NBA And NHL Playoffs Remain Focus this Week
NBA And NHL Playoffs Remain The Focus Of The North American Scene
The coming week will be packed with playoff excitement in North American sports. US Sport betting sites lines will be humming in the NBA and NHL, as pro basketball and pro hockey continue their postseason progressions.
In the NBA, the conference finals have arrived. In the Western Conference Finals, the San Antonio Spurs, the second seed, will develop their series against the fifth-seeded Memphis Grizzlies. Game 1 was held on Sunday in San Antonio, with the Spurs winning by a score of 105-83 . How will this series unfold in Game 2 (also in San Antonio) on Tuesday and Game 3 in Memphis on Saturday? One thing to realize here is that the matchups in one series often don’t carry over to the matchups in another series. Golden State, the team San Antonio defeated in the second round of the playoffs, is 180 degrees different from Memphis. San Antonio will use different lineup combinations and different distributions of minutes in an attempt to foil Memphis. Similarly, the Oklahoma City Thunder – the team Memphis defeated in the second round – don’t play the same way that San Antonio does. Memphis coach Lionel Hollins will have to use different sets of players to counter the Spurs’ strengths. Pay attention to the chess match that will emerge this week.
In the NBA Eastern Conference Finals, the third-seeded Indiana Pacers finally knocked out the second-seeded New York Knicks and earned the right to face the top-seeded Miami Heat. Miami is aiming for its third straight Eastern Conference championship, while Indiana is going for its first East title since the year 2000, when the Pacers – under then-coach Larry Bird – made the NBA Finals and lost to the Los Angeles Lakers in six games. Indiana won’t have Danny Granger in this series, and Miami will have forward Chris Bosh on the floor. In last year’s playoff series between the two teams, Granger played all six games while Bosh missed five and a half of them with an injury. Yet, Indiana – without Granger – could actually be a tougher and better defensive team than it was last year. Also, Miami’s role players (non-LeBron James, non-Dwyane Wade, and non-Bosh) have not been shooting well in the postseason. If the Heat can’t get perimeter shooting from Ray Allen and Shane Battier, they could be in trouble. This should be a close series.
In the NHL, the top-seeded Pittsburgh Penguins lead the seventh-seeded Ottawa Senators by a narrow 2-1 margin after three games in one Eastern Conference semifinal series. In the other, the sixth-seeded New York Rangers and the fourth-seeded Boston Bruins will head to New York for Game 3 with the Bruins leading 2-0. Boston gained that two-game series advantage thanks to a 5-2 win in Game 2 on Sunday in Boston. The Bruins made a few noticeable mistakes, but they more than made up for them with an overwhelmingly strong third period.
In the NHL’s Western Conference semifinals, the top-seeded Chicago Blackhawks are tied 1-1 with the seventh-seeded Detroit Red Wings. In the other West semifinal series, the defending Stanley Cup champion Los Angeles Kings, seeded fifth, lead the sixth-seeded San Jose Sharks, 2-1.
