After a ho-hum weekend of eight playoff basketball games in which all eight favorites won at home and in most cases it wasn’t even close, the Chicago Bulls stepped up and beat the Brooklyn Nets on Monday evening in Brooklyn. On Tuesday, without David Lee, the Golden State Warriors found it in them to defeat the Denver Nuggets in Denver. Both teams went into the contest as underdogs and both teams won handily, not even close.
The NBA playoffs are underway once again and sports fans have settled in for the long haul. The first sixteen teams are playing a seven game series to take it to the NBA version of the Elite Eight. Then those eight teams will play another seven game series to take it down to the Final Four.
Seven more games takes us down to the two championship playoff teams and then yet another seven to determine the NBA Champions for 2013. It’s a long process, but as long as they can sell the tickets at the arenas and TV is there to cover the games, more power to the NBA.
On Monday evening, at the new Barclays Center in Brooklyn, the Chicago Bulls reached down deep and came away with a win even though they were 5.5 point underdogs to the Nets. Five players on the Bulls squad scored in double figures led by Luol Deng with 15 points. Boozer and Hinrich both contributed 13 while an ailing Joakim Noah and the irrepressible Nate Robinson followed with 11 each.
But it was not just the point scored that made the difference. The Bulls pulled together as a team that night and played the game of basketball at a high level for the entire 48 minute of the game. Joakim told the press after the game, “I feel like overall our team played passionate basketball tonight and that’s a plus, because it was ugly in that Game 1.”
When Golden State’s big man, David Lee, went down with a torn right hip flexor, the odds on the Warriors beating the Nuggets at home went up. The Nuggets took the first game by virtue of a last second bucket by Andre Miller 97-95. Golden State went into Tuesday night’s game as 7.5 point underdogs.
The over and under for the game was posted at 211. As it turned out Stephen Curry and the Warriors played exemplary basketball and led the Nuggets for practically the entire game. Final score Golden State 131 & Denver 117.
It went way over!
