'Da Bulls finally went down last night despite Kirk's 26-point effort. This team needs another star besides Hinrich and Ben Gordon (above, in crucifixion pose). I've heard some Kevin Garnett rumors, but the Bulls would really have to give up the store to pull that off.
Hinrich is great, but not quite great enough to carry a team on his back. Even in college, he was more comfortable deferring to Gooden or Collison than he was at taking games over himself. And though he's a great shooter, he's not great at creating his own shot, a la Wade or Kobe. He shot better as a junior when opponents were worried about guarding Boschee; as a senior, when all the focus was on him, his percentages drooped a bit.
Some Jayhawks are still alive to fight another day: the Nets, featuring backup point man Jacque Vaughn (pictured) advanced to face the seemingly vulnerable Heat, though I doubt they'll have any more luck than Chicago did. Also, Drew and the Cavs could advance tonight with a win over the Billy Thomas-led Wizards.
And if you didn't stay up to watch the Suns OT win over the Lake show last night, you missed an epic clash of titans. The Suns now have a chance to accomplish the rare feat of winning a series after having trailed 3-1. Both MVP candidates did what they do best; Kobe won the scoring battle and made some jaw-dropping shots, but this was a perfect illustration of why 32 points and 13 assists (Nash) beats 50 points and 2 assists (Kobe) most of the time, and why the MVP should rightly go to Nash no matter who wins Game 7 on Saturday. Maybe I'll do a post on that issue later.
The end to that Lakers game was great. I hope they go down, but Lakers/Clippers is almost too good. I'd love to see them annihilated by the Clips.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of the Clips, I always thought Jerry Reinsdorf was an absolute idiot when he traded Elton Brand to the Clippers for the #2 draft choice they used on Tyson Chandler. Why trade away a guy who won Rookie of the year only a year ago for a guy that won't win it? Idiotic IMO.
Disheartened by the Bulls' game (and by our near-miss at Scott's trivia thing), I avoided watching the Lakers game, opting instead for the sweet amnesia of the Cadillac Ranch (don't ask).
ReplyDeleteI agree, Mr Lee, that Chicago probably can't be great without a big man who can score. The other factor in Kirk's successful junior year, of course, was Aaron Miles: obviously Kirk can play the point extremely well, but it's interesting that in perhaps his best year on 'the Hill' he was a 2. . . .
Hopefully I've learned my lesson, though, about Bryant and Nash: I'll do my best to watch that game 7, and I'll try not to cheer too loudly for the jaw-droppers.
SJ has the key to the perfect retroactive solution for the Bulls: go back in time and DON'T for the love of God trade Elton Brand. That's exactly the kind of player they need now. Tyson Chandler doesn't suck, but he should have been a late first-rounder or second-rounder.
ReplyDeleteKirk is great at either the 1 or 2-spot, but while he might be an All-Star one of these years, I tend to think he'll always be merely a star rather than a superstar.
As for Kobe, in the first several games of this series he focused more on passing than scoring, and, lo and behold, his team won 3 out of 4 games. But last night he reverted to his old selfish self, and surprise, surprise--the Lakers lose.
Of course if Tim Thomas hadn't hit that three to send the game to OT, the Lakers would have won despite Kobe's ball-hogging, but if he had done more throughout to get the ball into his big men they probably would have won easily; after all, the main reason the Lakers have done as well as they have in this series is that the injury-depleted Suns have no big men left to guard the post.
Cadillac Ranch?!
yeah Cadillac Ranch WTF?
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