Nets and Rockets stay alive; Hawks even up their series
The announcement that Jason Collins made yesterday took most of the headlines around basketball and sports but the playoffs still had to go on. Last night’s games weren’t particularly intense, the Thunder-Rockets game got intense towards the end but it was more of a flow game. But last night did show that teams can certainly evolve as the series goes on. The Nets showed a lot of fight last night with their backs on the ropes, beating the Bulls 110-91 and extending the series as it heads back to Chicago for a big Game 6 on Thursday. I was pretty impressed with Brook Lopez (29 pts, 10 reb) as he led the Nets offense and kept Joakim Noah pretty quiet as Lopez dominated the paint for pretty much the entire game. Deron Williams also had a solid game (23 pts, 10 ast) and it’s that 1-2 punch that makes the Nets so dangerous but it’s about consistency of play. The Bulls were able to get within a point a couple of times in the 4th quarter but never took the lead, mostly because when the starters weren’t on the floor it was very difficult for Chicago to score.
On the other side of the eastern conference bracket, Atlanta and Indiana played another weird game in a series that has been impossible to predict. I literally have no idea what either of these teams is going to play like on a nightly basis. Josh Smith was certainly impressive (29 pts, 11 reb, 4 ast, 3 stl) in scoring a career playoff high for points, even though he had a bad 3rd quarter. Was Indiana going with a “hack-a-Smith” during the 3rd quarter? It got Indiana back into the game but once again, like in game 3, their halftime deficit (17) was just too large to overcome. Now the series is tied as 2 as it heads back to Indiana for tomorrow night’s critical game 5. The most likely result of that game is Indiana winning by a large margin but at this point in the series, I’ve begun to expect anything from these two teams.
Great game between the Rockets and Thunder, filled with plenty of memorable plays and a sort of bizarre finish. I know Serg Ibaka probably still feels bad about missing the game-tying lay up at the buzzer but he shouldn’t. Anyone who has played basketball at any level for an extended period of time has missed an easy shot. Or dropped a pass playing football or missed an easy goal playing futbol/hockey. Sure, it’s not at nearly the same level but we can sympathize at least a little. More positive memory from last night’s game for the Thunder was this ridiculous dunk by Durant down the stretch. Chriss Webber’s reaction says it all. Houston did have the last laugh though. Led by Chandler Parsons’ breakout performance, the Rockets were able to hold off the Thunder and win 105-103 to stay alive in the playoffs. How about Carlos Delfino of all people dunking right in the face of Durant? Durant has been superhuman these past couple of games so that dunk was a bit eye-opening. Like the top comment on the video says “LOL, now Durant has to wake up from this nightmare and drink Gatorade.”
Shout out to the Rio Grande Valley Vipers on their D-League championship.