2024 NBA Playoffs Takeaways: Shorthanded Bucks had Damian Lillard to save them

Things move fast in the NBA playoffs, so to help you stay on top of things, from now through at least the end of the second round, we will have nightly takeaways from the postseason action.

Sunday set up to be a strange day in the NBA playoffs: Every game featured a team playing without it's best player due to injury. It went well for some, not so much for others. Let's break it down by team.

Lillard lights up Pacers in Bucks win

This is why you go get Damian Lillard. The defensive downgrade may eventually catch up with this team, but this is how management pictured it: Giannis Antetokounmpo is out with a strained calf, Lillard steps up with 35 points in the first half, pushing Milwaukee out to a 30-point lead.

Milwaukee held on for the 109-94 win. The really good news for the Bucks out of this game was the play of Khris Middleton, who finished with 24 points on 9-of-14 shooting with 10 rebounds. If the Bucks are going to make a postseason run, they need this Middleton.

It also helped Milwaukee that Indiana looked like a team in its first playoff game—they missed their first 12 3-point attempts, Tyrese Haliburton struggled (nine points on 4-of-7 shooting, but he did have eight assists), and the Pacers shot 21.1% from 3 (and under 40% overall). Indiana should look better in Game 2.

Vintage James Harden stepped up for the Clippers

Los Angeles is used to playing without Kawhi Leonard — and they are used to matinee games, this was their 12th this season — so the things that should have thrown them off-balance didn't.

James Harden came out on fire and scored 20 first-half points, draining 4-6 from 3, with four assists (he finished with 28 points and eight assists). He also hooked up with an energized Russell Westbrook for the play of the game.

Also critical to the Clippers' fast start was they came out playing a physical brand of basketball the Mavericks were not ready for — Ivica Zubac was posting up Daniel Gafford and the Clippers' defense was aggressive. The Clippers ballooned their lead to 8 and held on for the 107-97 win.

Dallas got 33 points from Luka Doncic, 31 from Kyrie Irving, and 33 from everyone else (and everyone else shot 27.8%). Expect better from the Mavericks in Game 2 Tuesday.

Pelicans stars struggle but role players almost get them win

This was the most entertaining game of the weekend.

That's because of the Pelicans' role players, not so much their stars. Zion Williamson was out with his hamstring issues, which meant the ball would be in Brandon Ingram's hands, and… yikes. Ingram finished with 12 points on 5-of-17 shooting against Oklahoma City's physical defense. The Pelicans' other star, CJ McCollum, scored 20 but needed 22 shots to get there.

New Orleans was in this at the end thanks to Trey Murphy III, who had 21 points and hit five 3-pointers.

This game was tight in the final minutes, but Shai Gilgeous-Alexander was one of the three finalists for the NBA’s Clutch Player of the Year Award with what proved to be the game-winning bucket.

If the Pelicans can't get more out of Ingram and McCollum going forward, this will be a short series.

Miami without Jimmy Butler is in trouble vs. Boston

The Celtics are better than the team Miami beat in the Eastern Conference Finals a season ago — they have Jrue Holiday and Kristaps Porzingis in the mix.

It was Holiday who had the bigger impact in this game. Without Jimmy Butler (MCL sprain) and Terry Rozier (neck), the Miami offense had to go through Tyler Herro — and Holiday just took him out of the game. Herro finished with 11 points on 4-of-13 shooting, and the Heat offense stagnated. Miami eventually found some offense going through Bam Adebayo (and expect to see more of that next game, more dribble hand-offs and the like).

However, the simple fact is Boston is by far the better team, the deeper team, and without Playoff Jimmy to make things interesting the Heat are in serious trouble.