The NBA's young stars balled out in the second round of the playoffs

The boisterous people of Sacramento were not a part of the second round, but the basketball as a whole was no less exciting. As predicted, the Miami Heat and New York Knicks matchup was late 1990s NBA without the fights, but the 2020s NBA was at its best in the other series.

Game 4 between the Phoenix Suns and the Denver Nuggets might be basketball’s magnum opus. Combine that with the star power littered throughout this round, and the energy from the first round did not wane. Maybe the eyelids of some of the Eastern Time Zone viewers became heavy after weeks of important 10:00-10:35 p.m. tip-offs, but it was human limitations and certainly not boring basketball to put them to sleep. Los Angeles Lakers vs. Golden State Warriors is the most viewed second-round series in 27 years.

With the NBA postseason halfway complete, here are the players whose performances stood out amongst all others in the semis.

Jarren Jackson Jr. deserved to win Defensive Player of the Year even if he is not the best defensive player in the NBA. That championship belt belongs to Anthony Davis and he proved why all throughout the Lakers 4-2 series win against the Warriors.

Davis was everywhere for the Lakers on defense. If they needed him to close off the paint he put yellow caution tape over it. If he had to shut down the Warriors’ pick and roll he put a stick in the spoke of that wheel. No Warrior was safe with a clear lane to the hoop because the long arm of Davis was always looming.

His traditional stats were also great. He averaged 21.5 points per game and 14.5 rebounds on 57.8 percent shooting from the field. Still, it was his night-in and night-out dominance on defense that powered the Lakers to a victory. Don’t believe me, here is Davis isolated on Stephen Curry.

He was inconsistent, but for the second season in a row, he saved the Boston Celtics from elimination on the road after a bad home loss. Tatum was effective all night against the Philadelphia 76ers in Game 6, but through the first 27 minutes of the game, he did not make a field goal. In the fourth quarter, he sank four 3-pointers, and likely the 76ers’ playoff hopes at the same time.

On Sunday he broke the Game 7 scoring record, the second time that mark has been reset this postseason, by scoring 51 points. When Tatum is struggling to score it’s always noticeable. It’s hard to miss one-legged fall-away jump shot after one-legged fall-away jump shot.

Still, even when struggling his effort never ceases. He just does the things that he is supposed to do, and eventually, the NBA All-First-Team offense returns.

He has been a tour de force this postseason. Against the Suns, it appeared he could do whatever he wanted no matter the resistance. In one of the Nuggets’ losses, he scored 53 points against the betting favorite to win the NBA Championship going into the postseason.

Jokić always presents an issue because he is one of the most difficult big men to double team in the history of the NBA. Not only can he see over the defense, but he is also skilled enough to make every pass.

Whether scoring 53 points or 24, poor DeAndre Ayton and Jock Landale had no chance whenever matched up against Jokić. He always knows what to do and when to do it.

Even though the series against the Nuggets went six games, his Suns were throttled. Every game that they lost was by double digits. In that Game 4 thriller, it took one of the most efficient playoff performances of all time to even the series at 2-2.

That performance came from Booker who scored 36 points on 77.8/75/83.3 shooting splits. For the series, Booker averaged 30.8 points — 56.9/54.8/87.5. The Suns didn’t have enough talent to keep up with the Nuggets’ entire team, but Booker proved that he can keep up with anyone in the league.

He hit nearly every kind of shot that exists on a basketball court. A tremendous effort with an undermanned squad.

Let New York Knicks fans tell their side of the story, Adebayo is the second coming of Bill Laimbeer. The series was physical and largely did not resemble how modern NBA basketball is played, but Adebayo is no dirty player.

What he did was unleash his athleticism and versatility on the Knicks, allowing the Heat to largely roll through this series while Jimmy Butler was compensating with a swollen ankle. Adebayo’s activity helped the Heat from getting clobbered on the boards the way that the Cleveland Cavaliers were in Round 1. With Mitchell Robinson and Josh Hart unable to create extra possessions in the same way, the Knicks’ offense was largely ineffective.

Adebayo was also strong defending multiple positions on defense, but what was also crucial was his effort on offense. He averaged 14.2 field-goal attempts per game as opposed to the 11.3 he averaged against the Celtics in the 2022 Eastern Conference Finals. That activity doubled his free throw attempts, and in this 2023 rematch, the Heat need him to keep this up.

Refer back to last season’s all-semi-finals team for the explanation of why I named this award not accompanied by a trophy after Nash.

Jokić was truly unstoppable in this series. It was almost comical watching the Suns try and figure out how to contain him. Is it better for him to score 50 points or be the maestro for an offense capable of destroying an opposing defense from every spot on the floor from their 3-point line to the restricted area? The Suns never figured it out as Jokić shredded them without mercy through six games.