In Sketches, we’ll be taking you on a quick trip through the NBA blogosphere to get our finger on the pulse of all of the key happenings and storylines in the L each day.
BLOG-A-BULL: This was obviously Carlos Boozer's best performance in the playoffs. He started the game with a nice baseline cut and from a Rose pass actually dunked the ball. That was a good sign. From there it was the jumpshot that we've also missed for most of the postseason. And I'm not sure if it was him being more confident (physically feeling better as well?) in his jumper from the outset, or the first two going in sparking this, but: Booz was actively looking for the ball (even posting up) and making quick decisions when he received it, namely immediately shooting when left open. We didn't see a lot of the inside finishes that have most notably plagued him lately, but everything else was there.
ESPN CHICAGO: The Bulls dominated from the start and never let the Hawks find any consistency on offense. Their defense frustrated Atlanta from beginning to end. It was the type of defensive performance Tom Thibodeau had been begging for, and the type of win that will give the Bulls confidence that they can compete with the Miami Heat. The matchup with the Heat is something that Bulls players have been looking forward to since "The Decision". LeBron James,Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh all spurned the Bulls in the summer to sign with Miami. The Bulls get the chance to prove them wrong in what will surely be a physical and entertaining series.
ATLANTA JOURNAL CONSTITUTION: Over the past month it seemed the Hawks had become a team again, not just a gaggle of wide-eyed jump-shooters. They’d fought harder, defended better, even gotten a bit smarter. But now they were down double figures on a night when the Bulls were guarding better and finding more scorers than at any time in Games 1-5. For all that had come before, this was the test of the New Hawks: Could they hold themselves together at a time when little was going right? Could they give the home folks — Philips wasn’t packed, by the way — a finish? Nope. It got so bad the below-capacity throng began leaving with eight minutes left. Just when you thought these Hawks weren’t the old Hawks, they uncorked a stinker. (And they wonder why we don’t take them as seriously as they think we should.)
BALL DON'T LIE: Not all was lost with Atlanta. Though the team has been knocked out of the first round three seasons running, this was the first competitive attempt for the team at making the Conference finals in three chances. The emergence of Teague as an NBA-level starter and the growth of Larry Drew as a quick-on-his-feet motivator were both fantastic to behold. Drew took some heat for his decisions in the first round against Orlando, but his rotation work and between-games machinations earned him the admiration of many, as Atlanta stretched Chicago to six games in a series this dumbbell thought would be over in four.
TRUE HOOP: So, it’s a wrap for the 2010-11 Hawks. But here’s what we can say about Atlanta after two rounds of the playoffs: There’s a future here. That’s more than we could have said for the Hawks a month ago and abundantly more than we can say for the local hockey team that’s owned, for the moment, by the same group of investors. None of this was apparent when the postseason began. Atlanta won 44 games in the regular season, down nine from 2009-10, and even that overstated its quality -- the Hawks finished the regular season with more points allowed than points scored. Rookie head coach Larry Drew looked overmatched, second-year guard Jeff Teague looked like a marginal player, and the mix of other players looked uninspiring at its best and toxic at its worst. Those conclusions are radically different after a solid run into Game 6 of the second round of the postseason -- which, believe it or not, represents Atlanta’s deepest playoff incursion since lasting six games into the second round in 1994. Thus, the Hawks enter the offseason on something of a high note ... even after closing out with a moribund 93-73 defeat by a plainly superior Bulls team.
EYE ON BASKETBALL: In the regular season, Chicago sported the No. 1 defense and the No. 12 offense. In the playoffs, they've had the No. 2 defense and the No. 5 offense. In the regular season, Miami posted the No. 3 offense and the No. 5 defense. In the postseason, Miami has had the No. 3 offense and the No. 3 defense. In the regular season, Chicago led the league in rebounding while Miami was third; In the postseason, Chicago remains No. 1 and Miami has improved to No. 2. Chicago led the league in wins (62); Miami was third (58). This is a match-up of elite teams, groups that have played both sides of the ball well since the season started and are peaking at the right time. Consider: Chicago went 8-0 in April while Miami was 6-1. In the playoffs, Chicago is 8-3 while Miami is 8-2. In other words, over the last six weeks Chicago is 16-3 while Miami is 14-3. That's one loss per week -- combined -- for a month a half. One final plus: both teams enter the series healthy, or as healthy as can be expected in Mid-May.
THE BASKETBALL JONES: While there has been a lot written about Westbrook in the past few days, I think the most important thing to me is that we remember he’s a 22-year-old point guard who was voted to the All-NBA second team who also happens to be learning more about how to be a point guard every day. He is never going to be Jason Kidd or Steve Nash or even Tony Parker. His bravado is too bold and his personality is too strong to be tamed and this is a very good thing. With a calm, cool and collected superstar in Durant, Westbrook’s louder exterior is a good fit, even if it may not always look like the fit we’ve grown accustomed to seeing in point guard and scorer.
PRO BASKETBALL TALK: You may not remember Chris Herren, the Massachusetts prep star, a second round pick of the Nuggets in 1999 out of Fresno State (when Jerry Tarkanian was there). He played a rookie season with the Nuggets before getting the dream of every young New England hoopster — he was traded to the Celtics. Drugs would rob him of that. A quick and strong point guard he was out of the league in two years. Long before less talented guards. In his stunning autobiography “Basketball Junkie” excerpted at SLAM (via Ball Don’t Lie), Herren recounts his drug addicted days. How he drove his kids around drunk and on heroin. How he was so far gone he needed the high just to function.
BLEACHER REPORT: No doubt Bryant has been one of the greatest guards of his generation. But was he always the best shooting guard? Was he always one of the best two guards in the NBA? The answer is no. It’s the main reason why he doesn’t have more All-NBA First Team selections. But in my opinion, he should have less. Including this season, Bryant has been awarded 4 All-NBA First Team selections when he clearly wasn’t the best shooting guard or one of the 2 best guards in the league.
ESPN BOSTON: A day after his team was eliminated by the Miami Heat, Celtics coach Doc Rivers called in to the Mike Lupica Show on ESPN Radio 1050 in New York -- from the golf course (where else?) -- to discuss why he made up his mind so early about returning next season, his loyalty to the Celtics and what he learned about his team in the loss to the Heat. “Danny [Ainge] and I have been talking about it for a while and I’ve been talking about it with my family,” Rivers told Lupica. “Last year, I just wouldn’t even talk about it. This year, I didn’t want to leave the organization out there too long, I just thought that would be bad form. And No. 2, I love working with Danny. Great group of guys I have. We’ve won one title and we’ve yet to be healthy since that one title, which you can’t do anything about.
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