This year?s first round Game 7s came at the end of drastically different series. On Saturday night, the Celtics and Bulls were nearing the end of an epic duel, with five of the previous six games being decided by three points or less, four of those going into overtime. Sunday afternoon?s Hawks/Heat showdown saw the close of what looked like one of the least exciting seven-game series ever, with no end of game point differential in single digits.

Despite the variance in point differentials, excitement surrounded both games. Although the Celtics finished second in the East, and they were missing Kevin Garnett, their 62-win season put them in a very special echelon of second seeds. For them to lose to the Bulls would have been at least somewhat like the Mavericks' loss to Golden State in 2007. The Hawks had a lot less pressure; while they certainly wanted to win their first playoff series in ten years, no one would have been aghast if Dwyane Wade had pulled off more heroics.

What these two games proved, beyond the usual advantage of home court, was that nothing really changes in a Game 7. The atmosphere?s more intense, but the rules are the same. Fundamental basketball served both victors very well, and the ability to deny the other team the chance to execute was equally crucial.

During the grisly second quarter of the Celtics/Bulls game, Doug Collins drew attention to the Bulls? lack of fastbreak points. The team then looked disarrayed in the halfcourt as a result, with either Derrick Rose or Ben Gordon dribbling the ball at the top of the key for two-thirds of the shot clock while their frontcourt players stood around doing nothing. Collins? comment, which extended to the failure to get good shot opportunities, was validated immediately with a clang. The Celtics? defenders capitalized on the Bulls? poor execution by heightening their focus on the lead guard, and by making sure Brad Miller and Joakim Noah stayed away from the hoop.

The Heat felt a similar malady, with Wade playing the role of Rose or Gordon. Jamaal Magloire and Joel Anthony moved about as much as a snapping turtle on Ambien, quite literally planted to the floor at times, as though Wade was shooting a free throw. Much like the Bulls? 11-point second quarter, it really wasn?t a surprise to see the Heat go down 85-56. They?d had trouble scoring all series (recall their 64-point Game 1) and it was easy to see why. Without any fluidity to the offense, and with their opponents playing smart defense both in transition and in the half court, the Heat couldn?t do much.

Wade, Rose and Gordon all looked as poor as would be expected. Wade had four assists to four turnovers and Rose had three assists to three turnovers. Gordon was the star of the bunch with four assists to two turnovers, not bad for a player who was also his team?s primary scorer. Kirk Hinrich, seemingly an afterthought in Chicago now but who played well against the Celtics, had two assists to two turnovers. In a league increasingly shifting toward the strengths of guard play, none of these players recorded the kind of high assist-to-turnover ratios commonly seen among guards who are taking care of the ball.

On a team basis, turnovers were an obvious factor in the outcomes of the games. Chicago only had 17 assists to 14 turnovers, whereas Boston had 25 and 12 respectively. (Glen Davis, one of the league?s burliest players and one hardly associated with guard skills, netted three assists to one turnover, a better outing in that respect than Wade or Rose.) The Heat had a putrid 12 assists to 17 turnovers, while the Hawks had 18 assists and only seven turnovers. The Hawks were able to take eight more shots than the Heat, those shots becoming far easier to acquire when possessions lasted long enough. The Celtics used their superior execution to generate higher percentage chances, shooting 53% from three to the Bulls? 29%.

This raises the important distinction of what is a good three-pointer and what is a bad one. The kinds of threes the Celtics and Hawks were shooting were largely open ones, the result of a screen or a pop. At one point, Sunday?s broadcast crew replayed a Bibby three that was so open, not a single opposing player could be seen. The Heat and Bulls either had to face highly contested shots or shoot from distances that would make Antoine Walker jealous. At times, it was easy to call the missed three-pointer before the player picked up his dribble.

Of course, the guards on the Bulls and Heat can?t be blamed entirely. The aforementioned lack of movement among frontcourt players meant that none of these guards had anywhere to go with the ball. When Miller, Noah and Tyrus Thomas combined for fourteen shot attempts, it wasn?t difficult to figure out who would be getting the ball. Similarly, Michael Beasley and Udonis Haslem were the only Heat frontcourt players who had any discernable impact on offense or on the glass, and it?s not as though Jamaal Magloire and Joel Anthony are much in the way of options. Three Heat players in double figures clearly wouldn?t be enough.

Something that bears notation here is how sad it was to watch Sunday?s 42 seconds of Jermaine O?Neal. He was still suffering from his concussion, getting a -4 differential, two fouls and an airball in his brief time on the court. During his foul on Zaza Pachulia, when he put his hands on the Atlanta center?s back, he barely looked as though he knew where he was. The fact that he dressed and that he attempted to play shows his character ? watching him shoot left-handed free-throws with a separated right shoulder during the 2005 second round says all you need to know about him ? which is why it was too bad that he wasn?t well enough to contribute. The Heat really, really could have used a low-post scorer too.

Wade?s 2-for-9 from three and Gordon?s 4-for-12 from three can largely be explained within these stifled offenses. Typically standing a few feet back from the line, shooting a highly contested shot with no screen or cutter in sight, their shots had no chance.

Contrast this bleak picture with the guard play of the Celtics and Hawks. Rajon Rondo had 11 assists to four turnovers, capping a series in which he averaged nearly a triple double. Ray Allen only had three assists, but facilitated the offense through his movement and didn?t turn the ball over at all. Mike Bibby was darting around the court, looking for open shots, and getting his teammates involved. Joe Johnson had a slow start, missing his first five shots, but then hit ten of his last fourteen.

Something Allen did extremely well that Wade also did was deny the defender the ability to play good basketball. When Allen got under his man in the second quarter on Saturday, going up for the shot without initiating contact, his man had to do so, which bailed out the shot. When Bibby guarded Wade in the first quarter on Sunday, he was playing closely to deny Wade the mid-range jumper; that jumper was exactly what Wade wanted, so he shot it in the exact place that Bibby couldn?t cover. What anyone watching saw was Bibby simply failing to raise his hand, because doing so would have resulted in a foul. The men guarding Allen and Wade chose different ways to defend those moves, but neither worked.

The Hawks? defense picked up after that. The combination of Maurice Evans and Joe Johnson did an admirable job on Wade in the second half, forcing him to take questionable shots, and their defensive system let Beasley and Haslem attempt to beat them with jumpers. While Josh Smith was catching alley-oops, the Heat had no one of consequence inside, which oriented their offense toward the outside even more.

Something telling about the kind of effort Mike Woodson has his players expending on the defensive end was the play of Al Horford. He only had seven points and three rebounds, and he had three of his shots blocked. For a lot of players, a game like that would have been disastrous. What kept him on the court was the kind of heads-up play visible on his lone assist, when he instantly rifled a pass to a wide-open Ronald Murray, and also his consistent effort on defense. Having a player who can turn an offensively reprehensible game into a solid outing is massive for the Hawks.

Rondo?s game for the Celtics was similar in that he, too, shot horribly but played well. Only 2-for-8 from the field, he made up for his lack of scoring by forcing the defense into the paint with dribble penetration, enabling Allen to work the perimeter. He also got his hand in Rose?s face whenever possible and played the passing lanes. Eleven assists, five rebounds, three steals and two blocked shots made up for any shooting woes; hilariously, those very respectable five rebounds brought Rondo?s series rebounding average way down.

It?s this kind of player that makes the endless diatribes of distinctions between superstars, stars, complementary players and role players seem trivial because it?s not always about who gets you twenty points. Horford and Rondo have both shown that they can do that when it?s required of them. Not every player coming out as a star can get you a key stop in the lane or a deflection. With the cultures the Celtics and Hawks have established, as well as the players they?ve found who are able and willing to fit into those cultures, it?s not surprising to see these two teams among the final eight.

It?s all been said as many times as there?s been a Game 7. Smart execution, buttressed by ball movement and frontcourt intensity, is what wins ball games. The Celtics and Hawks executed as well as possible, getting quality chances instead and engineering open looks for their best shooters. The Bulls and Heat had stagnant offenses that were easy prey for the tough defenses they encountered, and took a lot of ugly shots that were doomed to miss. Seeing why these games finished as they did isn?t a matter of parsing every little foible of Noah?s illustrious hair. The winners played good basketball and forced their opponents to play poorly.

(NOTE: I managed to write this article without mentioning Paul Pierce once, and it?s not as though he wasn?t visible out there: he put up twenty points, nine rebounds, four assists and two blocked shots in all but five minutes of the game. Hats off to him as much as any Celtic. The fact that he could go unmentioned shows just how much of a team the Celtics have, and how well Rondo and Allen played in that series.)