NBA playoff scores 2017: 4 things we learned from a terrific opening day

The NBA Playoffs kicked off on Saturday with a quadruple-header and 10 straight hours of basketball. The first game of the day between the Cavaliers and Pacers came down to the wire, while the Bucks and Spurs cruised to big wins. The final game of the night between the Jazz and the Clippers came down to a buzzer beater from Joe Johnson, so we could all remember how good Iso Joe really is. Here is a quick recap from each game.

Game 1 was an “old” school throwback, with Paul George facing up against LeBron James in a rematch of those Pacers-Heat series we adored just a few seasons ago. (It really doesn’t feel forever ago; teams rise and fall so quickly in the NBA, it’s incredible.) As a game — with Lance Stephenson showing off, and it coming down to a final shot — it was great. As a reassurance that Cleveland is the team to beat in the Eastern Conference, however, it did little to assuage our questions.

The biggest one is obvious: can Cleveland defend at a championship level? They did last year, finishing 10th in the league in defensive rating and winning a 93-89 game akin to trench warfare in taking the championship. This season, though, their defensive effort has been tragic. They boast a 108.0 defensive rating, which ties them for 23rd best in league. You can rattle off three, four or five reasons for that if you want, and they’re mostly valid. But the fact of the matter remains: in the 2016-17 season, Cleveland hasn’t proven their defense is championship quality.

Yes, that’s concerning.

It’s even more concerning when Cleveland goes out and lets Indiana — the 15th best offense — drop 108 points in a loss. One makeable C.J. Miles jumper, and the Cavaliers would have been playing from behind. All season, even more than the past two, Cleveland has done things that makes us frown and tweet out thinking face emojis. “Hmm,” we said, “are they really going to snap out of this?” We know they can, and after erasing a 3-1 deficit last finals, it’s hard to doubt them. So when we throw out a couple questions about whether this team is conference championship material — forget whether they can battle Golden State, because they almost assuredly cannot — take that seriously. People aren’t doubting Cleveland just to doubt Cleveland. We’re questioning them because they have given us so many reasons we can’t ignore them anymore.

Yes — Cleveland can snap out of this. Everything we just said, and every discernible flaw that exhibited itself this season, and it may still be fine. The Cavaliers still have the same personnel, more or less, as last year. There’s no concrete reason for something they accomplished last year to fall outside of their grasp in this one.

But we thought the effort and the defense would be here by now. We thought it was coming in March, or in April, or if nothing else, by the playoffs. Well, break out the strobe lights and emergency beacons. Bring out a megaphone. Someone tell Cleveland the postseason is here, because they let Indiana drop 108 points on them and come a C.J. Miles jump shot away from stealing Game 1. That defense still isn’t there yet.

There are many good and smart reasons that you can think of for why the Toronto Raptors will beat the Milwaukee Bucks. There’s one reason to think they won’t, and that one exhibited itself in the Bucks’ 97-83 Game 1 win: they don’t have the best player on the floor.

Giannis Antetokounmpo was incredible on both ends of the floor as Milwaukee stole Saturday’s game on Toronto’s home floor. Let his stat line do the talking: 28 points on 13-of-18 shooting, eight rebounds, three assists, two steals, and one emphatic block.

It was Antetokounmpo with the first four points for Milwaukee to open the game, and eight in the first quarter. It was Antetokounmpo with statement dunks like this, which set a tone and showed a brand of athleticism with which Toronto couldn’t keep up.

This is a problem for Toronto, and why they actually might be in danger of losing this series.

The Grizzlies jumped out to a 22-9 lead on the Spurs in the first quarter as Marc Gasol led the way for Memphis. By the end of the first quarter, the Grizzlies lead was down to only five. Throughout the final three quarters, the Spurs outscored the Grizzlies 82-42 and blowout win, 111-82.

The third quarter belonged to Kawhi Leonard as he scored 15 points and gave the Spurs their biggest lead of the night at that point. Leonard’s stat line was 32 points in 32 minutes on 11-of-14 shooting. What a night.

Meanwhile, Marc Gasol was brilliant for the Grizzlies but did not get much help from the rest of his team. Gasol scored 32 points on 11-for-18 shooting while the rest of the team shot 20-for-61.

As a team, Memphis shot 39.2 percent from the field. All players not named Marc Gasol combined to shoot 32.8 percent, and that percentage went up in garbage time at the end of the fourth quarter.

Within the first 20 seconds of the game, Rudy Gobert went down with a knee injury and was carried off the court. It seemed as if the Jazz’s playoff hopes were shattered before they even started. But rather than feel sorry for what had happened, the Jazz came together and pulled out a win on the road in Los Angeles to take home court advantage away from the Clippers.

It was an all-around team effort from the Jazz with Joe Johnson scoring 21 points, Gordon Hayward with 19, George Hill with 16, and Derrick Favors with 15. Even bigger, was the game-winner from Joe Johnson at the buzzer.

Meanwhile, the Clippers lost that game to a depleted Utah Jazz team and have some major issues to take care of if they want to make a deep playoff run. Doc Rivers also wasn’t too happy after the game.

Cavaliers 109, Pacers 108 (Fear the Sword recap | Indy Cornrows recap)

Bucks 97, Raptors 83 (Brew Hoop recap | Raptors HQ recap)

Spurs 111, Grizzlies 82 (Pounding the Rock recap | Grizzly Bear Blues recap)

Jazz 97, Clippers 95 (SLC Dunk recap | Clips Nation recap)