The playoffs start tomorrow, so it’s one off night for everyone. There were 13 games last night, so lets get to them so I can start making predictions. Predictions that have absolutely no chance of coming true, but predictions nonetheless.

The Hawks beat the Mavericks in Atlanta and that means Dallas faces Oklahoma City in the first round—a rematch of last year’s Western Conference Finals; Boston beat Milwaukee at (the new) Garden; Chicago handled Cleveland; Detroit sent Philly into the playoffs on a losing note (good luck against Chicago guys, you’re gonna need it); Houston finally won, after they had been eliminated from playoff contention a week ago; Denver went into the playoffs on a winning note, and they’ll face the Lakers rather than the Thunder; Utah will have to handle the Spurs in the first round, but they squeaked out a win against Portland last night; the Wizards beat up on the Heat’s scrubs (Miami sat their big three); Toronto made sure the Nets lost their last game as the team from New Jersey (check out their new Brooklyn logo here); Memphis beat an Orlando team no one thinks should be in the playoffs (also Dwight is a disgrace); the Knicks beat the Bobcats to give the Bobcats the worst winning percentage in NBA history, and to give New York the right to play Miami instead of Chicago; the Spurs continued to win into the playoffs, and defeated the Warriors (much to the Warriors relief, for lottery purposes); and Sacramento beat up on the Lakers without Kobe (he doesn’t care about the scoring title—god bless him).

Home teams in CAPS.

ATLANTA HAWKS 106 - Dallas Mavericks 89
BOSTON CELTICS 87 - Milwaukee Bucks 74
CHICAGO BULLS 107 - Cleveland Cavaliers 75
DETROIT PISTONS 108 - Philadelphia 76ers 86
HOUSTON ROCKETS 84 - New Orleans Hornets 77
Denver Nuggets 131 - Minnesota Timberwolves 102
UTAH JAZZ 96 - Portland Trail Blazers 94
WASHINGTON WIZARDS 107 - Miami Heat 70
TORONTO RAPTORS 98 - New Jersey Nets 67
MEMPHIS GRIZZLIES 88 - Orlando Magic 78
New York Knicks 104 - CHARLOTTE BOBCATS 84
San Antonio Spurs 107 - GOLDEN STATE WARRIORS 101
SACRAMENTO KINGS 113 - Los Angeles Lakers 96

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1 year ago

Scores from last night:

The it’s the last day of the regular season edition.

There are 13 games tonight, and a lot of the playoff seedings are still up in the air even though the 16 teams have all clinched; New York and Philly are tied at the 7 & 8 spots; Boston is a game back of Atlanta for homecourt in their 1st round match-up; Denver, Dallas and Utah are all separated by a single game in the 6, 7, and 8 seeds out west; Memphis holds a 1/2 game lead over LA for the 4 seed in the west; the Lakers have a 1 game lead over Memphis for the 3 spot; Chicago and San Antonio are tied for the best record in the NBA, and homecourt throughout the playoffs. Got it?

Tomorrow I’ll have all the 1st round match-ups starting this weekend, and I’ll make predictions on the outcome of every series. Then, on Friday, I’ll tell you who I think will win the title. Keep in mind, predictions of this sort are a crock of shit. NO ONE KNOWS, but I’ll give you my most educated guesses (just don’t got to Vegas on them).

The Wizards beat Cleveland on fan appreciation night, which is a shame, but at least Cavs fans have Kyrie; Chicago beat Indiana in a tune-up for the playoffs and as they try to displace San Antonio for the top record in the league (for the second year in a row); Orlando only beat the Bobcats by 7 points (they’re not doing anything in the playoffs this year); Philly beat Milwaukee behind a career night 29 points from Evan Turner; the Knicks beat the Clippers without Chris Paul (resting his injured groin for the playoffs) at MSG last night as a host of celebs watched the Knicks share the ball and get the win; despite Durant’s 32, the Nuggets beat the Thunder and now have a chance at a 6 seed; Phoenix lost to San Antonio at home last night in what could have been Steve Nash’s last game in a Suns uniform. Nash only played 17 minutes, but he had 8 points and 7 assists in those minutes. More on Nash later.

God, are you glowing like I am because the playoffs start soon? My girlfriend always gets a little upset around this time of year because the playoffs are all I think about (which is not good for relationships), but damn I can’t stop playing out all the things we’re going to see in my mind. More on this later too.

Home teams in CAPS.

Washington Wizards 96 - CLEVELAND CAVALIERS 85
Chicago Bulls 92 - INDIANA PACERS 87
ORLANDO MAGIC 102 - Charlotte Bobcats 95
Philadelphia 76ers 90 - MILWAUKEE BUCKS 85
NEW YORK KNICKS 99 - Los Angeles Clippers 93
Denver Nuggets 106 - OKLAHOMA CITY THUNDER 101
San Antonio Spurs 110 - PHOENIX SUNS 106

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1 year ago

Scores from last night:

The just got done with our 4th visit from Time Warner edition. Or, how I learned to re-wire an apartment in just 6 easy hours.

Just two more nights of regular season action, and we’re (pretty much) set in terms of who is facing whom in the first round of the 2012 NBA playoffs.

The biggest game of the night was Phoenix traveling to always-tough Utah to fight for their playoff lives. They lost, and Utah clinched. All the effusive praise for Steve Nash doesn’t change the fact we aren’t seeing him this spring/summer. I blame Robert Sarver, but it could just be the end of Phoenix’s Steve Nash experiment. At least it netted him back-to-back MVP awards (however you might feel about them). If I have time, I’ll write another post about this game, but for now just know it was basically the Paul Millsap show, and Phoenix didn’t have an answer for Utah’s frontcourt.

The Hawks beat the Clippers, which means they can get homecourt advantage in their 1st round match-up against Boston (even though Boston won their division and clinched the 4th seed) because they have a better record. That is, if Atlanta beat Dallas on Thursday night. If Boston beats Milwaukee and Atlanta loses to Dallas, the Celtics will get homecourt advantage. Got it?

Boston did beat a Big Three-Less Heat team last night. Boston was missing Ray Allen, Kevin Garnett and Rajon Rondo as well. If you were really excited about your Celtics-Heat tickets for late April, I’m so sorry. The game was awful on both ends.

Oklahoma City and DeQuan Cook’s 19 4th quarter points helped the Thunder overtake a tough Kings team. Durant had 32 points while sitting out the entire 4th quarter. He’s a couple tenth’s of a point ahead of Kobe Bryant for the scoring title. Kobe made some caustic remark about the scoring title and how little he cares (or else he’d have scored 50 against San Antonio the other night), so it appears Durant will win his 3rd-straight. Can’t say I particularly care—unless there’s some sort of late minute scoring fireworks a la David Robinson on the last day of the 93-94 regular season.

In tanking news, the Hornets went to Golden State and got the win, which is a relief to Golden State’s management. Whether there were any overt directions from the coaching staff (I doubt it since Mark Jackson is a puffy competitor), for Chris Wright to goaltend Marco Bellinelli’s game-winning lay-up as time expired, remains to be seen. Read Ethan Sherwood Strauss’ post for Bleacher Report, to better understand why the Warriors have tanked the last month of the season. It shows how protected picks basically force teams to tank if there’s no chance at a playoff spot. Of the remaining 14 teams that don’t make the playoffs, they’re in a competition to see whom can get a nice lottery spot. Thus, tanking and endless editorials shaming them for the practice. Lets change the rules so protected picks can only be for the top 3.

Can’t wait to stop thinking about tanking, and start worrying about the playoffs.

As always,

Home teams in CAPS.

ATLANTA HAWKS 109 - Los Angeles Clippers 102
BOSTON CELTICS 78 - Miami Heat 66
OKLAHOMA CITY THUNDER 118 - Sacramento Kings 110
New Orleans Hornets 83 - GOLDEN STATE WARRIORS 81
UTAH JAZZ 100 - Phoenix Suns 88

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1 year ago

Scores from last night:

The it’s only 4 days until the playoffs start edition!

Milwaukee got eliminated and Philly clinched. The Spurs continued to roll and sealed the top seed in the West (for the second straight year) by destroying the outmanned Trail Blazers. You know who else rolled, the—Wizards? They’ve won 4 in-a-row! It’s their first win streak of that length since 2007. The Gizzlies won to keep pace with the Clippers (they’re half a game back), despite Kyrie Irving, our ROY, scoring 19 first-half points. With Roy Hibbert and Danny Granger sitting, it meant Paul George could shoulder some more offense for Indiana (I wish he did this even when they were playing, but I’ll leave that up to coach Vogel) and George dropped 27 (including 12 in the 4th) to beat the visiting Pistons.

Home teams in CAPS.

INDIANA PACERS 103 - Detroit Pistons 97
Washington Wizards 101 - CHARLOTTE BOBCATS 73
Philadelphia 76ers 105 - NEW JERSEY NETS 87
MILWAUKEE BUCKS 92 - Toronto Raptors 86
MEMPHIS GRIZZLIES 109 - Cleveland Cavaliers 101
SAN ANTONIO SPURS 124 - Portland Trail Blazers 89

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1 year ago

Scores from last night:

The only 5 days until the playoffs start edition!

Home teams in CAPS.

New York Knicks 113 - ATLANTA HAWKS 112
LOS ANGELES LAKERS 114 - Oklahoma City Thunder 106 in 2OT
DETROIT PISTONS 76 - Toronto Raptors 73
Sacramento Kings 114 - CHARLOTTE BOBCATS 88
Golden State Warriors 93 - MINNESOTA TIMBERWOLVES 88
SAN ANTONIO SPURS 114 - Cleveland Cavaliers 98
DENVER NUGGETS 101 - Orlando Magic 74
LOS ANGELES CLIPPERS 107 - New Orleans Hornets 98

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1 year ago