Blows dust off keyboard.........Writing about my Atlanta Hawks making the Eastern Conference Finals for the first time in history is not easy for me. When I blogged about this team on a somewhat consistent basis, they were never in danger of winning a championship, and that made it easy. Though I gleefully wrote about the wins, I knew that at the end of the season, they wouldn't really mean anything. Hawks bloggers of yesteryear are in unfamiliar territory. We expect them to win the East.
There was a time when I would have been happy just to have an ECF appearance. It's literally all I wanted. I was never greedy enough to hope for a championship. I just wanted them to get out of the second round, if only to give the illusion that they were good enough to win it all. Now that they've made it to the ECF, I'm feeling greedy. I desperately want them to win this series against the Cavs, and unlike years past, I will be extremely disappointed if they don't. The Hawks were the best team in the conference, and it literally wasn't even close. They've basically been dribbling out the clock since February, so it's not unreasonable to expect them to be the last team standing in the East. They don't look great heading into this series, but style points don't count in the NBA, so.... *shrugs*.
Being a Hawks fans has always been a glass half-empty sort of deal, and at its core, this blog is rooted in skepticism and snark. But, not this time. I'm not going to bitch and moan about all the things I think Coach Bud could do better. He's the reigning Coach of the Year, so for argument's sake, we'll assume he knows a little bit more about how to win NBA games than I.
I'm not even going to mention all the things that almost did us in during the Washington series. Nope. Now is not the time for any of that. I'm going to go glass half-full, and assume they'll make all the necessary adjustments to prove that this whole season wasn't a fluke. The Hawks
were better than the Cavaliers all season, and I damn sure expect that to still be true when this series is over.
Hawks in 6.
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