NBA Playoffs: Round 1

[KOAB]

Knowing how unpredictable playoff basketball the Celtics should blowout the Bulls by 20 or more and then the Hawks/Heat have one of the best playoff games of all time.

 

[Psycho Penguin]

Knowing how unpredictable playoff basketball the Celtics should blowout the Bulls by 20 or more and then the Hawks/Heat have one of the best playoff games of all time.

I am fully expecting this.

 

[A Happy Medium]

You know what would be a great idea for the Bulls?

Run some screens for Gordon. Also, they need to stop trying to have the front court penetrate.

 

[Psycho Penguin]

You know what would be a good idea for the Bulls?

STOP SUCKING ASS.

 

[A Happy Medium]

And out of pure frustration, or logical thought, I may have to join Czech's stance on Vinny Del Negro.

 

[Psycho Penguin]

This one was looking like blowout city, but Chicago is keeping it close. 100-95 with 1:05 left.

 

[Boon]

The Celtics bench picked one hell of a time to show up. Their starters were absolutely spent and clearly had nothing left in the tank.

 

[KingPK]

Although you hear it much too often in the NBA, this may have been the worst officiated game I've ever seen. Both sides got completely hosed by a crew that shouldn't ever call a playoff game ever again. Also, nice of the league to take TWO HOURS to correct that 3-point shot call for the Bulls. I happen to have a picture of the review process:

 

[Brooklyn Zoo]

Props to Kirk Hinrich for keeping the Bulls in the game.

 

[Danville_Wrestling]

King, I definitely need a link or some type of backstory for that pic.

 

[KingPK]

I just put "chimps watching TV" into Google Image and that was the one that caught my eye.

 

[Smues]

Re: the two hour correction. Yes it was ridiculous to correct that late in the 4th quarter when it happened in the 1st, but at least they got it eventually. I'll give them some credit for that. What I don't get is how they blew it in the first place, it was obviously a 3.

 

[alfdogg]

The referee who messed up that call in the first place should be fired. Gordon was about three feet behind the line. It wasn't even close.

 

[A Happy Medium]

How about that charge against the Bulls that was clearly a charge, and yet the referee in front of the play didn't call it. The idiot had to wait for the guy in the back to make the call. These guys are just awful. It seems to only get worse every season.

 

[naiwf]

This is why I voted Stern as the worst Commish in the major sports. Every year at least one playoff series gets decided by horrible officiating.

 

[Brooklyn Zoo]

Ben Gordon got handchecked by Eddie House on his way to the basket down 5, and after Gordon tells him, Steve Javie acts like a douche.

 

[naiwf]

Ben Gordon got handchecked by Eddie House on his way to the basket down 5, and after Gordon tells him, Steve Javie acts like a douche.

Who would have ever guessed that reaction from an elite official like Javie? He's in the pantheon of right down the middle guys like Joey Crawford and Dick Bavetta.

 

[A Happy Medium]

Steve Javie is a douche.

 

[A Happy Medium]

Man, do I hate Dwayne Wade... just look at him out there. Refs fellate him out there like he's Basketball Jesus and he's way too cocky for my taste.

where amazing officiating happens

 

[alfdogg]

Ben Gordon got handchecked by Eddie House on his way to the basket down 5, and after Gordon tells him, Steve Javie acts like a douche.

I liked how House started flexing and talking to the fans right after as if he had actually made a great defensive stop. He's another DeShawn Stevenson/J.R. Smith type...make a few open threes, and all of a sudden he's Basketball Jesus, to re-use the term.

 

[Fökai]

Boston is about to get their clock cleaned by Orlando...and I will enjoy it immensely.

If Big Baby and Perkins had trouble with Noah and the corpse of Brad Miller, can you imagine what Dwight Howard will do to them? My GOD.

 

[KOAB]

Dwight Howard is probably gonna foul out in a few games in that series.

 

[Damaramu]

Did they ever even touch Wade on that clip?

 

[Matt Young]

I just finished watching game 7 about an hour ago from the DVR since I was unable to watch live. I'm really proud of the Bulls for playing so well in what was undoubtedly the best first round series of all time. But it really sucks that the officiating decided at least 1 game, if not 2, and then the officiating in game 7, as others have said, was horrible for both sides.

 

[Czech]

Someone needs to tap Eddie House on the shoulder and remind him "excuse me, sir, but you're Eddie House. Come on now." Tyrus Thomas needs the same finger-tap when he demands star calls on fouls.

Ridiculously exciting and dramatic basketball in this series beyond my wildest expectations, but it's hard to consider a series one of the all-time greats when you know all the while that the winner is about to get its collective shit pushed in. I don't know where this ranks among first round series. Probably high, considering that the best-of-seven format is relatively new and most first round matchups in the NBA are walkovers. Pacers-Bulls '98 is still probably the best non-final series of all time, though, right? Also consider that for an NBA series to be capital-G Great, it ought to be defined by the presence of greatness, not the absence of it. If Kevin Garnett's in uniform to bark like an idiot and take cheap shots, this series is probably indistinguishable from the traditional preliminary drudgery of the NBA. Derrick Rose carrying a bunch of stiffs to thrilling drama but ultimately falling short has more in common with March Madness than Pacers-Knicks or Pacers-Bulls or whatever.

 

[KOAB]

How dare you call BEAST NIGGA NOAH and John Salmon stiffs

 

[Byron The Bulb]

Yahoo!'s NBA blog posted a recap of the game/series that basically calls Vinny a retard and says the loss was entirely his fault. I'm inclined to agree with this analysis.

It's not like that. Because I know that it's a coach's job to create an atmosphere suitable for winning. It's a coach's job to prepare his or her team. It's a coach's job to do what's necessary, with the parts he has, to come out victorious in competition.

Vinny Del Negro did none of these things in Game 7, or for most of the series, for that matter. All series long the Chicago Bulls were getting by on talent and talent alone, playing as essentially the sum of their parts and no more, utilizing one-on-one ball, and only coming through with a passable rotation because John Paxson traded all the players (like Andres Nocioni) that Del Negro used to hurt his team with, or traded for players that stopped him from giving minutes to guys (like Aaron Gray) who were hurting the team.

Chicago could not put itself in a position to win in the second half of this game because Vinny Del Negro ran with a four guard lineup that could not set a screen to save its life on offense (because, newsflash, 6-2 guards aren't really great at setting screens on 6-7 forwards), and was consistently dominated in the paint on defense. If Boston hits its usual rate of free throws in the third quarter, or if the team makes a few more of those gimmies in the paint, this could have been a 25-point loss.

Why? Because Vinny Del Negro could not think on his feet, adapt, and put his team in a position to win.

I don't know what he has against power forwards, but tossing out 20-year old rookie Derrick Rose as a weak-side helper is just the height of ... well, you know what I'm getting at. It's hard enough to try and get Rose to understand NBA-level defense on opposing point guards, how's he going to know how to act like Udonis Haslem in the fourth quarter of a Game 7? And yet, that's what Del Negro was asking of him.

Did you see how many hats, all in one possession, Joakim Noah had to wear? He had to show on a screen and roll, contest a shot in the paint, try to block out his man, try to block out the opposing power forward, and do all this within a five-second turn. For a guy in his second year in the NBA. I wouldn't ask Dwight Howard to do that. Why? Because the Magic would lose, and Dwight Howard would be angry with me.

But that's Vinny Del Negro. He's turned what was a top-flight defensive team under Scott Skiles that covered all angles, moved the ball offensively, and had a drive-and-kick offense into predictable, one-on-one mess that was bailed out in the second half of the season by Chicago's solid offensive talent, and a post-trade deadline schedule that was rife with crummy and injured teams.

One through eight, you can't tell me that Boston is more talented than Chicago. And you can't tell me that it was Boston's "championship pedigree" or "veteran savvy" that was tossing in baskets in the paint while Derrick Rose or Ben Gordon helplessly tried to cover the role that a power forward should be covering. I picked Boston in seven to begin this series, but that was only because I expected Chicago -- the more talented basketball team -- to suffer because of the whims of their coaching staff. I'm being completely honest. I had no faith in that crew. And I turned out to be right. And I hate it.

[...]

And to hear Doug Collins, calling the game, continually refer to a four-guard lineup as "Chicago's best lineup," while it's getting scored on consistently, sending the C's to the line time and time again, and allowing 142 points in the paint. While it's unable to get a good shot off on the other end. Ridiculous.

(That's why Chicago hired Del Negro, you know. They wanted Collins, couldn't pull the trigger, so they figured they'd sign another Collins-type (a combo guard as a player, then a broadcaster, no coaching experience prior to joining the Bulls) and hope for the best. Forgetting, of course, that no team Collins ever coached turned out to be better than the sum of its parts.)

 

[Rendclaw]

I can't disagree with anything that was said in that blog.

And lets face it folks, this level of officiating is going to continue until guys like Javie, Salvatore, and Bavetta either retire or get caught out in another scandal. I thought that THE GENERAL was going to clean up the terrible reffing in the NBA, right up until I heard him in an interview last offseason.

I knew the Celtics were going to win the series the moment that Rondo did not get ejected for throwing Hinrich into the scorer's table, never mind the fishhook job on Miller.

 

[mw679]

The officiating will never get better until the NBA gets a different commissioner. Stern has his head too far up his ass and thinks his officials are better than the other sports, when they are most likely the worst. Too many instances of horrible calls on both sides for all teams involved, throughout the season and into the playoffs. Why have Joe Crawford ref a playoff game in San Antonio, when he certainly seems to have a problem with Duncan? It's stupid shit like that that leaves me scratching my head, like there wasn't another ref that could go there? When players start flopping like soccer players to get calls, there is a problem, yet Stern will continue to keep his blinders on and tell himself that his refs are doing a fannnnnnn-tastic job. I love this game.....

 

[Psycho Penguin]

Atlanta running up the score on Miami. There has been ZERO lead changes in this epic series.