NBA Playoffs Recaps: Game 1 Road Warriors

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. 

What injuries? Chris Paul takes control in Game 1

For the first round of the playoffs, much of the discussion with Chris Paul had to do with his injuries bothered by a hamstring and a hand injury. Paul did not really play well in the seven games against Golden State, but he stepped up in Game 1 against Oklahoma City. Paul drilled six straight threes in the first half propelling him to 32 points with 10 assists only missing two shots for the entire game. Additionally, the six threes were a career-high, he finished the game with eight threes. Paul added an element to his game, and if this becomes consistent, the rest of the league is in trouble. Blake Griffin had a nice night with 23 points on 7/16 shooting making most of his free throws from the line. This was an ass-kicking from Los Angeles, and I don't know how exactly Oklahoma City responds to it.

Oklahoma City needs to do something else on defense because they aren't playing Memphis anymore. They gave up 69 points in the first half. 69!  They have done this before as the Thunder do not have the best defense in the world, but at the same time, you aren't winning championships by giving up that many points in one half. It could be a case of Oklahoma City playing more in the halfcourt to slow down the potent Clippers offense.  

Wizards continue their road dominance 

This is starting to get silly for The Wiz Kids. They have won their last seven road games if you include playoffs and regular season plus they exorcised a demon by beating Indiana on the road, something they hadn't done in the last 12 tries. Bradley Beal does not really seem like a second option. Like it feels offensive to call Beal the meatballs to John Wall's spaghetti.  He is a star in the making and will only get better. Beal made a statement with 25 points, seven rebounds ans seven assists. But the thing that impressed me about this Wizards win was how the role players showed up in this one, and if that happens consistently, we could be heading to a real strange place with the Wiz. 

Trevor Ariza hit six threes channeling his days as a Los Angeles Laker in the postseason where he just became a difference maker from the outside.  He also did a pretty good job on Paul George as he went 4/17 from the field, obviously Ariza wasn't the only one guarding George but had a hand in it. Drew Gooden had 12 points with 13 rebounds including seven offensive rebounds. They both added a new element to Washington's game. Oh and Roy Hibbert... 0 points with two rebounds. YIKES.

Charlie.