Last night, the Los Angeles Lakers became the eighth team to disappear out of the first round of the National Basketball Association playoffs. Kobe Bryant apparently left a half early, though….one point in the second half of a Game 7? Wasn’t this guy supposed to be the best player in the league? Look on the bright side, Kobe…at least you get to spend more time with your new baby boy.
But, as Mark McGwire said, I’m not here to talk about the past. It’s all about the second round now.
Both of the 2005 NBA Finals participants are in action Sunday. Defending champion San Antonio hosts Dallas at 1:00, then defending Beast of the East Detroit entertains LeBron James and Cleveland.
Dallas-San Antonio
Game 1 of the Spurs-Mavericks series is the prototypical example of the rest vs. rust argument. Dallas hasn’t played since Monday, while the Spurs didn’t finish until after midnight Saturday morning and had to travel back home after finishing off Sacramento.
Certainly, San Antonio is a team that isn’t playing their best basketball right now. Tim Duncan’s foot is improving, but the plantar fasciitis continues to be a burr in the Spurs’ saddle. Duncan averaged 18.3 points and 9.2 rebounds in the first round, four points and three-and-a-half rebounds lower than his career postseason averages.
The series may hinge on the play of the point guards. The Spurs need Tony Parker needs to shoulder some of the scoring burden. Parker’s play is a barometer for the team’s play; he averaged 19.6 points per game in Spurs wins, but only 16.4 in losses.
Similarly, Dallas point guard Jason Terry has played poorly when the Mavericks have lost, shooting only 29.7% from three point range.
Parker got the better of the four head-to-head match-ups, averaging 21.8 points per game to Terry’s 14.8 this season.
I think Dallas takes about a quarter to settle in, and San Antonio’s too good of a playoff team for that.
Spurs 105, Mavericks 94
Cleveland-Detroit
The first time the Michael Jordan-led Chicago Bulls made it to the second round of the playoffs was 1988. Their opponent? The experienced and physical Detroit Pistons. The result? The Pistons won in five, despite Jordan averaging 36.3 points for the postseason. Why? The Bulls’ second-leading scorer in the postseason was Sam Vincent, who averaged just a shade over ten points a contest.
The heir to Jordan’s throne, at least from Nike’s viewpoint, is LeBron James. James is leading the league in playoff scoring right now at a clip of 35.7 tallies per tango; a distant second on the Cavs is Larry Hughes at 12.3 points per game.
Detroit doesn’t have such problems. Chauncey Billups averaged 22.2 points per game against Milwaukee; Rip Hamilton, 21.4; Rasheed Wallace, 17.2; Tayshaun Prince, 14.6. On top of that, the Pistons have one of the league’s premier rejoinders in Ben Wallace and veteran bench weapons in Antonio McDyess and Lindsey Hunter.
Throw in the fact that Cleveland just won three consecutive games by only one point, and you have to figure the physical Pistons will be the better equipped team for Game 1.
Oh, and the 1989 Bulls, with a second-year player from a small college in Arkansas named Scottie Pippen playing Babalooey to Jordan’s Quick Draw McGraw, advanced to the conference finals. It’s going to take another All-Star or, at least the very least, two or three Horace Grant-level players to get The James Gang that far in the playoffs. That cast doesn’t exist right now.
Pistons 99, Cavaliers 85
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