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Show After outstanding performances, Lillard and Booker headlined the All-Bubble First Team, with Lillard also earning the MVP of the two weeks of seeding games in the bubble. The Memphis Grizzlies and Portland Trail Blazers met for the first play-in game for the NBA playoffs in playoff history, as the bubble format dictated. While Portland led by as many as sixteen, their lead was cut down and Memphis held the lead late into the fourth quarter with the help of rookie sensation Ja Morant dropping 35 points and dishing out eight assists. It still wasn’t enough for Memphis as Lillard, CJ McCollum, and Jusuf Nurkic proved too much and Portland walked away with a 126-122 victory. With Portland’s victory, the 2020 playoffs were set; first round matchups pitted the Lakers vs. Trail Blazers, Jazz vs. Nuggets and in the Eastern Conference, Celtics vs. 76ers and Heat vs. Pacers. Playoff action tipped off August 17, with the first playoff game a blazing start between the Jazz and Nuggets. Neither team let their foot off the gas, with Donovan Mitchell carrying the Jazz to a seven-point deficit going into the second half. Mitchell continued carrying the team and finished the game on fire, as he scored 38 points in the fourth quarter and overtime. However, it was still not enough for the Jazz, as the two-man game of Jamal Murray and Nikola Jokić proved lethal in overtime; Murray’s flurry of threes just couldn’t be stopped. The Nuggets pulled away, outscoring Utah in overtime 20-10 with Mitchell clearly gassed out after carrying the team for the entire game. Mitchell’s team-carrying performance resulted in him scoring the third-most points in NBA playoff game, and the most since Michael Jordan dropped 63 points while flying through the air inside the Boston Garden in 1986. Mitchell’s 57 points also broke the Utah Jazz playoff scoring record, previously held by Karl Malone, who scored 50 against the Seattle SuperSonics in 2000. With the playoffs off to a scorching hot start, it only heated up from there with the first Blazers-Lakers game. The Blazers jumped out with an early 16-point lead in the first quarter, behind the strong aggressive play of Nurkic and Lillard, but LeBron James and Anthony Davis weren’t going away, despite the slow start. James and Davis led the Lakers right back into the game as the Lakers took a six-point-lead midway through the fourth quarter off of James’ three pointer. However, Lillard continued to prove he may be the most clutch player in basketball as he buried a game-tying three, a go-ahead three and dished an assist to Carmelo Anthony for a game-sealing three in the closing minutes. James knows what he’s up against; he said before the game to Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports, “Lillard is the most under appreciated and underrated player in our game.” The Lakers were the second number-one seeded team to lose their first playoff game in the bubble, as the Bucks fell to the Magic 122-110 despite the reigning MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo putting up 31 points and grabbing 17 rebounds. The series is just getting started, as James’ 23 points, 17 rebounds, and 16 assists is the only time in NBA playoffs history a player has had over 20 points, 15 rebounds and 15 assists. Now after the last few weeks of basketball, the entire NBA knows what James and the Lakers had already realized when Lillard dropped 48 points on them at Staples Center back in February, and after he took Game 1 from them in the bubble, and that fact is it’s not easy trying to tame a Wildcat. Comment on this story at signpost.mywebermedia.com MyWeberMedia.com| August 24, 2020 | 13 MASK UP Face coverings are REQUIRED at all WSU locations. HELP KEEP US ALL SAFER ON CAMPUS. visit weber.edu/coronavirus for more info and updates |