NBA Playoffs Round 1 Recap – April 16

NBA Playoffs

The NBA Playoffs have finally started as we saw four games take place on Saturday. Two games went how everybody expected them to, while two others might not have gone the way that many were thinking. Below, we will go over a quick little recap of the four games.

Raptors vs Sixers

The series between the Toronto Raptors and the Philadelphia 76ers certainly didn’t start the way that many were expecting. Philadelphia ended up winning this game by 20 points as they got monster contributions out of Tyrese Maxey and Tobias Harris.

Joel Embiid struggled in this one, which isn’t necessarily the most surprising thing considering how well Nick Nurse does against elite big man, but Embiid only scoring 19 points is always going to be somewhat of a surprise.

Tyrese Maxey finished the night with 38 points and Tobias Harris finished with 26.

Warriors vs Nuggets

After some worries in the later part of the regular season for the Golden State Warriors, this team is finally now healthy and they showed everybody the potential that they have when fully healthy.

Golden State was able to walk away with a 123-107 victory behind Jordan Poole’s outstanding 30-point game. The youngster didn’t let the bright lights get to him, which isn’t an easy thing to do in the playoffs.

Timberwolves vs Grizzlies

Perhaps the biggest surprise of the night was the Minnesota Timberwolves taking down the Memphis Grizzlies. Minnesota won this game, 130-117, behind Anthony Edward’s 36 points and Karl Anthony Towns’ 29.

If Minnesota is going to want to win this series, both of those guys are going to have to continue playing this type of basketball.

Although people did expect the Grizzlies to struggle in the playoffs, this team is going to come out hungry in game 2 of the series and try to even it up before heading to Minnesota.

Jazz vs Mavericks

Despite not having Luka Doncic, the Dallas Mavericks only lost the first game to the Utah Jazz by six points. Dallas did a great job limiting some of the touches for Rudy Gobert as he only ended with five points.

If Dallas had hit some of their free throws, this could have been a completely different game. They missed eight free throws, and with the margin of victory only being six, it’s easy to put the blame on that.

The four other NBA Playoff games are going to be on Sunday. Expect another four high-level games as teams do their best to get a 1-0 lead in the series.

This year has the potential to be the best NBA Playoffs we’ve ever seen, so get the popcorn ready.

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