The Philadelphia 76ers survived a scare against the Miami Heat in their play-in game Wednesday night, escaping with a 105-104 win, setting up a first-round matchup against the No. 2-seeded New York Knicks. It took overcoming a 14-point deficit and Nicolas Batum catching fire off the bench for 20 points on 6 of 10 from deep for the Sixers to get past Miami. And yet, as close of a call as that win was, Philadelphia is already trash talking ahead of its meeting with the Knicks.
Backup center Paul Reed didn’t shy away when talking about the upcoming matchup with New York, and said that the Sixers wanted to play the Knicks.
“We ain’t ducking no smoke, but yeah, we wanted the Knicks matchup, of course,” Reed said on Run It Back. “That’s the easier team I guess, but you know it’s going to be fun, we match up pretty well. They got a great guard, we got a great guard, we also got Joel, MVP, so like you said earlier, he’s one of the most unstoppable guys in the league right now. They’re gonna have to send triple teams, and he’s gonna get everybody else involved.”
This is both A: confirming that the Sixers are relieved not to have to play the Celtics in the first round and B: that they do not fear the Knicks. Surely, no team in the East would want to play the Celtics in the first round, given how dominant they’ve been all season, and yes, New York is the inferior team when holding them up to Boston. But this feels like one of those situations where you don’t want to poke the bear.
Despite all the injuries the Knicks have had, they managed to finish the season strong, and Jalen Brunson played himself into the fringes of the MVP conversation as well as the All-NBA First Team chatter as well. The Knicks have also had the fifth-best net rating in the league since the All-Star break, so throwing verbal jabs after just beating a Heat team that was playing with a hobbled Jimmy Butler doesn’t seem like a great strategy.
The Knicks may not be the Celtics, but going against them isn’t going to be a walk in the park for Philadelphia. We just saw in that Heat game how unreliable Tobias Harris can be in must-win situations, and Kelly Oubre Jr. wasn’t exactly lighting up the scoreboard, finishing the game with 11 points on a poor 3 of 9 from the floor. If it weren’t for Batum coming to life in the second half the Sixers could very well be preparing for another play-in game against the Bulls instead of a postseason series with New York.
This isn’t to say that the Sixers aren’t right in being confident entering this series. As Reed said, Embiid is difficult to gameplan for, and he was on track to win MVP for the second consecutive year had he not gone down with a meniscus injury. Prior to that injury, the Sixers were humming along and looked like the team that could meet the Celtics in the Eastern Conference finals. But this feels like one of those “be careful what you wished for” situations, and against a Knicks team that has been playing incredibly well as of late, it doesn’t seem wise to give them more motivation before you head into Madison Square Garden to try and beat them.
Bruce Brown’s stock dropped so low by the 2022 free agency that his former team, the Brooklyn Nets, didn’t even make a significant attempt to re-sign him. Why would they? They already had a questionable shooter who could handle the ball and defend multiple positions. His name… and I promise I’m not kidding… was Ben Simmons. So Brown hit the open market. The best he could do was a two-year, $13 million tax-payer mid-level contract with the Nuggets.
Well, that turned out to be one of the best decisions of his career. Brown’s shot improved just enough for the rest of his versatile skill set to flourish in the right setting. His high basketball IQ made him an immediate fit within Denver’s cerebral offense, and his positional versatility made him an essential defensive cog on their way to a championship. Brown closed some games for Denver during that title run. Even when he didn’t, he was by far their most reserved.
Fast forward to the 2023 offseason, and Brown is suddenly a household name. He immediately inks a two-year, $45 million deal with the Indiana Pacers after sparking a bidding war that seemingly included every contender in the NBA. It’s amazing what a difference one strong playoff run can make for a player. It’s even more amazing what it can do for a team. The Nuggets, in part because of Brown, won their first championship in franchise history.
Every NBA postseason includes a player or two like Brown, someone that the wider NBA fan base doesn’t quite know in April but has fallen in love with by June. So with the playoffs now at hand, we’re going to try to identify who those players might be during the 2024 postseason.
Peyton Watson We’re beginning with Brown’s immediate replacement. That title comes directly from Denver’s general manager, who didn’t just expect Peyton Watson to fill in for Brown, but to surpass them. “Some of these teams were trying to get Bruce, trying to make it worth it; it’s like, just be careful what you wish for,” Booth told The Ringer’s Kevin O’Connor after Brown left for Indiana. “Peyton’s bigger. He’s longer. He’s more athletic. He guards better. He passes better.”
I’m going to set the bar higher. Watson isn’t just a better defender than Brown. Watson is the best defender on the Denver Nuggets roster. Yes, that includes All-Defense candidates Aaron Gordon and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope. Watson doesn’t play their minutes yet, so such accolades are still beyond his grasp. But the metrics favor the second-year forward. Watson had the best Defensive Estimated Plus-Minus on the Team this season. He trailed only Nikola Jokic in terms of Defensive Box Plus-Minus within Denver’s rotation, and on a per-minute basis, the same was true for Defensive Win Shares. I may have just bored you with the analytics. I promise, I’m not going to bore you with the clips. Because dear god, how did he do this?
Peyton Watson jumped over Nikola Jokic as he tried to block Jaylen Brown 😅pic.twitter.com/58KLw2SXEG
— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPoints) March 8, 2024 Or this…
INCREDIBLE block from Peyton Watson in transition but what I love is that he stays in the play to contest CJ McCollum’s layup after the offensive rebound. pic.twitter.com/ReoXzSMppg
— Matt Brooks (@MattBrooksNBA) January 13, 2024 We’d be here all day if I shared every incredible Peyton Watson block, yet he doesn’t really chase them. It’s just the natural result of his combination of length, reflexes and closing speed. It turns out those are traits that translate to basically every tenet of defense. Kevin Durant shot 6-of-20 when matched up against Watson this season. Paul George shot 4-of-13. LeBron James shot 4-of-11. Again, we could go on, but we just don’t have the time.
Watson’s weakness is his shooting. Most teams would struggle to compensate for a 29.6% 3-point shooter from deep playing any position other than center. Playing with Nikola Jokic has its advantages. He’s not nearly as adept a cutter as Gordon is yet, but he can capably fill in for him as Jokic’s alley-oop muse for stretches. When Jokic goes to the bench in the playoffs, Gordon will move to center and Watson will fill in at power forward. Not great spacing. Utterly absurd athleticism for an offense that’s used to moving and passing more than most.
If Denver wins the championship again this season, Watson will be to them what Brown was a year ago: not quite as important as the core starters, but utterly essential nonetheless. The key difference? He’s not going anywhere with two years left on his rookie deal. My condolences to the rest of the Western Conference.
Jonathan Isaac Oh, we’re talking about under-the-radar defenders now? Might as well cover the best of them all. Jonathan Isaac only played 15.8 minutes per game this season. Within those minutes, he was the best defensive player in basketball. Better than Victor Wembanyama. Better than Rudy Gobert. Better than anyone. I’ve covered him in more depth here. In the meantime, enjoy my favorite screenshot of the season.
Jonathan Isaac blocked this dunk attempt.
Look at where he is. Look at where KAT is. Look at where the ball is. Just a breathtaking piece of defense by the best per-minute defender in the NBA. pic.twitter.com/YdjjCB6vrH
— Sam Quinn (@SamQuinnCBS) February 3, 2024 The Nuggets can get a player on this list playing bench minutes because, well, they might win the championship. It would be much harder to justify 15 minutes of Isaac as a breakout candidate. That’s where this gets interesting.
Orlando limited Isaac’s minutes for medical reasons. They slowly ramped him up down the stretch. And then, in the season finale, he was in the starting lineup and played 26 minutes. That’s meaningful for a variety of reasons. The biggest is that it means more minutes playing alongside Jalen Suggs, which the rotation rarely allowed during the regular season. During the 183 minutes they did play together across Orlando’s first 82 games, that pairing held opponents to 98.1 points per 100 possessions. Do you know how long it’s been since an NBA team had a defensive rating that low over a full season? I’ll give you a hint: every player on that roster is now retired except for Derrick Rose and Taj Gibson.
If Orlando starts the Isaac-Suggs pairing and plays them together for a meaningful number of minutes, the Cleveland Cavaliers aren’t going to be able to score in the first round. Think about the longer-term implications of such an outcome. There is a reasonable chance that two weeks from now, the Donovan Mitchell era in Cleveland will have ended in a storm of Isaac blocks. The Magic aren’t quite ready for championship contention, but they’re certainly ready to break up the Cavaliers.
Deuce McBride Denver gets away with a bit more questionable shooting than most teams because of Jokic. The Knicks are a bit more conventional and, at times, old fashioned. They like to play non-shooting big men. That makes their non-shooting wings a tougher sell. Josh Hart is the prime example here. He does too many important things for the Knicks to adequately list in a single sentence, but when it came down to it against Miami last season, his shooting was problematic. The Heat never guarded him. He shot 3-of-13 from 3-point range. The Knicks scored only 106.3 points per 100 possessions with him on the floor and lost the series largely on offense.
In a perfect world, Hart makes his 3’s and this isn’t an issue. But the playoffs are messy, and Hart shot just 32.3% on wide-open 3’s during the regular season. Series are won or lost based on what sort of pivots a coach is willing to make when these things happen. If defenses won’t defend Hart, McBride is Thibodeau’s pivot.
His playing time has been… erratic. In the span of a single week in March, he had one game in which he played under 12 minutes and another in which he played all 48. Availability contributed to that disparity but so did Thibodeau’s propensity for shorter rotations. When you’re in with him, you’re in. When someone he likes better returns, you might lose 30 minutes through no fault of your own.
McBride isn’t quite as “jack of all trades” as Hart. He certainly doesn’t rebound like him, for instance, and until this season, he fell into the shaky shooter bucket as well. But in the calendar year of 2024, he’s averaged five 3-point attempts per game and made just under 41% of them. He’s not going to be left open, but he’s not a defense-for-offense sacrifice like, say, Bojan Bogdanovic is. He can’t defend quite as high on the positional spectrum as Hart, but he brings similar traits against most perimeter players. Against guards, he’s a shade better, a useful card to play when OG Anunoby has a higher-priority assignment.
McBride won’t and shouldn’t replace Hart outright. There’s a reason Thibodeau trusts Hart so much, after all. But there will be a game or two in which Hart’s shot isn’t falling, and the outcome is going to hinge on the shots McBride makes in his place. His role will continue to be erratic, but he’s at the top of the list of “unheralded role players likeliest to swing an important playoff game.”
Isaiah Joe Enough with these tough, gritty defenders. Let’s talk fireworks. Joe attempts over 11 3-pointers per 100 possessions and makes 41.6% of them. Among players with consistent rotation roles, the only other players to do that this season were Luke Kennard, CJ McCollum and Sam Hauser.
Kennard is a worthwhile starting point for this conversation because we saw how wildly he could swing a playoff series last season when Taylor Jenkins slowly realized that putting him on the floor was the only way Memphis was going to consistently score against the Lakers. This isn’t a typo: the Grizzlies were 28.6 points per 100 possessions better offensively against the Lakers with Kennard on the floor. There were rumblings that he might replace Dillon Brooks in the starting lineup for Game 6. Instead he got hurt, and the Lakers blew the Grizzlies out by 40 in the series clincher.
That’s an extreme example, but it shows just how much a single, elite shooter can complicate life for an opposing defense in a playoff series when the rest of that offense can generate rim pressure. Any team that faces Shai Gilgeous-Alexander in a playoff series is going to focus the entirety of its game plan on keeping him away from the basket. Having Josh Giddey on the floor creates a convenient help spot for defenses. Whenever those defenses seem to realize that, Mark Daigneault dials the difficulty meter up to 11 and says, “OK, try to stop Shai now that our real spacer is on the floor.”
This tends to be Daigneault’s “we’re not messing around anymore” adjustment in big games. When the Thunder faced the Clippers in a critical seeding matchup right after the All-Star break, for instance, they led by only two at halftime after starting Giddey. When they emerged for the second half, Joe had replaced Giddey in the starting lineup. The Thunder won by 22.
We’re going to see this adjustment quickly in the playoffs. Giddey will almost certainly remain a starter throughout the postseason, but he’s going to cede more and more high-leverage minutes to Joe as defenses get more and more aggressive in ignoring him. This has suited the Thunder just fine all season. Joe has the best offensive rating on the team. They are so stout and so creative everywhere else defensively that they can endure his presence there. It’s worth it when he swings a game with four 3’s in a quarter.
Daniel Gafford You could realistically list essentially the entire Dallas supporting cast as breakout candidates. P.J. Washington, in typical “rescued from a bad team” fashion, has gone from a toolsy but inconsistent defender in Charlotte to an essential part of what has been the NBA’s best defense for the past month in Dallas. Dante Exum returned from Barcelona as a stellar defender and a passable jump-shooter. Dereck Lively emerged from Duke as a teenager somehow more polished at center than most 30-year-olds. All of them will play essential parts in any extended Mavericks run.
None are quite as interesting as Daniel Gafford, who is steadily emerging Luka Doncic’s basketball soulmate. Gafford has made 145 total shots as a Maverick. Exactly 40% of them, 58, have been assisted by Doncic. That number might not seem huge, but remember, every other Maverick combined has assisted Gafford 59 times. Doncic is matching his entire team when it comes to passing to this single player. Doncic actually has outpaced his entire roster when it comes to assisting Lively, and their relevant offensive numbers are somewhat similar. Both are shooting above 74% from the floor on all of the easy looks Doncic creates. Both are scoring at least 1.36 points per possession as pick-and-roll finishers, again, largely with Doncic as their table-setter.
But where Gafford stands out here is defensively. Lively has all of the tools to be a defensive star, and he flashes them frequently. But rookies tend to be vulnerable defensively in the playoffs, and the lineup data suggests that Lively still has plenty to work on as a defender. Gafford, for basically his entire NBA career, seemingly did as well. And then he got to Dallas and turned into Rudy Gobert. The Mavericks are allowing only 108.2 points per 100 possessions during his minutes this season, a hair below Minnesota’s full-season number. He’s blocking more than three shots per 100 possessions. Since Gafford’s acquisition, no team has allowed a lower field goal percentage in the restricted area than Dallas at 62.7%. The pre-Gafford Mavericks ranked 29th at 70.2%.
The sample is way too small to jump to conclusions, and there are other extenuating factors at play here. But for the price of a single first-round pick, the Mavericks have thus far stumbled into what is essentially the perfect Doncic center: an unstoppable rim-runner that protects the basket at the other end. Lively is going to be that player, too, someday. For now, it’s the Gafford show, and if he keeps this up throughout the postseason, there’s a real chance that the Mavericks are going to the Finals.
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No one, and I mean no one, is having a better morning than diehard sports fans. Arguably the one of the best part of the sports calendar begins tonight, and the next two months will feature playoff action in the NBA and NHL virtually every single night.
On Friday, the NBA playoff first-round matchups will be solidified with the final two Play-In Tournament games. The Heat and Bulls will battle in Miami for the East’s No. 8 seed, while the Pelicans will host the Kings to see who captures the final playoff spot in the West.
After that the first round begins in earnest on Saturday afternoon, and it’ll roll through Sunday night.
Saturday
Game 1: Magic at Cavaliers, 1 p.m. on ESPN Game 1: Suns at Timberwolves, 3:30 p.m. on ESPN Game 1: 76ers at Knicks, 6 p.m. on ESPN Game 1: Lakers at Nuggets, 8:30 p.m. on ABC Sunday
Game 1: Heat or Bulls at Celtics, 1 p.m. on ABC Game 1: Mavericks at Clippers, 3:30 p.m. on ABC Game 1: Pacers at Bucks, 7 p.m. on TNT Game 1: Pelicans or Kings at Thunder, 9:30 p.m. on TNT Before the first round tips off, be sure to get caught up on our expert picks at CBS Sports. Our NBA analysts reveal their brackets and make their Finals predictions.
The NBA isn’t the only league that begins its postseason this weekend. The NHL playoffs will also fire up its 16 teams chasing down the Stanley Cup, with 12 of them taking the ice this weekend. (Stars-Golden Knights and Kings-Oilers will open their series on Monday night.)
Saturday
Game 1: Islanders at Hurricanes, 5 p.m. on TBS Game 1: Maple Leafs at Bruins, 8 p.m. on TBS Sunday
Game 1: Lightning at Panthers, 12:30 p.m. on ESPN Game 1: Capitals vs. Rangers, 3 p.m. on ESPN Game 1: Avalanche at Jets, 7 p.m. on ESPN2 Game 1: Predators at Canucks, 10 p.m. on ESPN Those schedules are a beautiful sight, but — wait — there’s still more.
In addition to the frenzy of 14 NBA and NHL playoff series starting in a 36-hour span, the 2024 NFL Draft is less than a week away. As the first round draws ever closer, keep it locked on CBS Sports’ coverage, which includes a slew of mock drafts and the latest information on what teams will do when the clock starts ticking.
👍 Honorable mentions Rangers pitching prospect Jack Leiter struck out the first batter he faced in his MLB debut. Former 5-star CB Cormani McClain is getting his shot at redemption with Colorado. The Lions unveiled new uniforms for the 2024 season, including alternate black jerseys. Kentucky star Reed Sheppard, the Freshman of the Year, has declared for the 2024 NBA Draft. 😩 And not such a good morning for… untitled-design-2024-04-18t232230-038.png Getty Images THE MIAMI HEAT
The Heat will host the Bulls tonight with the East’s No. 8 seed on the line. If the Heat are going to earn a shot at the NBA’s best, the top-seeded Celtics, they will have to do so without Jimmy Butler.
On Tuesday, Butler exited during the first quarter of Miami’s loss to the 76ers with a knee injury, but he was able to return. Unfortunately for the Heat, Butler suffered a sprained MCL that will keep him out of Friday’s do-or-die game, the team announced on Thursday. Heat Culture aside, expect Miami to have an uphill battle all night as the offense certainly doesn’t get better with Butler on the bench, as our own Colin Ward-Henninger points out.
Ward-Henninger: “What Butler brings on both ends of the court — not to mention his leadership — simply cannot be replaced by anyone on the Heat roster. Miami’s offense landed in the bottom-10 during the regular season and dropped significantly with Butler off the floor. In his minutes, the Heat averaged 116 points per 100 possessions, compared to 109 when he was on the bench.” In Butler’s 60 regular season games, he averaged 20.8 points, 5.3 rebounds and 5.0 assists per game. And the loss of that production puts Miami’s run of four straight playoff appearances in jeopardy. On the other side, all eyes will be on Chicago’s Coby White, who exploded for 42 points in Wednesday’s win over the Hawks.
👎 Not so honorable mentions Leiter also surrendered eight hits and seven earned runs in 3.2 innings of work. The Red Sox placed OF Tyler O’Neill on the concussion list amidst a hot start to the 2024 season. Both the Eagles and the Packers may be prevented from wearing green when they play in Brazil next season. 😲 76ers’ Reed delivers bulletin board material to the Knicks untitled-design-2024-04-18t225736-422.png Getty Images This time of year, NBA teams are scouring news clippings in hopes of finding bulletin board material for the playoffs. Luckily for the Knicks, 76ers center Paul Reed delivered some to their front door, free of charge.
After the Sixers edged the Heat to secure the No. 7 seed and a first-round series with the Knicks, Reed said the quiet part out loud when asked about that matchup on “Run It Back.”
Reed: “We ain’t ducking no smoke, but, yeah, we wanted the Knicks matchup, of course. That’s the easier team I guess, but you know it’s going to be fun, we match up pretty well. They got a great guard, we got a great guard, we also got Joel, MVP, so like you said earlier, he’s one of the most unstoppable guys in the league right now. They’re gonna have to send triple teams, and he’s gonna get everybody else involved.” That textbook example of oversharing may come back to bite Reed and the 76ers. The Knicks may not be the Celtics, but they won 50 games, got the 2 seed and beat Philly 3-1 head-to-head this season. Reed will get the chance to back up his words starting Saturday when the series tips off at Madison Square Garden.
🚚 Coyotes bid farewell to Arizona in advance of move to Utah untitled-design-2024-04-18t235307-009.png Getty Images Over the last week, the worst-kept secret in the NHL was the news that the Coyotes would be moving to Utah. On Thursday, the NHL Board of Governors officially approved the Coyotes’ relocation to Salt Lake City.
Ryan Smith, who also owns the NBA’s Jazz, purchased the Coyotes’ players and assets from former owner Alex Meruelo. The team will make the move this summer, and the NHL will make its Utah debut this fall.
This marks the first time the NHL has relocated a franchise since the Thrashers moved from Atlanta to Winnipeg and became the Jets in 2011, but the “Coyotes” aren’t necessarily dead. Meruelo will have the opportunity to reactivate the franchise in the next five years, as long as he meets certain requirements.
One of those requirements will probably be finding a permanent home for the team. The lack of an arena was one of the major reasons why the Coyotes are now packing up for the Beehive State. The team spent the last two seasons in Mullett Arena, a 5,000-seat venue it shared with Arizona State. A plan to build an arena and entertainment district in Tempe faced a lot of opposition and was rejected by voters.
The Coyotes also failed to put a respectable product on the ice. With one playoff berth in the last 12 seasons, the postseason was about as common as finding ice in the desert. Alas, the Coyotes did go out with a 5-2 win over the Oilers on Wednesday. Defenseman Sean Durzi scored the last goal, and fans were emotional as they bid farewell to the Yotes, at least, for now.
🏈 Patriots revamp offense in Josh Edwards’ mock draft getty-jayden-daniels-lsu.jpg Getty Images The NFL Draft will give the Patriots the chance to rejuvenate what has become a stale offense. In his latest seven-round mock draft for CBS Sports, Josh Edwards laid out his plan for New England to do just that.
Watching the Patriots’ offense over the last two years has been akin to watching grass grow, only less fun. Last season, they were tied with the Panthers for dead last in scoring offense. With the No. 3 overall pick on Thursday night, New England can start to address that problem under new head coach Jerod Mayo.
In his new mock draft, Edwards has the Patriots selecting LSU quarterback Jayden Daniels. The Mac Jones experiment is over, and so the Pats must find a long-term solution under center in the post-Brady, post-Belichick era.
Edwards: “There’s simply no way in my mind the Patriots move out of this spot and/or don’t take a quarterback. The way the offseason has gone — and the way the last three years have gone — they have to.” The Pats’ offensive-minded approach doesn’t end there in the mock draft. Edwards also has them adding three more offensive pieces throughout the weekend.
Round 2: Ladd McConkey | WR | Georgia Round 3: Roger Rosengarten | OT | Washington Round 5: Brenden Rice | WR | USC 📺 What we’re watching this weekend Friday
🏀 Play-In: Bulls at Heat, 7 p.m. on ESPN ⚾ Rangers at Braves, 7:20 p.m. on Apple TV+ 🏀 Play-In: Kings at Pelicans, 9:30 p.m. on TNT
Saturday
🏀 Game 1: Magic at Cavaliers, 1 p.m. on ESPN 🏀 Game 1: Suns at Timberwolves, 3:30 p.m. on ESPN ⚾ Mets at Dodgers, 4:05 p.m. on FS1 🏒 Game 1: Islanders at Hurricanes, 5 p.m. on TBS 🏀 Game 1: 76ers at Knicks, 6 p.m. on ESPN 🏒 Game 1: Maple Leafs at Bruins, 8 p.m. on TBS 🏀 Game 1: Lakers at Nuggets, 8:30 p.m. on ABC
Sunday
🏒 Game 1: Lightning at Panthers, 12:30 p.m. on ESPN 🏒 Game 1: Capitals at Rangers, 3 p.m. on ESPN 🏀 Game 1: Mavericks at Clippers, 3:30 p.m. on ABC 🏀 Game 1: Pacers at Bucks, 7 p.m. on TNT ⚾ Rangers at Braves, 7:10 p.m. on ESPN
