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Plenty Of Star Power In ECFs: As opposed to the Western Conference Playoffs, the Eastern Conference Finals has gone much more according to script. The top-seeded Chicago Bulls capped off a 4-2 series victory over the Atlanta Hawks on Thursday night, setting up a showdown against the second-ranked Miami HEAT with a trip to the NBA Finals at stake.

This is the series that most people wanted to see as it features three of the league’s top five players in LeBron James and Dwyane Wade of the Miami HEAT along with Derrick Rose of the Chicago Bulls. It’s going to be very interesting to see which one them seizes the moment the most and comes out on top. The debate over who is better is likely going to dominate the headlines over the next two days leading into the series opener. After facing defeat at the hand of Rose’s Bulls, Atlanta Hawks forward Josh Smith weighed in on the subject.

"(Derrick Rose) is the best player in this league," said Smith. "There are a lot of good, great guys in this league but the talent that he has and the ability that he has to do it with the team he has is unbelievable. For them to be the number one team and not the Boston Celtics or Miami HEAT is unreal."

As important as the play of Rose, Wade and LeBron is going to be, there are some other great matchups in this series. There’s a great battle at the power forward position between Chris Bosh and Carlos Boozer. Both have been the subject of criticism throughout the year and playoffs, but finished the Eastern Conference Semifinals pretty strongly. Both coaches are also in unchartered territory in their careers as head coaches. Bulls head coach Tom Thibodeau is already making it very clear highly he thinks about the HEAT as a whole, from Coach Spoelstra to the end of the rotation.

"They’ve got a lot of weapons," Thibodeau said. "The obvious is the three great players but it’s a lot more than just that. They have shooting, rebounding. You have Lebron and Wade off the dribble. You’ve also got Bosh up front who is very skilled, can put it on the floor and post. They play great defense and are extremely well coached. It’ll be a good challenge for us."

{AUTHOR_BOX}The Bulls swept the season series against the HEAT 3-0, winning those three games by a combined by a combined eight points. Typically regular-season series, especially one that was so close despite being  a sweep, mean absolutely nothing during the postseason, but Boozer feels differently.

"We know what they want to do," Boozer said. "We try to do a good job of helping on defense, running a little bit, rebounding the ball and getting out fast. The more you play somebody the more you get to know their tendencies. We know how deep we are. We know our second unit has been a plus all season. They played great for us in this series and at the same time we’re still getting better as we move on.

"I think we’ve improved game by game. We anticipate continuing to improve as we move on. They’re a very good team, well coached, very athletic. They play fast. They have two great players in D-Wade and LeBron. It should be a great series. We look forward to it. It is going to be a tough series. Both teams have grown a lot in the playoffs, I know we have and they have as well. It should be a great series."

The Eastern Conference Finals kick off this Sunday at 8 pm EST.

Who do you think is the best player in the series, LeBron, Wade or Rose? Leave your thoughts below!

Up Close With Jordan Williams: From day one at Maryland Jordan Williams established himself as one of the premier big men in the ACC and the country overall. He provided an instant impact as a freshman and averaged a double-double with 16 points and 11 rebounds a night as a sophomore. That success gave Williams the confidence to chase his ultimate dream of playing in the NBA. He’s really transformed his body over the last seven weeks and is showing that there is a lot more to his game that what we saw at Maryland. Check out our exclusive video below to find out what those things are along with a glimpse of the new-look Williams in action!

Time To Pay Crawford, Play Teague More:  The Atlanta Hawks season is now over, but they have a lot to be proud of. Nobody outside of their locker room thought they were going to be able to beat the Orlando Magic in the first round and they did so quite convincingly. They also played the Chicago Bulls very tough through the first four games of the series.

With the offseason underway two things are very clear. The first is that they have to go into the 2011-2012 season with a bigger role set aside for young point guard Jeff Teague. That was former Hawks head coach Mike Woodson’s plan for this season. Unfortunately for Teague, though, Woodson was let go and new head coach Larry Drew, who deserves a lot of credit for the job he did this year, didn’t have that on his agenda.

Teague played just 13 minutes a night during the regular season and received four DNP-CDs in the first round. Then Kirk Hinrich got hurt in the series clincher and Drew didn’t have a choice but to hand the reigns over to Teague.

Put in an incredibly difficult situation with a head-to-head matchup against the league’s best point guard and MVP, Teague thrived. Playing 41 minutes a game, he averaged 17 points, four assists and three rebounds, doing a masterful job of rising to the occasion. He played within himself, took good care of the basketball and gave the Hawks a fighting chance while Hinrich’s hamstring kept him sidelined the entire series.

His performance gives the Hawks assurance for the first time that he is indeed their point guard of the future. He probably deserves to be the starter from day one, especially considering Hinrich’s willingness to come off the bench.

The second thing is that Jamal Crawford deserves that new contract that he’s been yearning for. He was the key difference maker against the Magic. They simply couldn’t guard him as he went off for 20 nightly while hitting numerous big shots in the clutch. His scoring average was cut in half against the Bulls, but they’re the best defensive team in the league. They have the capability of doing that to even the most potent offensive players. It’s also important to note that they really focused in on bottling him up and not letting him get hot.

Even in light of his struggles the Hawks need to make sure they don’t let him go. He really earned the extension before this postseason started. Losing Crawford would be a big hit that would certainly drop them out of the East’s top five. Ideally the Hawks should get something done with him before the current CBA expires, but if they don’t they need to take care of him immediately after a new one is put into place.

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NBA Chats: There are two upcoming chats on our Friday schedule. First up will be myself, taking your questions on the NCAA, NBA Playoffs and NBA Draft at 10:30 am EST. You can get your questions in here. Next up will be Steve Kyler at 1:30 pm EST. Steve has spent this weekend in Los Angeles and Las Vegas checking out draft prospects and will be open to your questions on them and the NBA at large. Drop him a question here!