Game three's may turn playoffs around

Saturday afternoon, each playoff series in the NBA was 2-0 for the teams with home court advantage. By Sunday night, they were both 2-1. So what did the two lower seeded teams do to put one in the victory column? It sounds pretty simple, and it usually is. By going to their star players, the Jazz and Cavaliers gave themselves a shot at making a comeback.

In the Western Conference, the Spurs and Jazz were pretty much even through games one and two in three of the four quarters. In the first quarter of the first two matchups, the Spurs led 49-44. In the third, it was a 50-47 advantage for Utah. And in the fourth, the Jazz led 69-54. So why was San Antonio winning the series two games to zero? Because in minutes twelve through twenty-four of each game, Tim Duncan’s crew was ahead an astounding 62-33. Back in Salt Lake City, the Jazz had to find a way to not get blown out during the second quarter.

To do that, they turned to their best player, former Illinois baller Deron Williams. (Who will always be a hero in my book because of this.)Williams, who has a rare combination of speed and power at the point guard position, completely took over last night. He finished the game with 31 points, eight assists, and five steals while holding Manu Ginobili to four of twelve shooting on D. In quarter number two, after falling behind 23-15 in the first, Utah came back to make it a close game at halftime, trailing only by four points. (In game one, they were down 18 at half, in game two it was 17.) Much of that was because of Williams. He shot from the outside, drove to the hoop, and dished to open teammate. I believe if Deron had decided to wear his shorts five inches shorter and Carlos Boozer had a bigger head, half of the audience watching on ABC would have thought that it was Stockton and Malone running the pick-and-roll in the second half for Utah. Yeah, they were that good. It will be interesting to see if San Antonio continues to go with Bruce Bowen on Williams in game four, because last night, B.B. couldn’t stop number five if his paycheck depended on it.

Out East, it’s been the LeBron show. Or make that the lack of LeBron show. In the first two games, both played in Detroit, they completely shut down the Cavs star forward. In game one, LBJ finished one point assist away from a triple-double. That would be a line of ten points, ten rebounds, nine dimes. That might sound good to the average fan, but the most talented player in the league (Note: Not the best player, but the most talented) should have ten points after the first quarter, not at the end of the contest. In game two, James did a little bit better, finishing with 19 points, but it still wasn’t enough. Cleveland lost both games by the identical score, 79-76. To win, the Cavs were going to need to get up and down the court, make Detroit actually play some transition defense and get LeBron going. In game three, that all happened. Cleveland won 88-82 (Still not that high scoring, but at least they broke the 80-point barrier), and James finished with a statline like a great player should have: 32 points, nine boards, nine assists. If he plays like that the rest of the series, as does Deron Williams, the Conference Finals won’t be the bore that I thought they would be.