The Heat Index’s Tom Haberstroh has a great article up today on how Dwyane Wade’s unprecedented shot-blocking (Wade is the only guard to average at least a block per game over the course of his career) impacts Miami’s defense.
With their backs to the wall, the Memphis Grizzlies played the exact game they needed to play to beat the Clippers, and now find themselves one road win away from a Game 7 on their home floor, where they were 26-7 in the regular season and are now 2-1 in the playoffs.
From ESPN Chicago’s Nick Friedell: After Derrick Rose tore his ACL with just over a minute to play in Game 1 of the Chicago-Philadelphia series, the Bulls have lost three straight games to put them on the brink of elimination, and Noah’s injury has made things that much more dire for the Eastern Conference’s #1 seed.
Here’s the situation: if the Lakers-Nuggets series goes to six games, Metta World Peace’s suspension would end, and he would be able to appear in either Game 7 of the Lakers-Nuggets series or, more importantly, Game 1 of the Lakers-Thunder series if the Lakers ended up beating the Nuggets.
From HoopsWorld’s Alex Kennedy: Crawford, the 2010 6th Man of the Year and the NBA’s all-time leader in four-point plays, is a combo guard who can get hot at any time and pour in points at the drop of a hat, although he’s never been a great passer or the most efficient scorer in the world.
It’s as simple as this: if the Clippers hadn’t pulled off a miracle comeback in Game 1, they would be on the wrong side of a 2-0 deficit coming into Game 3.
From the AP: Bosh hasn’t put up huge numbers since coming to Miami, but he’s been an integral part of the team’s success -- only LeBron James had a higher +/- for the Heat this season than Bosh did.
From Tom Reed of the Cleveland Plain Dealer: Irving averaged 18.5 points and 5.4 assists in his rookie campaign, and shot an impressive 46.9%/39.9% from the field and the 3-point line.
It wasn’t pretty, but the Memphis Grizzlies were able to bounce back from their heartbreaking Game 1 defeat and even up their 1st-round series with the Los Angeles Clippers before the series goes back to Los Angeles.
From SI’s Chris Mannix, with a tip of the hat to The Basketball Jones and the DC Sports Bog: Arenas and Young were, of course, teammates in Washington, which was a team with serious problems both on and off the court -- problems which were often caused by Arenas and Young’s behavior, specifically Arenas’ decision to bring guns into the locker room.
It certainly wasn’t easy, but the Oklahoma City Thunder managed to eke out a 1-0 series lead over the Dallas Mavericks after a back-and-forth final period that ended with Kevin Durant nailing a game-winner with 1.5 seconds left to play.
SEASON RECORDS: Chicago: 50-16 (1 seed) Philadelphia: 35-31 (8 seed) SEASON SERIES: Chicago won 2-1 OFFENSE/ DEFENSE RANKINGS (points per 100 possessions): Offense: Chicago 107.4 (5th in NBA), Philadelphia 103.9 (20th in NBA) Defense: Chicago 98.3 (2nd in NBA), Philadelphia 99.2 (3rd in NBA) THREE KEY BULLS: Derrick Rose: Last season’s MVP has had an up-and-down season thanks to injuries.
From ESPN.com’s Marc Stein: The 25-year-old Williams is a great athlete and talented shot blocker, but his personal issues have kept him from living up to his considerable potential so far.
