Ex-Cats have arrived in NBA playoffs. Scoring leader? Check. Top two in assists? Check.

Washington Wizards point guard John Wall took over late in Sunday night’s NBA playoffs — after backcourt running mate Bradley Beal fouled out — to lead his team to a 106-98 victory over the top-seeded Toronto Raptors. That evened their first-round Eastern Conference series at 2-all.

Wall scored or assisted on 10 of the Wizards’ last 14 points, and he finished the game with 27 points and 14 assists.

“When Brad went out, I knew I had to do whatever it took,” Wall said, according to the Associated Press.

“I knew if we still had John in the game I loved our chances,” Beal told The Washington Post.

It was the just the latest star turn for a former University of Kentucky basketball player in these playoffs.

Anthony Davis and Rajon Rondo have already led the New Orleans Pelicans to the next round, courtesy of a four-game sweep of the third-seeded Portland Trail Blazers.

And while his first two career playoff performances were less than stellar, Karl-Anthony Towns bounced back with 18 points and 16 rebounds in the Minnesota Timberwolves’ Game 3 victory over the Houston Rockets on Saturday that cut their series deficit to 2-1.

While the University of Kentucky has ranked at the top of the NBA in former players on rosters the past few seasons — there were 30 at one point this season — they haven’t had this much of a postseason impact in awhile. Davis hadn’t even reached the playoffs since the 2014-15 season, and his Pelicans were swept by the Golden State Warriors in the first round that time.

This time around — through Sunday’s games — Davis is the playoffs’ leading scorer at 33.0 per game. That includes his monster performance in Game 4 on Saturday when he scored 47 points in a series-clinching 131-123 victory over the Trail Blazers.

“In a close-out game and with the magnitude of the situation, this has probably been the best game he's played since I’ve been here,” Pelicans Coach Alvin Gentry said. “He just was not going to let us lose.”

Davis is also third in the playoffs in rebounding (12.0) and fourth in blocked shots (2.8).

And he’s stepping up while fellow ex-Cat DeMarcus Cousins has been sidelined since late January with an Achilles tear.

“He’s had it hard. I couldn’t imagine what it’s like going all those years not being able to compete in the postseason when you’re that level of player,” Trail Blazers star Damian Lillard told the AP about Davis after the Pelicans eliminated Portland from the playoffs. “I congratulate him. … You’ve got to give credit where it’s due. I give him credit for his performance and their team. And he’s also a great dude. So, you can’t be mad at him.”

Rondo — er, Playoff Rondo — has given Davis and the Pelicans a big assist — many of them — so far.

He’s the postseason’s assists leader at 13.3 per game, just ahead of Wall at 13.0. And Rondo is also averaging 12.8 points and 7.0 rebounds in the playoffs.

“I came here to win a championship. I didn’t come here to beat a team in the first round or the second round,” the 32-year-old Rondo, who won a title with Boston in 2008, told the AP. “It kind of all meshed. It took a while, but at the end of the day, nothing comes together quickly. We were able to come together, play for each other and believe in one another.”

Wall is also tied with the Miami Heat’s Josh Richardson for the steals lead at 2.8 per game, and he’s eighth in the playoffs in scoring at 26.8.

Towns hasn’t had many good looks from the field in the playoffs, and he has struggled to shots when has taken them. He’s shooting 32.3 percent from the field and averaging 10.3 points, down from 21.3 points and 54.5 percent during the regular season.

But the former UK star has managed to make a difference with his rebounding. He’s second in the playoffs at 12.7 per game, just ahead of Davis.

“The difference in Timberwolves All-Star center Karl-Anthony Towns’ performance in the team’s two playoff losses in Houston and its Game 3 victory in front of a vocal crowd at sold-out Target Center on Saturday night was like night and day,” the Star Tribune’s Sid Hartman reported after the game.

“We see their game plan and we’re just trying to adjust to it accordingly,” Towns said. “You have to let the game come to you. You can’t force things up, shots up, against certain teams. You just have to let the game come to you the way it is.”

Other former Kentucky stars playing significant minutes in these playoffs include the Pelicans’ Darius Miller (4.8 points, 2.5 rebounds, five of 11 three-point attempts), the Miami Heat’s Bam Adebayo (3.3 points, 4.0 rebounds), the Milwaukee Bucks’ Eric Bledsoe (11.8 points, 4.3 assists, 4.0 rebounds) and the Oklahoma City Thunder’s Patrick Patterson (2.7 points, 2.3 rebounds).

Playoff scoring leaders

Playoff assists leaders

Playoff rebounding leaders

Playoff steals leaders

Playoff blocks leaders

This story was originally published April 23, 2018 at 10:48 AM with the headline "Ex-Cats have arrived in NBA playoffs. Scoring leader? Check. Top two in assists? Check.."