Competing

As the second round of the NBA playoffs begin, it's very clear that there are no pushovers in the round. I got just one word for it: competing. If any team takes any other team "for light", they might as well start planning for their summer vacation.


Take the Oklahoma City Thunder. You would think that they didn't watch any tape at all of the Grizzlies series against the Spurs. It's like they didn't see Zach Randolph dog out the Spurs for 34 points and ten rebounds in the series clinching 6th game. Randolph is the only player in the league that has averaged 20 points and 10 rebounds the last three years. His backboard mate, Marc Gasol added 23 points and 13 on 9 for 11 shooting. The motivator of this group is Tony Allen, who does have some championship hardware from his time with the Celtics. Like Randolph says, "We believe. "We definitely believe. Our confidence is up high. I tell the guys we can compete and play with anybody." Yep.

There no underestimating on either side in the Celt/Heat matchup. Both teams came out with the necessary playoff intensity. It's going to a rumble, tumble series to say the least. My favorite play was DWade (my boy) diving like a wide reciever who was laying out for the football into the crowd for a ball. You saw the connection he has with his fans when they grabbed him to prevent him from injury. I'll keep saying it: this is his team and you saw a little bit of deference by Prince James down the stretch to him for the win. If that continues and the bench shows up like it did (James Jones, five three-pointers), it could be rough for the Celts. If only Shaq-Fu could be available.

The Hawks give me a "happy go lucky" kind of feel when talking about them. They have gone through the post season handling the Magic quite easily and looked about the same last night in defeating the Bulls in their series opener. Joe Johnson played like a 'max' player with 34 points and super sub Jamal Crawford was raining jump shots like Lamar Mundane. I said in a earlier blog that the Hawks came into the playoffs with their act not quite together and they still seem adrift mentally. But as of this moment, they are 11 wins from a championship.

For the second series in a row, the Lake Show lost their opening round game in their series against the Mavs. The difference is, as Kobe said, "This team can beat us, it's clear." The Black Mamba was a bit upset. He was upset at the Lakers inconsistent play and probably himself for missing the game winning shot at the end. For historic purposes, Kobe's 36 point performance was the 81st 30pt playoff game of his career, trailing only you know who (109). As rapper GURU (R.I.P) would say, who's going to take the weight and give Kobe some help?

Like the group Inner City would sing, "We're having big fun."