Nate Robinson had a spectacular series for the Chicago Bulls, who upset the Brooklyn Nets in seven games to open the NBA playoffs. Photo Credit: Shinya, Flickr.com
The Chicago Bulls wrote one of the greatest tales of perseverance and grit in the history of the NBA playoffs. Conversely, the Brooklyn Nets wrote one of the greatest tales of underachievement in the history of the NBA playoffs.
Chicago sprinted out to a 17-point halftime lead on Saturday, May 4, and hung on down the stretch for a 99-93 victory in Game 7 of their Eastern Conference first-round series at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn.
The Bulls did it without a minute in the series from former MVP Derrick Rose. They did it without a minute from All-Star forward Luol Deng over the final two games of the series. They did it without a minute from Rose’s stand-in, Kirk Hinrich, in the final three games of the series.
And Chicago did it with a Herculean effort from All-Star center Joakim Noah in Game 7. Despite playing through painful plantar fasciitis, Noah played nearly 41 minutes in Game 7, becoming just the fifth player in NBA history, according to the Elias Sports Bureau, to go for at least 20 points, 10 rebounds and five blocks in a Game 7 victory and just the second with a line of at least 24, 14 and six, respectively. Noah finished with 24 points, 14 rebounds and six blocks, joining Elvin Hayes of the Washington Bullets as the only other player to record such a full stat line in a Game 7 in the NBA playoffs. Hayes turned the trick in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals against the San Antonio Spurs in 1979.
Noah wasn’t the only hero in Game 7. Marco Belinelli started in place of Deng and scored 24 points. Carlos Boozer, a rock for the Bulls in the series, had 17 points despite being limited to 29 minutes because of foul trouble. Jimmy Butler played all 48 minutes.
Let’s take a look at the series in review:
Game Scores (Chicago wins series 4-3)
Game 1 at Brooklyn: Nets 106, Bulls 89
Game 2 at Brooklyn: Bulls 90, Nets 82
Game 3 at Chicago: Bulls 79, Nets 76
Game 4 at Chicago: Bulls 142, Nets 134, 3OT
Game 5 at Brooklyn: Nets 110, Bulls 91
Game 6 at Chicago: Nets 95, Bulls 92
Game 7 at Brooklyn: Bulls 99, Nets 93
Series MVP
Little Nate Robinson came up huge for the Bulls. (NBA.com photo)
With apologies to Boozer and Noah, Robinson, the 5’9” (ish) point guard, played perhaps the best basketball of his NBA career, at least over a sustained stretch. Robinson started the three games Hinrich missed and did his thing, averaging 17 points and 3.6 assists in 30 minutes of playing time a night.
He also shot an astounding 50.5 percent from the floor (he is a 42.7 percent shooter for his career) and was a solid, if not spectacular, 12-for-33 (36.4 percent) from 3-point range.
Robinson gave up a ton of size to Deron Williams on the defensive end, but while he was no Hinrich on D, he held his own with a defensive rating (points per 100 possessions) of 111 in the series. Considering he was surrendering six inches and roughly 30 pounds, that’s not too shabby.
In the Bulls’ 142-134 triple-overtime victory in Game 4, Robinson had 23 points … in the fourth quarter. Dude could not miss.
Biggest Surprise
Veteran Nazr Mohammad gave Chicago a lift off the bench. (NBA.com photo)
The 35-year-old veteran of 15 NBA seasons returned home to his native Chicago this season, another stop in a career that has seen Mohammed drafted by the Utah Jazz, traded to the Philadelphia 76ers on draft night, dealt to the Atlanta Hawks in a trade that included Toni Kukoc and Dikembe Mutombo, traded to the New York Knicks, dealt to the San Antonio Spurs, signed by the Detroit Pistons, traded to the Charlotte Bobcats and traded to the Oklahoma City Thunder.
Mohammed has been everywhere, or so it seems, and seen everything. He even picked up a ring as a member of the Spurs in 2005. Backing up Noah this season, Mohammad averaged just 11 minutes a game, posting 2.6 points and 3.1 rebounds a night.
But with Noah limited at times in the series—Noah averaged only 31 minutes a game against Brooklyn—Mohammed stepped up in a huge way.
Or did anyone expect Nazr Mohammad—at this stage of his career—to post a player-efficiency rating (PER) of 21.5 over the course of a seven-game series. In just 80 minutes, Mohammed knocked down 32 points, grabbed 23 rebounds and blocked five shots. Over 36 minutes, that corresponds to averages of 14.4 points, 10.4 boards and 2.3 blocks. Noah’s per-36 numbers for the series: 13.3 points, 11.4 rebounds and 3.6 blocks.
Add those together and you have a banged-up Chicago team beating a much-ballyhooed Brooklyn squad in seven games.
This is what Noah helped to do in Game 7, a game in which Mohammed only played five minutes:
Biggest Disappointment
Former All-Star Johnson wasn’t even an average Joe for the Nets. (NBA.com photo)
So that’s what $19.7 million bought for Brooklyn—a guy who threw up (almost literally) a 2-for-14 clunker, including 1-for-9 from deep, in the first home-court Game 7 in franchise history.
Johnson, the Nets’ big offseason acquisition from the Atlanta Hawks, scored a whopping six points in the finale. For the rest of the series, he wasn’t that much better.
In 38.7 minutes a game, Johnson averaged 14.9 points and 2.7 assists on 41.7 percent shooting, including going just 10-for-39 (25.6 percent) from the land of 3. His PER for the series was a pathetic 11.6 (15 is considered average and a guy on the hook for nearly $70 million over the next three seasons needs to be a helluva lot better than average). His offensive rating was a subpar 99 and his defensive rating was an even-more-subpar 108.
Yes, Johnson was also playing with plantar fasciitis in the series, but there was still much more expected of him in this series than the Nets got.
Outside of a big shot in the triple-overtime classic in Game 4, Johnson was an absolute non-factor in this series. So enjoy the shot, Nets fans, and cringe at the idea of being stuck with this guy for three more seasons.
What’s Next
vs. Miami Heat
The Bulls don’t get a lot of time to celebrate—the open the Eastern Conference semifinals in Miami against the top-seeded and defending champion Heat on Monday, May 6. Tip-off on TNT is schedule for just after 7 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time.
While the Heat were blitzing the league to the tune of 66 victories (a franchise record) and putting together the second-longest winning streak in league history at 27 games, Chicago bounced along with a 45-37 mark.
But it was Chicago that ended Miami’s winning streak with a 101-97 win at home on March 27. The teams split their four meetings this season. The Bulls’ other victory was a 96-89 win at Miami on Jan. 4. The Heat posted an 86-67 victory at Chicago on Feb. 21 and a 105-93 home-court win on April 14.