Playoff Tidbits

It's Monday Morning, the first slate of of NBA Playoff games are in the books. Some big wins, unexpected performances and series altering injuries have occurred and all I'm hearing about this morning is Roethlisbergers wandering hands and the NFL Draft. What's it gonna take for us hoops junkies to get some respect?

Oh well, Here are a few random thoughts from the first weekend of the NBA Playoffs.

- T - 87, 79, 76, 85 and 83. Do you want to know what those are? Those are the final scores for the Lakers, Thunder, Heat, Celtics and Bulls in the opening games (respectively). For everyone who says that NBA teams don't play defense? Choke on that.

- I - 5 points, 7 rebounds. Superman puts up these modest numbers (also 9 blocks) and the Magic win with relative ease in the first game. This is why Orlando should still scare Cleveland.

- D - Staying with the Magic. 32 points and 6 assists by Jameer Nelson on Sunday. Kind of makes you wonder how last years final would have shaken out if he was healthy.

- B - Dirk drops 36 out of the gate but it was the 22 by Tough Juice and and the 18 boards by Dampier and Haywood that will make these guys a real contender in the West.

- I - Melo was on point (42 efficient buckets), Earl showed up in the 4th Quarter but I think the injuries in Utah are going to be the 6th man for the Nugs in this series. Tough pill to swallow.

- T - KG doesn't have the athletic ability to change games the way he used to. Due to that he needs to control his temper because he can't bail the C's out of the jams he gets them in anymore. That being said he might have just lit a fire under the rest of his teams asses and if this actually makes Sheed try in the playoffs then it is clearly the cherry on the Big Tickets HOF career.

- S - Would Portland play this well without all of the injuries and adversity or is that the reason they are playing well? Tough to say but adding BRoy, Oden and the Vanilla Gorilla to this team would sure look like Western Conference Champs. No?

No shock to this guy that the first weekend of the NBA playoffs were fantastic and I'm looking forward to it controlling my consciousness for the next two months as well.
(Oh and have a nice summer OKC, Charlotte and Chicago).