Lakers and Celtics rolled as expected, Sixers pulled off the ‘Game 1’ shocker.
The beautiful thing about Game 1’s is that after all the talk and hype and questions, they either answer questions or create ever more. For instance in the case of the Lakers/Nuggets, Celtics/Hawks, Jazz/Rockets we just got confirmation on everything we thought of before. We wondered if Denver could hang with the Lakers and found out they couldn’t. We wondered if Atlanta could even compete with Bostn and found out they couldn’t. We wondered if Houston could hold home-court without Rafer and found out they couldn’t. Every other series pretty much just had more questions come on.
None more than the Detroit/Philadelphia shocker. Now I’ve been nice to Flip Saunders all year, for what reason I do not know. He is just a terrible coach. How is your team already bored in the FIRST GAME of the FIRST ROUND. If (and when) the Pistons advance, I can’t back them winning the championship. Compare and contrast the differences in how the Celtics took care of business and the Pistons took care of business. Boston was on a mission from beginning to the end. Detroit was up big but not because they were playing so well, just that Philly was playing like toddlers. And even as they came back the Pistons still looked bored and unmotivated. They were too confident. It’s that same confidence that bit them in the behind against the Heat two years ago, the same confidence that lead to them forgetting how to play basketball against both the Bulls and the Cavs. Now they face their biggest nemesis (THEMSELVES) in the first round.
So now they have opened the window. There are two schools of thoughts about the Sixers/Pistons. A lot of people know that Philly matches up well with Detroit, but we used the fact that Detroit always wins to dismiss the Sixers. I mean think about it…Andre vs. Chauncey, Thaddeus vs. Tayshaun, Green vs. Rip and the bigs vs. the bigs. Philly matches up quite nicely. If it comes down to a half-court battle, Detroit kills Philly any day of the week. And that is why I’m leaning toward this game being an exception and Detroit still winning this series. However…could people really be blamed for seeing the parallels between the Warriors of last year and the Sixers of this year? No. Then again do we point to the fact that Pistons could not buy a shot and Sheed chipped a layin? Do we point to the Pistons history of finding ways to overcome themselves?
Only time will tell. Kudos to Philly for making this interesting.
Time won’t be telling the fates of the Hawks and Nuggets. It is more a matter of WHEN not IF. Denver just does not have enough shotmakers to hang with the Lakers. Not to say they are getting swept, I’m sure they’ll pull a game out in the Pepsi Center, but its quite obvious after today that they just don’t have the weapons to beat the Lakers. Who would have thought Kobe could have 14 and the Lakers are in a position to win big? And if you were wondering why I made the argument against Kobe being the MVP, today was a day why. Pau was the reason why the Lakers won. He killed them with shot-fakes and increased the ball movement while Kobe did a lot of one-on-one and took a bunch of fadeaways. Pau was the reason for the Lakers’ success, not Mamba. Contrast how Chris Paul’s sucess directly lead to the Hornets winning that game yesterday.
Atlanta is just completely outclassed. The most interesting part of that game came afterward when KG went on his bizarre little rant in his interview with Cheryl Reggie Miller. The whole ‘everything isn’t always peaches and cream’ comment struck me a bit as unnecessary. Maybe he was venting, I wonder if the media is going to pick up on it tomorrow.
All in all you can’t ask for much more for an opening weekend of playoffs. I’ve been spoiled.