As we head into the fourth week of these postseason Power Rankings, we’ve got some shocking revelations about some championship contenders, and with the conclusion of one of the Western Conference series on Sunday night, we learned a few things about some of the teams that were on the bubble of contention as well.
While the Philadelphia 76ers, who struggled mightily dealing with Trae Young’s Atlanta Hawks in Game one but began to realize they were the superior side by splitting the first two home games of the series and then going on to keep the beat rolling on the road, look like they’re finally getting hot at the right time with health on their side, the same – ever so suddenly – cannot be said for the Brooklyn Nets. Kyrie Irving suffered what looked to be a gruesome ankle injury from landing on Giannis Antetokounmpo’s ankle following a layup attempt in Game 4’s second quarter Sunday afternoon, and it is unclear when or *if* the star Nets guard returns for this series.
And with the news of James Harden’s reaggravation of his right hamstring, the Nets’ injury woes have uncontrollably snowballed at the most inconvenient time. A banged-up top-heavy championship favorite with somewhat suboptimal role pieces never quite offer the offensive punch necessary to win, and without two of the greatest mismatches in NBA history on the floor for the Nets for an undisclosed duration of time, it could be the Nets’ downfall for this series with Milwaukee tying the series up 2 apiece after their 107-96 victory.
And on the Western hemisphere of the NBA universe, the Phoenix Suns successfully completed the sweep of the Denver Nuggets on Sunday night as a balanced, healthy team relayed the same adage of every postseason throughout history: the best availability is indeed availability. Phoenix never let the Nuggets get into arms reach of a win at any point in the series, and Chris Paul, at 36 years old, is headed back to the Western Conference Finals after averaging 25.5 points, 10.3 assists and 5 rebounds against the Denver Nuggets in four games. Coincidentally, in his first-ever trip to the NBA Playoffs, Devin Booker stayed hot in continuation from the Lakers series, in which the Kentucky product put up 25.3 points per game in the four-straight wins over 2021 MVP Nikola Jokic’s Nuggets.
The Jazz and Clippers series looked to be nearing its conclusion with Utah holding serve at home and going up 2-0, but Los Angeles won their first game of the series at home in rousing fashion, as Paul George quieted the doubters and kept his foot on the gas pedal for all four quarters.
Let’s get into the details of all the series and the top four teams with the fourth edition of these postseason power rankings.
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1. No. 2 Phoenix Suns (51-21, Won 4-2 vs. No. 7 Los Angeles Lakers in First Round, Won 4-0 vs. No. 3 Denver Nuggets in WCSF, Last Week’s Ranking: 2
Be real with yourself – even you didn’t quite see the Suns advancing past the first round of the playoffs when Suns GM James Jones pulled the trigger and sent Kelly Oubre Jr. to the Oklahoma City Thunder (who then sent him to the Warriors for two draft picks) and got 36-year-old Chris Paul in return. And you anticipated that Paul was going to take a leadership position to help out younger players like Devin Booker and DeAndre Ayton maximize their potential.
Trust me, we all couldn’t see this magical carpet ride of a 2020-21 campaign happening with a team that missed out on the eighth seed before last year’s playoffs.
But reality often is misleading. While Devin Booker’s rise to superstardom has been in fact expected and equally meteoric, what Paul has done for this franchise in a matter of seven months should be talked over in lore. And in not just helping these Suns who were coming on at year’s end following their 8-0 record inside the NBA Bubble at Disney Springs in Orlando last summer, Paul has helped in instilling hope into a franchise that hadn’t gotten a sniff of a playoff visit in more than eleven years. For the first time since the 2010 season, the Rally for the Valley will extend to the Western Conference Finals, for the Suns are but a mere four wins away from advancing to the NBA Finals for the first time in 28 years.
As a team, the Suns look to be the most evenly-poised and steady team in these playoffs, and with a system put in place by Head Coach Monty Williams that optimizes for his two MVP-caliber guards in Booker and Paul to utilize all three levels of the floor in their scoring efforts, Suns fans have them to thank for the run they’ve been on.
And additionally, though they possess the sixth-best offensive rating (114.2 points per 100 possessions), they have the best defensive rating of all Western teams left in the playoffs (104.1 points per 100 possessions allowed). After beating an undermanned Nuggets team who were sorely missing playmaking and shot creation off the bounce with Jamal Murray out for the season, the Suns beat them when they targeted Jokic as a drop defender in the PnR with both Paul and Booker, as well in transition when the Nuggets struggled to run sets in the halfcourt.
And now, the Suns wait for their next opponent, in either the Utah Jazz or Los Angeles Clippers.
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2. No. 3 Milwaukee Bucks (46-26, Won 4-0 vs. No. 6 Miami Heat in First Round, 2-2 vs. No. 2 Brooklyn Nets in ECSF, Last Week’s Ranking: N/A)
Well, that escalated quickly.
After grinding out a three-point win to gain some traction on the offensive three-headed dragon of the Brooklyn Nets, there was very little optimism on the Bucks extending this series due to the lack of a defensive gameplan in stopping both Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant for the duration of another 48 minutes in Game 4. But with six minutes and six seconds remaining in the first half of Sunday’s Game 4, Irving came down with a hard thud on the floor of the Fiserv Forum where it looked like he inadvertently landed on the foot of Giannis Antetokounmpo, twisting his ankle in the process and laying on the hardwood for a few minutes before being escorted off of the floor.
What started out as a 17-point swing in the first-half in the Nets’ favor quickly transitioned into a 44-40 lead and a gargantuan 30-point second quarter for the Bucks, who seemed to turn it on when they realized running Antetokounmpo at the 4 and 5 as a screener and off-ball cutter made the most space for outside scorers like Brook Lopez and Pat Connaughton through the litany of Mike Budenholzer’s rotations.
Moreover, when Jrue Holiday and Khris Middleton assumed the responsibilities of being the marauders with the rock in their hands, the offense couldn’t be stopped the rest of the way through, as both Middleton and Holiday finished Game 4 with a combined and supplementary 33 points to go along with two-time MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo’s efficient 34 points, as the 6’11 mismatch of a downhill scorer made his mark in the open court and as a roll man who used his gravity to full sufficiency, often finishing with fervent like how we know him to do so when defenses were collapsed off the dribble drive or were slowly getting back in transition.
Milwaukee went up by as much as 23 points, and as the floor was shrunken with no other on-ball threat to create in the halfcourt other than Durant, PJ Tucker was a thorn in his side, keeping Durant from scoring more than 9 points off 3-for-12 shooting whenever matched up against him, especially when the Bucks poured it on and stuck to their gameplan in the third and fourth quarters.
Now, Brooklyn’s collective playoff hopes fringe on an all-world Kevin Durant performance in Game 5 in Brooklyn Tuesday night. Because if not, the Bucks could be heading back to the Eastern Conference Finals for the second time in three years.
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3. No. 1 Philadelphia 76ers (49-23, Won 4-1 vs. No. 8 Washington Wizards in First Round, 2-1 vs. No. 5 Atlanta Hawks in ECSF, Last Week’s Ranking: 3)
With the other MVP big man now out of the postseason picture, it’s Joel Embiid’s chance to prove the voters of the award wrong again after his Philadelphia 76ers took a commanding 127-111 Game 3 win last Friday night. Embiid looked locked in and indomitable as usual, posting 27 points off a 7-for-14 shooting night with a lone three-ball falling through four quarters. As Atlanta’s Clint Capela got in foul trouble, the game plan formulated itself due to the ebb and flow of Friday’s decisive win, and a flurry of weakside isolation looks that made themselves in the mid-post created a variety of chances and looks for Tobias Harris, Furkan Korkmaz, Matisse Thybulle, Seth Curry and the rest of Philly’s perimeter scorers.
Philadelphia’s bench outscored Atlanta’s 48-32, and Atlanta was outmatched in the halfcourt when Trae Young was singled out and blitzed/trapped on every high PnR look. That’s expected when there is a plan established in shutting down a speedy ballhandler who can create for himself and others should he see an angle of space worth using.
And of course, he’d get his (28 points off 9-for-17 shooting and 50 percent shooting from downtown) but following Philadelphia’s adjustment from games 1 and 2, they ended up looking like the more aggressive team on both ends, imposing their will offensively by getting Ben Simmons downhill as their 6’10 freight train of a mismatch going downhill, showing muscle when driving baseline and establishing middle with the ball in his hands, but defensively is where the Sixers shone through in the second and third games of this series, actively switching off of Atlanta’s double drags and stagger looks at the top of the key with a variety of long bodies to employ.
Doc Rivers made sure to emphasize making Young uncomfortable by putting Thybulle onto him when they were in man during the bench’s minutes when Simmons was off the floor, often limiting his and others’ open attempts from three-land as much as possible. However, not all that was sweet could avoid becoming sour, as veteran 3-and-D piece Danny Green may miss the rest of this series due to a strained right calf. Though they’ve shown they can handle their business without Green on the floor for this series, even showing a slight anemia in the wing department hurts your ability to adjust on the fly against future offenses, and shrinks the floor that much now down an additional shooter.
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4. No. 4 Los Angeles Clippers (47-25, Won 4-3 vs. No. 5 Dallas Mavericks in First Round, 1-2 vs. No. 1 Utah Jazz in WCSF, Last Week’s Ranking: N/A)
After falling behind 2-0 to the top-seeded Utah Jazz, many sportswriters, experts, and fans alike all wrote off the Clips following their second-straight playoff series that started with a 2-0 deficit this year. But in preparation for what could be a season-altering Game 4, the Clippers got themselves into a promising position to compete for a Conference title and gain even more ground on the injured Jazz with a signature Paul George Game 3 performance at home and a 132-106 win with their backs against the wall this past Saturday night.
And while Kawhi Leonard struggled, the playoffs are usually the time for unsung heroes in the rotation to step up and assume some larger responsibilities. Reggie Jackson has been that guy for the Clippers in the three games they’ve played this series by scoring 17 points off of 6-for-8 shooting in a must-win game 3, knocking down five threes in six attempts in the process. Adjustments and gameplan tweaks aplenty have emanated from Head Coach Tyronn Lue, who seem to have the Utah Jazz on the ropes all of a sudden when it looked as if the Jazz were going to steamroll them for four straight contests.
As a team, they struggled to neutralize and constrict Donovan Mitchell from bludgeoning their defensive coverages, as the ever-elusive Louisville product has been a nightmare to defend in the three games they’ve played, but the Clippers sent two, at times three, defenders to hedge or trap Mitchell whenever he got a sliver of space with a dribble handoff or with the ball in his hands as the team’s initiator when Quin Snyder calls for him to get the offense moving in the halfcourt.
In the playoffs, to the most physical go the spoils, and that age-old truth spoke volumes against Utah for the Clippers. They made sure to rough up Mitchell’s Jazz, who, albeit, were doing the roughing up when they held serve during their two-straight home wins against L.A., and as they finally saw some pushback and productivity from George and Leonard (who combined for 65 points off 26-for-48 shooting) the optimism is back in the Staples Center that these Clippers can earn yet another hard-fought victory against Utah and extend this series to, ultimately, get to their first Conference Finals in franchise history, who will make sure to not have a repeat performance of their last outing that saw them shoot under 43 percent for the third time this postseason.
Photo Source: pngkey.com
