San Antonio Spurs
NBA Playoffs Update — Land of the Sweeps for Lakers, Magic & Suns
Tuesday, May 11th, 2010 | Atlanta Hawks, Boston Celtics, Charlotte Bobcats, Cleveland Cavaliers, NBA, Orlando Magic, Phoenix Suns, San Antonio Spurs, Sports, Utah Jazz | No Comments
Except for the epic Celtics-Cavs battle which resumes tonight in Cleveland, the NBA Conference Semi-finals have been a major disappointment. The Orlando Magic, Los Angeles Lakers and Phoenix Suns have all won in easy 4-game sweeps.
Orlando Magic – 4 games against the Hawks was about 4 too many. Couldn’t the Hawks have just forfeited the games instead and saved us the misery of having to watch these games? The Magic are clearly the hottest team in the NBA right now. They have won 28 of 31 games and are on a current 14-game winning streak. They have yet to lose in the playoffs after sweeps of the Charlotte Bobcats and Hawks. The Magic defeated the Hawks by an average of 25.3 points per game – which is believed to be the greatest margin of victory in post-season series NBA history. With Vince Carter and Jameer Nelson complementing big man Dwight Howard, the Magic look like they could advance to a 2nd straight NBA Finals. Carter had this to say about the Magic’s current level of play — “Guys are just focused. It’s unbelievable to see. This is my opportunity for a championship.”
Los Angeles Lakers – After pushing themselves to the limit against Kevin Durant and the Oklahoma City Thunder in Round 1, they club needed an easy series to rest up for the Conference Finals. That’s just what they got when they got to square off against the Utah Jazz. Beyond Carlos Boozer and Deron Williams, the Jazz just don’t have the depth to compete with the Lakers. The Lakers seemed to be re-invigorated after their Game 6 win over the Thunder in Oklahoma City and that carried over into this series. Head Coach Phil Jackson summed it up best — “We had one of our better games tonight… This is the first really consistent game we have played, except for a six-minute stint in the 3rd quarter. We controlled the game and forced our will on our opponent.” The Lakers played good defense The Lakers played good defense (the Jazz averaged just 102 points in the series, well below their series average). The Lakers limited their own turnovers (just 6 on the road in Game 4) and they shot well from the free throw line. Although Kobe Bryant (32 points) and Pau Gasol led the way (33 points), 3 other Lakers players also scored in double-digits. Now it’s on to face the Phoenix Suns in what should be one of the best series of the 2010 NBA Playoffs schedule.
Phoenix Suns – The Phoenix Suns overcame their “San Antonio Spurs demons” with a convincing series sweep of the Spurs. Although the Suns had lost to the Spurs 4 times in the last 7 post-season schedules, they wouldn’t allow it to occur a 5th time. Amar’e Stoudemire turned in a solid effort against his west nemesis, averaging over 20 points per game in the series. Steve Nash also showed just how good a big game player he can be with 4 great performances against the Spurs’ Tony Parker. Nash scored at least 16 points in each game and he also averaged just under 8 assists per game to dictate the flow of the game in the Suns’ favor. It will be the 3rd Conference Finals for the Suns in the last 6 years and if they can knock off the #1 seed Lakers, it would be their 1st NBA Finals since 1993.
We’ll keep you posted how the Cavs-Celtics series turns out – we know we have at least 2 more games – tonight in Cleveland and Thursday night in Boston. Will we have a Game 7 over the weekend in Cleveland? Stay tuned…
Bulls Continue to Frustrate Fans with Erratic Play
Tuesday, January 26th, 2010 | Chicago Bulls, Houston Rockets, Los Angeles Lakers, NBA, New Orleans Hornets, San Antonio Spurs, Sports | No Comments
The Chicago Bulls are on a 3-game road winning streak, but they are still making life miserable for their fans in Chicago. The Bulls embarked on a 7-game road trip last week with an 18-20 record. They started off the trip with “winnable” games against the Warriors in Golden State and the Clippers in Los Angeles. The team knew that they needed to get a win or 2 right away because the back end of the trip was much more difficult with games against 5 teams with winning records.
So – after dropping the 1st 2 games against the Warriors and Clippers with lackluster performances, it looked like the Bulls might go winless on the trip. But then the improbable happened – the Bulls defeated the Suns in Phoenix, the Rockets in Houston and the Spurs in San Antonio. If the Bulls can win one more game on the road trip, they will match the total number of wins that the Bulls had on the road in the first 3 1/2 months of the NBA season – 4. Pretty incredible.
Now that they have Bulls fans believing again, I’m sure they’ll find a way to crap the bed against the Thunder in Oklahoma City and the Hornets in New Orleans to finish the road trip a “successful” 3-4.
The recent keys to success have been the dominating play of Derrick Rose and the consistent play of Luol Deng. In the last game before the road trip, Rose scored 37 points to lead the Bulls to a double-overtime win against the lowly Wizards. Since then, Rose has scored 19, 23, 32, 20 and 27 points respectively, and his average is now up to 19.6 points per game. Throw in a 5.9 assist average and a 3.7 rebound average, and you can see that Rose is getting better with each game. Rose has also limited himself to just a 2.6 turnover average on the current road trip, an excellent stat for a 2nd year player still learning the NBA game.
Luol Deng is the picture of consistency for the Bulls during the 2009-2010 NBA season. Deng is averaging 17.5 points per game and 7.9 rebounds per game. Since a November 19th loss at the Lakers in which Deng scored just 6 points, he has scored in double-digits in every game save for 3. Deng too has been limiting his turnovers and his renewed energy around the boards has Bulls fans salivating.
A final piece to the puzzle has been the consistent play of Joakim Noah. Noah is averaging 12.1 rebounds per game – a fabulous stat in and of itself. But the more telling stats are his minutes – 33:06 per game – and his scoring – 11.3 points per game. Noah has fouled out of only 1 game all season long so he is contributing crunch time and giving his coaches the ability to use him during all parts of the game.
With these 3 players proving their worth over the long NBA season so far, if I were one of the big free agents looking to make a move following the 2010 season, I would seriously consider the Bulls. Especially for a Chris Bosh or Amar’e Stoudemire, being able to play next to Noah on a nightly basis would elevate each player’s games to no limit. As long as President John Paxson and GM Gar Forman can get rid of Vinny Del Negro before the end of the season (or shortly thereafter) so that a free agent player will know that he has a legitimate NBA coach leading the way, I would think that the Bulls should be able to land one of the big free agents in the class of 2010…
Balanced Bulls Attack Delivers 92-85 Home Opener Victory Over Spurs
Friday, October 30th, 2009 | Boston Celtics, Chicago Bulls, NBA, San Antonio Spurs, Sports | No Comments
What a great way to open the NBA season for the home town Bulls – a 92-85 victory over the San Antonio Spurs. Derrick Rose – who had missed most of the Bulls pre-season with an ankle/knee injury – started for the Bulls to delight of the sold out United Center crowd. But it was the balanced attack orchestrated by Head Coach Vinny Del Negro and delivered by the Bulls players that really made a huge impact at the UC.
Six Bulls players scored in double-digits. Luol Deng led the way with 17 points and 9 rebounds. Derrick Rose poured in 13 points while racking up 7 rebounds and 7 assists. Joakim Noah added 10 points and a team-high 10 rebounds. John Salmons scored 10 points, Tyrus Thomas scored 13 points and grabbed 6 boards, while Kirk Hinrich scored 14 points and grabbed 6 rebounds in 29 minutes off the bench. Talk about a full team effort.
What made it even more special was that it came against a good team-oriented basketball squad – the San Antonio Spurs. The Bulls shut down the Spurs playmaker Tony Parker, and although Tim Duncan still had a phenomenal night – 18 points, 16 rebounds – they made sure that no one else had a big night.
The Bulls didn’t have much time to bask in the glow of victory as the team boarded a choppy flight east right after the game to get ready for NBA Game 2 on the young season against the Celtics in Boston. The Bulls and Celtics battled in a grueling 7-game series in the 1st round of the 2009 NBA playoffs, so let’s hope there is some excitement in the air at TD Banknorth Garden in Boston on Friday night. Go Bulls!
NBA Playoff Teams All Set – Seeds Still To Be Determined
Sunday, April 12th, 2009 | Atlanta Hawks, Boston Celtics, Chicago Bulls, Cleveland Cavaliers, Dallas Mavericks, Denver Nuggets, Detroit Pistons, General, Houston Rockets, LeBron James, Los Angeles Lakers, NBA, New Orleans Hornets, Orlando Magic, Philadelphia 76ers, Portland Trailblazers, San Antonio Spurs, Sports, Utah Jazz | No Comments
We know know all of the 16 teams that have qualified for 2008-9 NBA post-season play. While some seeds have been established, there are still a few slots up for grabs.
In the Eastern Conference, the Cleveland Cavaliers – led by Lebron James - have locked up the #1 seed for the 1st time in franchise history. The Boston Celtics and Orlando Magic are still battling for the #2 seed, but the Celtics have a 2-game edge over the Magic. The Atlanta Hawks have locked up the 4th seed in the East. Miami and Philadelphia have each lost 6 of their last 10 games and are currently sitting in the 5th and 6th spots – they each have 3 games to play. The surging Chicago Bulls – winners of 7 of 10 – and the Detroit Pistons are tied for the 7th and 8th seeds right. That race will likely be decided when the Bulls visit Detroit on Monday night with the winner taking at least the 7th seed.
In the Western Conference, the Los Angeles Lakers – led by Kobe Bryant – have locked up the #1 seed for a 2nd consecutive year. The 2nd through 5th seeds are up for grabs among the Denver Nuggets (#2 seed), Houston Rockets (1 game behind Denver), Portland Trailblazers (1.5 games behind Denver) and San Antonio Spurs (1.5 games behind Denver). The 6th through 8th seeds are also up for grabs among the New Orleans Hornets and Dallas Mavericks (tied for 6th and 7th seeds) and the Utah Jazz (8th seed – 1 game behind Hornets and Mavericks). Looking to avoid a 1st round match-up with the Lakers, the Jazz play the Warriors and Clippers before ending the season against the Lakers – will they be able to bump out either of the Hornets or Mavs? Only time will tell.
The NBA playoffs will soon be here in full effect – get ready for some intense playoffs hoops action…
