NBA Games Recap 4/17/09
Well while the baseball season has just started the NBA season is nearing it’s end, it’s the start of the play-offs today so instead of a recap of the MLB that was on offer last night we’ll be doing a preview of the best looking game on offer in the Conference Quarter-Finals.
Half of the 8 games are being played today starting in the Eastern Conference where the 7th placed Chicago Bulls are beginning their first round series with the Celtics in Boston before the Detroit Pistons will start what’s likely to be a short series against the Cleveland Cavaliers in Cleveland.
Then we move to the Western Conference and before the 4th/5th match up in Portland the most exciting series, in my opinion, begins in San Antonio where there’s the most chance of an early upset. The Dallas Mavericks ended the season strongly and as a result were able to leap frog the stumbling Utah Jazz and the misfiring New Orleans Hornets into 6th place in the West to set up a match between them and San Antonio. While the Spurs have home court advantage in this best of 7 series the Mavericks won’t be scared, San Antonio lost 13 games at home during the regular season including losses to Oklahoma City and Golden State, two bad, bad, teams in the West.
Compare this with Dallas’ record at home (32-9) and the Spurs will be hoping that they don’t slip up at home otherwise this game could go to a decider. It was only Dallas’ away form that held them back from challenging for a 3rd or 4th seed (18-23), however with Dirk Nowitzki firing on all cylinders the Mavs will hope to sneak an away victory and swing the series in their favour. The first two games of this series are being played at the AT&T Center so the Mavericks will hope to nick one of these two games before going back to Dallas for two games, if the series is tied at 2 after 4 games Dirk and co. will be happy.
The Spurs have been bolstered in recent days by the return of Manu Ginobili, who they hope will take some of the pressure off Tim Duncan, who in recent weeks has only been able to play 25 to 30 minutes a game after coming back from a knee injury. Game 1 of this series is on ESPN and tip-off’s at 8pm ET.
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