With the Cleveland Cavaliers‘ 106-94 victory over the Orlando Magic in Game 7 on Sunday, the first round of the 2024 NBA playoffs is officially in the books.
While the second round has actually gotten underway with the Minnesota Timberwolves beating the Denver Nuggets in Game 1 of their Western Conference semifinal matchup on Saturday, let’s take this short window between now and Monday night — when we’ll have two more second-round games — to take a look back at the best performers of the playoffs so far in the form of my first, second and third All First-Round teams.
FIRST TEAM
There was a moment in Game 2 of Minnesota’s first-round slamming of the Phoenix Suns when I thought, for a second, we had burned Edwards’ hand by trying to pass the torch too fast. My bad. Yeah, Edwards’ Game 2 numbers don’t look like the rest of the series — three buckets on 12 shots for 15 points — but he made correct play after correct play as Phoenix sent multiple defenders at him from every direction.
The patience alone, with all the adrenaline carried over from a 33-point Game 1 in which Edwards was all but wagging his Michael Jordan tongue at his basketball idol Kevin Durant, was superstar stuff as he was busy leveraging Phoenix’s defense into rotation with powerful skip passes and kick-outs to shooters.
By the end of a four-game sweep, there was absolutely no doubt who the best player was as Edwards came out averaging 31 points, eight rebounds, six assists and two steals on 51/44 shooting splits with elite defense. Oh by the way, Edwards has already taken the second round by storm as well with a career playoff high 43 points in Minnesota’s statement Game 1 win in Denver.
Coming into New York’s first-round series with the Sixers, Brunson, over 308 career games including the playoffs, had only attempted more than 25 shots in a single game 18 times — which equates to less than 6% of his games. He did it in all six games against the Sixers, averaging — averaging! — 29 shots a game with New York facing a scoring void in the absence of Julius Randle.
Brunson delivered in what was to this point a career-defining performance, averaging 35 points for the series and 42 over the final four games. Brunson’s 47 in Game 4 stands as a Knicks playoff record. He wasn’t at his most efficient, making just 30% of his 3’s and 42% of his shots overall. He was 12-for-55 through the first two games.
But he never once lifted his foot off the gas. He kept probing in his patented fits and starts, kept hunting and taking his shots, and finished with a 41-point, 12-assist, two-turnover gem in the closeout Game 6, becoming just the 10 player in history to record three straight road playoff games with at least 35 points.
The Nuggets won their nail-bitingly close first-round series against the Lakers in the fourth quarter, where Jokic converted on 64% of his shots and led the playoffs in assists at 2.6 (per fourth quarter).
It might’ve felt like Jamal Murray’s series because of the two game-winners, and it’s true that Jokic, even with the bonkers numbers I’m about to list, wasn’t at his best consistently. But come on. The dude put up 28.2 points, 16.2 rebounds, 9.8 assists and 1.2 steals on 59% shooting, and had the wherewithal to allow Murray to take control when appropriate.
SECOND TEAM
Irving averaged 26.5 points on 65% true-shooting. His 120 second half points led all players in the first round, and his 58 fourth-quarter points was second only to Tyrese Maxey. Irving has a strong first-team case, but as I said, Mitchell didn’t have the luxury of a superstar co-pilot.
It’s the same reason Jayson Tatum gets left off both the first- and second-team, because Boston, though Tatum is the focal point, did it by committee. Irving and Doncic did it together.
Doncic averaged 30-9-8 in Dallas’ first-round victory, so let’s not split too many hairs. But he didn’t shoot well, just 40% overall and 24% from 3. He was 1-for-10 from deep in the closeout game. Again, this was a tag-team situation. Doncic and Irving combined for 338 points against the Clippers. That’s the highest combined scoring total for any duo playing its first playoff series together in NBA history. It’s too hard to differentiate for First-Team honors, so they both get Second Team.
LeBron was magnificent in the Lakers’ five-game loss to the Nuggets, which is a deceiving result as L.A. led for over 150 minutes of the series against Denver’s 50. Give him the benefit of the round-up and James was good for 28 points, nine assists and seven rebounds per game on 57% shooting.
L.A. simply couldn’t hang on for 48 minutes against a better Denver team, but don’t blame the blown leads on James, who tallied 49 fourth-quarter points over five games. Anthony Davis, meanwhile, made just five total buckets over five fourth quarters in the series.
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