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Not So Fast

After a dominating game 3 win for the Boston Celtics against the Philadelphia 76ers, Philly knew they had to play their heart out to tie this series up or else the future would be very bleak.  It didn't start off so well for Philly, because Boston came out firing on all cylinders.  Boston outscored Philly 24-12 in the first quarter & then 22-19 in the 2nd, leading to an impressive 46-31 lead at halftime.  The game was so lopsided that Philadelphia was booed by their homecourt fans.

Some teams would probably crawl into their shell after a half like that.  It was the biggest game of the year for a young team that nobody even expected to be in this round & they were getting punk'd out.  The fans booing them may have a motivating factor, though, because they came out ready to play in the 3rd quarter.  Philly's offense emerged in the 3rd quarter as they dropped 28 points on Boston & only gave up 17 to the Celtics.  The 76ers were back in the game.  Still, Boston had the lead going into the 4th, Philly would have to play that much better to complete this miraculous comeback.  They did just that.  Philly is a team centered around depth, they don't really have that prototypical "superstar" player.  Their proverbial "best" player showed up last night, though.  Their potential Olympic representative Andre Iguodala put the team on his back & led the 76ers to an improbable victory against the mighty Celtics.  It was Iggy's 16 points that helped propel the 76ers, including 5 straight points for Philly in the final minute & a half when the game was tied.  With less than 2 minutes left, Iguodala calmly took a step back jumper & drained a go-ahead shot to put the 76ers up 85-83.  Immediately after that, Rajon Rondo had his shot blocked & Philly was back on the attack.  Iguodala sank a 3 point shot for the dagger, giving Philly a 5 point lead & causing the passionate fans, the very ones who were booing this team earlier, to go into a frenzy.  76ers somehow win 92-83.

I wrote in my small prediction yesterday that I believed if the Celtics could get the kind of stellar production they got from Rondo, Kevin Garnett, & Paul Pierce in game 3, then game 4 would be just as easy for them.  It started off that way, but they fizzled fast.  Garnett no longer looked like he was 10 years younger, he looked old again.  Only 9 points after his epic game 3 is definitely not what Boston was looking for.  Pierce played well, getting 24 points, but seemed to take a backseat as he watched Rondo try to make plays by himself, even though he is not a play-making point guard. Brandon Bass had a good first half, but disappeared in the 2nd half, finishing with 15 points.  What's really hurting the Celtics is the lack of production from their former all-star shooting guard, Ray Allen.  He played 31 minutes but only scored 5 points.  He has been disturbingly quiet this series & God knows they could have used him last night.  This supporting cast is awful for Boston, the stars need to make the plays & they just didn't last night in the 2nd half.  Keyon Dooling was bricking shots left & right while no one else could even pray to hit the rim.  Philly, on the other hand, has great depth & put their trust in all of their players to complete the comeback.  Evan Turner, their much maligned former lottery pick, poured in 16 points for them while the runner-up for 6th Man of the Year, Lou Williams, scored 15 points off the bench, 13 of which he scored in the 2nd half.  Williams was really the spark this team desperately needed in the 2nd half.  All of Philly's starters had a negative +/- rating, save for Evan Turner who finished neutral at 0.  Williams, on the other hand, finished with an impeccable +28 rating.  Add in 12 points off the bench from Thaddeus Young, 9 from Jodie Meeks, & 8 from Lavoy Allen & you've got some pretty solid bench production.  Philly's bench outscored Boston's 44-12.

Game 5 will be played on Monday as this series has quickly become one of the more exciting ones left in the playoffs.  It's anyone's guess as to how the next game will play out.  After watching Boston dominate game 3 & the first half of game 4, you gotta believe they have what it takes to shut down this young 76ers team.  The thing that keeps Philly more than just alive, but with legitimate reason to believe they can win is their depth & confidence.  Boston has their big 3 of Rondo, Pierce, & Garnett, but that's about it.  If they don't perform, they're screwed.  Philadelphia, however, has a rotation that goes about 8 men deep.  Boston will be playing at home on Monday, which should give them the emotional charge they may need to shake off this heartbreaking loss.  Philly seems to play off the energy their crowd gives them, it's time for this young team to prove they can win pivotal games on the road.  I still believe Boston ultimately wins this series, but this has 7 games written all over it.

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 Sweating in Miami

Remember game 2 of the series between the Pacers & Heat?  The Pacers managed to get out of Miami stealing a win on the Heat's homecourt & they were amped about it.  The Heat players were none too pleased by Indiana's reaction to the win & thought their celebration was too over the top.  So you gotta bet that the next game, the Heat would be ready to embarrass the Pacers for such a thing, the motivation had to be through the roof.  Uhh...I guess not.  The Pacers gave the Heat the biggest beat down they've seen all year long & it was in the biggest game (until the next game) of the year.

The game started off according to script.  Another low scoring game with some physicality.  The Pacers came out red hot to open the game as Roy Hibbert managed to completely embarrass Erik Spoelstra's new starting center, Dexter Pittman.  The Pacers went on an 11-2 run to open the game in front of their golden crowd & were flying high.  Unfortunately for them, LeBron James led the Chris Bosh-less Heat on an impressive run of their own, managing to outscore the Pacers 24-6 to end the quarter & take a 26-17 lead at the end of 1.  The first quarter was a tale of 2 runs, the Pacers made theirs while the Heat did as well.  James was playing fantastic & carrying his team along with, not Dwyane Wade, but rather, Mario Chalmers.  Wade struggled mightily from the field.  The 2nd quarter was the same story, but played by opposite roles.  The Heat watched their 9 point lead diminish as Indiana went ahead & outscored them 26-17 in the 2nd to lead to a 43-43 tie at halftime.  The Heat had to feel okay, considering they were on the road, LeBron had played great with 16 first half points & despite Wade having an atrocious game so far, they were still very much in it.

It seemed as though, once the 3rd quarter began, the Pacers decided to stop messing around with the Heat.  Indiana dominated the 3rd quarter in every aspect, their defense holding Miami's electric offense to a measly 12 points.  Wade continued to struggle as LeBron stopped dominating.  The Heat's best player on the floor was Mario Chalmers, which doesn't bode well for them.  The Pacers spread the ball around, the major standout being their 7'2 center, Roy Hibbert who finished the game with 19 points, 18 rebounds, & 5 blocks.  There is not a soul on this Miami team that can dream of stopping him, Roy is setting himself for quite a hefty contract whenever these playoffs end for him.  The loss of Chris Bosh is such a crushing blow for Miami, not only for his ability to be the best 3rd option in the NBA, something that would have been vital for this team in game 3, seeing as how much Wade struggled, but also for his ability to at least be a big body down low.  No Bosh means LeBron has to play out of position as a power forward & you can tell it is exhausting LeBron.  He just doesn't have as much energy in this series as he normally does.  Danny Granger, whose main objective this series is to guard LeBron (which he did & got in his face for the 3rd consecutive game) got hot, he finished with 17 points & David West, their emotional leader on the floor who got face to face with Mario Chalmers at one point, finished with 14 points.  Their starting PG, someone Larry Bird brought over from San Antonio in the offseason, George Hill, was the one who really shut the door on any idea of a Heat comeback in the 2nd half.  He finished with a team leading 20 points, including 3-4 from 3 point land.  The Pacers bullied the Heat in the 2nd half & were clearly the better team, walking away celebrating a 94-75 victory.

LeBron had a very pedestrian game, finishing with 22 points (only 6 in the 2nd half), 6 rebounds, & 3 assists.  Dwyane Wade had his worst game, possibly ever, with 5 points & only 1 assist, compared to 5 turnovers.  The boiling point came in the 3rd quarter after another missed Wade shot led to an Indiana fast break and easy bucket.  Wade didn't hustle back on defense & coach Erik Spoelstra called a timeout & basically told Wade to sit his ass on the bench.  Well, Dwyane being the emotional prima donna that he is, did not approve of his coach telling him what to do (even though that's his job) and could be seen verbally sparing with Spoelstra.  He had to be calmed down by Udonis Haslem & Juwan Howard.  I know what you're thinking; yes, Juwan is still in the league.  Wade was 2-13 from the field & had a whopping -25 rating.  Mario Chalmers seemed to be the only one who really wanted to play the entire game, because he ended up with a game high 25 points with 6 rebounds & 5 assists.

So what's next?  Game 4 takes place on Indiana's floor, so no party atmosphere for Miami to lift them.  When there's two minutes left in the quarter, they won't hear the ear cringingly annoying "2 MINUTES...DOS!!!!"  Indiana is a basketball crowd, not a party waiting to happen that just so happens to catch a couple moments of the game in front of them.  The Heat need to come out and prove that they are the better team that every single expert chose to win, including ESPN analyst & former NBA player, Jon Barry, who even said the Heat would sweep.  I swear, I look at some of these predictions & think to myself how it would be so awesome to be a sports columnist.  You make awful predictions, you're basically the weather man, you can suck at your job but somehow continue to keep doing it.  Seems nice.

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Stop Me If You've Heard This Story Before

The Los Angeles Lakers came into yesterday's game 2 against the Oklahoma City Thunder down 1 game & looking to fight back after a humiliating loss.  Unlike the last game, this was a low-scoring affair.  The two teams combined for 209 points in game 1 & just 152 in game 2.  The prevailing message after this game, a game in which we saw the Thunder rally from 7 points down with just 2 minutes left to win, is that the Lakers cannot beat Oklahoma City.  It seems as though the Thunder are younger, deeper, more cohesive, & just plain better than the Lakers.

Remember game 2 between the Pacers & Heat?  A low-scoring game, superstars not showing up down the stretch, & an unlikely player taking the final shot being the headline of the game?  This Lakers/Thunder game 2 is eerily similar to that.  During the Thunder comeback, there were no issues with their superstar, the MVP runner-up, Kevin Durant.  Durant, who finished with 22 points, 7 rebounds, & 5 assists, hit a floater just outside the paint with just 18 seconds left that gave the Thunder a 1 point lead.  Durant scored the final 9 points for this Thunder team, playing very much like an MVP.  Kobe Bryant, on the other hand, struggled.  He was guarded by Durant the whole night & had a very mediocre shooting night, going just 9-25 from the field for 20 points.  It was the Lakers ineptitude to perform during the final several minutes of the 4th quarter that did them in, missing on their final 6 possessions.  Kobe just wasn't very Kobe-like in this game.  James Harden managed to block a Bryant jumper which led to the Thunder cutting the lead to just 1 & it was a missed 3 point shot from Kobe that led to Durant putting the Thunder up for good.  

A raucous Oklahoma City crowd, perfectly sequenced in white & blue, sat in anticipation as the Lakers gathered for the final shot.  The Lakers were only down by 1 & had the ball coming off a timeout.  Metta World Peace had the ball standing out of bounds & gazed ahead of him & saw Thabo Sefolosha draped all over Kobe Bryant.  Down by 1, Steve Blake received the pass from World Peace & fired a corner 3, which bounced off the rim & into the hands of Kevin Durant.  Thunder win, up 2-0 in the series.

Kobe Bryant was visibly upset when he saw Blake had gotten the shot over him, but fact of the matter is this, he wasn't open.  It was a bad playcall coming off the timeout & bad management of timeouts from the Lakers, considering they couldn't call one once they saw Kobe wasn't open.  Blake finished the game 1-5 from behind the arc & should not have been the man to take that final shot.  The fact that the Lakers settled for a low percentage shot like that, when they shot only 25% in the 4th quarter is just absurd.  They handed the Thunder this game & probably the series.  6 turnovers in the final quarter is not the play of a championship team.  The Thunder have blown out the Lakers & now stolen a game from them, they're in the Lakers psyche & this series is going to be over sooner, rather than later.

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The Pacers Are Who We Thought They Were!

I wrote in my last I Like Sportz post that the Pacers absolutely had what it took to stand up to the daunting Miami Heat & Tuesday, they proved that.  After a very competitive game 1 that ended with the Heat just outplaying the Pacers down the stretch run, the Pacers regained momentum in the series by holding on to win a very ugly & gritty game 2.  Chris Bosh, the Heat's all-star power forward, will be missing the rest of this series due to an abdominal injury, which is a huge blow to Miami.  The Heat rely heavily on LeBron & Wade to carry the load & Bosh was that anchor who could help out should they need it.  Now he's gone & this already thin team is looking all that more beatable.

The Heat had a 5 point lead at halftime at home, the first half being a very low scoring & physical affair.  The Pacers came out hot in the 3rd quarter & exploded for 28 points & held Miami to only 14 3rd quarter points, giving them a 9 point lead going into the 4th quarter, which even blossomed to an 11 point lead.  The Heat are no strangers to miraculous comebacks, especially in the playoffs, & they fought back.  Indiana missed 24 of their final 29 shots, costing them the lead on the road against the team that most "experts" claim to be the best in the world.  Recipe for a loss & going down 2 games, right?  Wrong.

What's one of the biggest knocks against this talented Heat team, besides their lack of depth?  It's the ineptitude to perform in clutch situations that has taxed this team for the past 2 years.  Those ugly demons surfaced again last night as the two players they rely on the most to propel them to victory, didn't deliver.  If you look at the box score, you'll say Wade & LeBron had great games, which they did, as a whole.  It's those last couple minutes of the game that can change everything.  Dwyane Wade misses an open lay-up that would have tied the game with less than 30 seconds left & all of a sudden his 24 point game is a bit tainted.  LeBron misses 2 free throws with his team down 1 with less than a minute left & his 28 point, 9 rebound effort is pushed to the backseat.  The game ended with Indiana nursing a 3 point lead & trying to stop Miami from hitting a game-tying buzzer beater.  The final shot came & who took it?  Wade?  Nope.  Surely LeBron, right?  Na uh.  Mario Chalmers, who finished the game 2-10 shooting, took the final shot that he failed to sink & Indiana was going home, managing to steal 1 game away from the Heat in Miami.

Before we go to the smaller stories of the day, let's analyze what exactly happened at the end of this Pacers/Heat game 2.  Tough game, full of physical play & comebacks.  Any team would feel good coming off the floor with a win.  Once Chalmers missed his final shot, a number of Pacers began to celebrate on the court in front of the Miami, err..faithful, if you can call them that.  Fist pumping, chest bumping, & cheering from Paul George, Danny Granger, & Darren Collison were pretty prominent.  The Heat took notice.  Some condescending reactionary comments from Wade, LeBron, Udonis Haslem, & Chalmers were given & it left this sports fan a bit perplexed.  This is the same Heat team that screams & pounds their chest after every big play.  This is LeBron who used to dance before games & do choreographed stunts with his teammates.  The very same team who provide the NBA with the gaudiest & flashiest live presentation of a game in all of sports, creating a party like atmosphere in their arena.  All of a sudden, they have an issue with celebrating?  Me thinks the Heat are being a bit hypocritical.  The fact of the matter is this; the Heat, with their over the top attitudes & bigger than life image, give other teams the motivation to celebrate.  When you beat a team as arrogant as them, you want to rub their face in it.  They're the bullies who do all the pushing, but when they get pushed back, they run off & tell the adults.  Last year you were telling your fans to "Fan up," Miami, seems like it's time for you to man up.

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All NBA Edition!

The Miami Heat scorched the one-man show known as the New York Knicks in round 1 & the Indiana Pacers took out the no-man show in Orlando, knocking out the Dwight Howard-less Magic.  Both teams did so in just 5 games, the Pacers finishing the job before the Heat.  So what does this mean for round 2? Round 1 featured a pretty easy fluff match for the Pacers, seeing as the Magic are a shell of their former self.  Then again, it is a young team, one that gave the number 1 seed Chicago Bulls fits last year.  They're learning & have improved since then, there isn't a chance they'll be taking the Heat lightly.  

What about the Heat?  This was a team that pretty much dominated the Knicks in the first round, which was a pretty easy match-up considering they only had to stop Carmelo Anthony & they knew they were set.  New York didn't help things by having ball-chucker J.R. Smith playing point for most of game 5.  

The Heat/Pacers round 2 series may not have the glitz & glamour of other playoff series, but it may be the best one yet.  In a 1st round filled with duds, the NBA playoffs are eagerly anticipating a series with some heart & excitement.  This one may be just what they are looking for.  The Heat took care of Indiana in the regular season, winning 3 of 4 games, so take that as you will.  

The reason why I like Indiana so much in this series is because their strengths are Miami's weaknesses.  The Pacers are anchored by their all-star center, 7'2 Roy Hibbert, who has a chance to absolutely dominate this series.  This could be his coming out party if he plays his cards right.  The Pacers also have a legitimate point guard in Darren Collison who, unlike the Heat's Mario Chalmers, can control a game & run an offense.  He has been coming off the bench as of late, giving George Hill the spotlight, but he played very well in the final 2 games of the 1st series with the Magic, scoring 30 points with 15 assists to close out the last games of the series.  The depth of the Pacers is nothing to sneeze at either.  I just mentioned the depth at point guard with Collison & Hill, but it doesn't end there.  The frontcourt was bolstered this past offseason when they added former all-star forward David West.  He's no focal point on this team, not while Hibbert, Danny Granger, & Paul George are around, but he doesn't have to be.  With Miami's less than fleet footed frontcourt of Joel Anthony & Ronny Turiaf, all West has to do is set up at the top of the key & hit some mid-range jumpers.  This clears the paint for a guy like Paul George, Indiana's young budding star, to drive to the hoop like he does best.  Like Collison, Tyler Hansbrough was starting for this team last year, but thanks to offseason additions, they just fill out a very formidable bench.  Leandro Barbosa was added at the trade deadline, but injuries have affected his game so far in the playoffs.  Maybe these couple days off will improve his health, it would be a huge boost for Indiana to have a scoring option like him coming off the bench & playing well.  

Some people may think I was overly focused on the Pacers here, but let's be honest, we all know about the Heat.  It's the 2 & a half man show.  LeBron is the best basketball player on the planet & Dwyane Wade is in the top 5.  Chris Bosh is probably the greatest 3rd option of all-time, even if he plays soft.  Other than that, save for an occasionally productive Mario Chalmers, this team doesn't have much else.  That's fine, because LeBron & company have been proving they can handle the load. I just live in a world where I can see the Pacers pushing them to the brink, scaring them, making them think that they just might lose.  The series begins Sunday & I'll be watching.  I expect this game to go 6 or 7 games, provided Indiana plays up to the level I have come to expect from them.  Ultimately, I believe the Heat will get the series win, just because the East is so weak, but it will be the first & only true test until they get to the Finals.