The 2017 NBA playoffs cheat sheet: 18 plays you missed from the 1st weekend

Before the NBA playoffs began, I listed 31 set plays and player quirks that these 16 teams use that you need to look closely to discover. Call them the Easter Eggs or the cheat sheet of the NBA Playoffs. Click the link to learn more about them.

Here is every example I could find of those 31 traits in action during each teams’ first playoff game. (The ones from the original list that aren’t listed here weren’t spotted over the weekend). I’ll be tracking these after every NBA playoff night.

If I missed any of the 31 — or if you saw something else that was nifty that you’d like to share with the class — drop it in the comments section.

The Rockets did a great job snuffing out the Thunder’s attempts to disguise the play everyone knew was coming. Here was one of the few successes of the Spain pick and roll, where one players screens the ball-handler’s man and another screens the help defender.

And even that is a tough shot. Well done, Rockets.

The Celtics used this alignment a lot in their Game 1 loss, but the Bulls knew it was coming.

I counted twice where Boston was able to go to secondary sequences off this play. Once, a Thomas backscreen at least forced Nikola Mirotic to switch onto him.

The goal was to get Al Horford for a backdoor lob, but the Bulls switched to stop it from happening. Thomas had to make a tough shot over Mirotic.

Speaking of tough shots, here’s an example of the Celtics going to the Horford/Avery Bradley dribble handoff on the other side.

But all in all, the Bulls used the physicality of the playoffs to disrupt the timing of this pet play. Watch Dwyane Wade on this late-game sequence.

That’s a foul in the regular season. In the playoffs, the referees swallow their whistles. That’s why Marcus Smart bricked a three (but not before attempting to flop, much to Jimmy Butler’s amusement).

This was the story of the Rockets’ Game 1 win. The Thunder elected to switch all pick-and-rolls and got burned. Poor Enes Kanter.

Harden did this half a dozen times to other Thunder big men, but we’ll spare them the embarrassment.

Here are two great examples of Butler declining a ball screen and attacking, a la Prime Wade. On this first one, Butler swings through to go right and find Wade in the corner. (Shout out to Robin Lopez’s flare screen).

On the second one, Butler uncorked a vicious crossover dribble to confuse Kelly Olynyk, who was prepared for Butler to drive in the direction of Cristiano Felicio’s screen.

The Blazers went with a more direct game plan to get Damian Lillard and C.J. McCollum attacking off the dribble, so we didn’t see as many flare screens as usual. Here’s one that worked well, though.

The Raptors used this play three times. First, DeMar DeRozan got the easy layup the Raptors craved.

Then, Kyle Lowry found Jonas Valanciunas for a foul.

(The third one didn’t work)

This is quintessential John Wall.

Look at the attention he sucked in.

Conley had this move going early on.

But it didn’t last.

The goddamn master. How did he convince the ref that this was an offensive foul? This sequence belongs in the flopping hall of fame.

No twist here, but the Clippers got a critical bucket late in the game by using this play out of a timeout.

The Jazz were forced to switch Derrick Favors onto Redick after DeAndre Jordan faked a ball screen and instead sprung Redick. J.J. took his time and got to the hoop for a layup.

This was the only non-Chris Paul Clipper field goal in the last six minutes.

JaVale played a big role in Golden State’s Game 1 win, so obviously the Warriors ran this play successfully.

This was the story of the second half of the Spurs’ win.

Here’s an example that didn’t directly lead to a turnover. Watch LaMarcus Aldridge and Patty Mills.

They shut off Troy Daniels’ two options — post-up for Zach Randolph, pass back to Conley — and made him take a difficult shot.

You didn’t need to look hard to find examples of this in Milwaukee’s Game 1 win.

Here’s a textbook example from Game 1.

Boris Diaw was standing at the three-point line, so rather than fly in for the defensive board himself, Blake Griffin let his teammates grab it, ran straight down the middle of the floor to pin Diaw under the hoop, and spun for a nice floater.

Yeah, he did this a lot.

This was one of Randolph’s three field goals in the game. The Spurs defended him well overall.

Even this was a new twist on the old classic. Gasol and Randolph came together to run the double high pick-and-roll that I spotlighted last year (see No. 3). Randolph darted down low and Gasol popped to the three-point line instead of the high post. The end result was a tough lefty finish over David Lee.

Westbrook grabbed nine defensive rebounds in the Thunder’s blowout Game 1 loss. Those nine boards resulted in seven transition points and three turnovers. Three of those seven points were on the play that Steven Adams flattened Beverley, which wasn’t really a fast break.

So, the Rockets did a great job shutting this down. Keep an eye on this going forward.

LeBron had three cross-court whip pass assists against the Pacers on Saturday. Only one came on a post up and all three were aided by terrific Tristan Thompson flare screens. But this is still very cool.

It’s amazing this feels so routine.