2015 NBA Playoffs: First Round Reactions

Surprises:
There were a few surprises in the first round in this years edition of the NBA playoffs.  First and foremost my home state Milwaukee Bucks.  54 point blowout in game 6 aside, they really came out and played hard, I expected they would but I didn't think they'd be keep it up long enough to win a game, let alone two.  Games 1-5 in this series were highly entertaining, and if it weren't for the forgettable implosion in game 6 I think this series would've been just as entertaining as Clippers-Spurs.  Another surprise from that very series was Derrick Rose.  I hoped he'd play well and he actually did for much of the series.  He had some blunders (missed late free throw in game 3, got burned for game winner in game 4 after turning the ball over), but all in all I was elated to see Derrick Rose play somewhere between pre-injury D-Rose and this season's D-Rose, hopefully he can build on the Milwaukee series and continue to improve against Cleveland and beyond.  Surprise three for me is the Washington Wizards, I thought they had a chance to win the series, but I never thought they would do it with a sweep, and an emphatic one at that.  That being said Toronto looked horrible, but I'll get to that in a bit.  Next surprise has to be the Brooklyn Nets.  Not only did they play Atlanta tough in games 1-5, but they actually won the first two games in the Barclay's Center.  They were not playing very good basketball for much of the season, but they played well enough to be thorns in the Hawks side, and you can say the Hawks were still stuck in cruise control like they were in almost all of April, but still a 60-win team should handle a 38-win team.  Unfortunately this series was much like Bucks-Bulls as it ended with a blowout, not 54 points but 24.

Disappointments:
The Toronto Raptors.  They were a Jurassic-sized disappointment as they were smashed by the Wizards much like the real dinosaurs were smashed by a comet.  They let 37-year old Paul Pierce walk all over them, yeah he's a future Hall-of-Famer but still, the man is 37!  I expected this to be the most competitive series in the East, even Boston was thousands of times more competitive that had more talent in it's starting five than the Celtics had on their entire roster.  The Raptors played some of the worst offense I've seen a playoff team play in a while.  I've seen better offense in pick up games at my local Y.  Kyle Lowry was worn down, and he looked it.  DeMar DeRozan, while not known for his ball-handling, looked like he never dribbled a ball before, he couldn't get anywhere.  Yes Washington is solid defensive team, but they are no Chicago, Golden State, Memphis, or even Milwaukee.  This team played so bad 51 year old Michael Jordan and his prized number one pick, Kwame Brown, could've joined the team and been their best players.  Hell, Jordan probably would've been their leading scorer.  I still can't believe how bad they played, the only reason game 1 went to overtime was because for the majority of that game Washington was equally bad.  From there they went on to lose by 11, 7 (but they shot 37%), and 31.  Yes in game 4, playing for only pride at that point, the Raps heroically laid down and died.  A crushing disappointment not only for Raptors fans, but basketball fans, instead of a competitive series, one team was prepared and played like it mattered, and the other team was softer than a Drake hook.  Unbelievable.  Oh yeah, Toronto wasn't the only disappointment, though they were by far the biggest.  I expected more from Portland, though it's hard to blame them due to the rash of injuries that hit them late this season.  Also Dallas.  Rick Carlisle is hailed as a genius and even he couldn't pull his team together to avoid a loss in a mere 5 games.  Dirk looked old, the Rockets sheer athleticism of their front court alone was enough to force Carlisle to try and hide Dirk on Ariza, worked for one game, but for that one game all the Mavs played a great game, the series was competitive enough, but from a team that pushed the all-mighty Spurs to their only 7 game series last year, I expected more.