Thursday Night Playoffs: Nets at Heat, Trail Blazers at Spurs

Nets at Heat
6:00 pm Central
ESPN2

The Heat overwhelmed the Nets in game one of this series, and frankly after watching them both over the course of the playoffs, it's hard for me to see the Nets mounting too much of a challenge.  However, I've been wrong before, and I suppose the Nets do have the weapons to do so if everything goes right. Primarily, they need Paul Pierce to get it going offensively opposite Joe Johnson. The Heat seem to have found their playoffs gear, at least so far, winning their first five games. It's amazing how easy it sometimes looks for LeBron, who controls so much of the game whether he's scoring big or not.

Trail Blazers at Spurs
8:30 pm Central
ESPN2

The Blazers actually had their shots contested in game one against the Spurs, unlike what they experienced for most of the Rockets series, and it showed. They shot only 38% from the field and made only 4-16 threes. Meanwhile, the Spurs were at their best, with Parker devastating on the PnR, their shooters making shots, and their depth coming through.

The problem for the Blazers is that they absolutely need big games from LaMarcus Aldridge and Damian Lillard, plus efficiency from Wes Matthews and Nicolas Batum (especially from three) in order to win, because they don't have much of a bench to rely on. Even in a blowout loss like game one, only one player (Mo Williams) got double figure minutes off the bench.  They really need to make some threes early tonight to loosen things up.

Enjoy the games. Chat about them here.