The NBA revealed it's All-Rookie Teams today, and by and large there weren't any huge surprises. But can you guess who the only unanimous choice to the first team was? If you guessed Rookie of the Year Kevin Durant ... you'd be wrong.

Actually, it was Al Horford, who finished with 29 first-place votes. Durant finished with 28. It's too bad the ballots aren't open -- I'd love to see which NBA coach actually thought Durant was no better than the sixth-best rookie this year. (Remember, coaches can't vote for their own players but aren't limited by position.) Luis Scola (26 first place votes), Al Thornton (20) and Jeff Green (15) rounded out the first team.

On the second team is Jamario Moon (12), Juan Carlos Navarro (5), Thaddeus Young (4), Rodney Stuckey (5) and Carl Landry (1). Other players receiving first place votes include Joakim Noah (1), Nick Young (2), Mike Conley (1) and Corey Brewer (1).

The Hawks might have looked like they were hung over during their Game 7 shellacking at the hands of the Celtics, and now we may know the reason why: extra-stiff drinks, courtesy of the hotel they were staying at.

Word is, Boston entertainment prince Patrick Lyons might have played a role in the Celtics' blowout Game 7 win over the Hawks a week ago that vaulted them to the second round. The Hawks stayed at the Liberty Hotel May 3 in Cambridge before playing the Celtics. A league source said Lyons, who operates the Alibi Lounge in the hotel, instructed his bar staff to give anyone affiliated with the Hawks a double shot in any alcoholic beverage they ordered.

Now, before we get all high and mighty on the Hawks and criticize them for being out the night before a series-deciding playoff game, let's keep a couple of things in mind. One, we have no names to go along with this story, and two, there's no evidence that any players had anything to drink at all, much less several cocktails that may have been generously poured by the hotel staff.

Still, this is just one more reason why the NBA's regular season matters: as if playing in front of a hostile crowd isn't enough to worry about, players now have to be wary of overly-friendly bartenders, at least when staying in Boston.

With their absolute obliteration of Atlanta in Game 7 today, the Celtics stayed alive in their run for the finals. But did they do enough to get back in the title conversation? Did the even ever leave the conversation?

They didn't leave Vegas's consideration. Even before Game 7, Bodog had Boston at 2/5 odds of winning the East. !!! The only team which hadn't advanced to the second round ... and they were still overwhelming favorites over the Pistons (5/2), Magic (7/1) and Cavaliers (17/2).

But can we forget Philips Arena so quickly? Boston had three shots to win on the road, and failed each time. Against the Hawks, who played magnificent basketball in spurts but is certainly several tiers worse than Detroit and Orlando. The Celtics couldn't stop Joe Johnson or Milk Williams during stretches ... LeBron James is coming to town Tuesday. Boston's team defense is spectacular 80-90% of the time, and looked as such in Boston's four home wins. In Atlanta? It was middling at best.

No one would disagree that Boston's path suddenly doesn't appear so certain. But a good chunk of the population seems to agree this series was more of a blip than an indictment. We'll see.

Boston found the clamps in its bag of tools, and those clamps have been placed around Atlanta's offense. We're just into the third quarter after Boston destroyed the Hawks in the first two frames, holding Atlanta to 16 points in the first and 10 points in the second quarter. Boston scored 44 of its own in the half, and lead by 18 at the break.

No Hawk's shooting better than 33%, and the team had 10 turnovers in about 42 possessions. (Awful.) Meanwhile, Boston's offense was good enough, minimizing mistakes and getting to the line for 10 first-half FTAs. Kevin Garnett, a whipping boy in Game 6, came out super-strong with 6-of-9 shooting for 12 points.

But this sort of brilliant team defense is what got the Celtics here, and this is what they'll need to take down Cleveland (with the best scorer in the universe, LeBron James) and the winner of Detroit/Orlando (both top-8 offenses).

UPDATE: As I publish this, Boston started the second half on a 12-2 run. They've doubled up Atlanta, 56-28.

UPDATE #2: Atlanta's obviously frustrated, and Milk Williams just mauled Rajon Rondo. 62-32 Boston, with five left in the third. The Hawks' new goal is to hit 50 points for the game. That is not a joke.

UPDATE #3: Boston must really be pissed about the events of the past two weeks. Still hustling, still hot-doggin'. Salim Stoudamire (who was supposed to be a toss-in in the Mike Bibby trade) is the only guy keeping the Hawks from being held under 50. 73-37 Boston, 2-1/2 left in the third.

UPDATE #4: Holy God! KG just leveled Zaza Pachulia on a monstrous screen 80 feet from Boston's basket. A huge grudge hit, with the Celtics up 30. Garnett's dirty ... but awesome. Doc Rivers yanks The Ticket, and someone's leaving this game with a bloody nose. My money's on Kendrick Perkins.

In another of our continuing series, five things to keep an eye out for tonight in the Hawks-Celtics epic game this afternoon.

1. Amazing: How in the world did we get here? This wasn't supposed to happen. I mean, seriously, this wasn't supposed to happen. There's no precedent for this. At least the Warriors last year had favorable matchups and a history of winning. Atlanta was sub .500 and there's not a single man-on-man where you give Atlanta the clear-cut edge, outside of Ray Allen vs. Joe Johnson. The number of ridiculous events in Atlanta, of simply unfathomable playoff moments is staggering. Staggering. You want five things to keep an eye on today? How about four quarters and post-game? This series is

2. Desire: You can talk all you want about free throw discrepancies (which is valid) and a conspiracy to get the Celtics on TV more often (which isn't), but at the end of the day, the Hawks wanted Game 6 more. They fought for every rebound, struggled for every loose ball, played with passion, desire, and focus, and closed out the game with big shots. The Hawks wanted it more. At some point, you have to look at this series and start to wonder if the Celtics spent too much time patting their own backs. And if they come out and play with zero heart, no intensity, and a lack of focus, the Celtics will be the victim of the biggest upset in NBA history. The best thing for the Hawks is that they're playing with house money at this point. They have zero pressure on them. They were supposed to go home a week ago. If they can play with passion and fire, with no pressure, they might be able to create "Where 'An Amazing Upset' Happens." But that idea seems to crumble when you look at the fact that Game 7 is at ...

It has been three years since the Atlanta Hawks passed on Chris Paul, who is most likely not human, in order to draft Marvin Williams. Marvin has been, how do we say, not better than CP3. In fact, even if Marvin becomes an All Star, it will still be a horrible choice. Unless Paul buys a motorized unicycle in the next few years anyway.

It has also been four year since Anchorman took the world by storm (I know, it doesn't feel that long), and yet somehow, it took until tonight, mid-FanHouse live blog, for the perfect nickname for Marvin to come to fruition.

The Atlanta Hawks sure are fun aren't they? And popular, too! Atlanta does love it's Hawks. And the Hawks love them right back. Witness Zaza Pachulia's post game "speech" whereby he yells things about Game 7. You really have to love this guy, even though if I were his teammates, I'd be fairly sick of his armpit snare/hugs.



As much as I absolutely love the Hawks, this team is still like the 2001 Carolina Hurricanes in terms of fan behavior.

Via Deadspin

The Celtics -- 66-16 -- will not win a single road game in their first-round series ... and there's still a chance they miss out on a trip to the second round completely. Similarly, the Atlanta Hawks -- 37-45 in the regular season -- will not lose a single home game in their first-round series ... and there's still a chance they win a trip to the second round. Both of these matters are absurd on their own legs. Combined into one series of events? Holy crap.

The smaller moments in the series shouldn't be surprising -- Joe Johnson drilling a dagger as the shot clock expires late in the fourth, Al Horford being a tough mofo and goading Paul Pierce into stupid technical fouls, Marvin Williams having one good game out of six by attacking the basket at will. The smaller moments already experienced in Games 1-6 would be fine in a 4-2 Boston series win, great building blocks for the future.

But in a series that goes all the way? They take on a lot more importance (says Captain Obvious). Forget about chinks in the Boston Armor -- these are full-blown flesh wounds, and there's a possibility they could be fatal. I mean, look at how Atlanta won Friday: good defense, and they got to the line a ton. The top seven Hawks in the rotation all got at least 6 FTAs; only Kevin Garnett and Leon Powe got at least that many for Boston, and the Hawks ended up with 22 more attempts.

It's pretty indicative of how the Hawks have played in Atlanta: aggressive, fearless, tough. If they can duplicate that just once in Boston, they'll be the victors in the (new) Greatest NBA Upset Ever, and the world will implode. I can't wait.

In another of our continuing series, five things to keep an eye out for tonight in the Celtics-Hawks game tonight.

1. If The Hornets Are Thin, The Hawks Are Transparent: Game 5 Celtics bench points: 35. Game 5 Hawks bench points: 14. Yikes. Zaza Pachulia followed up the tough guy from Game 4 by scoring 2 points in ten minutes with no rebounds. Josh Childress, dunk machine? 5 points in 26 minutes on 2 of 8 shooting, and did I mention he had 4 of his shots blocked? When the team with the amazing starting lineup crushes you with their bench? That's a bad sign, kids. The only way the Hawks can keep up with this team is if they get some level of production off their bench.

2. It's Over When the Big Ticket Says It's Over: Kevin Garnett has pretty much decided he's had enough with the Hawks' fun and games. In the last two games he's scored 40 points, 14 rebounds, 8 assists and 3 blocks. In Game 5 he was a monster, devouring the Hawks with the kind of lethal intensity we anticipated going into the postseason. The problem with Garnett is that there's really no way to match up with him. You can put Al Horford on him, but Horford's a rookie and Garnett's range is too good. You can put the headbutter on him, but it's only going to make him mad. The Hawks need to let Garnett get his and focus on auxiliary support.

Maybe it's unfair to put just Josh Smith on the front of the Celtics - Hawks Game 5 Live Blog. But then again, if the Celtics were about to eliminate the Hawks, we wouldn't be having this little shindig. It is only because the Hawks, and specifically Joe Johnson and Josh Smith, have taken us to the brink of Armageddon that we are talking about this. So in that case it's fitting.

There is a shockingly large amount of public opinion that actually believes the Hawks can pull this off. And that scares me; I want them to win in the New Garden, and I think they can win there, but when too many people start hopping on a bandwagon, I always get a little nervous. Of course, no more nervous than Kevin Garnett could possibly be, considering the number of head explosions that would occur if he didn't make it out of the first round this year. We'll be kicking here starting at 8:00 pm EST for an 8:30 tip. Drop by and leave comments.