The NBA Playoffs march on towards possibly conclusions in the first round, as there doesn’t seem to be a whole lot of series capable of going the distance. The Cleveland Cavaliers, Miami Heat and Los Angeles Clippers moved on comfortably to take a 2-0 lead without the Detroit Pistons, Charlotte Hornets and Portland Trail Blazers giving them a lot of trouble.
Hornets 103 Heat 115 (Heat lead series 2-0): Steve Clifford might be challenging the media for criticizing his coaching, but whatever it is he’s trying to do, it’s not working. Dwyane Wade has looked wonderful in the two games, scoring 28 points to go with 8 assists, while four more players finished with 15 points or more. The Heat shot 57.9% from the field and 56.3% from beyond the arc, doing a great job of stopping the three-ball from the Hornets, holding them to just 1-for-16 from beyond the arc. Kemba Walker scored 29 points, Al Jefferson added 25.
Detroit Pistons 90 Cleveland Cavaliers 107 (Cavs lead 2-0): The Pistons special shooting from the first game simply wasn’t there, and they couldn’t come close to a much better team. LeBron James looked great with 27 points and 6 rebounds, including some thunderous dunks and a couple of three pointers. He got plenty of backcourt help in the form of J.R. Smith scoring 21 points on seven three-pointers and Kyrie Irving adding 22. Tristan Thompson had just 13 minutes, and Cleveland looked a lot better without him.
Portland Trail Blazers 81 Los Angeles Clippers 102 (Clippers lead 2-0): The Clippers defense on Damian Lillard and C.J. McCollum is paying off, holding the backcourt duo to just 12-for-39 from the field. The rest wasn’t as complicated and difficult. Blake Griffin is still waiting for his big game to come, but the Clippers are doing well without him doing too much, for now. Chris Paul had 25 points with 6 rebounds and 5 assists, J.J. Redick helped out with 20 points.