Translated material
Jazz in Texas
Utah started the playoffs with an away victory over Houston.
The playoffs have started in the National Basketball Association with the participation of the 16 best teams of the regular season. On the first game day of the knockout tournament, the winner of the North-West Division, Utah, prevailed on the road against Houston - 93:82, and the winner of the Euro 2007 gold, Russian Andrei Kirilenko, spent 41 minutes on the court in Texas. and became the Jazzmen's top scorer - 21 points.Let us remind you that in the first round of the playoffs, teams play until four wins according to the “2-2-1-1-1” scheme. Conference quarterfinal pairings look like this. In the East: Boston - Atlanta, Detroit - Philadelphia, Orlando - Toronto, Cleveland - Washington. In the West: Lakers - Denver, New Orleans - Dallas, San Antonio - Phoenix, Utah - Houston.
The victory of the Boston Celtics in the regular season is a significant event. The team hasn't achieved this kind of success since 1986. After the end of the career of the greatest, iconic NBA and Celtic player Larry Bird in the early 1990s, Boston was able to get hold of the title of the winner of its conference only once. Now we can talk about the return of the legendary team to the leaders of the overseas league. Last summer, the Celtics management, realizing that the return on young basketball players would not happen soon, made a series of trades, acquiring two stars - Kevin Garnett from Minnesota and Ray Allen (ex-Seattle). The third super player on the roster is team veteran (now in his 10th season) Paul Pierce. An analogy with Boston’s “big three” of 20 years ago inevitably suggests itself - Larry Bird, Kevin McHale, Robert Parish.
Since the Lakers became the best in the West, long-time fans, looking far ahead, have the right to look forward to a repeat of the classic confrontation of the 1980s between Boston and the Lake District. However, in the “West” there are other serious contenders for reaching the championship super finals - “New Orleans”, “Phoenix”, “Utah”.
The first match of the series “San Antonio” - “Phoenix” turned out to be fantastic in terms of intensity. To determine the winner, the teams had to play two additional five-minute games. At the end of the first overtime (3 seconds before the siren), Spurs leader Tim Duncan equalized the score with a long-range shot, although he did not make a single three-pointer during the entire regular season. In total, Duncan scored 40 points in this game, 33 were scored by Suns front line player Amar Stoudemire. Phoenix shooting guard Raja Bell received the maximum workload among all participants in the match - he spent 54 minutes on the court. San Antonio coach Greg Popovich joked after the game: “When Tim got the ball on the arc and decided to shoot, I began to doubt our victory.” Duncan retorted: “I had time to think, the throw turned out to be prepared. It turns out I didn’t take the risk in vain.”
Houston, having achieved the second longest winning streak in NBA history (22 matches) during the championship, had an uneven end to the regular season, losing to opponents by 20 or more points several times. The Rockets will have a hard time in the playoffs without long-injured Chinese center Yao Ming. Argentine Luis Scola has to work under the shields for two. In the game against Utah, he led his team in rebounds (13). His Congolese teammate Dikemba Mutombo will turn 42 in the summer, but for now he has to play in the starting lineup. Almost 27 min. pure time in the game is too much for a veteran at such a respectable age. But Houston has no other choice. Until February, Mutombo was only occasionally included in the lineup and played for 5-6 minutes, but now he has to be used in full. The African collected nine rebounds mainly due to experience, choosing the right position under the basket, but he attacked only three times and brought two points.
Results. NBA. Playoffs. Conference quarterfinals. First matches. "East". "Cleveland" - "Washington" - 93:86. "West". “New Orleans” – “Dallas” – 104:92, “San Antonio” – “Phoenix” – 117:115 (2OT), “Houston” – “Utah” – 82:93.