Detroit 105, Philadelphia 88

They say that game 2 is always the statement game.  Here's my best take on what those statements were:

Detroit: "Ok, we're ready to play now."

Philly: "Cool, we're ok with a split at your place."

Every team should have a Tayshaun Prince.  He made Andre Iguodola (1-9, 4 points) look downright silly.  Not much else to say about this game.

Boston 96, Atlanta 77

This game was what happens when you have a bunch of good but not great players, and no one's got the ability to carry the team on their back.  Joe Johnson and Josh Smith are good, Al Horford's going to be very good, and Marvin Williams & Josh Childress are nice, but none of them are enough of "the man" to right the ship when things go south.  I have no evidence to back it up, but it just seems like the Hawks play better with Mike Bibby on the bench.

Rajon Rondo (12 points, 8 assists, 6 rebounds, 4 steals, 1 turnover) has become a beast of a point guard.  Having Sam Cassell as a mentor for the playoffs doesn't hurt either.  Nice minutes management from Doc Rivers again - Ray Allen was the only player over 35 minutes.

Los Angeles 122, Denver 107

I don't know who on the Nuggets can guard Kobe.  I know that Kenyon Martin can't - the 49 points he gave up proved that.  I also know that taunting him probably isn't going to help matters either.

49 points on 27 shots for #24, to go with 10 assists.  Very nice outings off the bench by Luke Walton (18/7/5, +24) and Sasha Vujacic (3-5 from 3's, +15 in 21 minutes), which covered for poor efforts from Vlad Radmanovich and Lamar Odom - and those will happen again, so the bench will be needed at some point.

For the Nuggets, Marcus Camby had another strong night on the boards (17 total), and J.R. Smith scored 21 points without going crazy or injuring anyone.  Eduardo Najera (-19 in 22 minutes) is just useless at times.