If you thought Studs and Duds ended with the regular season, you were wrong. I, Guyinthecorner, will be keeping a list of the Studly and Dudly performances throughout this year’s fine playoffs. I will update the list everyday as well as putting in a wrap-up of the previous night’s playoff events. In the case of a weekend, I will do what I’m doing now; recap it all at once on Monday. So here goes… The first playoff game we saw was the Celtics and Bulls facing off in Boston. Despite certain commenters making fun of me for picking the Bulls to win two games, the Bulls put up a fight. Paul Pierce had a free throw with less than three seconds left to win the game and he missed. Ray Allen then missed a buzzer beater at the end of overtime and the Celtics went down. The real thing about this game was the point guard match-up. Both Rose and Rondo exploded, though Rose was slightly better. Rondo didn’t appear to playing very good defense despite being possibly the best defensive PG in the NBA. We then saw the Cavs just demolish the Pistons. LeBron was his usual self as he is officially an inhabitant of Tayshaun Prince’s head. After the game Rip Hamilton said, “We just have to figure out a way to stop LeBron.” Thanks, genius. You and the rest of the basketball universe. Get back to us on that one. The Mavs and Spurs were next on the slate. Nobody gives either team here a chance so I suggest that we root for the Mavs because at least they aren’t evil. Nothing interesting really happened here other than the actual final outcome; The Mavs beat the Spurs on the road to go up 1-0. The Spurs are old. Last but not least came the Rockets and Blazers. The Blazers got ran off their normally dominant home court. Yao Ming was unstoppable and actually never missed a shot and LaMarcus Aldridge was a train wreck. Roy was pretty good but he just can’t do it all himself.

Sunday brought us four more games. The first was the Lakers and Jazz as the Lakers proved that they are pretty dominant. Pau Gasol was pretty good and Kobe laid back and watched except when they needed a basket to stifle a run. This is pretty normal as the Lakers are virtual locks to come out of the West. Okur didn’t play which surely hindered the Jazz (who are normally terrible on the road anyway) and I expect them to be more competitive when they get back to Utah. Next came the Magic and Sixers. The only people that cared about this game were Chris Webber and Kenny Smith. Dwight Howard played well but didn’t get the ball enough, the Magic were the Magic, and they blew and 18 point second half lead. Heat and Hawks were up next and Dwyane Wade tried pretty hard but didn’t have the help to pull off the upset win in Atlanta. Joe Johnson was pretty good but mostly the Hawks were just well rounded. Last came the Hornets and the Nuggets. This should have been a close game except that Chauncey Billups had the best game of his life. I still think that CP3 will regroup and come back to make this go seven games.

Without further ado, the players who qualified for Studs and Duds…

Studs

1. LeBron James (Game 1 vs. Pistons) – 13/20 FG, 11/14 FT, 8 REB, 7 AST, 38 PTS
2. Dwight Howard (Game 1 vs. Sixers) – 11/13 FG, 16 REB, 2 AST, 2 BLK, 31 PTS
3. Chauncey Billups (Game 1 vs. Hornets) – 10/15 FG, 8/9 3PT, 8/8 FT, 8 AST, 2 STL, 36 PTS
4. Derrick Rose (Game 1 vs. Celtics) – 12/19 FG, 12/12 FT, 4 REB, 11 AST, 36 PTS
5. Rajon Rondo (Game 1 vs. Bulls) – 12/21 FG, 1/1 3PT, 4/4 FT, 9 REB, 7 AST, 2 STL, 29 PTS
6. Yao Ming (Game 1 vs. Blazers) – 9/9 FG, 6/6 FT, 9 REB, 2 BLK, 24 PTS
7. Pau Gasol (Game 1 vs. Jazz) – 7/11 FG, 6/6 FT, 9 REB, 2 STL, 4 BLK, 20 PTS
8. Carlos Boozer (Game 1 vs. Lakers) – 11/16 FG, 5/6 FT, 9 REB, 2 AST, 2 STL, 27 PTS

Duds

1. Daequan Cook (Game 1 vs. Hawks) – 1/6 FG, 0/5 3PT, 0/0 FT, 1 REB, 0 AST, 0 STL, 0 BLK, 1 TO, 2 PF, 2 PTS, 21 MIN
2. Carl Landry (Game 1 vs. Blazers) – 0/2 FG, 1/2 FT, 0 REB, 0 AST, 0 STL, 0 BLK, 1 TO, 5 PF, 1 PT, 12 MIN
3. Ray Allen (Game 1 vs. Bulls) – 1/12 FG, 0/6 3PT, 3 REB, 1 AST, 3 STL, 1 BLK, 1 TO, 2 PF, 4 PTS, 39 MIN
4. LaMarcus Aldridge (Game 1 vs. Rockets) – 3/12 FG, 0/1 3PT, 1/2 FT, 3 REB, 2 AST, 0 STL, 0 BLK, 2 TO, 1 PF, 7 PTS, 30 MIN

Guyinthecorner is a Senior Editor here at spartyandfriends.com. He writes the NBA section, X-Games section, and contributes to College Basketball and MLB. He doesn’t watch hockey. He’s not sure how to rate Michael Phelps on the scale of athletes not only because he doesn’t directly compete against people, but because he is a fish. He doesn’t understand the hate for the 2002 National Champion Maryland Terrapins and wishes everybody would just shut up by now. He is known for having statistical formulas and might be Bill James or Joe Lunardi depending on who you ask. His identity is as hidden as many times over as the number of internet memes he employs in his comments. He can be reached at gitc@spartyandfriends.com. “GITC” is an acronym for guyinthecorner in case you aren’t that perceptive.

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