#070 - Finals Recap: King's Ring, Miami, Miami, Miami

I will refrain from using a photo on this post. Sorry. I know the photos are why everyone comes here. And by everyone, I mean, someone? Just don't feel like sifting through internet images of all the red and white confetti pouring down on Dwyane Wade's head. Sure, I'm a sore loser.

Simply put, the Heat outplayed the Thunder, and they outplayed them in a way that left little doubt as to which team was ready to win the championship. Congrats to OKC for managing to swing Game 1, but they botched every key moment, every potential opportunity to win a second game, every high-pressure situation from there on out. And not in a finger-pointing kind of way. In just a general, hey guys, we didn't get it done way. Westbrook dribbling it off his foot. Harden missing a fast break layup. Sefolosha getting numerous three pointers blocked. Durant trying to go behind his back in traffic (twice). The no-call on LeBron at the end of Game 2. Each of the biggest moments of the series from Game 2 on ended up flowing the Heat's way. And they deserve all the credit, they did what they needed to, especially the big-time three point shooting of Battier, Chalmers and Miller, and the free-throw shooting of Wade and LeBron in the clutch.

There seems to be a big confusion between not wanting a team to win and being a hater. I've never been a LeBron hater, I'm not sour simply because he won and I want him to suffer endless defeats. I merely preferred the narrative of LeBron on the Cavs, building his own team, crafting his own legend. That's what I wanted to see. Not the Basketball SuperFriends. It has nothing to do with not respecting LeBron's game. I just didn't like his choices. For the last three years, there's never been a time for me when I was uncertain as to who the best player in the league was. It was always LeBron. Even if the Thunder had beaten the Heat, that wouldn't have proven Durant as better. He's not. That's not to say he's not better at certain things, because he is, and his pure scoring ability ranks up there with the greatest of all time. LeBron is a different beast all together. Defense, rebounding, fast break, passing. He performs at a world-class level in almost every facet of the game. There's never been a stronger finisher. End of story. All of the "If they win, what does it mean" conjecture is bullshit. It doesn't mean anything. He still would have been LeBron if they had lost. He still would have been the best in the game. Maybe it might have meant that he didn't play like it, but he had a really solid game in Game 1, and they lost that game. It just turned out throughout the series that he got the help he's been asking for.

The biggest thing I credit LeBron on is his acceptance of his faults. He won't publicly admit it, despite his recent confession that he felt he was immature during the loss to Dallas last year. His game is what speaks to his acquiescence. Instead of trying to be a jumpshooter, taking the opportunities given to him by very cautious defenders, he played aggressive. I don't think he's ever going to be an elite jumpshooter. He can get better, and he has, by he doesn't have the body dynamics of a Ray Allen or a Kevin Durant. His shooting form is too bulky and mechanical. He shoots best only when he has the space to set himself properly. That's okay, it's not the worst thing in the world to not be an elite shooter, but there was a long period of time where it seemed like that's what he wanted. This Finals proved that he understood his weaknesses, and he wouldn't succumb to them. Harden gave him jumper after jumper, "Please shoot it, please, please," and he wouldn't give in. It was easy to see that the biggest problem with the Heat version 1.0 was LeBron's and Wade's jumpshooting. Force them into those 19 footers, and you'll survive. Everyone acknowledged it, except for the players themselves. In the Finals, it seemed like they (at least LeBron) said, "Enough."

The Thunder will roll right along next year. I don't think they'll have any hiccups. They might look to add some depth -- I don't think Derek Fisher can be counted on for the same production next year, though it will be a huge bonus to get Eric Maynor back. They certainly might like a back to the basket scorer, if one exists out there, and it wouldn't kill them to flip Perkins. In my mind, one key player that they're missing is a Stephen Jackson type (or his less aggressive counterpart, Shane Battier). A decent three point shooting wing player who is strong enough to guard the best 2s and 3s in the game while Durant works on his strength and defensive footwork. I think that player would be great for them, because Sefolosha, while being a terrific defender, lacks threat offensively, and Harden in my eyes is a bit undersized. Early mock drafts have them taking Jeff Taylor from Vanderbilt, an excellent shooter for a 6'7" forward, and I think the fit would be great (though his defense is clearly well below what they'd look for). The worst reaction would be to panic and break up parts of the core. I have to give Russell Westbrook a tremendous amount of credit for what he did throughout these playoffs. Last year, I thought he might be the weak link, the problem player that could keep them from reaching their goal. This year, I know for certain that's not the case. Sure, he doesn't always make the extra pass, and his game management is questionable. But this guy gives his heart, night in and night out. When the rest of the team seemed resigned to fate late in Game 5, he was booking it up and down the court, losing by 25 points, taking it hard to the rack, trying to press ball handlers. In the span of a few weeks, I've really grown to love him. If it came down to Harden or Westbrook going forward, I think the Thunder will stick with Russ. He wants it, and he wants it with Durant, his big bro and number one fan. To me, there's a piece of Harden that screams, "I want my own team." He might get his wish.

I can't really explain why it is that I like this Thunder team -- I just do. I enjoyed Durant's performance his one year at Texas, and naturally, I was interested to see where he went in the pros. He and I are built similarly, and if there's anyone's game that I would want to have myself, it'd probably be his, but that certainly doesn't explain all of it. Once they moved and the prospect of a new team was out there, I paid more attention. They had a solid core, young guys, likeable guys. Westbrook was a pinball, Durant was the anchor. Keeping it steady. I was a fan of Harden at Arizona State (at least, until he laid a massive egg in the NCAA Tournament) and it was nice to see him go to OKC in the draft. And Nick Collison has truly become one of my favorite players in the league. He accepts who is he, and doesn't try to do any more. That's admirable. I've felt an affinity for this team for a while, and I was really pumped to see them get to the Finals. Unfortunately, once they got there, they ran into a team that was playing better.

The one thing everyone can agree on from this playoffs is that the Heat did it, and they did it without controversy. I understand Rose and Howard were injured -- but given their teams' performances without them, I hardly think they would have factored enough to take out Miami. And OKC got the short end of the stick on many questionable calls, but in my eyes, I don't think they did enough otherwise to warrant that gripe. There's no fix, there's no barking about preferential treatment. LeBron James was the best player of the playoffs, is the best player in the game, and he got himself a championship, thanks to an extremely productive supporting cast.

Not liking a team is not the same as hating on them. Last year, there was an abundance of undue venom spewed LeBron's way for how he played in the Finals. He underperformed, they lost, I think he probably felt bad enough about that. I didn't want to see them win last year, and I was happy for Dirk when the Mavs got it. I didn't want to see them win this year, and I'm pretty bummed for Durant and the rest of the Thunder that they fell short. LeBron deciding to bail on the Cavs and trying to do it with Wade in Miami left a bad taste in my mouth. I felt like it robbed us of seeing a potential legend in the making in a place nobody expected; he had a chance to make Cleveland his own. It didn't change his skills as a player, I just didn't like it. But dislike is different from disrespect. The Heat played superbly in the Finals, and throughout most of the playoffs. They got what they deserved.

#069 - Finals Game 3: MIA 91, OKC 85

Sometimes, there isn't a ton of in-depth analysis to be made on a sporting event. Sometimes, there aren't hidden stats that help to explain the bigger picture. Sometimes, everything that you believe you're seeing is reflected in the outcome of the game.

Game 3 was one of those times.

The Heat didn't play that great. Their offense seemed simple: they made layups and dunks and free throws, but nothing else. So, their poorest possessions came when they dribbled and dribbled and then shot a jumper. Their defense defense was just about the same: when they guarded tight, the Thunder rarely scored, and they came up with a lot of takeaways. So, their poorest possessions came when they didn't get around screens or jogged back in transition. It was pretty easy to see, as you were watching the game, that this was a team that wasn't firing on all cylinders.

The good news for the Heat? The Thunder were firing on less. A lot was said about the Thunder finally playing a strong first half, not falling into a double digit deficit. They played good, not great, weathering an early onslaught of Heat layups and forcing them to shoot some jumpers late. Durant seemed to have it going when he got space (the space was easier to be found when it wasn't LeBron guarding him) but nobody else was really playing well offensively.

It was the first time, maybe all playoffs, that I could truly say the Thunder under-performed. And it's a shame, because the game was there for the taking. They built a 10-point lead off of Derek Fisher's absurd three pointer-and-one play in the third quarter, you know, the one right after Durant got his fourth foul and went to the bench. Ten points! On the road! In Miami! And then after squandering that with an offensively futile lineup (Harden, Cook, Sefolosha, Collison, Fisher ... seriously, Brooks?) they managed to cut it back to 1 with 1:30 left following Sefolosha's steal and Westbrook's jumper. The game was there for the taking.

Unfortunately, they didn't take it.

The last 1:30 of the game highlighted all the problems for the Thunder that the previous three plays had tried to erase: they fouled the Heat, often times far from the basket, the Heat nailed (almost) all of their foul shots, Westbrook missed a wide open three pointer, Sefolosha threw away an inbound pass, and Durant failed to establish himself in a good position to catch the ball and get a shot off. You might expect to see a similar sequence in a mid-February game against a lesser opponent, but in the Finals, you can't survive when you play like that in the most crucial 1:30 of the season.

That being said, I believe there are some positives that the Thunder can potentially take advantage of going into Game 4. It's up to them, however.

One: when Durant is trying to get the ball when guarded by James in the fourth quarter, it seems like he struggles mightily when trying to post him up and play back to the basket. This is not a surprise. LeBron James is close to the strongest player in the league, and in this series, is certainly the strongest player on the court. He has regularly pushed Kendrick Perkins out of the paint without much difficulty. In my estimation, Durant has fared better against LeBron when he has the ball already in his hands and is facing him. What does this mean going forward? Honestly, start watching some tapes of Allen Iverson. Far too often, the Thunder offense consists of Westbrook dribbling out top while waiting for Durant to position himself at the elbow for an entry lob, typically when they run a screen play to switch Durant onto Westbrook's defender, or when running Durant around a pindown screen set by Sefolosha. All season, this has worked fine, and you don't like to change the strategies that got you to the Finals once you're there. But they didn't play the Heat all season. When you stick out your butt and start backing into a defender, you're inviting contact. The refs will allow the defender more freedom to push you back, knowing that it was because you initiated. If you catch a ball out top in space and face a defender, any contact from that point is likely going to be a foul (thanks to the rules instituted by the NBA a few years ago to re-ignite scoring). Since fouling out against Boston, I believe LeBron James has shown an aversion to fouling. He feels that he's too important to the team (and he's right). Additionally, he doesn't see the benefit to fouling Durant, a good free throw shooter. I'm not a professional coach, and I don't have the experience these guys have, but from watching the games, I think you HAVE to start considering running Durant off screens or finding some way for him to catch the ball with space. If he adds 25 pounds down the road, then he can start making more plays with his body.

Two: John Hollinger, finally, thankfully, mercifully posted an article on his blog that breaks down the effectiveness of the Thunder's small-ball (KD at the 4, three guards) lineup using each of their three big men (Perkins, Collison, Ibaka). The article is here: PER Diem Blog. (Note: it's an Insider, so if you're not an Insider, I apologize.) The summary? Perkins played a bunch of minutes with the small ball lineup in Game 3, and was not effective. Collison, likewise, wasn't either (though he gets a pass in my book for playing with the small lineup sans Durant and Westbrook, as mentioned above). Ibaka only got a few seconds. So Hollinger went through the stats of the season, and found all the scenarios where Perkins, Collison, and Ibaka played with the small ball lineup. The results? Perkins was +5.0 per 48 minutes regular season, +5.3 playoffs. Collison was +20.3 regular season, +13.1 playoffs. Ibaka was +19.1 regular season, +19.7 playoffs. Yes, +5.0 is good enough to win games. But the reality is, they're staring at a dominant lineup, and not using it. Ibaka sat the entire fourth quarter. Why? He's faster than Perkins, a better shooter, better finisher at the rim, and a better shot blocker. Perkins is rather plodding. He takes a long time to gather himself once he receives a pass, has far too often begun to dribble with the ball and subsequently turned it over (traveling, steal, offensive foul), and has negligible vertical lift. That's not his fault. He's a large man with a history of knee issues. I credit the effort that he gives night in and night out, but he spent the fourth quarter being responsible for Chris Bosh (Bosh entered with 9:40, Perkins entered with 5:58). From 5:58 on, Bosh had 4 rebounds, including 2 offensive. Perkins had 1. I know that's a small sample size, but Bosh is simply too quick and too long for Perkins. His more natural rival would be Ibaka. I spent the entire second half saying this, and felt vindicated when the numbers came out to support my hypothesis. Each of these games has come down to a tense fourth quarter, with the game able to be won by either side. Spoelstra has stuck with his guns, playing his five best players a majority of the late game minutes (James, Wade, Chalmers, Bosh, Battier). Scott Brooks, alternatively, has not--sticking instead with Perkins and Derek Fisher for major minutes. Though Fisher continues to make surprisingly big plays, I still want to see the lineup without him on the floor. I understand that substitutions throughout the game is about managing energy and matchups. But to me (and to about every coach from what I've seen) the last six or eight minutes of a close game are when you ignore a player's rest and concentrate on getting your best lineup on the floor. The Thunder's five best players are Ibaka, Durant, Westbrook, Harden (despite his performance so far) and Sefolosha. Hollinger, amazingly, indicates that they've used this lineup for a total of FOUR minutes this season, which is an appalling number. Certainly not all their games have been against opponents like the Heat or Spurs, who both use a combination of one big man and four guards/small forwards, but this lineup needs to find its way onto the court. I'd be willing to substitute Collison for Ibaka, even, as I think Collison has more polished defensive rotational skills and is a better screener offensively.


Miami Summary

Game MVPs:
-LeBron James (29 pts, 14 reb, 3 ast, clutch free throw shooting)
-Chris Bosh (poor shooting but always seemed to come up with the huge defensive plays and rebounds)

Unsustainable Positives:
-They made 16 more free throws than the Thunder. I don't expect this trend to continue.

Sustainable Positives:
-Bosh figuring out how to impact the game when he doesn't get touches. Here's a guy who I watched absolutely obliterate his team's chances against Chicago with a 1-for-18 shooting performance. Tonight he shot 3-for-12, but instead of forcing it, got key rebounds and blocks. This is a scary concept for OKC, who must counter with more of Ibaka on Bosh, who is simply too long and too quick for Perkins.
-LeBron James getting to the bucket. This is a running theme.

Unsustainable Negatives:
-Their outside shooting, while not good, is not as bad as this. They shot something like 12% from outside the paint.

Sustainable Negatives:
-OKC was letting Wade shoot jumpers. He was taking them, and missing them, for the most part. This is again a running theme.
-Chalmers and Norris Cole combined 1-for-10. Luckily this time, Chalmers only had one turnover.


Oklahoma City Summary

Game MVPs:
-Serge Ibaka, sadly (seemed to make a nice difference defensively when he was in, but only played 22 minutes)

Unsustainable Positives:
-Four point plays from Derek Fisher.
-Forced 9 Miami turnovers in the fourth quarter. This is insane, and they're probably the only team to ever do that and still lose.

Sustainable Positives:
-Durant had it going early, but that was about it. Need to find this more consistently throughout the game. Far too often, he's content with letting his teammates take over the offense, as he likes to encourage a supportive environment. When your back is against the ropes in the Finals, this needs to change.
-Until the fourth quarter, they were doing a great job keeping control of the ball. The shots weren't falling, but they were maintaining possession and not giving up easy ones.

Unsustainable Negatives:
-I want to say such poor free throw shooting, but I'm not positive. They haven't shot well yet this series.
-It's not likely Harden goes 2-for-10 again. Crossing my fingers.

Sustainable Negatives:
-They were significantly out rebounded, which is something that needs to change. With the small ball lineup, Harden, Westbrook, and Sefolosha have to make a serious effort to get on the glass.

#068 - Finals Game 1: OKC 105 MIA 94

The Thunder are getting a little too comfortable with this "comeback in the second half" business. After a subpar showing in the first half and some understandable first-Finals-game-ever jitters, they did what they've done the last three series and turned up the juice in the second, outscoring Miami 58-40 en route to capturing their first ever Finals victory.

Since I sat and watched the game tip to buzzer, I feel like there's not much to say that hasn't already been said, somewhere, by someone. The Heat jumped out on top by moving the ball (seriously, they were playing hot potato like you would have never thought from them) and drilling three pointer after three pointer early on. Chalmers got in the act, Battier was feeling the rejuvenation; it was kind of a scary thing to witness. As I told my buddy yesterday before the game, I am aware there's no way for the Thunder to truly stop LeBron. Only he can stop himself from getting what he wants, but if his teammates shoot 50%, it's going to be game over. In the first half, it seemed like his teammates were going substantially better than that, and it led to a 7 point halftime lead (which everyone agreed was far closer than it should have been).

In the third quarter, the Thunder got their act together. And it was a thing of beauty. I have to credit Brooks for recognizing what wasn't working early and fixing it late. He hasn't been the best at that, but two huge keys for OKC in the second half were Thabo Sefolosha and Nick Collison. Collison was ALWAYS around the screen when Miami tried to pick and roll. He always put himself between the ball and the basket, something which Perkins was struggling with in the first. And Sefolosha made Wade and LeBron work hard for every shot, every dribble. There's simply no way to quantify that contribution. His pokes led to numerous loose balls, forced shots as the shot clock was running out, and a serious amount of frustration for Wade.

Of course, the other part of the story is that Durant and Westbrook went into obliteration mode. Westbrook was an absolute demon for the Thunder, firing himself into the lane and dropping filthy lefty finger rolls all night. His springs are ridiculous. Whereas most human beings need to collect themselves to jump high into the air, Westbrook will be sprinting full speed and suddenly lift himself three feet off the ground. There's not a tougher guy to score on in transition than LeBron James, but even he looked like he was standing in cement a few times while Westbrook was gliding over him for two. I will still adamantly declare that any possession where he dribbles, dribbles, doesn't pass, and then pulls a jumpshot (especially three pointer) is a terrible possession, but you can't deny his impact on the game last night.

Then there's Durant. He scored a cool and quiet 36 points (read TrueHoop's take here). Seriously, if you watched the game, you would have likely thought Westbrook outscored him. Instead, Durant had 9 more points than Russell's 27. He forced one bad shot (the turn around jumper in the corner, I think he was trying to draw a foul) that made you think, "Ahh, too aggressive," but otherwise, his points just steadily piled up, playing the tortoise to Westbrook's hare, casually draining open jumpers and right handed scoop shots. Sometimes I think he might have a medical condition that makes him immune to high pressure situations. I'm not even joking about this. Anyone in their right mind would have panicked about being cut up by the Heat at the start of their first Finals game ever. LeBron James is rightly terrifying, and it didn't seem like he was doing his worst damage early on. But the Thunder went into halftime, feeling a little momentum from the end of the half, and they probably all looked towards Durant, team leader, team hitman, and saw how calm and unconcerned he was. It's exactly the attitude I expected every game from the San Antonio Spurs: "We don't care how much we're down, what the series score is, who is playing well for the other team. We've got this. And if we don't get this, we'll get the next one." Somewhere around Game 4 of the WCF, the Thunder stole that confidence from the Spurs. You'd never be able to convince me it wasn't Durant's doing. And that's why they're sitting with a 1-0 lead in the Finals.


Miami Summary

Game MVPs:
-LeBron James (30 pts, 9 reb, 4 ast, 4 stl)
-Shane Battier's first half (13 pts, 3/3 3FG)

Unsustainable Positives:
-The lights out shooting to start. I know these are professional guys and I know Miami built its team to be outside shooters surround LeBron and Wade, but two seasons worth of evidence is enough to discount one hot half. Especially from Chalmers.
-Starting the game with an 11-to-1 assist to turnover ratio. Everything was working for them early, and that's a common theme, but as the series gets more tense and the need for LeBron to exert his power grows, those assist numbers will drop.
-42 minutes for Wade and Battier. There's talk that Wade is injured, and maybe it's true, or maybe all of the unnecessary flying to the ground is catching up to him (sorry, cheap shot). They needed to play because it seemed like Miami could steal Game 1 on the road. Now that they didn't, you wonder if the minutes are going to slow them down in Game 2 (or further).

Sustainable Positives:
-LeBron getting to the hoop. This is not new, this is exactly what everyone has been saying about him for years and years. If he has a head of steam, there's never been anyone to compare to him (and I include Jordan, it's simply a matter of the physics of LeBron's weight).
-Ball movement. Like the Thunder, the Heat are almost unstoppable front-runners. Wade and LeBron are zipping the ball back and forth setting each other up for layups and dunks. When they're trailing, the offense goes stagnant.

Unsustainable Negatives:
-Wade shot 7-19. This is growing closer to a sustainable one as his effectiveness wanes. But he's going to have a game or two where it's all him.
-Bosh was 4-11 and a -16 +/-. He's a better player than that, no matter how much I like to see him fail.

Sustainable Negatives:
-All the missed jumpers in the second half. Wade has always had an issue with the jump shot. He came into the league without one, had one for a little while when everyone was terrified of him getting to the rim, and now it seems like it's fading on him. Instead, he's much more content with pump faking and trying to draw the lean-in foul every time he gets the ball. I'm growing very tired of his referee baiting. He's going to start looking like Derek Fisher soon.


Oklahoma City Summary

Game MVPs:
Russell Westbrook (27 pts, 8 reb, 11 ast, 2 to)
Thabo Sefolosha (9 pts, 2 stl, 1 blk, best on-ball defense in the game)
*Obviously there's a pull to include Durant. But for me, he could have had that game in a win or a loss. Westbrook rebounding from his poor start was a huge difference maker in the second half.

Unsustainable Positives:
-Westbrook had 11 assists and only 2 turnovers. That's very unusual for him. I think the Thunder could really use Eric Maynor's true point guard skill set off the bench.
-Team shooting. As a team, they shot 52%. Just not likely to continue against the Heat's defense, though they didn't really make too many shots I expected them to miss.

Sustainable Positives:
-Westbrook getting to the hoop. When he sits and watches his own game film, he HAS to see how effective he is when he's at the rim, and how ineffective he is taking long jumpers, right?
-Sefolosha's defense. They showed that he had 9 minutes in the first half. Perhaps it was a move to save his legs for the second, but I was significantly worried about the fact that the Thunder took Game 6 against the Spurs without a contribution from Thabo. Brooks needs to know that he needs to be on the court. And at this point, I much prefer his defense to be on James than Wade.

Unsustainable Negatives:
-They only got one really good 8 minute stretch from Ibaka and one buzzer beating jumper from Harden. I think Ibaka is going to make a much bigger impact defending the paint coming up. He had 0 blocks, which means he's due for like 6 in the next game. And Harden seems to be a guy who doesn't mind not getting his. He thinks, "It's no big deal. I'm gonna have my game. Just watch."
-They shot worse from three point (29%) and the free throw line (74%) than Miami (42%, 78%). That's just not going to continue.

Sustainable Negatives:
-Perkins had two turnovers. As many as Westbrook, on maybe 1/40th the number of touches. Don't pass him the ball if he's more than 8 feet from the basket. Seriously.

#067 - Thunder, Thunder, Thunder

The Oklahoma City Thunder's Game 6 victory over the San Antonio Spurs -- to vault them into the NBA Finals for the first time (usually what people say when they might expect a second, third, etc.) -- seemed like a transcendent moment. For a lot of reasons. A passing of the torch, a coming of age, the realization of potential. Whichever you want to call it. Here was a team that only four games earlier had been dangling over the edge, facing a 2-0 deficit against an absolute steamroller of a Spurs team that had won 20 consecutive games, almost all of them by a hefty margin. The Thunder were only days away from defeat, a second straight Western Conference Finals disappointment against a more experienced team. Only, nobody would have called it a collapse, like they would have with the Heat, or the Lakers. It would have been, tip your cap to the opponent, and OKC give yourselves a hearty round of applause for a fantastic season. In a lot of ways, they were just too young to be expected to win. Not when faced with the Spurs, a team that was not only in that moment playing viciously efficient basketball, but that also had years and years of playoff experience and countless combined championship rings to lean on. Not when led by the effervescent Kevin Durant, a happy go lucky 23 year old who glides through (the almost non-existent) criticism just like he glides through opposing defenses. There was not the weight of those expectations. The OKC fans were so great, they'd give a standing ovation no matter what the outcome. There was no chance they would let anyone down. They're a young team, fun to watch, fun to root for, but their championships were still future commodities. It'll happen some day.


Of course they took care of business at home in Game 3. San Antonio was gassed. They had won 20 straight but out-hustling, out-passing, and out-shooting their opponents. Every break was going their way, which was a striking blow to any naysayer who professes that you can't engineer your own luck. The Spurs were engineered. Well-oiled. But a little old. The Thunder rolled them in Game 3, a result the Spurs seemed somewhat resigned to, knowing, "Nobody goes undefeated." But Game 4 was an intriguing experience. The Spurs themselves got out-Spurs-ed. OKC swung the ball around freely, happily, letting role players get buckets and keeping the pressure off of the key guys. Whenever San Antonio made a run, the Thunder let them come, took a deep breath, and carried on. It's not that OKC's not prone to panic basketball. It happened many times in Games 1 and 2. Russell Westbrook, as electrifying as he is, is far too prone to one-man possessions. No passes, too many crossovers, and a wild pull up jumpshot that clangs off the rim. Kevin Durant, oddly enough, seems to transform into a wild passer when he plays panicky. Instead of forcing bad shots, which he almost never does, he'll leap into the air without knowing his destination, and then try to force a backdoor pass to brick-handed Kendrick Perkins, or a cross-court floater through three defenders. The Spurs were poise on poise, and were certain to take advantage of the Thunder's youthful miscues. Only they didn't. They took each blow and regrouped. They got the ball into the hands of their best playmaker (and without question one of the three guys in the NBA who should at least TOUCH the ball on every crunch time possession). Durant buried jumper after jumper. For a guy who's thin frame makes it look like he's exerting his last breath just to come around a screen or post a defender up, those jumpshots could have been made in his sleep. They're effortless. His arms are so long, it looks like the ball's halfway to the basket by the time he lets it go. That level of grace is addicting. Michael Jordan was a superstar in the late 80s, when he was a dunk machine, throwing down at every opportunity. But he became a legend in the mid 90s with a smooth stroke an a supernatural vision for weaving through traffic. Not that I'm here comparing Durant to Jordan, because I think they are wildly different, but whereas Lebron James represents the power (I'm not sure there has EVER been a one-on-five full-steam-ahead force like him, and I'm not just being superlative) then Durant most certainly represents the grace. His shots are just so damned pretty -- not necessarily his mechanics, but most importantly the splash of the net. Just watch this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QtHq9RFQeqc

As it was, winning two games at home didn't necessarily cement that they were playing for a title. Being the lower seed, it was a requirement to win on the road to reach the Finals. And the Game 5 victory was one of the most impressive I've ever seen. Like Game 4, the Thunder spent most of the middle of the game with a lead, only to see San Antonio claw their way back in with an aggressive second half start. It was a true test. On the road, having surrendered a 13 point lead in what seemed like only seconds, it required a second-level leap in composure that I wasn't sure the Thunder had. They had won crucial road games in Dallas and Los Angeles, coming back from double digit fourth quarter deficits each time, but neither of those games had a Finals trip hanging in the balance. Both the Thunder and the Spurs had taken prizefight level swings at each other, and the game had basically reset itself, with only 15 minutes to play. OKC went back to a tried and true formula -- get the ball into Durant's hands. He was a calming presence, and Westbrook and Harden followed suit. I was really shocked at how they had done it, not just the fact of beating San Antonio on the road in Game 5 with the series at stake, but the fact that this young team (that had missed out on so many game closing opportunities last year versus Dallas) was able to collect themselves after squandering a sizeable lead like that against championship level competition. I understand the Thunder have as much (or more) talent when compared with any other team in the league, but talent's not everything. While I wanted them to be able to pull it off, I also knew that San Antonio could make adjustments better than anyone, and just when you thought they were down, they could stun you. In Game 6, they almost proved me right, coming out on fire, dropping every three pointer they could find into the bucket and racing to an 18 point lead. I can think of a bunch of arenas around the league where this would have been a death sentence -- Los Angeles, Miami, Philadelphia. It's a huge credit to the fans of OKC that the Thunder hung around in that game. They didn't give up. Maybe they knew something about this team that few others did. Maybe they had just seen this before and knew they had to play their part to get the guys back on track. They kept cheering, and the Thunder, like all championship teams must at some point, simply weathered the storm. They didn't panic. Scott Brooks, to his credit, didn't send out new rotations trying to spark a comeback. He trusted his guys. If it had been the regular season, the game probably would have been a throwaway. Beaten by a better team that was on fire. But they came back. Durant played a game that was out of this world. The first three quarters were three of the best quarters of basketball I'd seen in five years. I was watching the two best teams in the NBA trade buckets with each other, each one more devastating than the last. Then the game slowed, and got a little uglier. With five minutes left, the Thunder were up by 2 and both teams were staring a trip to the Finals in the face. Sure, OKC was great at front running. They could build on leads like no other team in the league, especially when their jumpshooters were heating up. But how would they respond to grit and nails? It just impressed me so much that they were able to close that game out. Everyone kept saying, "The close out is the hardest game, the close out is the hardest game." True, it probably was. Based on competition and circumstance, the Thunder's performance in Game 5 and Game 6 were likely the two best games any team played this season (and likewise, Lebron James's Game 6 was maybe the best game any player played all season). OKC stared down the barrel of a series defeat, and they came down on top.

Of course, Kevin Durant hugged his mom.

For my taste, there was a little too much elation after their Game 6 victory. I understand the league schedules a trophy celebration, and they give out hats, and the confetti sprays. But really, the season is not over. Despite having trumped the Spurs, who were seen by many as the best team in the game (rightfully so), there's still another team to face, and no matter who it is, they're not going to be a slouch. The Thunder have almost no answer for Lebron James. Who can guard him one-on-one? I realize that's a silly question to ask even about any team, since there is no physical match for him. But I mean, who is it that will actually take the task? It couldn't possibly be Durant, who simply does not have the strength for it. Ibaka? I would assume he's too big, and doesn't have the required footwork. That leaves Sefolosha and Harden. Sefolosha might be a more natural fit for Wade, but I think circumstances require Lebron. Only, Brooks has gotten into the bad habit of not playing Sefolosha at the end of games, oddly going with his "veteran's choice" lineup of Fisher, Westbrook, Durant, Harden and either Perkins or Ibaka. I would hope that he'd have enough time over this small break to realize that he'll need Sefolosha out there for significant minutes, whether it's against Lebron and Miami or Pierce and the Celtics.

The interesting thing at this moment is that not very many people are raising these concerns. As is what usually happens with the surprising "too young, too early" teams (like Lebron's Cavs team that the Spurs swept), onlookers are ready to congratulate the team for their accomplishments before the season has even concluded. There are articles posted about "Thunder Dynasty?" when really they have yet to win even one game in the Finals, let alone four in one season. It's fun to think about, and Vegas will tell you they are the odds-on favorite no matter who the opponent, but their job is not over. The resolve this team showed in Games 5 and 6 against the Spurs speaks to a group of guys that is not satisfied with merely pleasing everyone. They might be the second-least criticized team in the league (I would argue only the Spurs are less, as the only complaint most people raise is that they're old), but winning your conference doesn't guarantee a championship. Look at Miami last year. They've got work to do. And I'm pretty damned excited to see the results.

#054 - The NBA is Back (and Better than Ever?)

It seems like it's been two whole weeks since anyone talked about the NBA, but look at that, before you know it, it's back and consuming headlines and Top Plays highlights. (And new Nike commercials.) Some people are calling it "The Most Anticipated NBA Season Ever", which I guess could be valid, since honestly, most NBA seasons are not really that anticipated (10 of the 16 playoff teams are decided before the season starts, most veterans coast until May, only players in contract seasons really give it their all); however, I think Jordan coming back post-baseball, post-Orlando loss was a little bit more interesting, going back and looking at it.

There's definitely a good bit of manufactured hype going into this season. "Old Big 3 vs. New Big 3", "Kobe vs. Lebron and Wade", "Is Durant the best player in the league?", "Where will Carmelo go?". They're all relatively intriguing stories on their own, but there's something of a media machine that's trying to pump up the NBA right now. Why? Because the NFL owns it. Don't try to defend it, NBA fans. The NFL owns it, plain and simple. And the NCAA tournament owns it. So the NBA has to do something to capture the attention of fans, because right now the product on the floor is as close to ideal as they're going to get. They have the perfect set of heroes and villains, tons of young talent, highly anticipated debuts:

• Lebron in "South Beach" (Fine, Bosh too. His reps made me do it.)
• Blake Griffin, John Wall, and a Sacramento Kings duo that makes grown men poop in their pants
• Post-op Amar'e in NYC
• The first ever legitimate deterrent to draft tanking--contraction! Goodbye, Toronto! (Toronto's response: "Who are you? What is basketball?")
• Kevin Durant's "that's weird, the other 11 guys got gold medals too?" face (Just kidding, Durant is the league's most natural fan favorite. Did you hear the story that he was upset at a magazine for running a photo where he was bigger than his teammates?)

See, the storylines are endless, as you can see by the five I listed above. So it's not like there isn't anything to get excited about, it's just that... it's TOUGH to get excited about it. The start of the NBA season comes right in the middle of the NFL schedule, to the point that even I was like, "Crap, there's NBA games on tonight?" before Tuesday's debut. And the best opportunity that the NBA has to showcase the general excitement of the playoffs is wasted by letting TWO MONTHS pass after the NCAA Tournament. Could you imagine if the next weekend after the Final Four the NBA playoffs started? The momentum that they would have would be unbelievable. People would be on the basketball bandwagon, they'd be getting all excited about Oklahoma City and Milwaukee as the little-guys-that-could. Unfortunately, the schedule doesn't pan out that way, and the NBA playoffs come around in May and June, they take 2-3 days off in between (like Stan Van Gundy has pointed out. I actually like that guy, sometimes.) and really people want to be outside enjoying the weather and baseball games (baseball might be boring to watch, but let's face it, when the weather's nice, they are fun as hell to go to). The NBA is just poorly designed as it stands now. And I wish it wasn't true, honestly, because there are some really entertaining games between the league's top teams, and some of my favorite sports personalities are NBAers--like, if you haven't seen the Steve Nash FIFA commercials, you HAVE to, IMMEDIATELY. (Here's the link.) And if you follow Durant on twitter (http://twitter.com/kdthunderup) he posts ridiculous stuff like "drinking apple juice and playing madden online with my cuz" at 11:45 on a Friday night and "practicing on my off day with RWest in my backyard, then we're going to eat cookies and watch the cosby show". And as much as I am sour on Lebron and the whole Heat crew right now, he's still a force to be reckoned with, both on the court and in the public eye. He's got a knack for entertaining people.

So, without further ado, my thoughts on Week 1 in the NBA:

Celtics d. Heat 88-80

People tried to hype up "The New Big 3" vs "The Old Big 3" (Boston fans counter with "The REAL Big 3" or "The ORIGINAL Big 3"--no, they're not defensive about age or anything), but the reality is there was no MEANING to the matchup. The Lakers vs the Celtics has meaning right now, because they've been at each other's throats for 3 seasons. But this is the Celtics, a veteran team, playing a bunch of guys that have never played together before. There's no history, there's no rivalry, they're just two of the better teams in the East. Maybe after they sock each other in the teeth a few times, the game will take on greater importance. But after one showing, I don't think anyone was surprised to see the team that has chemistry and experience beat the team that was just recently cobbled together (despite being designed 3 years ago--CONSPIRACY!). And from what I've read and seen, this game turned into Lebron trying to break down everything one on one, the same way he used to. And it got ugly. His 8 turnovers are proof of that, and Wade/Bosh combining for 21 pts on 7-27 is even further proof. I play a lot of basketball, and I know from personal experience that sometimes it's a lot easier to just be the alpha dog on a team where everyone knows you're the alpha dog. Sometimes when you combine players with such similar skill sets, it gets messy. They clear it out for Lebron and let him go one on one, then the next possession clear it out for Wade and let him go one on one. It works a lot better when your main players have their own niches--a la the Celtics. And Bosh does not seem like the answer to Lebron's dreams. Anyone who ever watched the Cavs know that Lebron's best offenses were ones that were in constant motion. Anderson Varejao was the second best player on that team for five years, because he was always moving. He didn't stump himself in the post, calling for it, trying to push his way towards the basket. He slipped behind defenders, got rebounds, hustled like crap, was a little bit dirty and sneaky, and was really a favorite of mine. Lebron needs shooters to space the floor. Why? Because he honestly doesn't need anyone else to run the break with him. When he's got a head of steam, MOVE OUT OF THE WAY. And when he's driving the lane, the last thing he needs is for bodies to clog his path. Wade is a bit better at getting that quick motion pass off to the post players as he starts to drive the lane. Lebron, unfortunately, as talented as he is, can't really drop it off in mid-drive, something that Chris Paul does 15 times a game and has almost revolutionized--he makes a cross, drives towards the paint, but a step or two before he gets too deep he snaps a quick bounce pass off to the post man for an easy layup. It's beautiful. Lebron kind of needs to make the pass at Point A or wait until he's all the way at Point B as he did numerous times against the Sixers, who seemed determined to stop him from beating them with layups. But against the Sixers, Lebron found teammates (usually James Jones) on the wing for jumpshots. He didn't get those little dumpoffs to the post players for layups. Bosh is a good player, but he was better when the offense was facilitated around him, with guards who were paid to pass him the ball. Not that I know what I'm talking about, this is just kind of how I view it right now.

Thunder d. Bulls 106-95

I don't want to insult Chicago fans (and really, they don't need it, what with Jay Cutler and all) but the Thunder didn't play a particularly good game in this one. Admittedly, Durant got a lot of calls. That's something that is going to happen throughout the season. He could be on a record setting pace for free throws made, since he shoots such a high percentage, and that might end up being something that angers lots of opponent fanbases throughout the season. But he wasn't in rare form, they had almost no inside presence, and their team outside shooting was suspect. And yet they still won by 11. I know it hurts the Bulls to lose Boozer right after signing him, and that will be something they need to work through, but they could have stolen this game and didn't. Admittedly they were pretty off their game, but if you needed some sort of confirmation, then here it is: the Thunder are for real. AND they currently sport the league's top home court crowd. Without question.

Cavs d. Celtics 95-87

Mo Williams and Antawn Jamison combined for 4 points and 4 rebounds in this game (Mo did not play). Yet, the Cavs won. Against Finals runner-up Boston just after Boston dismantled the Heat. Honestly, it was either a let down game or a clever ploy by Boston to get into Lebron's head ("Yeah, we just lost to Cleveland after beating Miami, damn Cleveland is a good team!"). JJ Hickson is going to have a big year. And why not? They're not going anywhere, they have amongst the LOWEST expectations in the league, why not let this kid run wild for a season, develop some young talent, draft well next year and try and make a run at the playoffs? He could be really good, believe me. Especially if he develops smoother ball handling and a 20-foot jumpshot.

Magic d. Wizards 112-83

The Wizards are content with employing that strategy from above, just letting John Wall run wild, for good or for bad, and not caring about the box scores. He took 19 shots, 10 more than any teammate, and missed 13 of them. But sported a nifty 9/3 Assist/Turnover ratio. He'll be exciting to keep track of. But the real story here is Orlando. Not because they trounced a team they should trounce, but because there's a lot of teams they should trounce and they will do it. They're going to have the league's best record this year. They've been nearly unbeatable at home for 3 years and have a couple seasons' worth of experience edge on the Heat. This is a team that likes to win games, and I'm not convinced they've fallen into the complacent "Let's just make the playoffs" mindset yet. They're going to stomp the teams they should stomp, and it's going to lead to a lot of wins in the regular season. I don't think it'll turn into anything real by the Playoffs, but it was worth the 13/1 bet I put on them to win it all--since I believe they'll have home court in every series.

Predictions:

Scoring Leader: Durant, unless Carmelo gets traded to NYC fast

MVP: Durant, Howard as runner-up

East Top Seed: Magic

West Top Seed: Lakers

Blake Griffin Games Played: 58

Lebron 40-point Games: 4

Heat Wins: 55

Posts I write on the NBA: 3

#050 - LeBenedict Bronold?

Err... whoops.

There's a bunch wrong with this photo, but there is one thing correct--and it has nothing to do with "Cleveland", "23", "Nike", or the ridiculous pose. We indeed are ALL witnesses, witnesses to one of the stupidest, most self-important, pain-inflicting debacles of all time.

LeBron built us all up, scheduled a hokey press conference, waffled more than kids with these spray cans, and finally produced one of the lamest "Decisions" I've experienced. The whole time leading up to the one-hour special, I was thinking to myself, "This means he has to be picking Cleveland, right?"--even though scheduling it in Connecticut was a bizarre way to throw people off the scent. I figured, if you're going to leave Cleveland, leave the fans and the city and the state that depends on you so dearly, you have to do it in a quiet, respectful manner. Shake Dan Gilbert's hand, issue a heartfelt statement to your fans (and maybe a couple of your teammates), and sign your new contract with Chicago.

...Um?

Miami, of course.

See, the way I saw it going in, the only legitimate options for LeBron were Cleveland and Chicago. New York is just a mess, it's a basketball nightmare and has been for the last 8 years, and even though they've cleaned out Isiah Thomas and some of the bench-surfing garbage that has festered there, it was still about as ass-backwards as you could get from an organizational standpoint. New Jersey was never as legit as people thought, playing up the Jay-Z connection, but they weren't going to be able to bring in any other talent except through the draft. The Clippers were a joke. And now that Miami had gone for broke with Bosh and Wade and a supporting cast of Porky Pig, Bill Murray and Newman, they were going to be out of the running because it didn't present LeBron the chance to spread his wings.

That left Cleveland and Chicago, which from a basketball standpoint was always the best decision. They had great young talent, a great market, always the chance to expand in the future with more money to spend than most, and was still in the same region for a guy who claimed to be so hometown-centric. But I still couldn't imagine him not saying Cleveland. He was the King in Cleveland in more ways than one. Dan Gilbert basically said, "You don't like Mike Brown? Fired. You don't like Danny Ferry? Fired. You want Shaq? Done. Oh now you want Shaq gone? Done, too." They catered to his every whim, which is not necessarily the reason why I thought he would pick them, but now that I've seen the things that REALLY seem to interest LeBron, I think their willingness to defer would have been a big selling point.

I guess there were a few reasons why I thought he was going to end up in Cleveland. One, which I'm a little ashamed to say, is just that I wanted him to. It was projecting a little. I felt like if I was him, I would go there. (Well, I would go to OKC, but that was never in the running.) I saw a guy who seemed to be in his element, and it seemed right for him to stay. Two, I didn't think he would hold a big Broadway show just to stab the Cleveland fans in the back so gruesomely. It's a kick in the face. And a kick in the pants. And everything else. All they had was LeBron and they gave him everything he wanted. The other teams would be fine if he announced he was re-upping. They never really HAD him so it wasn't like he was deserting them. But to hold a staged ordeal like that just to say, "Hey Cleveland, you're my home and I love you, but f*** off!" seemed too low.

Three, from a "legendary" standpoint, I think the reality is, being part of this modern triumvirate in Miami is going to nix any chance LeBron has at being labeled "the greatest ever". Plenty of guys have won rings in their careers, plenty of guys have won multiple rings in their careers. It's not just winning rings that makes you the best ever. It's being the best guy on the best team. That's what gets you there. Michael Jordan suffered for a long time before he got to the pinnacle. The Pistons whupped his butt for three straight years, they owned him. LeBron only lost twice to the Celtics. Could you imagine if Jordan had said, "You know what, screw it, I'm going to go play with the Pistons instead of losing to them."? It would have been insane. And we certainly would not be talking about Jordan the same way--he wouldn't be Jordan. He's Jordan because he said, "You know what, screw it, I'm going to get better, and come back here next year and kick your ass." And he did. LeBron doesn't understand this. He thinks, "Hey, I've proven that I can dominate the league, now all I need is a ring to settle it." That's not really how it works. You need to EARN a championship if you're at that level. Unfortunately for Ray Bourque, who toiled for two decades in Boston before jumping ship and winning in Colorado, he didn't EARN that championship. The Avs won it for him, and he got to celebrate, but winning that Cup will always be a little tarnished for him. Before yesterday, I thought LeBron was capable of winning himself. Honestly, I feel that if he had Pau Gasol as Kobe does, he could have won this year and last. You need a lieutenant, not some weird three-general formation. I just can't see his legacy being any greater than it already is after this move. It's a lose-lose. Either they'll win and everyone will say it was manufactured, like the Yankees or USC football, or they'll lose and it will be the laughing stock of the sports world for years.

Four, I was duped into thinking that the last seven years, LeBron was being genuine. All the goofy antics with his teammates and their handshakes and pregame routines, holding press conferences in Akron with his teammates around, I thought it was all genuine. He always had the look of a little kid living out his dream. But the reality of it, now, after seeing all of this, is that he's got a business model in mind--how he can make the most out of his "brand", which is a concept people have been spewing for years. And being a loveable goof seemed to go with that brand. Kobe had his thing--cold hearted assassin, generally unpleasant, but a winner. And Bron had his--great teammate, vicious physique, talented choreographer, hometown hero.

Uh... scratch that last part.

Surprisingly enough, one of the people who I feel has captured the right mindset of this whole decision has been Mo Williams, LeBron's former #2 in command, and current medium-sized fish in a very tiny pond. Check out some of his tweets. Of all the players, maybe second to Boobie Gibson, he seemed to truly be LeBron's friend, and he can thank him for the incredible boost in production he's received over the last couple seasons since joining Cleveland. But now he realizes the team is left without direction. And I can side with his sentiments. He understands why LeBron did what he did, why he left, but he's not really a big fan of how it was done, and he's left in the dust as a result of it. It's honest. And it's a lot more level-headed than Dan Gilbert, who left a ridiculously scathing note for Cleveland fans (if you haven't seen it yet) in a ridiculously silly font, just bashing LeBron right and left for his decision making. It was low, it was angry, and it probably was driven by a lot of factors that we, the public, didn't experience, for instance, what it was actually LIKE to deal with him (or NOT deal with him, as the case may be). Dan Gilbert made himself out to be a seven year old kid playing fantasy basketball, but he must have been very aware of how polarizing his statements would be. I admire that. I don't necessarily admire running your mouth like a spoiled brat, but hey, he knew some people would hate it, and he knew some people would love it. And I think he agreed with himself that he only cared about the people who were going to love it--namely CLEVELAND fans, not LEBRON fans. Good for him. He got his point across, he did what he wanted to do, I don't necessarily care for it and I'm not going to be his number one fan all of the sudden, but he had his agenda and he's sticking to it.

I can't tell if that last sentence was about Gilbert or LeBron.

Probably both.

I understand why LeBron did what he did. It's an interesting experiment to join three of the league's best young players together and recreate the fun of Team USA. But I don't think LeBron really thought through how it was going to impact his legacy. In the NBA, it's either your team, or it's not. Miami's not his team. At least not yet. But Cleveland was. And they would have done anything to keep it that way. Unfortunately that didn't seem to matter that much to him. Not as much as being able to play his role in this Hollywood production. I don't have the same personal stake in this thing as those in Ohio, but I used to root for this guy.

I'm certainly not going to anymore.

#045 - The Last Cavs Fan on Earth Applies for Gun License

The mistake by the lake. The stink by the drink. The bleary by the Erie. The list goes on. Sources tell me that Cleveland has had some trouble with its professional sports teams recently. And what we experienced last night in a tiny New England town called Boston was no different, and to some people, no surprise at all.

Don't count me among those people. I was honestly surprised, and taken aback, and any number of synonyms for the concept. Here's a team that's been the best team in the league all season, has shown that it has a second and third gear to just shut teams down and obliterate their hopes, with the best basketball player on the planet, and they went down unceremoniously to a bunch of 35 year olds and a point guard with enormous hands. I honestly was surprised. I thought the Cavs would make a game of it, come out stomping on faces and send it back to a game seven in Cleveland, swiping back all the momentum and chest-beating bravado of the series. Instead, what transpired was one of the most indescribable tail-between-the-legs efforts you're ever likely to see in the playoffs.

By all accounts, the Cavs played hard in the first half. They came out with some purpose, had some good plays going, got some baskets, and Mo Williams finally was able to turn off the cruise control (damn Toyota) and play some crunch-time basketball. Then came halftime. Something happened at halftime. Either Don Vito Corleone strolled into the locker room and made the Cavs an offer they couldn't refuse, or Lebron was attacked by a rabid fan and stabbed in the elbow, or Knicks president Donnie Walsh sent them "complimentary" bottles of Gatorade laced with Valium. Their fire disappeared. Antawn Jamison channeled Antoine Walker and missed every shot he took. Shaq channeled George Burns. Mo Williams channeled Mo Williams, circa last week. The Celtics played well, well enough to win, but in my opinion, not well enough to beat the best team in the league. At times they appeared as if they couldn't believe how easy they were having it. All they had to do was stand still and Lebron would fumble the ball. Or relax on Williams as he missed another jumper. They'd get the ball on offense and sit on it, certainly thinking to themselves, "Whatever funk Cleveland is in won't last long, so we've got to milk this now."

Only the funk basically lasted the whole game. Only for a short moment did the Cavs show life, when Lebron hit back to back three pointers to cut the deficit to 4. But even thinking back on that, it was almost dumb luck, I mean he hit two jump shots, he could have missed two jump shots, from a gameplan standpoint it was nothing extraordinary. The Cavs just seemed to bail. ("When life hands you lemons, I say, f*** the lemons, and bail.") And for once I don't mean "wake up in the morning and see they lost and claim they bailed", I mean, if you watched the game, you literally thought to yourself, "What the HELL are they doing out there?" I'm leaning more towards the Donnie Walsh "gift" mentioned above--it seemed like Lebron was fighting off a bad haze. He could snap out of it for only moments at a time, but then would get caught right back up in it, like Jordan during tv timeouts of The Flu Game, only this was during gameplay. And forget the other players on the Cavs. They might as well have not existed, with the exception of Anderson Varejao, who, to his credit, constantly works hard and is one of the only players on court who seemed to recognize that his season was about to end. As an example, here's a photo of Lebron (courtesy of ESPN.com) toward the end of the fourth quarter:

"Oh, gosh, huh, well, I guess we're going to lose." Now, maybe I'm not fair, and maybe I'm being irrationally angry towards him, but you know what? If there's ONE thing people appreciate from athletes--the athletes who make millions of dollars a year to play a game that we can watch--it's giving your all. And I might really be treating him unfairly, since, after all, you can look at his box score and say, "He put up 27-19-10, how is that not giving his all?" Well, I watched. And yeah, he played hard for a good portion of the game, which is more than I can say for most of his teammates, and he even put on a superhuman display of rebounding to start the fourth quarter (check out this portion of the play-by-play:

But as soon as that flurry ended, it turned into a great display of tall men looking around and shrugging their shoulders. They gave up. And it angered me. Like, really, really angered me. I'm not a big Cavs fan or anything--I like them, I want to see them succeed (probably partially because they have yet to), and they're my de facto Eastern Conference rooting interest while the Suns and Thunder toil with the Lakers out West. But I feel kind of betrayed having rooted for them to win that series. They didn't seem to really want to do it themselves, so why should I have wanted it for them? Professional athletes talk a lot of big game about "team" and "championships" and "that's the only thing that matters", but the last five minutes of last night's game were those minutes that you want to shield little kids from forever. (You don't want to have to look into their eyes and answer the question, "But why are they giving up?") It left me with a sick feeling, like maybe there was something bigger at work, like maybe these guys are such good showmen that they've tricked everyone into thinking that they cared. The announcers even pin-pointed that fact during the game, with about 4 minutes left. They said, "The Cavs have been doing the dancing/laughing/joking act all season long, that's who they are, that's how they present themselves as teammates, why don't you keep that going now? If you're going to do that when you're winning, then you have to do that when you're losing as well." And the point was not that they should be dancing or laughing as their season came to an end, but that they should be losing together. With about 3 minutes left, the Cavaliers seemingly decided by way of osmosis that they were done, they stopped attacking on offense, they stopped boxing out, the poked aimlessly at balls trying to get easy steals but no longer moved their feet on defense. I've seen the act hundreds of times playing pickup ball--a team gets down in a hole, maybe they get down to game point, and unless the deficit is only a couple of points, they just sort of resign themselves to their fate. Well, to me, that's okay in the regular season, or in pickup ball, or the All-Star game, whatever. Don't risk injury for a 10% chance of winning. It's not worth it, in the economic sense. But it was an elimination game. If they sat down and rolled over, they'd have a 0% chance of forcing a Game 7, a 0% chance of advancing, a 0% chance of winning a championship--the thing they all claimed they wanted so badly. Why not go into full panic mode? Why not try to swarm on defense, go for steals, trap players, attack the basket, play at 200 MPH? At least that way you have a CHANCE of winning. You might end up exhausting yourselves or giving up easy buckets, but at that stage in time, it doesn't make a difference, you'd lose anyway. At the very least you'd make the Celtics work for it, and besides Ray Allen, their shooters were struggling from the free throw line.

I just didn't understand.

This was the same Lebron who scored the last 25 points for his team against Detroit in that Game 5 masterpiece? This was the same Lebron who exploded on the Bulls in the first round? The same Lebron who seemed to outduel Kobe in every regular season matchup in his career? Didn't seem like it. As much as you can say he was being childish after last year's season ending storm-off-the-court incident versus Orlando, looking back, I'd almost prefer that to this year. He was PISSED OFF. And rightly so. He put up triple doubles all over that series, a one-man wrecking crew, but still the Magic had answers at every other position. He left his mark as a man who was not satisfied. This year, he hugged all the opponents, barely acknowledged his teammates, and walked off as if it was February. If you're a die-hard Cavs fan, you know what? You'd probably take last year's reaction 10 times out of 10. And that highlights a big point of the athlete-fan relationship. The fan is almost never satisfied. Sometimes that's patently unfair. But sometimes, every once in a while, it's deserved.

There's so much speculation about Lebron's future and where is he going and how much will his movement impact the league. Well, that's all well and good when it gets here, but for now, all we have is the results of what happened. It's hard to imagine, given the media attention showered on this loss, that there are still two more rounds of playoffs to go. I admire the four teams who got there, they've really played their asses off and earned it (even though the Magic advanced by beating a Hawks team that was even LESS inspired than the Cavs were last night), but some of the games I've seen this postseason make me think that there should be some changes in the way the league is organized.

Pundits have argued back and forth about how teams should be penalized for tanking during the regular season to get higher draft picks, but to me, there's a pretty simple solution--players should be paid per win. Not entirely, of course, but there should definitely be some incentive there. Agents and players would never agree to this of course, and after all, what is basketball without the players? But you can't tell me you wouldn't see a better brand of basketball if players' paychecks depended on it.

Imagine this: the league and its teams only have a certain amount of money, M, to go around. No matter what happens, they're not going to mysteriously misplace or obtain a giant sum of money to be applied to players' salaries. It's pretty much known well before the season starts. So why not take 40% of that money and stash it in a separate pool. Players salaries are fixed at a minimum of 60% of what their face value is. You sign a contract for $10 million a year? Good, you're going to get $6 million of it, even if your team loses every game. Then, you take the remaining 40% of the salaries, divide each team's stash into 82 games, and then before each game, the teams ante it into a winner's purse. Let's say the Cavs have a yearly salary of $70 million and the Bulls $60 million. 40% x $70M = $28M / 82 G = $341,400 per game. The Bulls, likewise, have 40% x $60M = $24M / 82 G = $292,700 per game to offer. So when they play each other, $634,100 is at stake between them. If Bulls win, their players win back their team's contribution, divided in a proportional manner according to the players' contracts (i.e. if Derrick Rose is making 10% of his team's salary, he'll get 10% of the winnings), and the money earned from the Cavaliers would be split in two--half of the money is distributed according to that same proportional breakdown, and the other half is split evenly between the players who suited up. That way, if you're injured, you can still make back the money you "deserve" if your team wins, but there's an additional bonus awarded to players who suit up, albeit only half of the opponent's stake. And you can apply the same strategy to the postseason. That way, players won't have to lie anymore and tell us it's all about the championships. They'll really mean it. 16 more possible game checks? Yes, please. They'll play for that money, for sure.

It would be nice if it didn't have to come down to that, but from what I've seen this year, the players seem to have grown disinterested with the carrots that are already in front of them. They need new carrots, different carrots. They need the carrots they already have to be taken away. You can show a dog a toy, and he may or may not be interested. But if you take a toy from a dog's mouth, tell me he isn't going to fight you for it. The potential upside to this? Maybe games between the Wizards and Nets become heated affairs. Maybe players play out of their minds, maybe more fans come into see that, maybe the league generates some more buzz, some more revenue, and isn't that what everyone wants--revenue?

Who knows. I'm no expert, I know relatively little about the workings of the league's business, and I'm positive that this type of scenario would never play itself out in any major sport. But it's fun to speculate.

#005 - Weird, interesting stat

In Game 1, Lebron was +7 (+/-), Varejao was +8, and Ilgauskas was +12.

And no Magic player had a better +/- than +4 (Pietrus).

Weird, interesting stat #2 -- The Cavs had more steals (8 to 5), more blocks (7 to 1) and far fewer turnovers (5 to 13), while attempting more free throws (17 to 14).  That's not the recipe for a home-court loss, fellas.

#004 - I welcome my second follower...

...his  name is Dwight Howard.

He must have read my blog earlier, decided he wanted to flush my face down the toilet middle school-style, and came out with the most impressive offensive performance of his career. In Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals, no less. He made all kinds of bank shots, hooks, baby hooks, runners, dunks, layups, and nifty up and unders, though most of his impressive moves were against Ilgauskas, who I did predict was going to be less than effective.

I'm thoroughly impressed with the Magic's victory, and astonished that they could have done it in a game in which they were trailing by 15 at halftime. The Cavs threw the gauntlet down in the first half, and first quarter especially, but as opposed to the what I imagine the Celtics (whom I was excited to see in this series just for the possibility of a 45-point Cavs Game 1 victory) would have done, the Magic showed resiliency. They got better. Cleveland, also, got worse. But that's besides the point. Having seen Lebron palm the ball and stand isolated with a defender for 8-10 seconds the whole game, Van Gundy decided with 14 seconds left and a 1 point lead to throw caution to the wind, and it paid off. He ran Gortat straight towards Lebron, straight towards a guard standing 5 feet beyond the 3-point line, just begging James to zip it underneath. Of course, he didn't, and by some sheer force of luck or momentary genius, the Magic prevented James from attempting a shot in the last 14 seconds of a 1-point game. 

Don't think that will happen often, Stan. But pat yourself on the back for it and move on to Game 2. Lebron played his ass off, and while he deserves credit for being the entire Cavaliers team in this game, his stall-ball offense in the second half might have contributed to the shakiness of his teammates down the stretch.

Now, I fully expect the Cavaliers to come out in Game 2 and mop the floor with Orlando. This series will probably go 6 games now, instead of the 5 I was imagining earlier, but there is one kind of sickening question that lingers in the back of my head after Game 1:

If Lebron puts up 49, 6, and 8 on 20/30 shooting and the Cavs still lose... how in the hell are they going to survive this series?

#003 - Come on, De-wight, Get Some Rebounds!

In honor of my first "follower", Mr. Dan Tao, I will post something which he probably has very little interest in.

Dwight Howard.

Come on, De-wight. No, actually, rebounding is not the problem. You're getting plenty of rebounds, playing like a beast on defense, and are by all accounts a freak of nature, probably the result of some sort of underhanded government science program. You're charismatic, you got robbed like there's no tomorrow in the dunk contest (which you single handedly have made relevant again) and you're not getting a whole heck of a lot of credit for the fact that your team has Rafer Alston, Hedo Turkoglu, Rashard Lewis, and not a single passable power forward, and yet everyone is playing enough DEFENSE to make it to Eastern Conference Championship. Take a look at those names again. Take a long look. These guys are historical me-first, offensive-minded players. They're great players, don't get me wrong. But they're not the most vicious defenders. And everyone credits KG for the marvelous work he did getting a bunch of has-beens and never-weres to play defense like a pack of rabid mongooses. But not a lot of people credit Dwight or Stan Van Gundy for getting the Disney Drainers to give a crap on the defensive side of the ball. Right now all I'm hearing is "they're playing below their potential, blah blah blah." Maybe they are playing below their potential, and they shouldn't have struggled so much with Philly, but they beat the Celtics in Boston in Game 7. And handly. So take that to the bank and smoke it.

Dwight Howard deservedly won Defensive Player of the Year. I really don't care what anyone else says. It's not really fair for Lebron to win MVP AND Defensive, and in addition, Howard has had a more individual influence on opposing teams' offensive strategy. Lebron affects your game plan because you're just generally shitting your pants that he's on the court with you. Dwight is tenacious when it comes to protecting the rim. As Kendrick Perkins can attest to, it takes superior athletic skill, a cauldron full of good luck, and supremely foul body odor for a big man to score easily on Howard.

Now that I've sufficiently buttered him up, here's what I don't entirely get about the Howard/SVG/Magic/Sportswriters dynamic going on right now--

Why is it that everyone seems to be in on this conspiracy that says Howard needs to have touches in the post?

He's just not a refined post player right now. The guy is like 23 years old, just starting to come into his fully developed physique, getting a handle on being "The Man" down in Orlando, his post skills are something that have yet to develop. It's not wrong. Big men typically hone their moves over the course of time, very very few come into the game as mature as Olajuwon or Duncan. When Shaq entered the league, his only real move was drop step and dunk. By the time he hit his prime with Kobe in LA, Shaq had an arsenal of low post moves and a ridiculous touch from inside 10 feet (yet still the stone hands from the line). I think somehow everyone is convinced that it would be offensive to Dwight to admit this, but the reality for young players in the NBA is that they can't do EVERYTHING. Teams would let Lebron shoot anything he wanted from the outside two years ago. They would probably let him shoot anything he wants from out there now, but only because it's a better alternative to easy layups and foul trouble. He's worked on that. He has accepted the honest critique throughout his career that he's not a great jumpshooter and if he wants to become Jordan, he should get in the gym and put up 1500 shots a day. So he's done that. Er, he's DOING that. He's on his way.

Howard just doesn't have a refined post game right now. He's got all the power in the world, but it's a lot more difficult for him (and anyone else on the planet) to dropstep and dunk like it was for Shaq coming in. He makes the most of good passes from his teammates, terrific offensive rebounding, and following the break. He's a superior athlete and can run and jump circles around other big men without breaking a sweat. But he doesn't have the most fluid hook shot, and he certainly doesn't have a set shot or jumper that the league's better post players (Gasol, Ilgauskas, Duncan) have. It's not WRONG. It just is what it is. Forcing your offense to get him touches and give him more shots is not the most effective strategy. The Magic have a boatload of excellent perimeter players, good ball handlers with the ability to create off the dribble. They don't even play a power forward, they just play big D in the center and four gunners on the wings. Hedo and Alston, especially, are adept at driving the lane, drawing defenders, and let's be serious for a moment, if you have Rashard Lewis and Courtney Lee and JJ Redick (okay, bad example) out there speckled around the three point line ready to fire away, it's more likely that you're going help off of someone who shoots 50% from the free throw line. The result? Layups, fouls, one-handed dunks, two-handed dunks, tomahawk dunks, reverse dunks, and a whole lot of those plays where Dwight just jumps up and throws the ball through the rim to save his calloused hands. Is this not effective? I'd have to wager that most players around the league are aware of the fact that Howard has a raw post game right now. If I was Mike Brown, I'd be looking over tapes of Howard's missed jump hooks and thinking about how I'd have to match up with either undersized (Delonte, Mo) or overmatched (Szczerbiak, Varejao) defenders out top, and the choice would seem pretty clear. I think Joe Smith could do a fantastic job defending Howard in the paint, though I'm sure there's some game tape out there that proves me wrong. But if Brown can't convince Ilgauskas to just stand motionless and not reach in, he'll probably get the call, and if all else fails they have at least 18-24 fouls to throw at him--to, as they all say, "Make him earn it from the line."

(Of course, half of the game, the announcers like to say, "Now why are you going to foul him and give him free points?" and the other half, they fall back to, "You can't give them baskets, you have to foul and make them earn it from the line." Pick one boys. It's not so tough.)

So that's my rant on Dwight Howard. There's plenty of stuff to like about him, I mean, the list is endless. And I think he's no question one of the first 5 players you'd pick if you had to start a franchise from scratch with today's player pool. I'd also love to have Josh Smith, except, if he started going to the media and saying, "Hey, I don't get enough three-pointers, why can't I get more three-pointers?" and everyone buys into it... well... you get the point.