NBA Games Recap 4/27/09
3 games were played in the NBA play-offs last night and none of them were close games. Firstly the closest game of the night resulted in an 81-71 win for the Atlanta Hawks in Miami that tied the series at 2-2 with at least 2 more to play. This looks like the series that’s most likely to go to a 7th game and with the teams in it were seeded 4th and 5th that’s not a surprise. In Game 4 last night the Hawks had a comfortable time in Florida holding a 4 point lead going into half time before increasing it in the second half.
Point guard Mike Bibby led Atlanta in scoring with 15 points 9 of which were from 3 point range. Bibby hit every 3-point shot he took last night and finished with 5 of 10 field shooting. Other than that Joe Johnson dropped 14 while playing most of the game and Maurice Evans hit 4 of 6 field shots for 10 points. The other performance of note was Zaza Pachulia who came off the bench to replace center Al Horford and played a greater number of minutes than Horford during which time he scored 12 and grabbed 18 rebounds for a double double.
On the other side Dwayne Wade hit 22 points despite only shooting 9 of 26 while Jermaine O’Neal scored 20. With the win Atlanta took home court advantage in the series back from Miami with the next game in Atlanta.
In New Orleans the Hornets were thoroughly humbled at home to a better team as they lost 121-63 to trail Denver 3-1 in the series, in a game that equalled their worst play-off defeat of 58 points. By the start of the 4th quarter the New Orleans Arena was nearly empty as the Nuggets led by 38 points before rubbing salt into the wounds by out scoring the Hornets 33 to 13 in the 4th to add another 20 to the total.
The Nuggets shot 57 percent on the night while New Orleans managed only 31 percent and in particular the Nuggets completely shut down Chris Paul, who could only score 4 points and 6 assists whilst giving up 6 turnovers. This was his worst play-off showing in his career while on the other end the Nuggets’ Carmelo Anthony had a great night. He scored 26 points and 7 assists in only 36 minutes as most of the Denver starters didn’t even both coming out for the 4th quarter. Due to this the bench got some time and with the game wrapped up early they decided to show boat and even these came off. Linas Kleiza came on for 15 minutes altogether and scored 14 points, 9 of which were 3 pointers and he still managed to miss another 3.
The Hornets will now have to go into Denver knowing that a loss will see them out of the play-offs at the first hurdle, surely a shock for a team that in December and January was in 2nd place in the Western Conference. If the Nuggets replicate their performance in New Orleans then Chris Paul and co. won’t have a chance.
Finally in Los Angeles the Lakers wrapped up their series with the Utah Jazz in 5 games as they won 107-96 to win the series 4-1 and advance to the next round. The Jazz started ok and held the Lakers at 26-26 after the first quarter but soon fell to pieces and went into the break 13 points down as their road blues quickly set in. Kobe Bryant had 31 points including 3 of 4 from behind the arc while two more players had double doubles. Firstly Pau Gasol dropped 17 and grabbed 11 rebounds and then Lamar Odom shot 10 of 15 from the field for 26 points and 15 rebounds as Utah just couldn’t cope with the L.A firepower. The Lakers will now go onto face either Dallas or San Antonio and it’s hard to see them losing to either team on the form they are in.
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Tags: basketball picks, bet on sports, NBA picks
February 6th, 2012 at 4:56 am
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