NBA Playoffs Panic Rankings: It's Time to Rebuild the Clippers and Celtics

Opening weekend of the NBA playoffs is complete and every series has begun. That means its time to completely overreact to whatever happened in each game 1. How much panic should your team be experiencing this morning?

NO WORRIES

San Antonio Spurs / Golden State Warriors
The top two seeds in the Western Conference took care of business to varying degrees. Both these series are over. Anything less than a sweep would be a surprise and would probably involve multiple starters sitting to rest if a game happens to be on primetime on ESPN.

PRETTY PRETTY GOOD

Washington Wizards
The Wizards were one of the hottest teams coming into the playoffs and John Wall was great. It’s over. Not quite as over as the Spurs and Warriors’ series, but over.

Houston Rockets
The MVP debate is over! James Harden wins and triple-doubles are overrated. And so is Russell Westbrook’s supporting cast. The Rockets didn’t even shoot well and they still won easily. Looks like… a sweep!

Milwaukee Bucks
Maybe they’re unstoppable!? And maybe Giannis is the one true unicorn.

CREEPING DOUBT

Utah Jazz
Great news – They won! Bad news – they lost Rudy Gobert. Good news – Gobert is OK and wants to return during the series. If that happens, Utah should be great. If not, this is a team in its first playoff series so growing pains should be expected.

Cleveland Cavaliers
Cleveland looked as vulnerable as they have for most of the season, but no one is really actually concerned about this series. LeBron has never lost a first round series. So, there’s like, overall panic, but no immediate panic. There’s the threat of panic. And they’re the defending champions.

Chicago Bulls
Chicago upset the #1 seed in an ugly road win, but a result is a result and Chicago fans should be feeling confident. Especially if Bobby Portis continues to be good.

WHY TRY?

Oklahoma City Thunder
Andre Roberson made 4-of-6 three-pointers and the Thunder got destroyed. Roberson hasn’t made multiple 3’s since February 24th. It was an exciting regular season though. Fun fact: Oscar Robertson’s team lost in the first round of the playoffs the season he averaged a triple-double. Sure makes that mark a little less impressive…

Toronto Raptors
Should the Raptors come back and beat the Bucks, PJ Tucker (7 points on 2-of-7 shooting) is going to guard the hell out of LeBron in the 2nd round.

NOBODY CARES

Atlanta Hawks
I don’t think anyone cares enough to panic. Just hope Dwight Howard doesn’t have a 28 point, 3 rebound performance.

Indiana Pacers
Lance Stephenson played 6 games for the Pelicans, 6 games for the Timberwolves and 6 games for the Pacers during the regular season. The Pacers are definitely taking this series to 6, but they’ll still lose.

DOOM

Portland Trail Blazers
The season is over.

Memphis Grizzlies
The season is over.

WE NEED A COMPLETE REBUILD

Los Angeles Clippers
IT’S OVER. BREAK UP THE CLIPPERS. It seems we play this song every Spring as the Clippers flame out in the playoffs, nowhere near a championship. Or a conference title. For the 6th consecutive season. Every year the Clippers lose in the playoffs. Every year we talk about DeAndre Jordan, Chris Paul and Blake Griffin leaving and the team starting over. Every year they end up running it back. See you in 2018.

Boston Celtics
The 1-seed Boston Celtics dropped game 1 to the 8-seed Chicago Bulls. Isaiah Thomas had a great game  – especially considering the circumstances -and Summer of 2016 free agent prize Al Horford scored 19 points. The top seed has now lost home court advantage to a .500 team and Brad Stevens still has never won a playoff series. Assets! Draft picks!