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Hawks heroics cause concern about Celtics By Chris Winkler If someone could explain to me how the Atlanta Hawks took the Boston Celtics to seven games, I would greatly appreciate it. I’ll admit I’ve been wrong with predictions before this one — the Washington Wizards are still playing, right? But, if there was ever a time to firmly believe one team would sweep another, this was it. “Again, the big question mark is our consistency,” Celtic forward Kevin Garnett said after beating down the Hawks in Game 7. No kidding KG. But I don’t care how inconsistent the Celtics can be. If it takes the maximum amount of games to put away one of the worst teams to ever make the playoffs, maybe it’s something worse than consistency. The Celtics won 29 more games than the Hawks did this year, including winning all three games against Atlanta during the regular season. Atlanta is a quality young team that has a chance of putting something together in the next few years if they keep their nucleus. Neither Joe Johnson nor Josh Smith is locked up long term, but that’s not an issue yet. The point is a team that finished eight games under .500 gave the supposedly best team in the NBA a legitimate scare. Sure, Boston won Game 7 by 34 points, but the fact there was a seventh game says something about one of these teams. Either Atlanta is much better than that 37-45 record indicates, or Boston isn’t the team that can win an NBA title. I’ll take my chances with the latter. Fortunately for Boston, they have the home-court advantage wrapped up. And in four games against the Hawks at home, Atlanta came within 20 once — losing 96-77 in Game 2. But they’ll still have to play on the road. And if they couldn’t find a way to win in Atlanta, how are they going to fair in Cleveland? The C’s need to get their confidence back. Winning the first two games of their second-round series with Cleveland would be a good start. If not, they’ll head to Cleveland in desperate need of a road win. Lakers vs. Jazz First-time MVP Kobe Bryant celebrated in high fashion by leading the Lakers to a steady, but not overwhelming win over Utah Sunday that brought the Lakers to a 5-0 record in the postseason. In what appears to have become typical of the Lakers, they don’t blow the opposition out, but they really don’t break much of a sweat, either. Robbing Pau Gasol from Memphis will go down as the move that put this team over the top. But the reacquisition of Derek Fisher was the move that has really paid off. Although Vladimir Radmanovic has given the Lakers quality minutes in his starting role, with the absence of Andrew Bynum, I really want to see this team with a healthy Bynum in the middle. To be honest, I would consider them unbeatable. Unfortunately, we probably won’t see that until next year. Don’t count Utah out, though. They went to the Western Conference finals last year and are the best team in the NBA on their own court. They went an astounding 37-4 at the Energy Solutions Center this year. For that reason alone, I think this series goes seven. I certainly can’t see it ending in Utah. |
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