Nuggets stay alive and Hawks officially ‘Fear the Deer’!

April 30th, 2010 by Ty

 

In a series where injuries are running rampant, the Nuggets were able to get their act together and hold off the Jazz but lost their big man, Nene to a sprained knee. After signs of team turmoil after their game 4 loss to the Jazz, the Nuggets were able to get their sixth man J.R Smith back on track and rally behind their floor general Chauncey Billups and pick up a win that leaves them one game away from tying the series and more importantly extended the series for a game 6 come Friday.  Boozer and Deron continued their dominating performance so far this series leading their team with 26pts/16rbds and 34pts/10asts. The difference was the Nuggets countered this with an all round team effort with 6 players finishing in double digits and the bench chipped in 37pts compared to the Jazz’s 16pts. With this win, we are yet to determine if the Nuggets can convince themselves and possibly the rest of the NBA that they are back to their mid-season form as title contenders. 

Now a team that has to play some really good basketball to be able to regain any sense of credibility as a possible elite team in the East is the Hawks team that was dispatched by the rookie, Brandon Jennings and the Bucks who stole home court advantage and the series lead heading back to Milwaukee for game 6.  While on paper, the Hawks having the more complete squad and the Bucks are playing without their dominant centre Andrew Bogut, it is the Hawks who have failed to find consistent or convincing efforts offensively from their loaded starting five of Horford, Smith, Williams, Johnson and Bibby compared to the Bucks who have found a leader in the rookie Jennings and great scoring punches from players like Salmons and Delfino. Even with the fire power of the newly crowned sixth man, Jamal Crawford and his scoring punch off the bench the Hawks have been unable to find the keys to reining in the Bucks. But the real problem is the inability of the Hawks to get defensive stops in critical moments since the series shifted to Milwaukee in game 3 and this was a glaring problem in game 5 where the Hawks were unable to get consistent defensive efforts to stop the bucks especially in the 4th quarter were they were outscored 30-18 by the Bucks. The effort has been missing for the Hawks and they need to find a way to recover this if they want to avoid an upset at the hands of the Bucks who have made it clear in this series that they will not stop playing hard even with the odds against them.

Tags: atlanta hawks, award, billups, boozer, bucks, carmelo anthony, crawford, d.will, j.r. smith, jennings, joe johnson, Nene, Nuggets, The Playoff's, utah
Posted in Game Commentary, The Playoff's