Valuable first-round star, playoffs.

The first round of the NBA playoffs is now history. And it had a great ending, as the LA Clippers great performance in Game 7 against Luka Doncic and the Dallas Mavericks, ended up sending Kawhi Leonard, Paul George & Co. to the Western Conference semifinals to face the Utah Jazz.

Before the Clippers and Mavs finished their series, other stars did their homework: Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Milwaukee Bucks swept the defending Eastern champion Miami Heat, while the Brooklyn Nets and Philadelphia 76ers needed just five games each to advance.

In the West, Devin Booker led the Phoenix Suns further, knocking off the defending champion Los Angeles Lakers, while Nikola Jokic’s Denver Nuggets outlasted Damian Lillard’s Portland Trail Blazers in two thrilling six-game battles. Finally, Donovan Mitchell, Rudy Gobert and the Jazz sent the Memphis Grizzlies home in five minutes after Ja Morant pulled off an upset in Game 1.

Which of these stars is the first-round MVP ? Our panel of experts makes their picks.

1. Luka Doncic | Point Guard | Dallas Mavericks

Doncic set the bar ridiculously high during his playoff debut last season, putting up incredible numbers as the Mavericks pushed the Clippers to six games in the first round. That bar went even higher in this postseason rematch between the two teams, regardless of losing the series.

With as heavy an offensive load as anyone in the playoffs, Doncic averaged 35.7 points and 10.7 assists, a significant uptick for his mind-blowing stats (31.0 points, 8.7 assists) during his first NBA playoff appearance. And his stats in this series are skewed by his rough performance in Game 4, when cervical strain in his neck prevented him from even looking to his left without excruciating pain.

“He did everything,” Clippers star Kawhi Leonard said.

Doncic did this with his supposed co-star, Kristaps Porzingis, reduced to a max-contract role player. Coach Rick Carlisle determined that Porzingis can better help the Mavs attack the Clippers’ small-ball lineups by spacing the court to maximize the space Doncic has to work his magic.

Of course, the reason the Clippers discarded their regular starting lineup to stay small is because Doncic is so dangerous. He took advantage of Ivica Zubac’s presence so often early in the series, exploiting him time and time again on switches, that his coach Ty Lue had no choice but to send the big man to the bench.

Doncic, who won titles with Real Madrid and the Slovenian national team as a teenager, enjoys the playoffs. He proved it last season. No, the Mavs didn’t make it out of the first round, but his step-back triple to win Game 4 to cap a 43-point triple-double was one of the signature moments of the bubble.

2. Giannis Antetokounmpo | Forward | Milwaukee Bucks

Last summer, Antetokounmpo and the Bucks were humbled by the Miami Heat in the second round of the playoffs. An offseason of introspection followed, as well as changes to both the roster and a new approach. Everything was immediately put to the test in the first round, when the same matchup presented itself.

Antetokounmpo responded by leading his team to the most surprising and impressive result of the first round: a four-game sweep of the defending Eastern Conference champions, including the last three games in runaway fashion.

Antetokounmpo’s stat line was far from perfect – he shot 45.9 percent from the field and 1-of-16 from 3-point range – but what stood out about his performance was the way he, and by extension the Bucks, dealt with their past demons.

After being criticized in the past for not stepping up to the challenge of defending the opposition’s best player at times, Antetokounmpo man-marked Jimmy Butler for much of the series and Butler struggled, shooting 19-of-64 over the four games. Meanwhile, after the Heat successfully created a wall that repeatedly frustrated Antetokounmpo in last year’s playoffs, he had an impressive 31-12 assist-to-turnover ratio, including a 15-assist masterpiece (with just two turnovers) in Game 4.

That series alone won’t change everything that happened to Milwaukee over the last two years. Just winning this series against the Nets, and two more after that, will completely change that talk. But for a team with so much at stake, the first-round rematch with the Heat offered an opportunity for Giannis and the Bucks to either produce the same old story or write an entirely new script.

3. Trae Young | Point Guard | Atlanta Hawks

The Madison Square Garden maestro impressed in his first playoff appearance. Analysts long wondered if Young’s small stature would become a problem against defenses that had a chance to game plan how to get the ball out of his hands and offenses that targeted him on switches.

So far, the answer is that Young has been better than ever in the postseason, producing a combined 52 points per game between his own scoring and the points generated by his assists, the fourth-highest total in the first round.

Young’s finish on this list reflects both the quantity of his contributions and his timeliness. Making his postseason debut, he scored 13 points and handed out three assists in the final quarter of a tense Game 1 at the Garden, capped by a game-winning floater with less than a second left with the game tied. In all, Young scored 41 points in 40 minutes in the final quarter, tied with Memphis Grizzlies guard Morant for the most points in the final frame during the first round.

Just as impressive, Young repeatedly delivered in a hostile environment, with Knicks fans screaming at him from before the start to when he shushed them at the end of Game 1 and bowed after the decisive Game 5 away win. On the NBA’s most famous stage, Young ran the show from start to victorious finish.

4. Kawhi Leonard | Small forward | LA Clippers If anyone needed a reminder of Leonard’s greatness, and more specifically, his greatness in the playoffs, Games 6 and 7 are the ultimate installments of the story.

The 45-point performance in Game 6, on 18-of-25 shooting, while also taking on the primary second half assignment of defending Doncic, should be the kind of game that becomes an all-time player in an elimination game on the road.

The magic of Game 6 would be moot without an encore, so Leonard delivered again. He scored 28 points on another ridiculously efficient 10-of-15 shooting, adding 10 rebounds and 9 assists, along with individual defensive excellence on Doncic (despite Doncic scoring 46).

For the Clippers, it was a defining moment for the franchise, backed into a corner with the memes and jokes ready to roll and the front office potentially tasked with the harsh reality after another early postseason exit. And for Leonard, too, it might have forced some unexpected assessments of his future, asking questions of the supporting cast in Los Angeles to determine if this was all the right move after all.

But Leonard rescued the Clippers from that, at least for a few more weeks. He came alive when the Clippers had to have him, responding to a mediocre Game 5 that put their backs against the wall. He has established himself as one of the players to fear most in a Game 7, because in a game that can rely on emotional momentum swings, Leonard’s robotic killer instinct shines through.