Unlike Thursday's two-game lineup, Friday was packed with playoff basketball, to the point of painful indecision. The two Eastern Conference games led the night with the two Western Conference games capping it.
Let's start with the Pacers-Hawks game, because why not start at the lowest point? The Hawks made one field goal in all of the second quarter. Here are some of those highlights, courtesy of Josh Smith, et al.
Atlanta turned the large deficit into a much smaller and more manageable one. Unfortunately for the Hawks, they couldn't get over the hump, even with dunks like this from Al Horford.
The Knicks-Celtics also had its moments of ugliness, like the other game happening at the same time. Jason Kidd seemed to hog most of these, though Pablo Prigioni was elated to add in his entry for best flop of the playoffs.
Things got really rough for Boston from the start. They scored 10 points in the first quarter, but gradually improved on offense. Their hopes seemed doomed when Paul Pierce tweaked his arm and the Knicks' offense started rolling with little obstruction. Then Iman Shumpert mocked Jason Terry's "jet" celebration and all heck seemed to break loose.
The Celtics went on a 20-0 run in about four minutes to cut the deficit to six points, but Boston wouldn't get any closer than four points.
With so much up in the air for the future of the Celtics' veterans after seeing their season end, this Boston fan had the most visceral reaction to the emotionally draining loss. Yeah, those are bad words.
Oh wait, and this guy was in the crowd.
In the Western Conference, the Rockets tried to extend their postseason with a home victory. Houston jumped out to an early lead and things got a bit chippy. And then Kendrick Perkins did some push-ups because why not, I guess. Who knows.
From there, Oklahoma City was fairly consistent in controlling the game. Houston fought back hard to tie up the game later on, but the Thunder went on a big run and ended the series emphatically.
With the history between the Clippers and the Grizzlies, a game this emotionally charged had little chance of being played without incident. And oh, how incidents did happen.
Zach Randolph found himself at the center of the first one, and it wouldn't be the last of the night. Blake Griffin got his hand into Randolph's face as he tried to box him out and the two got tangled up. Eventually they fell to the floor and Randolph's hand found its way to Griffin's neck. They were awarded double-technical fouls.
Memphis never trailed in the second half, but Chris Paul had this play that would strike fear into the heart of any human being.
Frustrations for the Clippers mounted and reached a boiling point with a couple minutes left. The lead was practically untouchable but Chris Paul nevertheless ran right into Marc Gasol on a free throw for no reason, resulting in his second technical and subsequent ejection.
Zach Randolph was ejected minutes later for getting chatty, but he was much happier about his ejection, knowing victory was in hand.
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