As the NBA and NHL playoffs approach a return of the semi-weekly column, the night before where Eric Jensen breaks down the latest in the NBA and NHL.
We’re back with the night before. How often this drops this year? Questionable, hard time writing it at night because that’s when the games are going on, so when I have brief moments of respite here in the cubes I’ll fire up the old WordPress and get to work, today just happens to be one of those days.
Some huge games in both the NHL and NBA last night. Let’s start with the NHL.
NHL
Rangers Shine Jets Stumble.
Hard to not have a better night than the Rangers did. A dominating win over the Tampa Bay Lightning now puts the Rangers just three points away from gaining home-ice advantage against the Devils in round 1.
The most impressive thing about the Rangers recently is the pure depth of the scoring they provide. This team reminds me of the Colorado Avalanche but with much better goaltending. If they can get Alexis Lafreniere and Kaapo Kakko to produce the way they have over the past month the Rangers have three complete lines of legitimate scoring threats.
Not to mention Igor Shesterkin has regained his tremendous form after a slow March. The Rangers are the clear-cut challenger in the East to the Bruins. Another Rangers Lightning series would be electric though. Those two teams just do not like each other.
Lightning @ Rangers 4/5 | NHL Highlights 2023 – YouTube
The Lightning do feel different this year, over the past month consistent performances and defense have been a real issue.
Shame on the Winnipeg Jets, with a win last night it appears the Calgary Flames now have a clear path to the playoffs.
The Flame’s play style is slow, defensive, and just generally gritty and boring. In other words perfect for playoff hockey. Whoever they get in round one should not take them lightly, especially the Avalanche, who are just a bad matchup against the Flames.
The Flames also have the one thing that makes a playoff team truly dangerous, extremely hot goaltending. Jacob Markstrom has really figured it out over the past few weeks and last night stopped 34 of 35 shots on goal. The Flames should not be slept on.
NBA
The Play in game in the West begins to solidify.
Every night is a must-win for the Dallas Mavericks at this point. The Mavs started extremely slowly against the Kings last night and required a comeback in the second half to ultimately grab a 123-119 win.
Kyrie Irving and Luka Doncic lead the way with 31 and 29 points respectively. Finding consistency from both of those players has been challenging over the last 10 games in which the Mavs have gone an abysmal 3-7.
KINGS at MAVERICKS | FULL GAME HIGHLIGHTS | April 5, 2023 – YouTube
The Mavericks do not control their own destiny at this point. They need to hope the Thunder lose in Utah tonight and then likely lose again.
The New Orleans Pelicans on the other hand have begun to take control of their own destiny and won last night against the Memphis Grizzlies.
Brandon Ingram is beginning to find his scoring stroke again and Herb Jones contributed an impressive 35 points in last nights win. Not to mention the tremendous effort of CJ McCollum who scored 31 points in the win.
The Pelican’s biggest challenge will now be a Lakers team, that despite grabbing positive momentum as of late, struggled to hang with the Clippers last night and could very easily fall into the 8 seed. New Orleans’s final game of the season comes against the Timberwolves, a must watch on Sunday.
A note on the Grizzlies: Something fundamentally has changed since the Ja suspension, this team is playing more competitively, taking defense more seriously, and have a new leader. That leader is Jaren Jackson Jr. he has become the alpha on this team, how Ja reacts to that in the playoffs will determine the level of success the Grizzlies have.