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"FacebookPinterest\n\nNobody likes authority figures, which is why many of us rooted against the Lakers, Celtics and Spurs this postseason. All lost, and deservingly so. The decks were cleared, fresh grass grew, and a new day dawned on the NBA.\n\nWith authority, though, comes stability\u2014both narrative-wise, and in the sense of moral clarity. The Lakers may never have felt like two-time defending champs, the Celtics had issues galore, and the Spurs, Manu or no Manu, had an easily exploited weakness in the middle. But any one of these teams would have provided a pivot, or pole, for this most crucial stretch of the playoffs. There's no question that the remaining foursome is good for the NBA. With no one left to hate, though, is it really all that easy to find your footing and love?\n\nGo ahead, throw the Heat out there. I'm just not buying the idea that the Heat, with their motley bench and untested superstar nucleus, were ever anything more than an ideological boogeyman. They were also a vessel for unreasonable hopes and dreams (see yours truly), but basketball-wise, theirs has been a hard-fought, at times oddly underdog-ish, story. Next to Durant and Westbrook, the purported Wade/James tension, and their troubles working together on offense, seem pedestrian, mundane. Bosh was an easy scapegoat who, after this Bulls series, has a lot of generally smart people looking like sports talk refugees with questionable views on gender and sexuality. Chris Bosh suffered so that all of us might vent cliches and bash someone on the Heat.\n\nLike Bosh, and James, Spoelstra remains an easy, spongy target. Really, though, what's there to say at this point? He's not Phil Jackson. But Phil is hardly spared, even when he's winning. The Heat can take their lumps. At this point, it's an ercise in fan self-gratification that has little connection to their very strong chances at a title. No one likes them; off in some other reality, they leap and grind their way toward a title.\n\nThe Bulls, with sainted showman Derrick Rose leading the way, were the perfect antidote for the Heat, especially now that Oklahoma City has proven itself drama central (even if perception dwarfs reality there). On a good day, their defense is a fortress, and Rose can win games at will. No one's will is immutable, though, and increasingly, we've seen Rose looking like a dude who likes to shoot a lot, and the Bulls' offense relying way too much on Carlos Boozer\u2014a player so universally un-acclaimed that he makes Chris Bosh seem like The Wire.\n\nWhat's more, the strictly-business Bulls have, in the last 24 hours, been swamped with off-court interference. Rose accidentally told an ESPN reporter that the NBA had a serious problem with PEDs, then recanted. Being tripped up by a bad question is one thing, and we all know that Rose is not of this Earth. Still, given what a touchy subject PEDs are in sports, and what a good job the NBA has done of distancing itself from them, there's something laughable about an MVP (candidate, when he was asked the question) who doesn't go out of his way to lock that answer down tight. Point guard is, after all the headiest of positions. Then, in last night's loss to Miami, long-haired Euro-hippie Joakim Noah used the f-word. Not the one Kevin Garnett has tattooed on his eyelids, but the anti-gay slur that, a week after Suns ecutive and close David Stern buddy Rick Welts came out, is not a good look for a contender.\n\nAwkward, clumsy, and compromised in ways they weren't two weeks ago, the Bulls are hardly the gleaming death machine, or inspirational health pit, that a New NBA demands. They seem, like the Heat, a team good and bad, awful and transcendent, that one day might fit the bill as an embattled defending champ. But this? Too much, too soon.\n\nAll of that applies ten-zillion times over to the Thunder. They didn't expect to be in Western Conference Finals yet. Kendrick Perkins, the crucial acquisition meant to shore up their formula, is playing hurt. And the Durant/Westbrook dynamic has succeeded in making Russell look nuts and selfish, Durant passive and limited, and coach Scotty Brooks practically powerless. There's a fine line between growing pains and an unraveling juggernaut, except that there shouldn't be, and it's indicative of these playoffs that there is.\n\nThat leaves the Mavs, the old dogs who are either filling a void, or have carved it out through Dirk's stellar play, Tyson Chandler's assertive presence, and an assembly line of vets churning out at least one strong performance each night. Credit Rick Carlisle, too, with an offense that's hypnotic and economical, even if it exists solely to get Dirk in position. It's like a proxy point guard. Easy to love? No. It's pretty much an extension of Carlisle's personality, which you can discern through his eyes and buzz-cut alone. But stir in Coach's jazz piano hobby, and Dirk's frequently sublime [insert Germanic cliche here], and there's just enough there to cling to as the league figures out what's really next.\n\n\u2014Bethlehem Shoals\n\nShoals is the founder of FreeDarko.com and the co-author of The Undisputed Guide to Pro Basketball History."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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