FOR the 16 playoff qualifiers, April is the most important part of the year. They will all be playing a seven-game series up to the Finals. Since the playoffs started last Sunday, we had already seen two upsets headlined by Cleveland’s loss to Indiana.
The defeat was LeBron James’ first in almost six years where, for 21 consecutive games, he had never lost a first round opening game. Looks like Victor Oladipo and the rest of the Pacers were never bothered with Bron’s feat.
Cleveland fans love the Cavaliers so much that an average of 20,562 fans watched the team’s 41 home games. On the flipside, Indiana needs to show more love to VO and the Pacers as only an average of 15,845 watched Pacer home games. Today, LeBron tries to rally his Cavs toward victory.
Behind the monster game of Anthony Davis, the New Orlenas Pelicans surprised the Portland Trailblazers. As of this writing, they are still battling each other for a win. After 10 successive Game 1 playoff losses, the Toronto Raptors prevailed over the Washington Wizards and repeated over them yesterday for a 2-0 series lead. The Milwaukee Bucks are so overmatched against the Boston Celtics that the men in green are two wins away for them to advance to the next round. They blew the Bucks with a two-game average winning margin of 10 points.
Denver and Minnesota battled for the last Western Conference playoff spot with the Wolves winning. They could have been fighting for the distinction of being swept by the Houston Rockets in the first round. Minnesota had a tight game with Houston but in the end lost by 3 points. They need to regroup and win at least one game but going against a team which thrives in long bombs could be a hard climb. Shooting more threes than any other team, the Rockets recorded the most number of 4-point plays this season at 19.
Whether the home team wins or loses, fans liked to watch games when Golden State, OKC, Cleveland, LA Lakers, and Boston are on the road. The least liked road teams are Phoenix, Sacramento, Brooklyn, Dallas, and Utah.
For the fifth consecutive season, the Lakers failed to make the post season. And for the first time since 2005, both the Lakers and the Clippers failed to qualify.
This is the playoffs and games are supposed to be closely fought yet blowouts tend to happen. The biggest margin of victory (58) was jointly held by two teams. On March 19, 1956, the Minneapolis Lakers defeated the St. Louis Hawks 133-75. Likewise, Denver won over the New Orleans Hornets 121-63 on April 27, 2009.
Golden State had a chance to sweep the Finals last year but they let Cleveland have one game. There were only eight teams who did a 4-0 Finals sweep. Forty-three years ago, the Warriors did it, 11 years ago LeBron experienced it and the Lakers had it four times.
Here’s our NBA Finals sweeper list:
* 1958-1959: Boston Celtics 4 – Minneapolis Lakers 0
* 1970-1971: Milwaukee Bucks 4 – Buffalo Bullets 0
* 1974-1975: Golden State Warriors 4 – Washington Bullets 0
* 1982-1983: Philadelphia 76ers 4 – LA Lakers 0
* 1988-1989: Detroit Pistons 4 – LA Lakers 0
* 1994-1995: Houston Rockets 4 – Orlando Magic 0
* 2001-2002: LA Lakers 4 – New Jersey Nets 0
* 2006-2007: San Antonio Spurs 4 – Cleveland Cavaliers 0
Next to the Celtics, the Lakers have the second highest number of NBA titles at 16. They also hold the league record of having the most number of Finals losses with 15. Still on the Lakers, while based Minneapolis, they won the Basketball Association of America championships in 1949. The following year, the league was renamed the NBA and the Lakers won the 1950 title. They were the first team to win a second league trophy as well as back-to-back champions.
There will be several playoff records on target for LeBron. His terrible flops aside, the guy has greatness as his real surname. For the record, I’m not a Bron-bron fan but with him having played all of Cleveland’s 82 games this season, I am awed by his talent, the drama and acting secondary. Let’s see if we’ll have another Warrior-Cavs finale./PN
