The first round of our Ultimate 1-on-1 is over. Dave Cowens narrowly beat Jo Jo White in our final matchup of the first round. Here's a recap of how it all broke down (overall seeds in parentheses):
(16) Dave Cowens over (17) Jo Jo White
(9) Bob Cousy over (24) Robert Parish
(13) Cedric Maxwell over (20) Antoine Walker
(12) Bill Russell over (21) Frank Ramsey
(18) Tiny Archibald over (15) Bill Sharman
(10) Sam Jones over (23) Dino Radja
(14) Rajon Rondo over (19) Rick Fox
(11) Dennis Johnson over (22) Ed Macauley
Now we're moving on to the second round where all of our first round byes start to get into the action.
Here's a look at how the bracket shapes up now that the first round is over:
We'll start with our 3-6 matchup in the White Bracket, pitting Kevin McHale against Dennis Johnson. Again, overall seed is in parentheses.
(6) Kevin McHale
1-on-1 Advantage: Shooting, scoring, defense. McHale is regarded as having the best post moves of any big man in history. His array of moves will help him score against any big man out there. And people forget that at the end of his time in Boston, he was hitting open 3's… so he can hit jumpers if he needs to. Defensively, those long arms of his make shooting over him very difficult.
1-on-1 Disadvantage: Speed, ballhandling
McHale is a 6'10" guy with arms that hang to his ankles. He's not crossing anyone over. And he's not winning any foot races. He can back a guy down and hold the ball out of reach with those orangutan arms of his, but that's the end of it.
(11) Dennis Johnson
1-on-1 Advantage: Defense. DJ was a tremendous man-to-man defender. Could also score and finish at the rim. Before his Celtics days, he would regularly finish with dunks.
1-on-1 Disadvantage: Size, speed. At 6'4", 185, he can be susceptible to bigger players backing him down. He was also not the fastest guy on the court. Could be burned by a quick first step.
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