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| the Brazilian Fabio, only more injury-prone |
As I told a reader today, the reason the Wizards are beating the Bulls (as I write this, the Wizards are up 56-49 at the half in a game that shouldn't be nearly that close--the Wiz seem to clearly be the better team) is because the Bulls' regular season was a facade. Chicago had a good regular season record for two reasons: they are in the (L)eastern Conference, and they play harder than everyone else. In the playoffs, effort is not an advantage anymore, as every team plays its collective ass off on every possession (except the hapless Warriors, who lost by 40 points last night, but I digress). Nene, when healthy (not often), is a far more dangerous player than Noah, Gortat is better than Taj Gibson (although tonight Taj is the best front court player on the court for either team, absolutely massacring the Wizards to the tune of 5 offensive rebounds in the first half), and the Wizards' wings are far better than those of Chicago (although John Wall disgracefully still has not figured out that he has to go over picks when DJ Augustin is in the game). On an unrelated note, the officiating in this game has been horrendous; it seems that any time a Wizard reaches for the ball, a whistle is called, whereas any time a Bull hits a Wizard in the face, it is an automatic no call.
NO SLEEP TILL BROOKLYN
The Bulls' collective lack of talent makes one wonder why the Nets chose to tank to avoid them. The simple answer is that an ancient team like Brooklyn didn't want to deal with all the pounding that would come with playing the Bulls. Toronto is a lot more talented than Chicago, but not as prone towards dishing out contusions. Meanwhile, New Jersey stole a game in Toronto and looks likely to win the series; Paul Pierce needs to have only 4 decent games to guarantee they win the series. We cannot count out Toronto however; they are so much more athletic than Brooklyn that their collective inexperience is not necessarily dispositive of the result of the series.
GRIZZZZ
Memphis vs OKC is the best first-round series in a long time. Memphis would be the best or second-best team in the Eastern Conference, but likely will not make it out of the first round. Kevin Durant is the best offensive player alive; he is entirely unguardable. Luckily for Memphis, the rest of his team is average at best. Westbrook is a human highlight reel, but also makes enough bone-headed plays to wonder how much he actually helps his team on the balance. Mike Miller hit 3 3s in game 2, which gave the team some spacing. Zach Randolph and Gasol are too much for Ibaka and the untalented Kendrick Perkins inside. Scott Brooks is generally outwitted in coaching matchups, and this series is no different. If OKC is to win, Reggie Jackson is going to have to step up and stop the Grizzlies from having 10 eyes on Durant at all times.
PACERS
Indiana woke up. I think they will win the next 3 games. Paul George looked like the guy who played (almost) even against LeBron in the playoffs, Luis Scola climbed in the time machine, and CJ Watson provided an unexpected spark. They still have no idea how to get Hibbert going, but in this shitty conference, against a team with a that finished below .500, it won't have any consequences on the Pacers' ability to get out of this round.
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