Sunday delivered another full slate of NBA playoff action. The Raptors, Spurs, Celtics and Rockets were all winners. Houston’s victory avoided a sweep at the hands of the Lakers and means there are still no tickets punched yet to the second round in the playoff bracket.
The Raptors tied up their series with the Cavaliers in a hard-fought, low-scoring affair that highlighted Toronto’s dominant defense. It wasn’t pretty, both teams shot the ball so poorly that the Raptors set a new record for the worst shooting performance in a playoff win. But a win is a win, and now the series shifts back to Cleveland for a crucial Game 5.
San Antonio’s 114-93 win in Portland was considerably prettier, but it didn’t start that way. Despite getting Victor Wembanyama back in the lineup (after missing Game 3 with a concussion), the Spurs shot 34% in the first half (with no second-chance points and just one fast-break point) and trailed by 17 points heading into the third quarter. For the second consecutive game, though, San Antonio dominated after halftime. The Spurs scored the first 13 points of the third quarter and outscored Portland 73-35 in the second half. It was the largest victory in NBA playoff history by a team that trailed by 15-plus points at half. San Antonio has a chance to close out the series at home on Tuesday.
The Boston Celtics’ 128-96 victory against the Philadelphia 76ers was their largest road win in franchise playoff history. They shot 24 for 53 (45.3%) from deep — one make short of the most in NBA playoff history — and took a 3-1 lead in the series, ruining Joel Embiid’s return. Payton Pritchard and Jayson Tatum scored a combined 62 points on 20-for-37 shooting.
The Rockets, with their backs against the walls and without Kevin Durant, were able to pull away from the Lakers in the second half on Sunday. Amen Thompson had a game-high 23 points, and LeBron James was held to just 10 points on 2-of-9 shooting and turned the ball over eight times.
Sunday’s NBA playoff scores
- Game 4: Raptors 93, Cavaliers 89 — Series tied 2-2
- Game 4: Spurs 114, Trail Blazers 93 — San Antonio leads 3-1
- Game 4: Celtics 128, 76ers 96 — Boston leads 3-1
- Game 4: Rockets 115, Lakers 96 — L.A. leads 3-1
And now here are the biggest winners and losers from Sunday’s action.
Winner: The young Rockets
Fred VanVleet has missed the whole season. Steven Adams has missed half of it. Kevin Durant has sat for three of the four games in this series. That has largely left the Rockets in the hands of their youngest players, and they came up short in an epic collapse at the end of Game 3. Afterward, head coach Ime Udoka had a simple message for them. “Grow up,” he told them. “You’re not that young anymore.”
Whether that characterization is fair or not is debatable. Their oldest starter at the moment, Tari Eason, is 24. What’s clear is that the Rockets certainly didn’t play young in Game 4. They generated twice as many turnovers as they coughed up. They finally started hitting shots. They defended the Lakers better than they have all series. It took them four games, but they finally seem to have arrived to this series.
All five Houston starters reached double figures. Reed Sheppard, the target of vicious switch-hunting throughout the series, finally made up for those defensive vulnerabilities with a 4-of-7 performance on 3-pointers. Amen Thompson’s touch near the basket was a highlight as he made 10 of his 16 shots. Alperen Sengun followed up his strong Game 3 with a 19-point outing in Game 4. Houston still has a long way to go. No team has ever overcome a 3-0 postseason deficit. But at least the young players they expect to carry them moving forward showed some fight at home in Game 4. — Sam Quinn
Loser: LeBron James
Well, it was probably bound to happen. A 41-year-old playing against a team full of young, athletic wings wasn’t going to keep playing at a superstar level forever, and, finally, LeBron James had his bad game. In 33 minutes, James scored just 10 points on 2-of-9 shooting. It was the third-lowest scoring playoff game of his career, and he had nearly as many turnovers (eight) as he had assists (nine).
The Lakers lived off of unsustainable shooting variance in Games 1 and 2. James was superhuman in Game 3, but the Lakers still needed a crazy collapse on Houston’s part to steal Game 4. With Luke Kennard and Marcus Smart cooling off, the Lakers seem at least one creator short of closing this series out. Austin Reaves has fortunately been a game-time decision in both Games 3 and 4. If he can make it back for Game 5, the Lakers can at least take some of the shot-creation burden off of his shoulders. But if not, another game like this from James puts the Lakers in real danger, especially if Kevin Durant can make it back before the end of the series. — Sam Quinn
Winner: Collin Murray-Boyles
Murray-Boyles became just the third Raptors rookie to finish a playoff game with a double-double (15 points, 10 rebounds), joining teammate Scottie Barnes and Jamario Moon to accomplish that feat. But his place on this list goes beyond the boxscore. In the fourth quarter specifically, Murray-Boyles had several key moments that would be part of why Toronto managed to win the game and tie up the series.
We’ll start with the biggest moment: Murray-Boyles’ game-winning defense against Donovan Mitchell. With the Raptors up 90-87 and 14 seconds left on the clock, Mitchell tried for a game-tying 3-pointer. But the rookie forward wasn’t giving up an inch of space to allow Mitchell any room to get off a quality shot. Mitchell even tried a pump fake to get CMB in the air, which he didn’t fall for, and Mitchell ended up throwing up a bad attempt that clanked off the side of the rim.
Rookies aren’t supposed to defend that well, certainly not in high-pressure situations of a playoff game. Mitchell was obviously banking on that, instead, he got stonewalled by Murray-Boyles and it led to Toronto securing the win. The rookie forward had his fingerprints all over this win.
One of the standout qualities of Murray-Boyles’ game is his tenacity and hustle to fight for offensive boards. He had five offensive rebounds Sunday afternoon, including one that led to a monstrous putback dunk that cut Cleveland’s lead to five points and ended a 10-0 Cavaliers run.
It was a much-needed bucket at a time when it looked like the Cavaliers were going to pull away in what was a rock fight through three quarters. The other crucial offensive board came with just under three minutes to play. Cleveland was still clinging to a six-point lead, and Donovan Mitchell appeared to be coming out of what’s been a two-game slump. RJ Barrett had just missed a shot at the rim, and despite there being four Cavs defenders in the paint, Murray-Boyles somehow managed to corral the rebound and dish a no-look pass out on the perimeter to Brandon Ingram who drained a 3-pointer.
That triple by Ingram cut Cleveland’s lead to two points, putting the Raptors within striking distance of winning the game. If it weren’t for Muray-Boyles’ defensive effort in the fourth quarter, the Raptors would’ve lost this game and would be staring at elimination Wednesday night. — Jasmyn Wimbish
Loser: Everybody who tried to stop Prtichard
Payton Pritchard has been coming off the bench for the Celtics since Jayson Tatum’s return, but he’d probably start for your favorite team. He has spent this season showing that he is nothing short of an elite offensive player, and in Game 4 the Sixers had no answer for him whatsoever. He gave everybody buckets, and he did it in every which way: 3s off the dribble and of the catch, rim attacks, pull-ups, stepbacks, a putback and, yes, a one-legged, wrong-footed 3 to beat the buzzer.
The main difference between this version of Pritchard and the version that won 6MOY last season is that he’s making tougher shots now. In addition to the super-deep 3s and end-of-quarter heaves he’s known best for, Pritchard has mastered the short midrange jumper that almost nobody outside of T.J. McConnell takes. Boston naturally leaned on him more as a playmaker when Tatum was sidelined, and he’s just as comfortable creating shots one-on-one now. This season, a career-high 36% of his shots were from midrange and a career-low 46% of his makes were assisted, per CTG.
All of this is to say that nobody should be particularly surprised that Pritchard dropped 32 points (12-21 FG, 6-12 3PT) and five assists on Philadelphia on Sunday. It’s the second-most points a Celtic has ever scored off the bench in a playoff game — Kevin McHale had 34 in 1991, if you were wondering — but he scored 30-plus on six separate occasions during the regular season.
Pritchard scored all of his points in the first three quarters, by the way. If he hadn’t played in the fourth, he would have finished with 32 in 25 minutes on 12-for-18 shooting. — James Herbert
Winner: San Antonio’s foxy point guard
Before Sunday’s game, De’Aaron Fox was not having a particularly noteworthy first series as a Spur. He’d averaged 17.3 points and six assists through three games, but, due to his inefficiency — he had a 49.7% true shooting percentage — I’d say his biggest contribution was simply keeping Blazers wing Toumani Camara occupied, which helped San Antonio’s other guards get going. After the Spurs’ loss in Game 2, he took some heat for missing a bunch of shots down the stretch.
Game 4, then, served as a reminder of why they traded for Fox in the first place. I’m not sure I agree with Charles Barkley that Fox was “the best player on the court” — Wembanyama had 27 points, 11 rebounds, three assists, seven blocks and four steals — but the 28-year-old steered the ship when San Antonio went on a run in the third quarter (and another run at the beginning of the fourth).
It is a credit to Fox that he has been willing to cede playmaking duties to Stephon Castle and Dylan Harper when they have been cooking. In this game, though, the two-time All-Star put his cape on. Fox repeatedly burned the Blazers in isolation and pick-and-roll, and he set up Julian Champagnie and Keldon Johnson for open 3s.
Fox scored 18 of his game-high 28 points (11-17 FG) in the second half. He finished with seven assists, two blocks and a steal, too. Given that Castle was limited to 26 minutes due to foul trouble and Harper was largely kept in check, the Spurs needed absolutely all of it.
He shot 4 for 8 from deep, including a dagger of a stepback over Camara:
When Fox’s jumper is falling, San Antonio is extremely tough to beat. — James Herbert
Loser: Cavaliers’ star-studded backcourt
For the second consecutive game, Cleveland’s backcourt of Donovan Mitchell and James Harden underperformed. The duo combined for just 39 points, and even more shocking a combined 12 for 38 from the floor. If it weren’t for Mitchell starting to turn things around in the fourth quarter, those numbers would look even worse.
Credit Toronto’s defense, which had suffocating ball pressure on both guards, and elite rim protection that led to eight blocks, three of which came from Scottie Barnes. By the way, Barnes has been the best player in this series the last two games, and it hasn’t been close. But back to Harden and Mitchell. The pair combined for 11 of Cleveland’s 17 turnovers. Some of that is certainly Toronto’s defense mucking things up, but there were several that just looked like lazy passes or poor lapses in judgment by the veteran duo.
Mitchell at least managed to figure things out in the fourth quarter, though Toronto didn’t make it easy for him. Harden, though, had just nine points in the second half, with three coming in the fourth quarter. He had eight assists, but in a game where the Raptors finished with the worst field goal percentage (32%) in a playoff win in the 3-point era, the Cavs could’ve used Harden being more aggressive in the second half. This was only a four-point game, and Harden’s one of the most skilled scorers in NBA history. Both teams shot horribly, but there should be no world in which Harden only shoots the ball four times in a fourth quarter of a game that was completely winnable. — Jasmyn Wimbish
Winner: Pat Riley
Back when he was the coach of the “Showtime” Lakers, Riley had a mantra: “No rebounds, no rings.” That phrase feels extremely relevant these days, particularly if you’ve been watching the Boston-Philadelphia series.
I don’t know if 76ers coach Nick Nurse has ever uttered those exact words to the Sixers, but he has definitely made rebounding a point of emphasis recently. After the Celtics posted a 41.3% offensive rebounding rate and scored 22 second-chance points in their 108-100 win in Philadelphia on Friday, Nurse seemed exasperated by the issue. “Our guys played their butts off,” Nurse told reporters after Game 3. “It wasn’t like they weren’t giving effort to try to get those rebounds. They were trying as best as they could.”
Try as they might, the Sixers were the NBA’s fifth-worst defensive rebounding team during the regular season. And they are now one loss away from elimination in large part because of this flaw. In Game 4 on Sunday, Boston grabbed 39.6% of its misses, per Cleaning The Glass, and scored 18 second-chance points. Late in the first quarter, the Celtics grabbed four offensive boards on the same trip down the floor, each time recovering a missed 3. Ironically, they didn’t even score on that possession, which finally ended when Nikola Vučević missed a pair of free throws.
The Sixers’ repeated failure to end possessions was hardly the only reason they got blown out, but, given that they barely grabbed any offensive boards themselves — they had an 18.8% offensive rebounding percentage, per CTG — they were effectively playing with one arm tied behind their collective back. To make up for this kind of disparity on the boards, Philadelphia would have had to dominate the turnover battle and/or the efficiency battle. The Sixers definitely did not do either of those things. — James Herbert
Loser: Henderson’s previously pristine playoff run
Maybe this was bound to happen. After starting the series with the most impressive three-game stretch of his career, though, I was starting to think Scoot Henderson might have turned the corner.
It is hard to overstate how comfortable and confident he looked as a scorer in his first few playoff games, in which he scored a total of 70 points on 26-for-46 shooting. Unfortunately for the Blazers, though, the 22-year-old guard looked nothing like that in Game 4. Less than two minutes in, Henderson airballed his first shot — an off-balance, heavily contested floater — and it didn’t get any better from there.
In 27 minutes, Henderson went scoreless. He missed all seven of the shots he attempted, including a layup on the break, three spot-up 3s and a couple of tough middies. Early in the fourth quarter, when Portland was down by only two, he ran a pick-and-roll with Donovan Clingan then fired a bounce pass at the big man’s ankles, one of the team’s 18 turnovers. All four of the fouls he committed were pretty reckless, too
If this was a regression to the mean, it was a particularly violent regression. I hesitate to judge him too harshly for this, though, because he’s fared so well in the series overall. Let’s see if he can bounce back in Game 5. — James Hebert
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