On Saturday, April 13, the annual NBA playoffs began with a couple of underdogs winning and taking the lead in the series.

Starting out with the first game, the Brooklyn Nets upset the Philadelphia 76ers with the 111-102 road victory. The leading scorer for the Nets was Point Guard, D’angelo Russell, scoring a team high 26 points. On the other side of things, the leading scorer for the 76ers was Shooting guard, Jimmy Butler, who scored 36 points to lead the team. The loss for the 76ers comes at a shock for the team and their fans, coming in as the favorite with home court advantage.

Another upset in the first day of the NBA playoffs was the 104-101 road win for the Orlando Magic, over the much higher seeded Toronto Raptors. The win came from a clutch three point jump shot near the end of the fourth quarter from the starting point guard, D.J. Augustin. Augustin was also the leading scorer for the Magic with 25 points. On the losing side of things, Kawhi Leonard was the leading scorer for the Raptors with 25 points. In the Western playoff matchups, the reigning champion Golden State Warriors began their postseason against the Los Angeles Clippers and they came out on top with the win with the final score being 121-104. The leading scorer for the Warriors was the sharpshooting point guard, Stephen Curry, with 38 points and 8 three point field goals. Those three pointers put him ahead of Ray Allen for the most three point field goals in playoff NBA history.

Montrezl Harrell, the forward for the Clippers was their leading scorer for the night with 26 points. Harrell really broke out with his statline and became a true threat to start off the series. And with the other game in the Western Conference playoffs, the San Antonio Spurs defeated the Denver Nuggets with the 101-96 road victory. The win for the Spurs was a bit of a shocker for the fans as they came in on the road as the 7th seed in the conference and stole game one away from the Nuggets. The leading scorer for the victorious Spurs was AllStar Demar Derozan, with 18 points. For the losing home team in game one, the Denver Nuggets leading scorer was shooting guard, Gary Harris with 20 points in the loss.

This years playoffs hold many new opportunities for teams with Lebron James being out of the playoffs for the first time since 2005. “The one thing I like the most about the playoffs is the competitiveness and passion all the players play with,” said senior student, Jacobi Villines. The NBA playoffs will continue and are sure to be full of surprises and highlights.