NBA Playoff Updates: Clippers vs. Jazz / Bucks vs. Nets

Los Angeles Clippers vs Utah Jazz

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Once again, the Los Angeles Clippers are down 0-2 in a playoff series. a Donovan Mitchell has lit the Clippers up for 41 points per game in the first two games, showing yet again, the Clippers have no answer for the opposing team’s star player This task will be infinitely more difficult because the Jazz offense does not rely on one person, the way that the Dallas Mavericks offense relied on Luka Doncic. In game two, Mitchell went off for 37 points, but he also received assistance from four other players who scored in double digits. Sixth Man of the Year Jordan Clarkson led the charge for the supporting cast with 24 points as he hit six three-pointers off of the bench Defensive Player of the Year Rudy Gobert had 13 points, 20 rebounds and three blocks and altered countless other shots. 

Outside of the offense, the Jazz play amazing defense. Paul George and Kawhi Leonard have been held in check for the most part in this series. That is until Game 3 rolled around.

The Clippers are once again making their series interesting. After being down 0-2, the Clippers were able to demolish the Jazz in Game 3, winning 132-106, led by Leonard’s 34 points and 12 rebounds performance. Leonard was able to follow that up with another huge performance in Game 4, 31 points and leading the Clippers to a 118-104 win to tie up the series.

It hasn’t just been Leonard though. Paule George has stepped up big time in recent games as well, scoring 31 points in the Clippers’ two latest wins.

Now that things are tied up and interesting once again for the Clippers, we will see if they can keep things going for the rest of the series to finally move on to the Western Conference Finals, as they should.

Milwaukee Bucks vs Brooklyn Nets

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This playoff series was picked by many, myself included, to be the best series of the playoffs. The Brooklyn Nets are led by the high-scoring trio of James Harden, Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving while the Milwaulkee Bucks were led by their big three of Giannis Antetokounmpo, Khris Middleton and Jrue Holiday. Even though the star power is on Brooklyn’s side, the Bucks roster was good enough to make this a compelling series. It has been nothing close to that so far, even with Harden going out less than a minute into the series with a hamstring injury, the Nets have dominated the Bucks.

While the Bucks won the last game, they barely won on a night when Durant and Irving shot 20-50 from the field and 3-10 from 3 point range. The same problem that plagued the Bucks in their previous two postseasons is rearing its head once again. Giannis’s inability to shoot is not allowing their offense to operate at its highest level. He is 3-16 from three and coupled with a nonexistent midrange shot. This weakness allows Brooklyn to pack the paint and bait him into shooting jumpers, leading to a bad shot by Giannis or a contested three-point shot from a teammate due to lack of spacing on the floor.

With Irving going down in Game 4 due to an ankle injury, the Nets had trouble finding any scoring outside of Durant. The Bucks tied the series up with a huge win in Game 4 and now look to face off against a Nets team that will likely be without Harden and Irving for the foreseeable future.

The Nets are going to need a lot of their other role players to step up around Durant. While he can do so much on the court, you can’t expect him to do it all against a team like Milwaukee and consistently come out on top all by himself.