A pair of 60-point efforts and seven other games that saw several players scoring 50+ points made March memorable, but the temperature of the 2021/22 National Basketball Association (NBA) season was truly raised when the beginning of April saw the confirmation of the Phoenix Suns and the Miami Heat as the top seeds in the Western and Eastern Conferences, respectively.

With that, the post-season started on April 12 with the Play-In Tournament, to determine the seventh and eighth seeds in both conferences. The Minnesota Timberwolves and Brooklyn Nets outlasted their opponents to qualify for the seventh seed in the Western and Eastern Conferences, respectively, while the New Orleans Pelicans and Atlanta Hawks prevailed to emerge as the eighth seeds after their two play-in games.

With the matchups completely set, the duels for NBA supremacy began on April 16 and, like every other year, most matchups have their own plots and sub-plots. One of the most outstanding sub-plots involves the Nets, who are up against the Boston Celtics in the first round of the play-offs.

The JustBet pre-season favourite Nets feature Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving as the main forces behind their title hopes but Irving, who played for Boston for two seasons from 2017 to 2019, got a less-than warm reception from the Celtics fans in Game 1 on Sunday, April 17. Irving was considered the face of the Celtics franchise during his tenure, but things didn’t go as planned and he signed a deal with the Nets, making him public enemy number one in Boston.

Irving reacted to the boos and jeers by dropping 39 points, but he also responded to the rumbustious crowd with obscene gestures (flipping the bird) and profane language, earning him a US$50,000.00 fine by the league. Boston let the game slip late but held on for a narrow115-114 victory, on a Jayson Tatum layup as time expired. This series is guaranteed to be a grind with the Nets trying to live up to expectations, the Celtics trying to eliminate ‘the enemy’ and Irving playing with a chip on his shoulder — it promises to be fire.

After two seasons away from the play-offs, the Splash Brothers have returned to the post-season but with a bit more offensive firepower. The Golden State Warriors, with the return of Klay Thompson after two injury-stricken years and the return of Stephen Curry after missing the last month of this regular season, now have the services of Jordan Poole in their already explosive line-up.

They are up against the Denver Nuggets in this round and, even with Curry coming off the bench, the Warriors have posed more questions than the Nuggets can answer since the game plan to contain Curry, Thompson and Poole has not been successful. Additionally, Draymond Green has done his part in frustrating the reigning NBA Most Valuable Player (MVP) Nikola Jokic. The Nuggets trail in the series and there is still time to save their season, but it’s going to be an uphill battle against a formidable foe.

Prior to the post-season, with a scoring average of 30.6 points per game (ppg), Joel Embiid of the Philadelphia 76ers not only became the first centre since Shaquille O’Neal to win a scoring title (29.7 ppg in 1999-2000), but he is also the first centre to average over 30 points per game since Moses Malone (31.1 ppg in 1981-82) when he finished as runner-up for scoring title.

Embiid secured the title over the last week of the regular season, posting games of 44 points (April 3 at Cleveland Cavaliers), 45 points (April 5 at Indiana Pacers), 30 points (April 7 at Toronto Raptors) and 41 points (April 9 vs Indiana). He finished the season with the most 40-point games (13) and 30-point games (40) in the NBA.

On April 17, the NBA announced the finalists for six awards that honour top performers for the regular season: NBA Coach of the Year, Kia NBA Defensive Player of the Year, Kia NBA Most Improved Player, Kia NBA Most Valuable Player, Kia NBA Rookie of the Year and Kia NBA Sixth Man of the Year — the winner of each award is determined by votes and is announced during the run of the play-offs.

On April 18, Boston Celtics guard Marcus Smart was declared the 2021-22 Kia NBA Defensive Player of the Year and became the first guard to earn the honour since Gary Payton in the 1995-96 season, and only the second Celtics player to win the award, joining Kevin Garnett (2007-08).

Smart, an eight-year NBA veteran, has been selected to the NBA All-Defensive First Team twice (2018-19 and 2019-20 seasons) and this season, he averaged 12.1 points, a career-high 5.9 assists and 3.8 rebounds in 32.3 minutes per game. A starter in all 71 of his games played this regular season, he ranked seventh in the NBA in steals per game (1.68) and tied for sixth in total steals (119). He had 19 games with three or more steals, including two games with a season-high five steals, tied for fourth in the NBA in loose balls recovered (75) and tied for 10th in both deflections (206) and charges drawn (16). He also set a career high in defensive rebounds per game (3.2).

Behind Smart, the Celtics led the NBA in defensive rating (106.2) and points allowed per game (104.5) and held opponents to the lowest field goal percentage (43.4) and three-point field goal percentage (33.9). The strong defensive performance helped to catapult the Celtics to a 51-31 record and the second seed in the Eastern Conference. Smart beat out Phoenix Suns’ forward Mikal Bridges who finished in second place and Utah Jazz’s centre and three-time Kia NBA Defensive Player of the Year, Rudy Gobert who finished third.

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