An Anthony Edwards Masterclass Has the Lakers on the Brink of Elimination | HOOPS Daily, 4/28/2025
Edwards' heroics put Minnesota up 3-1 vs LA, playoff bad blood is back, standout weekend performances, and more.
Prayers Up for Damian Lillard
Just two games after returning to the court and recovering from a blood clot issue, Damian Lillard went down early in the Bucks’ Game Four matchup with the Pacers with a non-contact injury that is believed to be a torn Achilles’ tendon. Lillard will be 35 this summer and recovery from an injury like this is typically a two-year process, it’s natural to wonder what the future might hold. But there will be time for discourse and discussions about basketball and on-court performances later. What matters is the mental aspect of something like this happening so closely after such a scare as a blood clot. I know people will argue that he’s got all sorts of money and success so how can he have issues but let’s be real, this stuff is heavy no matter whose head is wearing it.
Prayers up for Damian Lillard in his impending treatment, surgery, and recovery.
The Tip-Off: Fan Chants
This weekend we got to see what two sides of the same argument look like in stunning 4K detail as Warriors’ coach Steve Kerr and Knicks’ coach Tom Thibodeau were both asked about their players hearing obscene chants from the fans and both had very drastic responses.
Steve Kerr on “F You Draymond” Chants
“I would prefer if fans could use a little more discretion and remember that the guy has kids. Maybe I’m old school. I’m all for the fans cheering for their team, and if they want to yell at the opponents? Great. I just think F-you is a little much.”
Thibs on “F You Jalen” Chants
“To Jalen, those are cheers. He lives for that stuff.”
It’s always funny to me when Steve Kerr gets on his high-horse about profanity/the code of basketball ethics/purity of the game when you have Draymond out there acting like a hockey enforcer half the time and have to turn a blind eye to it but all of that can be explained away as he’s simply defending his guy like he has to. This though, is a bit more tone deaf to me because while he may tune out all the antics and incidents, 29 other fanbases sure don’t.
Weekend Standouts
The Good From the Weekend, the Bad From the Weekend, and the Officiating
Oklahoma City Thunder
The Thunder rolled through their first-round matchup vs. the Grizzlies, eliminating Memphis in just four games and becoming the first team to advance so now they get the luxury of watching these other Western teams battle and you know they’re hoping they all go seven games. The scary part of this OKC series is that it doesn’t really felt like they were all firing at the same time, they were just simply too deep and talented to be beaten. They’ll obviously need more consistency from everyone in the next round but with Shai Gilgeous-Alexander leading the seemingly relentless attack they remain the toughest out in the West.
Bravado
That said, shoutout Ja Morant of the Memphis Grizzlies. He was injured and forced out of Game Three and when he left, Memphis was up 27pts and would eventually go on to lose that game. He was unable to suit up for the decisive Game Four but if he had, he says things would’ve been different.
"I had them figured out. Going out Game 3, not being able to play was frustrating because that win right there could've made this totally different. I feel like we'd be on the way to OKC, series tied 2-2 right now." - Ja Morant after Memphis’ playoff elimination vs. OKC
I absolutely love this because we’ll never ever know the answer to this. Memphis was up 27pts when he got undercut by Lu Dort so maybe they do hold on and win that game. That’s the beauty of this take. Ja Morant might be a hot-take master.
Anthony Edwards
The Lakers and Wolves were tied 1-1 heading into Minnesota for Game Three and then Anthony Edwards got home and all hell broke loose. Here are his last two games, which have pushed Minnesota to a 3-1 series lead and one game away from knocking LeBron, Luka, and the Lakers out of the post-season:
Friday - Game Three: 29pts/8r/8a, 12-26 FG
Sunday - Game Four: 43pts/9r/6a, 12-23 FG, 14-17 FT
Genuinely I don’t know if I can find the words to describe how good he was Sunday afternoon. He played close to a perfect game, arguably the best game I’ve ever seen him play given how clutch he continued to be. It was one of those performances you hate to root against because 1) you know what you’re seeing is special and 2) you know nothing is going to stop him
Aaron Gordon
Nuggets/Clippers may be the best series of the entire first round. These two teams are so evenly matched and so smart, that every game has come down to the slimmest margins. No more so than Saturday when Aaron Gordon scored the game-winning putback dunk off a Nikola Jokic airball that might’ve still been on his palm when the clock went off.
I posted this video on the HOOPS YouTube channel1 and the response was extremely split as you would imagine. I need four more games that go exactly like this.
Indiana Pacers
It’s clear the Bucks are running out of gas and depth to keep up with Indiana but I don’t want to discredit the way the Pacers have looked in this series. When they’re on they’re extremely on and it’s close to unstoppable. Nine players played more than 10 minutes on Sunday, eight of them scored in double-digits. With that many threats to watch out for, the Bucks’ defense just couldn’t stop everything. I don’t know if we’re not talking about the Pacers enough but I really think they’re being a little bit slept on compared to the other series’ going on.
Knicks/Pistons Officiating
You never want an NBA game to end in controversy, you DEFINITELY don’t want an NBA Playoff game to end in controversy that overshadows the entire game that came before it. On Sunday though, the officials stepped right into the spotlight as a non-call on Josh Hart ending up taking all the headlines. Detroit’s Tim Hardaway Jr. rose up or a 3 at the buzzer to the win game and sure looked like he took a bit of contact from Josh Hart but the refs stunned the Detroit crowd by not calling a foul and declaring the game over.
Pistons’ coach J.B. Bickerstaff was heated:
Josh Hart admitted to some contact on the play.
“Did I make contact with him? Yeah, I made contact with him. Was it legal? I don’t know! We’ll see in the last two minute report.” - Knicks’ G Josh Hart
Worst of all, the refs even said after the game that they got it wrong. That’s the last thing a fanbase wants to hear in those moments.
“After postgame review, we observed that Hart makes body contact that is more than marginal to Hardaway Jr. and a foul should have been called.” - David Guthrie, crew chief for Sunday’s game
Giannis Antetokounmpo
Giannis’ last 11 playoff games:
28/15/6
37/12/6
34/18/7
36/12/1
38/20/3
25/20/9
44/20/6
40/11/3
34/18/5
42/12/8
28/9/7
That’s good for an average of 36.7ppg, 14.5rpg, 6.1apg
The Bucks are 3-8 in those 11 games. Gotta feel bad for Giannis because you know he’s always going to give everything he has when he’s on the court.
Anti-Gatorade Agendas
We had a couple instances of players opting to remove Gatorade from their post-game desks when conducting their media sessions but for wildly different reasons.
1) Kawhi Leonard
Following the Clippers’ Game Two win over the Denver Nuggets, Kawhi was seen taking the bottles of Gatorade off the table and saying “Take those Gatorades down…kids don’t need to be drinking that.” He didn’t elaborate any more on what he would recommend instead but good on Kawhi for thinking of the children.
2) Stephen Curry
The Warriors’ superstar also took action when he saw Gatorade on his desk, putting them under the table before conducting his media session. But he wasn’t quite as concerned about the children as Kawhi was. “Nah, PLEZi’s way better. I ain’t never even seen this before.”
PLEZi is Steph’s own entry into the hydration drink lane, in partnership with Michelle Obama. I had no idea this was even a thing so you can trust that I will be buying them as soon as I find them so I can give the people a taste-test to see how it stacks up in a suddenly heavily saturated market of celebrity hydration beverages.
Good Old Fashioned Beef May Be Back
Like I said before, these playoffs have been great so far. I don’t know if I just don’t remember last year well enough but I feel like this has been a way more entertaining first round across the board. On top of all the games, we’re getting some real, honest to goodness bad blood starting to build on some of these teams. Look at these two examples:
Darius Garland on Tyler Herro: "Pick on Tyler Herro. Take care of the ball, don't play in tight spaces and pick on their weak defenders. Go at them."
Tyler Herro responds: "To go to the media to talk about the game plan and this and that says a lot about him. I'm not worried about Darius Garland. Somebody that doesn't play defense shouldn't be talking, either. He don't play any defense and we'll see that [in Game 3 on Saturday]. He don't play no D."
That didn’t do much because Cleveland beat Miami 124-87 in Game Three and now hold a 3-0 series lead but that wasn’t the only instance of budding bad blood.
After Jimmy Butler’s unfortunate injury forced him out of Game Two vs the Rockets, Rockets’ G Dillon Brooks was asked about the incident and if Amen Thompson was a dirty player.
Dillon Brooks: “No, I think the dirty player is Draymond, giving him a little push as regular basketball players do. And Jimmy’s fighting in the air for a rebound and stuff happens. Amen’s not a dirty player. He has nothing to do with being a dirty player.”
Moses Moody responds to Brooks: “It’s a little ironic isn’t it?”
Draymond also had a moment with the Rockets’ Jalen Green following the Warriors’ close Game Three win on Saturday. While the two exchanged words afterwards, Draymond could be seen telling him to go paint his nails.
For his part, Jalen Green took the high road in his response.
"It was just talking. He can't really do much of anything else,” Green said after th game. “Talking is his only way."
And none of this is even mentioning the war brewing between the Celtics and the Orlando Magic, that series is one wrong move away from a full on fight at this point.
Maybe it’s just me but this looks like it’s killing Joe Mazzulla to have to stay on the sideline and not go throw so kicks and elbows with his squad.
At the Buzzer
- Inside the NBA reacts to controversial Knicks/Pistons Game Four ending
- Aaron Gordon’s game-winning dunk is the first-ever buzzer-beating dunk in NBA playoff history
- Luka Doncic on Sundae Conversation is too funny
- Former NBA player Stan Love, father of NBA champion Kevin Love, has passed away at age 76. Kevin’s post announcing the news is beautifully written and worth reading, sending all my love to him and his family.
- Hall of Famer, two-time NBA champion Dick Barnett has passed away at age 88
Two Game Fours Tonight
Cavaliers at Heat
Rockets at Warriors
This was an insane, packed weekend where it feels like every single game was must-see. I hope you were able to enjoy your weekend and take in as much basketball as possible. Thank you for reading this, if I missed anything please let me know in the comments. I appreciate you taking the time to read and I hope you have a good Monday and start the week right. Take care.
Cheap plug but that should be back & up running with more consistent posting soon hopefully, I hope you’ll consider checking it out and following along.