Tuesday night was a rough night to be an NBA fan. There were two playoff games on the docket, game 2 of the Hawks and Celtics in Atlanta and Game 2 of the Spurs and Grizzlies in San Antonio, neither offered much in the way of drama or entertainment.
The Hawks beat the Celtics 89-72 in a game in which neither team shot 40%, the Celtics shooting only 31.8% from the field, not from the three point line.
To completely encapsulate just how little offense there was in the 1st quarter of this game, it is important to note that the Hawks did not score the last five minutes of the 1st quarter, yet still had a 17 point lead going into the 2nd quarter as they were up 24-7.
That’s right the Boston Celtics scored 7 points in the 1st quarter. That is the worst 1st quarter in the NBA Playoffs in quite some time.
7 points is the fewest scored by any team in the 1st quarter of a playoff game in the shot clock era (since 1954-55).
— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) April 19, 2016
The Hawks had a 43-28 lead at the half and blocked a franchise record 15 shots in the game.
the @ATLHawks blocked 15 shots tonight, a franchise record for a playoff game. via @EliasSports
— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) April 20, 2016
This was supposed to be the closest and most hotly contested series of the 1st round, but the tale of the tape suggests otherwise. After two games as the Hawks are up 2-0.
In the two games between the Hawks & Celtics:
Hawks led for 91:32
Celtics led for 1:08
Tied for 3:20— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) April 20, 2016
Meanwhile in Memphis, the NBA should enact a new mercy rule and save the world from having to watch this limping Junior Varsity version of the Memphis Grizzlies attempting to compete with the San Antonio Spurs for two more games.
The Grizzlies managed just 11 points in the 1st quarter against the Spurs en route to an embarrassing 94-68 loss to go down 2-0 in the series.
This game was over by the 2nd quarter.
The Grizzlies shot a horrific 32% from the field and an NBA team in the playoffs in 2016 managed to have only one player reach double figures as Zach Randolph had 11 points on 5-for-17 shooting.
The NBA Playoffs have been an offensive slog through 13 games thus far as only two games have featured two teams scoring 110 or more points and five games featured a team that couldn’t even crack 80 points.
Tuesday night took the cake though. Let’s pray the offensive gods shine down upon the NBA playoffs and bring more buckets, because as the wise sage Uncle Drew once said, life is about getting buckets.
