4 games were played in the NBA last night and the first one of the night went into overtime in Boston. The Bulls again held the Celtics close but like many times in this series failed to get the upper hand, this time losing in overtime, 106-104. Boston now lead 3-2 in the series with the next game in Chicago where they could wrap up the series and move on to the Conference Semi-Finals, in this game they had Rajon Rondo and Paul Pierce to thank for the majority of their points. Pierce scored 26 points while shooting 50 percent while Rondo led the C’s with 28 points and 11 assists for a double double while shooting 12 of 22 from the field. The other star performer for the men in green was Kendrick Perkins Boston’s center. Perkins scored 16 points and grabbed 19 rebounds for a double double.
On the other side Ben Gordon produced another fantastic effort that just failed to see his team over the finishing line, he had 26 points (a team high for Chicago) with the majority of those points coming from the foul line (11) while center Joakim Noah scooped a double double with 11 points and 17 rebounds. Even if the Bulls bow out in Game 6 or 7 like expected they’ll be able to hold their heads high in the knowledge that they’ve been so close to beating the Celtics so many times.
In Orlando the Magic took a 3-2 lead in their series with the Philadelphia 76ers after a 91-78 win at Amway Arena. The Magic will be glad that they were able to take the lead in the series especially with Dwight Howard now out of Game 6 with a ban after a flagrant foul, Howard was one of Orlando’s star performers and scored 24 points and grabbed 24 rebounds including 10 offensive boards for a double double while Rashard Lewis scored the same number of points while shooting 9 of 16 from the field.
Philadelphia will hope for the same kind of performance from Andre Iguodala in Game 6 if they’re to stave off elimination for at least a few more days, Iguodala scored a team high 26 points while playing 47 minutes. One performance that didn’t sparkle was Thaddeus Young’s contribution, in 40 minutes he managed only 9 points on 4 of 9 shooting while Samuel Dalembert couldn’t even get that. Dalembert scored a flimsy 4 points and 9 rebounds in 20 minutes on the hardwood. Philly will hope for one final push to take this game to a decider in Orlando but will have to seriously increase their game if they want to achieve that.
In San Antonio the first shock of the play-offs were confirmed as the Dallas Mavericks knocked out the Spurs in 5 games after beating the Spurs 106-93 in their backyard. Dallas won the series 4-1 and now moves onto a much more daunting task of no.1 seed Los Angeles in the Conference Semi-Finals. This really was a team performance from the Mavs, each of their starters scored double figures while Dirk Nowitzki led the line with 31 points and 9 rebounds while Erick Dampier grabbed a double double with 11 points and 12 rebounds. Jason Terry also came off the bench to score 19.
The San Antonio box score was a much worse sight. Only two players dropped double figures, Tim Duncan and Tony Parker who had 30 and 26 respectively. Parker also helped with 12 assists for a double double but apart from that the Mavericks shut the Spurs down and meaning their exited the play-offs at the first hurdle for the first time since 2000.
Finally in Portland the Trail Blazers hit back at their critics by finally shutting down Yao Ming (well sort of) and winning Game 5 of their tie with Houston to stop elimination talk for at least a few days. Portland won this one 88-77 with their two main men LaMarcus Aldridge and Brandon Roy scoring 25 points each while shooting 50 percent between themselves while Steve Blake scored 15 at point guard. The biggest story of the night was Yao Ming who was limited to 15 points and 12 rebounds for a double double while Shane Battier could only score 4 points despite playing nearly the whole game. Houston’s top scorer was Luis Scola who dropped 21 points and 6 rebounds while shooting 10 of 13. With the next game in Houston the Rockets will still be confident of winning the series for the chance to face the Denver Nuggets who, barring a miracle, will be going through to the next round.
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