Cherry Picking recaps the previous day's NBA playoff action.Progress looks like this. Atlanta, long a laughingstock of the NBA, made the playoffs last season. This year, the Hawks advanced to the second round. Progress, right?
Well, from my seat it doesn't look like a whole lot of progress. More than offering new hope for tomorrow, the struggle against Miami followed by obliteration at the hands of Cleveland has pointed out Atlanta's specific deficiencies. The shortcomings are intrinsic to this roster, the problems part-and-parcel with the strengths. I fail to see how the Hawks can get much better from here.
To recap, the Cavaliers had an answer for every Atlanta attempt at competition. LeBron lives in his own galaxy, but you should be able to deal with Mo Williams, Anderson Varejao, Delonte West. Maybe any team would have looked silly against Cleveland. Maybe the Cavs will embarrass Orlando or Boston. So thoroughly a beatdown as Cleveland delivered to Atlanta, though, seems out of the question. The Hawks couldn't compete in any game of the series. How do they expect to actually beat Cleveland someday?
Mike Bibby is a free agent; he has professed his desire to remain in Atlanta, but we'll see if his contract demands fit in the ownership group's traditionally tight budget. Joe Johnson will have one year before freedom. The Hawks can extend him (yeah, right) or wait for the inevitable courtship next summer. Marvin Williams joins exiled Josh Childress in restricted free agency. "Milk" is a popular player all of a sudden, a No. 2 pick coming into his own, injuries be damned. He could get offered some decent cash.
So, you see, the Hawks need to work just to maintain the status quo. And the status quo got swept with every game ending in a double-digit margin! Adding Childress could help a bit, but Maurice Evans actually played well this season. The real needs are point guard and center, where the incumbents are decent (Bibby) or great in limited form (Al Horford) and the back-ups are inconsistent at best. But do we really believe Rick Sund will go out and get real help?
It's depressing, but it looks like simply making the playoffs and advancing a round will need to be good enough for Atlanta unless wholesale changes are made. Johnson, unfortunately, is not in the James/Wade class and will never be. (He happens to be a few years older than each.) Josh Smith has a value contract, Horford's a stud, and Williams is really coming along. But after all those strides this is the best the Hawks can do against the best? The distance left to climb is too far.
Doing Lines
Dirk Nowitzki and Carmelo Anthony were simply divine in the showdown in Big D. Nowitzki wrapped up with 44 points (his third career 40-point postseason game) and 13 rebounds. Anthony almost matched Dirk, totalling 41 points, 11 rebounds and five steals. It was the sixth time this decade opposing players each scored 40 or more points. (LeBron or Allen Iverson were involved in all five other instances.)
Let's also not ignore LeBron just because he didn't go over 40: King James had 27 points, eight rebounds and eight assists in an extremely slow-paced game. He's a bit off his point-per-minute pace for the playoffs now (32.9 points in 39.3 minutes). Small defeats, I supposed.
Watching Film
Denver held its collective breath on this one. With the Nuggets up 13 in the second, Antoine Wright wraps up 'Melo. (And not 54 hours too late! Err ... wait.) Wright holds on, 'Melo is tired of Huggy Time and swipes at Wright. But the best part is Jason Terry rushing in to tattle on 'Melo, with accusatory finger pointed and (clearly) the well-worn "OOOOOOOH!" emanating from his mouth. Nice try, JET.
On the Blockquote
Mike Woodson, quoted by the Cleveland Plain Dealer:
"They're playing at a championship level, I've seen that [as an assistant] with the Pistons in how we defended and shared the ball and they're playing that way."
Rick Carlisle, quoted by the Dallas Morning News:
"We were just nastily determined to somehow win."
Cleveland Plain Dealer:
One woman was spotted wearing a replica (hopefully) of one of [Zydrunas] Ilgauskas' All-Star jerseys -- as a dress. The white jersey fell to her knees.
