It looked like the NBA might be headed for a weekend of drama, with six first-round series having potential Game 7s and three of them needing only the home team to hold serve in Game 6. But close-outs were the theme of Thursday and Friday night, and only Brooklyn-Chicago will reach a decisive seventh game. We’ll run through the six games of the last two nights, starting with Nets-Bulls.
The first round of the NBA playoffs has gotten very interesting, with three teams winning do-or-die situations in Game 5—two of them on the road–and six series still in play as they all head to Game 6 battles on Thursday and Friday night.
Six favorites in the NBA playoffs stood up and defended their home floor. Somewhat improbably, the two that failed to do so—Denver and Brooklyn who each lost Game 2s—did it in spite of facing wounded adversaries. The sequence of Game 3s starts tonight and goes through Saturday, so today’s NBA commentary will check in on where each series stands. We’ll first summarize each series in a sentence, then go into further detail…
TheSportsNotebook will preview the four first-round matchups in the Western Conference. We’ll start with three key tidbits of information/analysis, follow it up with more extended commentary, than conclude with some historical context and a prediction