Originally, I wasn’t going to post anything today. I had already obliterated my previous monthly post record, and there was nothing that had really sparked my interest enough to write about right off the bat…and then I started reading the NBA Draft results. Oddly enough, I had almost no interest in the Draft this year. A guy from my office, Chi, sarcastically asked me if I was going to have an “NBA Draft party” yesterday. In the most deadpan voice I could muster, I replied, “No…just…no.” I have a couple of problems with this draft as a whole. 1st, (and this has been the case for the last 15 years) with the 1-and-done college rule I have no real attachment to any of the players being drafted. 2nd, the drama had been taken out of the top of the draft weeks ago. Anthony Davis was the consensus number 1 pick by mid-February. With the needs of Charlotte and Washington, Michael Kidd-Gilchrist and Bradley Beal were the all too logical next choices. And 3rd, despite all the talk about how deep this year’s draft class was, I am skeptical as to whether any of them are going to be that good. I couldn’t help myself though. Some notes…
- Call me crazy, but I am not 100% convinced that Anthony Davis is going to be the stud that people are predicting. He could very well be Kevin Garnett, play for 15 years, and make double digit All-Star appearances, but he’s still a rail-thin 19 year old who has only been a big guy for 2 years (it’s been well-documented that he was only 6-3 or so until late into high school) who doesn’t have much of an offensive game yet. I’m not saying…but I’m just saying.
- MKG and Beal were the right choices at 2 and 3, but it’s hard to get overly excited about either. I love Kidd-Gilchrist’s motor, and he seems like a hard enough worker that he will improve on whatever shortcomings he has now, but I’m not sure what kind of player he projects as in the NBA. Beal fills the Wizards’ need as a shooter, but here’s the problem: how can you compare this guy to Ray Allen when he was like the 3rd option on his own college team and only shot 34% from 3? On the other hand, he played with 2 other “chucker” guards, so who’s to say it was entirely his fault?
- Not sure about this Dion Waiters pick. Bill Simmons beat me to the punch, but is it smart to use the number 4 pick on a guy who didn’t even crack his college squad’s starting 5?
- Like Thomas Robinson…don’t necessarily understand what the Kings are doing though. Their roster will probably be great in NBA 2K13 (Robinson, Cousins, Evans, and Jimmer), but not sure how it fits together on an actual basketball court.
- Some thought Harrison Barnes could be a top 5 pick, so I guess if he slides to 7 you have to take him, but why do I get the feeling he will be out of the league in 3 years? So much for a deep draft pool, right?
- Eeeeeeel! Can’t see Austin Rivers being a good pro unless he finds himself playing that Jamal Crawford come in off the bench and start immediately jacking role. Swagger and confidence is nice, but he’s not that big (I would guess closer to 6-2 than the 6-5 he’s listed as on ESPN.com), his jumper is not that consistent, and he is going to get abused on D by quick point guards and athletic 2’s alike.
- I guess Phoenix drafting Kendall Marshall at 13 is the official sign that Steve Nash is not coming back to the Suns next season.
- Looks like the Rockets’ devious plan of stockpiling picks to acquire D12 fell through. I like who they got though (especially Terrence Jones at pick 18). Either way, this draft should position them as a contender for the 8 seed in the West next year…wait, that’s what they already were? F***…
- Even though Fab Melo is likely to be a big useless mop in the pros, I like Boston’s pick of Jared Sullinger at 21. I am a Sullinger skeptic at the next level, but this was a guy that would have probably been a top 5 pick had he decided to enter last year’s draft. When you’re an established team like the Celtics and you’re picking in the 20’s anyway, why not take a shot at someone like that? (I couldn’t help but laugh when Sullinger had to pick up a ladder in 1 of ESPN’s dumb draft promos though. As he put the ladder down, you saw Sullinger grab his back before the camera had time to cut away…classic…too bad f***ing Bill Simmons noticed this and pointed it out already again…Siiiiimmmmmmmoooooonnnnsssss!!!)
- Miles Plumlee…I refuse to actually look up their draft history, but the Pacers just can never resist grabbing a big white guy from the ACC. If Tyler Zeller was still available when they picked, Hoosier nation would have collectively splooged all over their TV sets.
- The most interesting part of the draft might have actually been the end of the 1st round…Perry Jones was still available by the time Miami was picking at 27. Jones would have probably been a top 3 pick had he decided to come out of school last year, but he stayed at Baylor 1 more year, and questions about his motor and knees caused him to drop leading up to this year's draft. This reminded me of Terrence Morris, who was projected as a lottery pick if he had come out after his sophomore season at Maryland many years ago. The thing was Morris had lottery talent, but his personality was more of a guy who just wanted to blend into a lineup…that’s Jones to a T. Morris stayed his full 4 years in college, was a 2nd round pick by the time he entered the draft, and never really caught on in the NBA (he’s still playing overseas I believe). Anyway, Jones may have conceivably been a great fit for the Heat, who already have veteran leadership, but who are old, slow, and small outside of their big 3. Miami passed on Jones to pick Arnett Moultrie, who isn’t as highly touted as Jones, but is also an athletic big man…however, Miami shipped him to Philly for a 2nd rounder and a future 1st rounder…weird. It might be a smart deal, as the trade might yield them a better pick down the road. Also, Moultrie might have filled a need, but the Heat might not have wanted to tie up more salary cap space with a guaranteed 1st round contract. Naturally, the Thunder had the next pick, and they swooped up Jones, adding another lottery-type talent to their young talent-rich core…interesting indeed.
Friday, June 29, 2012
Thursday, June 28, 2012
2 Years Later: Looking Back at LeBron
It’s been a week since the Miami Heat won the 2011-2012 NBA championship, so you would think there might be a moratorium on NBA blogs for a while (or at the very least LeBron James posts). But for me, LeBron is a fascinating enough figure that I could probably write something about him every other day or so. I doubt I’m alone in this feeling, which probably has something to do with the over-analysis of everything LeBron has done since he was a sophomore in high school.
Even though the Heat won it all this year, simultaneously exorcising James’ personal demons and validating Miami’s big 3, there’s something I will never be able to get out of my head. It confounds me so much that even as I stood in front of the TV this morning, toothbrush still in my mouth, watching SportsCenter show a clip of LeBron, Wade, and Bosh on “The View” from earlier this week, all I could think was, “What happened between May 7th and May 9th back in 2010?”
Long before we thought of James as a choke artist, we thought of him as a phenom (similar to how we perceive Kevin Durant now). LeBron singlehandedly carried some of his Cavs teams deeper into the playoffs than they probably deserved to go based on how good those teams actually were. In 2007, nobody was talking about not being clutch when James basically beat the Detroit Pistons all by himself. James’ Cavs then got swept by a San Antonio Spurs team with Tim Duncan and the Spurs’ D at the height of their powers.
In 2008, Cleveland was ousted from the playoffs by the eventual champion Boston Celtics, but not without James waging an epic game of “can you top this” with Paul Pierce. LeBron’s individual numbers were always slightly better, but it was Pierce and the Celts that eventually moved on. If the 2007 Finals loss to the Spurs was when the seed was planted in James’ mind that the Cavs would never surround him with enough help to win it all, it was most definitely this Boston series that added the water, fertilizer, and other gardening TLC to it.
In 2009, James and the Cavs fell short again, this time in the Conference Finals to Dwight Howard and the Orlando Magic. To me, this outcome is still an oddity because I honestly feel that Cleveland had the better team. The NBA and Nike were certainly counting on it, as Kobe-LeBron TV spots had been running throughout the entire postseason (and some pretty funny spoofs of those commercials on YouTube as well). But this was the year of Orlando’s funky spread-the-floor-with-4-shooters lineup. The Cavs had no one that could match-up with Howard inside, and the Magic hit seemingly every 3 they took. James averaged close to a triple-double (38.5 points, 8.3 boards, 8.0 assists) for the series, but it wasn’t enough.
It wasn’t until 2010 that we all collectively said, “What the f*** was that?” though. Facing the Celtics again, James led the Cavs to a 2-1 series lead after demolishing the C’s on their home court in game 3. LeBron looked unstoppable in that game, going for 38 points on 14 for 22 shooting. However, for the next 3 games it was like we were watching a different person, as the Celtics won 3 straight to close out the series. James’ numbers in games 4, 5, and 6 look more than respectable at 1st glance (he nearly averaged a triple-double in that span), but something was off.
In game 4, James shot poorly (7 for 18) and had 7 turnovers. He also seemed less intense than only 2 nights before in game 3 when he practically ripped Boston’s heart out. S*** happens though…maybe it was just an off night for him…maybe he was tired. Game 5 was more alarming though. Coming back to Cleveland, you would expect the juice from the home crowd to give James a jolt. LeBron seemed less intense and less engaged than game 4 even. It wasn’t so much that he shot poorly again; it was that he only took 14 shots for the game in 42 minutes. No one in attendance or watching on TV understood what was happening. James looked as if he just wanted to get the game over with as quickly as possible regardless of the outcome.
Looking back, game 6 was fascinating for so many reasons. The return to Boston allowed for 2 days of media skepticism, which LeBron no doubt heard most of. It was clear that James was at least going to give the appearance that he gave a damn. He played all but 2 minutes and took 21 shots from the field this time. Even though he shot under 40% again and coughed the ball up 9 times, his numbers at least made him look more assertive on the surface: 27 points, 19 rebounds, and 10 dimes. But LeBron James could sleepwalk through a triple-double on most nights if he was on the court for nearly the full 48. Long gone were the joyfulness and swagger James displayed in Boston during his game 3 demolition derby. His game 6 was cold and robotic. He whined to the refs, he gave sideways glances at teammates following their miscues, and he looked as if he was only taking shots because he felt he had to take them. It was only 2 years before that James played his last game of those playoffs on the same floor, but he went kicking and screaming, dueling Pierce every step of the way. It was only 6 days earlier on the same floor that James looked ready to step on the Celtics’ throat.
After the final buzzer, LeBron had barely gotten to the tunnel before his red Cavs jersey was already off. I didn’t really know what to think…was it something in his personal life? Were the rumors of Delonte West giving it to LeBron’s mom really true, causing some kind of emotional strike? Did James have some kind of psychotic break (in a sports sense)? Had he simply decided he didn’t want to be in Cleveland anymore? Had the weight of having to carry the Cavs night in and night out finally taken its toll, thus causing James to physically and mentally break down? Or was it something simpler…had the Celtics simply figured James out? Did LeBron maybe just have his worst 3 games of his life?
Anyone who watched that series and saw the change in James’ body language from game 3 on would probably disagree with the last 2 possibilities, but I guess that’s the whole point: no one really knows. And no one knows what’s going to happen next either. LeBron could go on to win 8 titles and 11 MVPs, and most people will forget that particular series ever happened…but not me…which probably explains why that thought creeps into my head at 6:30am with a mouthful of toothpaste…another case of LeBron over-analysis at its finest.
To the victor goes the spoils (and talk show appearances).
Even though the Heat won it all this year, simultaneously exorcising James’ personal demons and validating Miami’s big 3, there’s something I will never be able to get out of my head. It confounds me so much that even as I stood in front of the TV this morning, toothbrush still in my mouth, watching SportsCenter show a clip of LeBron, Wade, and Bosh on “The View” from earlier this week, all I could think was, “What happened between May 7th and May 9th back in 2010?”
Long before we thought of James as a choke artist, we thought of him as a phenom (similar to how we perceive Kevin Durant now). LeBron singlehandedly carried some of his Cavs teams deeper into the playoffs than they probably deserved to go based on how good those teams actually were. In 2007, nobody was talking about not being clutch when James basically beat the Detroit Pistons all by himself. James’ Cavs then got swept by a San Antonio Spurs team with Tim Duncan and the Spurs’ D at the height of their powers.
In 2008, Cleveland was ousted from the playoffs by the eventual champion Boston Celtics, but not without James waging an epic game of “can you top this” with Paul Pierce. LeBron’s individual numbers were always slightly better, but it was Pierce and the Celts that eventually moved on. If the 2007 Finals loss to the Spurs was when the seed was planted in James’ mind that the Cavs would never surround him with enough help to win it all, it was most definitely this Boston series that added the water, fertilizer, and other gardening TLC to it.
In 2009, James and the Cavs fell short again, this time in the Conference Finals to Dwight Howard and the Orlando Magic. To me, this outcome is still an oddity because I honestly feel that Cleveland had the better team. The NBA and Nike were certainly counting on it, as Kobe-LeBron TV spots had been running throughout the entire postseason (and some pretty funny spoofs of those commercials on YouTube as well). But this was the year of Orlando’s funky spread-the-floor-with-4-shooters lineup. The Cavs had no one that could match-up with Howard inside, and the Magic hit seemingly every 3 they took. James averaged close to a triple-double (38.5 points, 8.3 boards, 8.0 assists) for the series, but it wasn’t enough.
It wasn’t until 2010 that we all collectively said, “What the f*** was that?” though. Facing the Celtics again, James led the Cavs to a 2-1 series lead after demolishing the C’s on their home court in game 3. LeBron looked unstoppable in that game, going for 38 points on 14 for 22 shooting. However, for the next 3 games it was like we were watching a different person, as the Celtics won 3 straight to close out the series. James’ numbers in games 4, 5, and 6 look more than respectable at 1st glance (he nearly averaged a triple-double in that span), but something was off.
In game 4, James shot poorly (7 for 18) and had 7 turnovers. He also seemed less intense than only 2 nights before in game 3 when he practically ripped Boston’s heart out. S*** happens though…maybe it was just an off night for him…maybe he was tired. Game 5 was more alarming though. Coming back to Cleveland, you would expect the juice from the home crowd to give James a jolt. LeBron seemed less intense and less engaged than game 4 even. It wasn’t so much that he shot poorly again; it was that he only took 14 shots for the game in 42 minutes. No one in attendance or watching on TV understood what was happening. James looked as if he just wanted to get the game over with as quickly as possible regardless of the outcome.
Looking back, game 6 was fascinating for so many reasons. The return to Boston allowed for 2 days of media skepticism, which LeBron no doubt heard most of. It was clear that James was at least going to give the appearance that he gave a damn. He played all but 2 minutes and took 21 shots from the field this time. Even though he shot under 40% again and coughed the ball up 9 times, his numbers at least made him look more assertive on the surface: 27 points, 19 rebounds, and 10 dimes. But LeBron James could sleepwalk through a triple-double on most nights if he was on the court for nearly the full 48. Long gone were the joyfulness and swagger James displayed in Boston during his game 3 demolition derby. His game 6 was cold and robotic. He whined to the refs, he gave sideways glances at teammates following their miscues, and he looked as if he was only taking shots because he felt he had to take them. It was only 2 years before that James played his last game of those playoffs on the same floor, but he went kicking and screaming, dueling Pierce every step of the way. It was only 6 days earlier on the same floor that James looked ready to step on the Celtics’ throat.
Was LeBron's 2010 series just a strength in numbers issue, or was it something more?
After the final buzzer, LeBron had barely gotten to the tunnel before his red Cavs jersey was already off. I didn’t really know what to think…was it something in his personal life? Were the rumors of Delonte West giving it to LeBron’s mom really true, causing some kind of emotional strike? Did James have some kind of psychotic break (in a sports sense)? Had he simply decided he didn’t want to be in Cleveland anymore? Had the weight of having to carry the Cavs night in and night out finally taken its toll, thus causing James to physically and mentally break down? Or was it something simpler…had the Celtics simply figured James out? Did LeBron maybe just have his worst 3 games of his life?
Anyone who watched that series and saw the change in James’ body language from game 3 on would probably disagree with the last 2 possibilities, but I guess that’s the whole point: no one really knows. And no one knows what’s going to happen next either. LeBron could go on to win 8 titles and 11 MVPs, and most people will forget that particular series ever happened…but not me…which probably explains why that thought creeps into my head at 6:30am with a mouthful of toothpaste…another case of LeBron over-analysis at its finest.
Tuesday, June 26, 2012
The Thing About Knees, Part 2: "Yea, That Starts To Happen"
1 of my favorite Louis CK bits of all time is when he talks about going to see his doctor because of ankle pain as a 40 year old. Looking for some type of remedy, the doctor offers Louis no real fixes, and instead just points out that his ankle is just “worn out” and “s***ty” now.
This is pretty much the viewpoint I’ve adopted for my own body recently as well. In the infancy of this blog, I think a quarter of all my posts were injury-related. Now, I’m at the point that I’m just tired of talking about it. This is partially because it seems like a new ache or pain is popping up all the time, and partially because (like Louis’ doctor) I’m not going to do anything about it anyway.
On Sunday, I re-tweaked my left knee playing 1-on-1 with Krissy. The play where it happened was innocent enough: I took 1 dribble to my right, and planted for a pull-up jumper. There was no contact, and this wasn’t some violent looking, Derrick Rose-esque jump-stop either…it was a pretty routine play for me honestly, and I was even wearing my knee brace at the time, a remnant of the last time I had a “minor” knee injury a month or so ago.
The reality though is that there’s a lot of wear and tear there, and it’s not like injuries to different parts of the knee are mutually exclusive from 1 another. A partial meniscus tear, an MCL sprain, an ACL sprain (that last 1 was only self-diagnosed, but it’s my best guess)…they all add up, and I’m no doctor, but I always believe that an injury to 1 area causes your body to naturally overcompensate somewhere else (which can lead to another injury and so on).
While the area where it hurts this time is unfamiliar to me from my previous injuries, it doesn’t seem to be major. While still not pain-free and somewhat unstable feeling today, it feels better than it did yesterday. Using my ol’ injury criteria (if I was on a team and had a game, could I strap a brace on it, take some Advil, and go out there and play if I had to?), I think I would pass. Still, with every passing tweak, I always wonder how many more jumps, plants, and cuts this knee has in it.
This brings me back to my original point…I always joke with Krissy that if and when she gets pregnant, I am going to take a break from everything, go to the doctor, and get my knee and shoulder cleaned out. But short of having some catastrophic D-Rose/Baron Davis injury, I doubt I will actually go through with it. The fact is that I’m 27, and (as the blog title goes) nothing more than a “B-Court All-Star” at this point. I fully expect to be working out and playing sports well into an advanced age, but as a weekend warrior type I can’t see myself going under the knife unless absolutely necessary.
So for now, I think I will just have to live with having a s***ty incurable knee and trying to do my best to maintain its current state. If that means saying, “I’ll take 1 of everything,” when going through the McDavid catalog (or as I like to call it, the “Dwyane Wade special”), I guess that’s what I’ll do. The other alternative (taking it easy) never sounds all that fun to me anyway.
This is pretty much the viewpoint I’ve adopted for my own body recently as well. In the infancy of this blog, I think a quarter of all my posts were injury-related. Now, I’m at the point that I’m just tired of talking about it. This is partially because it seems like a new ache or pain is popping up all the time, and partially because (like Louis’ doctor) I’m not going to do anything about it anyway.
On Sunday, I re-tweaked my left knee playing 1-on-1 with Krissy. The play where it happened was innocent enough: I took 1 dribble to my right, and planted for a pull-up jumper. There was no contact, and this wasn’t some violent looking, Derrick Rose-esque jump-stop either…it was a pretty routine play for me honestly, and I was even wearing my knee brace at the time, a remnant of the last time I had a “minor” knee injury a month or so ago.
The reality though is that there’s a lot of wear and tear there, and it’s not like injuries to different parts of the knee are mutually exclusive from 1 another. A partial meniscus tear, an MCL sprain, an ACL sprain (that last 1 was only self-diagnosed, but it’s my best guess)…they all add up, and I’m no doctor, but I always believe that an injury to 1 area causes your body to naturally overcompensate somewhere else (which can lead to another injury and so on).
While the area where it hurts this time is unfamiliar to me from my previous injuries, it doesn’t seem to be major. While still not pain-free and somewhat unstable feeling today, it feels better than it did yesterday. Using my ol’ injury criteria (if I was on a team and had a game, could I strap a brace on it, take some Advil, and go out there and play if I had to?), I think I would pass. Still, with every passing tweak, I always wonder how many more jumps, plants, and cuts this knee has in it.
This brings me back to my original point…I always joke with Krissy that if and when she gets pregnant, I am going to take a break from everything, go to the doctor, and get my knee and shoulder cleaned out. But short of having some catastrophic D-Rose/Baron Davis injury, I doubt I will actually go through with it. The fact is that I’m 27, and (as the blog title goes) nothing more than a “B-Court All-Star” at this point. I fully expect to be working out and playing sports well into an advanced age, but as a weekend warrior type I can’t see myself going under the knife unless absolutely necessary.
I'll have what he's having.
So for now, I think I will just have to live with having a s***ty incurable knee and trying to do my best to maintain its current state. If that means saying, “I’ll take 1 of everything,” when going through the McDavid catalog (or as I like to call it, the “Dwyane Wade special”), I guess that’s what I’ll do. The other alternative (taking it easy) never sounds all that fun to me anyway.
Monday, June 25, 2012
A Good Crowd Chant Gone Wrong
Crowd chants at sporting events are pretty ubiquitous at this point, enough so that you don’t even realize they are going on half the time when you are watching a game on TV. At 1 time, crowd chants actually seemed to mean something. I remember watching old Bulls-Knicks games as a kid, and when the Madison Square Garden crowd would belt out “Defense!” in unison during critical New York defensive possessions it felt as if the jumbotron atop the arena could come crashing down on the court at any time. In that same light, the 1st time I heard a crowd chant “bulls***” at the officials after a blown call, I legitimately thought there might be a fan riot.
Now, almost all sports crowd chants are completly lame and derivative. For example, every NBA crowd chants “M-V-P” when their star is at the free throw line, whether he is a legitimate candidate for that award or a fringe All-Star. Rajon Rondo is a great player, but I almost lost my mind when the Boston crowd gave him the MVP chant this postseason. (I have since softened my stance on this 1…Boston’s crowds are usually pretty smart and savvy when it comes to this stuff, and this may have served as a subtle jab at LeBron as much as a tribute to Rondo during the Boston-Miami series. Because of that, Celtics fans get a pass here.) There are other mainstays in every building like the “Let’s go, Celtics, clap, clap, clap-clap-clap” chant. “Let’s go, Cel-tics” can be replaced by just about any other 4 syllable phrase here too (“Ty-son Chand-ler, clap, clap, clap-clap-clap” or Duke fans chanting “Co-dy’s bet-ter” at Tyler Zeller, referencing Tyler’s younger brother, Cody). If it were up to me, all chants that use the 4 syllable phrase followed by 5 claps formula would be outlawed today. The 1 time I remember hearing it recently that was kind of cool was, ironically, also in Boston, where C’s fans chanted “Let’s go, Celtics” during the closing moments of game 6 of the Eastern Conference Finals against Miami when Boston was trailing by what seemed like 50 points. Game 7 had yet to be played, so the Celtics were still alive at the time, but it was like Boston fans somehow knew it would be their last chance of the year (and maybe ever) to say goodbye to the team as currently constructed.
So when the Miami crowd started to chant the Kanye West song “Power” during the closing minute of their Finals clinching win over the Thunder it had a chance to be a cool moment as well. Crowd singalongs have become popular in recent years. For example, it seems like every college basketball arena in the country plays and hums along with either The White Stripes’ “Seven Nation Army” or the jock jams classic “Zombie Nation” at a certain break in the game. While it usually goes unnoticed, “Power” has become a staple of Heat wins as the clock winds under a minute to play in the game. While it wasn’t exactly the old Boston Garden ominously chanting “Beat LA” to the Sixers at the end of the ’82 Eastern Conference Finals, it had some serious goose bump potential. It was like the official signal that the Miami Heat block party was about to begin…until James Jones, mop that he is, shot a corner 3 that bounced off the top of the backboard. The often maligned Miami crowd’s chant died out within a second or 2 following Jones’ brick. I will give them a B- for effort at least…some plays you can’t chant through no matter how hard you try though.
Friday, June 22, 2012
Thunder-Heat, Game 5: The Champ Is Here
It’s no secret that I somewhat try to emulate Bill Simmons’ writing style in these posts. Last night I planned on ripping him off completely by blogging an in-game diary of game 5 of the NBA Finals…so much for that idea. I think I wrote 1 snarky comment about Matthew McConaughey’s straight-away 3-point bank shot on Jimmy Kimmel’s pregame show, and then I wrote something about the turnover that led to LeBron’s breakaway dunk that gave Miami a 2-0 lead being a bad sign for OKC. But after that, I just couldn’t keep up with it. I was just too into the game to stop and try to quickly think of something funny, smart, and relevant to write every 5 minutes…experiment failed.
With that being said, game 5 was pretty much drama-free from the 2nd quarter on. I was curious as to whether Miami would seize the moment and put their foot on OKC’s neck, or would they let a desperate Thunder team send this series back to their homecourt, possibly allowing the seeds of doubt to seep into the collective psyche of this Heat team once again. It turned out to be the former.
OKC trimmed a 17 point 2nd quarter lead to 10 by halftime, but it seemed like they were down more (they only managed to keep it that close by being awarded a very generous amount of free throws early on). The Thunder got it as close as 5 thanks to a quick spurt a minute into the 3rd…but from that point on, it was all Miami. When Mike Miller made 3’s on the 1st 2 possessions of the 4th, the Heat lead had swelled to 27. With the outcome of the game no longer in doubt, the final 10 minutes or so served as a Miami coronation (for the record, the final score was 121-106).
LeBron will get the lion’s share of the credit and pub, and he is deserved of it, but let’s delve a little deeper. For many reasons over the past 2 seasons, it just seemed like this Miami experiment wasn’t going to work. LeBron wasn’t mentally strong enough. While great talents separately, the individual pieces of the Heat’s big 3 didn’t seem to fit together. And their supporting cast just plain wasn’t as good as they were supposed to be.
Ironically enough, it took until the closeout game of the Finals for the Heat to be exactly what Pat Riley envisioned 2 years ago. James stuffing the stat sheet with a triple double...Dwyane Wade living in the paint to the tune of 20 points…Chris Bosh settling comfortably into his role as the 3rd banana, scoring a quiet 24 points…and those 3 drawing so much defensive attention that Miami’s “others” were getting wide open looks from 3-point land. Miller and Shane Battier had been mostly disappointments since their arrivals in Miami, but the 2 combined to go 10 for 15 from downtown last night, including Miller’s near-historic 7 for 8…all that being accompanied by stifling team defense is a recipe for a championship.
As for the young Thunder, it was clear as this series went on that they may have gotten to this point a year ahead of schedule and weren’t quite ready for this stage just yet. Pending any big moves in the offseason by the Lakers or Mavericks (maybe even including them), they will be the clear cut favorites to win the Western Conference again next season. As currently constructed, this group has improved every season. There’s no reason that the upward trend won’t continue next year. They have the league’s best scorer in Durant and another top 10 player in Westbrook. If they stay healthy, add 1 or 2 complimentary players, and use this loss to fuel their desire to win a title, there’s no telling how good OKC could be.
But last night belonged to LeBron James and the Miami Heat. The monkey that had been on James’ back since his postseason failures in Cleveland are gone, and with that so is the 1 that the Miami franchise had collectively carried around ever since “The Decision.” Frankly, it will be interesting to see how the court of public opinion views the Heat going into next season. In year 1 of the big 3, LeBron and Miami were widely hated. This year those feelings seemed to die down a little, but you still didn’t have to look too hard to find Heat-haters across the sports universe. Now, will LeBron, Wade, and company be universally loved again (as they were prior to their coming together)? Or are haters still gonna hate?
Realistically, probably some combination of the 2…whatever you want to say, the Heat actually got it done this year. If you look at it in a different way, they were actually 2 games from having 2 championships in their 1st 2 years, but that’s an argument for a different day. No doubt, some people still won’t forget the Heat’s original arrogance though and LeBron’s infamous “not 5, not 6, not 7” line. He has 1 ring, but now I fully expect people to chime in with “Kobe’s got 5” and “MJ’s got 6” too. After all, no matter what LeBron had accomplished up to this point in his career, it seems like we always expected more. It’s unlikely that we will be satisfied no matter how many records, MVPs, or rings he winds up with whenever his career finally ends. To those that love basketball though, let’s try to appreciate him while he’s here.
With that being said, game 5 was pretty much drama-free from the 2nd quarter on. I was curious as to whether Miami would seize the moment and put their foot on OKC’s neck, or would they let a desperate Thunder team send this series back to their homecourt, possibly allowing the seeds of doubt to seep into the collective psyche of this Heat team once again. It turned out to be the former.
"It's about damn time."
OKC trimmed a 17 point 2nd quarter lead to 10 by halftime, but it seemed like they were down more (they only managed to keep it that close by being awarded a very generous amount of free throws early on). The Thunder got it as close as 5 thanks to a quick spurt a minute into the 3rd…but from that point on, it was all Miami. When Mike Miller made 3’s on the 1st 2 possessions of the 4th, the Heat lead had swelled to 27. With the outcome of the game no longer in doubt, the final 10 minutes or so served as a Miami coronation (for the record, the final score was 121-106).
LeBron will get the lion’s share of the credit and pub, and he is deserved of it, but let’s delve a little deeper. For many reasons over the past 2 seasons, it just seemed like this Miami experiment wasn’t going to work. LeBron wasn’t mentally strong enough. While great talents separately, the individual pieces of the Heat’s big 3 didn’t seem to fit together. And their supporting cast just plain wasn’t as good as they were supposed to be.
Mike Miller was unconscious last night, but he and the rest of the Miami role players finally played like Pat Riley had always hoped they would.
Ironically enough, it took until the closeout game of the Finals for the Heat to be exactly what Pat Riley envisioned 2 years ago. James stuffing the stat sheet with a triple double...Dwyane Wade living in the paint to the tune of 20 points…Chris Bosh settling comfortably into his role as the 3rd banana, scoring a quiet 24 points…and those 3 drawing so much defensive attention that Miami’s “others” were getting wide open looks from 3-point land. Miller and Shane Battier had been mostly disappointments since their arrivals in Miami, but the 2 combined to go 10 for 15 from downtown last night, including Miller’s near-historic 7 for 8…all that being accompanied by stifling team defense is a recipe for a championship.
As for the young Thunder, it was clear as this series went on that they may have gotten to this point a year ahead of schedule and weren’t quite ready for this stage just yet. Pending any big moves in the offseason by the Lakers or Mavericks (maybe even including them), they will be the clear cut favorites to win the Western Conference again next season. As currently constructed, this group has improved every season. There’s no reason that the upward trend won’t continue next year. They have the league’s best scorer in Durant and another top 10 player in Westbrook. If they stay healthy, add 1 or 2 complimentary players, and use this loss to fuel their desire to win a title, there’s no telling how good OKC could be.
It's safe to say we haven't seen the last of these 2.
But last night belonged to LeBron James and the Miami Heat. The monkey that had been on James’ back since his postseason failures in Cleveland are gone, and with that so is the 1 that the Miami franchise had collectively carried around ever since “The Decision.” Frankly, it will be interesting to see how the court of public opinion views the Heat going into next season. In year 1 of the big 3, LeBron and Miami were widely hated. This year those feelings seemed to die down a little, but you still didn’t have to look too hard to find Heat-haters across the sports universe. Now, will LeBron, Wade, and company be universally loved again (as they were prior to their coming together)? Or are haters still gonna hate?
Realistically, probably some combination of the 2…whatever you want to say, the Heat actually got it done this year. If you look at it in a different way, they were actually 2 games from having 2 championships in their 1st 2 years, but that’s an argument for a different day. No doubt, some people still won’t forget the Heat’s original arrogance though and LeBron’s infamous “not 5, not 6, not 7” line. He has 1 ring, but now I fully expect people to chime in with “Kobe’s got 5” and “MJ’s got 6” too. After all, no matter what LeBron had accomplished up to this point in his career, it seems like we always expected more. It’s unlikely that we will be satisfied no matter how many records, MVPs, or rings he winds up with whenever his career finally ends. To those that love basketball though, let’s try to appreciate him while he’s here.
Wednesday, June 20, 2012
Thunder-Heat, Game 4: Cramping OKC's Style
So…that was some game.
NBA Finals games are supposed to have a certain level of intensity, but the Heat and Thunder seemed to ratchet it up a couple notches last night. Desperately not wanting to go down 3-1, OKC started off the game at warp speed, jumping out to an early 17 point lead only to let Miami answer with their own 16-0 run, and the Heat survived a Russell Westbrook explosion and some 4th quarter cramp-age by LeBron James to gut this 1 out.
Oddly enough, it’s Miami that looks like the more physical, more grind-it-out, and more clutch team right now, which is saying something given their criticisms over the last 2 seasons. On the other hand, as 1 of my favorite sayings goes, OKC looks just good enough to lose at the moment. You can’t say the Thunder haven’t played well (they have only been outscored by a total of 5 points for the series), but Miami seems to be using their experience to their advantage.
James, Dwayne Wade, and Mario Chalmers were the ones making the big plays at the end of last night’s game. Westbrook was fantastic, but had a Chris Webber “lite” moment at the end of the game (his foul on Chalmers that pretty much iced the game), Kevin Durant faded late (only 3 shot attempts and 2 turnovers in the 4th quarter), and James Harden had another nightmare game (2 for 10 from the floor, 4 turnovers, and a shankapotomus layup attempt on a fast break in the 4th to boot).
It looks like Miami simply out-toughed OKC too…the Thunder have a definitive size advantage, as Miami has continued to go small with Chris Bosh and Udonis Haslem manning the center position for most of the series while James and Shane Battier share power forward duties. Still, the Heat have outrebounded the Thunder the past 3 games, and LeBron and Dwyane Wade are living in the paint. Meanwhile, OKC is built around their perimeter play and their ability to make jumpers, and if 1 of their big 3 is off (it’s been Harden for most of this series), it can be difficult to overcome.
Also speaking to toughness, OKC seemed too concerned with the refs in game 4. 1st, it’s a given that the Heat are the darlings of the NBA right now, so the “tie goes to the runner” theory should be assumed when you’re playing against Miami (especially in Miami). 2nd, you’re simply not going to get as many calls when you’re a jumpshooting team like the Thunder are. 3rd, it was pretty clear early on last night that the refs were going to let just about anything go away from the ball. Being the more physical team, this favored Miami, but the game was officiated that way all night. 4th, there seemed to be at least close to an equal number of missed calls or phantom calls on both sides last night…the ones working against OKC just seemed to come at more inopportune times. 5th, if I’m a ref, I’m not bailing out Westbrook with a foul every time he goes into hyperdrive and flies towards the rim in a semi-out-of-control fashion just because he gets bumped a tad. And 6th, if you check last night’s box score, the Thunder actually benefitted from more whistles than the Heat. Miami was called for 19 personal fouls for the game to OKC’s 16, and the Thunder took 9 more free throw attempts.
So, less sideways glances at the refs, more made baskets, please. If not, South Beach may be the party location of the century Thursday night.
NBA Finals games are supposed to have a certain level of intensity, but the Heat and Thunder seemed to ratchet it up a couple notches last night. Desperately not wanting to go down 3-1, OKC started off the game at warp speed, jumping out to an early 17 point lead only to let Miami answer with their own 16-0 run, and the Heat survived a Russell Westbrook explosion and some 4th quarter cramp-age by LeBron James to gut this 1 out.
Westbrook was unstoppable last night, but most people will only remember his role in 1 critical play.
Oddly enough, it’s Miami that looks like the more physical, more grind-it-out, and more clutch team right now, which is saying something given their criticisms over the last 2 seasons. On the other hand, as 1 of my favorite sayings goes, OKC looks just good enough to lose at the moment. You can’t say the Thunder haven’t played well (they have only been outscored by a total of 5 points for the series), but Miami seems to be using their experience to their advantage.
James, Dwayne Wade, and Mario Chalmers were the ones making the big plays at the end of last night’s game. Westbrook was fantastic, but had a Chris Webber “lite” moment at the end of the game (his foul on Chalmers that pretty much iced the game), Kevin Durant faded late (only 3 shot attempts and 2 turnovers in the 4th quarter), and James Harden had another nightmare game (2 for 10 from the floor, 4 turnovers, and a shankapotomus layup attempt on a fast break in the 4th to boot).
An unlikely hero: with LeBron suffering from severe leg cramps, Mario Chalmers came to the rescue.
It looks like Miami simply out-toughed OKC too…the Thunder have a definitive size advantage, as Miami has continued to go small with Chris Bosh and Udonis Haslem manning the center position for most of the series while James and Shane Battier share power forward duties. Still, the Heat have outrebounded the Thunder the past 3 games, and LeBron and Dwyane Wade are living in the paint. Meanwhile, OKC is built around their perimeter play and their ability to make jumpers, and if 1 of their big 3 is off (it’s been Harden for most of this series), it can be difficult to overcome.
Also speaking to toughness, OKC seemed too concerned with the refs in game 4. 1st, it’s a given that the Heat are the darlings of the NBA right now, so the “tie goes to the runner” theory should be assumed when you’re playing against Miami (especially in Miami). 2nd, you’re simply not going to get as many calls when you’re a jumpshooting team like the Thunder are. 3rd, it was pretty clear early on last night that the refs were going to let just about anything go away from the ball. Being the more physical team, this favored Miami, but the game was officiated that way all night. 4th, there seemed to be at least close to an equal number of missed calls or phantom calls on both sides last night…the ones working against OKC just seemed to come at more inopportune times. 5th, if I’m a ref, I’m not bailing out Westbrook with a foul every time he goes into hyperdrive and flies towards the rim in a semi-out-of-control fashion just because he gets bumped a tad. And 6th, if you check last night’s box score, the Thunder actually benefitted from more whistles than the Heat. Miami was called for 19 personal fouls for the game to OKC’s 16, and the Thunder took 9 more free throw attempts.
So, less sideways glances at the refs, more made baskets, please. If not, South Beach may be the party location of the century Thursday night.
Tuesday, June 19, 2012
The Secret's Out
It’s been a while since I’ve done 1 of my “terrible movie review” posts, but fortunately TV can be a great source of material too. Here to the rescue is ABC Family’s “The Secret Life of the American Teenager.” To my amazement, this show is currently in its 5th season, and looks like it has enough of a following that it might stick around for even longer. 5 seasons! That’s as long as “Friday Night Lights” was on the air, for Pete’s sake…
The show was meant to be an insider’s look at the worlds of teens that parents and teens could watch together. It’s so campy and so single-minded (as good ol’ YouTube will attest to in a minute) that virtually every episode I’ve seen is completely unbelievable. Seriously, who as a teenager ever talked or acted like this? The core audience of the show seems like teenage girls, but I wonder how many of them watch just to giggle as 1 character will rattle off the word “sex” 47 times in a 90 second stretch.
I do wonder how many people like Krissy and I watch though. We stumbled upon the show a few years ago during the summer when there was nothing else on TV…no games, no movies, nothing on the DVR. We were channel-flipping, somehow landed on ABC Family, and stuck it out for a few minutes. We ended up screaming at the TV due to the stupidity of all the characters (and for the awful acting), but it was so bad that we couldn’t help wondering what was going to happen next. Somehow, we kept finding ourselves tuning in for at least part of “Secret Life” every week until we finally just decided to add it to our DVR queue.
And now, here we are…hating all the characters and the show as a whole, but still watching. Ben is so weasel-y, spineless, and entitled that you just want to wring his skinny ostrich neck. Grace is fake, selfish, and a complete c***tease. And I’m still not convinced that the actress that plays Ashley isn’t a china doll cyborg from another planet. For what it’s worth, the adults on the show are all kind of funny in their own way, and every time I see the 1 mom I say, “Hey, there’s the girl from all those John Hughes movies all grown up!” but for the most part they are only meant to be side props to the teenagers’ ridiculous adventures in adolescence.
Of the kid actors, I only find 2 of them to be redeemable in any way. 1st is Shailene Woodley, who was really pretty good as the older daughter in The Descendents. For any “Secret Life” watchers, you will be completely taken off guard by her on-point use of the word “t***” as well as the many variations of the word “f***.” (Weirdly, when she was only a little kid she also played Marissa’s younger sister in “The O.C.” for all of 6 episodes before she was effectively killed off and sent to boarding school or something.)
The 2nd, and I’m not proud to say this, is the actor that plays Tom, who is basically Grace’s mentally challenged older brother. As un-P.C. as it is, it’s impossible for me to watch him deliver a line without cracking up. The only thing that probably saves me from going to hell on this 1 is that it looks like the show’s writers have started to purposely exploit his condition for comic relief over the last few episodes. At 1st, it seemed like his character was meant to diversify the cast and show the family interactions of a mentally challenged person, but the show doesn’t use him that way at all, so why should I view him that way?
Overall, I’m not sure how much more of a shelf life the show has. The nature of teen soaps is that the characters age-out of whatever situation they are in, and any effort to continue the show past that is usually far-fetched…unless they change the name to “The Secret Life of the American 20 Year Old,” or something. It seems like the writers did stagger the ages of the characters so all of them don’t move on to college at the same time though, and it’s possible that an influx of new younger characters could take over the show, but I’m not sure that’s the best idea. “Secret Life” has already clumsily taken us through teenage sex, teenage pregnancy, teenage marriage, and teenage lesbianism. What’s next, teenage cannibalism? Besides that, is anyone going to want to watch Ricky and Grace’s half-brothers carry the show once the current crop of characters graduates? Then again, why are we watching now exactly?
The show was meant to be an insider’s look at the worlds of teens that parents and teens could watch together. It’s so campy and so single-minded (as good ol’ YouTube will attest to in a minute) that virtually every episode I’ve seen is completely unbelievable. Seriously, who as a teenager ever talked or acted like this? The core audience of the show seems like teenage girls, but I wonder how many of them watch just to giggle as 1 character will rattle off the word “sex” 47 times in a 90 second stretch.
I do wonder how many people like Krissy and I watch though. We stumbled upon the show a few years ago during the summer when there was nothing else on TV…no games, no movies, nothing on the DVR. We were channel-flipping, somehow landed on ABC Family, and stuck it out for a few minutes. We ended up screaming at the TV due to the stupidity of all the characters (and for the awful acting), but it was so bad that we couldn’t help wondering what was going to happen next. Somehow, we kept finding ourselves tuning in for at least part of “Secret Life” every week until we finally just decided to add it to our DVR queue.
And now, here we are…hating all the characters and the show as a whole, but still watching. Ben is so weasel-y, spineless, and entitled that you just want to wring his skinny ostrich neck. Grace is fake, selfish, and a complete c***tease. And I’m still not convinced that the actress that plays Ashley isn’t a china doll cyborg from another planet. For what it’s worth, the adults on the show are all kind of funny in their own way, and every time I see the 1 mom I say, “Hey, there’s the girl from all those John Hughes movies all grown up!” but for the most part they are only meant to be side props to the teenagers’ ridiculous adventures in adolescence.
"Look at yourself, you f****** swan!"
Of the kid actors, I only find 2 of them to be redeemable in any way. 1st is Shailene Woodley, who was really pretty good as the older daughter in The Descendents. For any “Secret Life” watchers, you will be completely taken off guard by her on-point use of the word “t***” as well as the many variations of the word “f***.” (Weirdly, when she was only a little kid she also played Marissa’s younger sister in “The O.C.” for all of 6 episodes before she was effectively killed off and sent to boarding school or something.)
The language in The Descendants is a little saltier than what "Secret Life" fans might be used to.
The 2nd, and I’m not proud to say this, is the actor that plays Tom, who is basically Grace’s mentally challenged older brother. As un-P.C. as it is, it’s impossible for me to watch him deliver a line without cracking up. The only thing that probably saves me from going to hell on this 1 is that it looks like the show’s writers have started to purposely exploit his condition for comic relief over the last few episodes. At 1st, it seemed like his character was meant to diversify the cast and show the family interactions of a mentally challenged person, but the show doesn’t use him that way at all, so why should I view him that way?
Overall, I’m not sure how much more of a shelf life the show has. The nature of teen soaps is that the characters age-out of whatever situation they are in, and any effort to continue the show past that is usually far-fetched…unless they change the name to “The Secret Life of the American 20 Year Old,” or something. It seems like the writers did stagger the ages of the characters so all of them don’t move on to college at the same time though, and it’s possible that an influx of new younger characters could take over the show, but I’m not sure that’s the best idea. “Secret Life” has already clumsily taken us through teenage sex, teenage pregnancy, teenage marriage, and teenage lesbianism. What’s next, teenage cannibalism? Besides that, is anyone going to want to watch Ricky and Grace’s half-brothers carry the show once the current crop of characters graduates? Then again, why are we watching now exactly?
Monday, June 18, 2012
Thunder-Heat, Games 2 and 3: The Thunder's Own Worst Enemy
For the past 2 years the NBA has been all about the Miami Heat. This is for good reason. Ever since “The Decision,” the Heat have been the most hated, most scrutinized, and most intriguing franchise in all of professional sports. They, and more specifically LeBron James, have been picked apart and dissected in more ways than I would have thought possible. Their following has been so insane that the Heat’s critics have critics…and the critics’ critics have their own critics…and so on. So with each passing game, don’t be surprised if the headline revolves around Miami in some way whether they win or lose. Even my game recaps always seem to be a little more Miami-centric than I originally intend. Still, to me the real story through 3 games in this series has been the Oklahoma City Thunder.
Prior to the Finals, many wondered aloud whether OKC was ready for this kind of stage yet. The talent and framework was undeniable, but this group is so young that it seemed possible they were a year ahead of schedule. That talk quickly diminished when the Thunder erased a 7 point halftime deficit in game 1 to win by 11. Durant and Westbrook both looked unstoppable in the 2nd half, as they ran right by the older, slower, more tired looking Heat. Even though Miami held on to beat OKC by 4 in game 2, everyone still seemed to believe the young Thunder had proven their mettle. A somewhat controversial no-call on LeBron was all that stood between Durant possibly tying the score with only seconds to play…but all that might have been fool’s gold in the end.
The Heat could very well still lose this series. All anyone needs to do is think back to last year when Miami also held a 2-1 series lead against the Mavericks and what happened the rest of the way. More than that, OKC still very well may be the better team. Ignoring the 1st quarter of game 2, if you watched the 1st 3 games with the score at the bottom of the screen blocked out, it probably always feels like the Thunder are ahead. They are deeper, their pieces fit together better, and they seem to play without fear. They also seem to possess things that Miami doesn’t have an answer for. LeBron might be the best perimeter defender in the league right now, but even he seems to be at Durant’s mercy when guarding him 1-on-1. Russell Westbrook is a nightmare matchup for even the likes of Dwayne Wade. And OKC has enough rim-protecting bigs and perimeter defenders to make life tough for the Heat on the other end of the floor if their jumpers don’t happen to be falling that particular night.
But the Thunder also can’t seem to get out of their own way at times. They got off to very poor starts in the 1st 2 games of the series, trailing by as many as 13 in game 1 and spotting Miami an 18-2 start in game 2. In game 3, OKC started off much stronger, and they even led by 10 midway through the 3rd quarter, but they somehow let Miami chip away. This was in large part thanks to Durant’s foul trouble for a 2nd straight game and what can only be described as 2 ill-advised fouls on Shane Battier and James Jones 3 point attempts. Thunder Coach Scott Brooks probably also shares blame for last night’s 3rd quarter. After Durant picked up his 4th foul, he immediately took a seat on the bench, but then Brooks gave Westbrook his normal 3rd quarter rest as well. It might have been wise to let Durant try to play with the fouls for at least a few of those minutes or cut Westbrook’s break short. Instead, they both were out of the game for a considerable amount of time, and Miami entered the 4th leading by a deuce.
The Thunder’s biggest flaw of all may be that their best player (Durant) often looks like the team’s 3rd scoring option. When Durant, Westbrook, and James Harden are all playing at once, Harden and Westbrook usually dominate the ball. They are both great creators off of the dribble, but more often than not they are creating shots for themselves rather than Durant or other teammates. Westbrook in particular has come under fire during this series, but his numbers look fantastic: 24 points, 7 boards, and 7 dimes per game in 3 Finals games while only turning the ball over twice per contest…with that being said, he’s only shooting 41% from the floor and 21% from 3, and he is good for at least 3 wildly out of control, what-are-you-thinking layup attempts per game, most of which seem to occur on possessions where Durant doesn’t even get a touch. Westbrook is ridiculously good, but he just doesn’t seem to have the whole balance between scoring and setting others up thing down yet. Meanwhile, Durant is shooting a staggering 57% from the field in the Finals while shooting 7 fewer shots than Westbrook through the 1st 3 games. The Thunder won’t win if Westbrook alters his game completely, but it’s safe it might do their offensive efficiency some good to get Durant a few more shots…if they don’t, they’re not going to beat Miami no matter what.
Prior to the Finals, many wondered aloud whether OKC was ready for this kind of stage yet. The talent and framework was undeniable, but this group is so young that it seemed possible they were a year ahead of schedule. That talk quickly diminished when the Thunder erased a 7 point halftime deficit in game 1 to win by 11. Durant and Westbrook both looked unstoppable in the 2nd half, as they ran right by the older, slower, more tired looking Heat. Even though Miami held on to beat OKC by 4 in game 2, everyone still seemed to believe the young Thunder had proven their mettle. A somewhat controversial no-call on LeBron was all that stood between Durant possibly tying the score with only seconds to play…but all that might have been fool’s gold in the end.
KD has looked unstoppable...in only he got the ball a little more often.
The Heat could very well still lose this series. All anyone needs to do is think back to last year when Miami also held a 2-1 series lead against the Mavericks and what happened the rest of the way. More than that, OKC still very well may be the better team. Ignoring the 1st quarter of game 2, if you watched the 1st 3 games with the score at the bottom of the screen blocked out, it probably always feels like the Thunder are ahead. They are deeper, their pieces fit together better, and they seem to play without fear. They also seem to possess things that Miami doesn’t have an answer for. LeBron might be the best perimeter defender in the league right now, but even he seems to be at Durant’s mercy when guarding him 1-on-1. Russell Westbrook is a nightmare matchup for even the likes of Dwayne Wade. And OKC has enough rim-protecting bigs and perimeter defenders to make life tough for the Heat on the other end of the floor if their jumpers don’t happen to be falling that particular night.
But the Thunder also can’t seem to get out of their own way at times. They got off to very poor starts in the 1st 2 games of the series, trailing by as many as 13 in game 1 and spotting Miami an 18-2 start in game 2. In game 3, OKC started off much stronger, and they even led by 10 midway through the 3rd quarter, but they somehow let Miami chip away. This was in large part thanks to Durant’s foul trouble for a 2nd straight game and what can only be described as 2 ill-advised fouls on Shane Battier and James Jones 3 point attempts. Thunder Coach Scott Brooks probably also shares blame for last night’s 3rd quarter. After Durant picked up his 4th foul, he immediately took a seat on the bench, but then Brooks gave Westbrook his normal 3rd quarter rest as well. It might have been wise to let Durant try to play with the fouls for at least a few of those minutes or cut Westbrook’s break short. Instead, they both were out of the game for a considerable amount of time, and Miami entered the 4th leading by a deuce.
Westbrook's numbers through 3 Finals games look spectacular at 1st glance..."look" spectacular.
The Thunder’s biggest flaw of all may be that their best player (Durant) often looks like the team’s 3rd scoring option. When Durant, Westbrook, and James Harden are all playing at once, Harden and Westbrook usually dominate the ball. They are both great creators off of the dribble, but more often than not they are creating shots for themselves rather than Durant or other teammates. Westbrook in particular has come under fire during this series, but his numbers look fantastic: 24 points, 7 boards, and 7 dimes per game in 3 Finals games while only turning the ball over twice per contest…with that being said, he’s only shooting 41% from the floor and 21% from 3, and he is good for at least 3 wildly out of control, what-are-you-thinking layup attempts per game, most of which seem to occur on possessions where Durant doesn’t even get a touch. Westbrook is ridiculously good, but he just doesn’t seem to have the whole balance between scoring and setting others up thing down yet. Meanwhile, Durant is shooting a staggering 57% from the field in the Finals while shooting 7 fewer shots than Westbrook through the 1st 3 games. The Thunder won’t win if Westbrook alters his game completely, but it’s safe it might do their offensive efficiency some good to get Durant a few more shots…if they don’t, they’re not going to beat Miami no matter what.
Thursday, June 14, 2012
Let's Take A Break From The Finals And Enjoy Some Random YouTube Clips
My last 10 – count em’, 10 – posts have basically been playoff game recaps, so I figured I would change it up with a little random YouTube clip post. I probably wrote enough words yesterday to count for 2 regular posts anyway.
Video number 2 will catch anyone’s eye that was a fan of the now extinct “a capella” singing competition show “The Sing Off.” That’s the winning group from season 3, Pentatonix, covering Gotye’s hit single “Somebody That I Used To Know.” I wasn’t really a fan of the original version to begin with, but after hearing PTX’s version, for me Gotye went from being “meh” to being complete dogs***.
Just so we don’t stray too far from the NBA Finals, here’s a clip of LeBron James and Kevin Durant working out together for a few days during this year’s NBA lockout. I know we saw hundreds of clips of NBA superstars playing in local summer league games during the lockout, but for some reason they didn’t produce the reaction for me that this clip did. It was like 2 universes were colliding, like Batman and Iron Man joined forces, or like Sting and the Undertaker were tag team partners…spooky.
1st up is your prototypical YouTube clip: a video with a cat in it. What could be more cliché than that? Cat-hater that I am, I might be the least likely person to repost something like this, but the randomness and spontaneity of the clip had me dying. The “mash-up” of the crescendo of the song and the climax of the video is just too good to be true. As always in comedy, timing is everything.
Video number 2 will catch anyone’s eye that was a fan of the now extinct “a capella” singing competition show “The Sing Off.” That’s the winning group from season 3, Pentatonix, covering Gotye’s hit single “Somebody That I Used To Know.” I wasn’t really a fan of the original version to begin with, but after hearing PTX’s version, for me Gotye went from being “meh” to being complete dogs***.
Just so we don’t stray too far from the NBA Finals, here’s a clip of LeBron James and Kevin Durant working out together for a few days during this year’s NBA lockout. I know we saw hundreds of clips of NBA superstars playing in local summer league games during the lockout, but for some reason they didn’t produce the reaction for me that this clip did. It was like 2 universes were colliding, like Batman and Iron Man joined forces, or like Sting and the Undertaker were tag team partners…spooky.
Wednesday, June 13, 2012
Thunder-Heat, Game 1: Thunder Roll
Last night’s opening game of the 2012 NBA Finals provided some great theater and, as always with the Miami Heat, some Monday morning quarterback material as well. Here’s a fact though: if it wasn’t already clear, the Miami Heat are not the favorite in this series. That distinction is held by the Oklahoma City Thunder, as they erased what was a 13 point deficit in the 1st half to pull away in the 4th quarter and win by 11. The culture shock that Miami experienced in the 2nd half of last night’s game was somewhat predictable. OKC is younger, faster, and more explosive on offense than any of the teams the Heat faced from the more physical Eastern Conference. Whereas they were often better served to try to speed the game up against the likes of Indy and Boston, a more deliberate pace might improve their chances in this series. The Heat built a healthy-sized 1st half lead mostly due to the lights-out shooting of Shane Battier and Mario Chalmers. That’s going to have to be a constant in this series if Miami is going to have a chance. In the 2nd half those guys didn’t shoot nearly as well, and we all saw the result.
It’s still always interesting to see the fallout of any Heat loss on LeBron James though. From the opening tip, it was clear that James didn’t have his outside shooting touch on this particular night. Still, LeBron muscled his way to 30 points on 11 for 24 shooting over the course of 46 minutes. ESPN graded LeBron’s game as a B+, noting that he and Battier were the only 2 Heat players to really show up. And yet James got killed in some circles for “failing to deliver” in the 4th quarter again. It’s an easy (and some would say lazy) argument to make given that LBJ’s opposite number shined in the 4th. Durant notched 17 of his game-high 36 in the final period, while James went 2 for 6 from the floor for 7 “meaningless” points during the same stretch…nevermind that LeBron was the only thing keeping Miami from getting their doors blown off in the 3rd quarter, when he scored 9 of Miami’s 19 in that period…or that Wade and Bosh combined to shoot 11 for 30 for the game on mostly unassertive perimeter jumpers (completely negating the nice offensive games by Battier and Chalmers). But when this is brought up, haters will counter that these arguments are served only to give James a pass, and that James’ stat-stuffing numbers only mask his weakness in closing out games…superhuman, unstoppable, cyborg baller that he’s supposed to be and all. How quickly everyone forgot James’ last 2 games to close out Boston though.
Jeff Van Gundy has smartly pointed out that James continues to be held to an unattainable standard that no other player has ever had to live up to (even Jordan). This is partly James’ own doing, as he’s so talented that no matter what he does we always feel like he can do more. If you want to argue that KD outplayed LeBron in game 1, that’s fine…in fact, it’s true. If you’re killing LeBron, it makes me wonder whether or not you actually paid attention to the game at all. Most of Durant’s 36 points seemed to come so easy, as the Thunder’s offense seemed to get him open look after open look in the 2nd half…whereas every James bucket seemed to have to be some kind of tough, double-clutch shot in traffic. That’s not to take anything away from Durant, but just as it’s undeniable that KD got the better of LeBron in this game, it’s also undeniable that he was getting easier looks at the basket too.
It will be interesting to see what adjustments are made for game 2. The Thunder will likely continue to try to do what they did in the 2nd half: force Miami to shoot long jumpers, and collect a lot of long rebounds to start semi-fastbreak opportunities. There’s been talk of Chris Bosh being reinserted into the starting lineup and Miami’s need to try to get in the paint and get to the free line more often. This specifically pertains to Wade, especially when both teams go small, as that eliminates the Thunder’s shotblocking. Also, Miami may need to go a little deeper into its bench, but that’s a tricky proposition considering how the Heat’s subs compare to OKC’s. I also think Miami needs to play more straight-up man-to-man than they showed in game 1. The Heat’s gimmicky switch-all-screens defense when they play James, Wade, Haslem, and Battier together worked against the methodical Celtics, but Westbrook and Durant are too good of 1-on-1 players to have anyone but James (on KD) and Wade (on Westbrook) on them the majority of the time. Their switching led to far too many breakdowns off of Westbrook’s pick-and-roll play, bad matchups from cross-matching in transition, and easy baskets off of miscommunications on defensive rotations too. It’s easy to overreact and overanalyze 1 game, especially in the Finals, but the adjustments both teams make leading up to game 2 should be interesting.
It’s still always interesting to see the fallout of any Heat loss on LeBron James though. From the opening tip, it was clear that James didn’t have his outside shooting touch on this particular night. Still, LeBron muscled his way to 30 points on 11 for 24 shooting over the course of 46 minutes. ESPN graded LeBron’s game as a B+, noting that he and Battier were the only 2 Heat players to really show up. And yet James got killed in some circles for “failing to deliver” in the 4th quarter again. It’s an easy (and some would say lazy) argument to make given that LBJ’s opposite number shined in the 4th. Durant notched 17 of his game-high 36 in the final period, while James went 2 for 6 from the floor for 7 “meaningless” points during the same stretch…nevermind that LeBron was the only thing keeping Miami from getting their doors blown off in the 3rd quarter, when he scored 9 of Miami’s 19 in that period…or that Wade and Bosh combined to shoot 11 for 30 for the game on mostly unassertive perimeter jumpers (completely negating the nice offensive games by Battier and Chalmers). But when this is brought up, haters will counter that these arguments are served only to give James a pass, and that James’ stat-stuffing numbers only mask his weakness in closing out games…superhuman, unstoppable, cyborg baller that he’s supposed to be and all. How quickly everyone forgot James’ last 2 games to close out Boston though.
Jeff Van Gundy has smartly pointed out that James continues to be held to an unattainable standard that no other player has ever had to live up to (even Jordan). This is partly James’ own doing, as he’s so talented that no matter what he does we always feel like he can do more. If you want to argue that KD outplayed LeBron in game 1, that’s fine…in fact, it’s true. If you’re killing LeBron, it makes me wonder whether or not you actually paid attention to the game at all. Most of Durant’s 36 points seemed to come so easy, as the Thunder’s offense seemed to get him open look after open look in the 2nd half…whereas every James bucket seemed to have to be some kind of tough, double-clutch shot in traffic. That’s not to take anything away from Durant, but just as it’s undeniable that KD got the better of LeBron in this game, it’s also undeniable that he was getting easier looks at the basket too.
It will be interesting to see what adjustments are made for game 2. The Thunder will likely continue to try to do what they did in the 2nd half: force Miami to shoot long jumpers, and collect a lot of long rebounds to start semi-fastbreak opportunities. There’s been talk of Chris Bosh being reinserted into the starting lineup and Miami’s need to try to get in the paint and get to the free line more often. This specifically pertains to Wade, especially when both teams go small, as that eliminates the Thunder’s shotblocking. Also, Miami may need to go a little deeper into its bench, but that’s a tricky proposition considering how the Heat’s subs compare to OKC’s. I also think Miami needs to play more straight-up man-to-man than they showed in game 1. The Heat’s gimmicky switch-all-screens defense when they play James, Wade, Haslem, and Battier together worked against the methodical Celtics, but Westbrook and Durant are too good of 1-on-1 players to have anyone but James (on KD) and Wade (on Westbrook) on them the majority of the time. Their switching led to far too many breakdowns off of Westbrook’s pick-and-roll play, bad matchups from cross-matching in transition, and easy baskets off of miscommunications on defensive rotations too. It’s easy to overreact and overanalyze 1 game, especially in the Finals, but the adjustments both teams make leading up to game 2 should be interesting.
Monday, June 11, 2012
Heat-Celtics, Game 7: Mirror Mirror On The Wall...
The swings of long playoff series are enough to make even me, a longstanding basher of this day and age’s overly reactive 24 hour news cycle, make some snap judgments from time to time. One minute, the Celtics looked like a dead team walking, and the Spurs appeared unstoppable. Only days later, the Heat looked as if they were ready to fold while Boston made 1 more playoff push, and the Thunder were sparking some dynasty talk regardless of who came out of the East. Now, “good” Miami has resurfaced again, and it looks like we have the makings of a pretty evenly matched Finals series.
Unfortunately, Krissy and I had promised weeks ago that we would go see Snow White and the Huntsman with Krissy’s Mom and Grandmom. Softies that we are, we couldn’t find it in our hearts to bail on them, and we actually wanted to see Snow White anyway. Through the magic of DVR we were able to pull off a night-night doubleheader though. The movie played at 7pm. By the time we drove our 2 kiddies home and made the 45 minute trek back to our apartment it was 11:15pm. Even fast-forwarding through the commercials, Krissy and I were starting to get heavy-eyed midway through the 4th quarter, but we made it to the end. On top of that, the movie wasn’t half bad. Yes, the acting left something to be desired…just as when she traipses around with vampires and werewolves, Kristen Stewart displayed the emotional range of a dust mop, and Charlize Theron spent the majority of her scenes screeching at people, but I still found this dark adaptation of an old story pretty entertaining. That’s saying a lot considering the above not-so-glowing reviews, and the fact that any 7 year old could tell you how the story of Snow White goes.
In a nutshell, the Celtics started off chasing Snow White into the Dark Forest, where she kept on getting drugged by weird plants and throwing terrible passes right to Ray Allen. The evil queen, Ravenna, looked like she had this 1 wrapped up early, but LeBron kept the game close while his teammates finally figured out that the kingdom could be lost to the evil queen forever if they didn’t at least show up. Eventually, the Huntsman got it together in the 2nd half and started hitting tough 18 footers, and Chris Bosh proved to be a huge factor too, as he killed more of the evil queen’s henchmen in the final battle than he had in his entire career. In the end, Ravenna was just too old and worn out, and LeBron vanquished her to take his rightful place as queen of the land…I mean king…whatever. The point is that Snow White advanced to the Finals beating the Boston Ravennas in 7 games, where Kevin Durant and the OKC Twilights await. It was getting late though, so sue me if the details are slightly off.
The Heat took us on an emotional rollercoaster on the way to the NBA Finals.
Unfortunately, Krissy and I had promised weeks ago that we would go see Snow White and the Huntsman with Krissy’s Mom and Grandmom. Softies that we are, we couldn’t find it in our hearts to bail on them, and we actually wanted to see Snow White anyway. Through the magic of DVR we were able to pull off a night-night doubleheader though. The movie played at 7pm. By the time we drove our 2 kiddies home and made the 45 minute trek back to our apartment it was 11:15pm. Even fast-forwarding through the commercials, Krissy and I were starting to get heavy-eyed midway through the 4th quarter, but we made it to the end. On top of that, the movie wasn’t half bad. Yes, the acting left something to be desired…just as when she traipses around with vampires and werewolves, Kristen Stewart displayed the emotional range of a dust mop, and Charlize Theron spent the majority of her scenes screeching at people, but I still found this dark adaptation of an old story pretty entertaining. That’s saying a lot considering the above not-so-glowing reviews, and the fact that any 7 year old could tell you how the story of Snow White goes.
Wrap this thing up, guys...we've got a game to watch!
In a nutshell, the Celtics started off chasing Snow White into the Dark Forest, where she kept on getting drugged by weird plants and throwing terrible passes right to Ray Allen. The evil queen, Ravenna, looked like she had this 1 wrapped up early, but LeBron kept the game close while his teammates finally figured out that the kingdom could be lost to the evil queen forever if they didn’t at least show up. Eventually, the Huntsman got it together in the 2nd half and started hitting tough 18 footers, and Chris Bosh proved to be a huge factor too, as he killed more of the evil queen’s henchmen in the final battle than he had in his entire career. In the end, Ravenna was just too old and worn out, and LeBron vanquished her to take his rightful place as queen of the land…I mean king…whatever. The point is that Snow White advanced to the Finals beating the Boston Ravennas in 7 games, where Kevin Durant and the OKC Twilights await. It was getting late though, so sue me if the details are slightly off.
Friday, June 8, 2012
Heat-Celtics, Game 6: Living To Fight Another Day
Working on a 5 game win streak on ESPN’s “Streak For The Cash,” I picked Boston to beat my Miami last night and close out the Heat in 6 games. It was partially a way to emotionally hedge my bet seeing as how I would much rather see the Heat advance, but it was also an examination of the facts for me. The Celtics had really been the better team for the previous 4 games of this series, and the Heat have a history of playing just good enough to lose in these kinds of situations over the past 2 seasons. Unfortunately for my streak and the Celtics, LeBron James happened.
If only this was a TNT game, then we could have had Marv Albert’s signature call: “James working on Pierce. James…YES! LeBron James again!” Instead we were stuck with the weak sauce of play-by-play guys that is Mike Breen. (Albert and Jeff Van Gundy would be an announcing match made in heaven.) James netted 45 for the night on 19 for 26 shooting in 45 minutes (he pulled down 15 boards to boot). He had 30 by halftime, going 12 for 14 from the floor before recess. If the outcome of the game was still in doubt late, LeBron looked like he would have gone the full 48 in this 1 too. That Miami’s lead had grown to around 20 allowed James to pull his foot off the gas in the 4th…otherwise, it looked like he could easily have gone for 50-plus.
It wasn’t just the numbers though…it was the way James got them. Yes, he scored in a variety of ways, but he was decisive and efficient. It was, as Bill Simmons terms it, the “virtuoso” performance that I called for in my post following game 5. It was clear from the outset that James wasn’t going to wait for Wade and others to get themselves going early on. Wade had his customary slow start, going 1 for 5 from the field in the 1st half, but it didn’t matter much. What was particularly encouraging about James’ game was that there was no ball-stopping or wasted motion. Most of his scores were on isolation plays, but James didn’t jab-step or make ball fakes for 8 seconds before deciding what to do. Instead, it was catch the ball, and go to work.
There didn’t seem to be any stopping James and the Heat on this night, but there were a couple other factors that turned this from a Miami win to a Boston shellacking. Miami’s role players actually managed to hit some timely 3’s (Battier and Chalmers combined to shoot 5 for 8 from distance), and for the 1st time since game 1 of this series the Celtics looked old and tired…but it’s easy to look that way when the ball isn’t going in the basket. Paul Pierce suffered through a miserable night, going 4 for 18 while picking up 3 early 1st half fouls trying to deal with James. Rajon Rondo had another 20-10 game, but uncharacteristically coughed the ball up 7 times too. And KG only managed 5 rebounds in 30-plus minutes.
All that being said, and this was only game 6. James exorcised some demons for 1 night, and Miami retook control of the series, but none of that means anything if Boston goes into Miami and steals game 7. Fair or not, last night only affords LeBron and Miami a 48 hour ceasefire of criticism. A Celtics win will put the Heat squarely back in the crosshairs of public scrutiny. LeBron would undoubtedly be deemed the goat, and the media will call for this Miami roster and coaching staff to be blown up once again. Such is life though for the Miami Heat…personally, I can’t wait for Saturday night.
If only this was a TNT game, then we could have had Marv Albert’s signature call: “James working on Pierce. James…YES! LeBron James again!” Instead we were stuck with the weak sauce of play-by-play guys that is Mike Breen. (Albert and Jeff Van Gundy would be an announcing match made in heaven.) James netted 45 for the night on 19 for 26 shooting in 45 minutes (he pulled down 15 boards to boot). He had 30 by halftime, going 12 for 14 from the floor before recess. If the outcome of the game was still in doubt late, LeBron looked like he would have gone the full 48 in this 1 too. That Miami’s lead had grown to around 20 allowed James to pull his foot off the gas in the 4th…otherwise, it looked like he could easily have gone for 50-plus.
It wasn’t just the numbers though…it was the way James got them. Yes, he scored in a variety of ways, but he was decisive and efficient. It was, as Bill Simmons terms it, the “virtuoso” performance that I called for in my post following game 5. It was clear from the outset that James wasn’t going to wait for Wade and others to get themselves going early on. Wade had his customary slow start, going 1 for 5 from the field in the 1st half, but it didn’t matter much. What was particularly encouraging about James’ game was that there was no ball-stopping or wasted motion. Most of his scores were on isolation plays, but James didn’t jab-step or make ball fakes for 8 seconds before deciding what to do. Instead, it was catch the ball, and go to work.
There didn’t seem to be any stopping James and the Heat on this night, but there were a couple other factors that turned this from a Miami win to a Boston shellacking. Miami’s role players actually managed to hit some timely 3’s (Battier and Chalmers combined to shoot 5 for 8 from distance), and for the 1st time since game 1 of this series the Celtics looked old and tired…but it’s easy to look that way when the ball isn’t going in the basket. Paul Pierce suffered through a miserable night, going 4 for 18 while picking up 3 early 1st half fouls trying to deal with James. Rajon Rondo had another 20-10 game, but uncharacteristically coughed the ball up 7 times too. And KG only managed 5 rebounds in 30-plus minutes.
All that being said, and this was only game 6. James exorcised some demons for 1 night, and Miami retook control of the series, but none of that means anything if Boston goes into Miami and steals game 7. Fair or not, last night only affords LeBron and Miami a 48 hour ceasefire of criticism. A Celtics win will put the Heat squarely back in the crosshairs of public scrutiny. LeBron would undoubtedly be deemed the goat, and the media will call for this Miami roster and coaching staff to be blown up once again. Such is life though for the Miami Heat…personally, I can’t wait for Saturday night.
Thursday, June 7, 2012
Spurs-Thunder, Game 6: A Dynasty In The Making
Last night, the Oklahoma City Thunder beat the San Antonio Spurs 107-99 in front of a raucous home crowd to dispatch the Spurs from the Western Conference Finals in 6 games. The fact that OKC won the game and the series is important, but not as important as what the historical significance may end up being. The same sentiment is no doubt being written in sports columns and blog posts all over the country, but it bears repeating: we might be witnessing the birth of a dynasty here.
OKC is the model franchise of the NBA right now. They boast the best group of young homegrown talent in the league, and their 2 biggest stars, Durant and Westbrook, are only 23…yet the Thunder locked them up to longterm contract extensions already, a rarity in today’s age of free agency (Durant is signed through the 2015-2016 season). The other 2 main cogs, Harden and Ibaka, are each only 22.
Considering their respective ages, OKC seems way ahead of schedule. The NBA is traditionally a veterans’ league. Simply put, young teams don’t win NBA championships. In the 2007-2008 and 2008-2009 seasons, the Thunder won 20 and then 23 games. The next year OKC won 50 games before getting bounced in the 1st round of the playoffs by the Lakers. Last year, they won 55 games and lost to Dallas in the Conference Finals. This year, they improved their winning percentage once again, and even if they don’t win it all they improved upon last season’s postseason finish already.
That trend suggests that the young Thunder will continue on an upward arc next season, as their core will presumably be intact, and Durant, Westbrook, and company will only continue to get better. Let’s repeat the ages of KD, Westbrook, Harden, and Ibaka again just to be clear: 23, 23, 22, and 22. The only 2 acquisitions of real consequence GM Sam Presti has made in the last 2 years have been Kendrick Perkins and Derek Fisher. They have given OKC toughness and veteran leadership, but let’s be fair here…the franchise’s future depends on the 4 young studs that I just mentioned.
Presti needs to continue to fill the roster with the right type of complimentary players the next few years, but his most pressing issues are in-house: extending Harden and Ibaka (and to a lesser extent Eric Maynor, who may have been the best backup point guard in the league prior to tearing his ACL this year…Maynor’s injury may have very well driven down his pricetag though, making it easier for the Thunder to resign him). Once thought as a nice complimentary scorer, this year Harden has shown that he might be 1 of the top 15-20 players in the whole league, and he would command major dinero on the open market. Similarly, Ibaka has gone from a player with potential to the type of guy who could see 8 digit per year salary offers as well. Win or lose this year, OKC’s brass will have some important decisions to make regarding Harden and Ibaka given that Durant and Westbrook have already signed contracts for big money. They simply might not be able to afford all of them.
Then again, Harden and Ibaka may follow the lead of Durant (the league’s most unassuming superstar) and Westbrook by choosing to sign with OKC early on. I don’t put it past anyone to simply pick whatever team is offering them the most cash. Money still talks after all…but the guys on this Thunder team genuinely seem to like each other, and maybe for once the chance to make history will outweigh dollars and cents. There is less parody in the NBA than any other league. 5 NBA franchises (Lakers, Celtics, Sixers, Bulls, and Spurs) have won nearly every NBA championships since the inception of the league. If the Thunder win this year and can keep those 4 guys together, they just might add themselves to the list.
OKC is the model franchise of the NBA right now. They boast the best group of young homegrown talent in the league, and their 2 biggest stars, Durant and Westbrook, are only 23…yet the Thunder locked them up to longterm contract extensions already, a rarity in today’s age of free agency (Durant is signed through the 2015-2016 season). The other 2 main cogs, Harden and Ibaka, are each only 22.
Hey NBA, get used to this scene.
Considering their respective ages, OKC seems way ahead of schedule. The NBA is traditionally a veterans’ league. Simply put, young teams don’t win NBA championships. In the 2007-2008 and 2008-2009 seasons, the Thunder won 20 and then 23 games. The next year OKC won 50 games before getting bounced in the 1st round of the playoffs by the Lakers. Last year, they won 55 games and lost to Dallas in the Conference Finals. This year, they improved their winning percentage once again, and even if they don’t win it all they improved upon last season’s postseason finish already.
That trend suggests that the young Thunder will continue on an upward arc next season, as their core will presumably be intact, and Durant, Westbrook, and company will only continue to get better. Let’s repeat the ages of KD, Westbrook, Harden, and Ibaka again just to be clear: 23, 23, 22, and 22. The only 2 acquisitions of real consequence GM Sam Presti has made in the last 2 years have been Kendrick Perkins and Derek Fisher. They have given OKC toughness and veteran leadership, but let’s be fair here…the franchise’s future depends on the 4 young studs that I just mentioned.
Presti needs to continue to fill the roster with the right type of complimentary players the next few years, but his most pressing issues are in-house: extending Harden and Ibaka (and to a lesser extent Eric Maynor, who may have been the best backup point guard in the league prior to tearing his ACL this year…Maynor’s injury may have very well driven down his pricetag though, making it easier for the Thunder to resign him). Once thought as a nice complimentary scorer, this year Harden has shown that he might be 1 of the top 15-20 players in the whole league, and he would command major dinero on the open market. Similarly, Ibaka has gone from a player with potential to the type of guy who could see 8 digit per year salary offers as well. Win or lose this year, OKC’s brass will have some important decisions to make regarding Harden and Ibaka given that Durant and Westbrook have already signed contracts for big money. They simply might not be able to afford all of them.
Then again, Harden and Ibaka may follow the lead of Durant (the league’s most unassuming superstar) and Westbrook by choosing to sign with OKC early on. I don’t put it past anyone to simply pick whatever team is offering them the most cash. Money still talks after all…but the guys on this Thunder team genuinely seem to like each other, and maybe for once the chance to make history will outweigh dollars and cents. There is less parody in the NBA than any other league. 5 NBA franchises (Lakers, Celtics, Sixers, Bulls, and Spurs) have won nearly every NBA championships since the inception of the league. If the Thunder win this year and can keep those 4 guys together, they just might add themselves to the list.
Wednesday, June 6, 2012
Heat-Celtics, Game 5: A Standing 8 Count For Miami
As I got out of the shower this morning, I was somewhat caught off guard by the 1st thing out of my wife’s mouth. “I’m still mad that the Heat lost last night,” she said. Half-awake as I was, the only thing I could think to mumble back was, “Yea, I know…Boston was just better.” It’s said that there is a lot of truth said in jest, and alcohol is sometimes referred to as “truth serum” as well, but maybe there’s something to a groggy sleep-deprived state removing the filter on your brain/mouth too.
8 days ago, I (and just about everyone else who was paying attention) had left the Celtics for dead. They were down 0-2 to Miami, and their own big 3 looked old, tired, and slow. Not even a herculean effort by Rajon Rondo in game 2 could rescue the C’s. After reeling off 3 straight W’s though, the Celtics look to be in complete control of the series, and Miami (who earlier looked as if they might wrap up this series in a tidy 5 or 6 games) looks like it has no answers.
It’s not really a secret that I have been pulling for the Heat in this series and throughout this postseason. Somewhere along the way, I grew tired of all the hate directed at Miami. Much of the criticism that has followed them the past 2 seasons is a result of their own doing, but they are so overly scrutinized that I have found myself rooting for them to shut everybody up. I also would like to see them advance simply because I would like to continue watching LeBron James (as he would say) “play the game of basketball.” Pick him apart if you want to, but I can’t think of anyone else who can do as many things on the court as LeBron can. Add to that the fact that I have grown tired of the Celtics’ act – KG’s demeanor, Rondo’s antics, and their holier-than-though view of themselves as some kind of greater good fighting against the big, bad anti-Christ of basketball that is the Heat – and I can’t deny that I would like to see Boston go down, and go down hard.
But at this point, that doesn’t seem likely. Watching these games play out, it doesn’t appear that Boston has figured out any magic formula for beating the Heat either. Just as I said to Krissy in my not quite fully functional state this morning, the Celtics just seem to be the better team at the moment. This seems impossible given that Ray Allen, Paul Pierce, and Kevin Garnett all have looked like statues for large portions of this season, that Boston’s top 3 players off the bench this series have been Mickael Pietrus, Greg Stiemsma, and Keyon Dooling, and that the 8th seeded Sixers pushed the Celtics to a game 7 the series before.
Part of the problem for Miami is that their supporting cast is nothing to write home about either though. Wade and LeBron pushed through a subpar shooting night (a combined 21 for 47 from the floor) to score 57 points…the 7 other Miami players that saw court action shot a combined 11 for 35 (31%). The “others” for the Heat were even worse on 3-point attempts (4 for 17), many of which were wide open. A telling stat for Miami this series: James is only averaging 4 assists per game. That partially has to do with Boston’s ability to rotate defensively and close off passing lanes, but it also speaks to a lack of shot making. Also, Jeff Van Gundy and Mike Breen have been marveling at LeBron James’ ability to play and defend all 5 positions during this series. The fact that he has to do that should say something about Miami’s roster overall though.
However, on a night when Rondo, Allen, and Pierce couldn’t throw the ball in the ocean for much of the game (a combined 11 for 43…Pierce did however step up when it mattered and hit the shot of the game), the Celtics were still able to keep the game close before winning it at the end. Brandon Bass and Pietrus notched 10 and 13 points, respectively, and KG shrugged off a slow start to finish with 26 points on 11 for 20 shooting.
Despite how old the Celtics have looked at times, how thin their bench is, and what their regular season record was, they are still Miami’s nightmare matchup though. I doubt the Heat would have had significant problems dispatching anyone else in the East (including a full Chicago Bulls squad). For example, that same Philly team that gave Boston a scare a round earlier matches up terribly with Miami, but the Celtics have 2 players (Rondo and KG) that the Heat simply don’t have an answer for. If Miami switches Wade or LeBron onto 1 (or both) of them, that’s when Pierce and Allen go to work. With Chalmers and Haslem guarding those 2, Boston worked KG and Rondo in pick-and-rolls on what seemed like 10 straight possessions in the 4th quarter last night, and it was virtually unstoppable.
You could argue that Chris Bosh’s absence would have hurt Miami against any other team, but against Boston I’m not so sure. Yes, he’s a big body that needs to actually be guarded (unlike Joel Anthony and Ronny Turiaf), but his game is too finesse to give KG problems, and he just always seems a step slow in playing the pick-and-roll or in defensive rotations. His mistakes on that end of the floor aren’t egregious, but they are just enough for a well oiled Celtics team to pick apart. (I don’t want to put too much stock in Bosh’s performance last night, as he played spot duty in his 1st game back from an abdominal strain, but he had a game worst +/- of -12.)
All this may add up to disaster for Miami. The Celtics smell blood, and Boston’s home crowd will be as amped-up as humanly possible for game 6 on Thursday. For Miami to force a game 7, it’s probably going to take another superman effort from James like he had in game 4 against Indy (44 points, 18 boards, and 9 dimes), 2 good halves from Dwyane Wade, and some timely 3’s from the likes of Battier, Chalmers, and Miller. Otherwise, say goodnight, South Beach…the Celtics will be going to the Finals.
"Wut...?"
8 days ago, I (and just about everyone else who was paying attention) had left the Celtics for dead. They were down 0-2 to Miami, and their own big 3 looked old, tired, and slow. Not even a herculean effort by Rajon Rondo in game 2 could rescue the C’s. After reeling off 3 straight W’s though, the Celtics look to be in complete control of the series, and Miami (who earlier looked as if they might wrap up this series in a tidy 5 or 6 games) looks like it has no answers.
It’s not really a secret that I have been pulling for the Heat in this series and throughout this postseason. Somewhere along the way, I grew tired of all the hate directed at Miami. Much of the criticism that has followed them the past 2 seasons is a result of their own doing, but they are so overly scrutinized that I have found myself rooting for them to shut everybody up. I also would like to see them advance simply because I would like to continue watching LeBron James (as he would say) “play the game of basketball.” Pick him apart if you want to, but I can’t think of anyone else who can do as many things on the court as LeBron can. Add to that the fact that I have grown tired of the Celtics’ act – KG’s demeanor, Rondo’s antics, and their holier-than-though view of themselves as some kind of greater good fighting against the big, bad anti-Christ of basketball that is the Heat – and I can’t deny that I would like to see Boston go down, and go down hard.
But at this point, that doesn’t seem likely. Watching these games play out, it doesn’t appear that Boston has figured out any magic formula for beating the Heat either. Just as I said to Krissy in my not quite fully functional state this morning, the Celtics just seem to be the better team at the moment. This seems impossible given that Ray Allen, Paul Pierce, and Kevin Garnett all have looked like statues for large portions of this season, that Boston’s top 3 players off the bench this series have been Mickael Pietrus, Greg Stiemsma, and Keyon Dooling, and that the 8th seeded Sixers pushed the Celtics to a game 7 the series before.
Part of the problem for Miami is that their supporting cast is nothing to write home about either though. Wade and LeBron pushed through a subpar shooting night (a combined 21 for 47 from the floor) to score 57 points…the 7 other Miami players that saw court action shot a combined 11 for 35 (31%). The “others” for the Heat were even worse on 3-point attempts (4 for 17), many of which were wide open. A telling stat for Miami this series: James is only averaging 4 assists per game. That partially has to do with Boston’s ability to rotate defensively and close off passing lanes, but it also speaks to a lack of shot making. Also, Jeff Van Gundy and Mike Breen have been marveling at LeBron James’ ability to play and defend all 5 positions during this series. The fact that he has to do that should say something about Miami’s roster overall though.
However, on a night when Rondo, Allen, and Pierce couldn’t throw the ball in the ocean for much of the game (a combined 11 for 43…Pierce did however step up when it mattered and hit the shot of the game), the Celtics were still able to keep the game close before winning it at the end. Brandon Bass and Pietrus notched 10 and 13 points, respectively, and KG shrugged off a slow start to finish with 26 points on 11 for 20 shooting.
The "truth" is that the Celts still have Miami's number.
Despite how old the Celtics have looked at times, how thin their bench is, and what their regular season record was, they are still Miami’s nightmare matchup though. I doubt the Heat would have had significant problems dispatching anyone else in the East (including a full Chicago Bulls squad). For example, that same Philly team that gave Boston a scare a round earlier matches up terribly with Miami, but the Celtics have 2 players (Rondo and KG) that the Heat simply don’t have an answer for. If Miami switches Wade or LeBron onto 1 (or both) of them, that’s when Pierce and Allen go to work. With Chalmers and Haslem guarding those 2, Boston worked KG and Rondo in pick-and-rolls on what seemed like 10 straight possessions in the 4th quarter last night, and it was virtually unstoppable.
You could argue that Chris Bosh’s absence would have hurt Miami against any other team, but against Boston I’m not so sure. Yes, he’s a big body that needs to actually be guarded (unlike Joel Anthony and Ronny Turiaf), but his game is too finesse to give KG problems, and he just always seems a step slow in playing the pick-and-roll or in defensive rotations. His mistakes on that end of the floor aren’t egregious, but they are just enough for a well oiled Celtics team to pick apart. (I don’t want to put too much stock in Bosh’s performance last night, as he played spot duty in his 1st game back from an abdominal strain, but he had a game worst +/- of -12.)
All this may add up to disaster for Miami. The Celtics smell blood, and Boston’s home crowd will be as amped-up as humanly possible for game 6 on Thursday. For Miami to force a game 7, it’s probably going to take another superman effort from James like he had in game 4 against Indy (44 points, 18 boards, and 9 dimes), 2 good halves from Dwyane Wade, and some timely 3’s from the likes of Battier, Chalmers, and Miller. Otherwise, say goodnight, South Beach…the Celtics will be going to the Finals.
Tuesday, June 5, 2012
Spurs-Thunder, Game 5: Mr. Sandman, Bring Me A Dream
Damn you, NBA Playoffs. Despite having earlier start times, 2 of the last 3 Eastern Conference Finals games (both of which went into OT) have ended almost as late as the games out West. With that being said, it’s hard to turn off the TV and go to bed when you just watched an entire game that has somehow not reached its conclusion yet. What’s a 5 minute extra period anyway? But much to my chagrin, game 5 of the Western Conference Finals ended with me passed out on the couch. It’s funny how the brain works in those situations. When it’s 11:15pm and overtime is starting, it seems like the game is flying by. When it’s 10:15pm and it’s only halftime, resistance against those heavy eyelids seems futile. So, pardon me if I don’t wax as poetically or passionately about the Spurs-Thunder games compared to those of the Heat-Celtics series, but Mr. Sandman came a calling early last night.
From what I can piece together from the parts of the last few games I did watch (and Sportscenter), a couple of things seem perfectly clear though. There’s a reason that despite the long winning streak, the demolition of the Jazz and Clippers, and the impeccable overall play I thought the Spurs were potentially vulnerable against any Western Conference team (and wasn’t counting the Thunder out when they went down 0-2 either). The Spurs share the ball incredibly well, but their offense is still predicated on Manu and Tony Parker getting into the paint. OKC took my advice of showing hard on every pick-and-roll (as if they were actually listening to me…the strategy seemed pretty obvious to a lot of people actually), and this has allowed the Thunder to do a better job of staying home on their individual defensive assignments. What San Antonio wants you to do is help out on Ginobili and Parker’s penetration, leaving shooters open on the perimeter to swing the ball to. OKC’s pick-and-roll defense has kept those 2 out of the lane over the last 3 games for the most part, and the Spurs offense, vaunted as 1 of the greatest of all time only a few days ago, has bogged down. The Thunder will continue to welcome low post isolation plays with Tim Duncan even if he plays as efficiently as game 5 (7 for 10 from the floor for 18 points) because more shots for him means less for everybody else.
Aside from that, OKC’s talent and athleticism has really shown through in their 3 straight wins. As I said before as well, San Antonio plays sound team defense, but this Spurs team doesn’t possess the individual “stoppers” that past Spurs teams have had, and the Thunder are starting to assert their athletic advantage by playing over the top of San Antonio (conversely, the Spurs were a favorite of Steve Smith’s “Under The Rim” plays of the week all year long). Durant and Harden seem to be able to get whatever they want on offense at all times. And even though Russell Westbrook has shot poorly this entire series (under 40% from the field in all 5 games), he has done a better job of getting his teammates involved of late (8.7 assists per game in the last 3 games vs. 6.5 a game in the 1st 2). I wouldn’t put it past the Spurs to force a game 7, but they somehow need to figure out more creative ways to beat the Thunder’s pick-and-roll D. If not, the Thunder will be awaiting the winner of the Miami-Boston series by Wednesday night.
From what I can piece together from the parts of the last few games I did watch (and Sportscenter), a couple of things seem perfectly clear though. There’s a reason that despite the long winning streak, the demolition of the Jazz and Clippers, and the impeccable overall play I thought the Spurs were potentially vulnerable against any Western Conference team (and wasn’t counting the Thunder out when they went down 0-2 either). The Spurs share the ball incredibly well, but their offense is still predicated on Manu and Tony Parker getting into the paint. OKC took my advice of showing hard on every pick-and-roll (as if they were actually listening to me…the strategy seemed pretty obvious to a lot of people actually), and this has allowed the Thunder to do a better job of staying home on their individual defensive assignments. What San Antonio wants you to do is help out on Ginobili and Parker’s penetration, leaving shooters open on the perimeter to swing the ball to. OKC’s pick-and-roll defense has kept those 2 out of the lane over the last 3 games for the most part, and the Spurs offense, vaunted as 1 of the greatest of all time only a few days ago, has bogged down. The Thunder will continue to welcome low post isolation plays with Tim Duncan even if he plays as efficiently as game 5 (7 for 10 from the floor for 18 points) because more shots for him means less for everybody else.
From dominant to doomed: the last 3 games have Coach Popovich searching for answers.
Aside from that, OKC’s talent and athleticism has really shown through in their 3 straight wins. As I said before as well, San Antonio plays sound team defense, but this Spurs team doesn’t possess the individual “stoppers” that past Spurs teams have had, and the Thunder are starting to assert their athletic advantage by playing over the top of San Antonio (conversely, the Spurs were a favorite of Steve Smith’s “Under The Rim” plays of the week all year long). Durant and Harden seem to be able to get whatever they want on offense at all times. And even though Russell Westbrook has shot poorly this entire series (under 40% from the field in all 5 games), he has done a better job of getting his teammates involved of late (8.7 assists per game in the last 3 games vs. 6.5 a game in the 1st 2). I wouldn’t put it past the Spurs to force a game 7, but they somehow need to figure out more creative ways to beat the Thunder’s pick-and-roll D. If not, the Thunder will be awaiting the winner of the Miami-Boston series by Wednesday night.
Monday, June 4, 2012
Heat-Celtics, Game 4: The Obnoxiousness of Rajon Rondo
Rajon Rondo grows more and more tiresome every time I watch him. Such is the problem with the Celtics in general. If I was a Boston fan, I probably love these guys to death. On a lot of levels, they go right up to that proverbial “line” without actually crossing it. KG’s oversized intensity and constant yapping at opposing players…Pierce’s gyrations, flops, and yelps anytime he goes into the lane…Ray Allen’s, well, I’m not sure. Allen is probably the most squeaky-clean of all the C’s. The worst thing you could probably say about him in terms of annoyance is that he carries himself with a certain sense of superiority, like the stud player from some big fancy private school with their fancy shoes and just-a-little-too-fresh team warm-ups…think the college era JJ Redick persona. In fact, maybe it’s just a kind of swagger that all great sharpshooters have. And I will even allow Allen all this given that, oh I don’t know, he’s only the greatest 3-point shooter of all time. Also, you can find these or similarly annoying traits on players from every other team in the league, so it’s not as if the Celtics are the only guilty party. (Just look at their opponent in the Eastern Conference Finals, who is maybe the most hated team of all time.)
But on the court, Rondo comes off as something different altogether. I don’t even know how describe it exactly. Oh wait, I know: a douchebaggery! Numerous reports have surfaced out of Boston over the years that his personality is “difficult” to deal with at times. Why else would Boston have shopped a 26 year old stud point guard for a trade numerous times already? Questions about whether he is emotionally fragile have surfaced a few times over the last couple seasons as well. Things like the Kendrick Perkins trade (who was by all accounts Rondo’s best friend on the team at the time) and President Barack Obama’s jab at his shooting seemed to send Rondo’s play on the court into a tailspin in years past. He’s also shown a penchant for childlike behavior every now and again. Whether it’s chestbumping or throwing a ball at a ref, sneaking into opposing teams’ huddles, or trying to kick someone after he just drew a charge on him, Rondo sometimes resembles a bratty child. After bowling over Shane Battier last night and the subsequent kick attempt at Battier, Rondo chided to referee Joey Crawford after he T-ed him up, “He tripped me!” There was no trip attempt by Battier, and it was clearly just a case of Rondo’s frustrations boiling over, but Rondo looked like a kid lying to his mom about being hit by his big brother 1st when he had just gotten caught red-handed trying to slug said sibling in the face.
On top of all that, Rondo has adopted the KG approach of getting away with any little foul that he can. Garnett is infamous for moving screens and little elbows on every other play that just aren’t quite egregious enough to draw a whistle. I don’t think it should be construed as dirty, but again it’s right on the line. Similarly, Rondo will push off, tug a jersey, or hook with his off arm any chance he has that the refs can’t see. None of that is probably over the line of what’s dirty either, but if someone just hauls-off and decks Rondo during a game 1 day, it’s safe to say he deserves it. I also can’t describe whether or not Rondo would actually be fun to play with. On the 1 hand, he is a superb passer who gets everyone the ball in the spots they like…on the other, he orders teammates around on the court like he’s Peyton Manning. When Rondo is directing traffic, Pierce, Allen, and KG must say to themselves, “Oh my word, just shut the f*** up and pass the ball,” at least 5 times a game…and yet he almost always delivers the ball to the right place on time, so how mad could they possibly get? It’s almost gotten to the point where I have to mute the TV when Boston’s on offense though for fear of hearing Rondo’s pipsqueaky voice calling out audibiles for 20 seconds.
Maybe more than anything though, Rondo just seems a little too sure of himself for my liking, as if he is the greater good fighting opposite the evil empire from South Beach (or whoever else). What Rondo fails to see is that he’s not exactly a beacon of basketball purity himself. After a loss to Miami earlier in the series, he talked about Boston needing to send some of the Heat players to the deck once in a while when they went to the basket. That’s all well and good, but all I could think was wouldn’t it be nice if Udonis Haslem or Shane Battier “sent Rondo to the deck” a couple of times too? After all, it’s not as if Rondo himself is going to be the 1 laying the wood to LeBron or Wade. Before heading into the locker room for halftime last night, Rondo told sideline reporter Doris Burke that the Celtics were capitalizing off of Miami’s “crying about calls” by scoring in transition. Again, Rondo’s candor is somewhat refreshing in this day and age where every question is answered by “we just need to be more aggressive” and “both teams played hard, my man,” and what he said was factually accurate as well, but it was an interesting comment coming from Rondo, who seems to whine about calls as much as anybody. Just go back to game 2 of this series, where during overtime a Dwyane Wade face-chop to Rondo was not called, but Rondo failed to get back down court due to him milking the contact. That resulted in what turned out to be a crucial Haslem dunk in Miami’s overtime win.
All of this is complicated by the fact that Rondo is a once-in-a-generation type player. No, his jumper isn’t going to wow you on most nights like it did during game 2 in Miami, but he is an elite defender, passer, and team orchestrator. He doesn’t have Rose’s or Russell Westbrook’s explosiveness, but he as that same kind of slithery ability when working his way to the basket that those 2 have as well. He is the type of talent that makes you draw a blank when trying to think of someone else like him. His 15 and 15 game last night in Boston’s series tying 93-91 victory over Miami speaks for itself. All of that is true, and yet so is this: he’s a punk.
But on the court, Rondo comes off as something different altogether. I don’t even know how describe it exactly. Oh wait, I know: a douchebaggery! Numerous reports have surfaced out of Boston over the years that his personality is “difficult” to deal with at times. Why else would Boston have shopped a 26 year old stud point guard for a trade numerous times already? Questions about whether he is emotionally fragile have surfaced a few times over the last couple seasons as well. Things like the Kendrick Perkins trade (who was by all accounts Rondo’s best friend on the team at the time) and President Barack Obama’s jab at his shooting seemed to send Rondo’s play on the court into a tailspin in years past. He’s also shown a penchant for childlike behavior every now and again. Whether it’s chestbumping or throwing a ball at a ref, sneaking into opposing teams’ huddles, or trying to kick someone after he just drew a charge on him, Rondo sometimes resembles a bratty child. After bowling over Shane Battier last night and the subsequent kick attempt at Battier, Rondo chided to referee Joey Crawford after he T-ed him up, “He tripped me!” There was no trip attempt by Battier, and it was clearly just a case of Rondo’s frustrations boiling over, but Rondo looked like a kid lying to his mom about being hit by his big brother 1st when he had just gotten caught red-handed trying to slug said sibling in the face.
"He hit me 1st, Mommy! I swear!"
On top of all that, Rondo has adopted the KG approach of getting away with any little foul that he can. Garnett is infamous for moving screens and little elbows on every other play that just aren’t quite egregious enough to draw a whistle. I don’t think it should be construed as dirty, but again it’s right on the line. Similarly, Rondo will push off, tug a jersey, or hook with his off arm any chance he has that the refs can’t see. None of that is probably over the line of what’s dirty either, but if someone just hauls-off and decks Rondo during a game 1 day, it’s safe to say he deserves it. I also can’t describe whether or not Rondo would actually be fun to play with. On the 1 hand, he is a superb passer who gets everyone the ball in the spots they like…on the other, he orders teammates around on the court like he’s Peyton Manning. When Rondo is directing traffic, Pierce, Allen, and KG must say to themselves, “Oh my word, just shut the f*** up and pass the ball,” at least 5 times a game…and yet he almost always delivers the ball to the right place on time, so how mad could they possibly get? It’s almost gotten to the point where I have to mute the TV when Boston’s on offense though for fear of hearing Rondo’s pipsqueaky voice calling out audibiles for 20 seconds.
Maybe more than anything though, Rondo just seems a little too sure of himself for my liking, as if he is the greater good fighting opposite the evil empire from South Beach (or whoever else). What Rondo fails to see is that he’s not exactly a beacon of basketball purity himself. After a loss to Miami earlier in the series, he talked about Boston needing to send some of the Heat players to the deck once in a while when they went to the basket. That’s all well and good, but all I could think was wouldn’t it be nice if Udonis Haslem or Shane Battier “sent Rondo to the deck” a couple of times too? After all, it’s not as if Rondo himself is going to be the 1 laying the wood to LeBron or Wade. Before heading into the locker room for halftime last night, Rondo told sideline reporter Doris Burke that the Celtics were capitalizing off of Miami’s “crying about calls” by scoring in transition. Again, Rondo’s candor is somewhat refreshing in this day and age where every question is answered by “we just need to be more aggressive” and “both teams played hard, my man,” and what he said was factually accurate as well, but it was an interesting comment coming from Rondo, who seems to whine about calls as much as anybody. Just go back to game 2 of this series, where during overtime a Dwyane Wade face-chop to Rondo was not called, but Rondo failed to get back down court due to him milking the contact. That resulted in what turned out to be a crucial Haslem dunk in Miami’s overtime win.
Rondo's greatness is only outweighed by his obnoxiousness.
All of this is complicated by the fact that Rondo is a once-in-a-generation type player. No, his jumper isn’t going to wow you on most nights like it did during game 2 in Miami, but he is an elite defender, passer, and team orchestrator. He doesn’t have Rose’s or Russell Westbrook’s explosiveness, but he as that same kind of slithery ability when working his way to the basket that those 2 have as well. He is the type of talent that makes you draw a blank when trying to think of someone else like him. His 15 and 15 game last night in Boston’s series tying 93-91 victory over Miami speaks for itself. All of that is true, and yet so is this: he’s a punk.
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