The Myth:Â Coaches are resting their starters more often this year.
With the compressed schedule forced upon coaches and players by the lockout, rest for a team’s key players is at a premium and is more important than ever. As a result, the popular perception seems to be that coaches are resting their top players more often – the whole league, supposedly, is pulling a Popovich. Blowing out a team? Rest your starters. Getting blown out? Put the bench in. Plan on sitting your most important player for a 4-minute stretch to end the first quarter? See if you can stretch that to include the first two minutes of the second.
The Test: What percentage of a team’s total minutes are being played by the six most active players on each team?
In order to see if that’s actually the case, I figured out what percentage of total minutes are being played by the top six in minutes played for each team. The rationale behind stretching it to six players and not just five was to include teams like Oklahoma City, which brings one of their most important players off the bench, and to help account for early-season injuries that might have shifted a backup into a starting role for several games this season.
The Data*:
*Data for the 2011-12 season is through games completed on 2/12.Â
The “Percentage Difference” is calculated not as a simple subtraction of this year’s percentage minus last year’s; instead, it’s this year divided by last year, minus 100%. Atlanta, for example, gave 69.64% of its total minutes to its six most active players last year, vs. 66.86% this year. That means they’re 96.01% as top-heavy this year – or a decrease of 3.99%, expressed as -3.99%.
Well, well, well. It looks like the data doesn’t back up the myth; teams are actually 2.84% more top-heavy this year than they were last year. Only nine teams have seen a decrease in the number of minutes played by their top six this season. The three teams to see the largest decrease in their percentage were the Mavericks, Warriors and Hornets, three teams that have been hit hard by injury and roster shuffling.
The Pacers, Cavaliers and Wizards saw the greatest increase in playing time for their top six. Indiana has “benefited” from the addition of David West, the ascension of Paul George and an increased workload for Tyler Hansbrough; having players on which they can rely is likely a large part of the Pacers’ improvement this season. The heavier playing time for the starters in Cleveland is predicated on being able to lean on Kyrie Irving and a – until now – healthy Anderson Varejao being in the lineup regularly. The Wizards, too, have improved health (and no trades, yet) to thank for their increase. Last year, the six players who saw the most playing time for Washington averaged 64.5 games in a Wizards uniform out of a possible 82; this season, the top six averages 27.1 games out of Washington’s 28 so far.
Speaking of trades, some might wonder how large of a factor the trade deadline is; surely some teams’ totals last year were affected drastically by the midseason departure of a player who otherwise would have been in the top six. The Carmelo Anthony (Denver and New York), Marcin Gortat (Orlando and Phoenix) and Deron Williams (Utah and New Jersey) trades, in particular, affected the balance of minutes played for those six teams.
However, if we adjust those teams’ totals and assume those trades never happened, the league would still be 1.9% more top-heavy this year.
The Conclusion: Inconclusive, but leaning toward Busted.
As the season progresses and the trade deadline passes, it’s perfectly reasonable to anticipate this year’s rate regressing to last year’s. However, the takeaway here is that, at the very least, coaches are not resting their starters/top six players any more than they did last year. Be it due to injury or the night-in, night-out pressure to win and stay off the hot seat, the distribution of minutes so far this season is actually more compact than last year. When your favorite Blazers or Bulls fan complains about their coach not pulling the starters in a blowout, they’re not just blowing smoke. It’s a league-wide trend.
Image by Anthony Bain. You should follow him on Twitter: @AnthonyBain
Aside from Eric Koreen opening Dwane Casey’s scrum asking for a Jerryd Bayless update (“the reason everybody’s here”) and Casey later heaping praise on Tyson Chandler, every single question for the two coaches this morning was about Jeremy Lin. One of the more fascinating parts of this story is how Lin remains grounded amid all this hype, on and off the court.
It’s challenging enough for any backup to step into the spotlight and know when to attack and when to defer. It’s doubly daunting to play within yourself in New York, while being treated like a superstar. It is remarkable how much confidence Mike D’Antoni has in Lin. ”This is a moment that he will cherish obviously but it’s also a great opportunity and I don’t think he’ll blow it,” he said. “He’s too smart. He’ll do what’s right to try to win, and that’s ultimately what’s going to judge him anyway. We’re dealing with a highly intelligent kid, so that’s no problem.”
Playing point guard in D’Antoni’s free-flowing system isn’t for everybody (see: everyone else who has played point guard for the Knicks this year), but Lin’s pick-and-roll instincts have him in his comfort zone. “He fits in perfectly,” Casey said. “Mike’s system is one that’s one of the most difficult to guard when you have a guy like that, a guy like Steve Nash in that situation that can run multiple pick-and-rolls, attack, read pick-and-rolls. He was at the right place at the right time. He got the opportunity, he took advantage of it, and now we have this.”
The question going forward is if it’s still a perfect fit when Amar’e Stoudemire and Carmelo Anthony return and it might not be in the team’s best interest for Lin to shoot 20 times per game. When a reporter told D’Antoni that a lot of people were thinking there would be problems, he corrected him.
“A lot of people hoping,” he said. “There’s no reason why it doesn’t [work], only reason it wouldn’t is if they can’t get on the same page. But up to now I’ve not seen anything except cooperation from all of the players to try to do what’s right and try to get their games compatible. Maybe [problems pop up], but if we sit down and talk about it and work it out — what is best for the New York Knicks? — we keep that idea, then they should play better with each other.”
Casey, on the other hand, acknowledged the difference in the Knicks with Lin and without Anthony. “It’s a different look, but it’s similar to Mike’s teams,” he said. “It’s closer to what his teams have been about, more so than a great player like Carmelo ISO’ing and that type of thing. You’ve got a tale of two different teams — more of the way Mike has played in Phoenix now versus a different type team. They’re a little bit more of the same with Stoudemire coming back, but when Carmelo comes back… it’s a little bit of a different look.”
With how ISO-heavy the Knicks were before Lin and how pick-and-roll dependent they are now, it’ll be fascinating to see what happens when Anthony is back. While asserting that Lin is not a flash in the pan, Casey said that the Knicks were “close to becoming his team almost.” D’Antoni said something similar. “It is not his team right now, although it’s getting close,” he said. “He is a good leader just because he does everything right. He’s a great kid, he’s humble, he just goes out and plays hard. He’s not afraid of the moment, obviously. I don’t think he’s in the locker room cheering guys on — he doesn’t have to do that — but on the floor he’s what a coach needs. He leads by example.”
If you ask me, Anthony is more than capable of following Lin’s footsteps, even if he’ll never look at him as his leader. Anthony is a good passer when he wants to be and he’s seen how much fun his teammates are having during this winning streak. Maybe, as Matt Moore suggested, he can slip into a Shawn Marion role. Maybe, as Kobe Bryant suggested, there won’t be an issue because Anthony doesn’t need to facilitate and Lin can find him in the post. There will be problems, however, if he expects to hold the ball on the wing for 10 seconds every possession. As it as always been, it’s up to Anthony.
When not talking about the system and Lin’s impact on it, both coaches expressed genuine admiration for him and his story. D’Antoni, with a laugh, said that the greatest part of the Jeremy Lin experience was “that we’ve won five in a row.” He continued, “Just everything, just what’s right with sports. He’s an underdog that came up, he does it the right way, and to be able to — probably the biggest point — to be able to step on national TV with all the scrutiny, Madison Square Garden, against the Lakers, against Kobe, and produce what he did — I mean, to me, that’s remarkable, that’s unbelievable that he can do that in that game. Again, we’ll have to see for the rest of the season. We’ve got a long ways to go yet. But up to this point, that’s off the charts. I don’t know if anybody could script that one.”
Casey said that movie directors would like to get their hands on this script. “In the biggest market in the world, in New York, he becomes an overnight sensation. You go from going to the D-League, on the waiver wire, getting picked up, and now he’s a starter on one of the prime teams, historical teams in the NBA. And you have Amar’e’s brother’s unfortunate situation, Carmelo gets hurt, and he steps in. You go from being on the waiver wire to “Linsanity” or whatever they call it.” [Note: I'm fairly sure Casey accidentally said "Vinsanity," but I'll give him the benefit of the doubt. Perhaps he saw this dunk last night.]
D’Antoni acknowledged that not even those who saw him every day knew this was coming. “You have to have luck in life and you have to have an opportunity,” he said. “He had an opportunity, he took advantage of it. I would like to think that maybe we were smart enough to keep him around until that opportunity arose, but I wouldn’t bet on it.”
Following that, I’d like to let Casey’s thoughts on what we can learn from Lin speak for themselves.”Persistence. Don’t give up on your dream,” Casey said. “He had a dream back a few years ago, coming out of Harvard. Everybody probably thought he was crazy, he had a lot going against him at that time, but he kept working at it, didn’t give up. He could’ve given up and gone to law school, med school, whatever he wanted to do. But he stuck with his dream, stayed with it, took advantage of his opportunities, didn’t cry about not getting the opportunity… He’s a great kid, humble, but again like I said we want to kick his butt tonight when we play against him.”
The Magic easily handled the Timberwolves last night, but don’t let the margin of victory fool you into thinking Orlando played anything resembling a good offensive game. What they had going for them instead was an across the board contribution to scoring and rebounding. All five starters scored in double figures on either 11 or 12 field goal attempts – J.J. Redick also chipped in 14 points off the bench – and none scored more than Jason Richardson’s 17. Six players secured at least five rebounds for the Magic, led by Dwight Howard’s seven.
Lemon Face: Glen Davis
Then there was Glen Davis, who scored two points in his 23 minutes on the court. That’s not intrinsically a bad thing; a player like Davis can add value by being in the right position defensively, setting screen and grabbing rebounds. The problem is that Davis took 10 shots to score those 2 points.
On a night when the Magic were doing their best Animal Farm impression, Davis did his level best to prove that some are more (or in his case, less) equal than others.
Lion Face: Lou Williams
What do you do when the Bobcats are hanging around, on track for a moral victory at the least and threatening to turn it into an actual one? Unleash the sweetness, of course.
Williams uncorked 23 points off the bench – per ESPN’s research, he’s on track to be the first player to lead his team in scoring without starting a game since Dell Curry did it for the Charlotte Hornets – and saved his best for last. With the Bobcats down seven and under 40 seconds to play, Williams took a handoff from Nikola Vucevic and drained a dagger 3-pointer from four feet behind the arc. Were the Bobcats going to come back to win a game with that little time left? Probably not, but Sweet Lou made sure there was no question about it.
Lemon Face: Byron Mullens
It’s not that Mullens had a bad game, necessarily. I mean, he didn’t shoot very well from the field (4-for-13), but he cleared nine caroms and went 5-for-5 from the free throw line to tally 13 points.
Mullens gets the Lemon Face for one particular shot, though. A few minutes into the second quarter, the Bobcats were in transition after a Philadelphia miss. Kemba Walker brought the ball up and dished to a trailing Mullens, who pump-faked at the top of the key, took a step closer and proceeded to airball a wide open 15-footer. It was the type of shot for which Lemon Faces were made.
Lion Face: LeBron James
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yvhfdSFuQ4c
Before last night, there were 84 instances of a player attempting more than 20 field goals, shooting better than 75% on those attempts and grabbing eight boards. Oddly, none of those games belonged to LeBron James – until now.
James feasted on the interior, as evidenced by his shot chart:
The potential for this image to become a regular occurrence should terrify the NBA.
Yeah, he’s good at this game.
Lemon Face: Drew Gooden
Gooden, on the other hand, was a beast defending the paint; unfortunately, it was his own. He missed all five of his shots in and around the lane and went 2-for-14 total.
Oh, and this happened:
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8er79fPh8A
Lion Face: The Ayon-Kaman Connection Express
With Emeka Okafor out due to a sore left knee, Chris Kaman decided that it was about time to remind everyone of his capabilities.
No, not with a bow or other hunting equipment. On the basketball court, where he scored a season-high 27 points to go along with an 18.1% Total Rebound Rate in 42 minutes. His efforts were bolstered by the smooth, MyPlayer-esque efficiency of Gustavo Ayon, who’s apparently a real person with the ability to go 6-for-7 from the floor, secure nine rebounds and swat three shots. The Hornets’ startling victory over the Jazz was largely the product of Kaman and Ayon outperforming their Utah counterparts, Al Jefferson and Paul Millsap.
And, really, that’s exactly what everyone was expecting.
Lemon Face: Randy Foye
0-for-7 from the field. 0-for-4 from deep. I’m going to go out on a limb and guess that the Clippers miss Chauncey Billups already; he probably could have put up similar numbers from a wheelchair.
Lion Face: Dirk Nowitzki
For 42 minutes, Dirk was bordering on Lemon Face territory. At the very least, he was in the demilitarized zone between Affleck and Damon, but he proceeded to go off for 11 points in the final six minutes of the Mavs’ victory over the Clips. The majority of those scores came at the free throw line – Nowitzki took as many free throws as shots from the field on the night. With Dallas playing suffocating defense in the closing minutes of the game, all they needed was for their superstar to get the ball in the basket, no matter how it happened. He managed, and the Mavs escaped with a win.
Lemon Face: The Phoenix Suns after the 1st quarter
It’s a tried and true pattern for the Suns this year. Step 1: Get off to a quick start spurred by a scoring and passing outburst by Steve Nash. Step 2: Bring in the bench players, watch lead dwindle away. Step 3: Be unable to reignite that first quarter spark. Step 4: Lose game.
Fin.
Lion Face: David Lee
Apparently Channing Frye and Markieff Morris are not the answer for defending Lee. The Warriors went to him time and time again (Lee’s usage rate on the night was 28.2%), and the Suns had no answer. Lee scored 28 points – his second highest point total on the season – to continue his season-long streak of double-digit scoring games.
The phrase I keep hearing is “I’ve never seen anything like this.”
It’s a Tuesday in February in Toronto and I just attended the most-attended recent basketball media event anyone in this city can seem to remember: Jeremy Lin’s press conference. It was held in a room last used for this purpose when LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, and the returning Chris Bosh were here last season. But that was postgame. This is unprecedented.
I arrived at about 10:15. All the cameras in the above picture were set up, but there were only about 15 of us there. That number would multiply quickly. As we waited, people talked about how nuts this is and shared pictures of Lin’s SI cover on their phones.
“It’s only been five games.”
“Imagine if he’s out of the league in a couple of months.”
The first sentiment isn’t getting any less amazing. The second is something I find hard to fathom, but we’ll leave the speculation and talk of actual basketball for now.
Mike D’Antoni started his 10:45 AM press conference with the same joke Dwane Casey used at practice yesterday: “Are we into the playoffs now?” He talked for six minutes about Lin, emphasizing that it is not easy for anyone to deal with this hype but that he’s not worried about Lin because he’s such a good kid. He did not answer a reporter’s question about his favorite Lin pun.
The good kid was next, and he had to talk about himself more than he wanted to. He deflected a question about Floyd Mayweather’s tweet and how his race impacts how he’s viewed, he gave credit to God and his teammates wherever possible. There was an odd moment where a reporter gave him a gift “from his Canadian fans” — he accepted it with a smile and a thank you. He also obliged when asked by that same reporter to give a message to his fans in Mandarin. The message? Simply “thank you to everyone for watching us play basketball.” His use of us is instructive — it’s never about me with Lin. Just over a week removed from his first breakout game, it’s awkward to steal the spotlight from proven stars. It’s uncomfortable to have all of these cameras on you. He didn’t ask to be the biggest story in the NBA, but he’s dealing with it as best he can.
Many reporters aren’t covering the game tonight so much as they’re covering the circus around the game, myself included. CBC interviewed four different New York beatwriters. The Asian reporters in attendance found themselves supplying quotes for others. There was an actual scrum around Frank Isola. Let’s just say none of this happened when I was here to cover the Timberwolves last month.
It’s not really Keith Smart’s fault, but we were robbed, straight snookered out of a Rookie of the Year candidate without ever even knowing it. But when you have a Monta Ellis and a Stephen Curry in front of you in the rotation what’cha gonna do?
Jeremy Lin played in 29 NBA games last year, but for mere moments in each. He’s about to double his career minutes played in little more than a couple of handfuls of games. For all intents and purposes this is his real NBA debut. It’s a safe bet to assume that not more than about 72 people — the total number of Lin’s professional field goal attempts coming into this season — really believed he’d be doing what he is now.
And what, exactly, is he doing now?
In a recent 5-on-5 the question was posed, and I responded:
Who’s the top rookie of the first six weeks?
I would love to be able to say it’s the adorable Ricky Rubio, but I cannot ignore what Kyrie Irving has done for Cleveland thus far, being in the less-stacked Eastern Conference notwithstanding. Of the past four guards taken first overall in the NBA draft (Irving, John Wall, Derrick Rose and Allen Iverson), none shot more efficiently from the field or from the 3-point line than Irving in the rookie season, and normalized for minutes played, Irving is also the highest scorer.
ESPN 5-on-5 Debate: Six weeks later, better and best
The results were unanimous concerning Irving, but this was before he got hurt letting Rubio tighten the race. But what if Jeremy Lin was in the 66-game sprint? How would he stack up to the current leaders in the clubhouse had we not been robbed of his real debut?
Considering the market Lin’s been basing his phenomenal feats from, and the fact he took Rubio out out head-to-head to continue the New York Knicks’ ridiculous run while Irving sits in a suit in Cleveland, sidelined during the height of Linsanity,  does anyone doubt he would have overtaken the lead in this unfortunately fictional dash?
The league is ripe with an up-and-coming crop of point guards, and this batch refreshingly aren’t all combo-guard-clones, as many from the last harvest have been. But how does this current crop stack up to reigning MVP Derrick Rose’s season, last?
The future of the floor general in the NBA is in pretty good hands.
Indiana finds themselves in the midst of a three-game skid as Miami, winners of three in row, roll into town. After a grueling four games in five nights, the Pacers have had three blessed days off to recoup while the Heat make their second-to-last stop of a six-game roadie on the back end of their back-to-back-to-back set here. The Pacers are a physical squad, so expect this one to be closer than you’d expect.
Knicks at Raptors (7:00 PM EST)
Jeremy Lin goes from the freshest Spanish sensation in Ricky Rubio to the original one in Jose Calderon, who vocally isn’t ready to relinquish his crown as “best point guard from Spain in the NBA” quite yet. While both of these pistoleros share a common trait in boasting some of the best court vision in The Association, Rubio and Calderon are two entirely different animals — Rubio a lengthy defensive specialist while Calderon will fire at will. Lin posted a career best from the floor mere nights ago as did Calderon in his last game. You can’t spell “O MY!” without Jose and Jeremy.
HP’s own James Herbert will be at this exciting game, so be sure to follow his feed on Twitter for the full effect.
Spurs at Pistons (7:30 PM EST)
Ssssh! Did you hear that? Me neither. Beware, the Spurs are sneaking up the standings as the hottest squad in the NBA, coming away victorious in seven straight. San Antonio rode in the Motor City in the fourth game of their annual Rodeo Road Trip last year too, winning, and Manu Ginobili is back, albeit it gingerly, playing only 17 minutes in his first game back, last. But while the Spurs are historically beasts on this yearly boot from home, the Pistons have been playing almost not-bad basketball, going 4-6 in their last 10. Greg Monroe and his 15 double-doubles would like nothing more than to play spoiler, sending the Spurs off into the sunset with their collective tail between their legs.
Kings at Bulls (8:00 PM EST)
Also playing almost not-bad basketball of late are the Sacramento Kings, knocking off the league-best Oklahoma City Thunder a few nights ago, leaving Chicago alone atop the NBA mountaintop until the Celtics popped ‘em in the mouth as they were sans Derrick Rose. Don’t expect any heroics from royalty in this one, however. It should be a spanking. If spray-on hair is (or isn’t) your thing you can always tune in to see DeMarcus Cousins abuse Carlos Boozer and Luol Deng do his All-Star thang.
Jazz at Thunder (8:00 PM EST)
Utah wraps their back-to-back-to-back in OKC versus a Thunder team that’s had their number for some time now. Opposing point guards are making minced meat of the Jazz’s defenses, Greivis Vasquez being the latest in a long line to torch their Jekyll and Hyde heads. Devin Harris and Earl Watson actually did a pretty decent job keeping Russell Westbrook away from the painted area in last Friday’s tilt, but RussWest simply pulled up and popped often coming off of well-set screens, rarely missing. This will likely be a slaughterhouse causing much cursing and gnashing of teeth in Jazzland.
Rockets at Grizzlies (8:00 PM EST)
Houston has quietly been playing “snub” basketball, as one of only two Western Conference teams in current playoff position sans an All-Star. The Rockets have no statistical standouts and a backup center leading the team in PER, they just play fundamentally sound basketball under Kevin McHale, rebounding and passing well, i f not spectacularly, while keeping turnovers under control. Perennial MIP candidate Kyle Lowry is day-to-day, but not playing well on an elbow tweak.  They pit their 6-9 road record against All-Star-led Memphis’ Marc Gasol’s 9-5 home record in a grinder.
Suns at Nuggets (9:00 PM EST)
FREE STEVE NASH
That is all.
Wizards at Trail Blazers (10:00 PM EST)
The recent history of this series isn’t as lopsided as you might imagine, with the home team taking each of the last four meetings, and the Wizards managing four wins in the last six years versus the Blazers in their yearly home-and-home inter-conference clashes. But Washington hasn’t pulled off a coup in the Rose Garden since a lineup of Jared Jeffries, Kwame Brown, Etan Thomas, Larry Hughes, Gilbert Arenas, Juan Dixon, and Laron Profit nipped ‘em 114-106 on March 28, 2005.
Hawks at Lakers (10:30 PM EST)
Is anyone still awake? Great! You can watch Kobe and Joe Johnson trade jumpers from way too far away with me. Because it’s too much to hope for Troy Murphy to fly in from nowhere and swing wildly from the rim, right?
In the spirit of HP’s own NBA historian, Curtis Harris, today we have a very special guest who takes a look back at an historic time in the NBA: One of the most dynamic offensive battles to have ever taken place in the game of basketball.
Steve Smith is an award-winning Australian basketball writer who recently shared an inside look at this most prolific of battles with me, and asked me to share it with you. What follows is an exclusive inside peek into this, one of the greatest games ever played. We’d like to thank Smitty for taking the time to dig up this bit of previously unpublished history of the game for Hardwood Paroxym, and we encourage you to follow him on Twitter at @smittys07 for more scintillating nuggets and great conversation about the beloved game.
Let ‘Em Loose: The 1990-91 Denver Nuggets
by Steve Smith
Conceding an average of 130.8 points per game, the 1990-91 Denver Nuggets have, over time, been dismissed as a statistical anomaly wrought by an eccentric coach intent on bringing a college fast-break system to the pros. Think you’ve got a good grip on run-and-gun basketball? Think again.
On Saturday, November 10, 1990, the Denver Nuggets made their way to the team’s morning shootaround at Phoenix’s Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum. Players shuffled on to the floor in dribs and drabs, still weary from the previous night’s 135-129 defeat to Seattle.
Their NBA campaign was just a week old and they were already the talk of the league, for all the wrong reasons.
Having conceded an average of 148 points in their first five games – including 162 to the Run TMC-powered Golden State Warriors in the season opener – NBA analysts from Orlando to Oakland and everywhere in between were wondering just what the hell new coach Paul Westhead was doing.
In his own mind, Westhead was certain he knew what he was doing, saying before the season started, “We’re gonna run, we’re gonna keep on running, if the pace ever slows down, we’ll speed it up and we’re gonna run and run and run some more! … There will be 200-point games. I feel very confident that we will be on the upside of that score but 200 points is gonna happen.”
With a furrowed brow, the 51-year-old coach watched rookie Chris Jackson prepare for his first NBA game, his mind racing as fast as his hyper-kinetic offense …
What followed that evening was an offensive gala for the ages, as the Suns and the Nuggets broke all the borders of the boxscore.
Unfortunately for Denver, Phoenix was a team perfectly built to exploit the idiosyncratic nature of Westhead’s warp-speed tactics, and racked up 50 points in the first 12 minutes.
And they were just getting started.
By half-time, even Phoenix fans were wondering what in the world had just happened as the Suns poured in another 57 points in the second period to take a remarkable 107-67 lead at the main intermission. That’s 107 points. By one team. At half-time.
More than twenty years later, Paul Westhead sits in his office at the University of Oregon – where he is entrenched as the women’s basketball head coach – and, looking back at that game, recalls not being overly concerned at having conceded a century-plus in just 24 minutes of defense-deficient ball.
“I remember one of my assistants, Jim Boyle, said to me, ‘We have a problem here. They’re gonna score 200 points!’ Westhead says. “And I said, ‘Well, I always wanted to be in a 200-point game, just not on the losing end!’
“So I said, ‘Don’t worry about it, don’t worry about it, they can’t keep the pace, that’s not the worry’, I knew they couldn’t keep that up.â€
And while the white-hot Suns cooled off a little after the break (see, Westhead knew what he was talking about), Denver were left to lick their wounds yet again when the final horn sounded.
At first glance the 30-point margin looks like an ordinary November blowout, except the score was an unfathomable 173-143.
Two decades after the fact, the boxscore still reads like something out of fantasy hoops heaven. Rookie Cedric Ceballos tallied 32 points and backcourt duo Kevin Johnson (23 points, 17 assists) and Dan Majerle (21 points, 13 assists) feasted on the non-existent Denver defense.
For the Nuggets, high-flying forward Orlando Woolridge led all scorers with 40 points, while debutant Jackson had 26 points and six assists but gave up seven turnovers in a first game that probably still has him shaking his head at the sheer absurdity of it all. To this day, the 173 points scored by the Suns is the equal highest in NBA history for non-overtime games; the 107-point outburst stands alone as the greatest scoring splurge for the opening half of any NBA game.
But for Westhead, the game remains the prime example of why he always felt – and still feels – that 200 points is not only possible but probable.
“I only say that because we created that run,†Westhead says. “We could sustain it but we weren’t good enough to score well enough and defend well enough but that’s an example where it’s possible. You’ve got a game where it’s 173, well, had we’d been better we’d have been above 173, into the 180s, the 190s or perhaps even 200. So I wouldn’t say it’s as difficult as the four-minute mile that no-one ever thought we could do, it’s like that though, people say, ‘nah that’s crazy, that’s impossible’, but sure you could!â€
“Let em loose†was the Nuggets’ pre-season slogan and could not have been more prescient.
Unfortunately, the slogan applied more to the opposition than it did for Denver, as the Nuggets proved in the space of eight days the absolute audacity of their shoot-first-and-ask-questions-much-much-later style.
In the NBA record books, the top-three games for “Most points, both teams, first half†read as follows:174 — Phoenix (107) vs. Denver (67), Nov. 10, 1990; 173 — Denver (90) at San Antonio (83), Nov. 7, 1990; 170 — Golden State (87) at Denver (83), Nov. 2, 1990. Eight days, three records. It’s a record for offensive blitzkriegs and defensive futility all rolled into one crazily endearing up-tempo package.
Giving up 130.8 points per in the pros beggars belief but as Westhead noted at the time, “We want to create a pace in the game that will break anybody – except us.â€And remarkably, for Westhead anyway, the squad actually performed better than he expected, despite winning just 20 games all season and never once keeping an opposing team to under 100 points.
“Well, we had an interesting team,†Westhead recalls. “The Nuggets, prior to my arrival, were a good established team but their players got old, they were retired or were traded off so the team we had when I arrived was a couple of young players and some veteran free agents so it was kind of a put-together team.â€
Having previously coached the Lakers to a title in 1979-80 before moving on to the pre-Jordan Bulls, Westhead arrived in the Mile High city in 1990 after successfully implementing his turbo-driven offense at Loyola Marymount.
“When I arrived I kind of changed the approach,†Westhead says. “We tried to play breakneck fast-break basketball, you know, try to shoot the ball every four or five seconds, as quickly as we could get down the court. The players did a better than average job in doing that, it’s not an easy thing to do but they picked up the speed game and responded pretty well.â€
Westhead swears to this day that the system works – with the right personnel and the right environment.
He knows within himself his plan was sound: get his players ultra-fit in training camp and then leave opponents in their dust in the thin air of the McNichols Sports Arena with a tempo that was supposed to make Showtime look like Slowtime.
In hindsight though, should the fact that some of the key rotation players on his roster included Joe Wolf, Blair Rasmussen and Todd Lichti have sounded a warning bell? Or that his best scoring options were Woolridge (who had a well-earned reputation for a Tarzan-like physique and a Jane-like ability to avoid contact), pint-sized point guard Michael Adams (who had injury problems throughout the season), an out-of-shape Jackson in his rookie season and a 36-year-old Walter Davis, who could be generously described as only just past his prime?
Not according to Westhead.
“I wouldn’t say it didn’t work,†Westhead counters. “I would say if you looked at wins and losses then you’ll say it didn’t work because you didn’t win enough games. My easy answer to that is to say we just didn’t have a top-level player or two to win the game in the last two or three minutes when you needed to close out games. It’s a little bit of both but nonetheless, the players did a good job in running the ball and causing problems with opponents who weren’t accustomed to playing at that fast pace.â€
In fact, Westhead maintains his system rejuvenated the careers of veterans like Woolridge and Davis.
“Orlando Woolridge, was an example of a player who was a free agent, he’d left the Lakers because he was too old, he was 33-34 years old and he came to us,†Westhead says. “Because he ran our system, half-way through the year he was leading the NBA in scoring, he was averaging 32 points a game. He then got injured, he had an eye injury and had to sit out a couple of weeks, when he came back he had to wear a mask and his scoring went down. But he was like the perfect example of a player rejuvenated with a speed game that allowed him to score at will.
“If Orlando (Woolridge) had played in a slow game, at his age, he would’ve struggled to get 10-15 points in a game and now here he is getting 30 points a game, easy. So for a player like that, it was the perfect thing for him.â€
As for Davis, Westhead smiles at the thought of putting new life into the old Greyhound.
“I have a fond memory,†Westhead remembers, “of Walter Davis coming to me – his knees were gone – and saying to me he could only play a certain amount of minutes, he could barely practice, in fact one time he came to me and said ‘Do you want me to practice or play games?’ So I said, ‘OK, let’s just play games.’ So he was in one game and he had made six or seven shots in a row and he put his fist up.
“Now, in his world, when you put your fist up – the Dean Smith/North Carolina world – meant he wanted to come out of the game. And I yelled out to him, ‘I’m not Dean Smith, and you’re not coming out until you miss!’ So I think he made about three or four more shots and then he missed and then I took him out. He came out with this big smile on his face but he was exhausted.â€
And interestingly, Westhead theorises that any chance of extended success was only stymied by injuries to Adams, his floor general, who was the ignition sequence to his offense.
“Michael Adams was the key player for us,†Westhead says. “When he was fit and played well, he was a great fast-break point guard. But when he had to sit out – he had hamstring problems – our effectiveness went down, oh, maybe 50 per cent, because the point guard is the key to that system.”
But would his system work in today’s NBA, where even the quote-unquote 07 Seconds Or Less Suns could never quite get over the play-off hump?
“I have a couple of reflections,†the ever-Shakespearean Westhead muses. “Yes, it could work with the right group. That pace can be very effective because teams aren’t accustomed to it, teams don’t like to defend against that. The hitch always is, ‘will players agree to do it for the long haul?’ It’s an 82-game season plus playoffs and exhibition games, so a normal NBA team may play 100 games in one year.
“I’m convinced that if they would buy into the speed game, they would be – if they had enough quality – they would be very successful. Will they do it? There’s the rub. And if they back off on it, then it immediately turns south on you and it turns against you.â€
And turn against him it did.
Even with the drafting of Dikembe Mutombo and a belated effort at a more conventional offensive system, Westhead was fired at the conclusion of the following season with a two-year record of 44-120.
Following his departure from Denver, Westhead went back to the college ranks at George Mason, rather less successfully than with Loyola, as it turned out. He became something of a coaching nomad after being replaced at Mason in 1997, taking the reins of the LA Stars in the ABA and then heading to Japan’s Pro League.
Westhead made a return to the NBA coaching ranks with Orlando (under Johnny Davis) in 2003 before the WNBA’s Phoenix Mercury handed him the top job in 05.With the Mercury’s title run in 2007, Westhead became the first man to coach both a NBA and WNBA team to a championship.Nowadays, the 72-year-old Westhead is still pushing his teams to run – getting his Oregon girls to score 100 points rather than the magical 200-mark is the aim – but the memory of a bold (critics might be less generous) experiment in the Mile High City remains etched in his memory.
“Denver doesn’t seem that long ago,†Westhead laughs. “I don’t know if it’s because you play a fast game everything goes fast, the years go fast. I can clearly picture our attempt to get out and run and some of the fast games we played. And some of the teams we played, see, teams just don’t like to play against you, they ultimately may beat you if they’re better than you but it’s not an easy win for them.”
Even today, deep down, Westhead knows there’s no middle ground with what he runs, that his hyped-up offence will only work if everyone is on board and the talent level matches the intensity.
“There is some truth that it can be doomed to fail,†Westhead admits, somewhat echoing ESPN’s Guru of Go documentary about his coaching career. “This style of play, you either get it or you don’t. You either do it or you don’t, there’s no in-between. So, if you’re gonna try this as a coach and as a team, when it works, you win, you win championships.
“But when it doesn’t work, you’re doomed, there’s no in-between.â€
Welcome back my friends to the show that never ends. Come inside, come inside, for everyone’s (read: no one’s) favorite made up game: Compare, Contrast, Conjecture. As with last time I did this, if you can’t figure out the rules on your own, you probably shouldn’t be playing at all. Without further ado…
Minnesota Timberwolves at Orlando Magic (7:00 PM EST)
Compare: Each squad boasts a former rebounding champion at the heart of it’s roster. For the Magic, it’s Dwight Howard. For the Wolves, Kevin Love. Love and Magic power forward Ryan Anderson are probably the two best outside shooting big men in the game today, and their ability to stretch the floor will challenge the other on defense. That shooting ability will pull one of the best rebounders on either team away from the basket, and it will be up to Howard and the upstart Nikola Pekovic to battle it out on the inside.
Contrast: The Wolves have Love locked up for at least three more seasons past this one, while Howard is seemingly flirting with every team in the league that will be vying for his services in free agency. Also, the Magic don’t have Ricky Rubio.
Conjecture: Minnesota snaps its losing streak and wins by 6
Compare: This time last year, each of these teams had a top 5 point guard (Deron Williams in Utah, Chris Paul in New Orleans) in the league on their squad. Each team traded that player for young players and draft picks to kick start the rebuilding process.
Contrast: The Jazz have gotten off to a surprisingly successful start to the year on the strength of their front line, Al Jefferson and Paul Millsap. The Hornets have struggled due to lack of quality talent and depth, and the injury to the prize of the Paul trade, Eric Gordon.
Contrast: Miami already has their Big Three in place, while Milwaukee’s Brandon Jennings is supposedly scouting big markets to see where he wants to form his own when he’s a free agent in a couple of years. Of course, Jennings will have to find three players who all want to play with him in a big market. ZING!! Miami has won 13 of their last 16 games, including 5 of 6 since losing to the Bucks. Milwaukee has lost 4 of their 6 games since beating the Heat.
Los Angeles Clippers at Dallas Mavericks (8:30 PM EST)
Compare: Both teams have 17 wins and sport one of the best power forwards in the game today on their roster. The Mavericks were last year’s champs, and the Clippers have staked an early claim to being one of the favorites in the West this year by beating the Thunder, Nuggets and Mavericks inside of a week recently.
Contrast: Last time these two teams met, Chauncey Billups played a prominent role and hit the game winner. He’s not out for the season. Last time these two teams met, Dirk Nowitzki had an uncharacteristically poor performance, and he’s come back stronger since taking some time off to rest his body and get back into playing shape.
Phoenix Suns at Golden State Warriors (10:30 PM EST)
Compare: Both teams are coached by former NBA players. Both teams have excellent point guard play. Neither team plays very much in the way of defense. Both teams have a foreigner starting at center. The Suns’ 7-8 road record is identical to the Warriors’ 7-8 home record.
Contrast: The Suns’ foreigner who is starting at center, Marcin Gortat, is having the best season of his career with expanded playing time. The Warriors’ foreigner who is starting at center, Andris Biedrins, looks lost.
Yes, I did just pick all 6 road teams to win on the same night. IT’S GONNA HAPPEN, OKAY!! And did you notice how I made it through this whole post without mentioning Jeremy Lin? Whoops.
It wasn’t the best performance from Kobe, but in the end, he used the last 2 of his 27 points to add yet another game winner to his resume. COUNT TEH GAME WINNERZZZ KOBEZ DA CLUTCHEST DA MVPZZZZ. RINGZZZ
With 4.2 seconds to go in the game, Dwayne Casey called on Butler to be the trigger man for the out-of-bounds play with the Raptors trailing 93-92. Butler held the ball for too long before trying to call timeout and was issued a 5 second violation, turning the ball back over to the Lakers. And what kind of name is Rasual anyway?
Lion Face: Rajon Rondo
Rondo messed around and got a triple double, posting 32 points, 10 rebounds and 15 assists in the Celtics’ win over the Bulls. He was by far the best player on the court. He controlled the entire flow of the game on both ends, got great shots for himself and his teammates and made 10 of his 13 free throws. His was just the tenth 30-10-15 game since the merger.
The quartet of Kyle Korver, John Lucas III, Taj Gibson and Omer Asik combined to shoot 6-for-23 and scored just 16 points in 54 minutes combined. Without Derrick Rose, the Bulls needed to get production from their role players, and these guys simply didn’t show up. Meanwhile, with Jermaine O’Neal sitting out, his backups Chris Wilcox and James Johnson combined for 23 points and 13 rebounds in 59 minutes played.
Lemon Face: The Pistons, all of them
They lost to the Wizards. By 21. At home. #FreeGregMonroe
Lion Face: JaVale McGee, Nick Young and John Wall
McGee put up 22 points on 13 shots and snagged 11 rebounds for his ninth double-double of the season. Young shot 8-for-13 and poured in 22 points. Wall was 1 point and 3 rebounds short of a triple-double and tallied 15 assists. He made several highlight reel plays and looked like he had some fun on a basketball court for the first time in a while. He had a few particularly nice dishes to McGee for high-flying dunks that we hadn’t seen in some time. This trio led Washington to just their second road win of the season.
Lion Face: LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh
I don’t have too much to say about this game because it was a truly terrible game to watch, but these guys had some nice round numbers to type up. LeBron had 23 points, 13 rebounds and 6 assists and was +26. Wade had 21 points, 5 rebounds and 3 assists and was +24. Bosh, despite a poor shooting day, still made an impact as he had 14 points and 16 rebounds and was +22.
Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images
Lemon Face: Me
For not watching enough of the Warriors-Rockets fame to properly determine who should get Lion Faces and Lemon Faces.
Lion Face: Al Jefferson
He was dominant inside against a Memphis team that has some strong inside presence as he went 10-17 on his way to 21 points, 15 rebounds and 4 assists. He also blocked 2 shots.
Lemon Face: The Grizzlies
For wearing those stupid Oakland A’s uniforms again. For letting Gordon Hayward drop 23 points. For turning it over 18 times. For not capitalizing on a rebounding and free throw shooting edge. For losing by double digits at home to a team that came in with a 2-7 record on the road.
Have ya heard of this Jeremy Lin fella? He’s pretty special. For lots of reasons. Is he for real? Will he continue to perform at a high level? What’s Tim Tebow go to do with this? Where does he rank among starting PGs? The Giants won the Superbowl and the Rangers have the best record in the NHL, but it’s all LIN LIN LIN in NYC.
