by David Zizmor

San Antonio vs. Oklahoma City: This series is a big one and it should go all the way and at this stage this series is doubt and you have no idea whose going to win it. The Spurs went up 2-0 they did it in pretty dominate fashion and one of the big loses in this series was OKC’s Serge Ibaka who was pulled out of this series when it started and everybody thought he wasn’t going to play again, not only in the series but the entire post season because the calf injury was that serious.

He misses the first two games, OKC had no real answer down low to stop the Spurs Tim Duncan and it was just a mess for OKC they couldn’t do anything and Ibaka miraculously comes back and in game three OKC wins that one 106-97 and before that game Ibaka was truly in doubt needless to say if he could play.

After watching that game three Ibaka was clearly playing really well, he may not necessarily have been at 100 percent but he’s darn close he had a huge impact in that game three and then in game four he had only nine points but the proof is in the pudding. You look at what Duncan did he had only nine points he was 3-8 with six boards and he just couldn’t get it going and in large part it was because Ibaka was down there.

On the flip side, in game four this game was not about Ibaka his defense was certainly key. It was OKC’s Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook’s show, these guys were amazing in the game they both shot 50 percent from the field. Westbrook was 40 percent and Durant was 31 percent. When those two guys are on the only other duel that is quite as potent in the NBA is Golden State’s Stephen Curry and Clay Thompson.

Miami vs.Indiana: The Pacers are a Jekyll and Hyde team because we saw that first round against Atlanta and they stunk, the Pacers were lucky to get out of that series alive. In the Second series against Washington the Pacers looked terrible for the first couple of games and all of a sudden they found their magic again.

The Pacers then took that second round series in six games and then early on in this series went against the Heat they looked really good in game one but the Heat squeaked out a win in game two, in games three and four the Heat just took it to them with 99-87 and 102-90 wins.

The Heat now have a 3-1 lead in the series with the Pacers on the brink, it’s not likely that anyone out there is picking Indiana for this series. In game four it was all Miami and the Pacers who went back to their old selves again. The Heat got out to a pretty solid start and never let go.

The Pacers Roy Hibbert did an disappearing act and Hibbert was pretty good that last few games but all of sudden he went back to zero points, five boards, he was a complete non factor in this one. On the other side of the ball the Heat’s LeBron James dropped 32, ten boards, five assists and it was a typical phenomenal LeBron game.

David Zizmor is covering the NBA Playoffs for http://www.sportsradioservice.com