The NBA playoffs always promise to deliver excitement, and this year's matchups have provided fans with just that. Most games have been competitive, but the trend so far has been the higher seeds coming out victorious in these earlier stages.
The playoffs kicked off Saturday afternoon with the No. 1-seeded Cleveland Cavaliers facing off against the eighth-seeded Chicago Bulls. The game had a lot of hype going in: LeBron James returned after resting for the last four games of the season, and Shaquille O'Neal saw his first action since February after nursing a broken thumb. The Cavaliers came out of the gates as hard and fast as expected, jumping out to a 32-18 first quarter lead and never looking back. The Bulls cut the lead to seven at one point but never posed a serious threat.
After a tough shooting night in Game 1 for LeBron, despite notching 24 points, six rebounds and five assists, he came back in Game 2 without any of the rust from the short layoff. King James dropped 40 points in the second contest to go along with eight rebounds and eight assists in a 112-102 Cavs victory.
Swingman Jamario Moon, additionally, was huge off the bench in the game, going 4-for-5 from three-point range. Derrick Rose and Joakim Noah are doing their part for the scrappy Bulls, and they dropped 23 and 25 points, respectively, in Game 2, but their efforts were not enough to steal a game in Cleveland.
Down in Atlanta, the Andrew Bogut-less Milwaukee Bucks are struggling against a Hawks team that is running on all cylinders. The Hawks exploded at the start of Game 1 and jumped out to a 34-17 first-quarter lead and led by 22 at halftime. Atlanta came at the Bucks with a balanced attack, as it had six players score in double-digits, led by Joe Johnson with 22 points. Bucks rookie Brandon Jennings scored 34 points in his playoff debut, but the two-man show of Jennings and John Salmons doesn't seem to have enough fire power to handle the deep Hawks team.
Going into their first-round matchup with the Miami Heat, the fourth-seeded Boston Celtics were getting a lot of criticism from experts who pointed at their age, underachievement and poor home record as serious obstacles in the way of their making any run in the playoffs. In the first two games, the Celtics have silenced their critics, winning Game 1 85-76 and Game 2 in a 106-77 slaughter despite the one-game suspension of Kevin Garnett for his actions in the opening match.
Without Garnett, the Celtics looked faster and more dynamic. Ray Allen was on fire, draining seven of nine threes on his way to a 25-point performance. On the other side, the Heat are not giving Dwyane Wade any reason to want to stay in Miami when he becomes a free agent this July — their other four starters dropped a combined 24 points. Forwards Michael Beasley and Jermaine O'Neal have been effectively invisible, combining for just 29 total points in the first two games. If the Heat want to make this interesting, they will need Beasley and O'Neal to get back into top form as the series shifts to Miami.
Out West, the highly anticipated Los Angeles Lakers-Oklahoma City Thunder series has been one of the most exciting of the playoffs so far. The Lakers looked strong in their 87-79 Game 1 victory, getting strong performances from Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum, who combined for 32 points and 25 rebounds. The real star of the game, though, was Ron Artest, who frustrated Thunder superstar Kevin Durant all game and held him to just 7-of-24 shooting from the field.
Durant responded in Game 2 with 32 points, going 12-for-26 from the field and 3-of-6 from downtown. Point guard Russell Westbrook added 19 points, but unfortunately for the Thunder, the man who wears number 24 on the Lakers — Kobe Bryant — was in his rhythm all night, dropping 39 points. The Thunder had a chance to force overtime on the last shot of the game, but once again fell short, losing the game 95-92. The team will head back to Oklahoma City down two games in the series.
After Brandon Roy was forced to undergo arthroscopic surgery to fix a torn meniscus, the Portland Trailblazers seemed to be completely overmatched by a red-hot Phoenix Suns team on paper. But although the Blazers came into Game 1 as nine-point underdogs, they were unfazed. Led by Andre Miller's 31 point performance, Portland defeated the Suns 105-100.
LaMarcus Aldridge, who added 22 points of his own, kept Amar'e Stoudemire in check, holding him to just 18 points and eight rebounds and forcing him to foul out in the final minutes of the game. The Suns, though, responded in kind with a 119-90 stomping in Game 2, as All-Star point guard Steve Nash and his 16 assists helped dictate a fast-paced game while getting 29 points worth of help from shooting guard Jason Richardson.
After the Denver Nuggets opened the playoffs with a 126-113 victory over the Utah Jazz, Deron Williams and company evened the series in Game 2 with a 114-111 battle at the Pepsi Arena. After trailing 76-62 late in the third quarter, the Nuggets scored 14 straight points to tie the game. Deron Williams blew up for 33 points and 14 assists and was aided by Kyle Korver, who scored three straight buckets to end the third quarter within 90 seconds on his way to 5-7 shooting and 13 points. With the series knotted up going back to Utah, look for this one to go six or seven games, as both teams are showing glimpses of brilliance.
The Magic-Bobcats and Mavericks-Spurs series are both at 1-0 in favor of the two seeds, the Magic and Mavericks. The Magic got 32 points from Jameer Nelson in their Game 1 victory over the Bobcats. The Mavericks, who are deep and dangerous, got 36 points from Dirk Nowitzki and 22 points from Caron Butler in a 100-94 Game 1 victory over the Spurs.
As the playoffs continue down the road, look for the top seeds, as expected, to continue their recent dominance and surge on into the next round.
