The West Aint No Joke, But The East Isn’t Playing Around Either

The 2008 NBA Playoffs tipped off this weekend and what an opening it was. A weekend in which champions were tested and underdogs showed they belonged (at least for the first game they did). Some rose to the occasion while others collapsed under the pressure. Some didn’t stand a chance from the get go. Headlined match-ups did not disappoint.

We knew that this year’s playoffs would be this good but no one expected to be this good. Basketball fans witnessed everything from the upsetting loss of the Detroit Pistons to the hands of the Philadelphia 76ers to the double overtime war between the Phoenix Suns and the San Antonio Spurs. A game in which Tim Duncan hit his first three point shot of the year to send the game to double overtime. The Champs took that game thanks to Manu’s quick move to the basket for a tough finger roll and finish as the 2OT came to its closing moments.

The Houston Rockets came into the playoffs riding a wave of huge success after setting a franchise record by winning 21 consecutive games even with the absence of Yao Ming. Unfortunately Houston was hit with the loss of PG Rafer Alston, prior to the start of the playoffs, which didn’t help when they faced the very tough Utah Jazz. Houston was just man handled putting up no resistance to either Carlos Boozer, Andrei Kirilenko or Deron Williams.

Despite all the trash talk done by the Washington Wizards at the end of the regular season they still couldn't go past the Cleveland Cavaliers in game one. “Agent Zero” Gilbert Arenas tried his best coming off the bench lighting up the basket making jumper, after jumper, after jumper but was no match for the dominance of LeBron James (32 points).

I don’t know whether to even call the Hawks and the Celtics match-up a series? This is a real life David Vs. Goliath. The only difference with this is that the Hawks stand no chance of doing away with the Celtics. Superiority was shown from tip off by the “clad in green” leaving the red birds wingless. A dominating 24 point victory by the Celtics. Many declaring a series sweep of Atlanta… anyone care to argue with that prediction?

Moving on to more entertaining games that included the former number one seed (7) Dallas Mavericks battling the (2) New Orleans Hornets who didn’t even make the playoffs last year. Sad to say but the Mavs choked in the 4th quarter giving away a possible road victory. We also had the Orlando Magic, carried by Howard, Jameer Nelson, and Hedo Turkoglu, defeating the Toronto Raptors. Finally, we had the resurrected Los Angeles Lakers defeating the defensively challenged Denver Nuggets. The veteran Lakers along with their young supporting cast (Farmar, Vujacic, and Radmanovic) were too much for the Nuggets losing 128-114.

Overall, nothing to be disappointing about in this weekend’s opening games. Bringing much hype to the NBA, fans can’t wait to continue watching what could be a first round series match-ups filled with game 7 drama, specially in the Western Conference.