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Tag Archive - Rajon Rondo

Lion Face/Lemon Face 12/25/11: The Return Of Lion Face/Lemon Face

December 26, 2011 in by with 2 Comments

It’s baaaaack… Fellow Paroxite James Herbert and I will be working on our facial expressions. And in the spirit of Christmas, which by the time you read this will be long gone, we’ll be determining who was naughty and who was nice. It’s what Santa would have wanted.  

Take it away, Matt Damon and Ben Affleck:

[flash http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rngjZ10yUyA&feature=player_embedded]

Lion Face: Carmelo Anthony

Okay, maybe not the most pristine performance as a point forward (some bad reads and passes), but it didn’t matter. This was one of Melo’s finest performances period. 37 points on 17 shots. He took and made almost as many free throws (13-15) as his number of attempted field goals. Open shots, step-through three-pointers, contested fadeaways. Again: 37 points on 17 shots, which should be totally sustainable. But seriously, it’s  great to see New York basketball back. And as one of the many Melo detractors on the interwebs, I really wouldn’t mind seeing more performances like this in the near future. – Danny Chau

Lemon Face: Toney Douglas

[flash http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QVl2QfGR16k]

I’m starting to hate this meme. Because he doesn’t do good. He shoots everything and anything. He bricks threes. He vastly overrates the touch on his runners and floaters. What he doesn’t do (because he doesn’t really know how) is run a team. And you can’t expect someone to do something he doesn’t know how to do. Douglas led the Knicks in field goal attempts with 19. That’s two more than Melo, who scored 18 more points. The Knicks need a point guard in the worst way, but they officially do not have a single capable soul on the roster. Iman Shumpert, their pet project (whose problems are very much similar to Douglas’s) has gone down with a knee injury, and Mike Bibby is not capable of anything. So this means more of Douglas doing what he do. Have fun, New York. And hope to every deity in the universe and beyond that Melo figures out this “point forward” thing. -DC

Lion Face: Rajon Rondo

He made jump shots. Plural. Oh, and, 31 points (on 19 shots!), 13 assists, 5 boards, 5 steals, OH NO I’M BECOMING MR. BOXSCORE. Okay, Rondo was responsible for pretty much anything positive the Celtics’ did on offense. His shot looked smoother at the free throw line and on J’s. In the third quarter alone, he had 10 points and six assists. The Knicks in that quarter? One assist. I’m mad the Celtics dropped this and it’s not because I’m anti-Knick. I just hate that Boston wasted his performance. Also, I’m glad nobody heard the noise I made when this happened:

[flash http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TOfqfyc5e3w]

I missed that so much.  -James Herbert

Lemon Face: Shump Shump Sprained Sprained His Knee Knee

Don’t act like you’re too cool to like Iman Shumpert. Yeah, some Knicks fans have ridiculously high expectations and yeah, dude shot 3-13 and a lot of them were easy shots. But hey, a lot of them were easy shots! Shump’s mistakes were endearing to me — he’d make a nice move, then he’d flub a layup and I’d be like, “Awww, Shump Shump! You’ll finish it next time.” After colliding with Chris Wilcox, next time won’t be for another 2-4 weeks. This might actually mean 2-4 weeks of Mike Bibby. I thought we were past that, NBA. -JH

Lion Face: Miami Heat Offense / DOUBLE ALLEY-OOP

[flash http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ul9iPU2pQVQ]

Wade in the post. LeBron in the post. Neither settled for wily, contested three-pointers because there was very little need to do so. If this is a preview of what’s to come, the league should be petrified. Sure, Dallas looked awfully out of sync, but the Heat are finally in their element thanks to Erik Spoelstra’s willingness to loosen the reins a bit. Oh, and about that alley-oop. This team has a knack for making the spectacular seem ordinary. LeBron turned a potentially bad situation (a blown dunk or a steal by Marion) into an easy two points with a play that was both loud and understated at the same time. The game is really easy for the Heat right now. It’s incredible/frightening. – DC

Lemon Face: Vince Carter and Lamar Odom

It’s almost unfair to single out one Maverick, so I picked two. While failing against Miami was a TEAM effort, these two recent acquisitions stood out. VC missed the Mavs’ first two shots of the game and finished 2-6 from the floor. He was benched at the start of the second half in favor of Delonte West. Odom went 1-6, got himself ejected halfway through the third, and kept showing up in reality show commercials all damn day. -JH

Lion Face: Andris Biedrins

Biedrins looks like he hates basketball less this year
December 25, 2011 10:52 pm via TweetDeckReplyRetweetFavorite
@BeckleyMason
Beckley Mason

I love the version of Biedrins that enjoys basketball! I keep reminding myself it’s just one game, but he looked engaged and confident and this is exciting, dammit. Good Andris Biedrins protected the basket and had a weird knack for getting rebounds in traffic when people really should be outmuscling him. He also finished at an incredibly high rate. I’ve no idea where he went for two years, but Good Andris Biedrins showed up. Is it just that he’s finally healthy? Has Mark Jackson fixed him? Was it just a Christmas miracle? -JH

Lemon Face: Chauncey Billups

It’s one thing to be a fun-suck by making safe and ordinary decisions (which are probably for the best). It’s another to disrupt the flow of the game with ill-advised shots. Billups went 6-19 from the field, so yeah, even Toney Douglas shot better than him from the field. Most of his misses came from threes that he was just so confident he’d make. Open, contested, it didn’t matter — though this has been the case for years now. Problem is, he’s playing alongside the best point guard of this generation and the most promising young big man in the game. He shouldn’t be taking the most shots in the game, especially when he’s missing more than twice as many as he’s made. Billups, I get it. You didn’t want to get pushed around by teams. But you’re in a good opportunity right now. Stop trying to sabotage it.

Of course, the performance would’ve been a lot more worrisome if the Clippers lost. Winning is a spray-on band-aid. - DC

Lion Face: DeAndre Jordan

Eight blocks, and a thousand other altered shots while only committing two fouls. This is noteworthy, since DeAndre had three or more fouls in 72.5% of the games he played last season. DeAndre was impressive on defense last night to say the least. His effort on surely mask his woes at the free throw line. Speaking of which… - DC

Lemon Face: Mark Jackson’s Hack-A-DeAndre Tactic

[flash http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ah3eg8bBPaM&start=001&end=007] - DC

Lion Face: Ryan Anderson’s Fantasy Basketball Value 

Ryan Anderson is sitting by himself in a dining hall at an elongated dinner table feasting. The Magic, as currently constructed, don’t have a clear-cut second or third option, and all signs seem to point to Anderson to fill those spots on some nights. He’ll have plenty of opportunities to camp out behind the three point line as shown by his 6-12 shooting from three last night. It’ll be unreasonable to expect a double-double every night, but Anderson is a capable rebounder who should be able to get six or seven a night. If Anderson improves his rebounding numbers, he could be what Troy Murphy was for fantasy basketball a few years ago, except a much more prolific outside threat. Pick him up in the late rounds and shock your friends with your competence. – DC

Lemon Face: Metta World Peace

I’m not ready for MWP to be this bad. I felt like something terrible was about to happen every time he touched the ball and, most of the time, I was right. And when did he get so slow? -JH

Lion Face: Derrick Rose’s Threes

The story is his game-winner over Pau Gasol, but what I’m really excited about is his stroke. Rose made four of his six three point attempts. This one time I wrote about how working on his post game shouldn’t come at the expense of becoming a more consistent shooter. It’s just one game, but man, those shots looked effortless. -JH

Lemon Face: Derrick Rose’s Free Throws

There were none. He went 0-0. We’ve been saying it forever: this shouldn’t happen to the point guard version of LeBron. -JH

Lion Face: The Bulls’ Last Second Stop

[flash http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VNvmLnvsIdw]

It took me a few replays to realize it was Deng who blocked it. How beautiful is that, everyone converging, no one coming close to fouling him? -JH

Lemon Face: Luol Deng’s Haircut

[flash http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J43xQ4dTAxY] – DC


The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Point Guard Defense

November 1, 2011 in by with 7 Comments

 

Author Illustration

From the Magrathean Archives:

Fook: “Oh, Deep Thought. We want you to tell us the answer.”

Deep Thought: “The answer to what?”

Lunkwill: “The answer to…everything. We’d really like an answer. Something simple.”

Deep Thought: “Hmm, have to think about that… Return to this place in exactly seven-and-a-half million years.”

HoopSpeak’s Ethan Sherwood Strauss asks, does point guard defense matter? It might surprise you to find Deron Williams isn’t a very good defender by this measure, though not so much if you’re a Utah Jazz fan. With a relative lack of definitive defensive stats to draw upon, the eyeball is largely relied on to make a conscious determination on the matter. Point guards of significant stature, intensity, and athleticism, like Williams,  can easily play tricks with your mind’s eye, fooling you into believing they’re making an impact on the defensive end of the floor.

Similarly, small, quick gamblers like Chris Paul and Russell Westbrook can present a mirage when examined solely through the myopic-scope of standard statistical analysis, such as posting impressive steals numbers. While Ethan’s opinion may simply be tainted by being forced to cover one Monta Ellis –who picks pockets more often than Manu flops even as not a rational soul in the basketball world would ever claim he resembles anything approaching a good defender– we do have a few other resources to draw upon in attempting to compose a more complete picture. (If you didn’t click on the TrueHoop link at the top of this paragraph, please do so now.)

Ford Prefect: “Is it finished?”

Zaphod Bebblebrox: “No, no, no, there’s more, there’s more. They go back.”

Arthur Dent: “What, seven-and-a-half million years later?!”

Zaphod Bebblebrox: “That’s right. They do.” [presses play]

Fook: “Deep Thought, do you have…”

Deep Thought: “…an answer for you? Yes. But you’re not gonna like it.”

Fook: “It doesn’t matter, we must know it.”

Deep Thought: “Alright, the answer…is…”

“Only when you know the question will you know what the answer means,” and I’m not convinced we’ve asked the right question in this case. But lucky for you, you won’t have to wait around for 10 million years to find out.

Who leaps to mind in today’s NBA when you think “defensive point guards?” We’ve already ruled out Chris Paul and Deron Williams (by any measure outside of an iso post-up situation, just trust me on this –you won’t find anything to support otherwise), so we’re left with whom? Certainly Jason Kidd and Rajon Rondo. Maybe Andre Miller and Kirk Hinrich. I’d add anything-Philadelphia, but that’s about it.

The proper question might not be does point guard defense matter, but rather, is point guard defense being played? Because if it’s not, by and large, then it’s difficult to make a case that it does, indeed, matter.

It wasn’t always the way of today with PG D, and it’s only due partially to the “no-hands” era (which I examined more closely here). Offense is sexy. Defense is dirty work no one wants to do anymore. In an effort to understand how we got here I charted the last 25 years of O/D-rating and Points-Per-Game and set it to a timeline of points-past that were well known for their defensive prowess.

Note and disclaimer: Offensive and Defensive ratings are per BasketballReference.com, and are an accurate measure of points scored and allowed. As every action has an opposite and equal reaction, league-wide O and D-Rtgs will always be equal in the summary

I realize that big men have a much larger impact on defense than the little guys, but I believe perimeter players, specifically point guards,  give in far too easily today, playing more with their hands than feet

We used to regularly see point guards on the NBA’s All-Defensive 1st Team –Dennis Johnson and/or Mo Cheeks were there for nine straight years– as well as multiple PGs on it (count ‘em, four times, past) and even the lone Defensive Player of the Year-as-a-point, The Glove, but no more. In the last nine years we’ve had four total appearances, one of which was the aforementioned Chris Paul, and two accounted for by Rondo.

On HoopSpeakLive Ethan notes (4:38 mark), “For all the talk of Rajon Rondo and his defense I don’t think point guard defense matters that much. It does have an impact, but it’s the least important of all the positions [defensively]…it’s not clear he’s having a huge impact.”

Certainly point guard defense matters. Your point is not only your your first line of defense, he’s also supposed to be controlling the game, and not just on the offensive end of things. A point should be doing everything he can to dictate where the opposition goes with the ball, thereby increasing his team’s chance to get a stop.

Most of today’s point guards will all-too-easily take a half-hearted swipe as the ball goes by, leaving their big men exposed in the paint to try and mop up after ‘em, which is just about the worst-case scenario for these guys considering the athleticism and ability of players nowadays, as Ethan notes. Once the ball gets in the paint, the vast majority of the time it will end in points.

If you checked the “no-hands era” link above you noticed that there are more guards on the NBA’s .500 field goal percentage list these days –indeed, three of em made it this year and Steve Nash was right there til the end.  Among point guards, Tony Parker led all in FG% last season, and two other poor 3-point shooters, Rajon Rondo and Andre Miller also find themselves in the top ten of PF FG%. Why? Because point guards don’t defend each other worth a damn, instead relying on help D to bail ‘em out.

Free throw attempts leaders in 2010-11 by position shake out thus: PGs 11, SGs 7, SFs 7, PFs 11, Cs 4. Point guards have found that if the pick-and-roll with their power forward isn’t there they can easily drive the paint now where one of three things generally happens: 1) They score 2) They find an open ‘mate when defenses are forced to collapse to help, or 3) They end up at the line.

According to HoopData stats last season, of the 14 point guard FG% leaders 63% of shots were made “at the rim,” compared to 41% for everything from 3-23 feet. Of the ten leading point guard free throw attempt’ers, 59% of shots were either at the rim or from 16 feet out to beyond the 3-line, compared to just 12% from 3′-9′ and a paltry 9% from 10′-15′ out. If PGs aren’t driving the paint they’re likely popping 3s or near-3s. Chicks dig scars, and chicks dig the long ball, right? Anything in between is no-real-man’s land.

The 3-ball is more prominent now than ever before in the NBA, and high-usage point guards are fond of trying to ring in from range. The 14 best FG-shooting points average out to make about one in three tries, 34%, last season, while 3s comprise about one in every four of their FGAs. An interesting thing happened when I charted in the 3-point percentage to the above graph.

We might expect that 3s would more closely follow along with PPG, while instead we find that over the last 20-plus years it instead appears more closely tied to D-ratings. It took less than a decade –the 3 was first adopted by the NBA in the 1979-80 season– for the 3-ball to integrate itself as a permanent weapon in the arsenals of offensive players and it’s effects have been attached to defenses ever since.

As the perimeter is the domain of point guards first and foremost, as heads egos butt initially from here on in to the paint, on the majority of possessions in most systems, defensively and offensively, this is an area of the game their impact should be felt. Yet we’re experiencing a high,  sustained rate of made 3-pointers. Granted, not all of them come from point guards, but PGs all too often readily let a man fly and hope for the best, waiting with extended hands for a chance to answer at the other end rather than make an attempt to quell a momentum-swinging play in the first place.

Back in the day, one of the most tenacious and annoying defenders in the league, John Stockton, would reportedly terrorize his opponent early in every game by “accidentally” driving his knee as hard as he could into his opposition’s thigh, thereby setting a tone of toughness that seems to be lacking in these “entitled” times of little-to-no real defense. A cursory search of PGs then and now readily shows a separation of several feet on the D end of things for most perimeter players.

Perimeter point guard defense has seemingly said, “So long, and thanks for all the fish.”

_____

More pieces to the puzzle

Defensive Pace Factor, helping explain why Chris Paul gets so many steals; he gets more chances

Sebastian Pruiti’s recent look at How Top Point Guards Are Defended

Zach and Ethan touch on system on HoopSpeakLive. Deron Williams and Devin Harris show it in their numbers before/after 2011 trade

Baron Davis plays weird defense, or at least he used to (Video)

No Championship for Old Men

May 12, 2011 in by with 8 Comments

Power — intoxicating and addictive — is never easily ceded. Not by nations and rarely by champions. It has to be taken. In sports, it’s often taken from the aging or the infirm. In the case of the Boston Celtics, it was both.

If you took one look at the Celtics sideline late on Wednesday night, you would have seen Rajon Rondo and Jermaine O’Neal lying on their aching backs, straining their necks to see the action on the floor. You would have seen Kevin Garnett expending the same amount of energy to do half the things he used to do. Shaquille O’Neal, the future Hall of Famer the Celtics signed to combat the Lakers in The Finals, spent what may be his final NBA game as the largest Big & Tall model in history. And as good as Paul Pierce and Ray Allen are, LeBron James and Dwyane Wade are younger and have more talent.

The Celtics wanted to play, but their bodies betrayed them. Their time has ended. The Lakers too. Three days prior to LeBron and the Heat ending the Celtics’ successful four-year run in the East, the “new old” Mavs — an oxymoron — swept Phil Jackson and the two-time defending champion Lakers, playing like schoolyard chumps, into next season.

If the Celtics or Lakers had forced their series to seven games, we may be able to believe Doc Rivers’ claim that his Celtics team “isn’t done” or Kobe Bryant’s claim that the Lakers will be back as a legit championship force in 2011-12.

But the Heat and the Mavs channeled their inner Anton Chigurh and used their captive bolt pistols to blow a big hole through any notion that the Celtics and the Lakers can remain at a championship level beyond this season. It’s not necessarily age itself, but the changes that come with it. They are like Tommy Lee Jones’ sheriff, who chases the light in his dreams but eventually wakes up before he can catch up to it. Those days are history. Things are different now.

If the Lakers couldn’t set aside their trust issues during the postseason, what makes anyone think that they’ll grow fonder of each other over an 82-game regular season? If the Lakers couldn’t get Phil his fourth three-peat, who thinks they’ll be able to band together for a new coach? Do you think the Celtics’ core will somehow grow any younger over the summer? As much as I like to believe Rivers, one of my favorite basketball people of all time, will return to Boston because he’s “a Celtic,” there have been rumblings for some time about him wanting to take a break. Changes should be coming to both teams.

But based on the history of those two franchises, you’d be inclined to believe they will bounce back. Between them they have 33 NBA championships and 52 combined Finals appearances. Based on what we saw of the two teams, it’s hard to believe that they will be able to dominate foes as they have the past four seasons. The NBA has too much talent on too many different teams. Not only that, that talent is in or close to reaching its prime.

For only the fifth time when both teams have made the postseason in the same year, neither the Lakers nor the Celtics made their respective conference finals series. By not having these specific Celtics or Lakers teams to cheer or jeer in a conference finals is slams shut the door on the post-Michael Jordan era of the NBA.

This will be the first Finals without Shaquille O’Neal, Kobe Bryant or Tim Duncan since 1998. It’s as clear a demarcation point in NBA history as the introduction of the shot clock in 1954 or Bill Russell retiring in 1969 or when Jordan and a hungry Bulls team destroyed an aging Lakers team in 1991.

Consider, too, the men who led them. It will be the first time since 1995 Phil Jackson, Gregg Popovich and Pat Riley won’t roam the sidelines during The Finals. Though, that stat deserves an asterisk considering Riley is the brains behind this current iteration of the Heat. He has the hardware to prove it.

Riley built the Heat in the Celtics’ image using the lure of a homegrown star to attract other stars. LeBron said as much before and after Game 5. Beating the Celtics was the reason he burned every bridge in Cleveland. For LBJ, getting past the Celtics was like MJ finally getting past the Pistons in ’91.

For LeBron, who at times has a loathsome lack of self-awareness, sounded contrite and humble after the Heat’s win. Whether his overall attitude has changed for the better remains to be seen. But one thing we know: the NBA will never be the same. It’s up to the new power generation to shape it to their liking.

Too Much Too Soon

May 1, 2011 in by with 2 Comments

Originally, I had planned to break down the Celtics-Heat series, but time, life and people conspired against me. That, and The HP Progenitor did it, then slammed down the mic and strutted away.

Thanks to the mic being broke, anything I would attempt to say in advance of the Heat-Celtics series to would need to be shouted. Not only would that make me look like a lunatic preacher in a subway station, but it would also be redundant, which is worse than being loud.

Instead of position-by-position breakdowns (we know that Rajon Rondo is the key to the series, that Kevin Garnett may break into Chris Bosh’s head and steal whatever confidence Bosh has), let’s just say this series — for the reasons M-Squared mentioned: there is difference between arrogance as a symptom of hubris (the Heat) versus arrogance as a result of accomplishment (the Celtics) — remains the most compelling of all the conference semifinal series.

You have the defending Eastern Conference champs against the prospective heirs to that throne. You have LeBron James trying to live down the demons of last year’s dismal, desultory and deluded performance in Game 5 against the same Celtics in the conference semis last season. You have a team with a superior point guard and one without a halfway decent one. It has a plethora of personalities, plot lines and plenty of potential.

But can it truly be considered great series even if it is a great series?

Granted, I’m projecting. This could be a horrible series where defense reins and offense deigns. We could have a devastating injury or it could just be as dull as a mid-winter’s day. History, however, and the players tell us that it’s go time and that this series is what we and they have all been waiting for.

Yet we didn’t have to wait. This is the conference semifinals, not the ultimate series (The Finals) or even the penultimate series (the conference finals). This is all happening too soon.

That was the knock on the series between the Celtics and Bulls in ’09. Yes, it went to seven games, featured seven total overtimes and had more mind-blowing performances in one series than the last decade of college basketball. But there was always the qualifier: first round.

It may be the greatest first-round series ever, but … so what? It was just the first round.

To be truly great, to be epic — to be revered over time — these games must happen at the end of the journey toward a title, or at least very close to it. The series must have meaning above merely advancing to the next round. Even if it goes seven games and every game goes to double OT, this Celtics-Heat series will be played in historical limbo.

For both teams, there is far more to lose than there is to win.

Because what has it accomplished other than one team moving forward with still two more series left to conquer? What, ultimately, does it settle between them?

The Celtics have been to the conference finals two of the last three seasons and have advanced to The Finals both times. How big of a failure is their season if they can’t make it to the conference finals?

Not as large as Miami’s. After “The Decision” and after “The Party” with Dwyane Wade and Bosh, if the Heat can’t make it out of the NBA’s second round, one would need to consider the wisdom of spending the time, effort and money to build a “super team” but have no supporting cast. The Heat’s grand experiment, at least in the first season, would be a faceplant of epic proportions. Twitter may break in its attempt register all the joy that would be expressed at the expense of Miami’s sadness.

Despite all of the above — maybe because of it — this is the conference series in which you should clear time and space for because it has the greatest potential for incredible drama.

It’s just a damn shame that one of the NBA’s principal postseason protagonists will have to die so early in the film.

Wide open spaces

January 6, 2011 in by with 6 Comments

There’s an old saying that states, “A cluttered house is a sign of a cluttered mind.”

It makes sense too. You can be suffocated by the lack of space around you or by all of your possessions. If you’re able to roam freely physically, then you’re probably able to be completely aware of the space around you. Instead of worrying about moving around objects, your mind is left open for better awareness in many aspects of your life.

A perfect sports example of this is the early success of Kurt Warner when he took over the Fastest Show on Turf in St. Louis. Before he was the greatest undrafted player in NFL history, Kurt Warner was tearing up the Arena Football League as a speed-junky type of surgeon, picking apart defenses in a very compact environment.

The Arena Football League’s field is extremely small compared to the NFL dimensions. The AFL field is 85 feet wide and 200 feet long. It’s essentially the size of a hockey rink (thanks, Wikipedia!). To be a great quarterback in such close quarters is pretty impressive because you would assume the defense is everywhere at all time. When Warner finally got his real chance at the NFL, he was now looking at a field that is 160 feet wide and 320 feet long.

It wasn’t so much that Warner had a longer field to work with in throwing the ball; he now had so much room from side-to-side to operate. A wider field meant incredible freedom in how he approached the passing game. You could wait a little longer on crossing routes. Swing passes out of the backfield were now much more fruitful. The defense wasn’t making him so claustrophobic.

Opening the field of play visually for someone with the instincts of Kurt Warner is just like playing off of Rajon Rondo because he’s a bad shooter. The playing off Rondo strategy drives me insane. People (Derrick Rose fans) want to discount Rajon Rondo’s production because he’s playing with Hall of Famers and personally, I think that’s a crock of excrement.

Want to know why Rajon Rondo is putting up impressive assist numbers over the last two seasons? Because teams are giving him an NFL field to work with on the NBA court. Everybody knows Rajon Rondo is a poor outside shooter. Sure, you can point out that it’s improved and he once hit a bunch of 3s in a H-O-R-S-E competition and when the sun isn’t in his eyes he’s actually pretty good as long as the wind isn’t blowing. Let’s face reality though; in an NBA game, Rajon Rondo can’t shoot.

You know who else knows that Rajon isn’t a good shooter? Rajon Rondo. He knows it’s a low percentage shot for him to just take the bait and pull up for a jumper. If he does that to bail the defense out instead of attacking and setting up his teammates than he’s failed as a point guard. If Rondo needed to be a scorer, he could do it. He could take jumpers in games until he was comfortable enough with it. He could drive to the basket with ease and get the ball to the backboard instead of looking for a cutter or spot-up shooter.

Instead, Rondo shows patience out there and instead of trying to show how much of a man he is by shooting the ball, he’s point guarding the hell out of the defense by using the space given to him as a head start.

Normally, playing off of someone helps you protect against the drive. But with athletic aberrations like Rajon, Derrick Rose and Russell Westbrook, you’re giving the quickest players in the world a head start to attack you. By the time they’ve made up the six feet you’re giving them, they’re at full speed and you’re backpedaling awkwardly as a defender.

Not only do you give Rondo a head start by playing so far off of him but you’re also giving him all the passing angles he could ever want. You’re not going to prevent him from driving by playing up on him. He’s very good with the ball and probably quicker than you. But by playing up on Rondo, you’d be making him turn his body to protect the ball and cut down a lot of his vision on the court.

Unfortunately for the Celtics opponents, they’d much rather play lazy conventional basketball wisdom instead of adjusting to the new age of players and abilities. Rondo never has to look out of the corner of his eye to find an open teammate. He gets to stand squared up to the basket, keeping his dribble and patience alive while waiting for the play to develop. Meanwhile, his opponent is too far away to actually affect a pass unless it’s coming right at him.

When you see Chris Paul get a bunch of steals, do you see him picking off passes a couple yards away from his defensive assignment or do you see him pestering his opponent a couple inches away and reading the guy’s eyes? He’s picking off passes right off the passer’s hand instead of trying to guess correctly on playing the passing lane. Why wouldn’t teams attempt this with Rondo?

Instead, Rajon is being allowed to do his Kurt Warner impersonation. He has a gigantic field in front of him to work with, while he out-waits you. His crossing patterns get extended. His swing passes are unmolested. The defense is nowhere to be found bothering him.

The only thing cluttering up Rajon Rondo’s mind right now are his increasingly astounding assists numbers. And it’s all due to the fact he doesn’t have a house cluttered with defensive pressure in front of him.

Team USA Beats France

August 15, 2010 in by with 6 Comments

I had the chance to go catch Team USA’s final exhibition on American soil before they head off to Turkey for the 2010 FIBA World Championship starting on August 28. As expected, the US boys rolled over the French in Madison Square Garden, winning 86-55, although they didn’t look particularly good on offense or defense early and were deadlocked with France at 16-16 after one quarter.

It was just an exhibition, but it still offered a little insight into what we might be might see from Team USA in Turkey. Here’s a few thoughts from Madison Square Garden.

  • The team started off sloppy early in the first quarter, at one point turning the ball over on two consecutive possessions, mishandling easy passes in semi-transition. Unforced errors like that shouldn’t be happening with Rajon Rondo and Chauncey Billups on the floor (although it was more KD and Iggy’s fault, respectively, in these two specific instances). As for the starters, I think what we saw today will likely be the same group we see starting the first game in Turkey: Rajon, Chauncey, Iggy, Durant and Tyson Chandler. Chauncey’s vet savvy and shooting make him a good fit at the two, Durant and Tyson are locks, and Iggy/Gay seems like essentially a coin-flip as both bring some much-need athleticism/slashing to the wing, but Iggy does play a little more D, so I would take him. Rajon/Rose could go either way, too, I suppose, but Rajon has the experience, and that seems like the go-to tiebreaker for USA coaches.
  • Speaking of Rondo … On Saturday, Rajon mentioned that he had not yet gotten the chance to return a phone call to chat with his new teammate Shaq, but when asked if he’s looking forward to running the break with the big fella, he said “hopefully he can keep up with me … I’ll wait for him.” He also expressed that playing for Team USA was a change since, compared to guys like Steph Curry, Eric Gordon and Jeff Green, he’s “like a veteran,” he said. “On my team, I’m the young guy so it’s a different look.”
  • The play of the day went to one of those young’ns. Steph Curry forced a nice steal around half court by playing pesky D then was able to tip toe the sideline to keep it inbounds, immediately whipping a behind-the-back dribble to get by two defenders and pushing it up the floor. He was far from done, however, freezing a defender in transition around the elbow with a sharp crossover and getting all the way to the cup. Rather than take a contested layup, he dumped it off to Rudy Gay for a power dunk. The sequence was MSG-approved and marked one of the many dunks that sent the near-capacity-eventually (started about half full and then filled up most of the way) crowd into a frenzy.
  • Rondo had a pretty nice play of his own, however, Rondo-ing his way by a France defender for a sweeping, easy lay-in. It was impressive, sure, but at this point I almost expect one of those per game. Unconfirmed reports lead me to believe that the French kids watching at home are calling the play “Le Rondo’d.”
  • Rudy Gay wasn’t gonna let the little guys have all the fun and added to the highlight reel with back-to-back breakaway dunks early in the fourth. The first, a Harold Miner-esque, leaning reverse two-hander, gets a 9 out of 10 from me, while the second, more of a 270-degree, spinning one handed reverse, deserves a solid 8 out of 10 on the in-game dunk-o-meter. Iggy added a nice power windmill dunk of his own on a first-half breakaway. I was well aware of MSG’s affinity for dunks, but it seems that patriotic dunks are that much sweeter.
  • Eric Gordon barely saw the floor early (93 seconds in the first half ), but got some run in the second (about 12 minutes) as, presumably, Coach K and company wanted one final look at the kid. He hit two treys and added one other bucket, but my gut tells me he’ll be the last man cut from Team USA. Steph Curry just seemed to be a little more ingrained in the rotation from the two games I saw this weekend, bringing the ball up on occasion and spacing the floor with his shooting. And if it’s just shooting they care about keeping, Danny Granger also did this yesterday — although I never actually thought Granger had a chance of getting cut anyway unless his finger was actually injured. (It’s not. He’s fine.)
  • Nando De Colo of France (a player who the Spurs own the rights to and RC Buford, according to Jeff Garcia of Project Spurs, has called the best point guard currently playing in France) hit a nice trey right in front of the press box during the first half. He easily has the best name of anyone who was in Madison Square on Sunday.

Le Fin.

NBA Finals Lakers-Celtics Game 7: Hey, Look! It’s ANOTHER Game 7 Primer!

June 17, 2010 in by with 4 Comments

Holy crap!

It’s Game Seven. GAME FREAKING SEVEN! This is what it’s all about. Instead of trying to find some clever way to tell you how big this game is even though you already know and you’ve already read about 20 Game Seven previews that try to wax poetically about the final game of the year, I’m just going to do what I do best – babble on until I run out of things to say:

Apparently, Perkins Can’t Play On Crutches
So Kendrick Perkins is out. The bum decided two torn ligaments in his knee were too much. Just kidding. This is a bummer for me and hopefully for everybody. I’ve been a huge fan of Perk over the last three years. He’s so good defensively and I don’t think a ton of people realize it. Pretty much every blogger knows it and a lot of the people that read those blogs know it too. But the casual fan has no clue how good Kendrick is defensively. All they see is the angry scowl and the fact that he doesn’t have an upper lip and they just assume he’s an overgrown toddler. One more game probably wasn’t going to change public opinion or public awareness of the impact Kendrick Perkins has but I still wanted to see him and both teams at full strength heading into the final game of the 2009-2010 campaign.

I know Bynum is hurt but he’s able to play hurt. Perk is hugely injured. There’s a huge difference. I just hope that the Celtics don’t use that as an excuse if they lose to the Lakers tonight. They most likely won’t but at the same time, the absence of Bynum is banged on about when talking about the 2008 NBA Finals. These teams are good enough to win without their center.

The Celtics Are Going To Be Fine Without Him
Even though KP is out for probably the next year, the Celtics aren’t toast or even an English muffin. Yes, it sucks that he’s out but the Celtics can easily survive this fact. The key is going to be the first quarter of this game. KG and Rasheed will have to play their butts off and stay out of foul trouble in the first 12 minutes of the ball game. Once the Lakers send Andrew Bynum to the bench, the Celtics have evened up the advantage that the Lakers size gives for the rest of the game. When Bynum goes to the bench, his knee will swell up like the Fourth of July (just go with it). When that happens, the Lakers will have inserted Lamar Odom into the lineup and that’s when Big Baby can check into the game and play a human version of Plinko as he slams into every peg on the floor.

I’m not saying this is easy by any means. Andrew Bynum will be able to dominate in the first quarter if the Lakers look for him. This Celtics team with Perkins can handle Bynum. This Celtics team without Perk cannot. But once he sits for the first time in this game, the knee expands and the pain decides to pull up a chair and there’s nothing anybody can do about it. So if you’re the Celtics, just endure through Bynum’s first stint.

Hitting The Boards Wins The Game
So far in this series, if you want to win any given game then you have to win the rebounding battle. The winning team in each game has won the rebounding edge. Without the healthiness of Andrew Bynum or the existence of Kendrick Perkins, that leaves the majority of the rebounding to Glen Davis and Lamar Odom. I think that whoever has this assignment is going to have to put a body on these guys constantly. Kendrick Perkins said that Big Baby needed “11 rebounds” in this game. I’d say the same for Lamar. For some reason, they have a really easy time of getting to the basket for rebounds. They just have to choose to be aggressive in doing so. Win the rebounding, save the cheerleader, win the championship.

Regardless Of What Happens, You Can’t Blame Ron Artest
There is going to be a certain backlash at the Ron Artest signing if the Lakers lose the NBA Finals. People are going to pretend that Trevor Ariza would have made a huge difference in this series or any other series. It’s all crap. You can’t blame a loss on one player in this series. Is Ron Artest a good shooter? No. Trevor Ariza is probably a better overall shooter in terms of sheer ability. Although, I think the difference is damn near negligible.

However, Trevor Ariza wasn’t a great shooter during his time in Los Angeles. He had a good stretch of shooting when the games were most important but for the most part, he was just an okay shooter. He’s also a different type of defender than what Ron Artest brings to the table. Paul Pierce would have had to get a little more lift on his jumper but he could have created the necessary space to shoot jumpers much easier against Ariza. Artest may have struggled guarding Pierce over the past couple of games but most defenders do (even the elite ones). Ron came in and did his job this year. He hasn’t really been THAT bad on offense during the season or post-season. Sure he’s had his moments but it’s not like he’s been atrocious every time out.

I Thought This Would Be A Good Time To Drop This In (via SB Trey)

Pau Gasol Isn’t Soft
Stop saying Pau Gasol is soft. He’s not. Was he soft two years ago against the Celtics? Maybe. I don’t know for sure because I’m not quite sure what it truly means to be soft. Does him being European make him soft or does it just make him European? Was he soft in the 2009 Finals when he was shutting down Dwight Howard? Didn’t seem like it to me. Just because he’s having a hit-or-miss Finals against the Celtics doesn’t mean he’s not tough enough to be good. He’s proven he can come through in big games. It’s just hard to score against Kendrick Perkins, Kevin Garnett and Rasheed Wallace. It doesn’t mean he’s soft; it means he’s human.

EVERYBODY Flops
Lakers fans and Celtcs fans need to come to some sort of resolution on the idea of complaining about flopping. Pau Gasol and Derek Fisher flop an inordinate amount on the court. Paul Pierce flops more than a school of fish that have decided to hoof it on dry land in the Gulf Coast because the water makes them feel like they’re in some sort of Fear Factor challenge. In fact, MOST PLAYERS IN THE NBA FLOP! You guys have go to stop complaining and pretending like the other side is the only side that flops.

Let’s Not Be Stupid And Blame The Refs
Conspiracy theories are just stupid. I get that they’re fun to volley back and forth with the casual fan. But for the most part, they’re just stupid. With that said, I think the officiating has been pretty good. I’ll happily admit that the refs were all over the place in the first three games. Game One was weird. Game Two was called way too tightly and in Game Three was a lot looser than anybody was prepared for. But Game Four and Game 5 (outside of the questionable fourth quarter) were actually officiated quite well. Game Six was good too even if the in-game competition wasn’t exactly legendary.

You can’t say that there was a conspiracy to get this series to a Game Seven because Game Six couldn’t really have been less competitive. You can’t say that the league put these two teams in the Finals because it would get the ratings because 1) Cavs-Lakers would have been much bigger ratings (easier to pull in the casual fan) and 2) how big could the conspiracy be if the result is a series that couldn’t even get better ratings than the USA-England World Cup match? These two teams are in the Finals because they’re the two best teams. And they’re going to a seventh game because they’re the two best teams and a fairly even matchup across the board. Embrace and enjoy.

Kobe’s Legacy Will Be Unaffected
Kobe Bryant is one of the best players to ever play the game of basketball. He’s not THE best player of all time. Jordan was better. But he’s still one of the best. Could probably make the argument that he’s the second best player of all-time. But this game is not going to dramatically raise or drop his place in the lore of the history of the NBA. It’s just not. Let’s say he scores 50 points and points 48, 49 and 50 are on a tough fadeaway three-pointer as time expires to win the game and the NBA title. Does that make him better than he already was/is? What if he misses that shot and just has to live with 47 points, an NBA Finals loss and a missed chance to make a historical moment? What if the Celtics decide to completely take him out of the game and force him to pass nearly every time down the floor? How does this change the legacy of a guy who has won MVP awards and four NBA titles?

I just find it hard to believe that the 48 minutes played tonight has a huge impact on a guy that has already logged over 40,000 minutes in the NBA and been as accomplished as Kobe is. The Jordan argument is moot but the Magic Johnson argument is very alive. I get that. But couldn’t you make a really strong case that Kobe is already the greatest Laker of all-time? If he wins tonight with a spectacular showing, couldn’t you still make a really convincing argument that Magic Johnson is still the greatest Laker of all-time? I just think at this point Kobe’s legacy is cemented and we’re just trying to iron out the final details over the next couple years.

Paul Pierce’s Legacy Will Be Affected
Now this may sound a little hypocritical but Paul Pierce’s legacy IS affected by the outcome of tonight’s game. Yes, Pierce has already accomplished a lot in the NBA and is probably a Hall of Fame player. He’s probably going to get his jersey retired by the Celtics someday too. But winning a second title and being a multiple NBA championship winner makes a huge difference in how you’re remembered. Once you’ve won more than one title, it’s sort of just piling up the wins and accomplishments. But making that leap is huge for how you’re remembered and Pierce knows that.

He wants to be remembered as one of the best Celtics of all-time and rightfully so. He’s had a great career in Beantown. He probably hears the way the older fans talk about Hondo, Cousy, Cowens Russell, Bird, etc. and wants to be mentioned in that group. A second title goes a long way into putting him in that end of the memory bank. Pierce has been sensational over his career. People don’t realize just how good he is. For a five-year stretch, he wasn’t just an incredible offensive talent that made a ton of clutch shots but he was also a pretty savvy defender that held his own with guarding the elite scorers in the NBA. Pierce needs this second title more than Kobe needs his fifth.

THIS IS GAME FLIPPING SEVEN!
Now that you’ve perused nearly 2,000 words up until this point, I’d like you to forget everything you just read. Because ultimately, it shouldn’t impact how you think about this game or watch this game tonight. This is Game Seven of the NBA Finals between the Lakers and the Celtics. This has only happened four times in NBA history up until this moment. Hell, a Game Seven in the NBA Finals has only happened 16 times in NBA history before tonight. This is the type of closure that your ex-girlfriend could only dream of.

So you know what you should do? Just sit back and enjoy the spectacle. Don’t get caught up in complaining about the officiating unless it’s truly horrible. Don’t let your disdain for certain players make you scream at the top of your lungs, wishing a plague upon him and his family. Don’t take this game personally. Just sit back and enjoy it. I’m going to be watching this game with a gigantic smile on my face. This is what we hoped for all season long – a Game Seven of the NBA Finals that causes every player on the floor to give every last ounce of effort they have in their bodies. Think about the game we’re going to see from Kobe Bryant. Think about the game we’re going to see from Rondo, Ray, Pierce and KG. Doesn’t that make you giddy to anticipate the show we’re going to see tonight? Your adrenaline should be pumping all day.

A Game Seven in the NBA Finals hasn’t happened since 2005 and before that it hadn’t happened since 1994. This is a rare thing. This is a treat for good behavior. This is the basketball gods smiling upon us and rewarding us for loving a sport so pure and perfect in its design. This is what we’ve all pretended would happen for us in the driveway while we let our imagination take us to the biggest stage. These guys have done the same thing too. Yes, they’re professional athletes with more money than God. Yes, they live a blessed and ridiculous lifestyle that we could never imagine. But they were once in that driveway or bedroom with the Nerf hoop or park with their friends pretending to play out a moment that will actually come for them tonight. Their dreams coincide with our dreams and come true tonight.

Sit back, relax and enjoy history. I know I will.

NBA Finals Lakers Celtics Game 7: A Legacy Equinox

June 17, 2010 in by with 3 Comments

There’s no more basketball after tonight. Not for five months, anyway. So you’d better enjoy this.

These are the two best teams, according to the metric we use to determine that value (most wins from mid-April through June). So you’d better enjoy this.

This is a Game 7, so you’d better enjoy it.

I’m not simply being a promoter for my favorite sport when I say that NBA Game 7′s are entirely different from the other sports that entertain series. In baseball, there are specific moments that live forever, and certainly memorable pitching performances. A key hit. Things of that nature. And in hockey, there’s certainly the propensity given the scoring nature of the game for moments of unequaled tension and intensity. But basketball more than any other sport holds the potential for individual players to exert their will on a game. It’s where greatness often meets greatness, especially for these two franchises. It’s everything we love about sports. That’s cliche, but then again, so is this series.

Take a look at the list of best Finals performances in a loss from Basketball Reference.  That list is crushing to me, because of so many players that never won a ring, and to have those performances on the biggest stage. One really stuck out to me. Stockton with 16 points on 6 of 10 shooting, 12 assists, 3 rebounds, and 3 steals. In a loss. That set the tone for the rest of the series. I just can’t imagine having gotten to the top, put in that kind of performance, and coming up short. Anyway, take that list and sort it. 5 of the top 25 point totals in a loss in the Finals on that list are from LA-Boston ’08 and LA-Boston ’10.  20% of the top 25 Finals performances that ended up not mattering came between these two teams. Individual greatness isn’t good enough. The whole damn roster has to chip in, AND you have to have quality star performances.

Wishing for a truly great game seems like a risk to me. These playoffs have been dreadful, outside of a handful of moments, and in general have been leading us down a path of fulfillment wrapped in bitterness. We got Lakers Celtics, at the price of a full blown LeBron meltdown and the Suns’ effort and heart being for naught. But there’s always that hope. That last, fleeting hope that this will be one of those games. The kind you remember for the rest of your life. It has to be to make a mark. You see, either way, this championship doesn’t mean much independently. I’m not trying to be a buzzkill, but if you were ask Bill Simmons of his most memorable Celtics championship games, would this one crack the top five? Even more modern-focused Celtic fans would probably list that Game 6 in 2008 as the defining one for them. It’s a product of what happens when you have 32 championships between you. But a special game could overcome all that. If it features both of these teams, at their best, which we really haven’t seen yet, it could become one of those things that’s talked about for years. Where you remember where you were, who you were with, how it felt.

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This isn’t to say that the game has no meaning to its players. Instead, it’s crucial. While #5 for Bryant isn’t as important as #6, #4, or #1 (or really #3), he obviously can’t get to six without it. It’s a separation from Shaq, and stabbing Boston in the throat hold special value as well. The second one puts Gasol in rarefied air, and if he’s going to wind up in the Hall, he’ll need this one and one more. For Odom, it’s going to cement his place in the Laker’s sub-pantheon. One contributing headcase is a footnote, but doing it on multiple championship teams gives him a place in the team’s history. He’ll never be top billing, but he’ll have a place. Phil Jackson blah, blah, blah. Derek Fisher’s an especially relevant component. Five championships, and he may not return next season, depending on how much Phil buys into his ability to stave off the ghosts of time for another year. He’s going to have a very rough next year and a half of his life, with the CBA deal approaching, and this is a moment he should take to cherish, when basketball was all that mattered and he was the starting point guard for a championship team. Crazy Pills? Gets to flip his detractors a middle finger with a ring on it, and redeems himself of all the strikes against him, in his mind. Adam Morrison gets something else he can sell when he’s destitute and living in a refrigerator box in ten years.

For Pierce? He’ll never be in with the 80′s crew. But this puts him in his own level below it. The favorite son, and past the concerns of just being a flash in the pan. Garnett and Allen join the ranks of the multiple winners. A single title gets you in the door and gets you a place among your own time’s peers. A second win puts you into a tier with the all-time great champions. I’m not sure why, I’m just told it does. If the first one is for you, to validate your career to yourself, the second is to validate it to all the greats who flash multiple rings. For Glen Davis? The opportunity of a lifetime. To cement a legacy within the first few years of your career, collect rings, and then ride off into money-soaked sunset, always able to say “I know what it takes to win a championship.” Rondo puts himself on pace for a more-talented Sam Cassell trajectory, with two championships early in his career and nothing but upside. A chance to give back to the guys that helped mentor him into a position to be elite at this level.

Doc Rivers may have the most to gain from this game. If he decides to walk away for his family, this game puts him as the only multiple ring Boston championship coach from outside of Red’s tree. He can walk away as one of the few coaches with multiple rings, having gone from one of the worst-regarded coaches in the league (2007) to one of the best.

Legacies have a steeper climb since the 80′s. That’s the mark you’re set at. Kobe’s got it worse, having to climb not only the 80′s Showtime crew, but Mount Jordan as well. It’s started to strike me as absurd, how often we use “He’s no Jordan!” as some kind of detractor. The man’s on the verge of winning his fifth championship ring within a decade, with Ron Artest and Derek Fisher as two of his starters.

If legacies have become liquid, never cementing until they reach their hottest temperature, then nothing solidifies tonight. But it’s a vital part of the story for all careers involved, and with no tomorrow, literally, in the 2009-2010 NBA Season, you have to believe anything can happen.
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LA is winning this game. I got out of my car this morning and realized it. I tend to have either no sense whatsoever about an important game, or a very strong one. Which isn’t to say these feelings are at all accurate. I’m usually more accurate when I have a strong emotional reaction to the game. I woke up in January of 2004 and knew, absolutely, in my heart of hearts, that the Chiefs, despite their best season in over a decade, were going to lose to the Colts. It was arguably the most important game of my life after the age of 12 and I knew, 100%, we would lose. It wasn’t brought on by masochism or negativity, I was just sure of it. I knew the Suns were going to lose Game 6 versus San Antonio in 2007. That said, I don’t really care about this game. A self-aggrandizing, self-entitled, pampered franchise will win tonight, and a self-aggrandizing, self-entitled, pampered franchise will lose tonight. As I said, it’s another in a long line of titles. Don’t get me wrong, it’s great theater, and I’ve really enjoyed these Finals. While we haven’t seen both teams at their best in a game so far, we have seen some entertaining basketball.  It’s best for the sport, best for the league, best for the fans when these two franchises meet and it goes seven. I’m merely saying that while I feel very strongly LA will win, I don’t have any emotional attachment to that prediction.

But LA is winning. Perkins’ injury is one of those things that pierces the chest plate and gets to the ventricles. Davis is a terrific bench player but probably not adept at stopping the starting line. Pierce has been terrific, but if the Lakers’ help defense has its head out of its ass, you can cut off the places Pierce wants to go and he’ll force it. Ron Artest will probably hit a few big shots and disappoint in terms of being the wacky true self he’s been for three games in this series.

I told a colleague the other day that basketball, for all its complexity and motion, all its strategy and reactions, is still largely vulnerable to the simple physical attributes of its players. The Lakers are tall. And that’s why they’ll win. I can give you talk about their transition defense, or their inside-out work, about how the overload defense won’t allow for cross-court passes to Allen or Sheed, about Kobe’s drive-and-post work, or Odom’s righty move against Davis forcing him left. But at the end of it? The Lakers are tall. And tall guys win at basketball.

Analysis.

Enjoy Game 7, everyone.

NBA Finals Lakers Celtics Game 6: The Lakers Transition Defense Is Here To Save The Daaaaaaaay!

June 16, 2010 in by with 3 Comments

In Game 5, the Lakers defense was, well, worthy of mockery. But in Game 6, they brought it, man to man, baseline to baseline. They were everywhere, swarming, contesting, and bringing an absurd amount of intensity to each possession.

All season long, one of the pillars of the Lakers’ defense has been their transition work. All that length and skill doesn’t mean much if you don’t work to get back and cut off easy baskets. And with the aggressive style the Celtics have employed that caught the Lakers off guard in Game 4 and 5, transition defense becomes even more important. In Game 6, the Lakers lived up to that responsibility. Via Synergy, we see that the Celtics had 14 transition plays in Game 6, only converting 4 of them, with a 28.6% scoring rate (compare that with 58.7% Scoring in Game 5 and 47.1% in Game 3).  Game 6 was a tour defense in every aspect of the game for the Lakers, but their transition defense really stood out, and speaks to their success that goes far beyond Kobe’s barrages or Pau Gasol’s offensive touches. Here’s a look at one such play they detonated.

With 3:40 to go in the third quarter, the Celtics are trying to somehow put together an effort to close the gap from 17 down to 12 or 10. The best way to do that is with transition buckets, obviously. Kobe misses from the elbow to start the possession.

You’ll notice Odom is in the left corner as the play begins. Artest and Bryant are already backpedaling to make sure there are defenders back. The first thing for the Lakers has always been manpower in transition defense. Simply be there and you’ll deter the transition attack half the time. This time, the rebound goes long and Rondo is off to the races.

Rondo’s got a great setup as this play develops. Ray Allen on his left, streaking to the perimeter wing. Paul Pierce coming up the right side, and he’s got a seam in between both defenders. It should be noted before we get any further, in Games 4 or 5, Odom would be checked out of this play already. He’s far behind the play and would have to really push to catch up.

Now, as well positioned as the Lakers defenders back are, the Celtics do their part to screw this play up. Rondo kicks it to Pierce on the cut way too early. He hasn’t driven to sucker in either Bryant or Artest, meaning Kobe’s got Allen covered and Artest is going to be able to force Pierce inside instead of Pierce shifting back right to the rim.

You’ll notice Lamar Odom is like the cavalry, catching up to Pierce as he starts to make his move. Crazy Pills is going into lockdown mode. Pierce fell into this trap several times in Game 6, forcing shots where he needed to give it up. Pierce is trying to be an alpha dog, which is good, but with how well he’s defended at this point, he needs to think about distributing. Then again, one of his teammates is chugalugging down the court trying to catch up with Gasol. He’s still got a good shot at this point of getting a shot up over Pierce. It’s Odom’s play that’s really going to detonate this.

Artest takes a swipe at the ball, and with position, Pierce has to move even further inward instead of towards the basket. Odom’s length allows him to catch up and he’s going to take away the interior angle as well. Say goodbye to that chance of drive and kicking to one of the best three point shooters on the planet, because that window’s about to close sharply.

Odom makes a great move, cutting off Pierce’s angle without risking body contact, and allowing Artest to close in on him. The Lakers’ length is a huge asset here, and it essentially blacks out any passing lane Pierce may have once he leaves his feet. Allen’s not an option, Davis for the kickout isn’t an option, even Rondo down low he can’t get to. Pierce is going to have to somehow get a shot up over one of the best defenders in the game and a big lanky freak o’ nature that’s got his head on straight. The result?

Yeah, that’s no good. Rondo’s going to try and get an offensive rebound, but Bryant is already forcing him baseline. Davis is still trying to get into the play, and Pierce is busy being swallowed alive like a star falling into a black hole.

The Celtics do manage to get quite a few guys low, but Pierces shot bounces straight off the backboard and goes long.

The Lakers are off to the races and the Celtics have blown another important scoring opportunity. If they keep this up in Game 7, that title is theirs.

Briefly: Lakers Celtics Game 5 coverage at PBT

June 14, 2010 in by with 1 Comment

Just in case you’re not subscribing (which you should be):

The post in which I try and argue that you shouldn’t blame Kobe for being Kobe, but that being Kobe was still a bad thing. This one’s gotten the most attention, naturally, since if you say anything bad about Kobe Bryant you’re besieged by his fans as if you had offended their God, and also because the idea of criticizing the play of Bryant when he drops 38 seems ludicrous. It’s important to note that A. I’m not blaming Bryant, I’m blaming Jackson and B. I’m not saying that this was the biggest reason the Lakers lost. Their horrible, horrible, horrible defense was the biggest reason. But glossing over the impact of one dude taking over 50% of the shots in a quarter, and 100% for a six minute span is just not something I can do. Again, Bryant did the right thing. Thought he could score, had license to score, should have tried to score. It’s Jackson’s responsibility to shepherd the entire offense.

Blogbook, in which I try and touch on what the Celtics did well, instead of just what the Lakers did done wrong. That’s been a running theme, because honestly, if you watch the games, you come away thinking that if LA can do what they do, they’ll still win because of their advantages in size and talent. But then, Boston’s continually preventing them from being able to do that. I think that’s called “defense.”

We’ll have more on KG, Allen, and Crazy Pills (HOW ABOUT THAT FOR REDEMPTION, MAHONEY?!) and more tomorrow. My Lakers in Six prediction is dead, but I’m not abandoning ship yet. Lakers in 7, but I’m not feeling good about it.

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