| From the Top Of the Key -- April 24, 2007 |
| By Scott Sargent |
Published
04/24/2007
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From the Top of the Key
| Unrated
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From the Top Of the Key -- April 24, 2007
Ben Wallace and the Bulls stumbled on the way to the #2 seed in the East.
With the regular season ending last Wednesday, the remainder of 2007 basketball belongs to 16 teams. The majority of the playoff teams was essentially set going into last week but, as usual, we were presented with some last-minute excitement. In the East, the second seed was in the hands of the Chicago Bulls, who simply needed to win their final game to take it home; however, after a Chicago loss to the New Jersey Nets and a Cleveland win over the Milwaukee Bucks, the Cavaliers locked into the second seed while the Bulls fell to the fifth seed.
Quite a difference in the seeding between second and fifth. Though both have home court advantage in the first round, the second-seeded Cavaliers drew the Washington Wizards who limped into the seventh slot following a knee injury to all-world point guard Gilbert Arenas. The Bulls, on the other hand, get to lock horns (no pun intended) with a Miami Heat team that is approaching full strength for the first time in months.
The rest of the East rounds out with the Detroit Pistons at the top, the Toronto Raptors at the three seed, the Nets at six and the Orlando Magic at eight. This Pistons have gained a 2-0 lead over the Magic with all five starters contributing, coupled with a vanishing act by Dwight Howard. Game Two ended with an eight point, zero block evening from the big man, and he’ll need to step up if the Magic are to see a game five. The starting five from the Pistons are the same five guys that likely cost fantasy owners a few games played over the final stretch, but this now shows that Flip Saunders had the right idea – at least for his team opposed to yours. What’s amazing is the fact that these guys shot 41% from the floor during game two, and still pulled the eight point win. This can be attributed to the team shooting 79% from the free throw line, including Rip Hamilton’s 12-14 from the stripe.
The Cavaliers, Nets and Bulls are all up 1-0 after bringing home a “W” in the opening game. Big game performances by Larry Hughes, Richard Jefferson and Luol Deng paved the way for their respective teams. Of course, there’s the Miami Heat who have gone to the media already complaining about the officiating. Ironically, this is the same team that benefited from said officials in last year’s finals. It wouldn’t surprise me to see a fine handed down to Shaquille O’Neal after his comments on Eddie Rush.
The West is a bit of a different story. The Los Angeles Clippers had a shot at making the post-season, but a late season surge by the Golden State Warriors apparently had other thoughts. The Warriors finished the season up with a solid win over the Portland Trailblazers, and “won” the eighth seed in the tourney as well as the right to play the winningest team in the NBA this season – the Dallas Mavericks. The rest of the West has the third seed Phoenix Suns opening up the post season against the seven-seed Los Angeles Lakers. The San Antonio Spurs are the third seed, and their opponent is the sixth seed Denver Nuggets.
The Houston Rockets have jumped out to a 2-0 lead over the Jazz, as the guys from Utah simply have not been able to stop both Tracy McGrady and Yao Ming. McGrady is coming off of a 31 point, 10 rebound night along with Ming’s 27 points and nine boards. They’ve won by nine and eight points respectively, despite a 41 point, 12 rebound performance from Carlos Boozer in game two. Andrei Kirilenko isn’t happy with how he’s being used, which fantasy owners should find of the utmost irony.
While the Phoenix Suns appear to be making quick work of the Los Angeles Lakers, the rest of the West doesn’t appear to be that much of a cake walk. Both the Dallas Mavericks and San Antonio Spurs have been upset in their first game efforts, and will look to bounce back. Carmelo Anthony and Allen Iverson combined for 61 points to beat the Spurs, while it was a team effort for the Golden State Warriors. A 12 point win for the bay area balers was lead by a near triple-double from Baron Davis (33 points, 14 rebounds, eight assists) and 23 points from Stephen Jackson. The pace was easily played at that of Golden State, so Dallas has a lot of work to do if they’re going to right the ship. Thankfully for both them and the Spurs, they have six more games to do so.
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Scott Sargent is the Senior NBA fantasy analyst for Sports Grumblings. He is a
lead writer for