NBA Playoff Update May 5, 2018

Warriors Lead Series 2-1

*Game 3 Score: #6 Pelicans Win (119) Beat #2 Warriors (100)

Tough nose defense & effective bench play gave the Pelicans the big win in Game 3. Solomon Hill came in and hit 9 points in his first 2 minutes, Ian Clark had 12 points in his first 10 minutes, E’twaun Moore, Darius Miller, etc. The Pelicans made 14 of 31 3s, with Holiday, Clark, Nikola Mirotic and Solomon Hill each hitting three.

Anthony Davis was determined to play around the basket, and helped New Orleans outscore the Warriors 54-36 in the paint and out rebound Golden State 54-44. Rondo is playing quarterback out there, his 21 Assists are the most in a playoff game since he did it with the Celtics back in 2011! He is the only Point Guard in the last two decades to have a game of 20+ assists in a playoff game, and he has now done it twice.

As for The Warriors, they looked out of sync. Steph didn’t have a good game and therefore the ball wasn’t whipping around the perimeter the way it usually does. The Warriors never led by more than a single point and trailed by double digits for almost the entire second half. Golden State shot uncharacteristically poorly from outside, missing 22 of 31 3-point attempts and finishing at 38 percent shooting (35 of 92) overall.

What do you guys think, did the Pelicans figure something out and can make this a series, or was it just a poor shooting night for Golden State?

Houston Leads Series 2-1

*Game 1 Score: #1 Houston Rockets(113) Beat #5 Jazz (92)

James Harden had 25 points and 12 assists to lead Houston to a 113-92 win over Utah in Game 3. I wish I could make this game recap more exciting, but it was over by halftime. Houston made 16 of its 26 shots in the first quarter and lead by 30 points at the break (70-40).

Eric Gordon added 25 points, which was his best performance of the playoffs. He ended up going 8-of-13 from the field and shooting 50 percent from the 3-point line. Chris Paul added 15 points, seven rebounds and six assists for the Rockets.

Utah never got on track. The Jazz shot poorly over the first three quarters and committed 16 turnovers. Donovan Mitchell had the worst game of his young playoff career, scoring only 10 points after going just 4-of-16 from the field. As I have previously stated, if Ricky Rubio was in this series I think this would have been the best of the Semi Final series, but without him its just way too much on Mitchell’s shoulders.