Some Monday reading:
- Paul over at SuperSonicSoul.com
hosted
Carnival of the NBA #6. So if you're just reading here and a few other
places, this is a good start-off point to find new NBA blogs.
- Father Knickerbocker
has a recap of
Friday's Bulls victory over the Knicks, with a nice quote from Skiles
along with some Jamal Crawford bits at the end.
- Kelly Dwyer has a
great article up at SI.com applauding the Bulls' season and the moves the
organization made that lead up to it. This part had me thinking:
This touches on another curious aspect of Chicago's resurgence: the sheer number of concessions referees seem to afford them. This is a persistent and physical basketball club; it contests every shot, sticks a forearm into the chest of every player that dares drive to the goal and refuses to give up on any game. Although Chicago doesn't play dirty, the Bulls get away with a shocking amount of extracurricular activity at both ends of the court.
But the Bulls force officials to make decisions, play after play, without letting up. And as much as they want to control the action, referees still don't want to call 192 fouls per game. So faced with a Bulls team that consistently pushes the defensive envelope, the men in gray can't help but loosen up as a game moves along. It also helps that, unlike the manhandling machines of the Pat Riley-era Knicks and Heat, these Bulls aren't as obvious with their pressure, playing physically but also in an entertaining fashion.
More contact is usually allowed in playoff basketball, so will this help the Bulls? or even out the playing field for their opponents?
- A new Bulls-centric blog, 'Running
with the Bulls',
takes an
interesting look at the contrasting styles between a traditionally-styled
backcourt of Gordon and Duhon in relation to the more freewheeling style of
Hinrich and Nocioni.
- Remember my snarky NCAA v. NBA post from a couple weeks ago? Well I got caught up in a similar debate over at Yoco's College BBall blog.
And lastly, how nice is it to know that the playoffs are coming? I'll be stuck in the 300-level for the first home game (and the third), but having playoff tickets in my hand is a pretty sweet feeling.
Here's what I said Friday regarding home-court advantage:
A win at NY followed by a gimmee at home against the Raptors, and hopefully Eddy Curry will be back by then to lock up the #4 seed and home court advantage.
Well Eddy's not back yet, and I really don't feel like wasting time speculating on the man's health, and need not remind everyone of his importance. But otherwise, the wins came, so time to finish the job and make sure game 1 is at the United Center.