Correction appended
The second round of the NBA Playoffs have now begun after an almost lackluster first round finished last weekend. An epic series took place between an upper-echelon team and a young team that punched its ticket to the playoffs late into the regular season, while another series filled with blowouts was taken to a decisive game seven, which was naturally determined by another blowout.
The Boston Celtics and Chicago Bulls squared off in what basketball analysts are saying was the best playoff series ever. It was a cliche "David versus Goliath" story, but unlike classic underdog movies in which the scrappy young team pulls out a nail-biting victory, the Bulls lost. Chicago, however, should keep their chins up, because they took the Celtics to seven games, with seven separate overtimes. Yes, you read right: seven. The teams nearly played eight games in a seven-game series.
The best moment of the series was during the third overtime in game six when Bulls center Joakim Noah stole the ball from Paul Pierce, galloped like a racehorse down the court, rose above Pierce for a game-clinching dunk, got fouled and made the ensuing free throw.
In contrast to the epic Chicago-Boston series, the Miami Heat and Atlanta Hawks took turns shaming each other in their series. Every game was a blowout. After the first quarter, the games were usually decided.
Most games didn't have any lead changes after this point, and I'm sure fans were confused as to why their ticket stubs said they paid for a whole game's worth of basketball when the only basketball played during this series was seen in the first few minutes of every contest.
My hometown hero, Dwyane Wade, took several spills and blows during this particular series, but the biggest blow was not having his supporting cast help him out.
Wade carried the Heat during the playoffs, and come to think of it, he did the same during the regular season.
One year of experience will do wonders for fellow rookies Mario Chalmers and Michael Beasley, but in the meantime, Wade can take comfort in the fact that at least his face doesn't look like Atlanta forward Zaza Pachulia's, whose black eye makes him look like Rocky Balboa.
The Hawks are now playing against the big boys, and by that I mean LeBron James and the Cleveland Caveliers. I had previously said that James has the same effect on basketball players as Lord Voldemort has on wizards, and people probably thought I was kidding.
But King James is bulldozing his team into the NBA Finals. He is slaying his opponents the way Voldemort did in his heyday of using the "Avada Kevadra" killing spell.
During the first game of the Cavs-Hawks series, Atlanta coach Mike Woodson probably told his players to make sure He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named would not take over the game.
As I'm writing this column, I have the second game of the Cavs-Hawks series playing on my television. The second quarter just ended with James nailing a 36-foot three pointer, a shot he probably only practices during warm-ups. Opponents shoot layups to warm up, but James shoots half-court threes with ease to get his amazingly-toned muscles stretched out.
Stuart Scott of ESPN just said, "Sometimes you just have to say, 'Stop it. LeBron, really? Really?'"
Yeah, that was probably Atlanta's response after James' shot.
Over in California, Kobe Bryant and the Lakers took on Yao Ming and the Houston Rockets.
The Rockets stole game one, but game two was a different story.
Lakers point guard Derek Fisher and Rockets forward Ron Artest earned ejections for explosions of fury.
Artest did indeed have a good reason for going ballistic after being elbowed in the throat by Bryant, yet, the Lakers won the game and a pivotal game three, and possible melee, will take place this weekend.
Put your seatbelt on, the playoffs are taking off fast. No one knows what will happen next, but I'm sure that the players' blood will be boiling, elbows will be thrown around and ejections just mean that the NBA Playoffs have finally arrived.
The original version of this article incorrectly stated that every game in the Celtics-Bulls series went into overtime. In fact, seven overtimes were played in seven games - game two, game three and game seven were all decided in regulation.
