NBA Playoffs Rundown

Orlando 106 Toronto 94: Dwight Howard got back to his dominating ways on both ends of the floor in this game. Howard finished with 19 points, 16 rebounds, and most importantly 8 blocks. Rashard Lewis also was huge in this game scoring 27 points, pulling down 13 rebounds, and dishing out 5 assists. However, the man down the stretch in this one was Jameer Nelson, who at one point scored 10 straight points for the Magic. He had 12 of his 19 points in the 4th quarter. Lewis and Hedo Trukoglu also had two late 3's that were the daggers to end this one.

If this Orlando team plays defense, then I definitely think they will be a scary second round opponent for Detroit, that is if Detroit gets it together to beat the 76ers. Offensively, with a core built around Dwight Howard of Rashard Lewis and Hedo Turkoglu, they have a dominant big guy plus two bigger wing players who can drive to the basket or shoot it from deep. I'm not sure Howard is ready to dominate against a team like the Pistons though but if he is ready to dominant on both ends, I would not be surprised to see Orlando in the Eastern Conference Finals.

Finally, I DO have to give some props to Chris Bosh, who was an absolute beast in this game scoring 39 points and pulling down 15 rebounds. It's just a shame he has basically no help on defense because the rest of team is pretty soft. They are basically like a bootleg version of the Suns before Shaq.

LA Lakers 102 Denver 84: You can get with this or you can get with that? So are the Lakers this good or are the Nuggets just that bad. I'm still not sure and I don't think we will know for sure until the Lakers play Utah in the second round, which by the way is going to be one hell of a series.

Denver is just so horrible on defense that anytime they struggle with their offense then they are not going to have any chance to beat the Lakers. I'm not totally surprised the Lakers are up 3-0 but going into this series I thought Denver would at least make it tough for the Lakers and win a game or two.

Right now the Lakers are making things look easy but things aren't going to be so easy against Utah, so I wouldn't be too excited if I was a Lakers fan right now. I'm not saying they will lose to Utah, I just think this series has more to do with Denver's poor offense and defense then the fact that the Lakers are a great team.

As far as this game goes, it was just another great team effort by the Lakers as they had 5 guys in double figures and just missed having a 6th. Kobe was the high scorer with 22 points but they didn't even need him to score too much in this one because every else was chipping in. I guess this is the argument for Kobe winning MVP. The fact that he realized his teammates can do it too and hasn't been gunning as much.

Just as a side note here, the Lakers did get crushed on the boards, being out rebounded by Denver 53 to 39. Pau Gasol only had 3 rebounds, which is not something you want to see from him going forward. This is definitely something to keep an eye on in the Utah series

Atlanta 102 Boston 93: I'm sure Doc Rivers is disappointed in his team after this loss. The Celtics should not be losing to Atlanta but I think this game shows that at times the Celtics have trouble with athletic wing players. Josh Smith was a beast in this game with 27 points, 9 rebounds, and 6 assists. He even knocked down 3 shots from deep.

Joe Johnson and Al Horford also were huge in this game. Johnson had 23 points, 7 rebounds, and 6 assists. Meanwhile, Horford had 17 points, 14 rebounds, and 6 assists. The Hawks really passed the ball well in this game and had 28 assists overall.

It will be interesting to see how the Celtics respond after this loss. If they come out and completely destroy Atlanta next game then I would seriously have no doubts about them as a championship caliber team. However, if they play poorly or lose to Atlanta in Game 4, then I will have my doubts about whether they will go all the way.

Utah 86 Houston 82: Utah won another hard fought battle between these two teams. This has probably been the toughest series so far as each game could have gone either way. Utah somehow managed to win this game despite shooting 0 for 14 for three point land. They did however make 7 more free throws then Houston and that helped them take this game.