Sports Time Radio

Now I was one of the most surprised people out there when the Los Angeles Lakers where eliminated from the 1st round of the NBA playoffs Thursday night 113-100 by the Phoenix Suns. The Suns won the series games to 2. I don’t like to use the term fixed when I talk about the NBA, but there is always something odd that goes on and for the most part the NBA gets the teams or team they want into the finals and we all know they wanted the Lakers in the finals. I guess they couldn’t come up with a good plan to move the Lakers along without making look obvious; so they’re done for the season.

As the Suns move on in the playoffs I hope that the NBA can find a way to shine a light on some other players not named LeBron James as they tend to focus on him. James is still one of the best players in the NBA and it’s understandable why the NBA spends so much time and money getting and keeping his name out their, but let’s face it there are some other really good players in the NBA. Let’s hope the league steps up and tries to push these guys into the spotlight, but I have a feeling that the NBA will just turn their attention to the New Jersey Nets.

I’m sure you have some players in mind, but since I started off talking about the Lakers/Suns series I think that Devin Booker should be given the opportunity to get his name mentioned a little more. Since the focus was almost always on the Lakers in this series or they where talking about Chris Paul being injured you may not have noticed that Booker was the leading scorer in the series.

Booker averaged 29.7 Points per game while chipping in 6.2 rebounds per game and 5 assists per game. Booker was the only Phoenix player to average over 16 points per game in this series. James had very comparable stats as he led the Lakers in scoring with 23.3 points per game, 7.2 rebounds per game and 8 assists per game. Of course we heard about how James did after ever game in this series and even though Booker had a 47 points in the close out game of the series. Booker also scored 47 points in Game 4 of this series.

Now there are a few reasons why the Lakers ended up losing this series. The biggest one was injuries of course; especially the one to Anthony Davis. Davis tried to play in Game 6 to help keep the Lakers playoff hopes alive, but could only give them 5 minutes before he had to come out of the game and he didn’t return. Davis didn’t attempt a shot in his short Game 6 appearance, but did grab 1 rebound and dished out 1 assists. Would this series have went differently if Los Angeles had a healthy Davis? Unfortunately we’ll never know that, but there are always people who will speculate about that.

It also didn’t help the Lakers that Dennis Schroder really struggled in this series. Now Schroder played 38 minutes in Game 6 and did pitch in 20 points, but he was 6 of 14 shooting to get to those 20 points. In Game 5 Schroder didn’t even score in his 26 minutes of action going 0 for 9 from the filed including 0 for 4 from the 3-Point line. Obviously with Davis missing this game do to injury the Lakers needed Schroder to step up and unfortunately for the Lakers he didn’t.

Now the 2nd round of the NBA playoffs actually gets underway today, but we’re not quite done with the 1st round just yet. There is still one 1st round series that hasn’t been decided yet.

Kawhi Leonard scored 45 points and led the Los Angeles Clippers to a 104-97 win over the Dallas Mavericks last night. The Clippers win forces a Game 7 which will be played tomorrow afternoon in Los Angeles.

The road team in this series has had a great deal of success; so you have to wonder if the Mavericks will find a way to win Game 7 and move on. Or will the Clippers pick up a big Game 7 win on their home court. Just think if the Clippers end up losing Game 7 both of the Los Angeles team will be gone after the 1st round. How many people had that happening?

Let me know who you got in tomorrow’s game. You going with the Clippers at home? Or do you like the Mavericks to win this game?

With the Lakers now eliminated I’d also like to know who’s your favorite to win the NBA title?

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Feel free to look me up on Twitter. I’m @Burketime