NBA Playoffs 2015: Game Times, TV, Live Stream Coverage and Picks for Tuesday
Things are becoming clearer by the day.
LeBron James is still forced to be a one-man show. Derrick Rose is back. James Harden can’t do it all himself. The Los Angeles Clippers are the real deal.
But some questions are still in need of answering.
Which will give first—the collective toughness of the Chicago Bulls, or the individual greatness of LBJ? Will Harden’s Houston Rockets really go quietly into the night? How long can Blake Griffin keep producing at such an elite rate?
On Tuesday night, there’s a good chance we’ll get some answers.
The Lowdown
| Chicago Bulls at Cleveland Cavaliers | 7 p.m. | TNT | 2-2 | 103-94, Cavaliers |
| Los Angeles Clippers at Houston Rockets | 9:30 p.m. | TNT | 3-1 LAC | 120-98, Clippers |
Live streams for Tuesday's games on TNT can be found here.
Picks for Tuesday
Will Harden Silence Critics and Step Up?
One of the reasons many folks felt that Houston’s bearded shooting guard deserved to be named MVP was because he did the most with the least.
Dwight Howard literally only played half the regular season, Josh Smith didn’t show up until late December, Patrick Beverley suffered a season-ending knee injury—and the list could go on and on.
And yet, on the deceptively shifty shoulders of Harden, Houston finished the regular season as the second-best team in the Western Conference.
The Rockets ran right through the Dallas Mavericks in Round 1, but they’ve looked outmatched against the Los Angeles Clippers in the conference semis. Superstar point guard Chris Paul sat out the series’ opening pair of contests with a hamstring injury, but his team stole Game 1 and nearly swiped Game 2.
That was the beginning of the end for the Rockets. Paul returned in Game 3 and, despite a clearly incomplete health bar, carried his team to back-to-back wins.
Now, it’s Harden’s back that’s against the wall.
The 25-year-old averaged 27.4 points, seven assists and 5.7 rebounds while shooting 44 percent during the regular season, but his reputation for not spearheading deep playoff runs has continued to swell. Here’s an example from NBA Memes:
But Harden is not the problem—far from it, actually.
His playoff numbers—26.7 points, 8.3 assists and 4.2 rebounds on 45.8 percent shooting—are right there with his regular-season marks.
Why is he the one getting knocked when Trevor Ariza is shooting 36.6 percent from the field and 27.7 percent from three-point land? How come Harden is the one getting blasted when he’s averaging more points than Corey Brewer and Terrence Jones combined?
Could he have played better? Sure. But this is clearly not Harden's fault.
He’ll probably turn out an efficient and impressive line in Game 5, but it won’t be enough. Just like the help Harden has gotten from his supporting cast, outside of Howard and Smith—simply not enough.
The Clippers are deeper and simply better than the Rockets. Houston had a great run this year, but it ends on Tuesday night.
Blatt Needs a Bounce-Back…Badly
Game 4 between the Cavaliers and Bulls could’ve gone better for Cleveland coach David Blatt.
His team won, which saved him a ton of public criticism, but he didn’t escape unblemished.
First, after Chicago took the lead on a D-Rose layup, Blatt was seen on the sideline pleading for a timeout that he didn’t have. Had assistant coach Tyronn Lue not yanked him off the floor, Blatt would’ve been assessed a technical foul that would essentially signal the end of the game.
Michael Lee of The Washington Post gives us the visual:
Blatt, to his credit, owned the mistake and took it on the chin, per Bleacher Report’s Ethan Skolnick:
After the game, James revealed that he “scrapped” the final play that Blatt drew up. Sports Illustrated’s Ben Golliver had the full transcript:
Blatt needs to redeem himself with a trip to the Eastern Conference Finals, and that starts Tuesday night in a pivotal Game 5. According to numberFire, the team that wins Game 5 goes on to the win the series 85.3 percent of the time (232-40).
The Bulls need this game after a devastating loss on Sunday, but Blatt and the Cavaliers need it more.
Expect a hobbled Kyrie Irving to do more damage than expected against a team that’s probably underestimating him heading in.
But more importantly, count on the King to take his home state another step closer to a championship.
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