| 21 April 2009
1 game down in each of the first round series, and there have to be some nervous fans out there.
- Anyone else amazed that of the 8 games played over the opening weekend, 5 higher seeds lost at home?
- Whilst Boston were gutted by an amazing performance by Derrick Rose, I'd say they don't need to panic... precisely because it was an amazing performance. I like Derrick Rose, and he was phenomenal, but for that reason he's unlikely to be able to do that enough times to beat Boston (a team that should be able to beat up on a roster such as the Bulls, even sans KG). That will all change if they repeat game 1 tho' (as I write, Boston are just up against the Bulls 35-31 - tho Steph's in the game - desperate times?)...
- Portland fans should be worried. Yes, there are adjustments (especially on D) that the Blazers can/should make against Houston, but the balance of this series really lay in who had home-court advantage, and that's shifted. I'm not entirely sure that Portland can cope with Yao, and their main advantage lies not with Brandon Roy (who is well-matched by Artest/Battier), but with Lamarcus Aldridge. And if Scola can do what he did in game 1... then it's bye-bye Rip City.
- I still like Orlando to take the series against the 76ers. It took some amazing heroics for game 1 to be won by Philly, and I don't see them playing that well - with Orlando playing that badly - for an entire series. Doesn't bode well for the future of this playoffs tho'...
- Spurs fans should be anxious. They shot amazingly well from 3pt land, yet they got beaten easily. Dallas have flat-out sucked on the road this year, yet they beat the Spurs in the Alamodome... Tony Parker has to adjust to Barea's stifling defense (there's a sentence I never thought I'd write!), or this series won't go 6 games.
- What we all knew about Miami was confirmed yesterday. Beyond Dwyane Wade, this roster sucks on an epic scale. I mean... we're talking amazingly bad here people. Atlanta took Wade out of the equation, and left the rest of the Heat's roster to take the game. No-one home.
- I picked Denver to win the first round match-up, but I did not expect them to look THIS good doing it. Chauncey Billups was amazing. And I find it incredible that Chris Paul can put in a 21/11 performance and look pedestrian - such was Billups' dominance on this game. I think it'll end up being a tightly contested series still - remember, NOLA went through this kind of a roller-coaster series last year against San Antonio... but I like what I saw in Denver. 1 of only 3 higher seeds to win on the weekend...
- The other two were Cleveland and LA. Cleveland looked VERY good against Detroit, LeBron being pure LeBron. I think Detroit still get one, but this series is over in 5. LA won easily against Utah, and despite the deficit being reduced to 9 points at one stage, the Jazz were never in this game. The most impressive thing I can say about LA is they didn't even really get rolling, even tho' they put in a 62 point 1st half. And Trevor Ariza proved that Bynum wasn't the only guy missed in last year's Finals.
