A wild night in the NBA playoffs saw an overtime winner, a double-ejection and home fans booing and leaving early. The Phoenix Suns are in the biggest hole at 3-0 down to the Minnesota Timberwolves. Elsewhere, the Indiana Pacers and Dallas Mavericks are both now 2-1 up in their respective series, having lost their opening games, and will now look to press home their advantage. Both the Indiana Pacers and Dallas Mavericks have roared back from 1-0 down in their first-round NBA playoff series to now lead 2-1 against the Milwaukee Bucks and Los Angeles Clippers respectively.
The Pacers won a thriller in Game 3, the first of the series to be played in Indianapolis, triumphing 121-118 in overtime behind Myles Turner’s 29 points.
A raucous crowd was fired up before the game started by new WNBA No. 1 overall pick Caitlin Clark, who was selected by the Indiana Fever. A dramatic encounter saw 16 lead changes or ties in the final quarter plus OT before Pacers star Tyrese Haliburton hit the game-winner in just his third postseason game as part of a triple double.
“I live for these moments,” Haliburton said. “That’s why I’m here.”
His coach Rick Carlisle was left in awe of the level of basketball being played.
“The playoffs are insane,” Carlisle said the game. “Guys are going to pull other-worldly efforts out of their hearts and their guts.
“The details – the playoffs are so much about the details. We have to understand these games are won and lost in the margins.”
The Bucks have real injury concerns ahead of Game 4. They are already down Giannis Antetokounmpo and saw Damian Lillard go down with a re-aggravation of an Achilles injury that he dealt with in the back-end of the regular season.
Meanwhile, another sell-out crowd – this time down in Texas – saw the Mavericks protect home court for the first game as they beat the Clippers 101-90 with another stellar defensive performance.
It was the second game in a row that the Mavs had kept their opponents under 100 points, led by another strong second-half showing from Kyrie Irving. The guard notched 19 of his 21 points after the break, having watched running mate Luka Doncic put the pressure on in the first.
“[It’s] just his calming effect,” Mavericks coach Jason Kidd said. “He’s never in a rush. He’s never gonna panic. He feels that everything is under control. The guys trust him out there on the floor. You can see that in the second half.”
It was a mixed night for Doncic, who had a double double but had to settle for just 22 points as he went cold in the second.
“Luka has to take what they’re giving,” Kidd said. “The Clippers are a really good defensive team. They’re physical with Luka.”
However, opposing Clippers head coach Ty Lue said that he felt that Doncic was really impressive as a defender, something the Slovenia superstar isn’t necessarily renowned for.
“He’s gonna take the challenge,” Lue said.
“When your best player takes that challenge, you’re a whole different team.
“He’s not known for his defense. But stepping up, taking that challenge and wanting to play guys 1-on-1, that means a lot. He’s doing a good job of guarding our guys.”
The game was also marked by a pair of ejections as Russell Westbrook and P.J. Washington were both kicked out of the game with 6:10 remaining.
Westbrook got into a skirmish with Doncic but it was Washington who got properly involved with the Clippers guard, leading to a double-ejection.
“Always got to protect 77 [Doncic] at all costs,” Washington told ESPN. “So I mean obviously it was a hard foul and then he pushed him afterwards, so I was right there and I just had to step into it.”
In the final game of the night, the Minnesota Timberwolves moved to within one game of a series sweep against the hapless Phoenix Suns with a 126-109 victory in the first game in the desert.
The star of the show, as was so often the case for the Wolves in the regular season, was Anthony Edwards, who torched the Suns for 36 points, along with nine rebounds and five assists.
On the defensive end, Rudy Gobert and Karl-Anthony Towns combined for a mammoth 27 rebounds, 16 of those being defensive rebounds.
Unsurprisingly, the home Suns crowd were not happy with what they saw, leading to widespread boos before fans just left the arena early.
“They expect so much out of us and they pay their hard-earned money, and they deserve to react how they want to react,” Suns star forward Kevin Durant said.
“It’s on us as players to use it as fuel, and hopefully it ignites us for the next game.”
Guard Bradley Beal added: “I’ve never been swept a day in my life, I’ll be damned if that happens.”
No team has ever come back from a 3-0 deficit in the playoffs but Devin Booker was confident, saying: “They say nobody’s ever done it before, that’s exciting.”
Suns head coach Frank Vogel added: “There’s no quit in our group. This group does not want the season to come to an end.”
Basketball