Eastern playoffs not pretty, but winning teams won't complain

BOSTON—It is instructive to have a look at the three most recent games played in the Eastern Conference. On Thursday in New York, the Heat drubbed the Knicks into submission, 87-70. Then, here on Friday at TD Garden, the Celtics needed overtime to survive the Hawks’ sausage grinder, emerging with a 90-84 win. And down in Philadelphia, the Sixers stunned the Derrick Rose-less Bulls by rallying for a 79-74 win.

Add it up: That means an average of 80.7 points per game. Combined, the six teams in this three-game Eastern Conference extravaganza shot 38.0 percent from the field. The teams turned the ball over 16.3 times per game. If the networks that beamed these games out to an unsuspecting national audience got calls from viewers complaining of head pain or nausea, well, that’s no surprise.

“It’s not beautiful,” Celtics guard Mickael Pietrus said. “I have been watching the games. It’s not beautiful. At the end of the day, we are winning games. That’s what it takes to win games, some toughness. In the playoffs, you’re not going to score big. Everybody is going to come out with their best defense, their best game plan. Be tough.”

That might be the key to getting through in the East, where the best team in the regular season, the Bulls, suffered another debilitating injury on Friday when center Joakim Noah was taken out of the loss with an ankle injury and left the arena on crutches. That's fitting with the way things have generally gone in the East, because the Celtics had their Game 3 win aided by the knee injury to Hawks star forward Josh Smith, who sat out. Atlanta was already going without center Zaza Pachulia, and, of course, All-Star big man Al Horford has been out most of the year.

And against the Knicks on Thursday, the Heat were helped along by the absence of Amare Stoudemire, who had his hand sewn up after he punched a fire extinguisher following New York’s Game 2 loss. Point guard Jeremy Lin and his balky knee were not ready either, and guard Iman Shumpert tore the ACL and meniscus in his knee in the third quarter of Game 1.

That’s before you get to Orlando, which lost star center Dwight Howard to back surgery in April and is stumbling through its first-round series with the Pacers without him.

Hey, it’s the playoffs. Heck with the aesthetics. “It wasn’t pretty,” Celtics star Paul Pierce, who shot 3-for-12 in Game 3, said. “But who said it has to be pretty? At the end of the day, we have to win four games and we’ve won two.”

Celtics guard Ray Allen said he could not recall a rash of major injuries to important players in the postseason before. Hawks guard Tracy McGrady agreed. “It’s definitely something that is a problem,” McGrady said. “It makes things harder for everybody. There are no excuses, but it is something that is all over the league right now.”

Increasingly, what we’re seeing in the Eastern Conference playoffs is more a war of attrition than basketball. The Heat were probably the favorites coming into the postseason, and with the way things have played out—the Celtics added an injury concern on Friday, with Avery Bradley hurting his shoulder—Miami’s health has only ramped up its status as the team to beat. Given the fact that the Heat are probably the team best equipped to make up for a major injury (except, maybe, to LeBron James), the Heat will likely hold that mantle even if they’re struck by the East’s injury bug.

The commissioner’s office has been staunch in saying that there has not been an increase in injuries this year, even with the condensed schedule. But it certainly feels as though there has been. Consider that, if the teams currently leading their series hold on, we would have an Eastern Conference second round of Boston vs. Philadelphia, Miami vs. Indiana. That wasn’t something that appeared to be in the cards when the season kicked off in December.

In the meantime, we’ve seen some ugly basketball. Unless you’re on the happy side of that attrition war. “At the end of the day, if you won, you will go home with that smile on your face,” Pietrus said. “That’s nice.”