NBA Playoffs, Recap 6 — Point Gods and Desperation
Three series flipped to 2–1 last night, and several desperate teams will play this evening
Last night, the Celtics beat the Bulls, and the Thunder beat the Rockets. Both winning teams turned a 2–0 deficit into 2–1, holding on to just a little piece of hope, at least. Out of these two though, Boston is clearly in much better shape. The Celtics shot the lights out of the arena, clearly outpacing a more measured, slow-paced Chicago team that struggled without Rondo (what a weird sentence, given how he played for most of the year). The Bulls just couldn’t keep up, and while this offensive explosion relied on a three-point percentage that is simply unsustainable, Boston looked like a much different team.
This series fascinates me, since Boston is in much better shape than most teams down 2–1, but still has a lot to prove before I can feel good about predicting a win from them. If a few more three-point shots don’t fall last night (especially early in the third quarter), this game would have been much closer. Likewise, Chicago is still at home, and will be obvious favorites (at 3–1, don’t make any jokes) going back to Boston. Plus, there’s the possibility that Jimmy Butler turns in one or two phenomenal games. He was fine last night after a slow start, but his best shot is probably too much for the Celtics to handle.
If this series started today, I’d pick Boston. But it doesn’t. It started a few days ago, and the Bulls already pulled off two wins in Chicago. I don’t care if those were flukes or not — they happened, and the Bulls are in a great spot because of them. The next game in this series is critical for both teams: if Boston wins, they’re back on a level playing field with home-court advantage. Lose that one though, and it’s hard to see a Celtics victory for the series.
Elsewhere, the Jazz’s close defeat looks more and more tragic. They barely lost last night, but now the Celtics are ahead, and can all but slam the door with a win in the fourth game. That first win in LA is still huge, but it won’t mean much after three consecutive losses. I don’t have any vested interest in whether or not Utah can keep this core around after the 2017 playoffs, but it would be a huge shame if the reason they can’t is because they never got healthy at the right time. Injuries happen, but they may have robbed NBA fans of a truly exciting team.
Although, I can’t help but appreciate Chris Paul. Here’s one of his best plays from last night:
Finally, my Hawks play tonight in Atlanta, desperately trying to pull together some momentum out of a 0–2 hole. The first two games were painful to watch, and I really hope that returning home will give the team some sort of boost. If it doesn’t, game four will be even more painful. It’s been a weird, up-and-down season for the Hawks. I didn’t see them winning this series, but I predicted that it would go seven games. That feels wrong now, and it makes me sad.
