The first round isn’t quite over yet, but the action already has a lot of implications and interesting stories that are developing.

1. KG won the Defensive Player of the Year award for the regular season. If the Hawks continue to win, which the whole world doubts (including me), than Josh Smith deserves a award for best defensive performance during the playoffs by a single player.
2. Shaquille Oneal wasn’t the presence that the Suns hoped he would be. In fact, he sucked. He shot a poor percentage from both the field and the line. I think the Suns missed Shawn Marion’s defense on Ginobili and Parker. They could have used some that lanky and quick on the ball defense.
3. Dwight Howard’s playoff performance against the Toronto Raptors was beast-like. He had 3 20/20 games and swatted 8 shots in Game 4! He also shot 56.8% from the free throw line, making only 25 of 44. I wouldn’t be surprised if we saw some Hack-A-Howard sometime in the next round.
4. Brandon Bass needs to be a starter for the Mavericks and it’s a shame that they didn’t realize this before the playoffs. They had the whole regular season to figure it out. I think the Mavericks would have fared better with the following line-up: Dirk Nowitzki© Brandon Bass (PF) Josh Howard (SF) Jerry Stackhouse (SG) Jason Kidd (PG), with Terry coming off the bench as 6th man.
5. There was a lot of buzz this year about Amare Stoudemire being one of the best big man in the game. Tim Duncan just showed the world why he hasn’t gone anywhere either. You would think that the combination of Shaq and Amare would cause some trouble for TD, but it was quite the opposite.
6. Chris Paul and Kobe Bryant are making great cases why they should be Co-MVPs of the NBA. Come on David Stern, do it! It’s good for business.
7. I have to give it up to the 76ers and Hawks for putting up a fight and not letting the Celtics and Pistons run them over. Everyone was talking about how the Western Conference match ups would be so entertaining, look at it now.

Till next time…