If someone thought there was something trivial in an NBA first round, perhaps they will be disappointed: never like this year, in fact, have we seen so many games drawn right up to the last useful second, ending with a gap of a couple of points or even in overtime.
A pitched fight which, however, does not seem to concern i Miami Heat, who conveniently filed the case during the night Charlotte Bobcats (probably the weakest team in the playoff lot, also due to the injury that limited Al Jefferson) winning away by 109 to 98. For Lebron James classic day in the office: 31 points, 7 rebounds and 9 assists. The defending champions, logical favorites for the final victory, are the only team to have completed a sweep (i.e. a 4-0 victory) in the first round.
To pave the way for Lebron and his companions, then, could be the implosion of the Indiana Pacers, the Eastern Conference's first regular season force and Heat's designated subversive en route to the Finals. Overnight the Pacers lost 107 to 97 with the Atlanta Hawks, between the friendly walls, defeated by a great ballistic evening of the opponents and by their own limits, which emerged with ever greater force already from the last months of the regular season. Paul George's 26 points with 12 rebounds were not enough for Indiana.
On the other side of the United States, and especially in Texas, i San Antonio Spurs, top seed in the West, batted 93 to 89 i Dallas Mavericks, in a challenge that was only decided in the last minute. On the shields Manu Ginobili, author of 26 points and many decisive plays in the final part of the match, Boris Diaw and Tim Duncan, author of a solid performance of 14 points and 10 rebounds. The all-Texas series is now 2-2, waiting to return to San Antonio.
Three more games will be played tonight: Washington goes to Chicago with the possibility of closing the series, while the Oklahoma City Thunder host the Grizzlies in the pivotal game 5, to break up the current 2 to 2. But all eyes in the NBA will be on Los Angeles Clippers, home to the Golden State Warriors.
The Los Angeles franchise, in fact, ended up in the eyes of the storm for a registration in which the owner Donald Sterling, on the phone with his girlfriend, made racist comments towards black people in general and, in particular, towards Magic Johnson. In a heavily black league, and in a country like the United States, not the brightest idea of the century. Tonight at 20 Italian the NBA, which immediately opened an investigation, will express its verdict on Sterling.
