The Celtics and Thunder finally played basketball again after long hiatuses, and they didn't miss a beat.
Boston and Oklahoma City were barely pushed in the first round as No. 1 seeds, and both teams looked the part as they tipped off the second round.
While the favored No. 2 seeds have struggled so far — and then some, in Denver's case — early signs point to the Celtics and Thunder potentially cruising into the Conference Finals.
Easy Start for C's
Boston started slow against Cleveland, with the game tied at 25 eight minutes in, but the Celtics outscored the Cavs 95-70 from there in a game that never really felt competitive.
Derrick White hit seven 3s for Boston, Jaylen Brown and Payton Pritchard added four each and the Celtics did what they do best: shoot 46 treys while hitting 39% of them.
It's a good sign for Cleveland that it cranked up the variance by getting up 42 3-point attempts of its own, but the shot variance didn't go its way in Game 1.
Kristaps Porzingis remains out for the foreseeable future for Boston, but Jarrett Allen was the bigger miss, as the Cavs were outrebounded by 17. That's just not going to work in this series. Give the far better team that many more chances and even shot variance won't save you.
There's just no reason Boston should do anything but sweep through this series. Put the bubble wrap on Porzingis, give Pritchard and Xavier Tillman plenty of run and keep the team healthy for games that matter.
It's not the most entertaining basketball, but this is what No. 1 seeds are supposed to do.
Surprise, Surprise OKC?
Perhaps the bigger surprise is that Boston's counterpart in the West looked just as convincing.
Unlike the Celtics series, the Thunder were priced by sportsbooks as pretty close to a coin flip against the Mavs. You could even argue that Oklahoma City was a slight underdog with the way books were pricing the series, despite OKC coming in rested with home court advantage.
One game later, that pricing looks way off.
Dallas hung around and exchanged blows, and the Mavs stayed in the game longer than the Cavs, trailing 69-66 in the middle of the third quarter before breaking down. Oklahoma City outscored Dallas 48-28 the rest of the way once the 3s finally started to fall and won so comfortably that all the bench guys got to play the final few minutes.
The Thunder are the youngest team left in the playoffs by a wide margin, but you'd never know it. They look ready and then some.
MVP candidate Shai Gilgeous-Alexander got anything he wanted, with an easy 29/9/9. Chet Holmgren had 19 points, seven boards and five stocks, announcing himself with aplomb four or five times with huge highlight dunks and blocks. Jalen Williams took a bit longer to get going, but he hit a few shots late to finish with 18/5/5.
The Thunder led the NBA in 3-point percentage this season, and those shots have been falling in the playoffs too. Oklahoma City had seven players hit multiple 3s in Game 1 — every regular but Josh Giddey really — drilling 16-of-35 treys for 46%.
It wasn't just the stars either. Aaron Wiggins was terrific off the bench with 16 points. Jaylin Williams — the other one — nearly had a double-double in 17 minutes.
Really, the only Thunder youngster that didn't show up in Game 1 was Giddey, who played only 17 minutes with one bucket. He effectively got played off the court by Dallas, and that backfired (OKC's non-Giddey spacing opened things up for the run that put the game away late).
Perhaps most concerning for Dallas should the 13-rebound advantage Oklahoma City had. The Thunder are one of the worst rebounding teams in the league, but Dallas isn't much better, and the Thunder attacked the offensive glass and racked up 16 boards on that end.
The Mavs simply can't have that happen, nor the 16 turnovers for 22 Thunder points. Oklahoma City is far too good to give Dallas easy stuff too, especially when the Mavs' usually efficient offense goes 21-of-49 on 2-pointers, an uncharacteristically poor 43%.
More than anything, it felt like two Dallas stars up against an entire Oklahoma City team.
Luka Doncic rolled his ankle in the first quarter and never looked comfortable. He finished with only 19 points and six rebounds with five turnovers, and Kyrie Irving barely felt visible at all outside of a brief stretch late, finishing with a quiet 20/1/3.
Those two will have their hands full against Jalen Williams, Lu Dort and all those Thunder wing defenders, and in Game 1, it was clear how much less depth Dallas has than OKC. Daniel Gafford was outstanding with 16 points, 11 boards and five blocks, but Dallas got very little else and almost nothing from its bench outside of a few spot-up 3s.
It's still early and this could be a long series, but it might not be either, not if these teams keep playing like this.
The Thunder are young and hungry and looked the part in Game 1, just like they did in the first round.
Oklahoma City is a perfect 5-0 in the postseason, quietly taking care of business without even being pushed outside of the very first game.
The Timberwolves and Knicks may be the talk of the second round so far with their loud victories, but the truth is that this is exactly what you want to see from No. 1 seeds — business as usual, put the wins away, another adorable team interview in OKC's case and eyes on the prize still a month down the road.
