Happy Monday everyone! Another busy weekend of playoff action is in the books and it was incredible to say the least. The first round of the NBA playoffs kicked into another gear as we enter this week with multiple matchups tied up at two games apiece. Over in the NHL it was time to take care of business as all five matchups finished up over the past two days. There is a lot to get to so here are my top takeaways from the weekend.

NHL: Working Overtime to Take Care of Business

It doesn’t get any better than the high drama in the NHL over the weekend. Do or die overtime in elimination games. I’ve got goosebumps just typing that sentence. We entered the weekend with five matchups left in the first round, and now we are moving on to the second round.

No real surprises this weekend, and unfortunately, no Game 7’s either. Regardless, the action on the ice was heated. Out of the nine games played over the weekend, five needed overtime to decide a winner. In fact, this first round set a new record for overtime games in a single round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Every game has been fought tooth and nail. We can’t ask for much more than that.

Washington narrowly escaped two overtime games to clinch a series win despite an impressive performance from the young Toronto Maple Leafs. Ottawa used the momentum from a thrilling double overtime win on Friday night to catapult them to a Game 6 victory in overtime against Boston, winning the series 4-2. St. Louis completed its upset of Minnesota with an overtime win in Game 5.

Henrik Lundqvist won the duel of Olympic goaltenders, leading the Rangers into the second round with a 3-1 win in Game 6. One young team is still alive and kicking though as the Edmonton Oilers won a tough road game in San Jose to knock out the defending Western Conference champions.

I’ll be previewing all of the second round matchups tomorrow, but let me just say, that this has the potential to be even better than the first round.

NBA: 2-2 Sounds Like Fun

I said on the podcast last week that it has been so far so good for the NBA playoffs. Well after this weekend, we can officially upgrade that to great. Take a few crazy finishes, add some bad blood, top it off with heightened stakes, and you have a recipe for one hell of a finish to the first round.

The game of the weekend had to be Game 4 between Memphis and San Antonio on Saturday night (sorry Houston and OKC fans). It was a hard fought game that featured an impressive performance from Kawhi Leonard in a losing effort. He became the first player in NBA history to score his team’s final 15 points in the fourth quarter. Memphis stole the show though, as Mike Conley hit a runner with 4.5 second left in regulation to force overtime.

In overtime, both teams needed just about every second of the five-minute quarter to determine a winner. Leonard had the Spurs in position to push the game into a second overtime when Marc Gasol netted a runner of his own with 0.7 left on the clock to even the series for the Grizzlies. Strap yourselves in; it looks like we could be going on a hell of a ride with this series.

San Antonio-Memphis is just one of four series currently tied at 2-2 with the potential for a fifth to get knotted up tonight with Washington and Atlanta playing a pivotal Game 4. Boston took advantage of the Rajon Rondo injury to even up the series on the road against Chicago. Toronto got down and dirty to take a must-win Game 4 in Milwaukee in what can best be described as a defensive struggle. In last night’s nightcap, Utah overcame the midgame loss of Gordon Hayward (food poisoning, you really can’t make this up sometimes) to tie up its series with Los Angeles at two games apiece. I’ve got to give credit to the apparent ageless wonder, Joe Johnson, for playing hero-ball in crunch time for the Jazz.

NBA: Cleveland Sweeps Indiana; Portland and OKC on the Brink

While we jack up the intensity to 11 in those matchups, we are getting ready to bid farewell to a few teams. Cleveland completed the sweep of Indiana yesterday, using a huge third quarter from Kyrie Irving to bust open the game, before staving off a late comeback from the Pacers. This series really had some potential, but clearly Cleveland was the better team here. Indiana’s inability to finish games really cost them in this series and is why they were swept in a best-of-seven for the first time in franchise history.

Portland and Oklahoma City find themselves on the brink of elimination after a tough weekend. Despite missing Steve Kerr on the sidelines due to an illness, the Warriors took Game 3 on the road 119-113. The Trail Blazers had their opportunities to win the game, but a late surge by Golden State kept Portland out of reach. Golden State is now up 3-0 with a chance to close out the series tonight.

Over in our matchup of MVP candidates, Houston and Oklahoma City split Games 3 and 4 in impressive fashion. Both games featured incredible finishes and even better performances from James Harden and Russell Westbrook. Once again, Westbrook’s supporting cast couldn’t help out its superstar (which led to this postgame outburst). The Thunder now are now -40 when Westbrook is out of the game, which has only been 39 minutes in this series.

It’s going to be tough sledding for Oklahoma City to get back into this series with Game 5 in Houston tomorrow night. However, with the way Westbrook has played, if they can steal that game, we could have a series on our hands.

 

That’s it for me today. I’ll be back tomorrow with a preview of the second round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. It’s also draft week so be on the lookout for the return of “No Huddle” on Wednesday. There is potentially a double-dip this week for the “Shooting the Moon Podcast” as well. It should be a busy week on the site. Follow me on Twitter @thereal_jmooney and go like the Shooting the Moon page on Facebook.