Only one first round series goes on as the Hawks, Lakers, and Mavericks were all able to take care of business and close out their matchups last night. Is anyone else surprised that it has wrapped up so quickly? I expected a highly competetive first round, and I don’t think I was alone. I thought the Nuggets would be able to either beat or take the Thunder to seven. I figured Blazers/Mavs would go seven. I didn’t expect the Hawks to be able to beat Orlando in any fewer than seven games. Even though it hasn’t lasted as long as I thought it would, I still think it’s been a pretty exciting first round, though. We’ve witnessed one of the greatest comebacks ever, an incredible series-saving shot, a variety of heroic indivual performances, and a pair of amazing efforts from two big underdogs. No, the drama hasn’t resulted in super-competetive series, but it’s still been fun. Last night was no exception.
Orlando’s playoff lives came down to a final possession. Dwight Howard dunked the Magic to within five with a minute left (he had 8 of his 25 in the final quarter), and Jameer Nelson got them to within one at the 34 second mark with consecutive driving layups. Had Atlanta lost this game and gone on to lose the series, they’d be taking a lot of heat for the way they allowed Jameer to waltz down the lane with virtually no resistance. Actually, on the first layup, there was litterally no resistance at all. He dribbled towards two Hawks out around the three-point arc, and neither of them stepped up to stop him, so he just split right through them and plopped it in the bucket for a huge two. His next score didn’t come quite as effortlessly, but it was still far too easy. Anyway, that put the Magic down 81-82, and Marvin Williams, who had been on fire throughout the second half (eight points on 3-4 to this point), was open for the potential dagger. He missed it, but Joe Johnson came up with a massive offensive board, and Jamal Crawford would end up with a pair of freethrows, which he calmly knocked down. Still, Orlando had one final try at a three to tie the game, and they couldn’t have gotten a better look. JJ Redick curled up towards the right wing and was left completely unguarded, and I mean completely unguarded… no Hawk was even close enough to rush at him, they just had to hope be choked… and he did. JJ appeared to rush the shot even though he had plenty of time and space, and he shot it too long. Orlando did get one more chance as the ball went out of bounds off of Atlanta, but Josh Smith made sure the second try never had a prayer…
So there you have it! The Atlanta Hawks have pulled the upset and avenged last season’s ugly defeat at the hands of this Orlando team. The difference? I honestly don’t feel like the Hawks are really that much better… I just feel like Orlando got worse. The Gilbert Arenas expiriment failed miseribly. Hedo Turkoglu simply hasn’t been the same player since his first stint in Orlando. Dwight Howard was much better individually than he was last year, but he got no help to speak of. Get this: Jason Richardson, Jameer Nelson, Hedo Turkoglu, JJ Redick (1-15 from three in the series), and Ryan Anderson all shot sub-40 percent from the field. How the hell are you supposed to win when two starters shoot 40 percent, and one of them averaged less than 10 PPG?
I feel like it’s time for the Magic to move in another direction. They need to acquire some players who can do something other than spot up for threes, and they should probably consider a coaching change. I feel like Stan’s time is up with this team… I don’t think these guys listen to him anymore. I’m not sure I can blame them; I mean, sh!t, you’ve heard the dude talk… would you still be able to take him seriously after all of these seasons? The Magic are going downhill right now, and they need to get the ship turned around quick before Dwight Howard decides to bail the f@ck out.
Yep, he’ll catch D-Rose in the second round alright… on his 50-inch plasma. As for the Hawks, who will be catching D-Rose in real life, they’re going to have to play a lot better than they did in this series if they don’t want to get abused. ATL caught some breaks down the stretch in some of these games that they aren’t gonna be catching against Chicago. That bricked three by JJ Redick? Kyle Korver’s been making those. The poor offensive execution that they got away with at the end of game four? Chicago takes advantage. Three of ATL’s four wins in this series came by four points or less. They aren’t gonna be beating a Derrick Rose led team in games that come down to the wire… and they aren’t gonna be blowing them out, either… so I guess that means they’re gonna lose. Oh well, at least they got revenge for that brutal beating they took last season. Said Jamal Crawford: “When you lose by an average of 25 points a game, what better redemption than to play them again?”
Chris Paul ran out of miracles, and the Lakers easily closed out the Hornets with a 98-80 win in the Big Easy. Once again, Andrew Bynum came up huge with 18 points and 12 boards, and LA pounded the Bees on the boards and in the paint. CP scored just 10 points, and the only guy who really performed well was Carl Landry (19 points), who quite honestly made Pau Gasol his b!tch throughout this series. Landry is a free agent this summer, and I expect that he’ll get PAID. He deserves it. Anyway, LA only led this thing by six enterting the second half, but it was one of those games where you could just tell that it was only a matter of time before they ran away with it. Kobe Bryant helped ‘em do just that with 13 of his 24 in the third, the quarter during which LA built their double-digit advantage.
We all expected LA to win this series pretty easily, so let’s leave them alone for a minute and take some time to talk about CP and the Hornets. Chris Paul put up 22/6.7/11.5 on 55 percent shooting in this thing. Give this man some props. Trevor Ariza also played some of the best basketball of his life with averages of 15.5 points and 6.5 boards on 33 percent from beyond the arc. I don’t think that was the real Trevor Ariza we were seeing–he’s not quite that good offensively–but give him credit for coming up big against his former team while taking the responsibilty of checking Kobe on the defensive end. Carl Landry was also awesome… like I said, I feel that he out-played Pau Gasol. I liked what I saw from Aaron Gray and Jarrett Jack, too. I didn’t watch many Hornets games over the course of the regular season, but they grabbed my attention in this series, that’s for sure. They aren’t exactly the most talented squad in the league, but they all showed a ton of heart… it was really awesome to watch them battle. I’d like to give some credit to Monty Williams, too. I liked his demeanor throughout this series. He seemed to instill a lot of confidence in his guys, helping them to be the best that they could be. The Hornets were way overmatched, and they were going to lose the series, but they never played like that for a single second. Props.
Gerald Wallace led an early Blazer onslaught that left the Mavericks trailing by eight entering the second quarter, and I thought for sure that this series was headed back to Dallas for game number seven. The Rose Garden was going absolutely bonkers, and the Mavs haven’t exactly inspired too much confidence in me lately. They proceeded to silence me and the rest of the doubters by taking a nine-point lead at the half and hanging on to it down the stretch thanks big shots from Jason Kidd and Jason Terry (and some perfect freethrowing from Dirk Nowitzki). Speaking of Jason Kidd, he isn’t the guy from the New Jersey Nets, but he can still leave me in awe from time to time…
You’ve gotta hammer that sh!t, Tyson. Anyway, the Mavs made four of their last five shots and took it 103-96. This was the series in which I had predicted an upset, so I guess it’s time for me to own up and eat crow. I thought Dallas would be eaten alive by LaMarcus Aldridge, but he faded after the first two games. I thought Andre Miller would give Jason Kidd problems, but it turned out that J-Kidd was the one who stepped up. Congrats to the Mavericks, but I expect them to get murked in round two. Said Dirk Nowitzki: “Not a lot of people picked us to win this series, and not a lot of people are going to pick us to win the next series.”
Well, I’d love to see you make me eat my words again, Dirk.
Oh, shout out to my main man Gerald Wallace! He dropped Portland’s first nine points last night and finished up with a playoff career-high of 32 points (and 12 boards). Dirk led the Mavs with 33… he went 8-8 from the stripe as the Blazers continuously fouled him late in the fourth while they tried to make one final comeback. Way to be clutch, Diggler!
