2014 NBA Playoffs thread

Every series is now through two games. The road teams are a combined 9-7. And the Spurs needed to close Game 1 on a 19-5 run or they'd be down 2-0.

Miami is the only home team to win both games, and neither was a cruise.

 

Answer: Jordan, McGrady, Aldridge.

Question: Who are the only players to score 40+ in Games 1 and 2 on the road?

 

That's the reason the Pacers "stole" him with a late second round pick--nobody would touch him before that because of his off court reputation.

Bird seems to have wrecked this team's chemistry when he tried to improve it with the Turner and Bynum moves. Before they were a team with only one head case (Stephenson) who was being held in check by the vets. But then he dumped a very popular and respected vet in Granger to create a three head case locker room (even if Bynum doesn't play), and they've been a dysfunctional mess ever since. Those moves made sense on paper, but not in reality.

 

See my list above for the 30,000 reasons given for the Pacers' collapse. I did forget one -- that the starters had, literally, logged more mileage than any other group. (Though Portland had starters individually with more mileage.)

A truly superior club can take on a head case and not suffer for it. Remember how Dennis Rodman was a problem everywhere else but was OK in Chicago? If there's any chemistry issues, they involve this team being too young and inexperienced as a front-runner to handle them. The bigger issues with Turner and Bynum were their play. With Bynum, it was that he was only able to last two games -- he was a beast in those two, and having a healthy Bynum off the bench would be huge. With Turner, it's that he's not providing the scoring off the bench that was expected. But that's an endemic problem under Vogel that the bench hasn't produced much, yet players such as Augustin, Plumlee, Green and others have thrived after leaving.

 

The Pacers went 7-6 the last thirteen games with Granger so it can't all be blamed on the trade. I think the importance they put on being the top seed wore them thin mentally.

 

Aldridge was ridiculous last night; he was the very definition of unstoppable. And he did not just make fadeaways either; he was cutting and getting offensive rebounds as well.

 

I read today that Vogel is coaching for his job. Why isn't Bird executiving for his job? The wide consensus throughout the league is that the move that ruined the team was done above Vogel's head.

 

The Blazers should avoid having a 15-point lead into the 4th quarter tomorrow night.

 

Man, Grizz are lights-out right now. Impressive.

 

Yeah, that offensive stretch for the Grizz during that run was patheti-sad. Looked like they had no idea how to run a play.

 

Memphis looked like it was trying to run out the clock for the final eight minutes of the game. Now they're finally running offense again and they're back to scoring and looking good.