2012/13 Eastern Conference Semi Finals Recap - East Finals Preview - cgalligan's Dynasty

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2012/13 Eastern Conference Semi Finals Recap - East Finals Preview Stuck

Posted on June 25, 2011 at 07:08 PM.

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The Eastern Conference Semi Finals had two terrific matchups. The #1 Seed Miami Heat, vs the #4 seed Chicago Bulls and the #2 seed Cleveland Cavaliers vs the #3 seed, and last years NBA Champion, New York Knicks.

If you read my Western Conference Semi Finals Recap, you will recall that I talked about a big upset in the East. Well, I'll tell your right now, The Chicago Bulls did not upset the #1 Seed Miami Heat...

With that being said, here is a recap of the East Semis.

EASTERN CONFERENCE SEMI FINALS

Its been a few years since the Heat knocked off the Bulls in the 2011 NBA Playoffs and the Bulls still don't have a legit sidekick for their superstar PG Derrick Rose. That weakness was apparent in this series as the Heat took care of Chicago easily in 5 Games.

Game 1: 113-87 - Miami
- Dwayne Wade: 33pts, 5reb, 3ast, 1stl, 2blk
- Chris Bosh: 25pts, 12reb
- LeBron James: 24pts, 11reb, 3ast
- Derrick Rose: 28pts, 2reb, 5ast
- Luol Deng: 18pts, 6reb, 2ast

Game 2: 117-95 - Miami
- LeBron James: 34pts, 9reb, 6ast, 3stl, 1blk
- Dwayne Wade: 29pts, 6reb, 8ast
- Chris Bosh: 23pts, 12reb
- Carlos Boozer: 24pts, 5reb
- Derrick Rose: 24pts, 2reb, 8ast
- Luol Deng: 18pts, 4reb, 2ast, 2stl

Game 3: 82-78 - Heat
- LeBron James: 26pts, 10reb, 4ast, 2stl, 1blk
- Dwayne Wade: 20pts, 7reb, 4ast, 4stl, 1blk
- Chris Bosh: 15pts, 9reb, 2blk
- Derrick Rose: 20pts, 3ast, 1st, 4to
- Carlos Boozer: 15pts, 8reb, 4ast
- Joakim Noah: 8pts, 9reb, 2ast, 2stl, 3blk

Game 4: 111-90 - Bulls
- Derrick Rose: 30pts, 4reb, 9ast, 1stl
- Carlos Boozer: 27pts, 8reb, 2ast, 3stl
- LeBron James: 30pts, 7reb, 7ast, 2stl
- Chris Bosh: 17pts, 5reb, 5to
- Dwayne Wade: 12pts, 1reb, 5ast

Game 5: 107-81 - Heat
- LeBron James: 29pts, 9reb, 11ast, 5stl, 1blk
- Dwayne Wade: 24pts, 6reb, 4ast
- Chris Bosh: 23pts, 10reb
- Derrick Rose: 25pts, 2reb, 6ast, 3stl
- Luol Deng: 15pts, 7reb
- Joakim Noah: 8pts, 13reb, 4ast, 3blk

The Bulls had no answer for the 4 peat MVP LeBron James. LeBron averaged 28.6pts, 9.2reb, 6.2ast, 2.6stl, 1.2blk per game in the series. LeBron lived up to the regular season MVP Award in this one, and was clearly the best player on the floor for the entire series.

And now for that upset special that I've been promising you. If you've been following my association blogs, you know that I am controlling the Cavaliers. Well, I control all 30 NBA teams, because I simply don't trust the CPU to manage anything properly haha. Anyway... I've been controlling the Cavs since Season 1, in the "post LeBron era". Its taken me two full seasons to rebuild and pick up the pieces since "his highness" decided to turn his back on his hometown faithful.

Coming into this season the Cavaliers thought they had a great shot at making a deep run in the NBA playoffs. Comming off of a 36 win season in Kyrie Irving and Harrison Barnes' rookie season of 2011/12, the Cavs and their fans were very excited going into the 2012/13 NBA Campaign.

Irving and Barnes did not disappoint leading the young Cavaliers to a 50-32 record and the #2 seed in the Eastern Conference Playoffs. After a 1st round dismissal of the quickly aging Boston Celtics, the Cavs would have to face the 2011/12 NBA Champion New York Knicks and their "NYC Big 3" of Chris Paul, Carmelo Anthony and Amare Stoudemire in the East Semi Finals.

Here is a recap of how the Cavaliers were able to pull off one of the biggest upsets in NBA History...

Game 1: 109-108 - Knicks
- Chris Paul: 21pts, 2reb, 7ast, 5stl
- Josh Boone: 17pts, 11reb
- Carmelo Anthony: 16pts, 9reb, 5ast
- Harrison Barnes: 32pts, 3reb, 3ast, 3stl
- JJ Hickson: 16pts, 7reb
- Kyrie Irving: 12pts, 4reb, 13ast

Game 2: 96-83 - Cavaliers
- Harrison Barnes: 28pts, 4reb, 2ast, 3stl
- Kyrie Irving: 24pts, 4reb, 10ast, 2stl
- Greg Oden: 9pts, 15reb, 2blk
- Carmelo Anthony: 23pts, 9reb, 4ast
- Chris Paul: 13pts, 6reb, 7ast
- Amare Stoudemire: 8pts, 14reb, 3blk

Game 3: 107-90 - Cavaliers
- Kyrie Irving: 20pts, 4reb, 15ast
- Reggie Bullock(R): 22pts, 7reb
- Carmelo Anthony: 31pts, 6reb, 4ast
- Chris Paul: 21pts, 4reb, 6ast
- Amare Stoudemire: 16pts, 11reb

Game 4: 110-95 - Cavaliers
- Harrison Barnes: 31pts, 4reb
- Kyrie Irving: 23pts, 2reb, 15ast, 7to
- Carmelo Anthony: 25pts, 7reb, 3stl
- Amare Stoudemire: 19pts, 12reb, 3blk

Game 5: 103-96 - Knicks
- Carmelo Anthony: 38pts, 10reb, 2ast, 3stl
- Chris Paul: 17pts, 1reb, 10ast, 4stl
- Harrison Barnes: 26pts, 2reb, 2ast, 2stl, 2blk
- JJ Hickson: 23pts, 8reb, 2blk
- Kyrie Irving: 22pts, 7reb, 15ast, 9to

Game 6: 108-96 - Cavaliers
- Harrison Barnes: 27pts, 8reb, 6ast, 2stl
- Kyrie Irving: 17pts, 4reb, 11ast, 2stl
- Greg Oden: 16pts, 11reb, 2blk
- Carmelo Anthony: 35pts, 9reb, 2ast
- Chris Paul: 14pts, 3reb, 9ast, 2stl
- Amare Stoudemire: 8pts, 7reb

Last summer when the Cavaliers decided to re-sign their 24yr old PF JJ Hickson to a long term 6yr $101m dollar contract, some people said it was a bad move. The Cavs brass however, feels like JJ has the potential to develop into one of the best Power Forwards in the game. In this series, JJ showed everyone just what he is capable of. JJ Hickson outplayed Knicks PF Amare Stoudemire in the series and was a big reason why the Cavs were able to upset the Knicks. In the series Hickson averaged a solid 16.3pts and 8reb a game vs Amare who averaged only 12.6pts and 11reb per game. Now, Amare did have better rebounding numbers, but, only 12.6pts per game from him is not acceptable. JJ Hickson did a tremendous job on him defensively in the series.

The MVP of the series for the Cavaliers is a toss up between Kyrie Irving and Harrison Barnes. Both players brought their "A" games and together were the main reason the Cavs were able to pull off the upset.

Barnes was a scoring machine, as Carmelo didn't really have an answer for him all series. Barnes put up: 32, 28, 20, 31, 26, and 27 points for an average of 27.3. That is nearly 6pts more per game than his 2012/13 season average of 21.4pts per game. He really stepped his game up in this series and the Cavs needed every single bucket.

Kyrie Irving also had a monster series. It felt like every basket the Cavs made was off of an assist from Irving. For the series he averaged: 19.6pts, and a ridiculous 13.1ast per game. Kyrie was 4th in the NBA in assists per game with 8.8.

The win vs the Knicks in the the East Semis sets up "the" matchup that every Cleveland Cavaliers fan has been waiting for since "The Decision" back in July of 2010. The Cleveland Cavaliers will square off against the Miami Heat for the right to go to the NBA Finals.

How fitting is this really?

I'm not going to do my "East Finals Preview" here, since this is already a pretty long blog post, and given the magnitude of the situation between LeBron and the Cavs... Stay tuned however, as I will be posting a separate "East Finals Preview" very soon...

Comments

# 1 Westbrook @ Jun 26

I was pretty sure that, when i read that there will be an upset,it would be cavs winning knicks.Thats exactly what happened and i am dissapointed lol

.Now im keeping my fingers crossed for Miami to win it all.

# 2 Kentucky_Wildcat23 @ Jan 12

How do I post my own dynasty like this?

# 3 bweb725 @ Aug 16

Cavs better beat the Heat.

# 4 cgalligan @ Aug 16

haha Bweb, you know we did

# 5 TexasForever @ Oct 12

Hate the Heat. Go Cavs!

# 6 cgalligan @ May 2

Follow my 2k13 Association here --- Cavaliers Rise up and Rebuild

# 7 cgalligan @ May 6

[center][font="Arial Black"]Season 3, 2015 Playoffs... I'm entering the NBA Finals, as soon as the Western Conference Finals wrap up between the Lakers and the Nuggets... Here's my post celebrating the Cavaliers victory in Game 5... Follow my Association here or click the link in my sig for more details / info about my association... Comments and Critics welcomed