All Bark(s) and No Bite(s)

Yesterday afternoon, the 2nd round of the NBA Playoffs began, with the Memphis Grizzlies dominating the Oklahoma City Thunder in a game that the Grizzlies never gave up the lead in. From the day it was announced Kendrick Perkins would be a Thunder, it was assumed that this move was done to combat the Lakers, bringing along a player who is not only an above-average center, but a very physical player who is no fan of the Lakers. What they did not expect however, was needing to first get past the other Gasol, Marc, and Zach Randolph. This new pair of twin towers dominated from beginning to end, putting to end any guaranteed notion that the Thunder were going to coast to the Western Conference Finals. What made the victory for Memphis truly significant though, was that it was done in OKC and it was done with the Thunder playing at their normal capacity. The loss by the Thunder was enormous and has caused some people to even rethink the series and predicting what was once thought of as a joke: Marc vs Pau Gasol in the Western Conference Finals.

Afterwards, the main event of the playoffs thus far began: the Miami Heat hosting the Boston Celtics. The first game of the season was between these two teams, and it seems the fates have determined that the season would also end with them, as hotly anticipated. The game started off rather slow and just plain awful, with both teams shooting around 20%. By halftime, the Heat had just barely managed to get above 20 points, while the Celtics were around 15 points. The game still looked like a toss up, but once they came back for the 2nd half, Dwyane Wade took over the game, making sure that he was not going to be a non-factor as in their previous 4 meetings. By the 4th Quarter, Wade's performance, as well as James Jones' incredible 3-point shooting, was clearly getting to team leader Paul Pierce, who took exception to a hard foul by James Jones. Both were given technical fouls as well as a shooting foul on Jones, but it actually should have been a flagrant-1 on Jones. Not long afterward, PIerce was hit with an offensive blocking foul on Dwyane Wade and afterward, taunted Wade with apparently very harsh language that no one will confirm. Pierce was hit with this 2nd technical foul and automatically ejected from the game with over 7 minutes left and down by more than 10 points. The Heat would go on to win by 9.

In the end, the headline is really what summed up yesterday. Kendrick Perkins learned a little too much from Doc Rivers, because both of their teams were all bark with zero bite. It's very difficult to see how the Thunder can recover from this devastating loss, but the Celtics can still pull off a series win once Pierce and Allen start finding their shots; they just need to stop being punks and ACT THEIR AGE.