Some quick thoughts on Games Ones:

-On the Nets v. Raptors:  I have my game notes in the post below this one, but the bottom line is that the Nets are for real, and that's primarily because of forgotten former near-MVP Jason Kidd.  I can't emphasize how few true franchise players there in the NBA - the entire list might be Shaq, Kobe, Duncan, Kidd, Nash, and perhaps T-Mac/Yao.  And Dirk (the worst of those franchise players).  That's pretty much it as far as my list goes.   There will be new names in the next couple of years - Bosh, Howard, Paul, Anthony - but that's the list right now.  With that in mind, people keep sleeping on Kidd.  This might be his last postseason as "the man" on a legit contender, so he will deliver.  Carter will have his two big games in every series, but the Nets ride will be Kidd-powered....

-Heat-Bulls:  We don't have an rooting interest in this series.  On the one hand, our recent brush with cocky, annoying, and plain idiotic Bulls fans (not all - we respect our boyJack Cobra and Ricky from TUP, for example, plus a few others who were solid commentators) has left us disliking the Bulls.  However, we don't like Pat Riley or the Heat too much, and the one player in the series we have any affection for is Andres Nocioni, one of the heroes from the 2004 Argentina Gold Medal team that won me some good money and glory.  

All that aside, wow did the Heat get jobbed.  We watched the game, and took notes, and too many of our notes were about how ridiculous some of the calls against the Heat were.  Shaq was called early for two loose ball fouls in which Ben Wallace clearly flopped (even the ABC broadcasters found those calls silly); he later picked up a foul on a so-so blocking call in which he was trying to draw a charge (the replay indicated he was still moving a bit, but that still struck us as a no-call, not a blocking violation), and fouled out on a weak blocking call on what was a blatant charge.  Still, I have no idea why Shaq was trying to draw charges, anyway.

But the Wade foul trouble was also a little alarming - he isn't one to foul, so we found that his foul trouble, in a playoff game, seemed out of place.  The bottom line is the Bulls benefitted greatly from the calls being made - whereas Hinrich was in trouble for hacking Heat players, Shaq and Wade were called for some loose-ball and for trying to draw offensive fouls.

Luol Deng was pretty amazing, though.  He was the player of the game.  He is Rashard Lewis to Ben Gordon's Ray Allen (that's a compliment - we see the Bulls as the Sonics, if the Sonics had a Ben Wallace and a much deeper bench), which is what the Bulls needed if they were to score enough points to win.  He was great.  The Heat had the defensive strategy of doubling Gordon off of the point (Hinrich, Thabo, or Duhon), forcing him to give it back to the point.  Instead he was able to get it over to Deng, who made the Heat pay time after time.  He really is turning into a Rashard Lewis type scorer, but with a more complete defensive game (and maybe a little less range, as Lewis is money from downtown).

-Detroit and Houston will just keep handling their business in the first round.

-Cleveland will, too, but that's not very impressive.  In fact, they are at best just-whelming.

-The Lakers will keep giving the Suns a little pressure, and win a few games, but it looks like they are too dysfunctional to pull off an upset in the series.   Still, I refuse to outright write them off... the Lakers have just enough talent that if they can get it together for two halves they can win against anyone.  

-Denver was the hot team coming into the playoffs, and they took it to the Spurs yesterday.  We weren't totally surprised by that, but we think the Spurs will buckled down and win this in 6 or 7 games.  The Nuggets are no joke, but the Spurs, despite their lack of depth and aging team, are still a solid contender.  They will make the needed adjustments.  But we will be watching closely, for this is the series where it is at.  

-The Mavs won't make the adjustments.  They can't, anyway.  The Warriors have owned them all season, and for a while.  Beyond that, the Warriors are even better now then they were all season long.  We initially thought this would be a back and forth series, but we don't even know anymore if we think the Mavs are even capable of drawing out the series.  This is looking like it might be a six game series, tops.  

The Warriors, despite their small size, are still a solid defensive team.  They get lots of steals, great man-to-man pressure, and are third in the league in blocks.  Richardson and Pietrus are among the best blocking SG/SF, and Biedrins (who was barely used yesterday) is a defensive beast.  Best of all, Nellie knows that the Mavs won't go inside, so he doesn't have to use Biedrins much this series.  The Mavs aren't able to change their lineup to take advantage of the Warriors, and the Warriors will just keep running and stealing and fast breaking and attacking the basket and chucking threes.  As matter of fact, until Baron Davis got hot right at the end from downtown, the Warriors were winning despite not having their usual three-point party.  Once the threes started going in, they dominated the end of the game, winning going away.  Mark Cuban is not going to be happy.

-When was the last time the previous years' NBA finalists didn't make it out of the first round?  Ever happen?   Well, the Mavs are definitely in trouble, and the Heat might be if they don't win the next game....

Update: This is an interesting piece from Winning The Turnover Battle, on Tim Duncan's whininess, and the possible effect it had on the Nuggets-Spurs game.  We didn't see but the fourth quarter of that game, so we won't comment on the refereeing there.   We are surprised at the lack of comments on the Heat game.

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