My Atlanta Hawks made it to the post season as a sixth seed. Impressively Detroit had 3rd seed, so I played against them. Apparently they managed to trade for Nene and some other solid pieces. Swept them pretty easily though.
After that I played the Celtics. They still had their same team, which was pretty easily beat. Jermaine O'Neal was out in the first two games, so they were complete blowouts as Garnett had no chance against Dwight. Ended up beating them 4-1.
Meanwhile the Heat were playing the Bulls. During the season I beat the Heat pretty easily (By about 20 points), but had suffered a blowout from the Bulls, so I was hoping that the Heat would win. They did and I faced them next. What I saw after that completely shocked me.
The Heat's starting five consisted of Arenas, Wade, Lebron, Bosh and Roy Hibbert. That starting five while maintaining Chalmers, Battiers, Miller, Haslem and Joel Anthony. I don't know how the hell they got Hibbert, but I knew I was in trouble. In the first quarter I was getting beat 26-14. Things started to look better though, as James pulled up for a 3 pointer. He swished it, but contesting the shot made him stumble backwards and he was out with a Lower Back Strain. Foul trouble also played a huge role in the 1st game as both Dwight and Deron Williams were in foul trouble. Luckily Kirk Hinrich and Valaciunas managed to fill the holes nicely. Eventually in the 3rd quarter we made a huge run and managed to take the lead. However Wade was punishing us (He finished with 35 points and 6 blocks, a few of those on Dwight) so we were down 6 going to the fourth quarter.
In the fourth it was a back and forth game. Bosh fouled out with 7 points. With 50 seconds left in the game, Roy Hibbert went to the line, putting them up by 1 and fouling out Dwight (22 pts, 11 rebs, 1 block). After that Crawford missed and Miami got the ball with 35 seconds left. They managed to find an open Arenas, who was heating up, for 3. Luckily he missed and with the last possession we called a time out. There were 17 seconds left on the clock and we were down by 1. Crawford let the clock run out for a bit and then found Deron Williams going around a few screens. He grabbed the ball and hit a jumper from mid range with 3.1 seconds left.
Miami called a time out and set up a play for Wade. However we defended very well and Wade was forced to shoot over 3 defenders (Williams, Hinrich and Valaciunas) and missed. We won 97-96 and stole home court advantage
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That was, by far, the most thrilling game I ever played. At one point I was down 14 points and getting frustrated for not being able to hit any shots. However my defence stepped up (We had 28 fast break points against Miami's 8) and we got rolling. Hope to beat the Heat and move on to the Finals. Tracy McGrady has been HUGE for the team off the bench. He may not get huge stats but he's extremely solid. Defends, rebounds, passes, steals, blocks and when it counts the most he hits the biggest shots. Crawford has been disappointing (He averages 15 points, but he's shooting about as many shots as well), so he's definitely a lift for the team. Hope to get him his first ring. He deserves it
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