 (30 points) were enough to carry Boston in this series.

Dallas vs. Phoenix

Luka Doncic continued his postseason tear in this series, averaging 32.6 points, 9.9 rebounds, and 7 assists. Brunson was not quite as dominant as he was in the Utah series, but still managed 18.7 points in the series. As a team, Dallas managed to get incredibly hot from 3 often - they hit at least 40% of their 3-pointers in five of the seven games, including both of the last two. Spencer Dinwiddie, Dorian Finney-Smith, Maxi Kleber, and Davis Bertans all hit at least 45% of their three-pointers. Furthermore, Phoenix had 17 or more turnovers while Dallas had 11 or fewer in three games during this series, all losses. Devin Booker had at least five turnovers in each of those games, while Chris Paul had that many in two of them and fouled out in the third. For a team that had the seventh fewest turnovers in the league this season, this was a bad aberration at a critical time. Combined with Dallas’s strong 3-point shooting, it was too much for Phoenix to handle.

Golden State vs. Memphis

In the three games he played in this series, Ja Morant averaged 38.3 points and made more than half of his shots, along with 8.3 assists. Memphis scored at least 100 in each of the three games where Morant played, but only hit that mark once after he left (knee). After Morant’s injury, Jaren Jackson Jr. took on a more prominent role offensively, with mixed results. He scored 21 in a win, but in their two losses, he made just one of fourteen three-pointers. After leading the league in steals this season, Memphis continued to force a lot of turnovers - they had fewer turnovers in each of the six games. Draymond Green struggled the most with turnovers, having at least four in all but one game. For Golden State, no one player was extremely hot throughout the series, but reliably had someone who was hot enough to get the win. In Game 1, Jordan Poole hit five of his 10 three-pointers. In Games 3 and 4, Steph Curry was a combined 22 of 23 from the foul line and scored at least 30 in both. In Game 6, Klay Thompson hit 8 of his 14 three-pointers en route to 30 points. The piecemeal scoring effort was enough to top Memphis, but at least one player may need to get hot to compete with Dallas’ 3-point shooting.

Miami vs. Philadelphia

In the first two games when Embiid was absent, Miami pulled down 10 more rebounds than Philadelphia in both games and Bam Adebayo made 8 of 10 and 7 of his 11 shots. In games 3 and 4, Miami’s rebounding advantage vanished while they went completely cold from 3 (under 25% in both games), enabling Philadelphia to get back in the series. For games 5 and 6, the wheels completely fell off for Philadelphia. Miami’s rebounding advantage returned (10+ in both games) and Philadelphia struggled shooting the ball. In Game 5, Harden and Maxey hit a combined 7 of their 23 shots and in Game 6, Embiid hit just 7 of 24. It’s worth noting that Tyrese Maxey continued his strong performance from the previous round, averaging 20.2 points (leading the team) and making 45.6% of his shots this series. Upon his return, Embiid averaged just 19.8 points on 42.6% FG along with 9.8 rebounds (compared to 26.2 points on 52% FG and 11.3 rebounds in the previous series). James Harden averaged 18.2 points and 7 assists, but also 4.8 turnovers. On the other end, Jimmy Butler completely burned the Philadelphia defense, averaging 27.5 points on 51.3% FG, 7.5 rebounds, and 5.5 assists on the series.

MLB

St. Louis 15, San Francisco 6

St. Louis: Yadier Molina: 2-3, HR, 4 RBI

Texas 7, Boston 1

Texas: Kyle Calhoun: 2-4, 2 HR, 2 RBI

San Diego 7, Atlanta 3

Pittsburgh 1, Cincinnati 0

Pittsburgh: Jose Quintana: 7 IP, 3 H, 0 ER, 5 K; team: no hits in this game

Cincinnati: Hunter Greene: 7.1 IP, 0 H (5 BB), ER, 9 K

Houston 8, Washington 0

Detroit 5, Baltimore 1

Milwaukee 7, Miami 3

Seattle 8, NY Mets 7

Seattle: Julio Rodriguez: 4-4, HR, 2 RBI

Tampa Bay 3, Toronto 0

Minnesota 3, Cleveland 1

Cleveland: Triston McKenzie: 7 IP, 3 H, 3 ER, 4 K

NY Yankees 5, Chicago White Sox 1

NY Yankees: Nestor Cortes: 8 IP, 3 H, ER, 7 K

Kansas City 8, Colorado 7

LA Angels 4, Oakland 1

Chicago Cubs 3, Arizona 2

LA Dodgers 5, Philadelphia 4

Philadelphia: Aaron Nola: 7 IP, 4 H, 2 ER, 8 K

Full standings