This is the dream scenario for NBA fans numb to not-so-recent practice — annoyingly only delegated to contemporary players — of NBA opponents giving each other DAP before the opening tip, and even sometimes helping them up after a hard foul. That’s not going to happen with the Chicago Bulls and Cleveland Cavaliers in the Conference Semifinals. After Chicago ended any doubts they’d advance past Milwaukee by butchering the Bucks in Game 6, Joakim Noah even primed the pump for the ensuing on-court hostilities, but saying he’s “actually excited to go to Cleveland” for the first two games of the series.
Noah: "I never thought I'd say this but I'm excited to go to Cleveland."
— K.C. Johnson (@KCJHoop) May 1, 2015
Game 1 tips off Monday night at 7PM ET on TNT, but we’re already thinking about when Joakim Noah called LeBron James a pu**y while wearing a look of utter disgust earlier this season.
Noah isn’t just excited to go to Cleveland, he’s “very, very excited” to face the Cavs:
Noah: "We're very, very excited about the upcoming task."
— K.C. Johnson (@KCJHoop) May 1, 2015
It’s also nice for Chicago Kevin Love is done for the postseason after Kelly Olynyk wrenched his shoulder out with an armbar.
Rose on Cavs: "When you don’t have a player like Kevin Love, it’s something to worry about a little bit."
— K.C. Johnson (@KCJHoop) May 1, 2015
Unlike Noah, Derrick Rose was a little more conciliatory about facing the No. 2 seed in the East, but just as jazzed as Noah to rumble with what could now be a specious pick for Conference supremacy.
Rose on Cavs: "They're a great team. It's going to be fun."
— K.C. Johnson (@KCJHoop) May 1, 2015
Rose will battle Kyrie Irving at the one-post, matching up perhaps the best young point guard in the league against a player who unquestionably held that moniker when he won the 2011 MVP:
Rose on Irving: "He’s a great young player, demands a lot of attention whenever he does have the ball. That’s what we have to give him."
— K.C. Johnson (@KCJHoop) May 1, 2015
We are SO excited for this series. The Cavs won the head-to-head matchup 3-1 during the regular season, including an overtime win on Halloween. Still, the Bulls thumped them by 14 points at the United Center in mid February after LeBron had returned from his two-week sabbatical, so anyone calling Chicago a huge underdog — with Love in a sling — is wrong.
Before we get to that series, first a couple more first-round engagements have to finish, starting with tonight’s Game 6 between the Hawks and Nets — where Atlanta is hoping they cam mimic Chicago’s Thursday night dominance on the road.
