A lot of odd things happened this weekend with the start of the NBA Playoffs

-Derrick Rose and Brandon Jennings may both have heads full of gray hair at the end of their series against the Cavs and Hawks, respectively. Rose HAD to take 27 shots Saturday, which is 10 more than he averaged per game all season, in order for the Bulls to have a shot at winning. Jennings had the fourth-best playoff debut for a rookie with 34 points and had no one step up to help him out. With the make up of both Chicago's and Milwaukee's rosters, both guys are like the smart kid in school who gets put in a group with all the slackers for "group" projects.

-Coaches are idiots. Both Scott Skiles (Milwaukee) and Mike Brown (Cleveland) decided it was fine to stick to the patterns they utilized in the regular season. Skiles sat Jennings the first five minutes of the fourth quarter Saturday in Atlanta when Milwaukee was down 11 and no one else could hit a shot. Brown did the same with LeBron James, allowing the Bulls to gain ground on the Cavs before falling short. Had Brown left James in, he could have finished off Chicago and probably sat out the LAST five minutes of the game.

-Derek Fisher is the worst starting player on any playoff team. I love the Lakers, but Fisher needs to be put out to pasture. Russell Westbrook abused Fisher several times yesterday. It got so bad that at one point, I thought to myself, "Mitch Kupchak needs to read "Old Yeller" for tips on what to do with Fisher."

-Jerry Sloan is cursed. In a year where many picked Utah to get to the Western Conference Finals, he loses Andrei Kirilenko prior to the playoffs for two weeks, then Mehmet Okur tears his Achilles and is expected to miss the rest of the playoffs.

-I'd like Charlotte's chances of upsetting Orlando if one of the Bobcats' bigs (Tyson Chandler, Nazr Mohammed, Theo Ratliff) had at least one go-to move on offense. The way they defended Dwight Howard yesterday should scare Magic fans.

-If Dwight Howard had Al Horford's jumper from 12-15 feet, he'd average 30 a game and win 8 MVPs.

-Dirk Nowitzki looks like he's on a mission, going 12-14 FROM THE FIELD, on his way to 36 in a game one win over San Antonio.

-Playing a team in Portland without its best player, I expected the Suns to make short work of the Blazers. But Portland is a team that plays hard every night and doesn't feel sorry for itself. Portland's win in Phoenix last night ended a streak of 18 losses on the road to open playoff series that dates back to 1983.

-If Ron Artest plays D the next two months like he did on Kevin Durant yesterday, banner 16 will be hung from the rafters of Staples Center sometime next fall.