When he wasn’t busy calling LeBron James (rhymes with pushy), Joakim Noah also found some time to “Mozgov” Timofey Mozgov.
Despite flushing it on Moz, and with Noah collecting six points, seven assists, eight rebounds and two steals in 32 minutes, the Bulls lost to the Cavs 99-94 on Easter Sunday. The loss did nothing to temper Joakim’s enthusiasm for facing the Cavs in the playoffs this year:
“I think we’re a confident group,” Noah said after the game. “And it would be great to play them in the playoffs. It would be very, very exciting, something that I really hope happens.
[…]
Noah wouldn’t bite when asked where he believed the Bulls have an advantage over the Cavs, but he has remained optimistic all season that his team was finally poised to take down James.
“Where do we have an advantage?” Noah said. “I’m not sure. I’m not sure. But you don’t want to skip steps. We know these next five, six games are very important for us. We just have to get better as a team.
“But if the opportunity presents itself and we can play Cleveland, I would be very happy. We would be very happy as a team to be able to do that.”
The Cavs are 3-1 against Chicago this season, but they’ve got an identical offensive and defensive rating in all four games (105.3, per NBA.com). Cleveland’s first win of the season came in overtime against the visiting Bulls, but they lost badly in Chicago, 113-98, after LeBron took his recuperative mid-season break. Since the middle of January, the Cavs have the NBA’s best record.
To say that Noah is confident might be overstating it a bit, but with everyone calling the Cavs the favorites in the East, Chicago is that rare East team who doesn’t seem scared of facing Cleveland in May.
They’ll likely meet in the Conference Semifinals if both teams advance and depending on how Chicago performs over the remaining nine days of the regular season. We can hardly wait for them to tip it off with their season on the line.
(ESPN)
