Excuse me while I get into character…
ahem…
[Casey Kasem voice] Today’s long distance dedication goes out to basketball fans in Atlanta, Los Angeles and Dallas. On a night where all three games were potential series deciders, your teams stepped up and did the job. They scratched the word “potential” right out of the sentence, did what needed to be done, and closed the door.
So here it is… our long distance dedication for our 13th playoff capsule recaps… “Close the Door”… by Teddy Pendergrass
Game Six: (4) Orlando Magic vs. (5) Atlanta Hawks, Philips Arena
Final Score: Atlanta 84, Orlando 81- After suffering the most lopsided playoffs sweep in NBA history a season ago, the Hawks got their revenge by eliminating the Magic 4-2. JJ Redick misses a potential game tying three with three seconds left in the game.
- Atlanta’s Joe Johnson: 23 points, 10 rebounds, 4 assists
- Orlando’s Dwight Howard: 25 points, 15 rebounds, 3 blocks
- Key Stats: Orlando gave up 14 offensive rebounds. Atlanta’s bench outscored Orlando’s 30-17.
- “What better redemption than to play them again?” said Jamal Crawford, who hit two big free throws after Johnson swatted him the ball. “We were up to the challenge.”
- “My disappointment lies in the fact that I have a team with a guy like Dwight Howard, who is a great, great, great player and a great battler … and I couldn’t get them over the hump to win a series,” a distraught Van Gundy said.
- Atlanta moves on to face the Chicago Bulls in the Eastern conference semifinals. Game One is Monday night in Chicago at 8:00 pm on TNT
Game Six: (2) Los Angeles vs. (7) New Orleans, New Orleans Arena
Final Score: Lakers 98, Hornets 80- LA dominates to put the pesky Hornets out of their misery and take the series 4-2.
- LA’s Kobe Bryant: 24 points, 2 assists, 3 steals
- New Orleans’ Carl Landry: 19 points, 2 rebounds
- Key Stats: LA held Chris Paul to 10 points on 4-9 shooting. Eight of Andrew Bynum’s 12 rebounds were offensive. Lamar Odom’s 14 points were more than any player on the Hornets except for Landry. LA was 25 of 26 from the line.
- “Every time [Bynum] got an offensive rebound, it was deflating,” Hornets coach Monty Williams said. “You don’t really realize how good he is until you face him in a series. Kobe’s Kobe, but I thought Bynum decided the series. He was that good.”
- “If you allow a team to make it to the next game, then maybe they are the ones who find some magic and they take you out,” said Fisher, whom Paul said after the game played “unbelievable defense for the entire series the way he was pressuring.”
- The Lakers move on to face the Dallas Mavericks (more on that below) on Monday night in LA. The game is at 10:30 on TNT
Game Six: (3) Dallas Mavericks vs. (6) Portland Trailblazers
Final Score: Dallas 103, Portland 96- The Mavs withstood a huge game from Gerald Wallace as well as a hot start and late charge from the Blazers to win the series 4-2
- Dallas’ Dirk Nowitzki: 33 points, 11 rebounds, 4 assists
- Portland’s Gerald Wallace: 32 points, 12 rebounds, 2 assists
- Key Stats: Portland shot just under 24% from 3 (5-21). Jason Terry had 22 off the bench for Dallas, which led to a 35-14 bench scoring advantage for the Mavs. Dallas shot exactly 50% from the field.
- “It’s definitely big for our confidence to win a road game in the playoffs,” Nowitzki said. “We haven’t done it for a while so we definitely needed one. In this league, if you have a chance to close out a team, you always want to go for it. We talked about it before the game, that this was kind of our Game 7. We didn’t want to play again on Saturday.”
- “You’re never ready for this moment when the season is over,” McMillan said. “It’s like it just creeps up on you and all of the sudden tomorrow you’re going home. So basically just as I told them I appreciate their effort. I really respect how they played tonight, really all season long.”
- Dallas faces the Lakers Monday night at 10:30 on TNT
