The NBA Playoffs are underway!
I’m sure you’ve noticed. And here are some things I’ve noticed so far:
- As good as Chicago has looked, if they can’t keep Perkins and Davis off the boards, they won’t win any more games. Perkins was all over the glass in the second game, and that was as much a reason for Boston winning as Allen hitting second half shots or Rondo’s outstanding overall play. Boston has guys that can play better than they have so far (see: Pierce, Paul.) Chicago doesn’t have an answer for the Celtics’ rebounding, unless Tyrus Thomas all of a sudden gains 45 pounds.
- So, I guess Dwyane Wade can’t sweep teams out of the playoffs all by himself after all, huh?
-If Orlando doesn’t look any better against Philly, do they have any chance against Cleveland or Boston? If the Magic come out weak in game 2, the Cavs will be watching and feeling very, very good about themselves. Though I think it would be worth it to see Orlando f this up just to see Chris Webber lose his mind again.
- Want a reason to watch the Pistons-Cavs series? How about Kwame Brown in the playoffs! (No? Then, fine, there’s no reason to watch this series, except maybe to see if Detroit can take game 3 at home. But even that is just delaying the inevitable, so, yeah, skip this one unless you’re a Cavs fan.)
- I’ve already identified the TV commercials that will haunt my dreams and drive me to commit homicide because of how many times I’ll see them over the course of the playoffs:
- The Sprite one where the guys jump into each other and turn into water
- The Heineken one with all that damn screaming about closets
- The same freakin’ Haier commercial from last year that sounds like a Christian uplift song
- Surprisingly, not the ones for Tyler Perry shows. I’ve come to this realization about Tyler Perry - his stuff is not for me. Movies, shows, plays, none of it was made with me (white guy in his 30s) in mind as the target audience. However, did you know that Tyler Perry does all of his stuff on his own? He built his own studio in Atlanta, and uses all of his own people to make his shows and movies. I respect that, even if I don’t have any interest in the final product.
- Why do we NBA watchers alway fall into the trap of reading too much into the first game of a series? We see Dallas whoop San Antonio and we think ‘the Spurs are done’ even though we know damned well the Spurs aren’t done until they lose for the fourth time in a series. Is anyone going to be that surprised if the Heat beat the Hawks in game 2? If the Celtics blow the Bulls out in Chicago in game 3? If the Jazz handily beat the Lakers in game 3 in Utah?
- On the other hand, New Orleans looks done to me. They’ve never seemed to have it all year this year, and it doesn’t look like they’re all of a sudden going to put it together in the playoffs against a sneakily good Denver team. Chris Paul will be awesome, David West will do his thing, but this team doesn’t have anyone else playing at a high level this year (welcome back to that ineffective part of Earth you usually inhabit, Tyson Chandler.) That’s too bad, because I want to see Chris Paul keep playing. But I don’t see it happening.
- Portland-Houston is going to be an entertaining series. But does anyone else sense a strong undercurrent of “it doesn’t really matter who wins” that takes something away from truly enjoying it? I wish that weren’t true, but when a pink elelphant is sitting there, it’s hard to ignore.
- Lakers-Cavs is looking more and more inevitable. Let’s hope we can find some real surprises and intrigue along the way.
