Saturday!

The Pacers beat the Bulls! Finally on Saturday to avoid a miserable sweep. Rose for once in this series didn't lead the scoring, Noah did 21 points and 14 rebounds. This was their first playoff win since '06 and you could tell it just felt right! On the other end of the court Granger scored 24 points as he led his team to victory with another close game in the series with a score of 89-84. The Pacers may have won this game but the series will be hard, going with the old saying "they have won the fight but they will loose the war." Bulls should win the series 4-1, it is close, but the Bulls have an edge over them.

The next game was quite shocking. Brandon Roy and his fellow teammates on the Blazers rallied from being down 23 points to come back and upset the Mavericks, 84-82. The Mavericks led by Nowitzki with 20 points,  kept a very strong lead on the Blazers for the first three quarters, but all that changed in the fourth. The Blazers scored 35 points alone in that quarter to only 15 by the Mavericks. Brandon Roy led the scoring in the final quarter with 24 points followed with Wallace with a key 11 rebounds. This game really showed me a lot about this series, and though the Mavericks are favored to win, I can just smell an upset. If the young Blazers team keeps playing like they have been, I can see them coming out of this series victorious, it will be close though. If the Mavericks can fall to the Blazers after having a 23 point lead, they don't deserve a win. Portland will win the series 4-3.

Memphis is a good team, obviously they made it to the playoffs, but they are the eighth seed... Well that didn't stop them from winning yet another game against the majorly favored Spurs, 91-88. This team is energized and just fun to watch. Randolph has really been a surprise and a great star to his franchise who just won their first playoff game last week. He led his team with 25 points, along with Pau Gasol's talented brother Marc, with 9 rebounds. The Spurs ever since they have entered this series look the exact opposite, they have had kind of a lazy, tired look to them. Tim Duncan hasn't been a huge factor. Ginobili led the way with 23 points along with Duncan with 11 rebounds. The game was somewhat close but due to the heavy dominance by the Grizzlies in the first quarter they came out on top. This is a hard series to call either way, the Spurs should win... but I can't say that they will. Grizzlies will win 4-3.

The final game of the night was a bit of a shocker... Oklahoma City came into Denver with a weak road record and Denver with a strong home record. But the Thunder looked hot, energized and had the western finals in their crosshairs. Durant like usual led the team with 26 points, followed by Ibaka a high 16 rebounds. Nuggets had a strong game, but in the end their starters and bench weren't making the shots that counted and this was again their downfall. JR Smith who hadn't played well the first three quarters was benched but brought in at the final minutes to help his team try rally back. They were close, but a late three point miss sealed the deal. The Thunder ended the game with a close 97-94 win in Denver, but they really didn't look like they wanted to win at all, they gave Denver any change possible to come back. This game was close and I do see Denver winning the next game, but still I see the series going 4-1 to Oklahoma City.