Good evening, basketball fans! I’ve decided to do something a little different tonight—a live blog, to be specific. I’m going to try my best to cover both games, but if I mysteriously disappear it simply means the wireless shat the bed at the place where I’m being paid to sleep. That’s correct, I’m being paid to sleep tonight, and for the next 12 nights. And you thought professional athletes had it made.
Sixers @ Celtics
-Pregame: Brian Scalabrine is on CSNNE providing guest analysis. He’s definitely got a bright future in broadcasting. Serious.
-Pregame: Chris Webber, along with Dick Stockton, will be calling the game on TNT. Although Stockton sometimes has trouble with names, he and Webber have been my favorite commentating duo of this postseason.
-6:45 1st: Kevin Garnett seems to be picking up where he left off against Atlanta. He’s 3-5 with 6 points after sticking a jumper.
-5:18 1st: Next to the guy in Atlanta, and maybe the guy in Miami, Boston’s public address announcer has to be the most annoying in the NBA.
-5:18 1st: According to David Aldridge, Ray Allen’s ankle is “no better than a C-” and Avery Bradley’s shoulder is “popping in and out.”
-2:53 1st: At the three-minute timeout Kevin Garnett is the only Celtic with a field goal. Meanwhile, Philadelphia’s entire starting lineup has at least one field goal.
-0:15 1st: Ryan Hollins attempts an alley-oop jam, misses, and wrecks himself. As he lies on the floor, Lou Williams dribbles out the clock for a final shot… even though the Sixers have a five-on-four advantage. Questionable decision. It’s not like the Celtics, save for Garnett, have been able to make a shot anyway. Williams ends up scoring on the play, so I suppose it doesn’t matter.
-9:55 2nd: Lavoy Allen has now fouled Kevin Garnett on a difficult jumper and Ryan Hollins on a dribble drive. He just redeemed himself with a jump hook.
-8:00 2nd: Moments after toasting Kevin Garnett off the dribble, Thaddeus Young limps to the locker room. Not surprisingly, it seems that he stepped on the foot of a camera man and rolled his ankle.
-3:38 2nd: Philadelphia takes their largest lead of the game (13) with an 8-0 run capped by an interesting behind-the-back pass by Andre Iguodala and a difficult jump shot from Evan Turner. Doc Rivers calls time out, will now scream until losing his voice (if he hasn’t already).
-0:48 2nd: Rajon Rondo and Paul Pierce have each scored their first field goals of the game in the past minute. Both buckets were easy layups.
HALFTIME: With a late-second-quarter surge the Celtics have turned what was a 13-point deficit into a 5-point deficit. With a total of 47 points the Sixers are on pace to score 94, 12 more than Atlanta averaged against Boston in the first round. Evan Turner and Andre Iguodala are playing well with 12 points a piece. Kevin Garnett is sitting on a game high of 14.
-11:10 3rd: Paul Pierce gets free for one of his signature elbow jump shots. It’s a clean catch-and-shoot opportunity, but he’s still unable to connect. Pierce is now 1-7.
-9:15 3rd: Boston takes their first lead of the game (48-47) as Avery Bradley outruns everyone, including his own teammate Rajon Rondo, to collect a loose ball and take it the distance for a layup.
-6:44 3rd: Rajon Rondo makes the laziest pass you’ve ever seen in your life, and in the backcourt to boot. The play results in a goaltend. The Sixers have taken the lead back with an 8-0 run, even though they’ve only looked like a cohesive offensive unit for approximately one possession since halftime.
-5:31 3rd: Paul Pierce brick count: 7.
-2:30 3rd: Kevin Garnett sneakily elbows Lavoy Allen in the face. He’s not a dirty player, though.
-1:43 3rd: Rajon Rondo turnover count: 6.
-0:01 3rd: Rondo scores a driving layup, his second bucket in the last minute or so. Prior to… pretty much now I felt that he’d had little to no impact on the game, despite his 13 assists. The Celtics still trail by four (71-67) at the end of three.
-10:14 4th: Andre Iguodala drives hard to the rack but fails to dunk the ball over Kevin Garnett. Keyon Dooling collects the garbage and takes it the other way for a contested layup. Big play for the Celtics, and they needed it. 77-71.
-8:07 4th: With Boston trailing by four, Ray Allen misses a three. However, Rajon Rondo finds his way to the ball and rips down a hell of an offensive rebound. Rondo kicks it out to a wide open Avery Bradley, but he can’t connect either. Would’ve been a momentous play.
-6:26 4th: Boston has another chance to get within one as Rajon Rondo hits Kevin Garnett in the paint with an excellent pass from above the three-point line. Although he’d established pretty deep position, Garnett tries a couple of fakes and loses the ball out of bounds off his own foot. Another missed opportunity.
-6:09 4th: Andre Iguodala air ball count: 3, I think.
-4:47 4th: Spencer Hawes plays a passing lane beautifully, steals the ball, and takes it all the way for a tough layup. Sixers go up 82-79.
-3:47 4th: Rajon Rondo kills two birds with one stone as he gives Boston an 83-82 lead and gets his 8th career playoff triple-double with a single elbow jumper.
-2:52 4th: Rough sequence for the Sixers as they come up with a steal but fail to convert in transition (poor layup attempt by Lou Williams), leading to a three-point opportunity for Kevin Garnett at the other end. 85-84, Celtics.
-1:18 4th: Paul Pierce (3-10) finally hits his signature shot to give Boston a six-point lead, their largest of the game. Moments earlier Kevin Garnett had knocked down a mid-range jumper of his own while the Sixers failed to get a good look out of an Evan Turner isolation.
-3.4 4th: Up 92-89 with 30 seconds to go, the Celtics have a chance to ice it. The Sixers play great defense, though, forcing a terribly-difficult jump shot by Paul Pierce. Pierce misses, but Rajon Rondo fouls in transition so not to allow Philly to tie the game. I like the decision.
FINAL (92-91, Celtics): Rajon Rondo sheds his defender and leaks into the backcourt to receive an easy inbound pass. No Sixer can catch up to him as the clocks runs out. Ballgame.
Nuggets @ Lakers
-0:00 1st: As I said may happen, the internet shat the bed. I’ve got it working now, though, and we’ll join the Lakers and Nuggets for the start of the second quarter. LA enters the second with a one-point lead (25-24) thanks in large part to Pau Gasol, who has 6 points on 3-4.
-11:20 2nd: After sizing the shot up for a moment, Al Harrington rattles in a three-pointer from the top of the key. The bucket makes Harrington 3-5 in the early going. Man, what a boost it would be for the Nuggets if Big Al came up large.
-9:13 2nd: Andre Miller has Denver’s last three rebounds. He’s actually the game’s leading rebounder for the moment with a total of 5 boards in 7 minutes.
-8:47 2nd: Kenneth Faried gives the Nuggets a one-point lead with a monster putback dunk. He actually hammered it on top of Al Harrington. Friendly fire!
-6:32 2nd: Kenneth Faried fights his ass off for an offensive rebound, but loses the ball amidst a sea of yellow shirts. The Lakers push it the other way and Steve Blake hits a three. Devastating sequence for the Nuggets, who fall back by seven (38-31) and take a timeout.
-6:32 2nd: I’m pretty sure TNT only runs three advertisements during NBA games: Mr. Sandman, Jeremiah Weed, and Doritos Locos Tacos. I guess the league wants us all to go on a drunk drive to Taco Bell in a new Kia Optima.
-3:45 2nd: Andrew Bynum is trying.
-1:45 2nd: Steve Kerr on Denver’s two-point deficit: “It feels like it should be worse, doesn’t it? It seems like the Lakers have played better and controlled the tempo.” Agreed.
-0:01 2nd: Pau Gasol tips in Andrew Bynum’s missed jumper amongst a crowd of rebounders. LA’s dominance in the size department is starting to show like it did earlier in the series.
HALFTIME: The Lakers are in a pretty good spot leading 48-42 at the end of the first half. The Nuggets aren’t shooting well and Pau Gasol is engaged. As Steve Kerr pointed out, it’s simply been a Laker kind of game. The Nuggets absolutely have to come out and play their style of basketball in the third quarter. If they don’t do that they won’t win, simple as that. They can’t beat LA in a grinding battle that goes down to the wire. They need to run, get a lead, and build a little separation for when Kobe decides to go apesh!t. Things aren’t looking good for Denver as far as I can see.
-11:25 3rd: Horribly-lame offensive foul call on Gallinari for either hooking or pushing off of Pau Gasol. In reality he hardly made contact.
-The rest of the 3rd: More internet issues, Denver falls back by double digits on a Ron Artest three.
-8:01 4th: Denver finally manages to slow down Pau Gasol and score a few points in transition. They fight back to take a two-point lead, but it only lasts a moment before Steve Blake bangs in a three.
-6:21 4th: Pau Gasol scores on offensive rebound/putbacks on back-to-back Laker possessions.
-5:51 4th: Steve Blake makes his 5th three on as many attempts (19 points) to give LA an 83-78 lead.
-4:57 4th: Moments after missing an easy tip dunk, Kenneth Faried collects an offensive board… but steps out of bounds. Things are beginning to go LA’s way again.
-3:10 4th: Al Harrington, who has finally put together a fine game in this series, sinks a tough jumper off the bounce to bring Denver back within five. Harrington has 22 on 8-14, but he and the Nuggets will have to get stops and rebound the basketball with just three minutes to go.
-2:38 4th: Andrew Bynum puts the Lakers back up seven with an offensive rebound/score in the paint. Bynum now has 17 rebounds and 5 blocked shots.
-1:09 4th: Arron Afflalo keeps the Nuggets alive with a three. 84-80, Lakers.
-0:48 4th: Kobe Bryant matches Afflalo with a contested three of his own. Ballgame.
FINAL (96-87, Lakers): Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum combine for 39 points, 35 rebounds, and 10 blocked shots as the Lakers prove to be too big, too tall, and too strong for the Denver Nuggets (when they care to exploit their advantage). Steve Blake’s 19 points on 7-11 provided the extra offensive boost LA needed when Denver made their run. In the end, Kobe was there to put it away. Unfortunately, the game unfolded exactly as I figured it would.
sweet, good stuff costan!