Inside The ITP: First Round Breakdown
Apr 8, 2024 1:08:23 GMT -6
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Post by Keyser Soze on Apr 8, 2024 1:08:23 GMT -6
Ernie Johnson: Hello, welcome everybody. Thank you for tuning in on this fine Sunday of ITP playoff basketball.
Charles Barkley: It wasn't all that fine.
Ernie Johnson: That's Charles Barkley, who's team unfortunately lost in the first round of the playoffs. I'm also joined by Kenny the Jet Smith. How are you doing Kenny?
Kenny Smith: I'm doing great. We had Three Game 7s today. It was lots of entertaining basketball.
Charles Barkley: Except for that Warriors/Wolves game.
Ernie Johnson: We'll get to that later. But let's indeed start in the West with the (1) LA Clippers defeating (8) Phoenix Suns 112-100 in Game 6. The Clippers won the series 4-2, and they now advance to the 2nd round. Thoughts on the series fellas?
Kenny Smith: The well balanced attack of the Clippers was just too much. Think about it. Moses Malone went 5/20 from the field and they still managed to win a road playoff game by double digits. Jason Williams almost had a triple double with 30 points 11 assists and 9 rebounds.
Charles Barkley: I thought White Chocolate melts in the sun.
Kenny Smith: Not this White Chocolate. He was putting crossover moves all over Terrell Brandon and Michael Carter Williams. They couldn't do anything to stay in front of him. Sabonis had 26/10. DWade scored 25 points. Even Sean Rooks shot a perfect 5/5 from the field, scoring 12 points with 7 boards. It was a great team effort.
Charles Barkley: That's exactly what it was. They got a team in LA. And I'm not talking about the Lakers. The Clippers are for real. But the Suns? All they wanna do is keep feeding the ball to Joel Embiid. He did his part. He was scoring all of their points. But how bout everybody else?
Kenny Smith: Nerlens Noel went 7/23 from the field.
Charles Barkley: Thank you Kenny. And what about that other guy? Whats his name? Hazard?
Kenny Smith: Walt Hazzard.
Charles Barkley: He's a damn hazard to the game of basketball. Let me tell you something. The Suns need to take Hazard, old ass Nerlens Noel, and Rich Kelley. Put them in one of those Arizona retirement homes.
Ernie Johnson: Walt Hazard is 27 years old.
Charles Barkley: Don't interrupt me Ernie. You know what I'm saying. These Suns supporting cast players gotta go. They need to get Joel Embiid some real help in the off-season.
Kenny Smith: I feel bad for Embiid. He spent all those years losing in Denver. Then when they draft Michael Jordan, they trade Embiid away. He hasn't played with good teammates since he left the Raptors.
Charles Barkley: He should've stayed his ass in Toronto.
Ernie Johnson: Lets stay with this game. Are the Clippers a legitimate championship contender in the West?
Charles Barkley: Ernie they won 58 games. Who's stopping them in the West?
Kenny Smith: I think they are. But man Utah could give them some problems in the 2nd round.
Ernie Johnson: Perfect transition Kenny. You're getting the hang of this TV thing. Unlike Charles. But the good news is Charles is gonna have plenty of time to practice, as his Dallas Mavericks were eliminated from the playoffs. The (5) Utah Jazz defeated (4) Dallas 112-104. Utah won the series 4-1. How you feeling Charles?
Charles Barkley: Embiids not the only one that needs help. Look at me. I had Kurt Thomas and Travis Outlaw. How am I supposed to win with that?
Kenny Smith: Chuck you scored 8 points.
Charles Barkley: I would've had more if they gave me the damn ball.
Kenny Smith: All Jokes aside. The Mavs were dealing with alot of injuries in the series. No Tiago Splitter. No Julius Randle. That's why guys like Kurt Thomas had to play big minutes. It's tough when you lose two starters that combine 34 PPG and 22 RPG. How do you replace that production? You need a whole lot more than 8 points 6 rebounds and 4 fouls from Charles Barkley in an elimination game.
Charles Barkley: Losing Julius and Tiago was tough. They gave us that toughness and tenacity inside. Without them we just got pushed around by Utah.
Ernie Johnson: What made Utah such a tough matchup?
Charles Barkley: You got Hines and Marion on the that frontline. Hines is a monster.
Ernie Johnson: He averaged 15.8 RPG and 2.8 BPG for the series.
Charles Barkley: That's what I'm saying he was grabbing all the rebounds. Then they get Marion out in transition. He was kicking our butts with all those Fast break dunks and layups.
Kenny Smith: Pee Wee Kirkland was tough too. Being a fellow New York City Point Guard i can appreciate the greatness of Kirkland. He's one of the special point guards in this league. Mike Bibby was no match for him.
Charles Barkley: You're right Kenny. Pee Wee is nice too. Him, Hines, and Marion form a hell of a Big 3.
Kenny Smith: That's why i believe they're gonna be a tough matchup for the Clippers.
Ernie Johnson: Who do you have winning the series?
Kenny Smith: I got the Jazz in 7. Star power will prevail. Jazz win.
Charles Barkley: You've lost your damn mind. The Clippers are the best team in the West. They're gonna get by the Jazz. And then they're gonna beat whoever they gotta face in the West Finals.
Ernie Johnson: One team they might face are the Golden State Warriors, who pulled off the (7) vs (2) upset victory vs the Minnesota Timberwolves. Golden State won the deciding Game 7 with a surprising 121-95 blowout on Minnesota's home floor. How impressed were you by the Warriors?
Kenny Smith: Very impressed. Iverson and Petrovic scored 62 points combined in the backcourt. Defensively they held to the Wolves to 33.3 % shooting. They played a complete game in this one.
Charles Barkley: I agree with Kenny. One team played like it was game 7. The other team played like it was the preseason. The Wolves looked lifeless out there. They were taking bad shots the whole game. Ernie read some of the boxscore shooting numbers. I lost the paper you gave me.
Ernie Johnson: You threw it in the trash with your Chic Fil A wrappers. But anyways. Carl Landry shot 6/21 from the field. Jason Smith shot 5/18 from the field.
Charles Barkley: That's turrible. But you know who I blame? The point guard Nightingale. You gotta get your guys better shots. And get the ball into Dirk Nowitzkis hand. That's your best player. Why are damn Jason Smith and Carl Landry shooting the ball more than Dirk. That makes any sense to you Kenny?
Kenny Smith: No it doesn't. But again you gotta give credit to that Warriors defense. Which is centered around former defensive player of the year Anthony Soprano. He was averaging 14.3 RPG and 4.3 BPG. Antonio McDyess averaged 4.1 BPG. They got strong inside defense. Pesky perimeter defenders like Iverson. Warriors are not your typical #7 seed. They got a defense that's built for the playoffs. And a superstar in Iverson on offense. I like this team.
Charles Barkley: You like every team. Warriors had a nice first round win. But they're gonna lose in the 2nd round.
Ernie Johnson: They'll be playing the (6) Seattle Supersonics. After Seattle pulled off a dominating 4-1 series victory vs the favored (3) Sacramento Kings. They controlled the series from beginning to end. Ending it with a 107-90 win in Sacramento. We didn't see that coming did we?
Kenny Smith: No we didn't. I really liked the Kings squad.
Charles Barkley: See what I mean? You like every team.
Kenny Smith: The Kings were a damn good team in the regular season Chuck. But I wanna give respect to Seattle. They're the only team in the league that's made the playoffs every single season since the league started. But this season is a little different. They just gave a contract buyout to Giannis. He's gonna be a free agent at the end of the year. So this might be their last run at contention. And you saw them playing with that sense of urgency. Understanding just how important this playoff run is. Because it might be the last one with Giannis.
Charles Barkley: Yeah they kicked the Kings butts the entire series. I don't think Sacramento was ready for this. I wanna give a shout out to Andre Miller. He was awesome
Ernie Johnson: Andre Miller averaged 29.4 PPG for the series. And he scored 35 in Game 5.
Charles Barkley: Andre was amazing. Giannis played well. David West. Eric Snow. They got a real nice veteran team. A team full of no nonsense guys. They're tough. They're physical. They're built for a gruesome playoff series.
Ernie Johnson: What about Sacramento? What went wrong with them?
Kenny Smith: Kareem Abdul Jabbar is a good man. And it pains me to say this. But he was awful. Especially those last 2 games of the series. He shot 8/29 from the field. You gotta get better offensive production from your top player than that. Hal Greer just signed a max contract. You gotta do better than 8 points 3/10 FG in a do or die elimination game. A lot of bad performances on the Kings side.
Charles Barkley: Sacramento is just too much of a pretty boy team. They scored all them points in the regular season.
Ernie Johnson: 117.7 PPG. The highest scoring team in the Western Conference.
Charles Barkley: Yeah but none of that matters in the playoffs Ernie. Its about being the more physical team. Sacramento got all these scorers and shooters. Belineli. Wally Szczerbiak. They got Van Exel with all his fancy dribbling. But they got no toughness.
Kenny Smith: What about Kevin Garnett?
Charles Barkley: He's a fake tough guy. They need to get better more physical players to balance out their roster in the off-season. Or they're gonna get punched in the face again.
Ernie Johnson: Who's gonna get punched in the face in the 2nd round? Seattle or Golden State?
Kenny Smith: I got the Warriors beating the Sonics. They got the best player in the series with Iverson. Stars win playoff games.
Charles Barkley: Sonics are gonna win. Who's gonna stop Giannis? Jimmy Jackson? Kenny you ever seen Jimmy Jackson play defense one day in his life? And hes gonna be matched up at SF vs the Greek Freak. They're gonna be in trouble.
There wasn't too much trouble for the #1 seed New York Knicks. In the (1) vs (8) matchup vs the Charlotte Hornets, New York won Game 5 133-109. They took the series 4-1 and advance to the 2nd round. Quick thoughts on this series?
Charles Barkley: The Knicks took care of business. The #1 seed should beat the #8 seed.
Kenny Smith: But give credit to the #8 seed. Hornets had a top 5 pick in the draft. They were near the bottom of the league standings. And 1 year later they made the playoffs. They won a playoff game. They've developed a nice cornerstone point guard in Starbury.
Charles Barkley: Hold on Kenny. Didn't he go like 9 for 30 from the field?
Ernie Johnson: 9/29 from the field for 20 point and 12 assists.
Charles Barkley: Thank you Ernie. You can't shoot the ball 9/29 and call yourself Starbury. That's crazy.
Kenny Smith: Chuck he averaged 28.4 PPG and 11.0 APG for the series. He dropped 46 points and 13 assists in their Game 3 win. He was sensational in this series. Jalen Smith averaged 15.2 RPG. They're developing some cornerstone pieces in Charlotte. And next year with an improved John Stockton watch out. The Hornets are gonna raise up the standings.
Charles Barkley: I'm gonna raise my foot up your ass. You too Ernie. Let's hurry up with all these games. We've been here too damn long.
Ernie Johnson: The (4) Boston Celtics and (5) Indiana Pacers played a long 7 game series. However, in the end the Pacers were victorious with a 106-93 Game 7 win. This was arguably the best series of Round 1. Lots of points being scored. Both offenses firing at eachother. But ironically enough defense is how this series ended. With Indiana holding Boston to just 93 points in Game 7. How good are these Indiana Pacers?
Kenny Smith: Indiana hovered around 500 for most of the 1st half. But after making some trades they became a completely different team in the 2nd half. Don't be fooled by the #5 seed. They're as much of a title contender as any of the other teams in the East. They have Mashburn and Ford both averaging 29+ PPG during the playoffs. Along with Hornacek, Hamilton, Kyle Anderson, Aaron Gordon. They got a whole lot of offensive ammunition. But what game 7 proved is that they can play defense when it matters most as well.
Charles Barkley: I believe in one thing Kenny. Live by the 3, die by the 3. Pacers live too much by the three. That's why I got a hard time believing in them. They beat the Celtics, who play just like them. With all the fancy run n gun three point shooting. But some of the more balanced teams in the East are gonna give them hell.
Ernie Johnson: Speaking of the Celtics. It was a quality 50 win season for them. Do you like the future outlook of the Celtics?
Kenny Smith: I do. Steve Nash really came into his own this season. Arguably had the best year of his career. All League 3rd Team. All defense 1st team. Then in the playoffs he upped his game to an even higher level averaging 30.3 PPG. Ray Allen is a scoring machine. He averaged 35.6 PPG in the playoffs. Combined thats almost 66 PPG. I love this backcourt duo. With those two building blocks I love their future.
Charles Barkley: You're right Kenny. It's a great backcourt. But they gotta add more talent up front.
Ernie Johnson: Back to the Pacers. Do you like their chances in Round 2 vs New York?
Charles Barkley: They don't got a chance in hell to beat the Knicks.
Kenny Smith: I'm giving them a chance. When you have that kind of offense you always have a chance.
Ernie Johnson: The (6) Miami Heat didn't have any chance, as they were obliterated by the (3) Philadelphia 76ers. Philly beat them 118-96 in Game 4 to complete the 4 game sweep. Was anybody surprised by the result?
Kenny Smith: How could anybody be surprised? Half the Miami Heat roster was injured. I give them credit for just making the playoffs despite all the injuries. It's hard to fault them.
Charles Barkley: I fault Steve Francis for having all those damn turnovers. But you're right Kenny. Miami gave you everything they had. Philly was just a lot healthier and alot better.
Kenny Smith: Yeah Philly looked great. They held Miami under 100 points every game in the series. They forced Steve Francis into 6.8 Turnovers per game like Chuck mentioned. They're an excellent defensive team.
Charles Barkley: They're one of my favorites to win the title. Defense wins and they got it.
Ernie Johnson: How Would you know what wins in the playoffs when you've never won a playoff series?
Charles Barkley: I've played in 1 damn playoff series. Give me a break Ernie. Let's keep this moving to the next series. And stop giving those long winded answers Kenny. Pretending like you're the smartest one in this room. I wanna get the hell outta here Kenny.
Ernie Johnson: Ask and you shall receive. The last series of the first round was (7) Detroit almost pulling off the upset vs (2) Toronto. But they came up just short, as the Raptors won Game 7 136-126. And will move on to 2nd round to play Philadelphia. Pretty entertaining series right Kenny?
Kenny Smith: It sure was. The Pistons came to play. Bogdan Bogdanovic scored 34 PPG in the series. He started the series off with a 39 or game in the opener. Then in Game 6 he went off for 46 points to force game 7. He was amazing. Gotta give credit to him. And the defending champion Pistons. They have definitely built a reputation as a fearsome playoff team.
Charles Barkley: Yeah Pistons played well. But Toronto just had more talent. Joe Smith, Brandon Roy, Killian Hayes.
Ernie Johnson: Hayes had 28 points and 21 assists in Game 7.
Charles Barkley: He's still one of the best players in the league. People wanna talk about LaMelo all the damn time. But Hayes is just as good.
Ernie Johnson: How good are the Raptors? Can they beat Philly?
Kenny Smith: I think so. They got more talent. They got the best player in the series. They're a better team. I'm going with the Raptors.
Charles Barkley: I'm going Philly. Defense wins championships.
Ernie Johnson: And that will do it. Thank you for watching.
Charles Barkley: It wasn't all that fine.
Ernie Johnson: That's Charles Barkley, who's team unfortunately lost in the first round of the playoffs. I'm also joined by Kenny the Jet Smith. How are you doing Kenny?
Kenny Smith: I'm doing great. We had Three Game 7s today. It was lots of entertaining basketball.
Charles Barkley: Except for that Warriors/Wolves game.
Ernie Johnson: We'll get to that later. But let's indeed start in the West with the (1) LA Clippers defeating (8) Phoenix Suns 112-100 in Game 6. The Clippers won the series 4-2, and they now advance to the 2nd round. Thoughts on the series fellas?
Kenny Smith: The well balanced attack of the Clippers was just too much. Think about it. Moses Malone went 5/20 from the field and they still managed to win a road playoff game by double digits. Jason Williams almost had a triple double with 30 points 11 assists and 9 rebounds.
Charles Barkley: I thought White Chocolate melts in the sun.
Kenny Smith: Not this White Chocolate. He was putting crossover moves all over Terrell Brandon and Michael Carter Williams. They couldn't do anything to stay in front of him. Sabonis had 26/10. DWade scored 25 points. Even Sean Rooks shot a perfect 5/5 from the field, scoring 12 points with 7 boards. It was a great team effort.
Charles Barkley: That's exactly what it was. They got a team in LA. And I'm not talking about the Lakers. The Clippers are for real. But the Suns? All they wanna do is keep feeding the ball to Joel Embiid. He did his part. He was scoring all of their points. But how bout everybody else?
Kenny Smith: Nerlens Noel went 7/23 from the field.
Charles Barkley: Thank you Kenny. And what about that other guy? Whats his name? Hazard?
Kenny Smith: Walt Hazzard.
Charles Barkley: He's a damn hazard to the game of basketball. Let me tell you something. The Suns need to take Hazard, old ass Nerlens Noel, and Rich Kelley. Put them in one of those Arizona retirement homes.
Ernie Johnson: Walt Hazard is 27 years old.
Charles Barkley: Don't interrupt me Ernie. You know what I'm saying. These Suns supporting cast players gotta go. They need to get Joel Embiid some real help in the off-season.
Kenny Smith: I feel bad for Embiid. He spent all those years losing in Denver. Then when they draft Michael Jordan, they trade Embiid away. He hasn't played with good teammates since he left the Raptors.
Charles Barkley: He should've stayed his ass in Toronto.
Ernie Johnson: Lets stay with this game. Are the Clippers a legitimate championship contender in the West?
Charles Barkley: Ernie they won 58 games. Who's stopping them in the West?
Kenny Smith: I think they are. But man Utah could give them some problems in the 2nd round.
Ernie Johnson: Perfect transition Kenny. You're getting the hang of this TV thing. Unlike Charles. But the good news is Charles is gonna have plenty of time to practice, as his Dallas Mavericks were eliminated from the playoffs. The (5) Utah Jazz defeated (4) Dallas 112-104. Utah won the series 4-1. How you feeling Charles?
Charles Barkley: Embiids not the only one that needs help. Look at me. I had Kurt Thomas and Travis Outlaw. How am I supposed to win with that?
Kenny Smith: Chuck you scored 8 points.
Charles Barkley: I would've had more if they gave me the damn ball.
Kenny Smith: All Jokes aside. The Mavs were dealing with alot of injuries in the series. No Tiago Splitter. No Julius Randle. That's why guys like Kurt Thomas had to play big minutes. It's tough when you lose two starters that combine 34 PPG and 22 RPG. How do you replace that production? You need a whole lot more than 8 points 6 rebounds and 4 fouls from Charles Barkley in an elimination game.
Charles Barkley: Losing Julius and Tiago was tough. They gave us that toughness and tenacity inside. Without them we just got pushed around by Utah.
Ernie Johnson: What made Utah such a tough matchup?
Charles Barkley: You got Hines and Marion on the that frontline. Hines is a monster.
Ernie Johnson: He averaged 15.8 RPG and 2.8 BPG for the series.
Charles Barkley: That's what I'm saying he was grabbing all the rebounds. Then they get Marion out in transition. He was kicking our butts with all those Fast break dunks and layups.
Kenny Smith: Pee Wee Kirkland was tough too. Being a fellow New York City Point Guard i can appreciate the greatness of Kirkland. He's one of the special point guards in this league. Mike Bibby was no match for him.
Charles Barkley: You're right Kenny. Pee Wee is nice too. Him, Hines, and Marion form a hell of a Big 3.
Kenny Smith: That's why i believe they're gonna be a tough matchup for the Clippers.
Ernie Johnson: Who do you have winning the series?
Kenny Smith: I got the Jazz in 7. Star power will prevail. Jazz win.
Charles Barkley: You've lost your damn mind. The Clippers are the best team in the West. They're gonna get by the Jazz. And then they're gonna beat whoever they gotta face in the West Finals.
Ernie Johnson: One team they might face are the Golden State Warriors, who pulled off the (7) vs (2) upset victory vs the Minnesota Timberwolves. Golden State won the deciding Game 7 with a surprising 121-95 blowout on Minnesota's home floor. How impressed were you by the Warriors?
Kenny Smith: Very impressed. Iverson and Petrovic scored 62 points combined in the backcourt. Defensively they held to the Wolves to 33.3 % shooting. They played a complete game in this one.
Charles Barkley: I agree with Kenny. One team played like it was game 7. The other team played like it was the preseason. The Wolves looked lifeless out there. They were taking bad shots the whole game. Ernie read some of the boxscore shooting numbers. I lost the paper you gave me.
Ernie Johnson: You threw it in the trash with your Chic Fil A wrappers. But anyways. Carl Landry shot 6/21 from the field. Jason Smith shot 5/18 from the field.
Charles Barkley: That's turrible. But you know who I blame? The point guard Nightingale. You gotta get your guys better shots. And get the ball into Dirk Nowitzkis hand. That's your best player. Why are damn Jason Smith and Carl Landry shooting the ball more than Dirk. That makes any sense to you Kenny?
Kenny Smith: No it doesn't. But again you gotta give credit to that Warriors defense. Which is centered around former defensive player of the year Anthony Soprano. He was averaging 14.3 RPG and 4.3 BPG. Antonio McDyess averaged 4.1 BPG. They got strong inside defense. Pesky perimeter defenders like Iverson. Warriors are not your typical #7 seed. They got a defense that's built for the playoffs. And a superstar in Iverson on offense. I like this team.
Charles Barkley: You like every team. Warriors had a nice first round win. But they're gonna lose in the 2nd round.
Ernie Johnson: They'll be playing the (6) Seattle Supersonics. After Seattle pulled off a dominating 4-1 series victory vs the favored (3) Sacramento Kings. They controlled the series from beginning to end. Ending it with a 107-90 win in Sacramento. We didn't see that coming did we?
Kenny Smith: No we didn't. I really liked the Kings squad.
Charles Barkley: See what I mean? You like every team.
Kenny Smith: The Kings were a damn good team in the regular season Chuck. But I wanna give respect to Seattle. They're the only team in the league that's made the playoffs every single season since the league started. But this season is a little different. They just gave a contract buyout to Giannis. He's gonna be a free agent at the end of the year. So this might be their last run at contention. And you saw them playing with that sense of urgency. Understanding just how important this playoff run is. Because it might be the last one with Giannis.
Charles Barkley: Yeah they kicked the Kings butts the entire series. I don't think Sacramento was ready for this. I wanna give a shout out to Andre Miller. He was awesome
Ernie Johnson: Andre Miller averaged 29.4 PPG for the series. And he scored 35 in Game 5.
Charles Barkley: Andre was amazing. Giannis played well. David West. Eric Snow. They got a real nice veteran team. A team full of no nonsense guys. They're tough. They're physical. They're built for a gruesome playoff series.
Ernie Johnson: What about Sacramento? What went wrong with them?
Kenny Smith: Kareem Abdul Jabbar is a good man. And it pains me to say this. But he was awful. Especially those last 2 games of the series. He shot 8/29 from the field. You gotta get better offensive production from your top player than that. Hal Greer just signed a max contract. You gotta do better than 8 points 3/10 FG in a do or die elimination game. A lot of bad performances on the Kings side.
Charles Barkley: Sacramento is just too much of a pretty boy team. They scored all them points in the regular season.
Ernie Johnson: 117.7 PPG. The highest scoring team in the Western Conference.
Charles Barkley: Yeah but none of that matters in the playoffs Ernie. Its about being the more physical team. Sacramento got all these scorers and shooters. Belineli. Wally Szczerbiak. They got Van Exel with all his fancy dribbling. But they got no toughness.
Kenny Smith: What about Kevin Garnett?
Charles Barkley: He's a fake tough guy. They need to get better more physical players to balance out their roster in the off-season. Or they're gonna get punched in the face again.
Ernie Johnson: Who's gonna get punched in the face in the 2nd round? Seattle or Golden State?
Kenny Smith: I got the Warriors beating the Sonics. They got the best player in the series with Iverson. Stars win playoff games.
Charles Barkley: Sonics are gonna win. Who's gonna stop Giannis? Jimmy Jackson? Kenny you ever seen Jimmy Jackson play defense one day in his life? And hes gonna be matched up at SF vs the Greek Freak. They're gonna be in trouble.
There wasn't too much trouble for the #1 seed New York Knicks. In the (1) vs (8) matchup vs the Charlotte Hornets, New York won Game 5 133-109. They took the series 4-1 and advance to the 2nd round. Quick thoughts on this series?
Charles Barkley: The Knicks took care of business. The #1 seed should beat the #8 seed.
Kenny Smith: But give credit to the #8 seed. Hornets had a top 5 pick in the draft. They were near the bottom of the league standings. And 1 year later they made the playoffs. They won a playoff game. They've developed a nice cornerstone point guard in Starbury.
Charles Barkley: Hold on Kenny. Didn't he go like 9 for 30 from the field?
Ernie Johnson: 9/29 from the field for 20 point and 12 assists.
Charles Barkley: Thank you Ernie. You can't shoot the ball 9/29 and call yourself Starbury. That's crazy.
Kenny Smith: Chuck he averaged 28.4 PPG and 11.0 APG for the series. He dropped 46 points and 13 assists in their Game 3 win. He was sensational in this series. Jalen Smith averaged 15.2 RPG. They're developing some cornerstone pieces in Charlotte. And next year with an improved John Stockton watch out. The Hornets are gonna raise up the standings.
Charles Barkley: I'm gonna raise my foot up your ass. You too Ernie. Let's hurry up with all these games. We've been here too damn long.
Ernie Johnson: The (4) Boston Celtics and (5) Indiana Pacers played a long 7 game series. However, in the end the Pacers were victorious with a 106-93 Game 7 win. This was arguably the best series of Round 1. Lots of points being scored. Both offenses firing at eachother. But ironically enough defense is how this series ended. With Indiana holding Boston to just 93 points in Game 7. How good are these Indiana Pacers?
Kenny Smith: Indiana hovered around 500 for most of the 1st half. But after making some trades they became a completely different team in the 2nd half. Don't be fooled by the #5 seed. They're as much of a title contender as any of the other teams in the East. They have Mashburn and Ford both averaging 29+ PPG during the playoffs. Along with Hornacek, Hamilton, Kyle Anderson, Aaron Gordon. They got a whole lot of offensive ammunition. But what game 7 proved is that they can play defense when it matters most as well.
Charles Barkley: I believe in one thing Kenny. Live by the 3, die by the 3. Pacers live too much by the three. That's why I got a hard time believing in them. They beat the Celtics, who play just like them. With all the fancy run n gun three point shooting. But some of the more balanced teams in the East are gonna give them hell.
Ernie Johnson: Speaking of the Celtics. It was a quality 50 win season for them. Do you like the future outlook of the Celtics?
Kenny Smith: I do. Steve Nash really came into his own this season. Arguably had the best year of his career. All League 3rd Team. All defense 1st team. Then in the playoffs he upped his game to an even higher level averaging 30.3 PPG. Ray Allen is a scoring machine. He averaged 35.6 PPG in the playoffs. Combined thats almost 66 PPG. I love this backcourt duo. With those two building blocks I love their future.
Charles Barkley: You're right Kenny. It's a great backcourt. But they gotta add more talent up front.
Ernie Johnson: Back to the Pacers. Do you like their chances in Round 2 vs New York?
Charles Barkley: They don't got a chance in hell to beat the Knicks.
Kenny Smith: I'm giving them a chance. When you have that kind of offense you always have a chance.
Ernie Johnson: The (6) Miami Heat didn't have any chance, as they were obliterated by the (3) Philadelphia 76ers. Philly beat them 118-96 in Game 4 to complete the 4 game sweep. Was anybody surprised by the result?
Kenny Smith: How could anybody be surprised? Half the Miami Heat roster was injured. I give them credit for just making the playoffs despite all the injuries. It's hard to fault them.
Charles Barkley: I fault Steve Francis for having all those damn turnovers. But you're right Kenny. Miami gave you everything they had. Philly was just a lot healthier and alot better.
Kenny Smith: Yeah Philly looked great. They held Miami under 100 points every game in the series. They forced Steve Francis into 6.8 Turnovers per game like Chuck mentioned. They're an excellent defensive team.
Charles Barkley: They're one of my favorites to win the title. Defense wins and they got it.
Ernie Johnson: How Would you know what wins in the playoffs when you've never won a playoff series?
Charles Barkley: I've played in 1 damn playoff series. Give me a break Ernie. Let's keep this moving to the next series. And stop giving those long winded answers Kenny. Pretending like you're the smartest one in this room. I wanna get the hell outta here Kenny.
Ernie Johnson: Ask and you shall receive. The last series of the first round was (7) Detroit almost pulling off the upset vs (2) Toronto. But they came up just short, as the Raptors won Game 7 136-126. And will move on to 2nd round to play Philadelphia. Pretty entertaining series right Kenny?
Kenny Smith: It sure was. The Pistons came to play. Bogdan Bogdanovic scored 34 PPG in the series. He started the series off with a 39 or game in the opener. Then in Game 6 he went off for 46 points to force game 7. He was amazing. Gotta give credit to him. And the defending champion Pistons. They have definitely built a reputation as a fearsome playoff team.
Charles Barkley: Yeah Pistons played well. But Toronto just had more talent. Joe Smith, Brandon Roy, Killian Hayes.
Ernie Johnson: Hayes had 28 points and 21 assists in Game 7.
Charles Barkley: He's still one of the best players in the league. People wanna talk about LaMelo all the damn time. But Hayes is just as good.
Ernie Johnson: How good are the Raptors? Can they beat Philly?
Kenny Smith: I think so. They got more talent. They got the best player in the series. They're a better team. I'm going with the Raptors.
Charles Barkley: I'm going Philly. Defense wins championships.
Ernie Johnson: And that will do it. Thank you for watching.