Celtics 87, Hawks 80: As they did in game one, the Celtics trailed the Hawks for the majority of the evening. However, in the absence of Rajon Rondo, their veteran of 14 seasons scored 13 of his game-high 37 in the fourth quarter to lead the Cs on a 26-14 rampage. Boston gave up a few too many offensive rebounds (10) and struggled to connect from the outside (3-14 from three), but P Double’s ice-cold offense (dagger!) was too much for a Hawks team that couldn’t match his buckets. Credit Mickael Pietrus, who started at the two, for playing tough individual defense on Joe Johnson. Pietrus went scoreless in 19 minutes, but he was checking JJ down the stretch. Johnson scored just one field goal in the fourth while committing two turnovers, both of which Pietrus created (a charge and a steal). Pietrus made Johnson expend a lot of enery to earn every digit he got (22 points, 7-17 on the night), and he had clearly become tired and frustrated by the latter part of the fourth. Down five and guarded by Pietrus with just a minute to go, Johnson letharcially settled for deep, pull-up three with a lot of time on the shot clock. That was all she wrote.
The Hawks had a really hard time containing the Pierce/Garnett two man game. Understandly, they didn’t want to leave Kevin Garnett wide open around his 17-foot sweet spot… but that forced them to give a scorching-hot Paul Pierce some pretty easy opportunities. The Celtics almost exclusively ran this action late in the fourth, and it worked beautifully. When the Hawks finally tried to double Paul Pierce way out on the perimeter to force the ball out of his hands, they failed to rotate quickly enough and gave up a couple of free throws to a streaking Garnett. Although Pierce could certainly be classified as uncontainable… I think ATL’s defensive execution left a lot to be desired.
Josh Smith, who killed the Celtics in game one, had a rough go of things. Smith shot just 8-21 before leaving the game for good in the middle of the fourth quarter with a sprained left knee. There don’t seem to be any reports that detail the severity of Smith’s injury, but the Hawks are in trouble if he figures to miss any time. They need that second threat in order to draw a little attention away from Joe Johnson.
The Celtics could really use an injection of Ray Allen. It took them 19 tries to hit their first three of the series, and they’re still just 3-25 all together. Paul Pierce did hit that monster triple in the closing minutes of the fourth… maybe that’ll get him going from downtown (1-11 thus far). If not, I suppose the Basketball Gods may lend his long-range touch a little assistance.
Stick with the gang signs, Paul.
Lakers 104, Nuggets 100: If the Nuggets could put together a half-decent first quarter they might be in business. Once again, Denver allowed LA to pull out to an early lead (32-25) before playing the Lakers just about even for the rest of the game (they won the last three quarters of this one, as a matter of fact). As they were in the series opener, Andrew Bynum, Pau Gasol, and Jordan Hill were imposing presences. LA’s bigs combined for 46 points, 39 rebounds, and 5 blocks, and although Denver was able to hang with the Lakers in the rebounding department, the impact of superior size was felt as Javale McGee fiddled around with finger rolls and Andrew Bynum came up with three offensive boards in one sequence. Denver finished the game on a 23-13 run, but Kobe Bryant and his 38 points assured that the comeback was too little, too late.
The fact that Denver can put up 30 points on the break along with 60 in the paint and still lose pretty handily (despite the four-point final, the Lakers controlled the game) is rather discouraging. It’s clear the the Lakers are the better, more-ideally-constructed team here, and they figure to be resting up for round two pretty soon.
Sixers 109, Bulls 92: I didn’t see this game, so I’m going to refer you to Liberty Ballers for a little analysis. Here’s an excerpt from their recap that touches on what the Sixers did well, both offensively and defensively, as they outscored the Bulls by 22 in the third quarter.
Last night’s third quarter was brilliant to watch. The defensive rotations were crisp, the defensive rebounding was good, turnovers were forced and the break was executed to perfection. [On] the alley-oop to Lou the team went from defensive rebound to slam dunk in one dribble. It was the kind of thing that’s tough to execute outside of practice.
The Sixers used that 36-14 third quarter surge to push an 8 point half-time lead into a win going away.
The Bulls were led by first half surges from Joakim Noah and John Lucas III which ultimately proved to be unsustainable. Noah shot 7-7 from the floor for his 14 first half points, with Lucas scoring 11 of his 15 before the break.
For the night, the Sixers did a tremendous job trailing Richard Hamilton and Kyle Korver. Hamilton, primarily (but not exclusively), was trailed by Jrue Holiday through screen after screen, scoring only 10 points on 4-10 shooting after scoring 19 points on 7 shots the game before. Korver scored only 7 points in his nearly 24 minutes from the floor.
The Sixers outscored the Bulls 52-32 in the paint and 25-8 in fast break points. The Sixers shot 18-25 at the rim. The Sixers made more than 18 shots at the rim only 5 times during the entire season. If you drew up a blueprint for the Sixers success, this win followed it.
Sounds like the Sixers were able to solve one of their biggest problems: an inability to get easy shots. One way to get good looks it to get out and run, and get out and run it seems that they did. It should be noted that Evan Turner was moved to starting point guard for this game, where he posted 19/7/6. Jrue Holiday didn’t mind–he exploded for his own playoff career high of 26 points. Lou Williams pitched in 20 off the bench as the Sixers shot 59% collectively. A performance they’ll be able to duplicate? Recent history suggests not, but hey, they’ve been an up-and-down team for two years now.
Gregg Popovich has won his second Coach of the Year Award. According to the Washington Post, Pop received 77 first-place votes. Tom Thibodeau came in second with 27 first-place votes. While a strong argument can be made for either candidate, I would’ve voted for Jerry Sloan Thibs (all those injuries). I imagine that the difference between the two was so large simply because Thibodeau won the award last season. Congratulations to Gregg Popovich, who was done an excellent job of putting new pieces into place and making adjustments in order to play to the strengths of his personnel. The award could be given to Pop every year.
Looks like Amare Stoudemire’s season has indeed come to an end two games before his team’s will. STAT’s mangled left hand required a little surgery, and he’s doubtful to return to the floor until next season. Consider the source here, but according to ESPN’s Chris Broussard part of Amare’s hand was “hanging off” and blood was “squirting out.” Sounds like the kind of gnarly injury that will leave a nasty scar that Amare can’t be proud of due to the circumstances. He’ll have to cook up some wild story which details a dramatic encounter with a grizzly bear. Just don’t say it happened in Memphis, Amare. There aren’t any real Grizzlies in Tennessee.
