NBA Playoffs Day 1 thoughts and analysis

Day 1 of the 2017 NBA playoffs kicked off with quite a bang. Every series looks to be competitive.

Let's get to what happened.

Cleveland Cavaliers vs Indiana Pacers

• Both teams were sieves on defense. The Pacers shot 49% from the floor while the Cavs shot 53%. If you are a defensive purist who digs watching hours of Andre Roberson ball harassment tape, this was not a game for you
• Myles Turner is going to be a fantastic center some day; in fact he's already pretty solid. In his first career playoff game, Turner flashed both unicorn-like playmaking and abject cluelessness. He recorded a game high 4 steals and wasn't afraid to tussle with the big Tristan Thompson down low. In the final minutes of the game however, Turner had the 6'1 Kyrie Irving on him. Turner got the ball, then awkwardly squared Irving up and immediately had the ball swiped from him. It was a pitiful sequence that reminded everyone that Turner still has a long way to go before he can realize his full potential
• Lance Stephenson making plays in the playoffs will never not be a thrill to watch. Everyone knows Lance's story by now: he thrived on the 2012 Pacers, left in free agency, bounced around the league a ton, then fell back in Indiana with a week to go before the playoffs. His herky jerky style of play is mesmerizing and he was far and away the Pacers' second best player in game 1. He scored 16 points on 8-13 shooting with 7 rebounds and 3 assists. He tied Turner for the team's highest plus/minus. It's hilarious to say, but the Pacers desperately need Lance's playmaking and scoring
• Paul George was phenomenal. He splashed 6 threes and dropped 29 points, 5 rebounds and 7 assists on the King. They need that from him every game just to have a puncher's chance of beating the Cavs
• Ty Lue had some nice coaching moves this game that I really liked. For one, he slapped Iman Shumpert with a DNP. Shumpert is completely erratic on offense and the team is actually slightly better on defense without him. They may need him in a series vs the Warriors, who have swaths of athletic wings that will need to be guarded by physically capable guys (read: not Kyle Korver). Playoffs are all about matchups, and besides Paul George (who LeBron can take), the Pacers do not have another threatening wing that Kyrie Irving or JR Smith can't handle
• The Cavs really locked down on the last possession, when Indiana had the ball down 1. JR Smith guarded George at the top of the key, with LeBron playing free safety close behind. That defensive strategy resulted in a CJ Miles 20 foot fadeaway jumper, a shot the Cavs will concede every time. It was obvious Indiana was unprepared for Smith and LeBron to double-team George, and that might have cost them the game
• LeBron churns out masterful playoff performances like clockwork now. In 43 minutes, he casually scored 32 points on 60% shooting, grabbed 6 boards, dished 13 assists and snatched 3 steals and the W. If he can engineer another title run for the Cavs, he may just be the GOAT
• When he tries, Kyrie Irving can really lock in on D. We saw it in last year's finals when he suffocated Steph. We saw it again as he stripped Myles Turner one-on-one on a crucial possession
• Overall, the Cavs still need to clamp down on defense, though they got the win, and that is all that matters. The Pacers should be very encouraged. They had a chance to win the game at the buzzer. You can't ask for much more than that against a clearly superior team

Toronto Raptors vs Milwaukee Bucks

• A helpful question to ask yourself when betting on a playoff series: Which team has the best player? Usually that player's team wins. Even though the Bucks are the underdog, they have the best all-around player in Giannis Antetokounmpo
• There is something about the playoffs that spooks Kyle Lowry. He only scored 4 points on a miserable 2-11 shooting. While his poor play could attributed to a nagging wrist, his inability to show up in the playoffs has happened too much in the past for this performance to slide
• The Bucks are known to run a hyper aggressive defensive system unique to most of the league. They try to maximize their collective length across all the positions. They play a gambler-style defense. Teams either cannot breath against them or figure out how to dissect their scheme pretty easily. I'm pretty sure the Raptors studied the Bucks D, but it's one thing to do so in a film room. Going out and actually having to execute as freakish 7 foot wingspans engulf you like trees from all angles is an entirely different story.
• It struck me for the first time at how slow the Raptors are as a team. Lowry, PJ Tucker, DeMarre Carroll are all on the wrong side of 30 while Cory Joseph, Patrick Patterson and Jonas Valinciunas aren't exactly known for their athleticism. And that showed vs the Bucks
• The Bucks are a scary young team. Malcolm Brogdon is 24, Kris Middleton and Tony Snell are 25. Giannis is somehow only 22. Thon Maker is 20 (we think). They are all freakishly long, athletic and energetic. The Raptors were  clearly collectively overwhelmed by it all.
• Middleton is probably the most underrated player in the entire league. Part of that is because he plays for Milwaukee and doesn't have eye-popping athleticism. But his game has no weaknesses. While he did have a rough shooting night, he still dished out 9 assists, played great defense and the Bucks as a whole outscored the Raptors by 27 points when he was in the game.
• This was Giannis' coming out party, and it was absolutely terrifying. He dropped 28 points on 13-18 shooting, 8 rebounds, 2 steals and 1 block. He did everything for the Bucks and is already a full fledged superstar.
• Malcolm Brogdon is a rookie, but he is so incredibly poised, even in the high stakes playoff atmosphere. He locked down Lowry, made his threes and didn't make stupid turnovers that usually come attached to rookies playing in the playoffs
• Thon Maker, who has spent much of the season getting bulldozed by the opposing team's starting center before Jason Kidd mercifully subs him out after 6 minutes, actually was a huge rim protector. He had a sequence early in the third quarter where he emphatically blocked 3 shots at the rim. The team outscored Toronto by 21 points per 100 possessions when Maker was in the game
• Greg Monroe is rejuvenated! Before the season, it was almost inevitable that he would be traded, but Monroe stuck around and has blossomed into a valuable cog in the Bucks machine. He can get buckets on the low block, had a game high 15 rebounds (5 offensive) and played phenomenal defense
• People thought the Bucks lost the Michael Carter Williams-Tony Snell trade. Well, I'm here to confidently say the Bulls were the clear losers on that one. 
• Serge Ibaka was the Raptors' best player tonight. He had 19 points, 14 rebounds and 3 blocks. Problem is, besides DeRozan, no one else on the team cracked double digit points.

San Antonio Spurs vs Memphis Grizzlies

• Memphis actually started the game off with a 26-13 lead, behind perfect basketball from Mike Conley and Marc Gasol, who shot a combined 8-9 on their first 9 attempts
• Unfortunately, the rest of the Grizzles squad is just incapable of creating on offense
• Kawhi absolutely swallowed the team as a whole. My favorite possession of his was when he intercepted a would-be fast break layup with his long claws, then drove the ball down the court and kicked it to Patty Mills for a wide open corner three
• This series is actually one that looks to be over after the first game. The Grizzlies are literally starting Wayne Selden, a D League call up, and a 40 year old Vince Carter on the wing. Even creaky Tony Parker dropped 18 on this team

Los Angeles Clippers vs Utah Jazz

• Losing Rudy Gobert on literally the first play of the game had to be a spirit crusher for a Jazz team that has been snake bitten with injuries all year, but they managed to pull out a resilient and gutsy victory
• The Jazz have rightfully been lauded for their depth and boy did the reserves come up huge. Derrick Favors apply filled in for Gobert, scoring 15 points on an efficient 7-10 shooting with 6 boards and a block. Favors is listed as a power forward, but his 6'10 260 pound frame makes it pretty easy for him to guard DeAndre
• Joe Johnson is one of the clutches players of my lifetime. They don't call him ISO JOE for nothing! Even though Gordon hayward scored 19 points, Luc Mbah a Moute was making him take some tough shots and the Jazz desperately needed someone who could just take the ball and rack up buckets
• Enter Iso Joe, who scored 21 points on a sparkling 9-14 shooting to go with 3 steals, rebounds and assists. He hit the game winner, a beautiful floater over Jamal Crawford that bounced on the back rim three times before dropping in as time expired
• George Hill converting a flailing mid air three point prayer to avoid a shot clock violation ended up being the difference of the game. An incredible shot to watch and a very important one indeed
• The Clippers needed more from JJ Redick, who only delivered a meager 7 points and 4 turnovers in 27 minutes
• Chris Paul was, unsurprisingly, fantastic on both ends of the floor. Whenever he took a breather, the Clippers got absolutely crushed, and they performed worse on D than the Lakers on a points per possession basis whenever he took a breather. He finished with 25 points, 7 rebounds, 11 assists and 3 steals
• Blake Griffin gave the Clips 26 points, but he virtually disappeared down the stretch. His play basically epitomizes the Clips as a whole: sometimes electrifying, yet choke-worthy down the stretch
• DJ had a quintessential DJ game: he barely scored (10 points), gobbled up boards (15) and rejected a ton of shots (3). The Clips' big three each gave them exactly what was expected, except nobody else showed up. Redick, as we know, put up a dud of a game. Crawford was 4-12 and bled points on defense. Mbah a Moute was just there to guard Hayward. 
• Excellent call by Jazz coach Quin Snyder opting not to call a timeout on the last possession of the game. His smart instincts were rewarded by Joe Johnson's ice cold veins.