Another exciting day another exciting report. It was a day full of big names returning to their respective teams. Pau Gasol came out wearing purple and gold for the first time in weeks. Gilbert Arenas made a complete surprise comeback for the Washington Wizards as they faced the Milwuakee Bucks (even though they lost). Even Dirk Nowitzki did what was necessary and returned early from his injury to assist his team in establishing it’s position in the conference.

There were a few games tonight, but nothing really went by that was unexpected. The biggest game of the night was between the Dallas Mavericks and Golden State Warriors. Both teams were prepared to fight for their playoff spot, even though the Warriors don’t have a spot right now, but Dallas managed to unleash a secret weapon right before the game started. Dirk Nowitzki made a surprise return and came out strong. Dirk managed to make a big difference in the game and the Mavericks pushed the Golden State Warriors a full game behind Denver in the race to the 8th spot. Dallas is now one full game ahead of the Denver Nuggets for the 7th spot.

If the playoffs started today, the Mavs would face the Spurs, the Nuggets would play Hornets, the Suns would take on the and Houston would take on the Lakers. I can just imagine how exciting the TNT telecasts would be every single night of the playoffs if these were the actual match-ups. You know, now that I think of it, every team in the West is so good that it really doesn’t matter what the match-ups are, every game will be simply amazing.

A few other quick recaps of the night:

• The Lakers beat the Portland Trailblazers at Staples Center. The Blazers kept the game interesting throughout, but Kobe Bryant did his best to make his case for MVP as he extended the lead every time the game got close again. Kobe was hot from three point land as he hit 4 of 5, one of which was a four point play. Even Radman shot well from behind the arc making 2 of 2 three point attempts.
• The New Orleans Hornets defeated the Miami Heat in Miami to finish up their road trip. I’ve gotta admit, it was a hell of a road trip and the Hornets really showed why they are sitting at the top of the conference right now. With the two wins for the Hornets and the Lakers, the stats remained the same as the Lakers remained in the 3rd spot a game and a half behind the Hornets.

Tomorrow will be a quiet night in the NBA as there aren’t really any games that make a big difference. Friday night will be the next highly anticipated evening as there will be plenty of exciting games.

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 3rd, 2008 at 1:49 am and is filed under Western Conference. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.