NBA Eastern Conference playoffs burning questions: Can Pistons keep punching up?

The trailers are lastly over, and the characteristic movie is about to start.

So seize a snack, sit again and prepare to get pleasure from a jam-packed Saturday slate that opens Spherical 1 of the NBA playoffs.

After the conclusion of the Play-In match on Friday evening, all eight first-round sequence had been formally locked in. Which suggests basketball followers can actually start deep-diving matchups, pushing their favorite narratives and begin projecting forward to fill out brackets.

And looking East, it may appear simple sufficient to quick ahead and pencil in a convention finals between the top-seeded Cavaliers and second-place Celtics — two of the NBA’s three 60-plus win groups this season.

However regardless of their dominance, not taking a second to contemplate the remaining six could be a disservice to an East bracket that features a Pacers squad one 12 months faraway from a convention finals look, a Giannis Antetokounmpo-led Bucks staff that is driving sizzling, a Knicks group itching to show it belongs amongst the elite, a Magic collective that is re-found it is defensive id and a Pistons contingent not prepared for its Cinderella run to be over.

The playoffs have taught us time and time once more that nothing is a certain guess when the stakes are so excessive. An damage, an adjustment or just a star rising to the event can typically be sufficient to swing a sequence. It is all about timing.

And as soon as the primary ball suggestions off on Saturday, the clock will formally begin ticking right down to the NBA Finals in June. So, within the spirit of intrigue and in defiance of any presumed chalkiness within the East, this is one burning query for every sequence forward of the primary spherical.

Season sequence: Cavaliers lead 2-1

Collection schedule (all instances in ET):
Recreation 1: April 20, 7 p.m.
Recreation 2: April 23, 7:30 p.m.
Recreation 3: April 26, 1 p.m.
Recreation 4: April 28, TBD
*Recreation 5: April 30, TBD
*Recreation 6: Could 2, TBD
*Recreation 7: Could 4, TBD
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Burning Query: Are these Cavaliers a 16-game staff?

Whereas the idea stays rooted in subjective standards (i.e., optics and really feel), there are numbers to assist the notion that sure gamers (and groups) perceive the ebbs and flows of the playoffs higher than others — those that routinely rise greater than their contemporaries within the largest of moments.

The Cavaliers, as an example — a now 64-win statistical juggernaut — might want to overcome the damning numerical incontrovertible fact that they’ve gained simply six playoff video games the final two years regardless of being a No. 4 seed every time. It is a part of the explanation why regardless of holding a wire-to-wire lead over the remainder of the East this season, they’re nonetheless not betting favourites towards the defending champion Celtics. Proof trumps potential.

And this 12 months’s Cleveland staff has boatloads of potential with little proof to substantiate it (but). What the numbers do inform us for sure, nonetheless, is that the 2024-25 Cavs had been the NBA’s No. 1-ranked offence (second-most environment friendly in NBA historical past) and No. 8 defence. Past that, they had been simply the second staff in NBA historical past to rattle off three win streaks of 12 or extra video games in a season.

The primary to do it was the 2006-07 Dallas Mavericks, a 67-win powerhouse a lot akin to the Cavaliers at the moment. That staff additionally appeared destined for a protracted post-season run, however was as a substitute notoriously surprised by the “We Imagine” Warriors in a one-eight matchup.

And if any staff resembles that Golden State squad, it is a 2024-25 “Warmth Tradition” Miami staff that is already made historical past as the primary tenth seed ever to advance out of the Play-In and into the playoffs. Regardless of going 14-21 post-Jimmy Butler, shedding 10 video games in a row alongside the way in which and blowing a league-leading 22 fourth-quarter leads, the Warmth discovered a approach by means of. They’ve made little sense this season however have overcome that conundrum with loads of resilience.

And if there is a first-round opponent that may actually check Cleveland’s post-season resolve, it is this Miami staff.

Season sequence: Magic lead 2-1

Collection schedule (all instances in ET):
Recreation 1: April 20, 3:30 p.m.
Recreation 2: April 23, 7 p.m.
Recreation 3: April 25, 7 p.m.
Recreation 4: April 27, 7 p.m.
*Recreation 5: April 29, TBD
*Recreation 6: Could 1, TBD
*Recreation 7: Could 3, TBD
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Burning Query: Can Orlando include Boston’s three-point onslaught?

Pigs will fly prior to the Magic will be capable to match the Celtics’ steady barrage of makes from past the arc. That is much less a discredit to Orlando’s pedestrian offence — twenty seventh total and final in common made threes (11.2) — and extra a nod to Boston’s firepower.

The Celtics ranked second on that aspect of the ball this 12 months, but once more anchored by a three-point-heavy assault. Beantown led the league in common three-point makes (17.8), and its 1,457 complete triples was a brand new NBA single-season report.

Nonetheless, any staff so reliant on one fashion of offence leaves itself in danger if these seems to be cease falling. It hasn’t been expensive all that always, however Boston actually does function alongside the “reside by the three, die by the three” mantra.

The Celtics went 7-14 throughout video games wherein they made the identical or fewer triples than their opponents. In losses, their three-point proportion dipped right down to 32.4 per cent in comparison with 38.3 per cent in wins.

And it is that actual sample the Magic might want to replicate to make this sequence fascinating. Good factor Orlando permits the fewest makes an attempt (31.4) and makes (11.4) from past the arc this season.

The Magic held the Celtics to 36.7 three-point photographs per recreation and simply 10.7 makes, each properly beneath their ordinary averages. And though that effort meant the Magic gained the regular-season sequence, a kind of video games did not embody Jayson Tatum, and the opposite was within the remaining week of play when none of Boston’s starters took the ground.

Season sequence: Pistons lead 3-1

Collection schedule (all instances in ET):
Recreation 1: April 19, 6 p.m.
Recreation 2: April 21, 7:30 p.m.
Recreation 3: April 24, 7 p.m.
Recreation 4: April 27, 1 p.m.
*Recreation 5: April 29, TBD
*Recreation 6: Could 1, TBD
*Recreation 7: Could 3, TBD
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Burning Query: Can the Pistons keep punching up?

Undoubtedly the darlings of the NBA all 12 months, this Detroit squad made some of the spectacular single-year turnarounds in fairly a while.

The Pistons’ injection of veteran expertise — Tobias Harris and Malik Beasley — and their bodily fashion of play, vaguely harking back to the “Dangerous Boys” period, has led to a 30-win bounce and a primary playoff look since 2019.

And their matchup for a long-awaited post-season return could not have been drawn up any higher. New York was the one top-six staff within the East that Detroit gained its regular-season sequence towards.

A lot of that was because of Cade Cunningham. In 4 appearances versus New York, the first-time all-star averaged 30.8 factors and eight.3 assists on higher than 50 per cent taking pictures from the sphere and distance. The Knicks can have loads of choices to throw at Cunningham within the playoffs, nonetheless, as OG Anunoby, Mikal Bridges and Josh Hart have the instruments to make life troublesome for the 23-year-old.

It is time to see if the Pistons are prepared for primetime or if the intense lights of Madison Sq. Backyard will show an excessive amount of to deal with. Detroit’s season will likely be a feel-good story both approach, however assembly the second will doubtless be the distinction in whether or not or not the Pistons can win their first playoff recreation since 2008 and snap a streak of 14 consecutive playoff losses.

Season sequence: Bucks lead 3-1

Collection schedule (all instances in ET):
Recreation 1: April 19, 1 p.m. (on Sportsnet 360 or Sportsnet+)
Recreation 2: April 22, 7 p.m.
Recreation 3: April 25, 8 p.m.
Recreation 4: April 27, 9:30 p.m.
*Recreation 5: April 29, TBD
*Recreation 6: Could 2, TBD
*Recreation 7: Could 4, TBD
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Burning Query: No Dame, no downside?

Whereas Damian Lillard’s standing stays unclear for the beginning of the playoffs, as he works his approach again — presumably prior to anticipated — from a blood clot analysis that is saved him out for almost a month, the Bucks seem able to roll both approach.

Milwaukee went 10-4 with out the nine-time all-star to finish the 12 months. And though it’s going to gladly welcome again Lillard’s 24.9 factors and seven.1 assists per recreation, Antetokounmpo and the band have been rocking simply tremendous in his absence.

The Bucks enter the primary spherical on NBA-best eight-game win streak, boasting the league’s No. 1 offence over the past 10 video games. Unsurprisingly, that effort’s been spearheaded by Milwaukee’s two-time league MVP.

Antetokounmpo was his ordinary stellar self this 12 months, averaging 30.4 factors (second within the NBA), 11.9 rebounds (sixth) and 6.5 assists.

The massive distinction, nonetheless, is the truth that he is about as wholesome as he is been in fairly a while coming into the post-season. The 30-year-old has performed in simply three playoff video games since 2022 because of varied accidents. Final season, when his Bucks misplaced to those exact same Pacers within the first spherical, Antetokounmpo did not play in any of the six video games because of a strained proper calf.

With well being presumably on his aspect this time round, and his working mate presumably lacking in motion, it is likely to be time for the previous Finals MVP to remind of us of his dominance.

Milwaukee will want precisely that sort of effort to get previous a Pacers staff that gained 50 video games for the primary time since 2014.

Indiana’s offence may not be fairly as potent as final 12 months — ranked ninth now as a substitute of second — however its defence has taken a step up as a considerably cheap compromise for that drop-off. And whereas Indiana has its personal damage concern — Pascal Siakam coping with a lingering elbow challenge — roster depth ought to nonetheless be on its aspect for the first-round matchup.