2014 Playoffs - Eastern First Round - (4) Bulls vs. (5) Wizards

[Hadlowe]

Nene completely trashed the Bulls this whole series only reason it was not a sweep was cause he got ejected. Gortat and Booker were great also, to top it off Andre Miller made it out of the first round for the first time ever.

Nene and Miller were the two difference makers as far as I'm concerned. Nene was playing out of his mind and Miller exposed Augustin on offense while Ariza checked him on defense.

I don't know that anyone expected to see a Washington/Atlanta series in round 2. There goes two of my hopes for keeping Miami out of the finals.

 

[kingsnation]

Congrats to the Wizards. Right now, aside from Miami - they are the best team in the East.

 

[Rose2Thomas]

An end to this torturous post season... At least they had an entertaining regular season.

 

[KingMilz]

Nene and Miller were the two difference makers as far as I'm concerned. Nene was playing out of his mind and Miller exposed Augustin on offense while Ariza checked him on defense.

I don't know that anyone expected to see a Washington/Atlanta series in round 2. There goes two of my hopes for keeping Miami out of the finals.

I honestly thought outside of game 1 Miller for the most part was awful, but in saying that, I think that performance in game 1 did really tilt the series towards Washington.

I know not many people here are as high on Nene as I am but to me he's a superstar talent but only an above average player if that makes sense, he's got literally every single asset you want from a big man as far as physical/feel for the game and when he has it going it's beyond lethal. To me he's been one of the biggest underachievers in recent memory when you compare talent to performance.

 

[KingsCitizen]

The Wiz is my dark horse in the East. Good to see them going into the 2nd round.

Under a good system and healthy personal, they actually got a potential to beat Miami because Gortat and Nene could bulldozer Bosh and John Wall can run around the Miami PGs.
Good to see some brains finally growing on John Wall and Beal.

If the Hawks don't blink against the Pacers it will an interesting match up with Wizards.
The Hawks were able to shoot from the perimeter against Indiana which is actually have very good defensive wings in George, Stephenson, and Hill.
Wizards got Wall and Ariza on the wings. But probably the Wiz bigs would make the difference against the Hawsk.
Gortat and Nene are more mobile than the Indiana bigs.

 

[jalfa]

so, did anybody have Washington as the second team to advance and Chicago not winning a single home game this series? no?

Chicago needs to seriously retool. Boozer has clearly outlived his usefulness as an important rotation cog. his performance this series was pathetic. the Bulls need more frontcourt depth, Gibson needs to be a starter and they also clearly need more shot creation in their lineup. signing Melo would be a good first step, but they clearly also need to flesh out their bench some. aside from that, they need Rose back healthy, which is probably the most dicey proposition in this whole mess.

as for Washington, they did kind of what I expected them to do, only even better. they've got a good team there and I fully expect them to make the ECF now, regardless of what happens between Indy and Atlanta. they could really use one more competent big guy, especially considering Nene's health issues. JT would probably fit there quite nicely. too bad that they don't have a single asset that's both worth something and that they could still afford to trade, unless Otto Porter shows he can do something. also, Ariza and Gortat are going to get PAID. at this point, there's no way the Wizards can afford to lose them.

 

[whozit]

so, did anybody have Washington as the second team to advance and Chicago not winning a single home game this series? no?

.....

Nope, can't say I did. At this point, I wonder if I'll get even one correct.

 

[jalfa]

Nope, can't say I did. At this point, I wonder if I'll get even one correct.

well, I did have the Heat in 4 but other than that, it's not looking good. thought I had something with Wizards in 6, but they went out and ruined that one as well.

 

[BamBam52]

Crazy to think that it would be Wizards vs Hawks for the right to go to the Conference Finals if Indy loses.

 

[kingsboi]

The Eastern Conference has been historically bad in terms of legit contenders but I am glad to see Washington being relevant again and Beal and Wall getting a playoff series win under their belt, albeit it is against an offensively inept team such as Chicago but you can't replace that with nothing else. I wonder how the ratings would be between a Hawks and Wizards east semis haha.

 

[KingMilz]

It's crazy to think that the Wizards would be the 1oth (with a healthy Denver team maybe 11th) best team in the West considering how much quality players they have, it really puts into prespective how far away we are from a playoff spot atm.

 

[Mr. S£im Citrus]

Does it, though? Without taking anything away from the Wizards, I'm not convinced that they would have had forty-four wins if they'd had to play the Spurs, Thunder, Clippers, Rockets, Trailblazers, Warriors, Grizzlies, Mavericks and Suns four times a year, instead of twice.


EDIT - FWIW, Washington's road win percentage against the west was .267 (4-11), and ours was .269 (7-19). Not saying that we're as good as Washington, or anything like that, just saying that I don't think that their record puts as much into perspective as you think it does.