NBA Playoff Update 2 -- The Laker Road is Clear...

Spurs eliminated in 6 clears the road for the Lakers all the way to the Finals.

Lakers still given two losses in the first round to scare them into submission a bit, though.

Couple of things to look at:

• The two preferred teams in the Eastern Conference (both winning their series 4-1) got more free throw attempts than their opponents in every game of their series except for the token win Indiana received at home.
• The Thunder-Nuggets five-game series ended with 352 free throws, an average of 70.4 a game. Those two teams had basically the same number of free throws than the entire Heat-76ers series, PLUS the Indiana Pacers. Gee, think someone had The Over in an otherwise meaningless series?
• Number of seven-game first-round series: Zero.
• Records of the teams with more FT attempts: Bulls-Pacers: 5-0. Heat-76ers: 4-1. Celtics-Knicks: 1-3. (Yes, the Knicks actually had more free-throw attempts in 3 of the 4 games, still losing them all!) Magic-Hawks: 1-5.
• Eastern Conference: Bulls and Heat series: 9-1. Celtics and Hawks series: 2-8. Gee, anyone wonder where this is heading? Bulls vs. Heat.
• Western Conference records: Grizzlies-Spurs: 4-2, including a +16 for Memphis in their clincher. (Spurs are done at the top level.) Lakers-Hornets: 2-2-2. (Clearly a case of the league telling the Lakers to STFU! The two games the Lakers clinched with? Lakers +9 and Lakers +8, the latter on the road!!) Mavs-Blazers: 3-3. (The home team had the advantage for all the games but 1, and the two Mavs wins in Dallas when they had the advantage were both +16!) Thunder-Nuggets: 2-3, but the last game was a +21 for the Thunder.
• Total for the Western Conference? 11-10-2. Total for the league? 22-19-2.

So, at first glance, you'd think there was nothing to this.

Remember, though, the Bulls and Heat series were decided by the referees in this regard, at 9-1. Once the league sent their message to the Lakers, they got two large advantages to advance.

This is what happens when you have only three relevant teams in a 16-team playoff.