The NBA Playoffs saw Two Opposite Stories

One of Shaq's teammates won while his ex-teammate lost after Game 1 in the NBA Playoffs.

The NBA Playoffs finally got underway as 16 of the NBA's elite teams face-off in what will be their road towards basketball's biggest stage, the NBA Finals.

Kobe Bryant made his return to the NBA Playoffs after parting ways with his seven-foot contingency plan. However, no one expected Kobe to be this passive.

Kobe Bryant dropped only 22 points in their 102-107 loss to the Phoenix Suns. A little passive for a guy who just dropped 81 points in the regular season.

Apparently, Lakers coach Phil Jackson is convinced that having Kobe score for 90 points won't make their chances of beating these Suns any better, so what he did was the unthinkable, give Luke Walton the basketball.

I don't have anything on Luke but Kobe brought you to the dance. Why would you keep the basketball away from him or, worse, refrain him from taking more shots? Maybe Phil is trying to surprise the Suns by letting ALL of his Lakers be more involved in the game but, why would you mess with something that's been working all season?

Kobe Bryant SHOULD still be the focal point of the Lakers offense, not Luke, not Lamar and not Kwame.

In the East, Dwyane Wade and Shaquille O'Neal combined for 57 of Miami's 111 points to bring the Chicago Bulls down, 111-106. Dwyane Wade's struggles with these pesky Bulls were well documented all season long but Miami Heat head coach, Pat Riley, was confident that his star guard WILL come through. And did he ever.

D-Wade scored 14 of his 30 points in the fourth quarter, to put the Bulls away for good. That's including a six-point outburst that rallied the Heat from their very first deficit of the night.

''Great players will find a way to get around any defense when you raise the stakes,'' Riley said. ''And Dwyane is a big-game guy.''

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