This Saturday bracket of the playoffs is the boring bracket. The real stories of these playoffs are the Lakers and the Suns with the star power of Kobe, Dallas struggling against Golden State and the Bulls embarassing the Heat. All these games are slated for Sunday. So the Saturday schedule is left with Detroit V "we are happy to be here" Magic, Cavs V the Washington B-team and the "first one to 75 points wins" series between the Rockets and the Jazz. The only intriguing game today was Spurs and Denver, which is saying something because Spurs are typically considered a boring team.
The veteran Spurs team executed well as always and beat the rich-and-creamy Nuggets to win back home court. This series looks every bit like the one 2 years back where the Spurs won 4 straight after losing game-1 at home. Melo is rejecting this notion, but thats just wishful thinking on his part. I would give Denver one more win, may be the next game, because AI is always good for one win all by himself. Other than that, this series should be over. In addition to the Spurs big 3, Finn-dawg and Horry joined the playoff party in this game and hit some big 3's. Melo had 28-12, but AI had trouble shooting and had just 20. Marcus Camby was awarded the "Defensive player of the year" award (that should belong to Marion) before this game. That was Denver's only highlight.
Detroit finished off Orlando as expected. A sweep for the pistons and they knew they had to keep pace with the Bulls who might also end up with a sweep. Dwight Howard finally had a monster game with 29-17. Magic fans can expect more such monster games in future playoffs, but he is still too young to challenge the veteran Pistons. Once again the Pistons starting-5 scored in double figures with Billups leading them with 25. 11-10 for C-Webb as his run continues. Grant Hill scored 17 on 7/8 shots and this could be his last NBA game.
30-6-9 for King James as the Cavs didn't let the Wizards back into this series. The Wizards played real hard and Jamison was fantastic, but they just don't have the talent to compete in this series. Jamison had 38-11 and thats amazing considering every Cavalier knows he is all the Wizards have got on offense. He still shot 15/27 on a variety of shots. Nobody makes more weird looking shots in the paint than this guy and he has one of the softest touch in the game. This series would have been a knockout if Gil was healthy. Speaking of Agent-0, apparently he broke his long silence to speak to the press about how he is so happy his face is on the cover of NBA live. He is hearing some for promoting this when his team is struggling in the playoffs. Agent-0 is equal parts good and bad, and this is his bad side coming out at a real bad time.
Houston was bottled up again today by the Jazz and I have no idea who's going to win this series. It's a typical 4-5 match-up featuring 2 teams that are pretty close. It's now tied up 2-2 and that whole saying about "a series does not really start until a road team wins" is so true in this one. Neither team looks capable of beating the other on the road and thats where Houston's home-court might come in handy. Deron Williams has been real good in this series and he had his best-game today with 25-2-7. This guy has a bright future. Okur finally broke out of his shooting slump and had 16 on 7/13 shooting. No such luck for AK-47. For the Rockets, Yaoo and McGrady were ordinary in this one with 20 and 18 respectively.
Detroit @ Orlando - 97-93
Cleveland @ Washington - 98-92
San Antonio @ Denver - 96-91
Houston @ Utah - 85-98
Playoff schedule for 04/29/2007
Phoenix @ LA Lakers - If LA wins this one, this series becomes a dog-fight.
Dallas @ Golden State - The Mavs could easily be staring at a 1-3 deficit after this game.
Toronto @ New Jersey - Toronto has surprised me with it's listless play.
Chicago @ Miami - Miami better step up and win at least one. The series is over and they have nothing to play for except their pride and the home fans.
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