Inside the Paint: Shuttlesworth Breaks Hearts, Vintage Chris Paul & Battier To The Rescue

Boston 87 New York 85, Boston Leads Series 1-0: Jesus Shuttlesworth broke the New York Knicks hearts last night. Down by one-point with time running out Ray Allen hit a three-pointer to give Boston a two-point lead. Carmelo Anthony tried to hit a game-winning three but missed.

Melo had a terrible game overall. Melo 5 of 18 from the field, 2 of 8 from behind the 3-point line and committed an offensive foul near the end of the game that was an atrocious foul called by the refs but a foul nonetheless.


How Boston won this game is incredible itself. Their bench only scored eight points for the game and the Celtics committed 16 turnovers. Incredible game and hopefully a prelude to this series.



San Antonio 98 Memphis 101, Memphis Leads Series 1-0: Shane Battier had quite the day. He hit the game-winning three-pointer to give the Grizzlies their first playoff victory ever then celebrated the birth of his new child. Battier hit the go ahead three with 23.9 seconds left in the game and then the Grizzlies locked down the Spurs in the final seconds to pull off the upset in game 1. Zack Randolph scored 25 points while grabbing 14 rebounds.The Grizzlies had been to the playoffs twice before this season but were swept in both series. Hell of a way to get their first playoff victory.



Los Angeles 100 New Orleans 109, NO Leads Series 1-0: On the day when the Western Conference top seed lost the Western Conference two seed also lost. The Lakers lost this game simply because they couldn't stop Chris Paul. Paul had almost become an afterthought the past two seasons because of an knee injury. Paul though couldn't be stopped on Sunday afternoon scoring 33 points including 17 of those in the fourth quarter. Paul also dished out 14 assists and turned over the ball twice. In fact the Hornets as a team only turned over the ball three times, which tied a playoff game record in the past 20 seasons.



Oklahoma City 107 Denver 103, OKC Leads Series 1-0: Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook combined for 72 points to help defeat the Denver Nuggets. Durant scored 42 points and grabbed nine rebounds while Westbrook had 31 points along with seven assists. This game was all about scoring. Both teams were over 47% from the field. Denver though managed to shoot themselves out of the building by shooting only 25% from behind the 3-point line and that was the difference because both teams were even in rebounds and turnovers.