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NBA Playoffs – Spurs vs Grizzlies Finals Series Predictions
Despite playing against a hurt Oklahoma City Thunder, the Memphis Grizzlies didn’t have it easy, or at least harder than the 4-1 end result suggests. The San Antonio Spurs had a harder time against the Golden State Warriors, needing six games to make it through, but finally figuring out how to stop the three point shooting, while developing an alternative to their big three.
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Indiana Pacers, First Team in 30 Years to Reach the Conference Finals Without a Top 8 Draft Pick
The last time a team has reached the conference finals without a single player selected in the top 8 of the NBA draft were the San Antonio Spurs in 1983, who were led by George Gervin. The Indiana Pacers have now ended the 30 year wait, having only two top-10 players in their active roster in these playoffs, D.J. Augustin and Paul George, telling a little bit about the clever way this team has been built over the last few years.
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NBA Playoffs – The 4 Teams in the Conference Finals
Not the most expected of four-team combinations reached the conference finals in the 2013 NBA playoffs. The Miami Heat and the Indiana Pacers in the East; the San Antonio Spurs and Memphis Grizzlies in the West.
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New York Knicks – Carmelo Anthony Isn’t Going to Lead This Team to Anything
A team built around the scoring abilities of Carmelo Anthony is destined to fail, and it has nothing to do with the selfishness of J.R. Smith or the fact that Amare Stoudemire played a total of 33 minutes during the series. James Dolan wanted a superstar to build around, but chose the wrong one, and all the coaching prowess of Mike Woodson isn’t going to matter when the New York Knicks play in the most predictable and easy to counter way possible.
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Indiana Pacers – Roy Hibbert & Lance Stephenson Take Them Across the Finish Line
There’s no player that deserves more praise than Lance Stephenson, leading the balanced Indiana Pacers with his best scoring performance of the postseason. George Hill gave them the push by simply recovering in time; Paul George was excellent on offense and a lot more accurate than usual; but it was Stephenson, and Roy Hibbert, with one huge block on Carmelo Anthony, that did the important work as the franchise reaches the conference finals for the first time in nine years.
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San Antonio Spurs – Kawhi Leonard & Tiago Splitter Shine Instead of Tony Parker, Manu Ginobili & Tim Duncan
While the San Antonio Spurs have figured out how to stop Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson, getting their big three going all at one has been a bit more difficult in the playoffs. So while Tim Duncan was benched in crunch time and the Tony Parker – Manu Ginobili tandem proved to be on one of their worst days this season, Kawhi Leonard and Tiago Splitter proved there’s plenty of depth behind the old, beaten up names.
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New York Knicks – Carmelo Anthony Finally Finds a Way To Score on Paul George and Play Some Defense
With their backs to the wall, the New York Knicks didn’t get the finest out of Carmelo Anthony. Not an MVP-like performance, but whatever it was, it was good enough to keep them alive in the conference semifinal series, forcing a game 6, by finally showing up to the fourth quarter with some big shots against Paul George and some big defense on the other end against David West.
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Indiana Pacers Keys to Victory – Paul George Shutting Down Carmelo Anthony, Roy Hibbert Doing the Rest
The New York Knicks have been embarrassingly bad in their postseason series with the Indiana Pacers, letting Roy Hibbert lead the way in the utter and complete domination under the paint, while their only option on offense, Carmelo Anthony, has been been experiencing the closest thing to legal torture under the hands of Paul George, making the NBA’s top scorer look like an average player at best.
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Spurs Formula to Victory – Attacking Stephen Curry and Stopping the Three Point Shots
It seems that as we approach game 6 between the San Antonio Spurs and the Golden State Warriors, the Spurs are coming in confident they have the Warriors figured out. Yes, Harrison Barnes has been surprising after an OK rookie season, but comes down to Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson making three point shots. Once you take that away, while forcing Curry to be the on-ball defender as much as possible, and it seems that Mark Jackson doesn’t have too many rabbits to pull out of his hat.
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Oklahoma City Thunder – Kevin Durant Kept Getting Worse & Was Running on Empty
A true superstar doesn’t hit only 23.8% of his field goals attempts (taking 21 shots) as his team faces elimination. But Kevin Durant had to be everything for the Oklahoma City Thunder in their conference semifinals series, and ended up without anything left to give in the final two games. Serge Ibaka and Reggie Jackson actually put up the numbers they were supposed to in giving him the helping hand he needed, but it was a little too late, as Durant couldn’t find anything left in his arsenal in the fourth quarter.