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Gameday Dish: Bulls vs. Celtics
April 7 by Leave a Comment
The Boston Celtics come to the Land of Lincoln tonight to face off against the Chicago Bulls. This will be game #78 for both sides. First-year headman Tom Thibodeau has guided the Bulls to the top spot in the Eastern Conference at 57-20. Coach Doc Rivers, now in his seventh year in the lead chair for the storied Celtics, has led his recently-changed squad to a mark of 54-23, good for second in the East – three games behind the guys in Red & Black.
If one-time league MVP Kevin Garnett and the rest of the veteran Beantown B-Ballers hope to catch 2011 MVP-race leader, third-year PG Derrick Rose and company, the 48 minutes at the United Center this evening is a must have win.
This game is the fourth and final matchup between these talented teams. The C’s bested the Bulls in two of the first three contests this 2010-2011 campaign, with both victories coming at home. Coach Thibodeau spent three seasons as Rivers’ lead assistant in Boston before he became Chicago’s head coach in the off-season. He knows the Celtics’ roster and helped them set up defensive schemes that limited some of the league’s top scorers and offenses. In fact, Boston currently leads the NBA in team defense, allowing a mere 90.8 points against. Chicago has also taken to Thibodeau’s lock-down philosophy of help-defense and is second out of all 30 teams with 91.5 points against.
The Bulls beat the visiting Phoenix Suns on Tuesday night 97-94. Chicago is an intimidating 34-5 in front of their home fans. They have won their last four games and have been bested in only two of their last 18 games total. They seem to be peaking at just the right time, and a big part of this is that they have their top guys all relatively healthy.
The Celtics are just 13-9 since sending starting center Kendrick Perkins and guard Nate Robinson to the Oklahoma City Thunder for 6’9” forward Jeff Green and 7’0” center Nenad Krstic at the trading deadline in February. This past Tuesday at the TD Garden, the Celts convincingly beat the Philadelphia Sixers 99-82 in a possible first round playoff preview. The Green have played very well at home this year going 31-8, while they are an easier out on the road at 23-15. However, a week ago tonight Boston got perhaps their biggest road win of the year in San Antonio (107-97), giving the NBA-leading Spurs just their fifth loss at home this season.
The road in the East to the 2011 NBA Finals will at some point have to go through the 17-banner Celtics as well as the 6-banner Bulls. With the regular season ending in less than a week, all 16 playoff-bound teams are hoping to close out the 82 with positive momentum headed into the NBA’s exclusive postseason after-party.
Marv and I will be in the booth for tonight’s pivotal game: Celtics @ Bulls starts at 8:00 PM ET on TNT.
On The Road with Mike: Miami Heat vs. New Jersey Nets
April 6 by Leave a Comment
King James, D-Wade and Bosh paid a visit to the Garden State on Sunday for the Heat’s final season matchup against D-Will and the Nets.
Thanks to Theresa Ganchorre for sharing her photos.
Czar Trivia
April 5 by Leave a Comment
On this day in 1984, #33 Kareem Abdul-Jabbar scored point number 31,420 with his trademark “sky-hook” shot against the Utah Jazz, breaking Wilt Chamberlain’s record to become the highest-scoring NBA player ever.
Cap retired five years later after scoring 6,967 more points. And he remains the NBA’s all-time leading scorer with 38,387 career points in 20 seasons.
In addition to his six NBA championships, record six regular season MVP Awards, record 19 All-Star appearances and his signature sky-hook, the multi-talented Big Fella will also be remembered for his role as co-pilot Roger Murdock in the 1980 hit comedy Airplane.
Mike’s Take: 2011 NCAA Championship
April 4 by Leave a Comment
Like last year’s NCAA Championship, we have a classic matchup between a basketball powerhouse from a big school in a major conference, Connecticut, and a darling, mid-major team with the small school image, Butler, who has already pulled off a number of upsets in this tournament. One thing both teams have in common is that neither was expected to make it this far.
UConn is a very young squad with a roster full of gifted athletes, a number of them top recruits from across the country. The Huskies bounced back from a mediocre regular season and wound up playing their best ball when it counted most, winning five games in five days to capture their seventh Big East championship. Led by superstar junior Kemba Walker, Jim Calhoun’s squad has continued its winning ways throughout the NCAA tournament.
After falling just one basket shy of the title to Duke last season, America’s favorite underdog has earned its second consecutive chance at winning an NCAA Championship. It’s remarkable that Butler has made it back to the Finals again after losing one of their key guys. The first Bulldog to be selected in the 2011 NBA Draft since 1950, forward Gordon Hayward was drafted ninth overall by the Utah Jazz after commanding Butler’s NCAA campaign his sophomore season. Their continued success is a tribute to Butler’s program, to head coach Brad Stevens and to his coaching staff. Butler has a great mental toughness about them. They also have some talented players who may have slipped under the radar until now, but ultimately Butler has been successful because they play so well together as a team.
Tonight we’re going to enjoy a very intense, low-scoring game. But, whereas the Blue Devils were the overwhelming favorites in the 2010 Finals, most won’t be surprised if the Bulldogs wind up winning the championship that eluded them last year.
