The first two games of all eight pairings of this first round of the playoffs were played in the NBA, starting tonight we moved to the parquet of the teams with the home factor against, with the goal for almost all of them to try to extend the series that in some cases seem already marked. After the first two meetings, both in the west and in the east, for the moment the favorite teams are more or less easily fulfilling the forecast, with on one side Cleveland, Atlanta and Miami who are respectively 2-0 over Detroit, Boston and Charlotte, and on the other Golden State, Los Angeles Clippers and San Antonio leading by the same score against Houston, Portland and Memphis. The only two series where the home factor was not fully respected are in the west Toronto-Indiana (1-1), where the Raptors, who after the excellent regular season were to be the main antagonists to Cleveland's leadership, were surprised in the debut meeting from a super Paul George (top scorer also in game 2) and now the passage of the round is more open than ever (tonight the third act is scheduled), and west of Oklahoma-Dallas, with the first real big surprise of this first week of the postseason, where the over-favorites Thunder, after dominating game 1, lost the second game by one, allowing the old and bruised Mavericks (and without Parsons) to return to Texas with the awareness of not being beaten at the start, as the forecasts wanted.
For Oklahoma, the great unfinished business of the last few seasons, an unexpected start to the playoffs and some bad thoughts that will have to be chased away already tonight by Durant and Westbrook, called to answer as they know in game 3 at Nowitzki's home. For the rest, starting from the eastern conference, Cleveland is firmly on 2-0 driven by its James-Irving-Love trio, but Detroit is proving to be a more serious and insidious opponent than one might have thought, having played part of these first 96 minutes (at the beginning of the last quarter in game 1 they were ahead), and in the next two meetings in Michigan he will certainly try to avoid a coat that would be unfair from what we have seen so far. The other two series had been presented as the most uncertain of this first round, and instead, after the first two races, they seem well directed towards Atlanta and Miami. The Hawks, after having risked being slipped in at the very last minute in their opening game, in game 2 they clearly overtook Boston, with the Celtics who have lost a key element like Bradley for the rest of this postseason, but who still have the talent and weapons to try to question the series. The Heat, although the days of getting rid of one opponent after another with Lebron are long gone, have found a Wade of the best years and are so far the most surprising team of this postseason, considering that they gave an overall gap of 44 points in Charlotte, with the Hornets having to fight back in their next two home games. Moving to the western conference, Golden State's 2-0 win over Houston was pretty obvious, unless the defending champions made it without too many problems for them even in game 2, given the absence of Steph Curry due to an ankle problem. But by now the security and confidence of this team is impressive and when his phenomenon isn't there, Thompson takes his place, on the other hand we need to see if Harden, hopefully for him with the support of some teammates at least once, able to take advantage of the probable absence of the number 30 of the Warriors also tonight in game 3, thus reviving a series that otherwise is destined for a 4-0 for the formation of the bay.
We close with the Clippers and the Spurs, both with more than one foot already in the second round. The former, with Griffin now restored and also thanks to their long bench (Crawford named best sixth man for the third year in a row), dominated the Portland Trail Blazers in the first two meetings, where Lillard cannot always work miracles and McCollum is not maintaining the very high levels shown in the regular season. At least one success in the Trail Blazers' next two home games cannot be ruled out, but this time not even the most self-defeating version of Paul and his companions could prevent the advance of the Clippers. San Antonio-Mempis is the least exciting series of the eight so far (106-74 and 94-68), not because the Grizzlies, or what's left of them after the injuries of Gasol and Conley, don't try and fight, but because , even if even fully assembled there would have been practically no history (especially after the questionable sales of Jeff Grenn and Courtney Lee), in these conditions, without its two leaders, they really don't have the weapons to try to oppose one of the favorites for the title win. Suffice it to say that with Randolph and Barnes, in the initial quintet Farmar (returning after the European experience at Maccabi), “Birdman” Andersen and a legend, but now thirty-nine, like Vince Carter, were dusted off, while on the other side by now the scene was taken by the new course of the Spurs, with Leonard and Aldridge principal actors and Parker, Ginobili and Duncan relegated to supporting roles.
