NBA PLAYOFFS: DAY 2

Celtics 114 Heat 94: Jayson Tatum with a triple-double to lead Boston to a 1-0 series lead. Tatum scored 23 points, pulled down 10 rebounds and dished out 10 assists. Towards the end of the game Tatum went for a rebound and was knocked down by the Heat’s Caleb Martin. No big deal. It wasn’t a dirty play. Bam Adebayo led Miami with 24 points. The Heat played without Jimmy Butler.

Clippers 109 Mavericks 97: James Harden led the Clippers with 28 points. Paul George added 22. Ivica Zubac scored 20 points and pulled down 15 boards. Clippers shot 18-36 from downtown. Mavs were led by Luka Doncic with 33 points. Doncic shot 11-26 from the field. He also pulled down 13 rebounds. Clippers, who played without Kawhi Leonard lead the series 1-0.

Bucks 109 Pacers 94: Damian Lillard scored 35 points to lead the Bucks to the Game 1 victory. Khris Middleton added 25. Bobby Portis scored 23 points and pulled down 11 rebounds. Milwaukee made 14 3’s on the night. The Pacers were led by Pascal Siakam with 36 points.

Thunder 94 Pelicans 92: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander led the way for OKC with 28 points giving the Thunder a 1-0 series lead. Jalen Williams chipped in with 19. Trey Murphy led the Pelicans with 21 points. The Pels were playing without Zion Williamson.

Home Cooking: The home team won all 8 first round games.

BY THE NUMBERS

When I went to school, I was awful at Math.

Actually I’m pretty good at adding and subtracting to tell the truth.

We here at Play the Right Way like to promote the game. This season I will be charting and tracking two situations in the game.

Foul or defend is back: After taking a year off I decided to get back to following this late game situation. Here’s the deal – A team is up three with less than :07 to play. They are on defense, they have a choice; defend the ball or foul?

Second, I’m tracking assists to turnovers in each game.

Foul or Defend after three nights in the NBA:

The Pacers elected to defend on opening night against the Mavs. Harrison Barnes made them pay; he hit a three to tie and send the game into overtime.

Last night OKC hunkered down and checked; The Suns missed a three.

As for Assists to Turnovers, there’s been 25 games played thus far. The winning teams in 18 of those games have had the better “assists to turnovers” ratio. (More assists than turnovers) I love teams that share the ball. Who doesn’t?

So far, four teams have had more turnovers than assists. (Knicks, Nuggets, Raptors, and OKC) In last night’s game, the Thunder had 13 assists and 22 turnovers.

Five teams have had over 30 assists. (Warriors, Cavaliers, Pacers, Celtics, and Pelicans)

Boy if my third grade teacher can see me now…

#NumbersMatter