by David Zizmor

San Antonio (3) vs. Oklahoma City (2): It’s not a coinindence that the Spurs won on Thursday night 117-89 in game five and they were at home. Every home team have won in this series and this is the continuing trend, there also have been some adjustments that the Spurs made. Obviously they play much better at home that’s usually the key in the NBA home court advantage is a very big deal.

One of the problems that the Spurs have been having in the last few games since OKC’s Serge Ibaka came back is containing him. If you watched games three and four when Ibaka came back and OKC had home court advantage what you saw was not only does San Antonio have trouble containing him on offense but also because he’s a big guy with good moves down low.

The Spurs have trouble trying to stop him on offense and defensive glass they had trouble getting around his defensive presence and that really altered the way the Spurs played and it kind of just limited them especially on defense. Ibaka is really good before he was blocking shots left and right. The Spurs needed a way to get around him to move him around not just on offense but on defense.

This is what the Spurs did and OKC didn’t expect it, the Spurs put Matt Bonner at center and put Tiago Splitter in and Splitter played about 12 mintues. He’s not a key player for the Spurs he’s been typically their starter because he’s a big guy he’s a center and Bonner is not your typical center and plays power forward. The Spurs and Thunder go at it again on Saturday for game six.

Miami (3) vs. Indiana (2): The Heat let up a little bit in game five losing 93-90 and obviously the Pacers had home court advantage and that helped them right there. The Pacers fans have been just amazing, they’re very knowledgeable than any fans in the NBA and they really legitimately hate the Miami Heat. This has been building up in this series all along so there is just a lot of emotion involved.

When your playing on that floor in Indianapolis a lot of that washes down on the players and it definitely engergizes Indiana and it impacts the Heat too. Even with all that in their favor the Pacers are still only able to win by three points and that was after a mediocre game from the Heat. The Pacers had their shot and they kind of blew it.

Earlier in this series the Pacers had a little bit of momentum going in after that first win and they really had Miami on the ropes in game two but then they let Miami get back in and pull out the victory. If the Pacers were able to pull off that game two victory and go back to Miami with a two game lead that would have been huge.

A Pacers victory would have changed the face of this series but instead they split it and the Heat took two in Miami. The Heat have a 3-2 lead going into Saturday night’s game, it’s questionable now if the Pacers have the fire power, the consistency to win any more games in Miami and this is where game six is on Friday night.

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