Friday, January 17, 2014

The East Finally Coming Back?


                   In the 2013-2014 season of the National Basketball Association, there has been one main talk, which became one of the NBA's biggest headaches. This, my friends, is how much the Eastern Conference sucks. Right now, the West has a crazy 315-245 lead in wins overall, by every team in each conference! That's a 70 wins advantage, for crying out loud! Anyway, the main reason of this deficit are the highlight teams of the NBA with great talent and huge expectations but just completely failing due to no team chemistry, fatal injuries, and much more and we all know who they are. So, these teams are currently, or pretty recently all were on a five game winning streak, bringing their names back up into the positive conversation. All the three teams in the image above came back from under the eighth seed back into the playoff picture in the last two weeks, which is pretty impressive, even with the horrific (but getting there) Eastern Conference. 

               Let's start with the Brooklyn Boys. Okay fine, the Brooklyn Men. Yeah, the Brooklyn Pretty Dang Old Men. The team of Hall of Famers, with great stars and role players with endless talent. The team is guided (or is paying eight million bucks for this person's courtside seats)  by the rookie coach and former Net and legend point guard, Jason Kidd. Kidd is probably, well in my opinion, the main reason for the Nets' horrific disappointment early in the season. Also the team chemistry with KG, Paul Pierce and even somewhat the Jet isn't working out with Deron and his old crew because the former Celtic stars who are currently struggling to shine Brooklyn, are used to an all unselfish  athletic point guard who distributes twelve dishes a night known by Rajon Rondo, where Deron ain't about that life. Kevin Garnett used to put up 17.7 points and 10.6 boards on his career before this season where he averages 6.8 points and 6.9 rebounds per game. Now, in the past two weeks or so, the Nets are finding that Brooklyn groove when they had recorded an impressive five game winning-streak, especially with a stunning double overtime win against the back to back reigning champions Miami Heat, where LeBron was fouled out of the game (finally,) and the nickname jerseys gave the Nets a boost in confidence. From the bottom of the league to now the eighth seed, the Nets future just gets brighter from here and is yet to fully turn heads.

          Now let's get into the New York state of mind as we head to Manhattan for a closer glance at Melo's New York Knicks. Last year, the Knicks ended with the sensational number two seed and were thought to only get better until they started with inefficiency this year. The reason? Nothing major in my opinion, maybe a lack of some team chemistry or something like that. I actually believe they should've exceeded expectations because they only lost Jason Kidd and other role players, but signed big names like Metta World Peace or (INSERT FUTURE NAME HERE) and Andrea Bargnani. Melo is just being Melo, and JR Smith had stepped up to a crucial player for the Knicks. The Knicks have just been a sob story at the beginning of the season but like all the teams in this article they came back for five games in a row and are currently just one place short of gaining appearance into the playoff picture.

        Now in the Windy City of ChiTown where the Bulls reside, a whole different story takes place. Chicago was saddened by the fall of the rising MVP superstar, Derrick Rose in the first game of the 2012 NBA Playoffs for the Bulls where he tore his ACL. We all know the rest, the Bulls lost the series to the eighth seed Sixers and signed a couple players over the off-season, made a statement by ending with the fifth seed, beating the Nets to advance to semi-finals, and losing to the Heat in five, all without Derrick Rose. Over the course of #thereturn he released five shoes and a logo with Adidas, as well as receiving much criticism came from fans regarding D Rose not returning. Finally, on October 29, 2013 Derrick Rose made his regular season debut with the Bulls against the Heat after going 8-0 in the preseason. They desperately lost by over twenty points and Derrick Rose still proven rusty. He fought back the game after against the Knicks to hit the game winning floater. A few games later, while slowly improving as he came along, the Bulls were at the 3rd seed in the East, after Indiana and Miami. Derrick Rose tragically went down on his right MCL and after a critical MRI, he was done for the season. There went all the hopes for the Bulls and Derrick Rose, not only for t his year, but for many years to come. The Bulls were down to the ninth seed after a horrific losing streak. With the beautiful gift of the newcomers and some experimenting by Tom Thibodeau, the Bulls were on their way back. With a five game winning streak, they were back into the playoff picture at the sixth seed.


           

No comments:

Post a Comment