SI:AM | NBA’s Best Are Still in the West After Hard-Fought First Round for East Teams

Good morning, I’m Dan Gartland. I was sad to hear that longtime Yankees announcer John Sterling died this morning. Unconventional broadcasters like Sterling are an endangered species.

In today’s SI:AM:
📕 NBA first round in the books
🏇 Unlikely Derby champion
🏎️ Miami Grand Prix

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Onto the next round

It took a little bit longer than expected, but the first round of the NBA playoffs is finally over after a trio of Game 7s this weekend.

The 76ers beat the Celtics in Boston on Saturday behind a spectacular performance from Joel Embiid and will face the Knicks in the conference semifinals. Like Philadelphia, the Pistons came back from a 3–1 series deficit to beat the Magic and will face the Cavaliers after Cleveland beat the Raptors on Sunday night.

It was a shock that the Detroit-Orlando and Boston-Philadelphia series went the distance, let alone that one of the underdogs completed the upset. But the competitiveness of the Eastern Conference playoffs (three seven-game series and a Knicks-Hawks matchup that went six) is a reminder that the conference has no answer to the West’s two dominant forces.

After the first round, there’s little reason to believe that any team in the East can defeat the Thunder or Spurs. The Pistons were nearly as good as Oklahoma City and San Antonio in the regular season, but falling behind 3–1 to the Magic exposed all sorts of warts. The two-seed Celtics should have been a stronger title contender after getting Jayson Tatum back from a torn Achilles in March, but they collapsed against the Sixers. The Knicks also had some trouble with the Hawks in a series that went six games, although they looked more like a championship-caliber team in their historically lopsided win in the clincher.

The Thunder and Spurs, meanwhile, faced little resistance in their first-round series. OKC swept the Suns and won each game by an average of 17.3 points. The Spurs needed five games to beat the Trail Blazers after Portland earned a narrow victory in Game 2 (the game where Victor Wembanyama was forced to leave with a concussion). Neither team should worry much about their second-round matchups either. The Thunder will face the Lakers, who are still without Luka Dončić, and the Spurs are matched up against the even more shorthanded Timberwolves. Anthony Edwards, Donte DiVincenzo and Ayo Dosunmu are all hurt to varying degrees.

The two series in the East figure to be more entertaining. The Sixers’ big three of Embiid, Paul George and Tyrese Maxey have rarely shared the floor during their two seasons together, but they are all healthy as Philadelphia renews its rivalry with an equally star-studded Knicks team. The Pistons-Cavs series is a fun strength vs. strength matchup as Detroit’s elite defense will look to slow down Cleveland’s impressive scoring duo of James Harden and Donovan Mitchell. Do any of those four teams stand a chance against the eventual winner of the West? Probably not, but don’t let that stop you from enjoying the next few weeks of playoff basketball.

The best of Sports Illustrated

John Sterling in the booth — Longtime Yankees announcer John Sterling has died. He was 87. | Viorel Florescu/NorthJersey.com / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Breaking: The voice of the Yankees, John Sterling, dies at 87.
In his latest NFL takeaways, Albert Breer examines the expectations for Texas quarterback Arch Manning, how the Titans’ brass is finally in lockstep and where Texas Tech quarterback Brendan Sorsby’s case could go next.
The first round of the NBA playoffs is now complete after the Cavaliers and Pistons won in Sunday's Game 7s. Liam McKeone and Blake Silverman reveal the winners and losers of the opening round.
Cameron Young became the third golfer to go wire-to-wire to win at Doral, writes Max Schreiber.
Schreiber also writes that a week after winning her third major title, Nelly Korda won in Mexico and is making history in the process.
Kimi Antonelli claimed his third victory in a row at the F1 Miami Grand Prix on Sunday. Zach Koons outlines the winners and losers of the event.
Pat Forde goes inside how the Kentucky Derby’s most unlikely champion, Golden Tempo, stormed back from last to first.

The top five…

… things I saw yesterday:
5. All 15 goals scored in the bonkers Wild-Avalanche Game 1. (Colorado won, 9–6.)
4. Aaron Judge’s leaping catch against the wall.
3. Two blocks on one possession by Jarrett Allen. Allen was unreal in the Cavs’ win, finishing with 22 points and 19 rebounds.
2. Salvador Perez’s great slide to score on a sacrifice slide despite running like he was in a Chuck E. Cheese ball pit.
1. Alex Newhook’s weird go-ahead goal for the Canadiens in Game 7 against the Lightning. Newhook batted a bouncing puck off the butt of Tampa Bay goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy. Montreal only managed nine shots on goal in the game, compared to 29 for the Lightning.

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