Who needs Luka when you have Luke?
The Lakers' role player takes a starring role. Plus: Jalen Brunson reminds us he's a postseason killer, the Cavaliers take care of business and Denver flexes in a thriller.
The Lakers' role player takes a starring role. Plus: Jalen Brunson reminds us he's a postseason killer, the Cavaliers take care of business and Denver flexes in a thriller.
Good morning. Only 56 to 105 playoff games remaining! Let's basketball.
Beware the Cavalanche
Good effort from Toronto all game long without Immanuel Quickley. But Cleveland brought a different level of shotmaking and Donovan Mitchell was the most intense and focused player on the floor.
As Toronto hung around, Max Strus sparked a nice little Cavalanche in the third quarter to break it open. Cleveland held them off from there.
Cleveland will have cold games, so Toronto has a path to a victory or two. But to really get into this series, Scottie Barnes – who hit three threes – will need to play with more force. It's been a long time since he's played in games at this intensity level, though ... maybe he'll adjust for Game 2.
Eric Collins always makes games better.
An Ominous Sign
I'm not sure I've ever seen Rudy Gobert play better in the postseason than he did Saturday against the Nuggets. And he's played a lot of playoff games – this was the 85th of his career. He was rolling hard and mostly clean with the ball, showcasing a couple of nifty moves to punish the Nuggets' lackluster pick-and-roll coverage. He defended Nikola Jokic as well as you can ask anyone to defend Nikola Jokic – getting beat a few times, getting blown by in pick-and-roll coverage, getting cut occasionally – but doing a really solid job.
