NBA Playoffs Day 14: Blowing it up

Wizards (4) at Hawks (5)
Wizards leading 3-2
6:30 CST

In another round of the point guard battles, John Wall and Dennis Schroder will vie for victory. The Hawks have been doing a good job of hanging around in this series and if they are able to hold on tonight, it should certainly be a competitive game 7 in Washington.

This remains the least publicly discussed series of the first round, as Atlanta has gotten even less interesting somehow with the addition of Dwight Howard. If Taurean Prince is the player on your team getting the most press in your playoff series, then you have a boring team. Everyone wants to watch John Wall and the Wizards take it to the Celtics in the next round. Let’s hope it happens.

Celtics at Bulls
Celtics leading 3-2
7:00 CST
ESPN

The Bulls have fallen apart and the Celtics might not be any good. Who will Fred Hoidberg play tonight at Point Guard? Will it be MCW, Isaiah Cannan, Jerian Grant, Cameron Payne, or Denzel Valentine? It’s astounding that the Bulls have somehow made this a competitive series with their hodgepodge collection of players. They have theoretically SIX point guards on their roster and they can’t figure out what to do now that Rajon Rondo has gone down.

They can’t even seem to figure out what is going on with their Bigs rotation either, as Joffrey Lauvergne made a surprise appearance in the previous game. The Bulls seem to just throw out Dwayne Wade and Jimmy Butler plus parts and hope something works.

For the Celtics, they certainly have to close out tonight’s game and not let this go to Game 7 where a potential takeover game from Butler could end the series. They are simply better than the Bulls, but their weaknesses have certainly been exposed over this series.

Clippers at Jazz
Jazz leading 3-2
9:30 CST
ESPN

This is where the excitement lies tonight. The Clippers certainly need a win or else they are going home. We will expect to see another Chris Paul Point God game, as he is not one to go quietly into the night. The Clippers roster, similarly to the Bulls, does not seem able to hold up now that an injury has happened to an integral player, as they are now starting Luc Mbah A Moute and Marreese Speights at the two forward spots. Paul Pierce has not been able to hold up and Austin Rivers is having to play up against Wings. Their barren roster, which has been a distinct criticism for several years now, cannot withstand the injury to Blake Griffin.

However, we can’t count them out quite yet. They still have the best player in the series with Chris Paul and that can simply determine who is able to make it to the next round.

The Jazz, for their part, are still working on getting up to full speed after Rudy Gobert’s injury and Gordon Hayward’s food poisoning. The Jazz are in their own predicament if they are not able to close out the series, as they are certainly using this playoff run to convince Hayward that he should remain with the Jazz.

It will be a fun game tonight.

This will serve as the game thread for tonight’s slate of games. Happy Chatting away.