The Basketball Diaries

New Orleans Hornets 99 Dallas Mavericks 94 (Hornets win series 4-1)

For the second straight year, the Dallas Mavericks have been eliminated in the first round of the playoffs, as Chris Paul and the Hornets finished them off in New Orleans on Tuesday night. Paul finished with a triple-double, scoring 24 points, 15 assists, and 11 rebounds. A lot of those assists went to David West who had 25, Jannero Pargo who had 17, and Tyson fucking Chandler who had 10 points and 14 rebounds. "A lot of people may be surprised with how this thing turned out, but we're not too surprised," West said. "Coach has a lot to do with that, his mentality. It's a trickle-down effect. We go out and we pride ourselves on competing." That coach is Byron Scott who earlier in the day won the NBA's Coach of the Year award. As for the Mavericks, who knows where this is going to lead. I wouldn't be surprised if Avery Johnson is looking for another job next season.

San Antonio Spurs 92 Phoenix Suns 87 (Spurs win series 4-1)

Suns general manager took a pretty big risk when he traded for Shaq, a move I never thought made any sense, but the reason he did it was to beat the Spurs. Well, it didn't work. The Spurs knocked the Suns out of the post-season for the second straight year. Tony Parker had 31 points, Tim Duncan had 29 and 17 boards, while nobody else on the Spurs roster managed more than 8 points. It didn't matter though. The Spurs move on to the next round where they'll be facing the Hornets in what should be a very entertaining series. As for the Suns, you have to wonder whether it's time to blow it up. I'm not sure what Shaq's plans are, but I'm willing to bet the Suns wouldn't mind if he just retired. I don't think Mike D'Antoni will get fired because he didn't make the trade for Shaq.

Detroit Pistons 98 Philadelphia 76ers 81 (Pistons lead series 3-1)

Something told me that the Pistons weren't going to come out in game 5 with the same lackadaisical demeanor they showed in game 1 of this series, and I was right. Yeah, me! They jumped out to a 14-point lead after the first quarter, and never relented. Chauncey Billups had 21, Rip Hamilton had 20, and Rasheed Wallace had 19 to lead Detroit. "We knew Game 6 was going to be an elimination game either way it went," Billups said. "We wanted to be on the upper hand of that."

Houston Rockets 95 Utah Jazz 69 (Jazz lead series 3-2)

Everything the Rockets hadn't been doing in the first four games of this series, they did last night, as they handled the Jazz rather easily to stave off elimination for a few more days at least. Tracy McGrady had 29 points, Luis Scola had 18 and 12 rebounds, and Rafer Alston scored 14 to extend the series back to Utah. The odds are still in Utah's favor considering they've only lost 5 times all season at home, but two of those losses came to these Rockets, so I guess you never really know. "We're in a great situation," McGrady said. "We know we can win in Utah because we've done it before." Yes, you're one loss away from having your season end, and you have to do it in the toughest place for a road team to win. What a great situation.