NBA Playoffs Recap: Tuesdays are for Blowouts

Second Round of NBA Playoffs will feature two games of night.  I dropped the ball on writing on Saturdays meaning Friday games were left in the dust.  I am going to write about the games like we did for the first round because it is picking up steam in terms of the hits. I will probably add a full blog post sometimes when we have a must talked playoff win. 

Ray Allen turns back the clock
As the game between Brooklyn and Miami tipped off, people wondered what the expectations should be as the Nets swept Miami through the regular season. The Heat made it look like an aberration by the third quarter as they scored eleven more points than Brooklyn pulling away from the Nets leading to Miami winning by 21 points. Biggest reason was a Throwback Tuesday performance by Ray Allen.  He had 19 points making four threes. In the four games against Charlotte, Allen scored a total of 13 points. For Miami to be successful, they need one of their bench players to be a true scoring threat. It doesn't have to be the same player, but Allen filled the role last night. LeBron James also had an extremely efficient night with 22 points on 10/15 shooting all coming without shooting a single three.

Even though they are older and the expectations are different, Brooklyn needs more from Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett. They combined for eight points all coming from Pierce. Garnett only had two shot attempts. Pierce only shot the ball eight times which isn't going to get the job done either. We will see what happens with Brooklyn moving forward in the series.

Tony Parker rises to the occasion... Again 
In Game 7, we saw Tony Parker taking over the basketball game leading to a blowout win against Dallas. He did the same thing against Portland in Game 1 turning in another 30-plus performance with 33 points and nine assists in a rout of the Trail Blazers. Parker exposed a dirty secret about Damian Lillard... He cannot really play much defense. Lillard and the Blazers had no answer for Parker for the entire game. He had six turnovers, but still had a PER of +27 which shows how efficient Parker was on Tuesday night. Another huge thing about this blowout is it gave the older players for San Antonio a much-needed rest after a full series against Dallas. Parker and Kawhi Leonard were the only two players whom played over 30 minutes last night.

It is clear if Portland is going to be a threat in this series, they will need someone else to step up other than LaMarcus Aldridge. LMA had quite possibly the quietest 32 points and 14 rebounds performance of recent memory. That's a hell of a stat line but no one remembers it when you get beatdown by 24 points. Lillard and Nicolas Batum need to be more of a factor than shooting 9/27 from the field.

Charlie.