Top 8 Storylines Heading into Sunday's 1st-Round 2016 NBA Playoff Matchups
Step aside, Stephen Curry.
Cool down, Kevin Durant.
Relax, Russell Westbrook.
It’s time for the other half of the NBA playoff field to take center stage.
It’s time for LeBron James to welcome the Detroit Pistons back to the postseason, for the San Antonio Spurs to pass the torch to their new dynamic duo, for Blake Griffin and Chris Paul to embark on what may be their final voyage as teammates for the Los Angeles Clippers.
And that’s not even half of what will be at stake during Sunday’s quadruple-header of NBA playoff action.
Here’s a look at the biggest pointers to follow Sunday—one for each team, ranked by importance in relation to the overall championship picture.
8. Will the Memphis Grizzlies Have Enough Warm Bodies to Last?
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At this point, every injury for the Memphis Grizzlies is at once devastating and numbingly rote. They’ve already lost Marc Gasol, Mike Conley Jr., Brandan Wright and Jordan Adams for the season. And the Grizz didn’t do themselves any favors by shipping out Courtney Lee and Jeff Green ahead of the February trade deadline.
Without them, the remaining veterans—namely, Zach Randolph, Vince Carter and Tony Allen—have held the Grizzlies’ rotating cast of contributors together.
“Every guy has taken the mindset of, ‘How can I help the new guys?’” head coach Dave Joerger said, per the San Antonio Express-News’ Jeff McDonald. “Our chemistry is fantastic. There have been a lot of bumps in the road, a lot of opportunities for people to point fingers, and they haven’t done that.”
But how much can togetherness push the Grizzlies forward against a juggernaut like the San Antonio Spurs? What happens to all that if Tony Allen, who missed Memphis’ last three games with tightness in his left hamstring, can’t go? All the good locker-room vibes in the world can’t lock up Kawhi Leonard like the Grindfather can. Nor can they stop the Spurs’ other stars from whirring around as they please.
San Antonio swept Memphis during the regular season, winning by an average of 12.5 points per game.
"All you have to do is get one," Joerger said, per the Commercial Appeal’s Ronald Tillery. "I told our guys, 'If you get one and find a crack then all of a sudden the jumpers don't come so free and easy. Maybe you start making people think about (the series) a little bit.’”
And maybe, just maybe, they’ll think less about what relatively little resistance Memphis has to offer at this point.
7. Can Kemba Walker Channel His UConn Magic?
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Two years ago, when they were still the Bobcats, the Charlotte Hornets were swept out of the playoffs by the Miami Heat while Al Jefferson played through foot pain the first three games and missed the fourth—this despite Kemba Walker’s best efforts (19.5 points, six assists, two steals, 50 percent from three).
Fast forward to the present, and you’ll find Charlotte once again concerned about one of its stars.
In this case, it’s Nicolas Batum, who insists “there’s no way he will miss Game 1” against the Miami Heat on Sunday despite an ankle injury, per the Charlotte Observer’s Scott Fowler.
Whatever Batum can bring to the table, the Hornets’ hopes for the franchise’s first playoff win in 14 years still fall to Walker. In the midst of a career year, the UConn product now has the jump shot (37.1 percent from three) to punish opponents from the perimeter and the requisite freedom within Charlotte’s three-point-heavy offense to attack.
“He looks quicker to me,” an opposing coach told Sports Illustrated’s Lee Jenkins, “but maybe that’s just because he has space to move for the first time.”
So long as Batum is enough of a threat, with both the pass and the shot, to keep the floor spread, Walker should have all the room he needs to channel his collegiate glory days and get the Hornets some payback against the Heat.
6. Portland Plays Underdog Role, Per Usual
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Everything about the West’s No. 4- vs. No. 5-seed matchup says the Clippers should walk over the Portland Trail Blazers.
There’s the Blazers’ frontcourt, which would’ve been badly outmatched against Blake Griffin and DeAndre Jordan even with Meyers Leonard, but it will be at that much more of a disadvantage without him.
There’s the Grand Canyon-sized gap in playoff experience between the two: 568 games' worth for L.A. to 91 for Portland, per the Los Angeles Times’ Ben Bolch. And there’s the stark disparity in payroll; according to ESPN.com’s Kevin Arnovitz, the Clippers will shell out $116 million for their roster, more than double the $52 million the Blazers will spend on theirs.
None of this should deter Portland.
If anything, the Blazers should be emboldened as the underdog. They came into the 2015-16 campaign with most folks pegging them to win fewer than 30 games and, despite turning over five of their top six players from last season, finished with 44 wins and the No. 5 seed in the Western Conference. That foolhardiness for expectations could work in Rip City’s favor.
Maybe, just maybe, most of the Blazers’ youngsters who’ve hardly, if ever, tasted playoff basketball won’t know or care for the difference.
"I don't think you come in and tell guys, 'Oh man, it's so different. You gotta do this,' because, like I said, at the end of the day it's still a basketball game," Damian Lillard said, per the Oregonian’s Mike Richman. "And you don't want guys thinking that it's anything more than that, especially someone who hasn't experienced it. No one did that to me. They just let me go out there and that was good enough. And I'll do the same."
5. DEEEEETROIIIIIT (Playoff) BAAAAAAASKETBALLLLLL
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The last time the Detroit Pistons were in the playoffs, they were a No. 8 seed that got swept out of the first round by LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Seven years later, the Pistons find themselves in a similar predicament, but under entirely different circumstances. These Cavs are more talented than the ones from 2009, what with LeBron James joined by Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love on the heels of a trip to the Finals.
But these Pistons aren’t too shabby, either. Unlike their predecessors, who were on the tail-end of a glorious period in the franchise’s history, this Detroit team is on the upswing. Pistons head coach Stan Van Gundy has built yet another burgeoning powerhouse around a dominant double-double machine at center (Andre Drummond) and an aggressive pick-and-roll operator at the point (Reggie Jackson).
While the Pistons pale in comparison to the Cavs when it comes to playoff experience, they won’t be intimidated by the East’s presumptive champion. They certainly weren’t during the regular season, when Detroit beat Cleveland three times out of four.
“I want to go fight Goliath,” Jackson said, per the Detroit Free Press’ Jeff Seidel. “I think that’s how this locker room feels. They are a tough team, respectfully so. … But we are hungry. We are ready to prove ourselves.”
Only five No. 8 seeds in NBA history have ever advanced past the first round. The Pistons won’t likely be the sixth, but if they steal one of the first two games in Cleveland, they may have enough confidence and talent at their backs to make it a real series in the Motor City.
4. Win One for the Boshter
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Chris Bosh and the Miami Heat are both better off now than they were a year ago. The former managed to catch the blood clots in his leg before they migrated dangerously to his lungs. The latter are back in the playoffs following a brief hiatus, now as the No. 3 seed in the East.
But that still leaves Bosh and the Heat in less-than-ideal circumstances—the All-Star forward with his career (if not his life) in jeopardy, and the franchise without its best player.
"It might look like it has been easier this season," forward Luol Deng said of moving on without Bosh, per the South Florida Sun Sentinel’s Ira Winderman, "but no, not at all. It's always hard. It's always hard to lose somebody that is such a huge piece of your team and is such a good teammate."
Miami could use Bosh as an inside-out scoring threat and versatile defender in what figures to be a nip-and-tuck series against the Charlotte Hornets. If he is going to boost his teammates through the playoffs, it’ll have to be with his personality off the court as opposed to his presence on it.
Dwyane Wade told the Sun Sentinel:
"It's bittersweet. As we continue to say, obviously we miss his presence on the basketball floor, but his hurt of not being able to be out there is even more than what we feel. Because he loves to play the game and he's one of the best players in the world playing the game. So we're going to miss him. And he's going to be there rooting us on and cheering us on. As a friend, I know that he wants to be in this moment with us, so I know he's hurting a little bit.
"
Bosh’s support through pain may be all the motivation the Heat need to handle the Hornets and, eventually, take aim at LeBron James.
3. Will Los Angeles Clippers Crumble Now, Later or Not at All?
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In 2013, Blake Griffin's bum knee set the Clippers back in a big way as they blew a 2-0 series lead to the Memphis Grizzlies in the opening round.
Last spring, L.A. might've swept the Houston Rockets had Chris Paul not injured his ankle in Game 7 against the San Antonio Spurs. Instead, the Clippers split the first two games in Houston and wound up salting away a 3-1 advantage and (what seemed to be) a sure shot in the Western Conference Finals.
In the fifth year of the Lob City Era, the Clippers find themselves as banged up as ever.
Griffin's quad, which knocked him out for most of the 2015-16 season, won't stop giving him grief until he's able to treat it properly this offseason. His absence shifted more of the team's burden to Paul, who played like an MVP in keeping the Clippers relevant but, by doing so, might be short on gas heading into the playoffs.
And then there's J.J. Redick, the WD-40 in the Clippers' point-scoring machine, who bruised his heel during the penultimate game of the regular season.
Those concerns could come home to roost against a Portland Trail Blazers team with a huge chip on its collective shoulder and two young guards—Damian Lillard and C.J. McCollum—with the scoring chops to take over games and come through in crunch time.
If the Clippers do take care of the Blazers in Round 1, they won't be able to give the Golden State Warriors all they can handle in the conference semis without full-health energy. Either way, an exit before the conference finals could spell the end for the Clippers as we've come to know them.
2. Looking at You, LaMarcus
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LaMarcus Aldridge has put together some monstrous playoff performances before. Two years ago, he tipped off the postseason with back-to-back 40-point games for the Portland Trail Blazers in their six-game win over the Houston Rockets.
But that was then, when Aldridge was the go-to guy in Rip City. Now, he’s second fiddle for the San Antonio Spurs, behind fellow All-Star and former Finals MVP Kawhi Leonard.
After a slow start to the season, Aldridge has adjusted to this role just fine. From Feb. 1 on, he averaged 21.0 points and 8.5 rebounds while converting 54 percent of his field-goal attempts.
The bigger concern now is the soreness in the finger Aldridge dislocated during a loss to the Golden State Warriors on April 7. He appeared to re-aggravate the injury during the Spurs’ home finale, though head coach Gregg Popovich insisted otherwise.
“He's fine" Popovich said, per KSAT 12 in San Antonio. "He went in to take a leak.”
The team had better hope Aldridge won’t succumb to any such...errr...mid-game interruptions against the Memphis Grizzlies. San Antonio shouldn’t have too many issues dispatching the hobbled Grit N’ Grind in a hurry, but much of that will depend on whether Aldridge is able to contain Zach Randolph on one end and torch him on the other.
In the grander scheme, Aldridge’s legacy in the Alamo City, like those of all Spurs greats past and present, will be forged in the crucible of playoff basketball. There’s no time like Game 1 to start writing.
1. Can the Cleveland Cavaliers Put the Regular Season Behind Them?
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From David Blatt's ouster to Zapruder film analysis of LeBron James' social media musings and everything in between, the 2015-16 season was strange. It's not every day that an NBA team might be better served forgetting about a 57-win campaign. But given all the tumult the Cleveland Cavaliers have been through, that approach makes sense.
That applies to the team's first-round matchup with the Detroit Pistons. The Cavs dropped three of four to their Central Division foe. One of those defeats, though, came during Kyrie Irving's recovery from knee surgery in November, and another came in a battle of B teams for the season finale.
The Cavs should be targeting their second straight trip to the NBA Finals. The Pistons, on the other hand, are hoping to make some noise in their first playoff appearance since 2009.
James, it seems, has been in playoff mode since mid-March, when he got a stern talking-to from head coach Tyronn Lue following his halftime fraternizing with the enemy in a loss to the Miami Heat. In the 10 games that followed, James averaged 28.4 points, 8.0 rebounds and 8.5 assists while shooting 62 percent from the floor (51.9 percent from three) and leading Cleveland to an 8-2 record.
"If he plays like this, man, we’re going to be tough to beat," Lue said, per USA Today's Jeff Zillgitt. "He’s just taken it to a whole other level the last three, four weeks, playing at a very high level, shooting the ball very well, shooting with it with confidence and getting it to the basket. I like the LeBron I see right now."
For Cleveland to oust Detroit and move closer to the city's first championship since 1964, the rest of the Cavs, most notably Irving and Kevin Love, must follow LeBron's lead.
Josh Martin covers the NBA for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter (@JoshMartinNBA), Instagram and Facebook.
