The Hawks Do Not Care That You Are Bored

Tonight in the early game in Atlanta, we got to see the ugly side of physical playoff basketball. On a fluke play in the open court, Dwayne Wade had his head smacked off the court, causing him to leave the game for a while. On return, there were three more plays with questionable intent, and Al Horford wound up leaving the game as well with a sprained ankle, and all of this might have mattered more if this game had been at all close. With Wade slowed before the game even started with back problems from hard fouls in previous games, and perhaps just the Hawks being a lot better in the final analysis, this was a genuinely dull game; the closest it got in the second half was 13, and in comparison with how amazing the Association has been for most of the last week, it really was strikingly meh. Eventually Wade got back to a little closer to his old self, finishing with 29, but the outcome was never in doubt, and the Hawks are now up 3-2.

And that's exactly that, really. The number of Heat and Hawks fans are pretty minuscule, really, and for those people, I'm sure this game was a source of pride and outrage, depending on your laundry preference, when the game was close and physical early. For the rest of us, it was sloppy, sluggy ball, devoid of any drama beyond wondering if there was going to be more ugliness later.

Because that's the thing about physical basketball, and why no one is nostalgic for the early days of the Association, or the way the game was before the ABA opened things up. Eventually, when there is too much, the players you want to watch stop being fun to watch. Along with everyone else.

The Hawks go for the kill shot on Friday in Miami. Odds say it goes seven with the Heat holding serve, but they've lost 2 in a row going away now, and it's not like Wade's getting any healthier here. Or, really, that anyone needs to see too much more of this series, really...