Cleveland Cavaliers @ Boston Celtics, Phoenix Suns @ San Antonio Spurs :: 2010 NBA Playoffs Day 21

My prediction skills suck.

via www.thecrimson.com

Sometimes things don't go the way you think they will. I thought the Magic would walk right through the Hawks, but they had to earn it in Game 2. I thought the Spurs would beat the Suns one of those 2 games, and while they came close, the Suns held on to win both games. I thought the Cavaliers would win both of their games, or if they lose, it would be a close loss, but certainly not a loss where they fell behind by 25 pts. The only series that didn't offer any surprises was the Lakers/Jazz series.

And that's why we watch the game. And that's why tonight's double header will be fun to watch. How's LeBron's elbow? How's Garnett's foot? Is Rasheed going to show up again tonight? Will the Suns bring their game on the road and drill the Spurs into an 0-3 hole from which no NBA team has ever escaped? I don't know what to think, so I'm going to just watch it and enjoy it.

As usual, I first give you an update from last night: After the embarrassing blowout of Game 1, it was easy to write off the Hawks in this series. So it was surprising to see the Hawks take an 8 pt lead into halftime in Game 2 and hold their own up through 3 qtrs. Jamal Crawford showed off his Sixth Man award with some nice scoring off the bench, but he and the other Hawks collapsed in the 4th qtr with lots of one on one plays and no ball movement. I think that's came from a combination of the Magic defense and the Hawks not having many sophisticated passing plays available, so one on one is all they can do when the opposing defense tightens up. Anyway, Game 2 was a more entertaining game to watch than Game 1. Perhaps there will be some entertainment in this series after all.

And now, onward to tonight's double header!

Tonight's lineup:
Cavaliers @ Celtics, ESPN 4:00pm PDT
Suns @ Spurs, ESPN 6:30pm PDT

Cleveland Cavaliers @ Boston Celtics

It's all in the wrist, uh, elbow.

Elbow me this, and elbow me that. Who's afraid of the big bad... erm... elbow wrap? Answer: Cleveland fans. They know that in order for their team to win, they need LeBron to work around the pain from his bone bruise and strain, and they need the rest of LeBron's teammates to help out. Meanwhile, the Celtics fans aren't feeling any easier with their own injury concerns. Perkins and Garnett both sat out Wed's practice with their own foot injuries, but returned to practice yesterday (Thursday). Perkins suffered some foot injury during Game 2's pregame shootaround, and Garnett injured his foot when Perkins landed on him late in Game 2. So whoever is least injured or can work around their injuries wins.

Btw, in Game 2, I complained about how the schedule makers spread out this series with a 3 day layoff so that Game 3 and 4 would be on the weekends. It turns out it was a GOOD thing, because it gave KG time to rest his swelling foot. Had Game 3 been on Wednesday, KG would NOT have been good to go.

Accuscore fun: Cavaliers 51% - Celtics 49%
Series gameflows: Game 1 | Game 2

Phoenix Suns @ San Antonio Spurs

He's a center. He shoots 3s. And he hit 5/6 in Game 2. A nightmare for any clipboard.

I think the Spurs miss Bruce Bowen and his corner 3s. They were terrible from the outside in Game 1 and did better in Game 2, but they just don't feel like an outside threat. Meanwhile, the Suns showed off their outside threat in Game 2 with JRich and Channing Frye hitting 8 of the team's 9 3s. Speaking of JRich, he has been lighting it up in both games of the series. He'll have to bring his game into San Antonio to keep the Spurs from tying up the series.

Accuscore fun: Suns 37% - Spurs 63%
Series gameflows: Game 1 | Game 2