In praise of boredom

This year's NBA playoffs were regarded, at least before Derrick Rose blew up in Game 1, turning Bulls-Celtics into a series for the ages, as essentially a giant waste of time. We knew the match-up that was ultimately decide the Larry O'Brien Trophy, and we still do, everything else is basically the sideshow as we wait for the main event, Lakers-Cavs. 

Aside from robbing the playoffs of a certain amount of joy, this ultimately gives certain series the shaft. Now I'm going to do something I really never would have imagined anyone doing... I'm going to defend the Hawks-Heat series.

 

Not that the series was good basketball mind you, because God knows it was awful, awful stuff. 

 

And do I think that the Hawks have much of a shot against the Cavs? I do not. 

 

But here's the thing. Because of the fait accompli of the Finals, barring injury, we need something either unexpectedly dramatic, like the greatest first round series ever, or absurd, like a 58-point blowout, to drive the conversation, however briefly. But the prospect of Heat-Cavs offered something different, something we wouldn't otherwise get until the finals, a series between two of the top three players in the league. I know of at least a few people, like Bill Simmons and Jay Marriotti, talking about the spectacle of a game 5 in Cleveland tied 2-2, after Wade had gone for 50+ two straight games to even the series. That would be compelling television.

 

Instead, we get the Hawks, a fine, rising team, but a team devoid of a telegenic superstar. Instead, it’s a team that was solidly the best of the rest of the East for nearly the entire season, after the Billups trade, a team whose best player who's signing resulted in a lawsuit between ownership. But here's the thing. I think the Hawks at least provide a better matchup than the Heat, who, we learned over the course of that series, consist solely of Wade, the zombified corpse of Jermaine O'Neal, an infuriatingly disappointing Michael Beasley and a coach no older, I think, than myself. Josh Smith is infuriating, but talented enough, I think, that he might actually be called upon to check LeBron on occasion, and Joe Johnson could prove to be an issue for the Cavs, now that he's out of his slump. The Hawks probably are going to be more of a challenge, and they'll need that testing as they move forward.

 

This, I believe, is not the matchup we wanted but its the matchup we, and ultimately the Cavaliers, needed.