[外電] Horford, Noah go separate ways
http://tinyurl.com/4c77bjw By Bret LaGree Mar 23, 2011
In March 2007, Al Horford and Joakim Noah were teammates at the University of
Florida, the frontcourt anchors of nature's perfect college basketball team,
on the verge of a second consecutive national championship.
As professionals, Horford and Noah have provided fairly similar levels of
value (if by fairly inverse approaches) to their respective teams.
What they share is the ability to complement their obvious strengths, on the
defensive end for Noah and on the offensive end for Horford, with somewhat
less obvious contributions on the opposite end of the floor.
The bulk of Noah's value comes on the defensive end but he's also a demon on
the offensive glass and quite efficient when he scores.
Horford will likely improve both his offensive production and his offensive
efficiency for a third straight season (despite being Atlanta's third or
fourth option most of the time), but he's also providing solid-to-excellent
defense all over the floor, both before and after the opposition attempts a
shot.
Now, in March 2011, their paths appear set to diverge. While the Chicago
Bulls, losers in the first round of the playoffs each of the past two
seasons, battle for home-court advantage in the Eastern Conference and
embrace the expectations commensurate with such an accomplishment, the
Atlanta Hawks, swept out of the second round each of the past two seasons,
appear certain to begin the 2011 playoffs on the road, where expectations are
measured in the number of games rather than the number of rounds the team
will win.
Tuesday night's game, a 114-81 Bulls win, clarified the differences between
the teams. The Bulls, and Derrick Rose especially, appeared determined to
avenge a March 2 loss in Atlanta. In that game, the Bulls blew a 19-point
lead, Rose made just 5 of 21 shots and undermined a 12-assist effort with six
turnovers. Tuesday, Rose scored 30 points on 20 shots and earned 10 assists
against a single turnover.
The Hawks did not appear as motivated to avenge their 18-point loss in
Chicago 11 days ago. But it wasn't a lack of effort that led to Atlanta's
failure so much as a lack of options. The Hawks defended to the best of their
capabilities in the first quarter but the Bulls made the majority of their
shots nonetheless.
Once the respective benches got involved and Larry Drew proved reluctant to
play reserve center Zaza Pachulia (with two fouls) or Jeff Teague (at all),
things got out of hand. The Bulls scored on their first 13 possessions of the
second quarter, the first 12 of which Rose watched from the bench. Chicago's
MVP candidate -- the M-V-P chants started in the first quarter, even in
Atlanta, and didn't end there -- built the early lead and the Bulls turned a
22-point second-quarter lead into a 29-point halftime advantage, and that
into a 38-point lead at the end of three quarters.
But Rose's dominance was just the tip of the iceberg in terms of the
difference between the two teams.
Most telling, over the course of the competitive portion of the game, was
that Rose led his team in field goal attempts while Horford, despite going
6-for-7 from the floor and 2-for-2 from the line, took just the fourth-most
shots of the Hawks' starters. Josh Smith attempted as many jump shots as Al
Horford attempted shots in this game. The Bulls are, defensively, constructed
around Noah's skills but the Hawks are not yet committed to playing through
their best offensive player.
That dichotomy doesn't account for the full difference between the teams but
it does exemplify the difference between the team trending toward the
conference finals and the one trending toward a first-round exit.
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