Wednesday, June 6, 2012

upseting season

The game of basketball has a lot of Cinderella stories, winning underdogs and disappointing upsets. Basketball wouldn't be the great sport it is without upsets, but this whole season was an upset. The biggest upset of the season was the length of the season its self. Normal NBA seasons are 82 games, but this year we only had 65 regular games due to the NBA lockout in the beginning of the year. The second upset was that the Bobcats had a horrible 7-58 season despite them getting the outstanding point guard Kemba Walker this year. They managed to get a top round draft pick, and break the record for lowest win percentage in a single year. The next upset of the year is the fact that one of the seven games that the Bobcats won this year was against the 7th eastern conference seed of the playoffs, the New York Knicks. Its also upsetting how many star players were injured this year. Amare Stoudamire, Chris Bosh, Carmelo Anthony, Dwight Howard, Derrick Rose, Jeremy Lin, Jokim Noah, Baron Davis, Avery Bradley, Al Harrington, Corry Maggette, Wilson Chandler, David Lee, Chauncey Billups, Brook Lopez, Keith Bogans, Ricky Rubio, Lamarcus Aldridge, Channing Frye, Greg Oden, Roger Mason, Jeff Green, Jermiane O’Neil, Iman Shumpert, and Al Horford were some of the prime players that ended up not performing at the best of their abilities due to their injuries. The playoffs were also full of upsetting moments. The Clippers won an upset playoff game. They were losing to the Grizzlies by 27 during the fourth quarter in Memphis, and managed to come back and win by 1 point. They ended up wining that series despite the fact that they were considered to be the underdog. Another big playoff upset this year was how the first place Bulls lost in the first round of the playoffs to the eighth place 76ers team. Its upsetting how the Knicks broke the record for the longest playoff losing streak in history. Then the Pacers won 2 games in a series against the Heat when every one thought that the Pacers wouldn't win one. Another upset was how the defending finals champions, the Dallas Mavericks, got swept in the first round by the Thunder. Then after sweeping Dallas, the Thunder went to Los Angeles and upset the nation by beating the Lakers, who where heavily favored because they were the ones that that kicked the Thunder out of the playoffs in the second round of the 2010 playoffs. The biggest upset the thunder pulled off this season was in San Antonio 2 nights ago. San Antonio had went up 2-0 in the beginning of the series. Not only did the Thunder come back to tie the series and end San Antonio’s current win streak that started on April 11, but they then went to San Antonio and stole one on the Spurs home court making their win streak extend to three and taking a lead in the series 3-2. Tonight San Antonio has to win in Oklahoma city just to keep from getting eliminated from the playoffs. Then if they win tonight they would have to play one more game in San Antonio to determine who would go to this years finals. The eastern conference finals had an upset this year that is almost identical to the one on the west. The Boston Celtics were down 2-0 to the Heat. They ended up winning 3 in a row, including a close one last night in the Heat’s hometown Miami. The Celtics and the Heat ended up in a three point contest in the fourth quarter. Paul Pierce ended up hitting a 3 point dagger over a defending Lebron James to secure a Celtics win despite Pierce’s horrible game otherwise. The Celtics and the Heat will play another game tomorrow in the Celtics hometown, Boston. This will be a challenge as the Heat will not only have to battle to get the win against the Celtics, but they will have to battle the extremely loud and supportive Boston home crowd, and the T.D. Gardens referees, who are known for giving the home team generous calls. The Celtics are aware of this so the Heat can expect a very physical, contact ridden game with very few calls going their way. If the Heat can win this game they will tie the series 3-3 and have a great possibility of winning it in game seven which will be played in Miami if necessary.

Tuesday, June 5, 2012

surprising wins

The Celtics vs. the Heat are tied up 2-2 after the Celtics won 2 nights ago night 93-91 in an overtime game in Boston. both teams lost important scorers as Boston's small forward Paul Pierce and Miami's small forward Lebron James were both fouled out in over time. Last night the Spurs took a 109-103 loss to the Thunder in San Antonio. The Thunder leads the series 3-2 as the spurs now face the challenging task of beating the thunder at their home in Oklahoma City to even the series back up.

Friday, June 1, 2012

in the hole

Despite rondos efforts 2 nights ago Boston still lost in over time to the heat 115-111. He scored an amazing 44 points including 2 clutch 3 pointers that forced the heat to win by making free throws. Rondos performance 2 nights ago made him the first person to ever score 44 points, 8 rebounds, and 10 assists in the playoffs. He also made his way into the top ten for most points scored in a playoff game by a point guard. Now Boston must defend there home court for 2 games and hope to win the second time in Miami. On the west the thunder made their first effort to climb out of the hole by demolishing the spurs 102-82. Thabo Sefolosha made the biggest contribution to the thunders win with his 19 points and outstanding defense. All the thunder need now is another win in OKC and they will even the series at 2-2.