Every Rose Has its Thorn

As the NBA playoffs start to heat up, there are a couple of thing's I'm starting to learn. With three series having gone three games already, here's what I can tell looking ahead to the next round:

1. Chicago is going to be downright NASTY in the future if they stick with this roster, but are going to come up short this year.

The Bulls have already done what few believed they could (this guy included), snagging one game from a heavily favored Boston team on the road and putting up 100 + points on one of the best defenses in the league-twice! If it weren't for the late game heroics of Ray Allen in game two, we could have been looking at a 2-0 Chicago lead heading into yesterday. Chicago has all the pieces necessary for a championship run. They possess a presence in the paint with the young tandem of Joakim Noah (Them Gator boys is hot right now!) and Tyrus Thomas (Them Gator SEC boys is hot right now!) along with the veteran leadership of former beast center Brad Miller. They have the do-it-all phenom of a point guard in Derrick Rose who is already playing like a future Hall-of-Famer. They have a strong bench made up of a lot of young guys who will play impact roles down the stretch, and of course the have the wild-card that is Ben Gordon. This is a guy who is capable of completely taking the game over one minute (42 points including 14 in the 4th quarter in game 2) and then ruining it for everyone the next by being selfish with the ball. All the pieces are just about settled in place and the Eastern Conference may have a changing of the guard much sooner than anticipated (Or at least a good Chicago-Cleveland rivalry to look forward to).

Unfortunately for Chicago, that change isn't going to happen this season. It is clear that Chicago lacks the playoff experience needed to go deep. If they can't handle managing a game in the early rounds, what do they plan on doing when the competition only gets tougher as the rounds progress? Everyone on this team is so young (including coach Vinny Del Negro) that it looks like they are in awe just to be included in the playoffs. This couldn't have been more obvious than it was in last night's game. Chicago had all the momentum heading back home for game three and came up well short of anything even resembling a fight. The Celtics routed the Bulls 107-86 last night in what was clearly the least exciting game in the series thus far. In fact, the only thing exciting about it was to see this young Celtics team come into a hostile territory and play their game exactly the way they wanted to play it. Rajon Rondo was able to absolutely stifle reigning Rookie of the Year Derrick Rose, who, coming of a 36 point performance in game one, came up short, recording 9 points and 2 assists with 7 turnovers. As a team, the Bulls committed 22 turnovers for the game. Fortunately for the Bulls, this years' playoff experience that they are gaining wont go unnoticed. Look for Chicago to make some noise next season.

What separates the Celtics from Chicago in what has become the most exciting first round series this year is that they have been in these types of situations before. Not only did they push every series in last year’s playoffs to 7 games (except for the NBA Finals), they have had a huge target on their back all season. When you are the defending champion, every team that you play is going to bring their “A” game and Boston was able to persevere, even without Kevin Garnet for two months, clinching the second best record in the East. You can tell that this team is playing with composure throughout the entire game, everyone is on the same page (including the wild-card Stephon Star-bury, who looks extremely comfortable in his back-up role) and they are yet to let any game get out of hand. Rajon Rondo has really come into his own (averaging 22.7 points, 9.7 assists and 10.7 in the series) and Big Baby Davis has made incredible strides as this season has progressed. Ray Allen and Paul Pierce are playing like they did last season and this team may be headed for their second Eastern Conference Finals in as many years. The ratio of young-to-old is ideal as this Celtics team is putting together a little insurance for the future after the “big three” part ways.

2. The Utah Jazz can hang with the "Big Boys," even if the do end up losing the series to LA

In what many experts believed was going to be a first round sweep, The Utah Jazz were able to cling on in the waning seconds of game three and steal a victory back in Salt Lake City. I told you all. I knew Utah had the potential to make some noise in this series, especially after how they were able to hang with the Lakers in last year’s conference semifinals. It’s no secret that the Jazz have a history of playing worse than Bruce Pearl's fashion sense at the Staples center, losing 11 straight in LA, so it was no surprise to see them go down 0-2 early. But now this series is primed to go to six games, with the Jazz energized and ready to get another win before heading back to Staples (Satuday 9:00 EST).

The 88-86 victory was due much in part to the performance of Utah's two big stars- Derron Williams and Carlos Boozer. Doing his best Dwight Howard impression, Boozer finished with 23 points and a Utah postseason record 22 rebounds, helping the Jazz out-rebound LA 55-40. Williams, in a relatively quite night, finished with 13 points and 9 assists, but hit the shots when the Jazz needed them most. With 2.2 seconds left and overtime looming, Williams pulled up from about six feet and hit the eventual game winner. Kobe had a chance to win the game, but missed the ensuring 3-point shot as time expired. The other factor contributing to the Jazz's first win of the series, was their collaborative team effort on defense. LA was held to a miserable 37% shooting, connecting on 32 of 87 shots. Meanwhile, the Jazz shot 44% from the field and had five players score in double figures.

Now, I don't think the Jazz will move on past this series for a couple of reasons. First and foremost, the Lakers are just too good. They made it to the NBA finals a year ago with essentially the same team, except Andrew Bynum was out. With Bynum finally healthy, there is really nothing stopping the Lakers from getting there again. Also, the Jazz cannot beat the Lakers on the road. The chances of them stealing one in LA is about as likely as the New York Jets actually drafting wisely this Saturday. This may have been an off shooting night for the Lakers, but rest assured they will be back in business and shooting exceptionally well through the rest of this series. I am sticking to my original prediction here: Lakers in Six. I just don't see Utah with the firepower to push it any farther that that, but it is clear that they are a very good team who, anchored behind Derron Williams, are clearly poised for a deep run in the next couple of years.

3. The Spurs are missing Manu Ginobli more and more every game and much more than anyone thought.

I think everyone knew that Ginobli's absence was going to have an adverse affect on the way the Spurs played in the playoffs but I don't think anyone thought it was going to be THIS bad. Yes, he was an impact player for them last season and up until his injury he contributed heavily to the team's success. Regardless, he still played a 6th man type roll and did most of his damage coming of the bench. So something isn't adding up here. During last night's game (if you could call it that...)San Antonio scored a measly 67 points on Thursday, good for a franchise worst. They shot 31% from the field and a horrid 2-17 from beyond the arc. Tony Parker was completely shut down, coming off of a 38 point performance in game two, Parker only managed to score 12 points on 5-14 shooting. Meanwhile Tim Duncan scored a career-playoff low 4 points in the loss. No, that isn't a typo, the man scored 4 freaking points! Mr. 20-10 lifetime could only manage two baskets, how does that happen?!!

Now, a lot of the credit has to go to Dallas' stingy defense, which is playing as well as anybody right now. They managed to shut down everyone on San Antonio, they were controlling the game so handedly in fact, that Greg Papa-Dop decided to bench his starters in the 3rd, giving up all hope of a comeback. This was definitely a statement game for Dallas. They were the butt of a lot of jokes this season, I didn't even think they were going to get into the playoffs, but they did and now they are asserting themselves as the team to beat in this series. Timmy, Tony and the rest need to get it together and go out with a strong performance in game four. Otherwise, their goose could be cooked.

Shifting gears like I usually do, the Orioles (8-8) got their fourth series win in five tries, only failing to capitalize on in a four game sweep at the hands of the Red Sox. Adam Eaton (1-2) finally looked like the guy we are paying over $7 million for, striking out 9 and pitching a 4-hit shutout into the 6th inning en route to his first win as an Oriole. He pitched 7 1/3 innings (the longest of any Orioles starter this season) and helped Baltimore even its record yet again with a 6-2 victory at Camden. So if Eaton can keep this up, and Bergesen doesn't fade away, AND Rich Hill comes back healthy and stays healthy, then it looks like we finally have a 5-man starting rotation worth talking about. Although the odds of this happening are about as likely as Don "Woogie" Woogonowski getting Mary to fall for him at the end of There's Something About Mary, its still nice to see the O's with a shot at competitiveness as the season presses on. They open a four game series with the Rangers tonight, who they took two of three from earlier in the season as Koji Uehera takes the mound for the Birds. Look for Nick Markakis to extend his hit streak to 11 straight games as he takes to the plate tonight.

Finally, the Caps are facing elimination tonight when they bring the series back to Washington for game five of the First Round matchup against the New York Rangers. This is a must win game for the Caps (as are the rest of the games in this series) and they need to find a way to generate some offense and get the puck past stud goalie Hendrik Lundqvist. Alex Ovechkin really needs to step his game up, really the whole offense needs to step their game up, because the defense has been playing as well as they have all season. Hopefully I'll have something positive to write about tomorrow.

Everyone be sure to watch the NFL draft tomorrow to see where my boy Percy ends up. Also the Yankees battle the Red Sox for the first time this season. I don't care if you love them or hate them, this is a great rivalry so in the name of baseball please check it out!

*Some statistics courtesy of espn.com

Until next time...