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San Antonio Spurs – Not Going Easy on Rivals
Life is very different as you move up the playoff ladder. The San Antonio Spurs are used to the rise in difficulty, while the Portland Trail Blazers have a lot of catching up to do, especially after getting torched by Tony Parker in a game 1 116-92 humiliation.
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Miami Heat – Playoffs are a Different Story
The regular season is deceiving, because it made us think that the Brooklyn Nets have some inherit advantage of the Miami Heat. The first game of their conference semifinal series told a very different story, with the defending NBA champions having no trouble taking a 1-0 lead after a 107-86 win, led by some astounding defense and a dominant performance from LeBron James.
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Kevin Durant Wins MVP – First One for the Franchise
Even though there was nothing surprising about Kevin Durant winning the NBA’s regular season MVP award for 2013-2014, there was something quite special about his emotional acceptance speech that brought him and others to tears, and adding to the uniqueness of the moment was him being the first player for the franchise, be it the Seattle Supersonics or the Oklahoma City Thunder, to come up with the award.
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NBA Playoffs – Game 1 Predictions (Nets vs Heat, Blazers vs Spurs)
After home court didn’t seem to mean anything in the beginning of the conference semifinals, the NBA Playoffs continue with one series that seems to be quite one sided on paper between the Portland Trail Blazers and the San Antonio Spurs, while the Miami Heat will try to prove that the regular season doesn’t mean anything as they host the Brooklyn Nets for game 1.
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Los Angeles Clippers – Stunning Opening Knockout
In a series many predicted will go the distance, a one-sided performance like the one we saw in game 1 wasn’t expected, as the Los Angeles Clippers, led by an exceptional shooting performance from Chris Paul, stole home court advantage with a 122-105 victory over the Oklahoma City Thunder.
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Washington Wizards – Embracing the Challenge
Feeling of deja vu as the Indiana Pacers once again drop game 1 of a series, this time in the conference semifinals, facing the red hot Washington Wizards, coming away with a 102-96 road victory, carried by the excellent shooting of Bradley Beal and Trevor Ariza.
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NBA Playoffs – Game 1 Predictions (Clippers vs Thunder, Wizards vs Pacers)
The NBA playoffs can finally move on to the conference semifinals, beginning with one from each conference: The Los Angeles Clippers in the potentially explosive matchup with the Oklahoma City Thunder, and the Washington Wizards with the potentially still confusing Indiana Pacers.
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San Antonio Spurs – Quality Overcomes Ingenuity
All of the adjustments and “tricks” the Dallas Mavericks managed to pull off during a wonderful series didn’t matter in game 7, as the superior San Antonio Spurs showed their true worth with a 119-96 win thanks to a huge night from Tony Parker, advancing to the conference semifinals.
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Brooklyn Nets – Old and More Than a Little Bit Lucky
Sometimes all it takes to have a good game is make one big play when it matters the most. Joe Johnson was the difference maker for the Brooklyn Nets in their 104-103 game 7 win over the Toronto Raptors, sending them to the conference semifinals, but it was Paul Pierce with a block on Kyle Lowry that saved the day and clinched the game as time expired.
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Houston Rockets – Jeremy Lin Needs a Change, James Harden Needs to Change
The season is over way too early for the Houston Rockets who have themselves a head coach in Kevin McHale who really doesn’t know how to make all the moving parts of James Harden, Jeremy Lin and Dwight Howard work together, preferring to simply wing it and let his star nearly decimate an entire series on his own than try and teach this team some actual offense and defense that would have gotten them through.