{"id":713672,"date":"2026-04-19T04:41:49","date_gmt":"2026-04-19T04:41:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/713672\/"},"modified":"2026-04-19T04:41:49","modified_gmt":"2026-04-19T04:41:49","slug":"nba-playoffs-takeaways-after-lebron-james-lifts-lakers-to-game-1-win-knicks-make-statement-against-hawks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/713672\/","title":{"rendered":"NBA Playoffs: Takeaways After LeBron James Lifts Lakers to Game 1 Win, Knicks Make Statement Against Hawks"},"content":{"rendered":"

The NBA playoffs are off and running<\/a> with a full slate of first-round action on Saturday.<\/p>\n

After a thrilling play-in tournament<\/a> that saw the likes of Steph Curry, Kawhi Leonard and the red-hot Hornets head home, it\u2019s time for the remaining teams to chase a title. We saw a chalky first day of playoff action as the home team and higher seed took care of business in each game, but we still had some surprises.<\/p>\n

Kevin Durant was surprisingly ruled out of the Rockets\u2019 Game 1 battle against the Lakers after he bumped knees with a teammate in practice. LeBron James has to carry the weight of the Lakers\u2019 offense while Luka Don\u010di\u0107 and Austin Reaves remain on the shelf and he was able to keep things flowing for Los Angeles to secure the victory without its top two scorers. Durant\u2019s injury doesn\u2019t appear to be serious, so we\u2019ll see if he\u2019s back for Game 2 on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

With the first bit of playoff action in the rearview, here\u2019s one takeaway from each Game 1 that took place on Saturday:<\/p>\n

The Raptors miss Immanuel Quickley\u2019s three-point shooting\"Immanuel<\/p>\n

Immanuel Quickley missed Game 1 for the Raptors | Benny Sieu-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

The Cavaliers beat the Raptors 126\u2013113 and had a considerable lead for the majority of the game. Cleveland\u2019s scoring duo of Donovan Mitchell and James Harden is difficult to overcome and Toronto needs to make shots at a high pace to keep up with the Cavs\u2019 offense.<\/p>\n

Immanuel Quickley missed Game 1 due to a hamstring strain and the Raptors offense sorely missed his shooting ability. Over the regular season, he shot 37.4% from deep on just under seven three-point attempts per game. Brandon Ingram struggled to get looks for Toronto, partly because Quickley wasn\u2019t available to help space the floor. Jamal Shead did a great job in Quickley\u2019s absence, knocking down five of his six shots from three. Still, however, Quickley\u2019s 16.4 points per game are needed against a high-powered offense like Cleveland\u2019s.<\/p>\n

Mitchell and Harden combined for 54 points themselves in the Game 1 win Saturday. The Raptors need to score at a higher rate if they want to make this series somewhat interesting.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Nuggets and Timberwolves may give us another classic series\"Nikola<\/p>\n

The rivalry between the Nuggets and Timberwolves continues | Christopher Hanewinckel-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

Denver and Minnesota have found each other once again in the postseason. The Nuggets and Wolves had a seven-game classic of a series two years ago which resulted in a huge comeback for Minnesota to clinch a trip to the Western Conference finals.<\/p>\n

This year, Nikola Joki\u0107 and Anthony Edwards square off in the first round and we may be in for another classic. Denver claimed Game 1 at home Saturday with a 116\u2013108 win where Jamal Murray shined, getting to the foul line 16 times and going perfect from the charity stripe. Joki\u0107 had a 25-point triple-double, which is relatively a given at this point.<\/p>\n

Edwards led the Wolves with 22 points, but he was inefficient overall as he went 7-for-19 from the floor and 2-for-9 from three-point range. Rudy Gobert had a solid game in the loss with 17 points and 10 assists. The star defender is tasked with minimizing Joki\u0107\u2019s output as much as possible. You can never fully neutralize the three-time MVP, but Gobert has to continue to perform if the Wolves have any shot at beating the Nuggets.<\/p>\n

The Knicks make a statement against the popular underdog\"Karl-Anthony<\/p>\n

Karl-Anthony Towns helped close out New York\u2019s win over Atlanta | Vincent Carchietta-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

Atlanta was one of the best teams in the NBA after the All-Star break, which brought them some buzz as a potential upset candidate against the Knicks. New York came out hot in Game 1 with a great performance from Jalen Brunson and an incredible fourth quarter from Karl-Anthony Towns, silencing the noise at least for the interim.<\/p>\n

Josh Hart quietly had a great game as he\u2019s proved time and time again that he\u2019s a winning player when it comes time for the postseason. He had 11 points, 14 rebounds, five assists and three steals to help the Knicks maintain home court. Towns\u2019s fourth quarter had the Knicks blow up their lead to 19 points, but Atlanta went on an 11\u20130 run to make things slightly interesting before New York ultimately held on.<\/p>\n

Jalen Johnson, CJ McCollum, Onyeka Okongwu and Nickeil Alexander-Walker combined for 85 of Atlanta\u2019s 102 points. The Hawks will need some additional scoring from the supporting cast in Game 2 on Monday night.<\/p>\n

LeBron James can still win in many which ways\"LeBron<\/p>\n

LeBron James and the Lakers took care of business in Game 1 | Kirby Lee-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

Luke Kennard\u2019s 27-point night and three-point flurry helped the Lakers close the door on the Rockets in Game 1, but it was LeBron James who continued to steer the ship. He had eight assists in the first quarter and finished the night with 19 points, 13 assists, eight rebounds, two steals and a block.<\/p>\n

The 41-year-old star must continue to be the guy for the Lakers as Luka Don\u010di\u0107 and Austin Reaves work their way back from injury. Houston didn\u2019t have Kevin Durant, who was suddenly ruled out for Game 1 after he bumped knees with a teammate in practice, but James proved he still gives the Lakers a shot in this series either way. Los Angeles won\u2019t shoot 61% from the floor and 53% from three-point range as a unit each game, but James looked to get his supporting cast involved right out of the gate to take control. That will be important moving forward as James can\u2019t do everything himself. We\u2019ll see if the Lakers can stay hot in Game 2 on Tuesday when Durant likely returns.<\/p>\n

If you want to experience the first day playoff action as it happened, below you\u2019ll find\u00a0Sports Illustrated\u2019s live blog that covered each Game 1 on Saturday.<\/p>\n

Saturday NBA playoffs results, game recaps\"Houston<\/p>\n

A showdown between legendary forwards LeBron James and Kevin Durant highlights the primetime game between the Lakers and Rockets. | Troy Taormina-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

Cavaliers 126, Raptors 113 (Game 1)<\/p>\n

In a matchup of Cleveland\u2019s impressive offense vs. Toronto\u2019s elite defense, something has to give. On Saturday, it was the Cavs who had the upper hand, as Mitchell scored 32, Harden went for 22 and 10 assists, Evan Mobley dropped 17 and Max Strus erupted off the bench for 24 points. Cleveland\u2019s well-rounded scoring proved to be too much for the Raptors to match. <\/p>\n

Nuggets 116, Timberwolves 105 (Game 1)<\/p>\n

These two recent playoff rivals<\/a> are back at it for the third postseason matchup in four years. As was the case in three of their four regular season games this year, Denver came out on top to open the series. The start of the game was all Minnesota, as Edwards did not seem to be dealing with any lingering issues from the knee injury that had him questionable entering Saturday. He and the T\u2019Wolves couldn\u2019t keep up with Murray, however, giving up 30 to the Nuggets guard and a 25\/13\/11 triple-double for Joki\u0107, who was quiet early on but still managed to fill the stat sheet.<\/p>\n

Knicks 113, Hawks 102 (Game 1)<\/p>\n

These two teams don\u2019t like each other, even though New York villain Trae Young was traded from Atlanta to Washington during the season. The Hawks were one of the NBA\u2019s best teams after the All-Star break and had some buzz around them entering the playoffs. The Knicks were able to use their home-court advantage to silence the chatter in Game 1 off awesome performances from Brunson, Towns and Hart. Atlanta needs its supporting cast outside of Johnson, Alexander-Walker, McCollum and Okongwu to step up as the Hawks only had 17 points from everyone else on Saturday.<\/p>\n

Lakers 107, Rockets 98 (Game 1)<\/p>\n

The Rockets suddenly had to manage Game 1 without Durant as he was ruled out after bumping knees with a teammate in practice. The injury doesn\u2019t appear to be too serious, which Houston has to hope for as it didn\u2019t have enough to topple James and the Lakers in Game 1. The Lakers couldn\u2019t miss, while the Rockets struggled from the floor as a group. Kennard was the hero for L.A. with 27 points and a perfect 5-for-5 from three. James took control of the game early with eight assists in the first quarter, finishing with 19 points, 13 assists and eight rebounds as he takes the lead without Don\u010di\u0107 and Reaves.<\/p>\n

More NBA Playoffs From\u00a0Sports Illustrated<\/p>\n

Listen to SI\u2019s NBA podcast,\u00a0Open Floor, below or on\u00a0Apple<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Spotify<\/a>. Watch the show on\u00a0SI\u2019s YouTube channel<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"Add us as a preferred source on GoogleFollow<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The NBA playoffs are off and running with a full slate of first-round action on Saturday. After a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":713673,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3770],"tags":[7,6,681,680,476,3820],"class_list":{"0":"post-713672","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-toronto-raptors","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-nba","10":"tag-raptors","11":"tag-toronto","12":"tag-toronto-raptors","13":"tag-torontoraptors"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116429542225015431","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/713672","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=713672"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/713672\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/713673"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=713672"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=713672"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=713672"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}