Ain't no thang
Is this Wizards/Bulls series supremely enjoyable or divinely exasperating? I don't even bother paying attention until the fourth, since between the magic of Ben Gordon and the Wizards' limitless capacity for late-game ineptness, the tone isn't set until the last ten minutes or so. I also love the fact that, while the Bulls are wonders of professionalism and certainly seem like the more ethically sound candidate for "team of destiny," the Wizards are so batty, so uncontrollable, that even the basketball gods are powerless to write the script for them. I hesitate to call them the Sox of the NBA, but there's a similar level of incompetent brilliance, brilliant incompetence going on there. Even if the Wizards seem to appeal to an even higher (or lower) authority than the Red Sox.
Wizards take a twenty point lead for granted and eventually blow it by attrition, when their last five possessions could have sewn up the win (don't even mention free throws). Bulls claw back without having to resort to a miracle--they know the game well enough to make "tough plays"—and it looks we're headed into overtime, where the Bulls will doubtlessly overpower a Wizards team by now awash in their usual senselessnee. Then Arenas casually wins the game on a shot anyone (including about three Bulls, of course) could have seen coming.
His immediate reaction, according to B3 (FreeDarko's official NBA League Audio Pass correspondent):
"Game six? Watch it! It's going to be great!"
posted by Bethlehem Shoals @ 5/05/2005 01:33:00 AM
2 comments
2 Comments:
From an ethical standpoint, I wasn't sure if I could root for the Bulls to win. I did, because I'm a fan and fandom knows few ethics, but they sucked so much for the first three and a half quarters that I shouldn't have. The only reason it was close was that whenever Arenas and Hughes see someone hit something vaguely reminiscent of a big shot, whichever one of them gets the ball first has to run down the court and try to take a big shot of his own, regardless of whether they're up twelve or two. Had the Wizards kept passing the ball around and breaking down the Bulls' suddenly awful interior defense, it wouldn't have been close at the end. The Bulls came back with easy rebounds, not defense.
Isn't this, like, game TEN of this series? Will it end? Wasn't game 3 on at 10am on the Oxygen network? If the Wizards prevail, will we actually see a coach "throw in the towel" vs. Cook Coke Shaq and the Heat?
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