No big surprises

Maybe it was a little surprising to see the relative ease that Chicago and (especially) Phoenix won with, but the fact is that both of these teams are superior to their opponents.

The Heat are just not a very talented team overall. They need Dwyane Wade to be great to win a series like this, and he's just not healthy enough. He was good tonight but they need the superhuman Wade from the playoffs last year. With the shoulder injury, I don't think he has it in him right now. Bulls are clearly just too deep, too quick, too athletic for the Heat to handle.

In the Phoenix/LA series it's clear that the Suns are a lot better than they were last year and the Lakers are worse. Amare Stoudemire can get anything he wants down low, because who on LA is going to stop him? On the perimeter, the Lakers just do not have anyone quick enough to matchup with Leandro Barbosa. The Lakers need to get 50-60 from Kobe to have a chance I think... and even then, the Suns might be too good.

The 3rd matchup was between the Nets and the Raptors, which I assume was the best game of the day (being as I don't have NBATV I didn't get to watch it. Raptors obviously had to get that game at home. Through 2 games in the hostile environment, Vince is 13/43 from the field. Also in this game... how in the heck has Anthony Parker been playing overseas for the last 6 or 7 years? Is Bryan Colangelo a genius or what?

Finally, and I try to stay away from such blatant self-promotion, but I posted some videos over at Sports Videos with some clips from Inside the NBA. You should check them out because the NBA on TNT is probably one of the best things ever?

Your thoughts? Do Miami or Los Angeles have any chance?