Duke Blue Devils: NBA Playoffs Preview
The Duke Blue Devils have eight active players and one notable injured star as the NBA Playoffs begin.
The Duke Blue Devils do not have a bigger number of players in the 2017 playoffs than their rival North Carolina Tar Heels do, but they have a much bigger impact on what will happen in those games because of who those players are.
This is part of a trend that we followed for a little while with the 2k roster series where there were a couple of years where we built custom teams of all the Carolina and Duke players to see how they stack up. Lately there have been more and more Blue Devils to choose from, but comparatively fewer Tar Heels.
This has played out in this year’s playoffs where the Duke guys are mostly starters while the Tar Heel guys are mostly role players, at least that is what the hype says.
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- Cleveland Cavs (Kyrie Irving, Dahntay Jones) vs Indiana Pacers
This game brings the old friends back together. LeBron James gets to have his reunion with Lance Stephenson back where it all began. That will certainly overshadow any role that Jones has in the series. I was surprised to see Jones back on the Cavs roster this year, but they trust him and he really is just insurance anyway.
Irving will be far more important to what the Cavs do in the playoffs. He came into his own during some of the Finals games last year, but he will need to be a major contributor the whole way through this time. The starting Olympic point guard has some support in the form of backup Deron Williams this time around.
Irving has had a really good season. He improved his field goal shooting and got his season average from the three point line up to forty percent. His scoring average jumped out to 25.2 points a game. His one real test will probably be the Finals, but it will be interesting to see him go against the Celtics guards in the Eastern Conference finals.