The Playoffs have finally arrived, with several notable match-ups, including Boston vs New York and Dallas vs Portland. On the first day of action, we saw The Chicago Bulls struggle against the Indiana Pacers, the Philadelphia 76ers control most of the game against the Miami Heat, The Atlanta Hawks eviscerate the Orlando Magic, and the Portland Trail Blazers putting on the pressure against the Dallas Mavericks. Only the Hawks managed an "upset," even though most analysts and odds-makers are predicting the Hawks to defeat the higher-seeded Magic with ease.
The Hawks certainly proved them right; Dwight Howard scored 46 points and yet the Magic still lost by 10 points. The Magic is made of two key components now: Dwight Howard, the best overall center in the NBA, and everyone else on the team who are all known for being 3-point shooters. What the Magic have as obvious Achilles' Heels are that they have no true backup Center and only Jameer Nelson even dares to attack the basket, although she usually prefers to shoot 3's. The Hawks exploited both of their weaknesses and never bothered to seriously guard Howard and instead focus on guarding everyone else. The strategy worked perfectly and the Magic were made a mockery of despite the fact Howard scored a career high in points. If Stan Van Gundy cannot teach everyone on the team how to score a lay up, they could be in danger of being swept out of the first round by the team they annihilated in a record beatdown last year.
As far as the other teams yesterday, both Chicago and Miami managed to make great comebacks from behind, but for differing reasons. The Bulls had their comeback led by pinpoint accurate shooting and driving on all cylinders, playing like the #1 overall seed. The Heat... basically lucked out that the 76ers started playing incredibly poorly. Although Dallas led most of the game against the Blazers, Portland controlled the pace of the game throughout, causing Dirk Nowitski to have a terrible shooting night until the 4th quarter when he picked things up and closed the game.
Today came the other 4 games, which saw something unseen in the playoffs since the 80s: both the #1 Spurs and #2 Lakers lost their Game 1's. Both teams were overwhelmed by the lower seeded Grizzlies and Hornets respectively, but for differing reasons, again. The Spurs were defeated by a lack of Manu Ginobili, lost to a hyper-extended elbow on the final day of the season, and utter dominance by Marc Gasol and Zach Randolph, leading the Grizzlies to their first playoff victory in the franchise's 10 year history. The Lakers were killed by Chris Paul doing whatever the hell he wanted to do and Pau Gasol never playing like he cared. Frequently, the Hornets took advantage of the Lakers' long-known weakness of transition defense, causing Pau Gasol to defend Chris Paul frequently in the 4th quarter. Although Kobe and Lamar Odom had great nights, the total lack of Pau Gasol really hurt the Lakers to the point that there is now a statistical risk of losing the series.
The Boston Celtics met the New York Knicks, a team that has not been to the playoffs, not to mention win a playoff game, in so many years that most of the people playing for the Knicks were not in the NBA yet. The Knicks gave the Celtics a great challenge and proved that they were going to just sit there and be defeated, taking the game down to to the wire until Ray Allen made a 3-pointer to take a 2 point lead with under 10 seconds left. Carmelo Anthony then missed a 3-point attempt off of excellent Celtic defense. However, it became very clear that if the Celtics want to win the series, they need Shaq to be healthy or they won't stand a chance down the stretch.
The last of the Game 1's was between the Oklahoma City Thunder and Denver Nuggets, two teams that have generally been viewed as evenly matched heading into the playoffs. The Nuggets have been on fire since the Carmelo Anthony trade, beating almost all of the big teams and entering the playoffs with tons of excitement, despite the fact they have no star player and their team leader is apparently now Kenyon Martin, one of the least likeable players in the NBA. On the side of OKC, the lingering of an old curse hung overhead: the last time the regular season scoring champion reached their Conference Finals was Allen Iverson in 2001, where his 76ers eventually lost to the Lakers in 5 games.
The game itself was a thriller from beginning to end, with the Nuggets leading in the first half and most of the second. The game ultimately came down to Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook doing what they do best, but it came down to extremely poor refereeing that missed [CORRECTION]Kendrick Perkins[CORRECTION] tipping in a ball while holding the net to secure the Thunder eventually winning the game. Although the Thunder did win a margin high enough to compensate for the offensive interference being missed, the bucket that made it was extremely crucial towards the Thunder winning.
So yes, there was already quite a bit of drama in the opening games, with only 1 team getting an exactly as predicted decisive loss and every single one of the top 4 seeds in each conference struggling in all of their games. Who knows what's in store for the rest of the series; stay tuned for my review of the first round once all the games are finished, probably a week and a half from now.
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