Game 5: SEAL THE DEAL!! Wizards @ Bulls 8 PM (CSN/TNT) 4/29

[hands11]

I made a post a week ago or so where I said I wanted the Pacers because it would be good for our confidence and make our playoff run look legit. However, currently in the Hawks/Pacers series, which is 3-2 Hawks, if the Pacers are going to win and move on to play us that means they have to win 2 straight. That probably means they get themselves together and start look like their old selves which is scary to me. I'd rather take the Hawks who we can dominate inside EASILY, and take the series to go to the ECF, which would be just an amazing season for us just to get there.

Gooo Hawks.

Exactly.

[hands11]

I guess game 1 is supposed to be next monday. That could be a long layoff of 6 days. The NBA loves to drag games out, don't they?

It could do them some good because they looked dead yesterday. No doubt the first 4 games wore them out, especially going up against the Bulls defensive schemes every night. If the Bulls and their crowd didn't come out just as flat, we would've been looking at game 6 tomorrow. The layoff is a benefit so they can come back energized to do this all over again.

Oh yeah. Its been a long season. Getting a 6 game rest will be good for their bodies.

Randy will have them practicing though.

Great for Nene and Gortat to get a few extra days of rest. Big takes a beating in these games.

[Illmatic21]

Congrats on the series win fellas. Hopefully, we take care of business on Thursday which means one of our franchises will end up obtaining the long awaited trip to the Eastern Conference Finals.

If we do matchup, I believe that ya'll have more individual talent than us, but I also believe that we have the far better coach which has made all the difference for us in round 1. Do not underestimate the impact that Coach Bud will have in round 2, as I fully expect him to coach circles around Wittman if we do match up. Your size will be an equal nightmare for us though.

We just heard that for 3 weeks with in our previous series. Fastforward to now and Bulls fans are calling for Thibs to be fired.

Wittman deserves credit for having the team motivated, they're playing excellent disciplined defense. And on offense, they move the ball and have a balanced attack that is very hard to stop.

At the end of the day, Atlanta without Horford is a much less talented team than Washington. There's only so much a coach can do with a talent deficiency.

Regarding coaching impact, I think every situation is different. Sometimes a coach is helping all they can and the talent is the limiting factor, sometimes not.

See OKC

Agreed. And it's not just about talent, it's also about how motivated and confident the players are as well. The Wizards were more talented than Chicago, but they also (imo) played harder than they have all year, and it seemed like even the Bulls were shocked by the effort/confidence we had.

Wittman may not have done or said anything different from the regular season, rather it's possible that our players simply decided to rise to the occasion and elevate their play. Now, all of a sudden the team is playing to its potential and the coach looks like a genius.

[verbal8]

Wasn't sure where to put this:

Apparently a disturbed Bulls fan has been threatening a couple of the Wizards.

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nba-ball- ... 38197.html

[montestewart]

Wasn't sure where to put this:

Apparently a disturbed Bulls fan has been threatening a couple of the Wizards.

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nba-ball- ... 38197.html

It's so stupid to make such explicit threats (and so many of them) in such a readily traceable way, it's almost funny, except every once in a while those stupid people actually do what they're threatening to do, so it's not really funny at all.

Not to say it should matter who you are, but Gortat, Webster, and Ariza all have reputations as nice guys. These aren't known NBA jerks or goons. Threatening children? Pathetic. Your team lost. Get a life.

[hands11]

We just heard that for 3 weeks with in our previous series. Fastforward to now and Bulls fans are calling for Thibs to be fired.

Wittman deserves credit for having the team motivated, they're playing excellent disciplined defense. And on offense, they move the ball and have a balanced attack that is very hard to stop.

At the end of the day, Atlanta without Horford is a much less talented team than Washington. There's only so much a coach can do with a talent deficiency.

Regarding coaching impact, I think every situation is different. Sometimes a coach is helping all they can and the talent is the limiting factor, sometimes not.

See OKC

Agreed. And it's not just about talent, it's also about how motivated and confident the players are as well. The Wizards were more talented than Chicago, but they also (imo) played harder than they have all year, and it seemed like even the Bulls were shocked by the effort/confidence we had.

Wittman may not have done or said anything different from the regular season, rather it's possible that our players simply decided to rise to the occasion and elevate their play. Now, all of a sudden the team is playing to its potential and the coach looks like a genius.

They are peaking at the right time. The team is still improving and gelling.

Keep in mind, once they added Miller and Gooden, then Nene was out 20 games.

This is the first time we have really gotten to see the complete team as they are. Plus Beal did a lot of experimenting in the regular season and lots of us were frustrated watching it. I had been calling for him to trim back him game to something more efficient. But it didn't look like he was doing that down the stretch. That inefficient experiment likely cost them some regular season games but it looks to be benefiting them in the playoffs.

Well I think he has done that now in the playoffs and he has combined that with being able to do some of the things he was working on more efficiently. Out of no where he added a little hesitation to those left side mores and that is allowing him to get balanced and go up stronger. That makes a HUGE difference when going to your weak side. Its easier for a right handed player to do that going to their strong side. They get a lifetime more practice at doing that.

I feared Wall and Beal would try to do to much instead of blending in and stepping up when needed. Seems they are blending in and stepping up when needed pretty well. Great experience for them.