The NBA Eastern Conference Semifinals are underway between the (1)Chicago Bulls and the (5) Atlanta Hawks and between the (2) Miami Heat and the (3) Boston Celtics. The Bulls were stunned in Game 1 at home by the visiting Hawks 103-95 as Joe Johnson poured in 34 points. The Heat/Celtics series resumes with Game 2 tonight.
Let’s quickly run through both series.
While the Bulls have the NBA MVP (will be named today) in Derrick Rose, the Atlanta Hawks have a counter in Joe Johnson, who when hot is one of the NBA’s deadliest scorers. Johnson can match Rose shot for shot. Throw in bigs Josh Smith and Al Hortford to combat the likes of Joakim Noah and Carlos Boozer and you have the makings of a great series.
The Bulls have more firepower, but the Hawks also have Jamal Crawford, a reserve that plays starters minutes and can play and defend either guard position. More offensive production from forwards Marvin Williams and Josh Smith is needed in order for the Hawks to keep the pressure on the Bulls in this series.
The health of Derrick Rose has become a concern for the Bulls, Rose tweaked his left ankle in the closing seconds of last night’s game – the same ankle he turned in Game 4 of the Indiana Pacers series.
The Miami Heat chose not to wait on the Boston Celtics to be the aggressors in this series. The Heat took a physical game plan into Game 1 and it paid off.
The very questionable second technical foul and ejection of Paul Pierce is a moot point now that the Heat are one up on the C’s. Kevin Garnett’s hard foul on LeBron James and the verbal exchange between Delonte West and Mario Chalmers has set the tone for the remainder of the series.
Dwayne Wade was the beneficiary of the Celtics decision to fo
cus on James defensively as he scored 38 points, Wade had several midrange open looks but expect those holes to become smaller as the Celtics look to tighten
things up defensively.
Let’s hope that the officials allow good, physical play and not take the game into their hands as evidenced in Game 1.
The heat have brought real basketball back to the league… teams are not only focused on beating the lakers they wanna beat the heat too making both conferences highly competitive the most since the 80s and early 90s… I see the heat winning it all… but the bulls are exactly who I thought they were one hit wonders not championship ready too little experience in the playoffs so they lose this round, and the heat dismantle the the hawks next series…
Wow, Bold stuff there!