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The 2022 NBA playoffs have finally arrived! After an unprecedented regular season, featuring some of the closes races in recent memory, Saturday marks the beginning of what each of these 16 teams hope will be a two-month march to the NBA championship.

In the Western Conference, Donovan Mitchell and the No. 5 seed Utah Jazz take on the No. 4 Dallas Mavericks, who are without franchise superstar Luka Doncic, ruled out of Game 1 Saturday morning with a strained left calf. There is significant concern as to Doncic’s availability for Game 2 as well, sources told ESPN.

The No. 7 seed Minnesota Timberwolves, who defeated the Los Angeles Clippers in the No. 7-No. 8 play-in game, are in Memphis to face Ja Morant and the No. 2 seed Grizzlies, who finished with the league’s second-best record — 56-26 — this season. In the late game, the Nikola Jokic and the No. 6 seed Denver Nuggets are in San Francisco to face a No. 3 seed Golden State Warriors team hoping to recapture it dynastic past.

Over in the East, the No. 5 seed Toronto Raptors face Joel Embiid, James Harden and the No. 4 seed Philadelphia 76ers, who will be without defensive star Matisse Thybulle for potentially all three games in Toronto.

Our NBA experts are watching it all. Here are the most important takeaways from each of the four games on Day One of playoff action.

More: Everything you need to know about the 16 teams still standing

No. 5 Utah Jazz vs. No. 4 Dallas Mavericks

Game 1: Jazz 99, Mavericks 93: “We just didn’t have enough offensive power down the stretch.”

It shouldn’t come as any surprise that the Mavericks’ offense sputtered while injured superstar Luka Doncic wore a hoodie and watched from the bench.

The Mavs’ chances of advancing past the first round for the first time since their 2011 title run take a major hit if Doncic is munching popcorn during games. Dallas’ hopes for playoff success hinge primarily on its perennial MVP candidate putting on a show, which isn’t likely to happen Monday night for Game 2, as much as Doncic and the Mavs’ medical staff try to expedite the healing of his left calf strain. Dallas coach Jason Kidd calls Doncic “day to day,” but the Mavs would be ecstatic if he’s ready to return by the time the series shifts to Salt Lake City.

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The Mavs proved Saturday in their 99-93 Game 1 loss that they can make the Jazz play in the mud, almost pulling off a double-digit comeback against a team particularly prone to giving them up. Utah’s offense was ugly. Dallas prevented the NBA’s top-ranked offense from getting clean 3-point looks and lobs to All-Star big man Rudy Gobert — quite an accomplishment to deny both weapons and make All-Star guard Donovan Mitchell (32 points on 10-of-29 shooting) work so hard to score.

The Mavs’ problem, predictably, was their offense was even uglier. Doncic led the NBA in usage rate for the second consecutive season for good reason. He’s as good as anyone in the league at solving defenses, a threat to score at all three levels and elite at setting up his teammates for dunks and 3s. And he’s surrounded by role players who excel playing off him — but aren’t suited to consistently create offense, especially with Gobert shutting down the paint.

“They didn’t score 100 points,” Kidd said. “When you do that in today’s basketball, it tends to give you a chance to win. We just didn’t have enough offensive power down the stretch.”

It’s hard enough to win in the NBA playoffs with a lone star when he’s healthy. — Tim MacMahon

No. 7 Minnesota Timberwolves vs. No. 2 Memphis Grizzlies

Game 1: Wolves 130, Grizzlies 117: Memphis won’t be able to grind Minnesota’s top-ranked offense into submission

The Minnesota Timberwolves lit it up in Game 1 of their first-round series against the Memphis Grizzlies — and we shouldn’t have expected anything less. The Wolves were the NBA’s most efficient offense after New Year’s. In Game 1, it was an attack that even the Grizzlies — the league’s third-ranked defense since New Year’s — couldn’t contain.

Minnesota’s 130-117 win was a showcase in the depth of creativity of that offense. Anthony Edwards’s first step propelled him into the heart of the Memphis defense, but he finished with ease. He’s a slasher who will keep the Grizzlies up at night for the next couple of weeks. In Game 1, he also exacted plenty of damage from the outside — four 3-pointers. This is a player filling out his game on a big stage.

Whatever plagued Karl-Anthony Towns as he struggled in the Wolves’ play-in win on Tuesday was extinguished early on Saturday. He drained shots from deep, attacked from the perimeter, beat the Grizzlies’ help defense and operated with his feathery touch around the basket. When encountering bodies at the nail, he whipped the ball back out to shooters for good looks from beyond the arc.

The NBA75 celebration continues with the NBA playoffs, which begin Saturday and run through June, when the league will crown a champion for its milestone season.

o What to know about all 16 teams
o Play-in tournament seeding, schedule
o Pelton: Previewing Nets-Celtics series
o Curry could return to practice this week

The Wolves shared the ball, got quality looks on reversals and skip passes, and crashed the offensive glass. They kept their cool, picked their spots and hit big shots late.

The Grizzlies can take solace in the fact that they missed more than a dozen shot attempts in the immediate basket area in Game 1, something they’re unlikely to do again. But to win the series, they’ll need to figure out how to slow the Wolves’ locomotive, because any notion that the Grizzlies can use their physicality and rim protection to grind Minnesota into submission appears overly optimistic. — Kevin Arnovitz

No. 5 Toronto Raptors vs. No. 4 Philadelphia 76ers

Game 1: 76ers 131, Raptors 111: Tyrese Maxey might be the key to the Sixers reaching the Eastern Conference finals

In the days leading up to the start of the first-round series between the 76ers and Raptors, all of the focus was on how James Harden would perform in his first postseason with his new team.

Game 1, however, saw a different guard emerge as the star of the game: second-year breakout star Tyrese Maxey, who finished with 38 points on 14-for-21 shooting.

And, after his latest impressive performance in a season full of them, his play offers up an interesting question: Is it Maxey, and not Harden, who is Philadelphia’s second-best player after Joel Embiid?

Anyone watching this game would have a hard time arguing otherwise. Harden played well, finishing with 22 points, five rebounds and 14 assists in 40 minutes. But he went just 2-for-10 on 2-point shots, and when he isn’t fouled at the rim, continues to look short on offensive firepower.

Sunday, April 17
Nets at Celtics, 3:30 p.m. (ABC)

Friday, April 22
Heat at Hawks, Game 3, 7 p.m.
Bucks at Bulls, Game 3, 8:30 p.m. (ABC)
Suns at Pelicans, Game 3, 9:30 p.m.

All times Eastern

Maxey, however, has no such problem. The 6-foot-2 guard, already one of the NBA’s fastest players, has gone from settling for one floater after another as a rookie to exploding to the rim over defenders time and again. One reason for that? An influx of space: After shooting just 30% from 3 last season on just 1.7 attempts per game, he has more than doubled his perimeter production, shooting 42.7% on more than four attempts per game.

Saturday, Maxey went 5-for-8 from deep — even with Toronto flooding defenders to him. And while there were initial concerns about how he’d fare with Harden, the arrival of the 10-time All-Star has instead unleashed Maxey as a devastating slasher and scorer — one the Raptors had no answers for in Game 1.

The rest of the postseason won’t be this easy for the 76ers. They won’t always have three turnovers in 48 minutes. They won’t always hit 50% of their 3s.

But they will have Maxey’s speed and energy. And if he keeps playing like this, it could be him — and not Harden — who is the key to the 76ers finally reaching the Eastern Conference finals, and beyond, for the first time in over two decades. — Tim Bontemps

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The 2022 NBA playoffs have finally arrived! After an unprecedented regular season, featuring some of the closes races in recent memory, Saturday marks the beginning of what each of these 16 teams hope will be a two-month march to the NBA championship.

In the Western Conference, Donovan Mitchell and the No. 5 seed Utah Jazz take on the No. 4 Dallas Mavericks, who are without franchise superstar Luka Doncic, ruled out of Game 1 Saturday morning with a strained left calf. There is significant concern as to Doncic’s availability for Game 2 as well, sources told ESPN.

The No. 7 seed Minnesota Timberwolves, who defeated the Los Angeles Clippers in the No. 7-No. 8 play-in game, are in Memphis to face Ja Morant and the No. 2 seed Grizzlies, who finished with the league’s second-best record — 56-26 — this season. In the late game, the Nikola Jokic and the No. 6 seed Denver Nuggets are in San Francisco to face a No. 3 seed Golden State Warriors team hoping to recapture it dynastic past.

Over in the East, the No. 5 seed Toronto Raptors face Joel Embiid, James Harden and the No. 4 seed Philadelphia 76ers, who will be without defensive star Matisse Thybulle for potentially all three games in Toronto.

Our NBA experts are watching it all. Here are the most important takeaways from each of the four games on Day One of playoff action.

More: Everything you need to know about the 16 teams still standing

No. 5 Utah Jazz vs. No. 4 Dallas Mavericks

Game 1: Jazz 99, Mavericks 93: “We just didn’t have enough offensive power down the stretch.”

It shouldn’t come as any surprise that the Mavericks’ offense sputtered while injured superstar Luka Doncic wore a hoodie and watched from the bench.

The Mavs’ chances of advancing past the first round for the first time since their 2011 title run take a major hit if Doncic is munching popcorn during games. Dallas’ hopes for playoff success hinge primarily on its perennial MVP candidate putting on a show, which isn’t likely to happen Monday night for Game 2, as much as Doncic and the Mavs’ medical staff try to expedite the healing of his left calf strain. Dallas coach Jason Kidd calls Doncic “day to day,” but the Mavs would be ecstatic if he’s ready to return by the time the series shifts to Salt Lake City.

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The Mavs proved Saturday in their 99-93 Game 1 loss that they can make the Jazz play in the mud, almost pulling off a double-digit comeback against a team particularly prone to giving them up. Utah’s offense was ugly. Dallas prevented the NBA’s top-ranked offense from getting clean 3-point looks and lobs to All-Star big man Rudy Gobert — quite an accomplishment to deny both weapons and make All-Star guard Donovan Mitchell (32 points on 10-of-29 shooting) work so hard to score.

The Mavs’ problem, predictably, was their offense was even uglier. Doncic led the NBA in usage rate for the second consecutive season for good reason. He’s as good as anyone in the league at solving defenses, a threat to score at all three levels and elite at setting up his teammates for dunks and 3s. And he’s surrounded by role players who excel playing off him — but aren’t suited to consistently create offense, especially with Gobert shutting down the paint.

“They didn’t score 100 points,” Kidd said. “When you do that in today’s basketball, it tends to give you a chance to win. We just didn’t have enough offensive power down the stretch.”

It’s hard enough to win in the NBA playoffs with a lone star when he’s healthy. — Tim MacMahon

No. 7 Minnesota Timberwolves vs. No. 2 Memphis Grizzlies

Game 1: Wolves 130, Grizzlies 117: Memphis won’t be able to grind Minnesota’s top-ranked offense into submission

The Minnesota Timberwolves lit it up in Game 1 of their first-round series against the Memphis Grizzlies — and we shouldn’t have expected anything less. The Wolves were the NBA’s most efficient offense after New Year’s. In Game 1, it was an attack that even the Grizzlies — the league’s third-ranked defense since New Year’s — couldn’t contain.

Minnesota’s 130-117 win was a showcase in the depth of creativity of that offense. Anthony Edwards’s first step propelled him into the heart of the Memphis defense, but he finished with ease. He’s a slasher who will keep the Grizzlies up at night for the next couple of weeks. In Game 1, he also exacted plenty of damage from the outside — four 3-pointers. This is a player filling out his game on a big stage.

Whatever plagued Karl-Anthony Towns as he struggled in the Wolves’ play-in win on Tuesday was extinguished early on Saturday. He drained shots from deep, attacked from the perimeter, beat the Grizzlies’ help defense and operated with his feathery touch around the basket. When encountering bodies at the nail, he whipped the ball back out to shooters for good looks from beyond the arc.

The NBA75 celebration continues with the NBA playoffs, which begin Saturday and run through June, when the league will crown a champion for its milestone season.

o 75 things you need to know
o Play-in tournament seeding, schedule
o Pelton: Previewing Nets-Celtics series
o Curry could return to practice this week

The Wolves shared the ball, got quality looks on reversals and skip passes, and crashed the offensive glass. They kept their cool, picked their spots and hit big shots late.

The Grizzlies can take solace in the fact that they missed more than a dozen shot attempts in the immediate basket area in Game 1, something they’re unlikely to do again. But to win the series, they’ll need to figure out how to slow the Wolves’ locomotive, because any notion that the Grizzlies can use their physicality and rim protection to grind Minnesota into submission appears overly optimistic. — Kevin Arnovitz

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Australian guard Dyson Daniels will enter the 2022 NBA draft, he told ESPN Saturday.

“I’m all in for the draft,” Daniels told ESPN. “I feel more than ready for this next step in my career and I’m excited for this process to begin.”

Daniels, the No. 10 prospect in the ESPN 100, is attempting to become the second consecutive player to be drafted in the lottery after graduating from the NBA Global Academy in Canberra, Australia, following in the footsteps of Josh Giddey, the No. 6 pick in the 2021 NBA Draft.

Daniels had an outstanding season in the NBA G League, averaging 12.0 points, 7.1 rebounds, 5.1 assists and 2.0 steals in 32 minutes over the course of 26 games. He was invited to match up with some of the NBA’s best rookies and sophomores as part of the prestigious Rising Stars contest during NBA All-Star weekend, helping his team win the championship by posting four points, three rebounds, two assists and two blocks in the final game.

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“This year with G League Ignite was a success for me in what I was trying to get out of it,” Daniels said. “I was able to learn a lot about myself and where I belong on the floor. I got more and more comfortable in my role and was constantly learning off veterans like Pooh Jeter, Kevin Murphy and our great coaching staff. NBA teams were able to see that I can guard multiple positions and be the best defender on the floor, as well as my ability to run a team and make plays off the bounce. My shooting stroke improved and I gained comfort playing off the ball as a cutter and spot up shooter.”

The 19-year-old Daniels was the first highly touted player the G League Ignite, an alternative pathway to college basketball created by the NBA for elite draft prospects, landed from outside the United States high school system, representing a shift in the program’s recruitment. Daniels has been on NBA radar screens for some time, being invited to the NBA Academy Games in Atlanta as a 16-year old in July of 2019, where he measured 6-foot-5 in shoes and 162 pounds, and has steadily grown into an elite level prospect, now standing 6-foot-8 in shoes and 200 pounds less than three years later.

Daniels competed at various NBA Academy events around the globe and received his first call-up to represent his home country’s senior national team in the FIBA window in February of 2021 at the age of 17, posting 23 points, 4 assists, 3 rebounds and 6 steals in a shellacking of New Zealand. He also had a strong showing at the FIBA U19 World Cup last summer, posting 14 points, 5.3 rebounds, 4.6 assists and 2.3 steals in 27 minutes for Australia.

Daniels’ transition from the NBA Global Academy to the G League wasn’t seamless, as he struggled in the early going with the physicality and pace of the American game, as well as with the distance of the NBA 3-point line, which is further back from the FIBA line. As the season progressed, he looked increasingly comfortable, gaining strength, amping up his aggressiveness substantially and doing a better job of asserting himself. NBA scouts now almost unanimously point to him as the best prospect in the Ignite program, and he has a chance to potentially crack the top-10 of this year’s draft with a strong pre-draft process. While he’s long been considered an elite defender and highly intelligent playmaker, he hit 45% of his 3-pointers over the final nine games of the G League season, which included several near triple-doubles, looking like a different player than earlier in the year.

“I struggled initially to find my fit on the team as we had so many good scorers,” Daniels said. “But as the season went on and coach put the ball in my hand, I was able to find myself as the primary playmaker. We built our chemistry and learned our roles in the team, which helped me take my game to the next level.”

“One of the things I’m looking forward to showing NBA teams is my ability to create my own shot. That’s something I’ve been working hard on. I’m looking forward to showing them my versatility playing multiple positions and using my basketball IQ to be a problem solver.”

Daniels will join Giddey, Ben Simmons, Dante Exum and others as a second-generation Australian professionals to join the NBA ranks, as the son of American expat Ricky Daniels, who went to college at North Carolina State and settled down in Victoria after many years with the Bendigo Braves. His brother Kai Daniels plays college basketball at Division II Regis University in Denver, while his younger brother Dash is a standout at the youth level in Australia with Bendigo, where Dyson also got his start in basketball.

Dyson says he studies many NBA players’ tendencies on both ends of the floor to help determine how he can fit in early in his career.

“Offensively, I’ve been watching Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Luka Doncic. I like the way they use their change of pace, creative passing and basketball IQ to read the game and make teammates better. Defensively, I look at Mikal Bridges, Alex Caruso, Matisse Thybulle and Lonzo Ball. I like how they get over screens, read and impact the game. Personally, I want to play my role at a high level, helping a team win with my winning mentality and competing every possession on both ends. “

The NBA draft combine will be held May 16-22 in Chicago, and the draft will be held June 23 in Brooklyn

Jonathan Givony is an NBA draft expert and the founder and co-owner of DraftExpress.com, a private scouting and analytics service used by NBA, NCAA and international teams.

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The 2022 NBA playoffs have finally arrived! After an unprecedented regular season, featuring some of the closes races in recent memory, Saturday marks the beginning of what each of these 16 teams hope will be a two-month march to the NBA championship.

In the Western Conference, Donovan Mitchell and the No. 5 seed Utah Jazz take on the No. 4 Dallas Mavericks, who are without franchise superstar Luka Doncic, ruled out of Game 1 Saturday morning with a strained left calf. There is significant concern as to Doncic’s availability for Game 2 as well, sources told ESPN.

The No. 7 seed Minnesota Timberwolves, who defeated the Los Angeles Clippers in the No. 7-No. 8 play-in game, are in Memphis to face Ja Morant and the No. 2 seed Grizzlies, who finished with the league’s second-best record — 56-26 — this season. In the late game, the Nikola Jokic and the No. 6 seed Denver Nuggets are in San Francisco to face a No. 3 seed Golden State Warriors team hoping to recapture it dynastic past.

Over in the East, the No. 5 seed Toronto Raptors face Joel Embiid, James Harden and the No. 4 seed Philadelphia 76ers, who will be without defensive star Matisse Thybulle for potentially all three games in Toronto.

Our NBA experts are watching it all. Here are the most important takeaways from each of the four games on Day One of playoff action.

More: Everything you need to know about the 16 teams still standing

It shouldn’t come as any surprise that the Mavericks’ offense sputtered while injured superstar Luka Doncic wore a hoodie and watched from the bench.

The Mavs’ chances of advancing past the first round for the first time since their 2011 title run take a major hit if Doncic is munching popcorn during games. Dallas’ hopes for playoff success hinge primarily on its perennial MVP candidate putting on a show, which isn’t likely to happen Monday night for Game 2, as much as Doncic and the Mavs’ medical staff try to expedite the healing of his left calf strain. Dallas coach Jason Kidd calls Doncic “day to day,” but the Mavs would be ecstatic if he’s ready to return by the time the series shifts to Salt Lake City.

2 Related

The Mavs proved Saturday in their 99-93 Game 1 loss that they can make the Jazz play in the mud, almost pulling off a double-digit comeback against a team particularly prone to giving them up. Utah’s offense was ugly. Dallas prevented the NBA’s top-ranked offense from getting clean 3-point looks and lobs to All-Star big man Rudy Gobert — quite an accomplishment to deny both weapons and make All-Star guard Donovan Mitchell (32 points on 10-of-29 shooting) work so hard to score.

The Mavs’ problem, predictably, was their offense was even uglier. Doncic led the NBA in usage rate for the second consecutive season for good reason. He’s as good as anyone in the league at solving defenses, a threat to score at all three levels and elite at setting up his teammates for dunks and 3s. And he’s surrounded by role players who excel playing off him — but aren’t suited to consistently create offense, especially with Gobert shutting down the paint.

It’s hard enough to win in the NBA playoffs with a lone star when he’s healthy. — Tim MacMahon

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Miami Heat center Bam Adebayo has cleared the NBA’s health and safety protocols, the team announced Saturday, and is expected to be available for Game 1 vs. the Atlanta Hawks on Sunday.

Adebayo missed the Heat’s regular-season finale against the Orlando Magic last Sunday after entering the protocol.

Adebayo is averaging a career-high 19.1 points along with 10.1 rebounds and 3.4 assists. He was limited to 56 games this season, largely due to a right thumb injury that required surgery and forced him to miss six weeks in December and January.

The Heat finished with the best record in the Eastern Conference to secure the top seed. Game 1 against the Hawks tips off at 1 p.m. ET at FTX Arena in Miami.

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The past few months have been chock full of change for the Chicago Bears, and it hasn’t been easy.

First-year general manager Ryan Poles had two decisions he could make. First, he could roll with the team in place and try to add a couple of more pieces and compete in Justin Fields’ second year — which would have been dangerous, and probably downright foolish considering the holes in this roster.

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The NBA playoffs are here with four first-round games taking place on Saturday and Sunday.

In the East, all eyes will be on the Boston Celtics vs. Brooklyn Nets series as Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving look to upset the No. 2 seed Celtics, who are without injured center Robert Williams III, in what should be a competitive series.

Out West, injuries could dictate the teams that advance. Dallas Mavericks star Luka Doncic will miss Saturday’s Game 1 against the Utah Jazz because of a strained left calf, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski and Tim MacMahon. And Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry is listed as probable for Game 1 against the Denver Nuggets after missing the last 12 games of the regular season with a left foot injury.

Which returning player could have the biggest impact? Which higher seed can least afford to lose Game 1 this weekend? Our NBA experts break down the top first-round storylines.

MORE: What to know for the NBA postseason | Schedules

1. Which first-round series stands to be the most competitive?

Kevin Pelton: Boston and Brooklyn. As I laid out in my series preview, the Nets have been much better than their overall record with Kevin Durant healthy and Kyrie Irving available alongside him, while the Celtics aren’t the same juggernaut without injured center Robert Williams III. As a result, these teams look surprisingly even for the No. 2 and No. 7 seeds.

Tim Bontemps: Many will probably say Nets-Celtics, given the star power involved, but I’m going to go with another Eastern Conference series: Philadelphia-Toronto. The 76ers have the best player in the series by a significant amount in Joel Embiid. But Toronto should have a coaching advantage, Philadelphia won’t have Matisse Thybulle for all three games in Toronto, and the Raptors have the perfect assortment of long, athletic players to both take advantage of Philadelphia’s lack of athleticism and make James Harden‘s life extremely difficult. Embiid should be enough to power Philadelphia through and win this series. But this should be a very difficult test — one that easily could go seven games — and could send Philly home far earlier than it expects.

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Kevin Arnovitz: Dallas-Utah. Both 4-5 matchups have strong seven-game potential, but the Mavericks and Jazz should be really competitive. It’s been a while since Utah played a sustained stretch of dominant basketball, but the Jazz are still the league’s top-ranked offense. Meanwhile, Dallas has been one of the best stories of 2022. When healthy, Luka is Luka. Spencer Dinwiddie has added some juice the team desperately needed from the perimeter, and the defense — traditionally a weakness — has been strong all season. Both of the teams have been disappointments in recent postseasons … and one will be so again when this series is over.

Ramona Shelburne: Even without Luka Doncic missing Game 1, I thought the Mavericks-Jazz series was going to be a tight one. I know a lot of people are down on the Jazz because of their past playoff failures, but I’ve always felt like they have the ability to put it together one of these years if they hit a few breaks.

Jamal Collier: Boston-Brooklyn. I don’t think a team with Durant and Irving is going to go out quietly. This feels like a seven-game series with a chance for several games to come down to the wire, and those are two dangerous players to try to outdo in clutch performances. Ultimately, it’s hard for me to see the Nets playing or defending at a high enough level for four out of seven games to pull this series off, but it’s going to be fun to watch.

Dallas Mavericks star Luka Doncic will miss Game 1 against Utah with a calf strain. Tim Heitman/Getty Images

2. Which injured player’s return could have the biggest impact on the first round?

Pelton: Doncic coming back from a calf strain. Although Stephen Curry is at least as valuable to his team, Curry’s timetable is clearer. We have no idea right now whether Doncic can get back on the court for Game 2 after our ESPN colleague Adrian Wojnarowski reported he’ll miss at least the first game of the Mavericks’ series against the Jazz. The speed of his recovery will go a long way toward determining the outcome of that series.

The NBA75 celebration continues with the NBA playoffs, which begin Saturday and run through June, when the league will crown a champion for its milestone season.

o 75 things you need to know
o Play-in tournament seeding, schedule
o Pelton: Previewing Nets-Celtics series
o Curry could return to practice this week

Bontemps: I thought Dallas was the biggest threat to Phoenix in the Western Conference before Doncic hurt his calf in the Mavericks’ regular-season finale. Now, Utah is likely the favorite to advance, as we have no idea how much Doncic will be able to play — or how effective he will be. What looked like a chance for the young superstar to make a deep postseason run could now be over before it starts.

Arnovitz: Doncic is the engine, fuel and torque of the Mavericks’ offense, and his condition is more important to his team than any single player in the West. Dinwiddie and Jalen Brunson can run a quality pick-and-roll attack, but neither has the creativity to turn every guy on the floor into a threat. The good news for Dallas is that its defense has been stingy and, given Doncic’s deficiencies on that end of the floor, that shouldn’t change.

Collier: Doncic. I don’t think there’s a single team in the NBA whose success is tied to one player as much as the Mavericks’ is to Doncic. If he doesn’t play or isn’t 100 percent I don’t think Dallas can advance in this series.

Shelburne: The Warriors can win a few games without Curry, but they really aren’t the Warriors without Curry, are they? It’ll take him a few games to get it rolling, but once he does, he completely changes the dynamics of that team.

3. Who is your pick for the breakout player of the playoffs?

Pelton: Bruce Brown, who has been playing at a high level for the past two months. Brown averaged 14.7 PPG, 5.9 RPG and 3.7 APG after the All-Star break, finding an ideal role supporting Durant and Irving on offense while serving as the Nets’ top perimeter defender. He has flirted with triple-doubles in two of Brooklyn’s past three games and the Nets need him to play at this level to advance deep in the playoffs from the play-in.

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Bontemps: Jaren Jackson Jr. Obviously when everyone thinks of the Memphis Grizzlies, the first person they think of is Ja Morant — and deservedly so. But Jackson has taken a massive leap forward this season defensively, launching himself into All-Defense and Defensive Player of the Year conversations. With the Grizzlies having a chance to make a deep playoff run for the first time, Jackson will have the chance to show the world why he and Morant are such an electrifying one-two punch in Memphis.

Arnovitz: For two seasons, Memphis Grizzlies guard Desmond Bane has established himself as a steal at No. 30 in the 2020 draft with his 43.5% career 3-point percentage. But Bane also has a floor game that’s improving, and the strength to impact the game on both ends. Minnesota surrenders a heavy volume of 3-point attempts and will be devoting a ton of attention to Morant, which gives Bane an opportunity to be a lethal second-side threat for the Grizzlies.

Shelburne: Does Morant count? Because I think he’s going to surpass everyone’s already high expectations for him and the Grizzlies. I had an executive I trust tell me a few months ago that Memphis could be the best team in the league. The more I think about it, the more I’m starting to agree with him.

Collier: Anthony Edwards. No player is going to benefit more from his first exposure on the national stage, both on and off the court. Even if his team can’t pull off the upset, Edwards will be the player everyone is talking about after this series.

The Philadelphia 76ers will be short-handed during their road games against the Toronto Raptors. Vaughn Ridley/NBAE via Getty Images

4. Which higher seed can least afford to lose Game 1?

Pelton: Philadelphia. The Sixers are in an unusual spot because they already know they’ll be short-handed for road games in Toronto due to Thybulle’s vaccination status. Losing Game 1 would force Philly to win at least one road game and put more pressure on the team’s other defensive options on the wing.

Bontemps: Philadelphia, both because Thybulle won’t be available in road games and to set a good tone for this series by getting off to a good start. But this could also apply to Dallas, with Doncic’s uncertain health, and the Golden State Warriors, due to Curry’s injury situation, as well.

Arnovitz: The Philadelphia 76ers. Anyone who has spent considerable time in Scotiabank Arena in the springtime knows that the Raptors and their home crowd extend zero hospitality to visitors. Those road games in Toronto will be even more treacherous for the Sixers without Thybulle. On top of that, the Sixers lost some of their depth at the deadline, while the Raptors’ OG Anunoby, one of their best two-way threats, just returned.

Shelburne: Philadelphia was always gonna have a tough matchup with Toronto due to the Raptors’ length and depth. Now the Sixers have to play without Thybulle in Toronto, making it even more important to hold serve at home.

Collier: Philly. Game 1 overreactions are an underrated great part of the playoffs, and I don’t imagine everyone will take it in stride if the Sixers lay an egg at home to start the series. Especially considering they’ll be playing short-handed in Toronto.

5. What’s your bold prediction for the first round?

Pelton: Having scored 50 points in Game 3 of last year’s first-round matchup against Brooklyn, Jayson Tatum will break the Celtics’ playoff single-game franchise record held by John Havlicek by scoring at least 55 against the Nets.

Bontemps: I’ll say it’s that the Atlanta Hawks get two games off the Miami Heat in the first round, and that series is more competitive than the usual 1-8 bloodbath (which is what the Western Conference version will be). Atlanta has had a strange season, but it’s a very talented team with playoff experience from last year’s run and a player in Trae Young who has proved he can win a playoff game by himself.

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Arnovitz: Denver takes Golden State to seven games. Curry dictates the Warriors’ fortunes — full stop. If he’s limited, whether in minutes or mobility, they’re far, far easier to defend. The Nuggets feature the best offensive player in the series, and know how to create high-percentage looks in the half court, which means the Warriors’ vaunted D will have to play at its full potential. Either way, it’s going to be nip and tuck.

Shelburne: How bold is it to suggest the second-seeded team in the East wins its first-round playoff matchup? Because I think Boston is going to beat the star-crossed Nets. I know how great Durant and Irving are, but they are really being asked to do a lot, and at some point that wears you down. Especially against a great defensive team like Boston.

Collier: Ben Simmons will make his season debut. The fact that there continues to be smoke about a possible return makes me feel like, eventually, there will be fire. It would be bizarre and a fitting chapter to this never-ending saga: Simmons returns to the court during the playoffs for a home game in Brooklyn, one year after playing in his last game.

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