Eastern Conference Playoffs - 1st Round Discussion Thread

[areobee401]

Re: Eastern Conference Playoffs - 1st Round Discussion Thread

Good night at the Garden yesterday. Well worth the trip to Boston. The crowd, atmosphere and game all turned out to be great. Unfortunately none of that turned into a Celtics win. Cavs are simply too good. It stinks though because I know that, know they Celtics have to play near perfect and have other things go their way, but the fan in me deep down is chanting "I believe that we will win". lol

Worried for Sunday as I don't know how much fight the Celtics have left. I would think Cleveland wants this thing finished asap. Hope the thing stays somewhat competitive and not a total blowout.

Somewhat unrelated but D Rose tearing it up for Chicago is a great to see. Definitely did not see this coming at all. Makes the upcoming Bulls and Cavs series that much more intriguing.

[jeebs9]

Re: Eastern Conference Playoffs - 1st Round Discussion Thread

Good night at the Garden yesterday. Well worth the trip to Boston. The crowd, atmosphere and game all turned out to be great. Unfortunately none of that turned into a Celtics win. Cavs are simply too good. It stinks though because I know that, know they Celtics have to play near perfect and have other things go their way, but the fan in me deep down is chanting "I believe that we will win". lol

Worried for Sunday as I don't know how much fight the Celtics have left. I would think Cleveland wants this thing finished asap. Hope the thing stays somewhat competitive and not a total blowout.

Somewhat unrelated but D Rose tearing it up for Chicago is a great to see. Definitely did not see this coming at all. Makes the upcoming Bulls and Cavs series that much more intriguing.

Thank You for being truthful. But what ever happens. It was a great season.

[OSUFan_88]

Re: Eastern Conference Playoffs - 1st Round Discussion Thread

Yeah I agree with this. Chicago has to get Niko back and hope Joakim can at least get back to doing something on offense though. Milwaukee's been guarding him with Jared Dudley and Giannis and he's struggled to do much of anything. Even his passes have seemed off.

I think Chicago was my preseason pick for the title though. If they're clicking, I think they can beat Cleveland, especially if Rose is suddenly a good 3 point shooter.

The problem for Chicago is their offense has to be better than the Cavaliers 4 times.

I just don't see them having the personnel to ultimately come out on top. Maybe I'm wrong, and the series will be tight, but without Chicago being an elite defensive team anymore, I don't think they win.

Obviously I'm biased, though. We'll see. Winner wins the EC, though, I have no doubt in my mind.

[Yeah...THAT Guy]

Re: Eastern Conference Playoffs - 1st Round Discussion Thread

In other news, apparently Giannis became the youngest player in NBA history to record 25 and 10 in a playoff game or something like that. Glad he finally snapped out of his funk against the Bulls.

[ojandpizza]

Re: Eastern Conference Playoffs - 1st Round Discussion Thread

If only it was the Heatles they were playing.. All these wild jumping cross passes Rose keeps doing would be resulting in some LeBron oops.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[JODYE]

Re: Eastern Conference Playoffs - 1st Round Discussion Thread

To beat Cleveland, we are going to need Niko back without question. Creates mismatches, stretches the floor, can attack of the dribble. Guy does it all off the bench for us. The emergence of Snell in this series has been an added bonus. He adds another dimension if he can keep shooting the ball as well as he has been of late.

And my my, what a turn of events with Derrick Rose. As aroebee already said, who the hell saw this coming? The guy was a flat tire for 90% of the regular season and all of a sudden time warped back to 2011. I'm almost scared to be too optimistic because I've seen how this movie ends but I'm definitely going to enjoy the ride.

All that said, I'm not scared of Cleveland, for various reasons including the fact that their offense really isn't that scary to me. It's different pieces, same formula. LeBron post up, LeBron pick and roll, Kyrie Pick and Roll, Iso, Iso, Iso. We've seen it all before, and if anyone has the personnel to stop it and keep them from getting to the rim as they have in this series it's the Bulls.

Should be fun either way.

[Yeah...THAT Guy]

Re: Eastern Conference Playoffs - 1st Round Discussion Thread

I just don't understand what Milwaukee did to deserve to have Rose go from having statistically the worst 3 point shooting season of all-time to suddenly being a better shooter than Steph Curry. The entire team's 3 point shooting has been crazy, but Rose has especially been weirdly incredible from 3.

[JODYE]

Re: Eastern Conference Playoffs - 1st Round Discussion Thread

No idea. It's fine and dandy that he's been shooting the way he has from 3, however I'm afraid that he's going to fall in love with it again.

Towards the end of the game last night he started getting jumper happy again, and took some really bad contested shots, albeit some being at the end of the shot clock. Would like him to either pump fake on those 3s and attack the rim or drive and kick and create something better. In reality, Derrick Rose taking 9 threes a game is not a recipe for winning basketball when it is all said and done. I can live with 4-5.

[ojandpizza]

Re: Eastern Conference Playoffs - 1st Round Discussion Thread

Oh he's definitely fallen in love with it.. If you're a Bulls fan you just gotta hope he doesn't fall off the hot tear.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[King_B_Mack]

Re: Eastern Conference Playoffs - 1st Round Discussion Thread

The Cavs honestly don't scare me. Obviously beating them won't be easy, but this is a helluva lot more doable than Derrick Rose and Carlos Boozer running head first into the Miami Heat. The Bulls don't really "struggle" to score anymore, that's not a problem. Them struggling to not make stupid turnovers is a problem. That worries me about this team. They tend to get very loose with the ball and make lazy passes or just plain ill advised passes. They were down last night, not because they struggled to score, it's because they kept making stupid decisions on that end of the court.

Outside of LeBron and maybe Shump and Mosgov, there isn't one defensive matchup that Cleveland has that would concern me about the Bulls not being able to get theirs on offense. There's just too many weapons on this team. Kidd has been determined to shut down Pau and he's pretty much done that, but then Jimmy Butler starts carving them up. They did a pretty good job of slowing Jimmy down yesterday, but then Derrick carved them up and even when they started trying to focus more on Derrick, Tony Snell steps up and starts knocking down shots. The Cavs don't have the kind of swarming defense that Miami had that MAY have really hurt this team and again, this isn't the 2011-2014 Bulls that didn't have a single guy that could make a basket when the double teams started suffocating Derrick.

I think we're in for a long fight that's going at least 6 games either way. I can't say we WILL win, because LeBron has owned the Bulls his whole career, but barring any big injuries, I've never been more confident in a Bulls team's chances against him than this one.

[Vni]

Re: Eastern Conference Playoffs - 1st Round Discussion Thread

Watch the Bucks win 4 straight.

[King_B_Mack]

Re: Eastern Conference Playoffs - 1st Round Discussion Thread

Watch the Bucks win 4 straight.

Maaann You're just mad you can't pre-order your Rajon Rondo Lakers jersey yet lol

[OkayC]

Re: Eastern Conference Playoffs - 1st Round Discussion Thread

Yea thanks for the opinions guy, i was partly curious cuz i know alot of people were saying that cleveland would just overpower chicago, and that they didnt have a chance. I didnt really agree with that opinion, but i just wanted to see what others thought.

[23]

Re: Eastern Conference Playoffs - 1st Round Discussion Thread

The Cavs honestly don't scare me. Obviously beating them won't be easy, but this is a helluva lot more doable than Derrick Rose and Carlos Boozer running head first into the Miami Heat.

So you just gone take a shot at Booze like that when he's gone?

I know you really would give anything maybe even Thibbs to hear "grab dat Jo!" One more time

[The 24th Letter]

Re: Eastern Conference Playoffs - 1st Round Discussion Thread