By: Jay-Diff
The Memphis Grizzlies are coming off of an impressive win in Game 6 and they forced a Game 7 in OKC…the only thing is I don’t think Memphis realized that Game 7 was today. The game was 4 Grizzlies against 2 Thunder. Well 3 if you want to count James Harden…it’s really not necessary though. So back to what I was saying, two Thunder players against 4 Grizzlies players and even though the saying goes, there’s strength in numbers…that was NOT the case for the Grizzlies as they let Durant score 39 points and grabbed 9 rebounds and let Russell Westbrook go for a triple double. Russell Westbrook had 14 points, 10 rebounds, 14 assists and a block. Yes Westbrook had a block and that’s how you know the Thunder came out ready to play. The Grizzlies players who did something was of course Marc Gasol who had 12 points and 7 rebounds, OJ “The Juiceman” May0 scored 14 points and grabbed 5 rebounds, Mike Conley who was impressive with 18 points, 6 assists and 5 rebounds and last but definitely not least, Zach Randolph who gave the Grizzlies a double double with 17 points and 10 rebounds. The rest of the Thunder team only scored 29 points. As a team the Thunder had 11 blocks (Grizzlies had 5) and 25 assists (Grizzlies had 13). Next up for the Oklahoma City Thunder is The Dallas Mavericks. I really want this series to be a good series even though my pick is Dallas to win in 6 and advance to the Finals since they haven’t done so since 2006 when they lost to the Heat. Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals will be Tuesday May 17th at 8PM EST on ESPN.
Recap of Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals: Miami Heat and Chicago Bulls
As a Heat fan this is going to be tough to swallow but the Bulls blow out the Heat in the series opener of the Eastern
Conference Finals 103-82. Derrick Rose led the way with 26 points and 6 assists. Loul Deng followed with 21 points, 4 steals and 7 rebounds. Where the Miami Heat were destroyed was in the rebound category. The Bulls had 45 rebounds and most of those were offensive rebounds which led to second chance points. Chicago beat Miami on the offensive glass 19 to 6. Joakim Noah led the way with 8 offensive rebounds, total for the game 14. Where Chicago beat Miami as well was in the assist department. Chicago out assisted Miami 23 to 11. As much as this hurts my heart to say so, Miami was outplayed by Chicago in almost every category.
Even though Bosh had a wonderful night putting up 30 points and 9 rebounds, James and Wade only had 33 as a duo. The combo of Miami’s big 3 only scored 63 points and Rose, Deng and Boozer scored 63 points as well. The crazy part about this stat is when you look at the rest of the team, Chicago outscored the Heat 40 to 19. If the Heat want to continue their way to the Finals they need to do 3 things.
The Miami Heat’s 3 keys to success to advance to Finals
1. Keep Chicago off of the glass. Do not let Chicago kill you in the rebound department.
2. Control Loul Deng and Derrick Rose. Rose and Deng combined for 49 points, 8 rebounds and 8 assists. Keep Rose from penetrating and keep Deng from being aggressive.
3. Get your bench involved and have other people other than the Big 3 score. The Big 3 controlled the Philly series and the Celtic series but weren’t dominating in Game 1 of the Chicago series. Mario Chalmers, Joel Anthony and James Jones showed up in the previous two series’ but were not as involved in Game 1 as much.
Overall the Heat needs more from the rest of the team so the pressure on the shoulders of the big 3 is less. My pick is Heat in 6. Game 2 of this best of 7 series will be Wednesday May 18th, 8:30PM EST. on TNT.
Photos by: Associated Press
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