The 10 Best Closers From This Season’s NBA Playoffs

The NBA Playoffs are in full swing. There are no weak teams left but rather just the mighty squads that are all capable of winning at this level in this kind of environment. Because of the level of talent from team to team, games–especially those that mean so much–come down to the wire and it is up to the “closer” to bring his ninth inning heat and finish out the contest.

To honor such clutch players, we are taking a look at the best closers from this postseason.

Criteria for determining the list below includes performance in key games (such as advancing/avoiding elimination), fourth quarter play, the “clutch” statistic as well as game-winning and buzzer-beating shots.

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10. Jeff Teague
His team got knocked out in the first round, but without Jeff Teague, the Hawks would never have challenged the one-seeded Pacers. The point guard carried Atlanta on his shoulders, draining big shots and getting his teammates, which included multiple role players, involved in the action.

In a Game 3 win to give the Hawks a 2-1 series lead, Teague terrified the Pacers, dropping 22 points and adding 10 dimes to reach the double-double. He also created for his teammates, and assisted on four of Kyle Korver’s made field goals, three of them three-pointers.

9. Nicolas Batum
Though he often gets overlooked due to Damian Lillard and LaMarcus Aldridge, his team’s star-power duo, Nicolas Batum is one of the most significant pieces to the present and future of the Blazers. In Monday night’s elimination game against the San Antonio Spurs, it was the French-native who kept his team alive. He scored 14 points and added 14 huge rebounds, all the while slowing Tony Parker for the first time all series. He’s important. And he knows it, too.

“Like we have said all along, I could be the key, the X-factor on this team,” Batum said following the victory. “And I feel tonight, I had an effect on the game both ways.”

NBA Writer Chris Palmer may have put it best last month when he summed up Batum in six words.

He is probably also the best teammate on the planet:

8. LeBron James
Miami is almost too good so LeBron James rarely gets to strut his stuff in tight postseason affairs. Their lack of close games has not allowed James much of an opportunity to perform in the clutch, but that is just a testament to how well he and his teammates finish out their opponents before they have a chance to breathe. The two-time defending NBA champion is averaging 30.1 points, 6.9 rebounds and 4.6 assists throughout the postseason after a sweep of the Charlotte Bobcats and taking a 3-1 series on the Brooklyn Nets. The Heat appear to be in prime position not only to reach the Eastern Conference Finals, but also to capture their third straight title.

LeBron can be thanked for that.

7. Monta Ellis
It is never easy going up against the consistent and experienced Spurs as an eight-seed, but the Mavericks pushed them to seven games and were close to pulling off the near-impossible. Yet, if it wasn’t for Monta Ellis and his heroics, Dallas would have “gone fishin’” weeks prior.

The 28-year-old catapulted the Mavs into the postseason but they found themselves down 3-2 heading into Game 6. With their season in question, Ellis responded like only a closer can. He poured in 12 of his team’s last 22 points to help defeat San Antonio 115-113 and force Game 7. It was the third time in his last six games he had scored at least 10 points in the final quarter.

Jon Machota of The Dallas Morning News may have put it best when, describing Ellis’s impressive game, he wrote: “The Mavs go as Monta goes. When he’s knocking down triples and having success at the rim, the Mavs are extremely difficult to defend.”

6. Mike Conley Jr.
The Grizzlies were another team that got bounced in the first round, but it was Mike Conley, Memphis’s ailing point guard, who did all he could do to upset the lethal Thunder. Through four contests in the “clutch” (defined by NBA.com/stats as a statistic measured under five minutes of a game within five points), Conley still manages to rank second among all players in points per game during this time, despite having been out of the playoffs for almost two weeks now.

The 26-year-old averaged 5.3 points, second only to recently-awarded MVP Kevin Durant while dishing out 1.8 assists, which led the league, and grabbing down 1.3 rebounds, second among all point guards behind Russell Westbrook.

5. LaMarcus Aldridge
While it was Damian Lillard who is receiving much of the credit for Portland’s playoff run, it would’ve been difficult for him to get the Blazers to where they are now without his partner-in-crime, LaMarcus Aldridge

Portland’s big man has been all sorts of amazing throughout this postseason, and averaged an impressive 35.3 points per game through the first four games of the first round against the Rockets to help his team take control of the series before eventually advancing.

4. Dwight Howard
Although he and his teammates suffered heartbreak and ended the season in disappointment, Dwight Howard’s individual performance was extremely impressive throughout the series against the Blazers. Attempting to stave off elimination in Game 5, D12 performed brilliantly, scoring a team-high 22 points while adding an enormous 14 boards and keeping Houston’s chances to advance alive.

The league’s best center (sorry Laker fans) is also tied for fifth in the clutch with five points per game and is tied atop the league with 2.5 rebounds during this period of play.

3. Russell Westbrook
If there was still any doubt about Russell Westbrook’s significance to this Oklahoma City squad, he proved his worth again on Tuesday night. On a night when Kevin Durant could not get a shot to fall, Westbrook took over. The polarizing point guard dropped 38 points, including 23 in the second half alone to lead the charge of the Thunders’ comeback. He got fouled while attempting a three-pointer, knocking down all three tries and sealing the game for his team to take a 3-2 series lead.

The 25-year-old also averages 5.1 points in the clutch, the fourth-most in the league while ranking first among non-forwards or centers in rebounds with 1.8 and second in assists with 1.7. Westbrook may have come up with the most memorable steal of this postseason, too, picking Conley’s pocket in the first round before slamming home the dunk and forcing overtime.

2. Damian Lillard
Aside from hitting one of the most memorable shots in postseason history, Damian Lillard has been performing for his team throughout the postseason. The budding Portland star averages 5.2 points in the clutch, third among all other postseason players, while shooting 47.4 percent from the field and 50 percent from beyond the arc.

And then, inevitably, there’s “The Shot”. With the Blazers down 98-96 with just 0.9 seconds remaining in regulation of Game 6 of the first round, it appeared as though the Rockets had forced Game 7. Lillard, however, had other plans and hit a remarkable three-pointer to sink Houston and send Portland to the second round. Cold-blooded.

1. Kevin Durant
Kevin Durant has certainly played like the MVP he is throughout the postseason. The 25-year-old megastar leads the league in points per game in the clutch, averaging 5.9 while shooting an extremely impressive 55.6 percent from the field in this time.

To even survive the tough test from the seventh-seeded Grizzlies in the first round, KD had to deliver and certainly did. Aside from his insane four-point play to force overtime in Game 2, he scored 36 points in Game 6 to force one last first-round game, in which he tallied 33 to push his team to the Western Conference Semifinals.

Is the regular season MVP soon to become the Finals MVP?

What do you think?

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