They say a NBA playoff series doesn't start until a road team wins. If thats the case, this series started and ended today. Utah won on the road to shock the Rockets and after 6 games of great home cooking in this series, Houston picked the wrong time to struggle. The Jazz started quick and pretty much led this game for the most part. The Rockets finally closed in and got going in the fourth and even took a decent lead. But C-Booze was just too good in this one as he had a 35-14 game and had some key offensive boards at the end. AK-47 and Okur, the 2 guys who started the series struggling mightily, hit big 3's in the last 5 minutes to first tie and then to take the lead for good on Okur's 3. Deron Williams had 20 and 14 dimes as he and Boozer clearly established themselves as the new Stockton-Malone combo. And thats no hype folks. These 2 new guys are real good. This Jazz team will be good for a long time. For now, they are going to face the Warriors in round 2 in their first playoff since 2000 when they still had Stockton and Malone.
As for the Rockets, another crushing first round elimination for T-Mac. It was really sad to see him at the end truly despondent. There's all these talk about how millionaire athletes these days, especially of the NBA variety, don't care about the game and they are all about the money and the posse etc, but then you see a sight like this and wonder where all that garbage is coming from. T-Mac looked truly hurt as he couldn't even talk at the post-game press conference and none of that is an act. Now there are huge question marks for the Rockets with Van Gundy and also where this team goes from here. As T-Mac said, they do need more athleticism.
In Detroit, the Pistons whooped the Bulls so hard it would take them a couple of days to just get back to their senses. The baby-Bulls looked truly young and inexperienced as the Pistons ran circles around them at both ends. Their back-court led all scoring with 20 each for Rip and Billups. For the Bulls, nothing went right except for Hinrich's 15 on 6/7 shooting and Deng's monster dunk en-route to his team leading 18. They have to now regroup and at least give the Pistons a fight in game 2. I am not sure how a jump shooting team like the Bulls beat the defensive minded Pistons who are also athletic enough to stay in front of the baby-Bulls unlike the Heat.
Utah @ Houston - 103-99
Chicago @ Detroit - 69-95
Playoff schedule for 05/06/2007
San Antonio @ Phoenix - The real NBA finals starts here.
New Jersey @ Cleveland - Cavs better keep the pressure on these Nets by winning this one. The Nets have some life after that series win.
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