The NBA semi-final round is set as both the Oklahoma City Thunder and Indiana Pacers won their quarterfinal series in six games with road victories last night.
“OKC” as the Thunder are often called, won in Los Angeles twice and dispatched the Clippers, who have never even made an NBA semi-final.
The Thunder will now play the top ranked San Antonio Spurs, the team they beat to advance to the finals two years ago.
It will be the third straight semi-final round appearance for the Spurs, who last year beat the Memphis Grizzlies in the semi-finals.
Indiana won at Washington for the third time in three games in the series to eliminate the Wizards.
In the prelim series vs the Chicago Bulls, the Wizards won all three games on the road but the Pacers “turned the tables.” The Wizards nee Bullets franchise has not advanced to the semi-final round since 1979.
Now in a rematch of last year’s semi-final, the Pacers despite home advantage will be fairly large underdogs vs the two time champion Miami Heat.
Last year Miami won games two, five and seven at home vs Indiana to advance to the finals, eventually beating the Spurs in seven games. The year before they beat the Thunder in five games to win the title.
The Montreal Canadiens advanced to the NHL semi-finals for just the second time since winning their last Stanley Cup in 1993. The Los Angeles Kings, the Canadiens finals opponent that year, forced the third seventh game of this year’s quarterfinal round with a win.
Montreal ousted the top seed, Boston Bruins with a (3-1) win in game seven. They are now (25-9) vs the Bruins in playoffs series and (6-3) vs Boston in game seven.
Now it will be the Canadiens vs the New York Rangers in the semi-final round. Game one is Saturday afternoon in Montreal.
The Kings, who won (2-1) in game six, will play game seven at Anaheim vs the Ducks on Friday night. The winner will meet the defending champion, Chicago Blackhawks in the semi-final round.
Canadiens headed to semi-finals after defeating Bruins
Last year’s NBA finalists, the two time champion Miami Heat, and this year’s top ranked San Antonio Spurs, as expected, wrapped up their quarterfinal series with home wins in game five.
Elsewhere, the Indiana Pacers and Oklahoma City Thunder take (3-2) series leads to the road tonight in a pair of sixth games.
The Heat struggled in game 5, but dispatched the Brooklyn Nets. The Spurs cruised vs the inexperienced Portland Trail Blazers. LeBron James’ 49 point effort in game 4 was the highlight of either series.
The Thunder came from nowhere to take game five vs the Los Angeles Clippers. Game six is tonight in Los Angeles
The Indiana Pacers, though routed in game five at home (they are (3-4) at home in the playoffs) take a (3-2) series lead into Washington for game six vs the Wizards tonight.
Both the defending Stanley Cup champion Chicago Blackhawks and the New York Rangers advanced to the NHL semi-finals with (2-1) road wins last night.
Chicago will be in their second consecutive semi-final and fourth in six seasons. They will face the winner of the series between the Anaheim Ducks and Los Angeles Kings.
The Ducks lead that series three games to two and if they win they will have home ice advantage vs the Blackhawks in the semi-finals.
If the Kings rally to win the series vs Anaheim, Chicago will have home ice advantage vs the Kings for the second straight season.
Rarely do I cite individual performances here but the goaltending performance by the Rangers’ Henrik Lundqvist demands attention.
He was brilliant in posting his fifth game seven win in as many seventh games. The Rangers are the first team in well over one hundred seasons of Madison Square Garden teams to overcome a (3-1) series deficit in the playoffs. In other words, the basketball New York Knicks have never done so.
The Rangers sans home ice advantage will face the winner of tonight’s game seven in Boston between the home team, Bruins and Montreal Canadiens.
Vivid Cabaret NYC Girl Julianna proudly displays NY Rangers Henrik Lundqvist jersey
Three teams have commanding three games to one leads in the NBA quarterfinals. One series is deadlocked at two games apiece.
In that lone even series, it took a great rally by the Los Angeles Clippers in game four to square their series with the Oklahoma City Thunder at two games apiece. Game five is tonight in Oklahoma City.
In the Eastern Conference it appears as though there will be a rematch of last year’s conference final between the Miami Heat and the Indiana Pacers.
Both the Heat vs the Brooklyn Nets, and Pacers vs the Washington Wizards, have three games to one series leads.
Game five in the Pacers/Wizards series is tonight at Indiana. The Heat can close out the Nets in game five tomorrow night in Miami.
The San Antonio Spurs, up three games to one, look to close out the Portland Trail Blazers in game five tomorrow night in San Antonio.
Three quarterfinal series will go to a 6th game or beyond. One seventh and deciding game is set.
In the Eastern Conference, the New York Rangers won games five and six to force a 7th game at Pittsburgh, vs the Penguins, on Tuesday night.
In the other Eastern Conference series, the top ranked Boston Bruins take a (3-2) lead into Montreal vs the Canadiens, for game six tonight. If Montreal wins, game 7 will be played in Boston on Wednesday night.
In the NHL West Chicago Blackhawks vs Minnesota Wild series, Chicago leads (3-2) with the next game Tuesday night in Minnesota.
The other Western Conference series between the LA Kings and the Anaheim Ducks stands at 2 games apiece. Game 5 is tonight in Anaheim.
Interesting note: In the Blackhawks/Wild series each game has been won by the home team. Conversely, in the Kings/Ducks series each game has been won by the visiting team.
Unless there is a shocking turn of events, the top ranked San Antonio Spurs will be in their third consecutive NBA semi-final series.
The Spurs led by Tony Parker’s great play have a commanding three games to none lead vs the Portland Trail Blazers in their quarterfinal series.
San Antonio roared to the best record in the NBA this season. They hope to use the home advantage throughout the playoff to win their fifth NBA championship.
They came so close to winning it all last year, losing in seven games in the NBA finals to the Miami Heat.
There is a long way to go but do not be surprised to see another Heat/Spurs final series this year.
Thus far it has been an all home team series as both the defending Stanley Cup champion, Chicago Blackhawks and Minnesota Wild have each won twice at home.
With the series tied at two games apiece, the pivotal 5th game will be in Chicago tomorrow night.
There are 16 teams in NHL that qualified for the playoffs. Only two have not lost at home and this is still the quarterfinal round.
The NHL Blackhawks and Wild, each of whom are (5-0) at home, are the only hockey teams that are unbeaten at home.
Each of last year’s NBA finalists, the defending champion Miami Heat and the San Antonio Spurs have (2-0) leads in their quarterfinal series.
The top ranked Spurs have won easily in both games against the Portland Trail Blazers.
I still think San Antonio would have won, but the Houston Rockets, upset by Portland in the preliminary round, would have been a tougher opponent for the Spurs.
Miami has also won without much of a struggle in each of their first two quarterfinal series games against the Brooklyn Nets.
Miami is the only team not to have a loss in the playoffs.
There is a factual mistake in Bill Madden’s new book “1954: The Year Willie Mays and the First Generation of Black Superstars Changed Major League Baseball Forever.”
Look no further than the first paragraph of this excerpt from chapter nine.
“New York in the 1950s was the capital of the baseball universe, a time and place in which every year, from 1947 until 1957 (when the Giants and Dodgers left town for the West Coast), at least one and often two of the city’s three teams played host for the World Series.”
Madden wrote that every World Series from (1947-1957) included at least one New York baseball team. That is not true.
In 1948 the World Series matched the Cleveland Indians against the Boston Braves. The Indians won in six games and it is their last World Series win to date. That makes Madden’s factual mistake a bit more severe.
Click here for NY Daily News story about the book
