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With the Cavaliers' hard-fought victory over the Pacers, the first round of the 2018 playoffs has finally come to an end. It was a much better affair than the same stage in the 2017 playoffs when we saw eventual finalists Warriors and Cavaliers finish their first-round opponents off with 4-game sweeps.
The Warriors this year dropped a game at the AT&T Center to the San Antonio Spurs, while the only sweep in this year's first round had a result that 22 analysts at ESPN got woefully wrong in their predictions.
The Eastern Conference playoffs bracket was littered with extremely competitive series, while the ones in the West that turned out to be competitive weren't the ones that most people foresaw turning out that way.
In this article, we attempt to grade every playoff series based on the following parameters:
(a) Quality of basketball exhibited
(b) Competitiveness of the games
(c) Length of the series
Without further ado, here are each of the series graded:
Toronto Raptors vs Washington Wizards - B+
An underdog that didn't really feel like, or indeed, play like one? Check. A #1 seed that lived up to its billing at some times and felt more like a lower seed at other times? Check. All-Star backcourts headlining both team lineups? Check. Close, competitive basketball all the way through? Check.
The matchup between the Toronto Raptors and the Washington Wizards threw up some wonderful, extremely national television-worthy basketball - neither team gets too much coverage on the major American sports networks during the regular season.
The Raptors held serve twice at home with convincing victories in the first two games of the series, and the Wizards hit back with two victories of their own in the two subsequent games.
While John Wall was arguably the best player in the series, his team lost out to the deeper, slightly more talented Raptors roster over the course of a 6-game series. DeMar DeRozan led the Raptors to victory in game 5, and that seemed to be the turning point of the series which had played out predictably till that point.
The Wizards' execution in clutch situations let them down in games 1, 5 and 6, while their bench got thoroughly outplayed by the Raptors' bench mob, who averaged 35.2 points per game.
In comparison, the Wizards' second unit averaged 30.6 points, but that wasn't enough to outlast the Raptors' overall depth. Considering that they missed Fred VanVleet for much of the series, the Wizards have to count themselves lucky they got away with 2 wins of their own.
Boston Celtics vs Milwaukee Bucks - A+
Looking back at this series, we can clearly see the difference between the exemplarily coached and immaculately drilled Boston Celtics and the rather hit-and-miss Milwaukee Bucks.
Both teams won all of their home games, and Brad Stevens' side took full reapings of homecourt advantage to make it through to the second round despite not having their 2 best players for the length of this postseason.
The series started off with a humdinger of a game; one which featured Khris Middleton hitting nothing but net from 30 feet out with 0.5 seconds of the game remaining by the time he received the inbound pass. This sequence was played out after Terry Rozier left Eric Bledsoe for dead and nailed a 3-pointer to give the Celtics a 3-point lead.
Giannis Antetokounmpo played about as well as he could, but his impact was severely limited by the excellent defensive schemes used by the Celtics for the better part of most games. He did have Khris Middleton in support, but the rest of the Bucks (with the exception of Thon Maker, who excelled given his skillset) played below their potential.
Much of the credit for containing the Bucks unit has to go to Stevens, but the Celtics had no dearth of players contributing to the series win. Al Horford absolutely took over Game 7 of the series, while Jaylen Brown's shooting won them Game 2.
The likes of Jayson Tatum, Marcus Morris, and Terry Rozier all played their part, and the Celtics received a shot in the arm with the return of Marcus Smart in Game 5.
Philadelphia 76ers vs Miami Heat: C
By the end of Game 2 in this series, it looked like it could go down to the wire. With their backs against the wall at the end of the first quarter, the Miami Heat fought back valiantly on the back of Dwyane Wade's throwback performance, with the veteran scoring 28 in that game.
The same impression lasted for over 3 quarters of game 3 as well, as the Heat got back to the American Airlines Arena and ran the Philadelphia 76ers close for the aforementioned length of that crucial game. Instead, the Sixers embarked on a couple of runs powered by their proactive defense and some knockdown perimeter shooting by their hugely impressive veterans.
The Heat's lack of a world-class scorer hurt them badly in the last 3 games of the series, as the Sixers' superior offensive schemes combined with their superior talent took the sting off the Heat. The deep roster that allowed the Heat to qualify for the postseason as the 6th-seeded team came up short against a Sixers bench that was deeper even than their own.
Ersan Ilyasova and Amir Johnson did as good a job of filling up the Joel Embiid-sized hole in the Sixers' roster, before the Cameroonian made his comeback to make Philly look much the superior side on both sides of the ball.
While he struggled to efficiently knock down shots on offense, Embiid was a terror inside the paint and his presence helped the Sixers hold the Heat scoreless for long stretches of games 3, 4 and 5.
Ben Simmons took to the playoff stage like a duck to water. JJ Redick played the best series of his career and led both sides in scoring with 20 points per game. Marco Belinelli shot the lights out for the most part. Dario Saric and Robert Covington displayed their two-way prowess all the way.
The Process has neared completion, and it is time for the world to take notice of this intriguing side that looks like a sure bet to reach the Conference Finals this year against the hobbled Celtics.
Cleveland Cavaliers vs Indiana Pacers: A++
LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers were stretched to the limit by an Indiana Pacers team which played out of its skin for the length of the 7-game series that went literally down to the wire. James had to pull out his best performance yet to keep the Cavaliers in the hunt for further progression in the playoffs, and he just about managed to get his team over the hump.
In a series during which none of LeBron's teammates scored 20+ in a single game, the King averaged a whopping 34.4 points, 10.1 rebounds, 7.7 assists, 1.4 steals and 1.0 blocks per game on shooting averages of 55.3/35.3/81.8. In even his lowest-scoring game, James scored 22 points, and he had 3 games scoring 45 or more points.
The Pacers outscored the Cavs by 40 points over the 7 games, but the enduring excellence of James shone through in high-leverage moments - that alone took Cleveland over the hump. Victor Oladipo won 2 games for Indiana all by himself, while the rest of the Pacers team gave Cleveland headaches galore all through the series.
The usual suspects like Kevin Love and Kyle Korver played way below par, but that was largely due to the high-quality on-ball defense played by each Pacer individually. Bojan Bogdanovic, Lance Stephenson, Thaddeus Young, Myles Turner and Domantas Sabonis all chipped in for the Pacers, and they very nearly finished the deal off.
The enduring image of a series of what-ifs would surely be LeBron blocking Oladipo on a potentially game-winning layup - a call that the NBA would later admit to blowing. It was, indeed, a playoff series for the ages.
Houston Rockets vs Minnesota Timberwolves: C-
The Wolves entered this season with the real possibility of nabbing the 3rd or 4th seed in the Western Conference standings. Injury to Jimmy Butler put paid to those hopes late in the season, and the Wolves got through to the playoffs in their very last game of the season - only to run into the red-hot Houston Rockets in the first round.
They hung with the Rockets for the better part of game 1 and managed to win game 3 on their home court. But they failed to get any sort of a rhythm going. Jeff Teague struggled to get going, while Tyus Jones' offensive inadequacies required coach Tom Thibodeau to plug Derrick Rose into a prominent role.
Mike D'Antoni has been the better coach of the two all through their careers, and his team played modern NBA basketball. Thibodeau, a coach who'd be much better in the grit-and-grind 90s era, had no answer for the telling questions the Rockets offense posed to him.
Thibs' offensive schemes put the skills of Karl-Anthony Towns and Taj Gibson to limited use. The Rockets' exceptional defending of Jimmy Butler caused the All-Star guard to turn in one of his more forgettable postseason outings.
Towns averaged 6 points lower than his regular season average while attempting fewer shots, while the inability of Thibs to put Gibson's excellent post play meant that the former Bull also had a down series.
The Wolves' offense was an eyesore of the worst kind, and coach Thibodeau has to take most of the blame for their pedestrian showing. It is quite possible that a coach with a modern mindset would have put the talents at his hand to better use.
The gulf in class between the two sides was best exemplified by Harden, who should be the MVP barring daylight robbery by the journalists associated with the league. Harden barely broke a sweat in most games, and despite having a sub-par Game 2, he still managed to average 29 points, 4.8 rebounds and 7.4 assists per game in a gentleman's sweep.
Golden State Warriors vs San Antonio Spurs: C
In what turned out to be a defensive slugfest of gigantic proportions, the Golden State Warriors' superior all-round talent helped them make light work of a Spurs team which has missed its best player for essentially the entire 2017-18 campaign. While the Warriors were themselves missing their baby-faced assassin, they went into this series as heavy favorites and played like it.
The San Antonio Spurs were subjected to some intense defensive pressure in game 1, and they caved in pretty quickly. For the rest of the series, coach Pop and Ettore Messina tried a variety of adjustments which led to the games being better contested, but the Warriors broke through in the second halves of games 2 & 3 to put the game beyond reach for the Spurs.
The Spurs held off the Warriors in their first elimination game - Game 4 - on the back of a vintage performance by Manu Ginobili. It was a great game in the midst of a depressing series for Spurs fans, as they held the Warriors to sub-40 shooting from the field - possibly the toughest task in the NBA.
Save for Danny Green, nearly every player emerged from this season with untarnished credentials and had a significant role to play in much of their team's successes.
Green had trouble shooting the ball, and the effort of chasing Klay Thompson around for the length of the ballgame did have its toll on the 3-and-D specialist - who will bounce back next season with the return of his swingman partner The Klaw.
Portland Trail Blazers vs New Orleans Pelicans - A
Alvin Gentry's Pelicans side gave neutrals the best basketball treat one could ask for during the playoffs - a sweep over a 3rd-seeded team favored by nearly everyone to progress to the Conference Semifinals. In 4 games, the Pelicans outmaneuvered, outthought, outran and outplayed the Trail Blazers to become the first team to seal their entry into the Conference Semifinals.
Anthony Davis beasted, as he was expected to given his extraordinary regular season campaign - he averaged 33.0 points, 11.8 rebounds, 1.3 assists, 2.8 blocks and 1.8 steals in what was the most dominant two-way display by any player in the first round of the playoffs.
Giving him stellar support was Jrue Holiday, who racked up 27.8 points, 6.5 assists, 4.0 rebounds and 1.3 steals per game over the series. Rajon Rondo rose to become his best, savant self on the court while averaging 13.3 assists per game - the highest by a player in a 4-game playoff series in NBA history. Nikola Mirotic played his part as well.
The utter inability of Damian Lillard to get any offensive rhythm going can largely be attributed to the Pelicans' highly effective trapping scheme and Holiday's pesky on-ball defense.
CJ McCollum had a big game 4, but in the absence of steady support, his 38-point performance was in vain for a Trail Blazers side which had overachieved in the regular season and went into the playoffs on the back of 4 defeats in 5 games.
Oklahoma City Thunder vs Utah Jazz - A
If there is one takeaway any Thunder fan wishes to take away from this hugely disappointing postseason, it is the fact that Billy Donovan is incapable of taking any Thunder side to its full potential. Not many coaches in the league have the luxury of having three star scorers in their starting lineup, but Donovan has been unable to put them in the best place on offense.
Carmelo Anthony, in particular, looked old, washed-up and plainly incompetent for the most part - as he did for much of the regular season. One wonders whether he will act as another anchor for a Thunder franchise which has failed to fulfill the potential it displayed 6 years back in a Finals run.
Utah Jazz, on their part, game planned perfectly for this series. On the back of Donovan Mitchell's historically great series and Rudy Gobert's stifling paint presence, the Jazz turned in two-way displays of the highest order in Games 2, 3 and 4 to effectively end the series by that point.
They could have made short work of their opponents, but Westbrook went Super Saiyan in Game 5 to give Oklahoma City Thunder a glimmer of hope heading into Game 6.
Mitchell, who walked off the Chesapeake Energy Arena promising to fans that he'd only meet them in the 2018-19 season, dropped 38 points in the decider to put the Jazz over the line in a 96-91 win in Game 6.
Paul George once again flattered to deceive, as he only had 2 games of note through the 6-game series on the offensive end, while getting toasted by Mitchell on the other end. One has to wonder where his future lies now.
While this Jazz team will probably lose to the Rockets in 5, possibly 4 games in the Conference Semifinals, it would be huge for a franchise that lost its superstar in the offseason to the perils of free agency.
Guess the Lakers players!
