Thursday, April 26, 2007

Miami lose again - NBA playoff notes - 04/24/2007

Miami lost again, and this time it was not even close. Neither was foul trouble a factor in this one, though turnovers were. The Bulls forced both Shaq and D-Wade in to 7 turnovers and held them to 17 and 21 points respectively. On the offensive end, Luol Deng was still unstoppable. He had 26 on 11/19 shooting and Lil-Ben had 27 himself. Hinrich stayed on the court this time and had 14 points and 8 dimes. Big-Ben had 3 blocks to go with his 9 points. The Bulls look great right now. Some people say they'll win the East. But I think this series is more about how average the Heat are than how good the Bulls are. Heat has a lot of issues and they don't have a healthy Flash to cover them all up. The role players will play better at home, but the Bulls should still be able to get a split in Miami and close it out at home.

In Toronto, Sam Mitchell won the Coach of the Year award and the players rewarded him with a much needed win. Toronto had to win this one and they did behind CB-4's 25-13 and Anthony Parker's 26. They need Anthony Parker to do well if they have to win and he was terrific in this game. The game was really close as both teams shot poorly, but at the end of the day, the Raptors just took a few more high percentage shots than Vinsanity. Vince had another 8/24 night. He never tires of shooting jumpers and rarely takes the ball inside like the entire World advises him to. I think this guy is wasting his talents on most nights. This series now goes back to New Jersey, but the games are going to be similar. We are looking at a long series and a lot of jumpers from half-man-half-brick.

The Suns won easily, but more on that later.

New Jersey @ Toronto - 83-89
Miami @ Chicago - 89-107
LA Lakers @ Phoenix - 98-126

Playoff schedule for 04/25/2007

Denver @ San Antonio - Spurs should get this one.

Golden State @ Dallas - Must-win for Dallas. Warriors hope to stay close.

Washington @ Cleveland - Cavs are hoping for an easy 2-0 lead in this one.

No comments: