With the Los Angeles Clippers and Utah Jazz tipping off later tonight, the entirety of the second round of the 2021 NBA Playoffs is finally upon us. Last night gave us some brilliant performances from both the Brooklyn Nets and Phoenix Suns, and tonight we’ll get to see if the Atlanta Hawks can take a commanding 2-0 series lead against the heavily favored Philadelphia 76ers.

Before we dive in to tonight’s two matchups, let’s catch up on anything we’ve missed from both the Minnesota Timberwolves and Minnesota Lynx. As it pertains to the Wolves, not much is happening right now at Mayo Square. Many of the players are enjoying a few weeks off before reconvening in the Minneapolis area for summer workouts, and that includes guys like Karl-Anthony Towns and D’Angelo Russell, both of whom are hanging out together this week in Miami.

The next major event on the Timberwolves calendar is the NBA Draft Lottery, which will take place on Tuesday, June 22 at 7:30pm. Minnesota has a 27.6% chance of keeping their first round pick this year, so it’ll be must watch TV that night to see exactly how the infamous ping pong balls fall.

Speaking of the NBA Draft Lottery — our own Dane Moore will be hosting a live event (free of charge!) that night at Forgotten Star Brewery to not only watch how the Lottery shakes out, but also to record a podcast immediately after the results are in. Yours truly will be flying in that morning to attend this event as well, and I’d love to see as many of you as possible to chat Wolves, recipes, and discuss your favorite wine to pair with a sirloin.

Back to Minnesota hoops — after starting the season 0-4, the Lynx have rebounded quite nicely over the last few weeks, winning three straight and positioning themselves back in the top eight of the WNBA standings. The Lynx will be back in action tonight (on the road) against the Washington Mystic (2-5) before returning home Saturday for two straight games. Tonight’s game tips off at 8:00pm CST and can be seen on Twitter I believe (don’t ask me how that works, I’m still trying to figure that out myself).

Tuesday NBA Playoff Schedule

• Hawks @ Sixers (6:30PM CST, TNT)
• Clippers @ Jazz (9:00PM CST, TNT)

While last night’s two games were fun, I’m REALLY excited for tonight’s lineup. I loved what I saw from the Hawks in Game 1, and while I would still lean towards the 76ers figuring things out and evening the series tonight at home, another Hawks win would put a real stranglehold on this series.

As for Jazz/Clippers — it might be my tiny blog boy brain talking here, but I think the winner of this series ends up in the NBA Finals. No disrespect to the Suns here (who I think will beat Denver comfortably in six games), but I think these two teams are a tier above both Phoenix and Denver and should deliver us an epic six or seven game series. Now that the dust has settled from round one, my (modified) NBA Finals pick is now Clippers vs. the NBA’s latest Big Three, with Brooklyn eventually cutting down the nets next month.

Have a great night and Go Lynx!