This is so crazy, it’s boring.
It’s become a foregone conclusion that every Western Conference playoff game will go down to the wire, involving multiple heroic shots and a heated scramble for a key loose ball that puts one team in a position to win. So were you really surprised by the way Portland and Houston finished Game 4 last night?
http://youtu.be/Go6pl38e8XY?t=7s
On a day overshadowed by the rampant racism of Clippers owner Donald Sterling, these two evenly matched teams continued to serve as an active advertisement for the positives in the NBA.
After five years of claiming that this is “Where Amazing Happens,” the NBA transitioned to a slogan that every play, shot, and loose ball is “Big.” Yet, was that really the case in Games 3 and 4 of a first round series? It is now, and just two nights apart we saw how big every possession can be as Jeremy Lin- who put rookie Troy Daniels in a position to hit the game-winner in Game 3- ended up on the wrong side of a scramble as he turned it over with 35 seconds to play and his team up 105-104 at the end of regulation.
Shot-making will always be the more glorious aspect of playoff basketball (Go ahead, Vince Carter) but as games become more competitive, the speed of play increases, and teams consistently make defensive adjustments, sometimes the play before the play, before the shot is what’s truly “Big.”
Every night there’s another surprise. Troy Daniels proving that Damian Lillard isn’t the only cold-blooded rookie to come out of a mid-major conference, Reggie Jackson saving the Thunder’s season, and the Mavericks executing better than a ruthlessly efficient Spurs team that had beaten them nine straight times coming into the playoffs.
When you expect the unexpected, you can get a little jaded, but I doubt any basketball fans would trade the consistent excitement of these NBA playoffs for anything. With every series still closely contested (aside from Heat-Bobcats) there should be plenty more craziness to come.
