NBA Playoffs Results
Western Conference
Los Angeles Lakers 2 – Denver Nuggets 0
New Orleans Hornets 2 – Dallas Mavericks 0
San Antonio Spurs 2 – Phoenix Suns 0
Utah Jazz 2 – Houston Rockets 1
Eastern Conference
Boston Celtics 2 – Atlanta Hawks 0
Detroit Pistons 1 – Philadelphia 76ers 1
Orlando Magic 2 – Toronto Raptors 1
Cleveland Cavaliers 2 – Washington Wizards 1
Orlando Magic 94 – Toronto Raptors 108
T.J. Ford scored 21 points, Jose Calderon added 18 points and 13 assists, and the Raptors beat the Magic 108-94, cutting the Magic’s lead to 2-1 in their first-round bet-of-seven playoff series. Ford was 2-for-17 for shooting combined in Game 1 and 2, but he was more confident and comfortable in Game 3. Jamario Moon scored 11 points and grabbed 10 rebounds, Chris Bosh and Jason Kapono each scored 15 points and Anthony Parker chipped in 10 points.
Dwight Howard scored 19 points and grabbed 12 rebounds for the Magic, while Hedo Turkoglu added 26 points and Rashard Lewis scored 19 points. With Howard’s teammates having a bad night, his dominant precence inside the paint kept the Magic close. He had 13 points and five rebounds in the opening frame, but the Raptors still led 28-20 after the first quarter. During the second quarter, the Raptors pulled further away, they held Howard to just only two points.
Cleveland Cavaliers 72 – Washington Wizards 108
DeShawn Stevenson, who sparked the "overrated" issue about LeBron James, scored 19 points, Caron Butler added 17 points and Antawn Jamison had 15 points, also found their games as their Wizards routed the Cavaliers, 108-72 at the Verizon Center. The Wizards victory cut down the Cavaliers series lead to 2-1 in the first round best-of-seven series. The Wizards took the game when they had two 9-0 runs in the first half. At the end of the two quarters, the Wizards were leading 49-33, and the Cavaliers was never able to make it into a game in the next two quarters.
The Wizards’ defense forced James to shoot more jumpshots, and it worked. The home crowd booed heavily every time James touched the ball, he was not able to be in tune for the game. James said the Wizard’s strategy in Games 1 and 2 were like a "Hack-a-Bron", but it was not present in Game 3. He finished with 22 points, shooting 10-for-19 from the field and had only 4 shots from the stripe.
Houston Rockets 94 – Utah Jazz 92
Tracy McGrady was able to get out recover from his usual fourth-quarter slump and scoring 7 of his 27 points in the final quarter, leading the Rockets to a 94-92 victory against the Jazz that gave the Rockets life in a series. Rafer Alston scored 20 points and dished out 5 assists in his first game in almost two weeks as the Rockets prevented a 3-0 series lead for the Jazz by beating the team that posted the best home record in the NBA during the regular season. Carl Landry took 11 rebounds and blocked what might have been Deron Williams’ winning shot for the Jazz just before the buzzer. Luis Scola had 16 points and 10 rebounds while Shane Battier scored 12 points for the Rockets.
Williams scored 28 points and had 12 assists. Carlos Boozer added 15 points and 13 rebounds, and Mehmet Okur scored 12 and grabbed 11 boards for the Jazz, whose poor shooting from the 15-foot line haunted them in the last 12 minutes when McGrady started scoring. Ronnie Brewer scored 12 and Matt Harpring added 10 points for the Jazz.
Source: ESPN: http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/
