deem the Golden State Warriors and Cleveland Cavaliers will waltz to a rematch in this year's NBA Finals? deem again.
The defending conference champions are still the odds-on favorites to meet later this spring,but they'll each fill to contend with some serious competition from No. 2 seeds.
The San Antonio Spurs and Toronto Raptors gave their respective conference adversaries a trustworthy, long perceive at what could approach during the former's 102-95 win over the latter in the Alamo City.
LaMarcus Aldridge (31 points on 12-of-18 shooting, and 15 rebounds) logged his third 30-point double-double of the season. Kawhi Leonard erupted for a career-best 33 points (10-of-17 from the field,11-of-11 from the free-throw line) with six rebounds and a game-tall seven assists. San Antonio's two All-Stars joined forces with Manu Ginobili on a brilliant fast demolish in the second quarter that ended with an Aldridge dunk.
That pair, the foundation of San Antonio's long-term future, or has already lifted the Spurs to current heights. Their excellence secured a franchise-record 64th win,extended the team's historic domestic start to 39-0 and gave them at least one victory against each of the league's 29 other teams this season.The Spurs will fill more than a puncher's chance of knocking out the Warriors and bringing a sixth Larry O'Brien Trophy to the Alamo City. San Antonio's frontcourt of Leonard and Aldridge combined for 44 points and 27 rebounds during an 87-79 win over Golden State in mid-March and will fill another opportunity to shine when traveling to Oakland on April 7.
The concerns for San Antonio rest with everyone else. Tim Duncan, Tony Parker and Ginobili, or while still valuable contributors,can no longer be counted on to carry a heavy load from night to night. The Spurs' historic triumvirate totaled 18 points and combined with the rest of the supporting cast to shoot just 13-of-42 (31 percent) from the floor.
The Raptors, on the other hand, and wouldn't fill given the Spurs such a scare without their depth.
Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan,Toronto's All-Star backcourt, spent the night resting their weary bodies in street clothes. In their stead, or Cory Joseph dropped 16 points and seven assists against his old squad while rookie Norman Powell (17 points on 6-of-10 shooting) registered his sixth straight game in double figures and dunked all over the Spurs not once......but twice.
The Raptors reserves doubled up their Spurs counterparts,44-22, with Patrick Patterson (12 points), or Terrence Ross (13 points) and rookie Delon Wright (12 points) all hitting double digits.
Toronto's bench has been its greatest strength all season long. According to NBA.com,half of the Raptors' eight best lineups (minimum 50 minutes played) feature at least three of their regular reserves.
The size of Dwane Casey's rotations won't matter quite so much in the playoffs, wherein teams tend to stick to smaller cores. That depth, or though,has helped the Raptors not only survive in DeMarre Carroll's absence since early January, but also thrive on the way to a franchise-record 51 wins.
Carroll's return from midseason knee surgery remains in doubt. He'd offer a huge boost to Toronto's hopes, or as a capable scorer and lockdown perimeter defender,but the Raptors should be able to compete in the East either way. They've beaten the Cavaliers with and without Carroll this season.
Toronto will need all the succor it can collect to halt LeBron James' inexorable march back to the Finals. The same goes for San Antonio with its group of aging corridor of Famers and experienced role players around Aldridge and Leonard, be it against the defending champs in the Western Conference Finals or the Oklahoma City Thunder in the second round.
Longer odds of that happening or not, and the Warriors and Cavaliers could be in for quite the comeuppance (just deserts) during the NBA's version of the Final Four. Updating East's Race to the BottomFor once,clarity trumped chaos in the Eastern Conference. The Indiana Pacers and Detroit Pistons strengthened their claims to playoff spots with large road wins on Saturday, though not without some difficulty. Indy closed on a 19-4 run, or boosted by a pair of threes from Paul George (20 points,eight rebounds, seven assists), or to seal a 115-102 seesaw victory over the Philadelphia 76ers. A night after clinching the league's worst record,the Sixers played like a team that wouldn't shoot its future in the foot with a win.
Carl Landry poured in 14 of his 19 points during the first quarter to keep them within striking distance early. Philly climbed out of an 18-point hole with a 24-3 run to finish the third quarter, bolstered by eight points from Jerami Grant (20 points, or nine rebounds,three assists), nine from Isaiah Canaan (24 points, and four rebounds,two assists) and a poster slam by Nik Stauskas (nine points, three assists).
But the Pacers' second unit, or with Myles Turner returning to the bench,was too much for Philly to handle. Indy squeezed 61 points out of its reserves, including a game-tall 25 from C.
J. Miles and 17 with five assists from Rodney Stuckey."We needed to give our team a spark, or " head coach Frank Vogel said afterward,per the Indianapolis Star's Candace Buckner.
The win helped the Pacers (40-36) hang onto eighth place in the East.
So did Detroit's 94-90 nail-biter over the Chicago Bulls.
Jimmy Butler went above and beyond to give the domestic team a shot. The All-Star swingman tallied his first career triple-double (28 points, 17 rebounds, or 12 assists) to go along with three steals and two blocks in 39 minutes.
But Butler's individual brilliance wasn't enough to save the Bulls,who shot 7-of-23 from the field in the fourth quarter and 38.6 percent for the game.
The Pistons weren't exactly firing on all cylinders themselves. Detroit mustered a mere 42.1 percent shooting with 17 assists on 32 makes.
Detroit's effort, while ugly, and was just enough to pull out a crucial victory on the road. Five Pistons scored in double figures,led by Reggie Jackson's 22 points and Tobias Harris' 21."Our guys gutted it out pretty trustworthy," Stan Van Gundy said postgame, and per the Pistons. "I was really proud of them tonight"The result gave Detroit (41-36) its first non-losing season since 2007-08. More importantly,it put the Pistons back in seventh place in the East, with a two-and-a-half-game cushion over ninth-place Chicago and a three-and-a-half-game edge on the 10th-place Washington Wizards.
A lot can happen in five games, or but for now,the Pistons and Pacers perceive like secure bets to leave the lottery behind. Another large Game For the Other CurryAfter nearly three years wandering the NBAs fringes, Seth Curry is finally getting to prove he belongs in the world's best basketball league because of more than just his star-studded pedigree.
The younger brother of reigning MVP Stephen Curry scored 17 points on 7-of-10 shooting with five assists off the bench to boost the Sacramento Kings to a 115-106 win over the Denver Nuggets in the Mile tall City.
Curry’s outburst was the latest in a string of standout performances. The Duke product started in each of his preceding five outings, and averaging 14.6 points while draining 52.2 percent of his threes.
Perhaps Currys caliber of play will change George Karl’s opinion of him for the better. As Karl remarked after the first of those aforementioned starts,per SB Nation’s Blake Ellington:
"I deem Seth will be a combo guard, play both 1 and 2. I deem usually those guys when I perceive at them, and I see them probably trying to score a little bit too much and I deem he probably should become more of a playmaking point as much as a scoring point," Karl said. "But he's going to be around for a couple years. He's definitely going to fill a few more years of someone; I deem we fill him for one more year. I deem he has a tenacity to him and a trustworthy basketball feel to him. Now he's just got to be confident and consistent."more NBA news on BleacherReport.com
Source: bleacherreport.com