It appears that we will not have any walkovers here in these 2007 playoffs, especially in the round 1. The west looks very competitive with the two favorites, Mavs and Spurs losing at home in game 1, and both the Rockets and Suns trail at the half at home before having huge 3rd quarters and overcoming the Jazz and Lakers. In the east, the newbie Raptors took too long to overcome their jitters and were the only EC team to lose their HC advantage. I think they can win game two, but might find themselves down 3-1 by the time they comeback home to play game 5. The Heat/Bulls series is still a tossup since the Heat had their big guns in foul trouble most of the game. Wade seems Ok to me. The Cavs took too long to dispose of the shorthanded Wiz and I see this one going at least 5. The Pistons were the only opening game winner to lead from start to finish and score 100 points, but they appear to have taken Orlando to lightly and had to hold off the upset minded Magic down the stretch. Lets hope that 4th qtr was awake up call, especially with the 1 and 3 seeds in the west going down to defeat in their opening games.
I would say all-in-all failry entertaining 1st games. Lets hope the rest of the playoffs is as much fun and as unpredictable. As long as Pistons put their effort in they should not have many issues with Magic. But looks like West is indeed more competitive.
You know, they should probably just stop showing Cuban on TV. It makes him seem really unlikable and doesn't add to the enjoyment of the game. I think more owners should take interest in the games as much as him, but watching it is off-putting. They don't pan to Bill Davidson every time there's a bad call against the Pistons.
As if we're going to see any reaction from Davidson. Sometimes they show Joe D and his expression never changes.
Is Kirilenko now a malcontent? That comment from Sloan is pretty weird. "I don't know how to handle it"?
Reports are that AK47 had some sort of nervous breakdown in practice yesterday- and while Sloan is a great coach, his psychological approach to his players has always been very one-dimensional.
This actually reminds me of another star Russian player - Fedorov. He broke down before with Scotty Bowman being the coach and putting him on defense. Fedorov's father had to intervene to get his son head on straight (they had a meeting together with Fedorov's dad and Scotty). And Bowman has always been one-dimensional in handling the players and their issues, but he won, and in the end it is all that mattered. I think that we've heard a gazillion times that coach's approach doesn't matter as long as the team wins.
I'm still dissapointed that Joe didn't draft Barbosa over Delfino... not that we could use a lightning quick PG/SG that plays solid "D" and shoots well...
merc, there is a great article from a while back on Truehoop I posted, about when Leandro was breaking into the league. Gregory Dole: My Summer with William Wesley
Could have had Josh Howard, too. Shoots just as well, plays better D, and does it for a team that doesn't (didn't) use 3-point chucking smallball gimmicks. I'd be interested in seeing if Barbosa could be productive as a role player in a real halfcourt offense.
Clutch City wins Game 2. Will be interesting to see how they react to the black-and-white playoff atmosphere in Utah.
Oddly, both games last night ended with the same final score, 98-90. There were two games on Saturday that ended 96-91.
