The top two seeds in the West found themselves down 0-1 after Game 1 in their respective series. Game 2 becomes a “must-win” for those teams, because it’s extremely tough to recover after dropping the first two games of a seven-game series at home. Not only are you down 0-2, but your confidence wavers and you have to find a way to win at least two games on the road against a good team.
Both the Spurs and Lakers gutted out a couple of fairly ugly victories on Wednesday night. San Antonio got a boost when Manu Ginobili (17-7-4 with four steals) was cleared to play. The scoring was balanced for both the Spurs and Grizzlies, who each had five players in double digits. But it was the Spurs three-point shooting (7-for-17) and defense that was the difference in the 93-87 win.
The Lakers/Hornets had the feel of a mid-90s NBA brawl, before the league changed the rules to clean up the game. The Hornets shot themselves in the foot with 18 turnovers and 12 missed free throws. Credit the Laker defense, which looked championship-caliber for the first time in weeks.
Pau Gasol was curiously passive (2-for-10, eight points), while Kobe Bryant (11-3-2) had a quiet game as well. But Andrew Bynum (17-11), Lamar Odom (16-7) and Ron Artest (15-6-2, with two steals and two blocks) picked up the slack. Bynum does look like a franchise center when he’s playing…when he’s playing.
Game 3 of the Lakers/Hornets series is on Friday, while the Spurs visit Memphis on Saturday.
