The 2013 NBA Playoffs tipped off Saturday afternoon with the (2)New York Knicks hosting the (7)Boston Celtics. Aside from a few idiotic fans who booed Paul Pierce when him and Knicks superstar Carmelo Anthony addressed the Madison Square Garden crowd following the horrendous week that took place in Boston, and, you know, the Celtics losing a game that they had no business losing--the game played out just about how I thought it would.
Boston led throughout the first three quarters, but unfortunately for the Celtics, were only able to muster up eight points in the fourth and final quarter before dropping game one 85-78 (which was much closer than it should have been for those of us that may or may not have had a wager on Boston +7.5). As someone who watched a lot of Celtics games this season, trust me, the odds of getting back-to-back 26 points, 7 rebounds games out of Jeff Green is not good, and if Boston loses this series, letting game one slip through their fingertips is something that is going to haunt them the entire summer.
With the way Boston defended New York on Saturday, they made it clear they were going to let Carmelo get his (36 points, 6 rebounds, 4 steals) and try and stop everyone else. While tonight isn't a must-win for Boston, if they are able to win game two tonight, I am going to be more confident they are going to win this series than I was before it started.
(3)The Denver Nuggets beat the (6)Golden State Warriors 97-95 on an Andre Miller (28 points) game-winning basket. Unfortunately for the Warriors, David Lee injured his hip and is going to miss the remainder of the playoffs. I didn't think that Golden State was going to win more than one game in this series before the Lee injury, so needless to say I don't see any reason to flip-flop on that now.
Despite the fact that Joakim Noah ruled himself doubtful for his team's first round series against the (4)Brooklyn Nets, he was able to play limited minutes in game one, albeit nowhere near the level we are accustomed to seeing him play. His presence was virtually non-existent as the Nets routed his (5)Chicago Bulls 106-89 in game one.
Chicago was able to bounce back on Monday night and win game two 90-82 and steal home-court from Brooklyn. I'm on record of picking the Nets to win this series, and I based that almost entirely on the fact that there was no way of knowing what Noah was going to be able to give Chicago. If he's able to give his Bulls the production he gave them in game two (11 points, 10 rebounds in 25 minutes), there's no reason to think that Chicago can't win this series.
Something that has rubbed me the wrong way for a long time is when you hear analysts discussing who the NBA's most clutch player down the stretch is. You have your guys who say it's Kevin Durant, you have your guys who say it's LeBron James and you have your guys who say it was still Kobe Bryant until he tore his Achilles. Aside from those three players, you almost never hear any other names mentioned.
As far as I'm concerned, Chris Paul is the most clutch player down the stretch (despite what the Elias Sports Bureau says). Maybe others will start sharing my opinion after he lead his (4)Los Angeles Clippers to a 112-91 victory over the (5)Memphis Grizzlies in game one. He followed that up with a game-winning layup with 0.01 seconds left while being defended by Tony Allen, one of the best perimeter defenders in the league, to give his team a 2-0 lead heading in to Thursday's game three in Memphis.
The (3)Indiana Pacers were led by the recently crowned NBA's Most Improved Player, Paul George, and his triple-double (23 points, 11 rebounds, 12 assists) to take a 1-0 series lead over the (6)Atlanta Hawks. Atlanta may be able to win a game at home, but I don't see anyway they can make this a competitive series. Sorry, Hawks fans.
One of the most talked-about stories leading up to the (1)Miami Heat and the (8)Milwaukee Bucks first-round series was about Brandon Jennings saying he likes the way his Bucks match up with the Heat and predicted a Milwaukee upset in six games. I know they tell you to never say never, but I'm saying never. That isn't going to happen. Miami destroyed Milwaukee 110-87 in game one and I am expecting more of the same in game two tonight. I would be shocked if Milwaukee is able to even win a game.
The Western Conference's top team the (1)Oklahoma City Thunder are hosting the (8)Houston Rockets and their former Sixth Man off the Year, James Harden. Coming in to this series, everyone expected this to be an uptempo, run-and-gun series. That came to fruition as the Thunder smashed the Rockets 120-91 on Sunday night. While I doubt they will win by almost 30 points again, I expect more of the same in Wednesday night's game two.
Just as was the case all season long, no NBA column would be complete without talking about the (7)Los Angeles Lakers. After sneaking in to the playoffs after a Utah Jazz loss on the final night of the season, some people seemed to forget how bad the team played for most of the season. Someone even wrote an NBA Playoff Preview saying it wouldn't surprise him if L.A. were able to upset the (2)San Antonio Spurs in round one.
I'd like to follw Magic Johnson's footsteps and flip-flop on that. I would be absolutely shocked if the Lakers win this series, and there are a number of reasons why. First and foremost, for whatever reason, I was suckered in to believing the Spurs were too old and too banged up to be the team we are used to seeing for over a decade, when in reality, it appears as if they were just gearing up for another deep playoff run.
While I do think that Tony Parker's ankle is not 100 percent, there's no doubt that he is going to run circles around Steve Nash and Steve Blake, just like he did in San Antonio's 91-79 victory in game one. Also showing up huge for the Spurs was Manu Ginobili, who scored 18 points in just 19 minutes. If Manu is able to play at this level for the remainder of the playoffs, San Antonio is a serious threat to come out of the Western Conference.
Another reason I thought the Lakers might have had a chance in this series is the fact that Mike D'Antoni had seemed to have had a realization over the last week or so of the regular season that Pau Gasol is one of the best low-post players in the league, and had finally made the transition from his patented pick-and-roll system to keeping Gasol on the block. That was until game one of this series, when that plan was apparently scrapped.
As if that weren't bad enough, after seeing his tweeting become a media story, Kobe has said that he won't be live-tweeting anymore Lakers playoff games, depriving us all of the chance to read his thoughts while the Lakers 2012-'13 season continues going up in flames.