Friday, April 15, 2011
More Playoff Previews Because You Need Them
It has been a while since the Chicago Bulls have been relevant in the playoff picture, sure they have been in the playoffs in recent years and made some excitement, but nothing compares to the title dreams this team currently holds. Chicago has transformed this season with a new head coach and a new (well new to the world) MVP candidate in Derrick Rose. The Bulls will face Mr. Irrelevant, the term I use for the 8th seed in the Eastern Conference, because lets face it, they wouldn’t be in the playoffs if the best 16 teams made it.
Chicago finished the regular season 2nd in rebounding and points allowed, which is expected from a Tom Thibodeau team. The Bulls will have an easy first round series before the second round mayhem begins, as they have beaten the Pacers 3 out of 4 times this year, winning the first three, with Indiana winning the last meeting at home, in a game that required overtime and a missing Carlos Boozer at home to put the East’s best team away.
Indiana has had an up and down season, and as mentioned before, they should be thankful they are even in the playoffs. It is rare that a team that fires their head coach during the season ends up making the playoffs. The Pacers had questionable draft picks (or 4 year college players, but who drafts those guys anymore) with Roy Hibbert, Josh McRoberts, and new picks of Paul George (can’t trust a guy with two first names). However, Larry Legend has proven that these picks were solid for their position, as Hibbert is coming along as one of the young big men in the league, McRoberts is probably the most athletic white player in the league, and Paul George has had his ups and downs, like most rookies.
I don’t think I need to extend too many words to explain this series. I think the Bulls are everyone’s favorites in 4 or 5 games. The Pacers match up nicely at Center, however, Joakim Noah is one of the better defensive players in the league and will only have trouble with Roy Hibbert’s height. If Noah can prevent Hibbert from getting to the spots he wants, then this series is a sweep. The Pacers are at their best when the offense flows through the big man. On the other side of the coin, I don’t see anyone stopping MVP Candidate, Derrick Rose. I don’t see many people stopping him during these playoffs. With the team defense that the Bulls have and the style of play that we are accustomed to seeing in the playoffs, it will be very hard to a team under .500 to adjust and make it competitive. This will be a warm up series for Chicago.
Prediction: Bulls in 5
Finally a first round match up that will have people scratching their heads, but scratch no more, this one is an easy one to figure out. The Orlando Magic made a big splash this season, blowing up the team (old guys) for other players (more old guys). The Atlanta Hawks have a new coach, overpaid star, and another first round exit.
I decided to write this review differently because my reasoning aren’t related to stats or match ups but the overall history of these teams. The Atlanta Hawks have seemed to peak over the past couple of years, their move to fire Woodson shows me they weren’t ready to accept that. They blamed the poor shot selection by their “star” and watched their offense fall apart. The same will happen this year.
The Hawks did win the season series over the Magic, but I think that will be the wrong confidence. The Atlanta Hawks are a team that lost 3 games for a combined 90 points, at home. They have no heart, no identity and quite frankly I wonder on some nights if they even care. I like their move to bring in Kirk Hinrich, but this team will depend on how efficient Joe Johnson will play.
Orlando took a different approach with their stagnant results, which are better than most teams results but not where they want to be. The Magic traded away Vince Carter and Rashard Lewis, thinking they would not reach their goal with those players. They brought in their old hero Hedo Turkoglu, Jason Richardson and everyone’s favorite gun totting hip gangster want to be, Gilbert Arenas. I like the trade for the fact that Hedo gives them another ball handler, since Jameer Nelson isn’t the best passing guard in his division.
The match ups in this series will be interesting, but it won’t be the match ups that I will worry about. No one matches up well with anyone’s stars, but this series will be about effort and emotion, two traits I will give to Orlando. If you jump up early on the Hawks they will give up, we have seen this many times, in Atlanta. Joe Johnson will need to be more of a facilitator and creator for his teammates instead of looking for awful shots to take, which is a bad habit he carries.
Atlanta has played well against Orlando, beating them before and after the trade. They like to start Jason Collins to play one on one with Dwight Howard, which has seemed to work, as their results have been favorable. However, come playoff time, the game is essentially slowed down and sped up at the same time, I mean, the in game play is so much faster and more intense, but every possession matters, the game is longer. This is where I don’t think the Atlanta Hawks will be to hang with the depth of Orlando. Unless Josh Smith and Joe Johnson can show me otherwise, I like Orlando in this series.
Prediction: Orlando Magic in 6
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