NBA Playoff Schedule 2015: TV Coverage, Live Stream Guide for Wednesday Games
Day 5 of the NBA playoffs will bring a trio of matchups that surprisingly deviated from expectations in Game 1. Whereas the 50-plus-win San Antonio Spurs and Portland Trail Blazers were haplessly blown out on the road, the Brooklyn Nets, arguably the worst team in the postseason, nearly pulled off a stunner at Phillips Arena against the top-seeded Atlanta Hawks.
But a playoff series is a dynamic picture that changes over the course of two weeks, so Game 1s often represent more of a feeling-out process rather than an indication of how a series will actually play out. Thus, if Game 1 is more of a prelude, the adjustments each team makes almost represents the real start of the series.
With that in mind, let's take a look at the burning questions for Game 2 of Wednesday's three series, as well as full TV and streaming information for the contests.
| 7 p.m. | Brooklyn Nets at Atlanta Hawks | NBATV | Hawks 1-0 |
| 8 p.m. | Portland Trail Blazers at Memphis Grizzlies | TNT | Grizzlies 1-0 |
| 10:30 p.m. | San Antonio Spurs at Los Angeles Clippers | TNT | Clippers 1-0 |
Live stream available via Watch TNT.
Game 2 Burning Questions
Nets vs. Hawks: How's the Thumb, Al?
The Hawks' underwhelming 99-92 Game 1 win would have been bad enough on its own, but in the wake of Al Horford's dislocated pinky, Atlanta's outlook appears even more fragile. Horford's two torn pectoral injuries have submarined previous seasons, and though he returned in the fourth quarter, a diminished Horford could suddenly make this a long series.
Indeed, though Atlanta prides itself on an egalitarian-based offensive system in regard to ball movement, it's Horford's post presence that serves as the fulcrum for all the movement. Atlanta does have a more even distribution rate than most teams, but that doesn't change the fact that Horford is still probably its most valuable offensive starter:
| Al Horford | 5.1 | 22.2 % | 21.4 |
| Jeff Teague | 5.0 | 25.3 % | 20.6 |
| Paul Millsap | 4.0 | 23.8 % | 20.1 |
| Kyle Korver | 5.0 | 14.4 % | 14.8 |
| DeMarre Carroll | 4.3 | 16.9 % | 15.9 |
Coupled with Paul Millsap's sprained right shoulder, the Hawks frontcourt suddenly appears vulnerable. As Nets point guard Deron Williams suggests, Brooklyn might seek to take advantage of that via more featured actions for Brook Lopez, per ESPN.com's Mike Mazzeo:
"We just gotta find some actions that work for [Brook]. Because we definitely need to get him the ball -- that little pocket pass that we were getting the last half of the season [for him to get push shots] is not there against these guys. They're doing a good job of taking that away, but like I said, swing, swing and then maybe post him up on the other side. Those are things we can do to get Brook involved, and we need to get him more involved.
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Lopez had a monster 17-point, 14-rebound double-double in Game 1, so if perimeter wings such as Joe Johnson and Bojan Bogdanovic can provide spacing, that could stretch the Hawks defense and give Atlanta a taste of its own medicine. Brooklyn has underachieved for much of the season, so while there's still no reason to expect a long series, it will be interesting to see how the underdog Nets respond in the wake of Horford's injury.
Blazers vs. Grizzlies: Is Memphis' Shooting Real?
The Memphis Grizzlies have never been a real offensive powerhouse during their recent window of contention. For the underdog Portland Trail Blazers, that figured to be their ticket to an upset in this series, as the Blazers defense is built around taking away three-pointers and forcing less efficient mid-range jumpers, even those that are good looks.
And yet while Portland held Zach Randolph, Marc Gasol and Jeff Green in check, Memphis received an unexpected bench boost from Beno Udrih, whose team-high 20 points came on 9-of-13 shooting. Udrih was surprisingly aggressive when Portland sagged underneath pick-and-rolls, and as The Oregonian's Mike Richman opines, the Blazers will probably adjust that game plan on Wednesday:
"Don't expect the Blazers to make wholesale changes to their defensive coverage to slow Udrih. But staying close to the veteran guard and limiting his clean looks will be a key part of the Blazers Game 2 defense. Portland has to keep Udrih, and all the Memphis guards, on one side of the floor and avoid the scrambling that follows when ball handlers get loose on screens. And when Grizzlies guards do get free it's imperative to recover quickly and get a hand in their face to make those mid-range looks as uncomfortable as possible.
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This would represent a fairly significant change from Portland's customary strategy, particularly given that Memphis' 48.9 percent effective field-goal percentage (eFG%) ranked 21st during the regular season, per Basketball-Reference.com. The bigger concern for the Blazers should probably be their own shooting, which was uncharacteristically poor in Game 1:
LaMarcus Aldridge and Damian Lillard combined to shoot an eye-popping 18-of-55 from the field, a 32.7 percent field-goal percentage that won't win any games. If Portland gets its offense back on track, that might be the bigger key to the series than worrying about another surprise spark from Udrih.
Spurs vs. Clippers: Can L.A.'s Frontcourt Keep Dominating?
San Antonio was favored coming into the series not simply because of its championship pedigree but also its superior depth. The Clippers are among the most top-heavy teams in the postseason field, and if their stars couldn't dominate for 48 minutes, they knew they were probably toast.
And yet that's exactly what happened in Game 1, as Chris Paul iced the game in the fourth quarter after back-to-back-to-back posterizing dunks from Blake Griffin energized the crowd. Griffin and DeAndre Jordan in particular dominated the boards, grabbing a combined 26 rebounds and allowing the Clippers to consistently run out in transition, arguably the game's deciding factor:
Indeed, it was a familiar vicious cycle for San Antonio: Missed perimeter shots would lead to rebounds and outlet passes, which would allow Los Angeles' superior athleticism in space to take over. As SI.com's Ben Golliver noted after the game, the Clippers' victory couldn't have provided a better blueprint for them to win this series:
"...the Spurs are too balanced and deep to lose to a one-trick pony, regardless of how gravity-defining that opponent might be. Game 1, then, goes down as a blueprint win for the Clippers because it was so thorough and so secure: they maintained a high energy level, they stitched together enough contributions from their auxiliary pieces, they dodged some bullets (the Spurs rightfully lamented their 10-for-33 three-point shooting), Griffin and Jordan won the paint and Paul took care of the rest.
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Los Angeles won't be able to expect such a porous shooting performance again from the Spurs, whose 53.8 percent free-throw and 30.3 percent three-point percentages were well below their 78.0 and 36.7 percent regular-season marks, respectively.
Still, if Griffin and Jordan can continue to control the boards and allow the Clippers to play at their preferred tempo, this could be a much tougher struggle for the defending champs than many would have imagined.
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