What an exciting first day of the 2014 NBA Playoffs! Three straight underdogs upset their first-round opponents with big road wins. The Nets dinosaurs upset Drake’s crew, the Dubs stole one from the Clips and Indiana continued to slide with Atlanta stomping all over them in Indianapolis. The Thunder opened up strong against Memphis, but a third quarter “Bricktown” almost turned them into victim No. 4 on the day before Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook and Co. righted the ship.
After opening up a 25-point lead in the first half, the Grizzlies — with their grit n’ grind on full display after halftime — outscored the Thunder 31-13 in the third quarter to climb their way out of that first-half hole to head into the fourth quarter trailing by just four points. But KD and Russ, who shot a combined 1-for-9 in that lackadaisical third, stormed back in the fourth for a somewhat benign-looking 100-86 win that was anything but. KD had 33, making his upcoming MVP award more and more appropriate.
But let’s not sleep on the Grizzlies just yet. They fell down 2-0 to the Clippers last season in the first round after losing their first two on the road; many NBA heads were already talking about a Clippers-Thunder series in the second round before Memphis stormed back to win four-straight before sweeping the Thunder in the second round. Then again, Russ is back this season, but we still can’t wait for Game 2 because Memphis will not go quietly into the night, which they proved again on Saturday.
How many games will OKC-MEM go?
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