In Ivan’ Johnson’s latest confession to the AJC:

“My thing is, I don’t really watch basketball so I don’t know who anybody is,” Johnson said after sinking two free throws with 4.6 seconds left to give the Hawks a 93-91 victory over the Timberwolves Saturday. “So when I match up against them, they are a regular player. I know the major players like LeBron [James], Kobe [Bryant], [Dwyane] Wade but all the extra ones I don’t know. Even if I did know them, I’m not going to be afraid. We are playing basketball.”

Yep, that’s right, he said that. Kevin Durant? Derrick Rose? Dirk Nowitzki? Typically, you’d think “NBA All-Star” or “MVP.” But nope; just another number to Ivan Johnson.

The Hawks will take on the Heat tonight at Philips Arena in a rematch of Tuesday night’s victory. Wade, out with a foot injury, did not play last night in the Heat’s 118-83 rout over the Pacers. Whether the Heat star plays in tonight’s game will be a game-time decision. Wade said he is hopeful, but also wants to make sure he comes back when he is ready:

“As much as I want to be out there, my team needs me to be Dwyane Wade and not somebody else on the floor,” said Wade.

Wade bruised his foot in a game against the Bobcats on December 28.

The Hawks came back with a strong second half to give the Heat their first loss of the season on Miami’s own court last night with a 100-92 victory. The Hawks were down by as many as 10 in the second quarter but came back to within three at the half.

Joe Johnson led the Hawks with 21 points. Al Horford also had a big night with 16 points and nine rebounds while Jeff Teague added 15 points and 5 assists of his own. But the clutch performance really came from newly acquired veteran T-Mac whose two 3-pointers late in the game sealed the deal for Atlanta.

Atlanta’s zone defense scheme worked well in keeping the Heat’s big three at bay– James had 28 points, Bosh had 19 and Wade was limited to only 12.

The two teams will tag up again this Thursday at Philips Arena.

Scottie Pippen got in a lot of trouble a few weeks ago for making the ludicrous statement that LeBron might be better than Michael Jordan. And by “a lot of trouble,” I mean the over-sensationalized, melodramatic, yell-about-it-on-PTI kind of trouble from the media. How dare he compare an indecisive, disloyal, cocky 26-year-old to a 6-time champion, 5-time MVP and 14-time All-Star?

I’ll admit, the devil’s advocate in me impulsively jumped to defend Pippen. Not that I originally thought LeBron was better than MJ necessarily; I just thought it was a case of “too soon to tell” and a little unfair to immediately bash Scottie. I was all, “How can you really compare two players when one is still in the league and has likely 10+ years left in him? Who’s to say that LeBron won’t one day win more rings and MVP awards? Who’s to say that he’s reached his full potential? What’s your basis for comparison anyways?”

Then I actually thought about it. I read Joe Posnanski’s “Point After” piece on it in this week’s Sports Illustrated. As a high school kid in North Carolina, Joe idolized and emulated MJ when he played at UNC. He bought the shoes and has personal tug-at-the-heartstrings memories of Jordan’s glory days. LeBron doesn’t have the MVP awards (and probably won’t if he stays in Miami with Wade and Bosh) and the championship rings.

But more than that, LeBron doesn’t bring the competitive intensity MJ had. He doesn’t have the heart. The “chip-on-your-shoulder” attitude. (And this was evident even before his Game 4 8-point performance.) LeBron didn’t have to. He was blessed with natural athleticism. Jordan was cut from his high school basketball team. Told that he was too weak, not cut out for it, would never make it. And that instilled in MJ a unique kind of stick-to-itiveness that eventually led him to greatness.

LeBron will have his moments. He’ll make incredible plays MJ was never physically capable of and he’ll win all kinds of awards. But when push comes to shove, he won’t show the same level of determination as MJ. He won’t push through in the face of adversity.

And so I’ve finally come around to the mainstream view: MJ > LeBron for sure. But not because of the rings or number of points or rebounds he had. MJ didn’t have LeBron’s natural talent to rely on. And the fierce intensity this bred will always make MJ greater than LeBron in my mind. Even if LeBron wins 7 championships, 6 MVPs and goes to the All-Star game 15 times.

Ever wonder if, financially speaking, the Hawks could trade Josh Smith for Chris Paul? Or what players they would have to give up to get Kobe Bryant? What about how to create the “Atlanta Heat” and what players it would take to get Dwayne Wade, LeBron James and Chris Bosh?

There are a number of rules, regulations, exceptions, and exemptions embedded in the CBA that make certain trades financially feasible based on player salaries, team payrolls and contract restrictions.

I recently discovered ESPN’s NBA Trade Machine, a tool that allows you to play GM. You can see what trades are possible based on a team’s payroll and players’ current salaries. The tool also provides the rationale for why a trade is not feasible based on the CBA and what would need to happen to make it work. Some of  Hollinger’s stats are also incorporated to determine the likely affect of the trade on wins and losses.

So for example, the Hawks could trade Kirk Hinrich and Zaza Pachulia for Dwight Howard for an increase in 17 wins.

If the Hawks wanted to get LeBron, Wade and Bosh (but still keep Joe Johnson), they’d have to give up Horford, Smith, Hinrich, Pachulia, and Williams. This would give them +26 wins according to Hollinger’s formula.

However, trading Josh Smith for Chris Paul would not work: the trade would put the Hawks over the salary cap, their incoming salaries are greater than 125% plus $100,000 of their outgoing salaries. The Hawks would need to cut $215,153 from the incoming value to make this trade possible.

Of course, this is all based purely on the contracts and economics rather than an owner or GM’s desires. And it’s all based on the current CBA, for that matter. Who knows what will happen with all the negotiations in the air? Or even if there will be an NBA season next year? But at least I’ve found a new toy to keep myself entertained with the “what-could-be’s” in the meantime.

The NBA Finals begin tomorrow night with the Miami Heat taking on the Dallas Mavericks. My heart’s with Dallas, but my head is leaning towards Miami.

It’d be great to see Dirk finally take home a ring, but a one-man team is going to have its work cut out for itself in a seven game series. Not that I don’t think highly of Kidd, Chandler, et. al., but the Big Three are The Big Three for a reason, and they’ve managed to live up to the hype thus far during these playoffs.

Former Hawks superstar Dominique Wilkins appeared less impressed with the potential of the Wade-Bosh-James trio, however, and had actually picked the Bulls over the Heat:

“(The Heat) has two superstars and a very good player in Chris Bosh, but they’re not that strong on their bench so I think it will be tough for them to beat Chicago.”

[Sidenote: I think poor Chris Bosh might forever be relegated to his place in the shadows of Wade and LeBron.]

And Wilkins probably would be against contraction in the NBA, preferring that superstars play against rather than with one another:

“We didn’t want to play with one another. We wanted to kick each other’s butt. Basically, that’s the way it was. I didn’t want to team up with (Larry) Bird or team up with Magic (Johnson) or (Michael) Jordan. I wanted to play against those guys.”

So we’ll soon see if Dirk and Wilkins-style basketball can overcome the Heat and this new-fangled contraction trend.

The Heat had their second chance to knock the Sixers out, and they didn’t miss it this time. Back in front of a hometown crowd, Miami beat Philadelphia 97-91 in Game 5 to advance to Round 2 of the playoffs.

Philadelphia didn’t make it easy for them and stayed in the game refusing to back down. The younger and less experienced Sixers team fought hard to keep their postseason hopes alive. They kept the game close throughout and managed to came within one with 30 seconds left, but Dwayne Wade pretty much put this one to rest with a free throw that put the Heat ahead with nine seconds left.

Prior to the game, LeBron James was asked for his thoughts on the Heat and trying to move on. He responded by saying the team was “just finishing our breakfast” to quote Jay-Z.

Well, it looked like James choked a little on his breakfast with only 16 points– and only 3 in the first half– and 10 rebounds. Luckily for him, his teammates made up for it. Wade and Bosh had 26 and 22 points, respectively, and Chalmers made a huge contribution with 20 points off the bench. Miami didn’t shoot well from the field as a whole (40%) but managed to protect their lead by knocking down free throws (21-for-25, 84%) and getting a lot of second-chance points (18).

For the Sixers, Elton Brand and Andre Iguodala led with 22 points each, and Thaddeus Young’s hustle and 13 points off the bench helped keep the Sixers in the game. But the team struggled behind the arc going 2-for-10 from 3-point range.

The Heat will now shift their focus to the Celtics who knocked off the Knicks in four straight. This budding rivalry in the East should make for a great match-up in Round 2. The Heat have struggled against the Celtics, losing 3 of the 4 games in the regular season, but the one win was a 100-77 blowout at the end of the season. Game 1 will take place this Sunday at 3:30 PM EST.

There was a silver lining in the Hawks’ 21-point loss to the Heat last night– Jeff Teague’s 13 points and 6 assists were considerably better than his season average of 4.3 and 1.9, respectively.

By user AngMoKio

The Hawks looked solid on defense, managing to hold Dwayne Wade to 14 and Chris Bosh to 17, in large part thanks to Kirk Hinrich pushing the tempo. I’m still convinced there’s a bit of that rivalry left over from the 2006 playoffs when Hinrich was accused of “dirty tactics” by then coach Pat Riley.

But it wasn’t enough to stop The King. James had 43 points on the night and didn’t miss a shot until the third period, going 8-for-8 in the first half. And had moves like this working for him on the night.

And on a night when Josh Smith, Al Horford and Joe Johnson combined for a total of 30 points, good defense and help off the bench wasn’t enough to hold off the Heat.

Bibby had 2 points in the 25 minutes he played, but I’m convinced he was calling plays from the bench. Or, at least, it makes me feel better to blame our 44% field goal percentage (25% from three-point range) on that.

The Hawks look to rebound against the Pistons who have won their past two games on Sunday afternoon.