Awesome race between Toronto and Chicago, both very good teams and I totally forgot Derozan is out! Lowry is out of his mind and while I don't see them coming out 1st seed, they could really go all the way to the finals if they keep this up!
Toronto and Atlanta seem to be building their teams more in the mold of a western conference team. They know what they are doing far more than the outdated, old school ways of the east.
Don't all ignore the Hawks at once! Don't know what will happens in the playoffs but they look plenty damn good now.
If the Hawks play like this when it counts, they will make the Finals. Problem is, they won't and everything happening now will be forgotten.
Hawks are pretenders. They won't do **** come playoff time. Even with their 11 game winning steak. Lol I'm just hating, we were suppose to win that game when we played them awhile back, but the refs screwed us over.
Kyle Korver is only 50/90 not 50/50/90, he only shoots threes. I really like how Washington and Atlanta are playing. The pieces fit together and they play great team ball.
The hawks are the grizzlies of the east: Horford - Gasol Milsap - Zach Carroll - Allen Kover - Lee Teague - Coney They are a very similar team to the grizzlies.
What happened to the Toronto Raptors? They were the class of the East, but ATL has quietly dethroned them.
People were saying that Derozan was just an empty stat guy and Toronto played better without him. Actually they hit a soft stretch of the schedule right after his went down and looked good. Then when they hit the road to the West, they promptly had a losing streak. We'll see if they can get back on track with DeRozan back now. Atlanta is red hot. I think they are legit.
I still think DeRozan might be an empty stat guy who's stats aren't that great to begin with. IMO, the team was due to come down to earth and would have lost most of those road games with DeRozan anyway. They were obliterated at home by the Hawks Friday with DeRozan having one of his best games. Maybe I'm just being too hard on the guy, but 20/4/3 on 42pct/28pct shooting with TOs that match assists is OK but nothing special. While I didn't watch the entire series, he really played like a choking dog against the Nets in the playoffs when I tuned in. Deer in the headlights look that reminded me of Jeff Green at OKC.
I wasn't looking at it that way. But, the grizzlies aren't the same grizzlies of the past: Conley, Lee, Jeff Green, Udrih, Calathes and Vince can all hit 3 pointers. Marc can hit from 17 out. The grizzlies, other than Marc, Zbo, Tony Kosta are all capable outside shooters. The grizzlies are also playing a more up and down game and getting into their sets faster. The grizzlies can beat you in multiple ways. Lee, Green, Udrih and Vince are significant pieces that the grizzlies have gotten just less than a year ago.
The Hawks will soon come back down to earth. I mean come on...they're the Hawks. They haven't accomplished anything noteworthy in many years. Likewise with the Raptors and the Wizards. Come playoff time, the two best teams in the East will be Chicago and Cleveland. Atlanta, Toronto and Washington will all get bounced in the first or second round. I feel the same way about Golden State in the West. Too much jump shooting. They remind me of the Phoenix Suns from 8-10 years ago. The Warriors will soon hit the skids, and will be a first or second-round exit just like the past several seasons. The Spurs will be the team to beat in the playoffs, especially if they're healthy. Streaks and records don't mean much at this point in the season. Even mediocre teams tend to go on at least one hot streak. To win championships in this league, you need big men who can protect the paint and get the opponent in foul trouble, you need a star-caliber wing (unless you're the Spurs), you need a guard that can break down the defense and create, you must have depth and you must be strong on defense.
