Let's Check In On The Playoffs

What the heck, it's been a week. One series is already over, and there are some other that probably will be soon. A lot of the series are turning into a bunch of blowouts, and even the ones that have close finishes seem to involve neither team being able to close out their opponent. Indiana's blown big leads, so has Boston, Dallas, Memphis, Chicago, Atlanta. Pretty much everybody, except maybe Utah, who I'm not has had a  lead at any point so far.

Over in the East, the Heat are probably going to dust the Knicks today. I know, the Knicks lost Shumpert in Game 1, Tyson Chandler's fighting the flu, Stoudemire busted his hand punching a fire extinguisher case like an idiot, but jeez, they can't even make these games close. It's not on the level of Orlando sweeping the Hawks by an average of about 25 points from a couple years ago, but it's not much of a showing. Clearly I made the mistake of buying into "Carmelo Anthony: Elite Scorer" too heavily. Or I underestimated LeBron James: Elite Defender. Six of one, half-dozen of another.

The Bulls lost Rose to an ACL tear, and now my description of them as 'the Sixers, but better' may no longer apply. If Joakim Noah actually fractured something in his foot, it definitely doesn't apply. The Hawks and Celtics are fighting hard, against each other and various outside forces. The Hawks have injured frontcourt guys all over the place, though they could get Josh Smith back for Game 4. The Celtics are fighting age, and injuries, though not as many as Atlanta. The Celtics have home court, but all it takes is one Hawks' win and that's gone.

Indiana's up 3-1 on Orlando, but they nearly blew a big lead in Game 4, after actually blowing a big lead in Game 1, to a team they should probably be dominating, given how Orlando was built around Dwight Howard's talents, and now Dwight isn't available. Assuming Indiana finishes the Magic off, it might be good for the Pacers to get better at consistently dominating the interior. The Heat aren't that much better off in terms of big men who could match up with Roy Hibbert, so that might be the one advantage the Pacers would have over Miami, if they can exploit it.

In the West, Dallas is out. Great title defense there, guys. I know the Lamar Odom thing kind of blew up in their faces, but how bad is this going to look if they don't land Deron Williams and/or Dwight Howard in the near future, or they do and it doesn't work? They said, "Ah, we don't need Tyson Chandler" because that was their plan, so it better work, don't you think? Anyway, the Thunder still have weaknesses, but they have time to work on them while waiting.

The Lakers are up 2-1 on Denver, as thus far, they've exploited their size advantage more effectively than Denver has exploited their/speed athleticism advantage. Denver did win in Game 3, even without playing terribly well, which doesn't seem to have concerned Laker fans. They're chalking the loss up to the pattern the Lakers have of just mailing in games periodically, and maybe they're right. If Denver can win game 4 though, they might have to reevaluate that perspective. The Clippers are also up 2-1 on Memphis, because Chris Paul, I guess. The Grizzlies either can't, or haven't, exploited their size advantage sufficiently yet, so might be time to do that.

Oh, and the Jazz are vying with the Knicks for "biggest playoff no-show" at this point, and I don't believe Utah has the injuries excuse the Knicks have either. Looks like I made a real mistake not picking any sweeps, but I figured everybody was capable of winning at least one game. Maybe not.