NBA Playoffs: Nets-Hawks, Blazers-Grizzlies

Nets at Hawks
6:00 pm CDT
TNT

This series has become much closer than I expected, though still not particularly entertaining. After two hard fought wins in Atlanta, the Hawks dropped the next two in Brooklyn, and now the #1 seed is under heavy pressure to get game five back home in Atlanta. Deron Williams, who looked like he had a fork in his back through much of the series exploded for 35 points in game four, Brook Lopez is consistently doing damage inside, and both Paul Millsap and Al Horford are under 43% from the field so far. The Hawks really need to right the ship, which I thought they would after an indifferent closing stretch of the regular season after they had wrapped up the East #1 seed, but so far they have looked flat.

Blazers at Grizzlies
8:30 pm CDT
TNT

The Blazers salvaged game four at home with a big fourth quarter to avoid a sweep, and now look to get the series back to Portland with a game five win tonight in Memphis. The Grizzlies have been by far the better team in the series, but losing Mike Conley to facial surgery is a big blow. They need to finish this off tonight. Beno Udrih has been terrific off the bench in the series, and they've been getting surprisingly good perimeter shooting (46% from three), but Marc Gasol and Zach Randolph are both below 40% for the series, and the Grizz rely on those guys to dominate the paint. The Blazers have been struggling badly against the Grizzlies defense, with none of their four most frequent shooters in the series doing better than C.J. McCollum's 43% from the floor.

Enjoy the games and chat about them here.