The NBA playoffs continued Friday with three major first-round matchups entering Game 3. Two Eastern Conference games and a Western Conference matchup kicked off a busy weekend of NBA postseason action.
Check out Yahoo Sports’ predictions for each first-round series, in addition to Kevin O’Connor’s ranking of the top 40 players in the NBA postseason.
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Here are the results and key takeaways from Friday’s games:
With the two teams trading hot streaks, things came down to the wire for this East Coast matchup. But Boston’s attempt to force OT or win the game on the final possession ended with an errant inbounds pass, and the Magic pulled out the victory to cut the Celtics’ series lead to 2-1.
Jayson Tatum returned after missing Game 2 and scored 36 points for the Celtics. There were times when he looked unstoppable: At one point in the second quarter, Tatum scored eight straight points, quieting the Orlando crowd.
It turned out that two great performances are better than one. The Magic’s victory once again came down to the young duo of Paolo Banchero and Franz Wagner. Banchero finished with 29 points and six rebounds, while Wagner nearly hit a triple-double with 32 points, seven rebounds and eight assists.
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Wagner in particular shined in the final quarter, hitting multiple clutch buckets to stave off the Celtics’ comeback. That, in the end, was enough to keep Tatum from leading Boston to a win.
Although the Celtics played well on both offense and defense in Friday’s loss, there was one glaring issue: turnovers.
Throughout the regular season, the Celtics have had one of the lowest turnover rates in the league, averaging 11.9 per game — second only to the Oklahoma City Thunder.
On Friday, the Celtics had 21 turnovers. Worse, Boston conceded 26 points off turnovers to the Magic, compared to Orlando giving up eight.
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A Gary Harris steal from Payton Pritchard in the final minutes of the game seemed to exemplify the issue: Although Wagner’s 3-pointer off the steal ended up falling short, it put Boston in a dangerous situation.
Like all games in the postseason so far, this series has gotten physical — and on Friday, that physicality nearly got Orlando in trouble.
Three Magic players ended the game with four fouls, including Banchero and Wagner. Wagner picked up his fourth in the final minutes of the game, after fouling Kristaps Porziņģis before the ball had even been inbounded — a potential catastrophic mistake with the game so close.
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The other player to end with four was Cole Anthony, who was also assessed a flagrant foul in the first half that halted some of the Magic’s momentum.
This time, Orlando was able to pull off the win, even with its star players creeping toward foul trouble. But fouls have been a problem for the Magic throughout the season, with the team averaging around 20 personal fouls per game. Going forward, Orlando — especially its young stars — will have to be careful to not let foul trouble jeopardize the game.
— Kari Anderson
Powered by the greatness of Giannis Antetokounmpo and some timely shooting from Gary Trent Jr., the Milwaukee Bucks defended the Fiserv Forum to win Game 3 and cut the Indiana Pacers’ first-round series lead to 2-1.
Antetokounmpo hit his first five shots in the first quarter to establish his presence and announce he would not be going quietly into the night. He had 17 points in the first half on 7-of-10 shooting and finished with 37 points (14-of-19 FG, 9-10 FTs), 12 rebounds and six assists.
But the question remained about whether he would receive enough support Friday night. Antetokounmpo had been a one-man team in the first two games of the series, averaging 35 points on 65.1% percent shooting, 15 rebounds and four assists as the Pacers pretty easily won the first two games.
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As had been the theme of the series, the Bucks were still down 57-47 at the half.
Who would step up to give Giannis the support he would need?
Trent hit five 3-pointers in the pivotal third period as the Bucks came out of the locker room with a new level of intensity and turned a 10-point deficit into an 86-75 lead after three quarters. Trent finished the game with 37 points on 11-of-16 shooting, hitting nine 3-pointers on 12 attempts.
It was an outstanding performance for the seven-year veteran, but if that’s the kind of outlier shooting the Bucks need to win, well, that’s not exactly the most comforting thought.
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Damian Lillard continued to struggle, shooting 2 of 12 for seven points, and his emergence would go a long way to helping the Bucks develop some consistent complementary production for Antetokounmpo.
But for one night, Trent delivered. Now let’s see who can step up for Game 4 in Milwaukee at 9:30 p.m. ET on Sunday.
