The quality of play is so drastically different in the Western and Eastern Conference semifinals that sometimes it’s hard to determine if you’re watching the same sport.
This isn’t necessarily a new development, but watching the Pacers return to defensive form to choke the life out of a Washington Wizards squad that suddenly looked out of their depth in the second round of the playoffs was about as entertaining as watching recreational shuffleboard (sidenote: Shuffleboard is actually awesome, check this out if you live near NYC).
Unfortunately for everyone on the east coast with night lives, or work every morning, the slop that the Brooklyn Nets, Wizards, and Pacers put on the court in the early evening may be their only taste of basketball for the evening. Yet after flipping back and forth between Training Day, Draft Day (on ESPN2), and even considering letting your girlfriend watch a little HGTV, the dust eventually settled on that scrum of Eastern Conference basketball and two legitimate teams went all out for the upper hand in their series.
http://youtu.be/udDLvlP-H2w?t=10s
It’s not just the fact that there was finally a close contest at the Staples Center last night. The Spurs have been a joy to watch regardless of how badly they dissect an inexperienced Blazers team, and the Clippers are one of the most fluid offensive units you’ll ever see. Complementing that half court precision is the Thunder’s electric fast break and highlight-reel full of unfair crossovers, creating a buffet of basketball for the late night crowd on the east coast.
There were 19 lead changes and 13 ties in Game 3 between what I consider the two most talented teams in these playoffs. The Clippers and Thunder combined for 121 first half points, and the Pacers and Wizards dropped a paltry 67. The west coast teams had 33 fast break points, compared to just 16 on the east coast, the West shot a combined 50 percent on 172 field goal attempts, and the east went an ugly 35 percent on 147 shots from the field.
The difference between these two games was like night and day, but unfortunately for those of us in the weaker conference’s time zone, it was actually the difference between night and late night.
