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As is usually the case, the first quarter of the baseball season passed by with me being far more engrossed in hockey and basketball playoffs to really catch too many games. This year, I even failed to notice that the Braves hit the 41-game mark.
The expectations for this season were dramatically lowered when Atlanta lost two of its starters before this season even began. It seemed like it was going to be extremely difficult to compete for the division, much less the Wild Card. Yet here we are, 41 games into the season and the Braves atop the standings.
Of course, this isn't terribly likely to hold. The Nationals are right behind Atlanta, and they have far more talent on their roster for the long haul. Depending on how everybody's health plays out, there remains the chance that the Braves may be able to compete for a postseason spot. While the story thus far has been the pitching, the team's offense has struggled mightily. Considering that it's more likely that the former will regress before the latter improves dramatically, it's going to be a real uphill fight all year long.
After an opening round that offered more stunningly competitive contests than we had been accustomed to in recent year, the conference semifinals weren't nearly the must-see TV I had been anticipating. With the exception of the Thunder-Clippers series, most of the remaining games were fairly one-sided affairs. The final four teams are invariably the same ones people had been pretty much anticipating all year long. While I think there's bound to be a few close games and terrific moments, I don't really think there's too much doubt that you're probably going to have to hold out hope that the Heat's threepeat bid fails in the Finals, not this round.
The Western Conference Finals ended up being what I had predicted last round, but the East turned out to be two upsets with the underdogs both knocking off the home teams in Game 7s. We're left with some fairly intriguing possibilities for this year's Stanley Cup Final, with the West featuring the last two Cup winners and the East boasting teams that last won it all in 1993 and 1994. In other words, we'll end up with one recent winner taking on a team that hasn't tasted success in two decades.
I'm guessing that while there will certainly be other individual heroes who score game-winning goals, much of the focus in both these conference finals will revolve heavily around the men in between the pipes for all four teams. The remaining goalies all have the potential to individually decide their respective series, and there's a very good chance that we'll be treated to several low-scoring goaltending duels. A single goal could be critical in both of these series, and both series could very well come down to which goalie allows the lone goal that results in the other team moving on to play for the Cup.
While basketball has been perhaps my least favorite of the four major sports for quite some time now, I cannot deny that 2014 has thus far provided probably the most competitive and watchable games of any year I can remember. In addition to a surprisingly entertaining NCAA Tournament in March, this first round of the NBA Playoffs—typically little more than a four teams sleepwalking into the next round—offered up no less than six must-see series of nail-biting, buzzer-beating action. While I went a respectable 6-2 on my picks for the last round, I wasn't even close on the number of games any of the series would last (oh, sorry ... except for Bulls-Wizards, where I was on the money but had the winner wrong).
With the exception of Miami's polite routing of Charlotte, I could have very easily gone 1-7 instead. As it turned out, five underdogs fell just short after forcing a Game 7. I remain glued to the Stanley Cup Playoffs every passing night, but I cannot deny that I have been keeping a far more watchful eye on the NBA than I have in years past. This has been a remarkable start to the playoffs, and I can only assume that it is about to take another step up to offer even more compelling and astonishing finishes over the next two weeks.
***SIGH***
Stop me if you've heard this story before: A Bulls team lacking superstars overachieves in the regular season before coming up short in the playoffs. I won't need to spend too much time harping on this past year for basketball in Chicago, because I basically shared my exact same thoughts following last season. Here we are again, and maybe the only difference now is that we can look forward to Carlos Boozer finally hitting the road.
As is always the case, there's a lot of discussion about a possible big-name free agent (Carmelo Anthony) to team with Derrick Rose when he returns for what is hopefully his first full season in two years. I refuse to get my hopes up about Anthony, instead holding out hope for the far more realistic possibility that the Bulls can get Real Madrid power forward Nikola Mirotić to come across the pond and more than make up for what Boozer lacked. There has also been some concern raised about reports that the Los Angeles Lakers are attempting to woo Tom Thibodeau into coming to California, but I simply don't see what that franchise could offer Chicago that would be attractive enough for them to relinquish control of the coach.
However, there's some very real issues to be taken with Thibs' style now. The man is committed to winning every single possession of every single game, no matter how meaningless. This attitude has largely gone over well among the U.C. faithful, where a regular season victory is still treated as being some sort of indicator of future success. Of course, this is not the case. And one needs look no further than San Antonio (where aging stars are routinely given the night off) or Miami (where the "Big Three" also receive breaks to stay healthy for a playoff run) to realize that if the Bulls are truly to compete in the near future, the team is going to have to be willing to sacrifice a game or two in the regular season.
I fear this would strike Thibs as nonsense, but unless the team adds some genuinely striking offensive talent this off-season, I have little reason to get my hopes up about anything being all that different when the 2015 Playoffs tip off. The Heat are not getting any younger, but the Spurs have continued to be perennial contenders despite years and years of being dismissed as "too old." Chicago continues to be among the best defensive teams in the league year in and year out, but until they can be as strong offensively while still having gas in the tank and a healthy roster come April, it just seems that the ceiling for the Bulls will continue to be as bridesmaids of the Eastern Conference.
It's late at night and all three final Game 7 contests of the first round concluded with me being wrong about every single winner. That was pretty indicative my opening round picks, but the saving grace would of course be that my beloved Blackhawks are still very much alive, very much kicking, and very likely to keep defending their title perhaps well into May. Then again, considering my performance last round, perhaps I should pick against them just to improve their chances.
The NHL postseason is without a doubt my favorite time of year, and each one of these four series in the next round has the potential to be riveting stuff. If the last round taught us nothing else, no upset can be ruled out and no lead is safe. So needless to say, I won't be getting too far ahead of myself and talking about possible Stanley Cup Final picks. Hoping, of course, is another matter.
