SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The Western Conference stole the show in the first weekend of the NBA playoffs, setting up what should be a tremendous and unpredictable spring in the league.
On a Monday edition of the Locked On NBA podcast, new Locked On NBA insider Howard Beck, an NBA reporter for more than two decades across several publications, joined host Nick Angstadt to discuss the biggest matchups and storylines out west coming off an exciting weekend of games.
The conference favorites, the Phoenix Suns, slipped in their first game against the Los Angeles Clippers, losing 115-110 as newly acquired superstar Kevin Durant took just 15 shots and the Suns were outrebounded by an energetic, veteran Clippers squad.
“It’s one game of one series against a very good Clippers team, nothing means anything yet, but I do think if you wanted to be an alarmist about this, you’d say well maybe the Suns weren’t quite as in-sync as you would hope, and maybe their depth is as concerning as we might have thought,” Beck explained.
In northern California, the Sacramento Kings took a thrilling Game One against the Golden State Warriors as guard tandem De’Aaron Fox and Malik Monk both scored more than 30 points in their playoff debuts.
“I don’t think there’s anything that we saw in that game that was terribly shocking,” Beck said. “(But) for them to be matching those shots late in the game to hold off that Warriors charge was just super impressive.”
The big news out of Memphis on Sunday is that superstar guard Ja Morant suffered a wrist injury and said his status for Game Two was in doubt, but the Los Angeles Lakers nevertheless took care of business in a 128-112 win on the road. The legendary LeBron James was able to take a back seat late in the game as young scorers Austin Reaves and Rui Hachimura took over with 20-plus points apiece.
“The fact that the moves they made at the trade deadline, that you could see such profound payoffs,” Beck noted. “It was just a really impressive performance from them all around.”
Beck will appear every Monday on Locked On NBA and various local Locked On shows throughout the NBA playoffs.