Mettapocalypse?

I recently received suggestions from multiple people to not make my columns so long, so this is my first attempt at some restraint. Before we get started though, lets take a moment to remember one of the greatest scorers of all time who had no concept of teamwork whatsoever on the 10th anniversary of what is probably the most memorable (and worst) moment in his career. Ladies and gentlemen, the immortal Allen Iverson!Wise words from the 4-time scoring champion that will never grow old. Speaking of Iverson, what's that guy up to these days? Well, according to the media he's apparently testing out a new audience. Why would he do something like that? Probably because of this. While Iverson was out doing... who knows what, the Big Shaqtus went and did this. Great stuff. Too bad Iverson's scoring ability couldn't translate to life success. Maybe he could take a few classes from Dr. O'Neal. With that out of the way, lets look back at what's happened in the past 5 days in the playoffs. In case you haven't kept up with every series, here's the highlights from the weekend (for highlights of the first week, you can go to my earlier column) followed by a brief look at each series so far:

1. Oklahoma City swept the defending champion Mavericks on Saturday night.
2. The Orlando Magic forced overtime after being down 19 to Indiana with 8 minutes left on Saturday.
3. With both Derrick Rose and Joakim Noah out, the Bulls lost and fell to a 3-1 series deficit on Sunday.
4. Thanks to big shots from Steve Blake, the Lakers took a 3-1 series lead over the Nuggets on Sunday.
5. Carmelo Anthony finally had a big game, and helped the Knicks avoid a sweep on Sunday.

     We're 10 days into the playoffs, and two teams managed to sweep their first-round opponents. The Oklahoma City Thunder beat the defending champion Dallas Mavericks 4-0 in a series of mostly close games, but Durant, Westbrook, and the youth of the rest of this Thunder squad just had more energy than the defending champs. Even though the games were close, the Thunder won them all and looked great doing so. A likely matchup with the Lakers in the semifinals will provide the Thunder with another tough matchup.

     The San Antonio Spurs swept the Utah Jazz and have extended their season-ending win streak of 10 games to 14 games (and have won those games by an average of 14 points!). Utah's supposed biggest advantage over the Spurs was their lineup of Jefferson, Millsap, and Favors. They contained that threat fairly well but, more importantly, the Spurs had more options. Widely regarded as having the deepest bench in the league, this Spurs team will only be beaten by a team that has enough energy and depth to run with them for a potential seven games. The only teams that could do that are the Thunder (potential Conference finals showdown) and the Celtics (unlikely Finals matchup) only because of their decent depth, although not fantastic, and their defensive ability that has a better chance than pretty much any other team to slow this Spurs team.
     That leaves six matchups still in play. Philadelphia, Miami, Indiana, Boston, the Lakers, and the Clippers are all winning their matchups 3-1. Oddly, no series saw two teams split the first four games. That means we could see the first round completely finished by Wednesday night. Also, curiously, resulting in both Los Angeles teams playing in the second round without homecourt advantage. While unlikely, we can still entertain the notion of a Los Angeles civil war for the Western Conference Finals can't we?
     The Clippers-Grizzlies game has been fantastically entertaining. Game 4 in OT along with two other games decided by one point (all three going to the Clippers). Amazingly, while the Clippers have the series advantage at 3-1, Memphis has actually outscored the Clippers 386-385 through the first four games. I actually hope the Grizzlies can extend this series longer because its been great fun to watch. Chris Paul also continues to prove his clutchness, scoring 8 points in OT of Game 4 to lead the Clippers (barely) over the Grizzlies 101-97. Both teams have hit an impressive number of clutch shots and multiple comebacks have been made to spark some exciting game-ending plays.
     The Nuggets made a great effort to try and even their series at 2-2, but Kobe and Steve Blake just wouldn't allow it. This Nuggets team has looked great at times, but just doesn't have the collective talent to match up against the dominant teams in the West. I expect the Lakers to close out the series at home in Game 5. In order for the Lakers to compete with the Thunder, Kobe is going to have to shoot better. He's averaging 28 PPG but only on 42% shooting. He's taking 25 shots a game and limiting the scoring threats of Bynum, Gasol, and Sessions in the process. On the bright side, Jordan Hill has emerged as a reliable backup for Bynum. He averages 20 minutes a game, but give him another five minutes and he'll average a double-double. He's getting 9.3 rebounds in 20 minutes, with 4.5 of them being offensive rebounds. An extra four shot attempts per game just from Hill? That's huge. If he can keep that up in the coming rounds, that will help the Lakers tremendously.
     Meanwhile in the East, New York managed to force a Game 5 thanks to a monster effort from Carmelo (See the link above) who outplayed Lebron down the stretch. Unfortunately, bad luck struck again for the Knicks. In Game 4, Baron Davis tore both his ACL and his MCL leaving the Knicks short not one, but two point guards. The Knicks will have to play the 2012-13 season without both Davis and Iman Shumpert, who tore his ACL in Game 1. New York fans are probably wishing the Knicks hadn't made the playoffs at all and I don't blame them. Davis' injury leaves only Mike Bibby at Point guard, so expect to see Toney Douglas get a few extra minutes in Game 5 (barring a rumored miraculous comeback for Jeremy Lin).
     The Boston Celtics have won three in a row against the Hawks despite Rondo being suspended for Game 2 (for physical contact with a referee). Josh Smith's knee injury left him out for Game 3 and opened the door for Boston before he came back in Game 4. Smith has been tremendous, averaging 17.7 points to go with 14.5 rebounds and 4.8 assists per game. If he could pick his shooting up (38% from the field), he could be averaging a 20-15 for the series. Ray Allen finally came back for some action in Game 3 and has been coming off the bench, providing a very helpful 13.3 points per game. Even though Boston holds a 3-1 lead, I wouldn't be surprised to see this series go the distance. Boston's best chance at winning is Game 6 on their home court. For Boston to win, they'll likely need a classic Paul Pierce or Kevin Garnett do-or-die game to beat these Hawks.
     Indiana hold a 3-1 lead over the Orlando Magic and have a second round Heat-Pacers matchup all but locked in. Tuesday could be the last game of the Stan Van Gundy era in Orlando if Dwight gets his wish, and we could be seeing some big changes to this Magic team over the offseason. As for the Pacers, a matchup with the Miami Heat has potential to be very interesting. Miami can put James on Granger, Indiana's leading scorer, but Roy Hibbert has been averaging 11 points, 10.8 rebounds, 3.8 blocks, and 54% shooting against a very effective Glen Davis (19 points, 9.2 rebounds, 1.2 blocks). Many thought Hibbert wouldn't be strong enough to outplay Davis in the post, but he surprised everyone by playing some of the best basketball of his career. If he can keep this momentum going into the second round, could he match or raise those numbers playing against Chris Bosh, Udonis Haslem, and Joel Anthony? I say yes. Also, Indiana's biggest advantage is this: Miami's bench averages a pathetic 16 PPG in the first round compared to Indiana's bench averaging about 25. Carrying that farther, Indiana's scoring is spread out far more evenly than Miami's. If one of their main scorers has a bad game, the others will compensate for it. Miami can do it too, but asking Wade to make up for a bad night for Lebron is different than Paul George shooting instead of David West. I'll hold back on going too in-depth on this right now and wait until my round 2 breakdown (coming this weekend).
     As for the Bulls, who can't feel sorry for them (other than Philadelphia fans)? They lost their star player and reigning MVP in Game 1, lost the next two games, and then lost Joakim Noah who was one of their main scorers (more so with Rose out), rebounders, and hustle guys. After losing Noah midway through Game 3, the Bulls just didn't have enough firepower to finish off Game 3 or win Game 4. Both games were close enough (Philly won Game 3 79-74 and Game 4 89-82) that Noah's presence potentially could've swung both games. Kinda like Boston losing Kendrick Perkins for Game 7 of the 2010 Finals, just not on the same level. If Chicago could push this to a Game 7, I think they could win on home court, but I just don't see them winning a Game 6 in Philadelphia. A Boston-Philadelphia matchup in round two isn't what I expected going into the playoffs. A 5 seed and an 8 seed? How many times has that happened? NEVER! Round two of the 2012 playoffs has a great chance at making history folks.
All in all, after an exciting first weekend of injuries, comebacks, and close games, we haven't had anything majorly exciting happen. Despite that, I still managed to get nearly 2000 words out of it! I told you I could make my columns shorter... or at least one of them. We'll see if this "under 2,000 words" thing becomes a trend or not.
One more piece of exciting information for you all: With Lakers-Nuggets having gone through five games, and a sixth being guaranteed (this last part was written on Wednesday), that means we have only two more games until Ron "elbow in you face" Artest comes back. And guess what? He'll be debuting his playoffs against the Thunder IN OKLAHOMA CITY. I swear, the NBA can provide the greatest unintentionally planned drama sometimes.
And with that, we're done for now. Check back this weekend for my round two breakdown and predictions! Thanks for reading what was by far my shortest column yet (under 2,000 words!).