The Philippines is really a basketball-crazy country, so it’s no surprise that a lot of Filipinos are big NBA fans. The NBA playoffs kicked off yesterday, and here’s our recap/commentary on the first day of the quarterfinals.

Before that, you might want to check out a little project that me and some other friends are up to: The Triangle Offensive, a basketball podcast. The Triangle’s first episode is a NBA first round playoff preview, and we’re going to talk about the local college hoops scene in future episodes.

Give it a listen, or download an mp3 of the podcast (26 MB)!

So, with that out of the way, let’s dive into the first day of playoff results.

Eastern Conference:

Detroit Pistons (8) - 84 @ Cleveland Cavaliers (1) - 102

Cleveland leads series 1-0

• Was it any surprise that the top-seeded Cavs would roll over the slumping Pistons? Detroit’s a team that has been known to “flip the switch” on in the playoffs while cruising through the regular season in the past couple of years, but I doubt that that will work this year, and especially on these Cavaliers.
• In the first half, the defensive reputations of these two teams were thrown out the windows as the both threatened to turn the game into an offensive extravaganza. Both teams were hot from the field, but the Pistons cooled off in the 2nd quarter, and it was Cavaliers from then on.
• The Pistons weren’t able to stop the Cavs in the 2007 Eastern Conference finals, and if this first game is any indication, then they will become the first victim of LeBron and the Cavaliers’ hunger for a title. Even if the Pistons could regroup, the Cavs are a tough matchup - they’re 39-2 at home in the regular season (would have been 40-1 too; their last game saw most of the starters sit out in a close loss).

Chicago Bulls (7) - 105 OT @ Boston Celtics (2) - 103

Chicago leads series 1-0

• Wow, what a playoff debut for the likely Rookie of the Year, the Bulls’ Derrick Rose. He matched Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s record, scoring 36 points in his playoff debut. The rookie also added 11 assists in this upset of the 2nd-seeded Celtics. The Bulls also had solid contributions from the rest of the team. I noted young center Joakim Noah getting 11 points and 17 rebounds too, a solid outing from the often-inconsistent big man.
• The Celtics will really be hurting for Kevin Garnett’s services. The young pair of power forwards counted on to pick up the slack for Garnett hasn’t impressed too much: Glen “Big Baby” Davis scored 23 points, but only had 3 rebounds, while Leon Powe had 8 points and 8 rebounds. Paul Pierce and Rajon Rondo were strong in this game (especially Rondo, who had 29-9-7 plus 2 steals and a block) but Ray Allen, the last third of the Celtics’ Big Three, only had 4 points on 1-12 shooting. Needless to say, Ray Ray has to round back into form if the Celtics are to gain back the advantage.

*****

Western Conference:

Dallas Mavericks (6) - 105 @ San Antonio Spurs (3) - 97

Dallas leads series 1-0

• The rolling Mavs stole home-court advtantage from the Spurs with this victory. The Mavs, aside from big contributions from Josh Howard (25 points) and Dirk Nowitzki (19 points and 8 rebounds), had their bench showcase their talents. Jason Terry, a favorite for Sixth Man of the Year, had 12 points, while Brandon Bass had 14, and JJ Barea had 13, while playing good defense on Tony Parker in the fourth (Parker shot only 2-6 in the last quarter).
• This was a pretty close one throughout, with the usual suspects doing damage for the Spurs. Tim Duncan had 27 points and 9 rebounds, and Tony Parker had 24 points and 8 assists. However, the Spurs are really hurting without Ginobili, and the lack of production from their bench is a glaring hole in this matchup. This is a veteran team that is well-coached however, and I’m excited to see how the rest of the series plays out.

Houston Rockets (5) - 108 @ Portland Trailblazers (4) - 81

Houston leads series 1-0

• In another seeding upset, the Rockets rout the Blazers to steal home court advantage. This was a Rockets show all the way, led by Yao Ming with 24 points (on perfect 9-for-9 shooting!) and 9 rebounds, and young guard Aaron Brooks, who was the top scorer in the game with 27 points and 7 assists. Ron Artest and Luis Scola rounded up the scoring for the Houston starters with 17 and 19 points, respectively.
• Scoring was a problem for the young and playoff-untested Blazers, who only had star guard Brandon Roy and rookie center Greg Oden with double figures in scoring. The Blazers also shot only .417 as a team, and only made 1 trey out of 11 attempts, compared to .585 for the Rockets, who were also 8-21 from long range. Free throws also hurt the Blazers, who were only 10-16 (the Rockets, on the other hand, were 24-28).
• All in all, this was a clinic in offense and defense for the Rockets, who managed to get a win in the Rose Garden, where the Blazers were 34-7 during the regular season. If the young Portland team can’t figure out how to limit Yao Ming, this might be a pretty short series.

That’s it for Day 1 of the Playoffs. We’ll be back with a Day 2 recap/commentary when all the games for today are finished.