Nate Robinson led his team to beat the Heat, 93-86, in game 1 of round 2 in the NBA Playoffs. Chicago leads the series 1-0, winning the first game in Miami on the night LeBron James was rewarded the MVP award of the 2012-2013 season.
Last night Robinson was the Bulls MVP of the game. With just over 4 minutes left in the first half Robinson and James went after a loose ball. James fell on top of Robinson busting his lip on the court. Robinson was taken out of the game to get 10 stitches in his lip. After Nate Robinson got his stitches in he was right back on the court. Robinson said, “You have to play through it. I got 10 stitches, but you just have to continue to fight. You have to muster up enough energy and enough fight to go in there and play as hard as you can and produce for your teammates. They expect you to get stitched up and come back out there and continue to battle, and that’s what I did.” Robinson played his heart out finishing the game with 9 assists and a game-high 27 points.
Chicago Bulls head coach Tom Thibodeau described Robinson as “about as confident as they come, and that’s the thing that makes him good. If he misses a shot, he has a very short memory. He always thinks he’s hot, never afraid, and will step up in a big situation. He has the courage to take and make.”
Robinson has really shown his toughness throughout this postseason, and has proven to his team that they can count on him to be there no matter what. In the first round against the Brooklyn Nets Robinson had his head stepped on and in game 6 was battling the flu. Still Robinson fought through those challenges and played. Robinson is no doubt one of the toughest players in the NBA.
After last night’s game Nate Robinson said, “God blessed me with a lot of heart and no height, and I’ll take that any day.”
Nate Robinson, 5’9″, is one of the shorter players in the NBA but he does not let that faze him. Robinson plays with all heart and that is what makes him so much fun to watch. Robinson is a fighter and will not give up even if his team is playing the so called “best team” in the NBA. It would be interesting to see if the Chicago Bulls can keep this up and knock the Heat out of the playoffs.
Game 2 will be played in Miami tomorrow night May 8th at 7:00 PM Eastern. I look forward to seeing if the Bulls can get two road wins in a row, and what Robinson will face the rest of this series.
Nate Robinson’s post game interview:
http://www.nba.com/video/channels/tnt_overtime/2013/05/07/20130506-courtside-chi-mia-gm1.nba
Resources:
http://espn.go.com/blog/chicago/bulls/post/_/id/13791/cut-lip-doesnt-slow-down-robinson
http://hangtime.blogs.nba.com/2013/05/07/naterob-the-pound-for-pound-king/
http://www.nba.com/playerfile/nate_robinson/index.html?nav=page
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