Joe Johnson had 20 in the 4th quarter

Image details: Boston Celtics v Atlanta Hawks – Game Three served by picapp.com

You must admit it.

You did not see this coming.

Atlanta has taken both of their home games and now the series with the Boston Celtics is tied at 2 to 2.

Game 5 is back in Boston.

So how did Atlanta do it?
Well, it may have started with the trade for Mike Bibby.

Oh, you want to know what happened in the game?

After starting the game on a 16-3 run, the Celtics cooled down as Atlanta secured a 97-92 home win in Game 4 on Monday.

On an off night for rookie Al Horford, Joe Johnson and Josh Smith combined for Atlanta’s final 34 points. Johnson led the way with 35 points and six assists, while Smith chipped in 28 points, six rebounds and seven blocks.

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This is a Hawks team that now believes that they can win. Sure, the Hawks know that Kevin Garnett is a great player, and so is Paul Pierce and Ray Allen, but they can be beaten!

The game was still close going into the fourth quarter when Joe Johnson took over and left the Celtics wondering what happened.

The credit for this Atlanta stunner goes largely to Johnson, who took control in the final quarter. After Smith’s jumper put the Hawks ahead to stay 81-79, Johnson scored nine straight points to keep the Celtics on the ropes.

The knockout came when Paul Pierce drove to the hoop and left it short, then tumbled over a cameraman alongside the basket. When the Boston star finally climbed back to his feet, he had a look of disbelief—which pretty much sums up the way the Celtics are feeling about this series.

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You have to wonder if any Boston fans bought game 5 tickets. They had to be sure this series would be over in 4 games.

NBA Basketball special comment Will Atlanta win this series? No, but they have acquired a huge dose of confidence and experience that has to pay dividends.

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The Nuggets are upset, because they just lost to the Utah Jazz in Utah.

They shouldn’t be.

As your intrepid author predicted two days ago, Denver would lose to Utah, while Golden State would probably beat the Clippers at home. Denver is still safe. Denver has the tie breaker.

Golden State is on the road with the Suns and home with the Supersonics. Call that one loss and one victory.

Denver has two home games remaining. One with the Rockets and one with the Grizzlies. Most likely they only need to beat the Grizzlies to limp into the playoffs.

Over in the East

Meanwhile, Atlanta failed to beat Boston due to a hot Sam Cassell and thus failed to clinch a playoff spot.

Atlanta would have ended the NBA’s longest playoff drought with a victory, because Indiana lost to Charlotte earlier Saturday. The Hawks remained two games ahead of the Pacers with two to play, lowering their magic number to one for the right to face the Celtics in a first-round series.

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Even is Atlanta clinches, they are nothing more than mince meat to the Celtics.

Here are the Eastern Standings.

Eastern Conference
Team GB
1. z-Boston —
2. y-Detroit 7.5
3. y-Orlando 14.5
4. x-Cleveland 20.5
5. x-Washington 22.0
6. x-Toronto 23.5
7. x-Philadelphia 24.0
8. Atlanta 27.0
9. Indiana 29.0

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Good Luck, Atlanta. At least you will be in the playoffs, which is a big step.

NBA Basketball special comment Don’t these last few games just seem to drag on?

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LeBron James All Star MVP – Time to get out of Dodge err Cleveland!

With David Stern happy to have NBA Marketing Icon LeBron James as the MVP of the 2008 All Star game, the world can move on.

If you had to lay odds, it had to be James as MVP.

The NBA is a marketing organization, not a sports organization. Right now the future of the NBA seems secure, with possible expansion out of the USA and many stars in the league, but it can change fast and David Stern knows that.

Don’t get me wrong, LeBron is so good he probably would win the MVP of the All Star game anyway, almost every year.

It wouldn’t be long until these pulsating final minutes of this fabulous All-Star Game ultimately belonged to the genius of its Most Valuable Player with 27 points, nine assists and eight rebounds. It wouldn’t be long until commissioner David Stern passed him his second trophy at 23 years old, and the world would see who the star of stars was again at New Orleans Arena.

“LeBron is a freight train when he goes to that basket,” West coach Byron Scott sighed. “He’s so big, and so strong – so quick and so powerful. It’s hard to stop him when he gets the momentum going like that.” source

Now it is time to plan for LeBron to leave Cleveland.

The Cavaliers will have a hard time putting together consistent teams in Cleveland.

Over the summer, LeBron, Bryant and Jason Kidd were grumbling teammates with Team USA. Bryant wanted out of Los Angeles. Kidd wanted a trade to Cleveland. And James just wanted someone to share the burden with him. Well, the two point guards whom Cleveland GM Danny Ferry had tried to obtain for two years – Kidd and Mike Bibby – are on the way to Dallas and Atlanta.

The NBA needs to keep LeBron on the highest stage possible. That stage would be the NBA Playoffs and probably at least the Conference Finals. Hopefully the Championship series itself.

You can’t market Tim Duncan.

As much as it hurts your intrepid author (a huge Pistons fan), the League does not want anymore San Antonio Spurs vs. Detroit Pistons series. To fans outside of those teams, it is boring. They play defense.

Think of Kevin Garnett’s Boston Celtics vs. Kobe’s Lakers.

Think of Steve Nash and the Shaq bringing the Suns in to play LeBron James when he is on the Knicks (without Isiah).

Mike Bibby will bring shooting and poise to the Hawks

On the surface, most fans are saying, “So what.”

Mike Bibby gets traded from one under .500 team to another under .500 team.

But there is more here than meets the eye.

In the Western Conference, to be under .500 is to be out of the playoff race. In the Eastern Conference, only 5 teams are above .500. That is right, only 5 teams.

Atlanta is still in it.

The Hawks played my Pistons the other night in a nothing pre-All-Star-time game and took Detroit down to the wire.

Now admittedly the Pistons were having a tough time staying interested in that game and needed a Rasheed Wallace referee blowup to get excited, but Atlanta was busy showing off young talent at the same time.

You have a team with Josh Smith, Joe Johnson, Josh Childress, Al Horford, Marvin Williams and, lo and behold, no point guard. That is until now.

Hawks coach Mike Woodson said Bibby, acquired from the Sacramento Kings for four players on Saturday, will provide scoring help for Joe Johnson. Atlanta’s All-Star shooting guard often faces gimmick defenses because he’s the team’s only outside shooting threat.

“There’s another option now,” Woodson said. “It’ll be like a one-two punch in the backcourt.” source

And Sacramento?

Don’t kid yourself about these deals. Sacramento picked up a bunch of expiring or almost expiring contracts and probably nothing more. They just want cash space in the off season to pursue players.

NBA Basketball Fan Question Can Mike Bibby ignite the Hawks?

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LeBron James knows he must improve for Cleveland to win

It is not often that LeBron James is humbled.

It is even less often that the King is shown to be at a deficit with his hoop skills.

The Cleveland Cavaliers surprised a lot of teams last year, but unless LeBron and the team improve, they will fall behind the Pistons, Celtics, and probably the Magic.

And right now LeBron is behind Kobe in his ability to finish a game.

In last year’s Championship, the San Antonio Spurs took LeBron and basically punished him.

So the Spurs took LeBron out behind the woodshed?

Well, not exactly, but something like that.

The San Antonio Spurs prevented LeBron James from dominating in last year’s NBA Championship series.

The Spurs, given more than enough time to game plan, took advantage of his shortcomings during the Finals. Bruce Bowen chased him wherever he went, and when James did penetrate, he usually found a four-man wall waiting for him.

The Spurs’ goal: If James wanted to drive, he was going to have to plow through a crowd of them to do so. Instead, they dared James to fire pick-and-roll jumpers, and he didn’t make nearly enough, shooting just 32 percent in the four-game sweep. source

The King was not going to side idly by and let this public humiliation escape away without rectifying some soft spots in his game.

So, LeBron James went to work this past summer.

So James brought Cleveland’s shooting coach, Chris Jent, with him nearly everywhere he went last summer. Jent was in Las Vegas working with James as he trained with Team USA. He accompanied him to Los Angeles for the ESPYs. To New England for a working vacation.

The results aren’t hard to see. Just ask the Memphis Grizzlies, whom James hung 51 points on Tuesday. He’s leading the league in scoring, averaging 29.8 points per game while shooting a career-best 48.7 percent. James’ three-point percentage has dropped slightly, but his midrange game has never been better.

Now that the King has improved, LeBron would like to see the team improve. One area of definite improvement would be more talent.

“They have to get LeBron more help,” one scout said recently.

The GM, Danny Ferry, has twice tried to get Mike Bibby, asked about Andre Miller of the Sixers, tried to put together a package for Jason Kidd of the Nets. So far no luck.

Geez, LeBron takes the team all the way to the finals without talent. How scary would the Cav’s be with talent?

One thing is for sure, LeBron will be working on his game in the meantime to get better.

NBA Basketball Fan Question Is LeBron the best player in the NBA?

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