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A poised and productive Ricky Rubio has been smiling and laughing Youth Joel Iyiegbuniwe Jersey , masterfully running Utah’s offense in his matchup with Oklahoma City’s Russell Westbrook.

Meanwhile, the reigning league MVP has been scowling, shoving, fouling, complaining and most of all – losing.

It’s fair to say Rubio has been more effective for the Jazz.

The Rubio-Westbrook matchup mirrors what is happening throughout the NBA playoffs: The team that gets the best point guard play usually wins.

Rubio’s all-around success has the Jazz on the brink of advancing. Utah has a 3-1 lead on the Thunder and can finish the series Wednesday night in Oklahoma City.

He summed up his play after Game 2, saying ”I did my job, looking for my teammates, and looking for my shot too when it was open. I just took what the game gave me and watched film and got better and we played as a team.”

Maybe it is just that simple.

Rubio is averaging 18.5 points, 7.8 rebounds and 8 assists per game against Oklahoma City, all well above his regular season numbers. The 27-year-old is in the first playoff series of his seven-year career, yet he is playing like a seasoned veteran.

Westbrook and the Thunder have tried to throw Rubio off his game, maybe to a fault.

Westbrook has lost his focus at times. He is averaging 21.3 points, 11.8 rebounds and 8.3 assists in the series, but he’s shooting just 37 percent from the field and 21 percent from 3-point range.

Rubio went for a triple-double in a Game 3 victory , the first playoff triple-double for the franchise since John Stockton had one in 2001.

Westbrook said he’d shut down Rubio in Game 4 Justin Braun Jersey Kids , but his efforts backfired – Rubio got more of Westbrook’s attention, and the Thunder weren’t as effective helping on Donovan Mitchell and Rudy Gobert, Utah’s two best players. Westbrook was overly aggressive and had four fouls at halftime. The Jazz rolled 113-96 . On Tuesday, he was fined $10,000 and assessed a postgame technical foul for initiating a confrontation with Gobert in the fourth quarter of Monday’s game.

Westbrook toned down the situation with Rubio after the game.

”It wasn’t about me or him,” he said. ”Let’s get past that. We’re done with that.”

Looking around the playoffs, that’s probably a good thing.

How goes a team’s point guard, so goes the team.

New Orleans’ Rajon Rondo and Philadelphia’s Ben Simmons are among the point guards whose play has lifted their teams.

That has been true in the matchup between Toronto’s Kyle Lowry and Washington’s John Wall. In Toronto’s two wins, Lowry averaged 10.5 assists, but 6.5 in two losses. Wall averaged 27.5 points and 14 assists as Washington won two games to even the series.

The 32-year-old Rondo appeared to be overmatched heading into the matchup with Portland’s Damian Lillard but showed he is not past his prime.

Rondo averaged 11.3 points, 7.5 rebounds and 13.3 assists to help the New Orleans sweep the Trail Blazers. Lillard averaged just 18.5 points in the series, eight below his regular-season average, and shot just 35 percent from the field.

Philadelphia’s Simmons has averaged 19.3 points, 10.8 rebounds and 9.8 assists t help the 76ers take a 3-1 lead in their series against the Miami Heat. In Game 4, he had the first triple-double for a rookie in a playoff game since Magic Johnson in 1980.

Miami’s Goran Dragic is playing well Johnny Gaudreau Jersey Kids , too – he’s averaging 19.5 points and shooting 49 percent. But when Simmons has been special, the 76ers have won.

Milwaukee’s Eric Bledsoe and Boston’s Terry Rozier have gone back and forth on the court and in the media. Rozier dominated the first two games – both Boston wins – averaging 23 points on 47 percent shooting while Bledsoe averaged 10.5 points and shot 36 percent.

Bledsoe won the next two matchups, and so did the Bucks. Bledsoe averaged 13 points on 50 percent shooting while Rozier averaged 9.5 points on 26 percent shooting.

Rubio doesn’t have to statistically out-perform Westbrook, who has averaged a triple-double the past two seasons. For Rubio, the key has been not trying to do too much. Just be the team’s floor general.

On offense, he takes open shots and finds his teammates. On defense, he can take chances because the 7-foot-1 Gobert can erase most mistakes.

”That is our strength,” Rubio said. ”Play as a team and get a win.”

One more Utah win and Oklahoma City’s season is done.

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The sluggish opening three months. The so-so finish. The only occasional attention to detail on defense. None of it matters anymore.

The playoffs are here. The champs are, too.

Sidney Crosby and the Penguins provided proof in Pittsburgh’s 7-0 dismantling of the Philadelphia Flyers in the opening game of their first-round series Wednesday night.

Crosby performed more stick wizardry on his way to his third postseason hat trick, Evgeni Malkin added a highlight-reel goal of his own and the Penguins overwhelmed their seemingly overmatched cross-state rivals to begin their quest for a third straight Stanley Cup with a blowout that seemed to indicate the grudge match could be a mismatch.

Not that Pittsburgh’s captain wanted to buy into any sort of message sending, even after the Penguins became only the fifth team in NHL history to win a series opener by at least seven goals.

”I mean, it’s one game,” Crosby said. ”Whether it’s 7-0 or 1-0 or double overtime, it’s one game. A big part in the playoffs is to get better every game and to adjust, and that’s the way we have to look at it.”

That might be a frightening proposition for the rest of the NHL. It certainly is for the Flyers Alex McGough Color Rush Jersey , who have lost all five meetings with Pittsburgh this season, giving up at least five goals each time. Nothing that happened during the regular season, however, compared to Wednesday night. The Penguins pumped five goals in the first 29:01 to chase goalie Brian Elliott, and the Flyers simply could not keep pace.

”It was one of the worst games I’ve been a part of,” Flyers forward Claude Giroux said.

Philadelphia coach Dave Hakstol mercifully pulled Elliott after Crosby swatted Brian Dumoulin’s point shot out of the air and knocked it by a stunned Elliott to put the Penguins up 5-0 just before the game’s midway point. Elliott stopped 14 of 19 shots before being replaced by Petr Mrazek. Mrazek made 12 saves, but Hakstol indicated he’s likely to go with Elliott again in Friday’s Game 2.

Whoever is in net for the Flyers, it won’t matter if the play in front of them isn’t better. Philadelphia’s power play went 0 for 4 and didn’t even generate a shot.

”They beat us from pretty much every aspect tonight, starting from the net out,” Elliott said. ”Everybody just has to be better.”

Jake Guentzel had a goal and three assists for Pittsburgh. Bryan Rust and Carl Hagelin also scored. Matt Murray stopped 24 shots for his third straight playoff shutout.

The Flyers stressed the need to stay out of the penalty box and put together three disciplined, competitive periods if they wanted to put an abrupt halt to Pittsburgh’s run at history. It didn’t happen. Not even close.

The Penguins jumped on Philadelphia early. Elliott stopped Kris Letang’s slap shot with his blocker only to see the long rebound go right to Rust, who ripped it over Elliott’s right shoulder to give the Penguins the lead 2:38 into the game.

Philadelphia’s best chance at staying in it came minutes later, but Scott Laughton whiffed on his first attempt from the doorstep and Murray made a sprawling glove save on Laughton’s second try to preserve Pittsburgh’s lead.

”If that goes in, it’s 1-1 and maybe we’re talking about a different result,” Crosby said.

Moments later Womens Cam Newton Jersey , Hagelin expertly redirected Patric Hornqvist’s shot past Elliott 10:07 into the game. Malkin drew a hooking penalty to negate a Pittsburgh power play, and when he emerged from the penalty box, he whizzed past three Flyers in one sequence, darting by Jakub Voracek, slipping past Giroux and then fending off Shayne Gostisbehere before flicking a backhand past Elliott to put the Penguins up 3-0 before the series was 15 minutes old.

All that before Crosby got involved.

The two-time MVP has a knack for scoring in unorthodox ways. He beat Montreal’s Carey Price with an intentional double-deflection and smacked a rebound out of air in overtime to top New Jersey within a span of eight days last month.

His first of the playoffs was just as impressive and provided the exclamation point on a night Pittsburgh looked every bit the threat to become the first team since the New York Islanders of the early 1980s to capture three straight Cups.

NOTES: Crosby’s hat trick tied Pittsburgh owner and Hall of Famer Mario Lemieux for the most postseason hat tricks in franchise history. … Murray hasn’t allowed a goal since Game 4 of the 2017 Stanley Cup finals, a span of 206:26. … The Penguins, who had the league’s top-ranked power play during the regular season, went 1 for 4 with the man advantage. … Pittsburgh C Derick Brassard, who missed time late in the regular season with a lower-body injury, had an assist in 13:44. … Injured Steelers LB Ryan Shazier, who is recovering from spine stabilization surgery and has already been ruled out for the 2018 season, stood up and led the sell-out crowd in a pre-game cheer.

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