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| Kevin Durant gave us the first game-winner of this years playoffs |
-Derick Rose. What a tough blow, not just for the Bulls and their title hopes, but also to any fans of the NBA. I guarantee that any team that beats the Bulls (assuming they don't pull off a miracle and win the title, I give them a 7% shot to do this, for the record.) will not feel great about it, this Bill Simmons tweet summed it up best; we will never know how good the 2011-2012 Bulls really were.
-Iman Shumpert. In another cruel occurrence, the Knicks not only got embarrassed in their 8-on-5 match-up against the heat (I included the ref's, their performance really allowed Lebron to do his thing, and completely threw off New York) but they also lost their best perimeter defender for the playoffs. The Knicks have a lot to figure out, or they will be overwhelmed very quickly in this series.
-The Pacers. I mean... I thought we left the choking in last year's playoffs. As you may recall, Indiana lost 4-1 to the Bulls last season, in a series where they led in the 4th quarter four out of the five games. Yesterday, they allowed Orlando to close out the game on an 11-0 run, while missing open jumpers, turning the ball over carelessly (travelling, really?) and just taking bad shots (Collison's long two being the pick of the crop). Indiana will seriously need to re-evaluate things if they lose this series, but we have to wait and see what happens for now.
-Kevin Durant. Dallas and OKC provided us with the best game of the day, with KD hitting the game winner (rarely will we see a shot hit side rim and go in, but that's where Durant's soft touch greatly helped) with 1.5 seconds left. Rick Carlisle made a rare mistake and had no time-outs to use after Durant hit the shot. It turns out that Dallas looks ready to defend their title swinging, and Igor echoed what I think everyone is starting to realize: this will be the best match-up of the first round. On to Sunday.
