The NBA Playoffs’ second day on Tuesday saw a couple of big surprises, as the #1 seeded teams in both conferences surprisingly lost to the #8 seeds in their opening round games.
The Milwaukee Bucks were the first #1 seed to go down, as the top regular season team in the East fell to the Magic 122-110, who had the worst regular season record of any qualifying playoff team at 33-40. Not only were the Magic a heavy underdog, but they were also missing star player Jonathan Isaac, who went down with an injury prior to the start of the playoffs.
That didn’t matter on Tuesday in Orlando, however, as center Nikola Vucevic’s monster 35 points, 14 rebound performances was enough to get past the Bucks, who now find themselves in an unexpected hole going into Thursday night’s Game 2.
Things didn’t go much better for the West’s #1 seed, as the Lakers also lost their opening game to the Trail Blazers by a 100-93 final. LeBron James’ 23 points, 17 rebounds, 16 assist triple-double wasn’t enough to carry his team to a victory over the inspired Blazers and Damian Lillard.
Lillard continued his hot shooting, torching an LA team that didn’t get much offensive production outside of James and Anthony Davis for 34 points.
The Lakers and Bucks will both have a shot to even up their respective series on Thursday night.
