Both No. 1 seeds cruised to victory on Tuesday night in their series openers of the NBA Playoffs’ second round. The Boston Celtics tromped the Cleveland Cavaliers 120-95, and the young Oklahoma City Thunder squad finished off the more experienced Dallas Mavericks with only three points fewer than Boston, with a final score of 117-95.
The Celts and Cavs are both down key players, Kristaps Porziņģis and Jarrett Allen, which is clearly more of an issue for Cleveland than it is for Boston. Meanwhile, the Mavericks are dealing with a less-than-100-percent Luka Dončić. His performance, and Kyrie Irving’s failure to show up in a big way in Game 1, give cause for concern.
Here’s a look at Thursday’s NBA Playoff games with staff picks, odds and previews.
All odds from BetMGM. Find the best deals on StubHub for tickets.
No. 4 Cleveland Cavaliers at No. 1 Boston Celtics
How to watch: 7 p.m. ET on ESPN
Series odds: Celtics -5000, Cavaliers +1600
Boston leads series 1-0
There was one burning question before Game 1 of this series: Can Cleveland activate its offense and score against Boston? Cleveland is great on defense, but Boston was the most efficient offensive team in NBA history during the regular season and they’re great on D. The answer, so far, is: Not so much.
But that’s not to say the Cavs weren’t trying. They got outscored by 21 at the 3-point line, but were at least making more 3-point attempts than usual. They had 42 attempts compared to their first-round average of 29.9 per game but only hit 11 of them. Oof.
The Celtics won in a blowout on a night when their best scorer, Jayson Tatum, wasn’t hot. Tatum still got a double-double with 18 points and 11 rebounds, but he was 7-of-19 shooting and 0-of-5 on 3-pointers. It was Jaylen Brown who really popped off in scoring, with 32 points on 12-of-18 shooting.
Donovan Mitchell was enormous for the Cavs in Game 7 against the Magic, and he was the high-scorer in this matchup with 33 points. But only one other Cavalier (Evan Mobley) got more than 15 points, whereas four Celtics did. Mobley has been showing up in the absence of Allen, and he did get 17 points and 13 rebounds. If they’re going to compete against Boston’s firepower, Cleveland needs shooters Max Strus and Sam Merrill to get in a better groove.
According to The Athletic’s Joe Vardon, the Cavs looked eager to learn from this matchup, rather than slumped and defeated. Despite the odds against them, the Cavs could potentially get a win at home and make this a series. But we’re not holding our breath for a Cleveland win in TD Garden.
Expert picks for Cavs at Celtics
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No. 5 Dallas Mavericks at No. 1 Oklahoma City Thunder
How to watch: 9:30 p.m. ET on ESPN
Series odds: Thunder -225, Mavericks +180
Oklahoma City leads series 1-0
In a game that cast two MVP finalists on opposite sides of the court, one showed up and one didn’t on Tuesday night. Game 1 of the Mavs-Thunder series saw Shai Gilgeous-Alexander drop 29 points, nine assists and nine rebounds. Dončić, meanwhile, was clearly still struggling on his sprained knee. He got 19 points on 6-for-19 shooting — far worse than his regular season average of 33.9 points per game — and had five turnovers. It was his lowest point total since mid-March.
The game started slow, with both teams looking a little choppy. Jalen Williams missed his first six shots and was 1-of-9 until a fourth-quarter surge. The Thunder had control throughout the game, but it was in the fourth quarter that they really pulled away, stretching a 10-point lead to a 22-point win.
That game clinched the third win by more than 20 points in five playoff games by the NBA’s youngest team. As The Athletic’s Zach Harper pointed out in our NBA newsletter, in five games, the Thunder have a plus-85 point differential.
Meanwhile, the Mavericks didn’t…
This article was originally published by a theathletic.com . Read the Original article here. .