We are getting down to it. Playoff basketball and it seems like Atlanta will play Boston in the first round of the Eastern Conference playoffs. Yes the Boston Celtics, who last week clinched the best record in the league, and thus the number one seed in the Eastern Conference. The Hawks will most likely limp into the playoffs with AT BEST a 41-41 record and 99.999% of America will have them be the sacrificial lambs to be slaughtered by Boston. But I have one question. What if the Hawks knock off the Celtics?
(I will wait for you to stop laughing before I continue.) The Celtics pushed all of their chips into the center before the year started and acquired Ray Allen and Kevin Garnett in the hope that those two would bring them an NBA title. Only recently did they do something to sure up their point guard situation (signing an OLD Sam Cassell after spending much of the year with Rajon Rondo) and Doc Rivers is still the head coach there.
Meanwhile the Atlanta Hawks FINALLY pulled the trigger and got their point guard in Mike Bibby and he has done nothing but put this team on his back in recent weeks and led them to victory after victory. And if you look back at Bibby’s history of playoff runs on his first year with a team, the Arizona Wildcats won an NCAA title and Sacramento got jobbed out of a Finals appearance, despite Bibby going OFF that entire series against the LA Lakers. I don’t think Bibby can be checked by a too-young Rondo or an ET-clone Cassell. I also like Bibby taking my last shot if I am a Hawks fan, opposed to Ray Allen fighting Cassell for the last shot in Boston.
The number 8 seed also has a history of pushing the number 1 seed. Last season the Warriors knocked off the Dallas Mavericks, who had the best record in all of the NBA and a few years back Denver beat a seemingly unstoppable Seattle squad in a short series. It can happen. Expectations can leave a team tight as the pressure gets to the star players and sometimes they can choke. Ask KG about that next time you see him. It took him HOW long before he advanced past the first round?
Look, I totally see Boston blowing out Atlanta in game one and probably winning game two in Bah-stin, but when the teams come down here, I think Atlanta fans WILL come out and support this team in game three. Atlanta is COMPLETELY a bandwagon town, just look at all of the support the Thrashers got last year for their first playoff game. And after the Hawks take out the Celtics in that game three, I think the team is fired up even more behind Joe Johnson and company. That momentum can take game four. Joe Johnson can and SHOULD be firing up the team as he can call on his experience in the playoffs back with Phoenix. In fact, that is what he said he wanted to do when he signed here with Atlanta, right? Lead them in the playoffs? At least I thought that’s what he wanted to do, not just come here and take the Hawks’ money without giving anything in the playoffs. This guy is an all-star and he might represent the USA in the Olympics. He should step up and I believe he will. As for Josh Smith, you want a big contract, Big Boy? Earn it right here. Marvin, you want people to stop saying Atlanta should have taken Chris Paul? Show us right here. The Hawks just need to step it up. They all have motivation. Now follow through on it.
If the team can send this series back to Boston and then maybe somehow get it back to Atlanta, you never know. Doc Rivers may freak out. KG might get tight. Paul Pierce might try and take over games and get out of control like he has in the past. Rondo might play like the inexperienced guard he is. The Hawks certainly have a chance…. But then Boston could just sweep Atlanta. Then my only question would be “How bout those Braves?”
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