L.A. playground hoops legend and all-around good guy Mike Ross was nice enough to email me this afternoon asking if I was OK after last night’s ending. My response:
“Took a walk last night, looked at the stars, wondered why we care so much about a bunch of strangers 3000 miles away playing a game that doesn’t affect our lives in the slightest.
Then had trouble sleeping.”
The ending of Game Six brought to mind a fake blog from last year, right after the Lakers had painfully given away the OKC Thunder series no one thought the Lakers could win, but almost did. Under the fake blog caption “Comebacks are always described as thrilling”, I wrote:
“Comebacks are always described as "thrilling" -- and for Laker fans, they traditionally have been. The first Kobe-Shaq championship was triggered by an epic and thrilling 4th quarter, Game 7 comeback against a powerful Trailblazer team. The Lakers' latest championship happened because they made a thrilling 4th quarter, Game 7 comeback against the hated Celtics. Countless other times over the last decade, Laker fans enjoyed comebacks punctuated by Robert Horry 3s, DFish's 0.4s, Pao tip-ins, and Kobe theatrics -- all of which were thrilling.
We learned this past week that being on the wrong side of a comeback is anything but thrilling.
Laker fans have been spoiled -- when the Lakers have lost in the past decade, they have gotten blown out. Suns in Game 7, Celtics in Game 6 in Boston, Dallas last year. While those were humiliating and embarrassing, they were not devastating or heart-breaking. Nothing is as bad as having the win in hand, thinking "we about to win the series", "we are about to take home-court advantage", "we are about to even the series" -- and then blowing the big lead, every player blaming himself for that one play -- the missed free throw, the turnover, the brick, and every fan knowing they jinxed the team by having those "what we will do when we win" thoughts too soon. To all of you Celtics, Spurs, Mavs, Suns, Kings fans who have been on the wrong side of Laker comebacks: I feel your pain.
On second thought, strike the reference to any sympathy to Celtics fans -- you deserve all you get. See, for instance, http://www.youtube.com/watch?
Contrary to last year’s caption, most of the descriptions of last night’s ending used the word “devastating” instead of “thrilling”. While it was an indisputably great game, maybe the best ever, the conversation today centered on the Spurs (and Duncan) being on the cusp of the Championship but having it snatched away, instead of the thrilling nature of the comeback. That might be because the Heat didn’t play that well at the end, and the Spurs didn’t play that badly. Instead, the basketball gods allowed Lebron’s first bricked 3 at0:23 to miss so badly it became a scrum on the ground which Miller then shuffled back to Lebron, Kawhi Leonard then barely missed his first free throw even though he shot it well (one of many Spurs’ shots that just barely rolled out), and Lebron’s second bricked 3 at 0:07 went directly to Bosh, who then flicked it to Ray Allen for the clutchest 3 ever. A lesser team would have folded the and there – the Spurs didn’t, had the lead in OT, and fell just short.
Here is the video of the Ray Allen shot. Note four things. First, as Bosh is getting the rebound, Allen is already back-pedaling to the corner. Second, despite the commentary this morning that the Spurs should have fouled Bosh once he got the rebound, no one is really close enough and Bosh gets rid of it instantly. Third, watch Lebron at the top of the key, signaling 3 virtually before Allen lets it go. Fourth, despite the criticism of Pop for not having Duncan in the game to get that rebound, the Spurs were switching all screens, which meant that the Spur who took Duncan’s place (Boris Diaw) was 25 feet from the hoop contesting Lebron’s shot – and doing it well! Diaw (or Duncan if he was in the game instead) was anywhere near Bosh when he rebounded the ball – which the basketball gods sent directly to him so he could deliver it to the best 3 point shooter in history.
After the game, I understand Duncan graciously said that Lebron willed his team to win. The outcome drives the narrative. If any of the Spurs’ earlier shots had rolled in instead of out, or Manu made two free throws instead of one with 28 seconds left, or Leonard’s first free throw had been as pure as his second (making the lead 4 instead of 3) with 19 seconds left, or either one of Lebron’s twomissed threes had bounced off the rim just a little bit different, or Ray Allen wasn’t smart and talented enough to back pedal and make that damn 3, the narrative would not have been about Lebron’s “will to win”.
Instead, fairly or not, people would have forgotten about his tremendous first 10 minutes of the fourth quarter. People would have instead focused instead on his two turnovers and two missed 3s in the last minute of regulation. And the words in the stories wouldn’t have been “the last minute of regulation” – they would have been describing “the last minute of Miami Heat’s season”. Here is that last 40 seconds:
0:39
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91-89
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LeBron James lost ball turnover (Kawhi Leonard steals)
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0:37
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93-89
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Ray Allen shooting foul (Manu Ginobili draws the foul)
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0:37
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Manu Ginobili makes free throw 1 of 2
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92-89
| |
0:37
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Manu Ginobili makes free throw 2 of 2
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93-89
| |
0:28
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93-89
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LeBron James bad pass (Manu Ginobili steals)
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0:28
|
94-89
|
Ray Allen personal foul (Manu Ginobili draws the foul)
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0:28
|
Manu Ginobili misses free throw 1 of 2
|
93-89
| |
0:28
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Spurs offensive team rebound
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93-89
| |
0:28
|
Manu Ginobili makes free throw 2 of 2
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94-89
| |
0:28
|
Heat 20 Sec. timeout
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0:28
|
94-89
|
Mike Miller enters the game for Chris Bosh
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0:28
|
Boris Diaw enters the game for Tim Duncan
|
94-89
| |
0:23
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94-89
|
LeBron James misses 26-foot three point jumper
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0:22
|
94-89
|
Mike Miller offensive rebound
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0:20
|
94-92
|
LeBron James makes 25-foot three point jumper (Mike Miller assists)
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0:20
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Spurs Full timeout
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0:20
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Tim Duncan enters the game for Boris Diaw
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94-92
| |
0:19
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94-92
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Mike Miller personal foul (Kawhi Leonard draws the foul)
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0:19
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Kawhi Leonard misses free throw 1 of 2
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94-92
| |
0:19
|
Spurs offensive team rebound
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94-92
| |
0:19
|
94-92
|
Chris Bosh enters the game for Mike Miller
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0:19
|
Boris Diaw enters the game for Tim Duncan
|
94-92
| |
0:19
|
Kawhi Leonard makes free throw 2 of 2
|
95-92
| |
0:07
|
95-92
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LeBron James misses 26-foot three point jumper
| |
0:06
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95-92
|
Chris Bosh offensive rebound
| |
0:05
|
95-95
|
Ray Allen makes 25-foot three point jumper (Chris Bosh assists)
| |
0:05
|
Tim Duncan enters the game for Boris Diaw
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95-95
| |
0:00
|
Tony Parker misses 12-foot two point shot
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95-95
| |
0:00
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Spurs offensive team rebound
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95-95
| |
0:00
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End of the 4th Quarter
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Other thoughts:
1. All points count the same. Mike Miller made a 3 pointer in the fourth quarter with one shoe and one shoe off. The Spurs lost because of a damn Dr. Seuss shot.
2. While I defend Pop for not having Duncan on the floor for that last rebound in regulation (right or wrong, it didn’t matter), I thought having Splitter on the floor for the last desperation shot by Green was a mistake. Splitter set a good screen on Green’s man – but Bosh immediately left Splitter to go block Green’s shot. I would have had Matt Bonner setting that screen instead of Splitter -- I don’t think Bosh would have been as willing to leave Bonner to go after Green.
3. Green did not shoot as well, partially because Miami did what they promised and didn’t leave him open (except for one fourth quarter corner three that he just missed). But several times in this series he has snuffed out what all season had been an unstoppable force –Lebron on a one on one break, with only one defender. I thing the reason Green can do that is he spent his rookie year on the Cavs, and probably knows what Lebron does in that situation as well as anyone.
4. Interesting stat I stole: For the series, the Heat have scored 131.7 points per 100 possessions when James is on the floor without Wade, and just 100.8 when the two have shared the floor, per NBA.com. As good as Wade was in Game 4, the Heat spacing is much better when one of the shooters is one the floor instead. Tough decision for Spoelstra when he sees the box score and notes that the Heat were minus 15 on the floor. Same thing with Pop – Spurs were minus 21 with my man Manu. Game 7 maycome down to which former star can repeat his one good game in the series.
5. The Spurs don’t have to play perfectly to win Game 7. Hell, they could have and should have won this game with Manu becoming the bug instead of the windshield (8 ugly turnovers, if we count the one at the end where he was fouled going to the hole), Parker shooting 6 for 23 (maybe the hamstring is bad), and Green making only one 3 pointer after making 5 per game coming in.
6. Will the Spurs fold after this devastating loss? They didn’t fold after that last minute from hell. I hope Pop had them all take a walk after “Game Six”, and look up at the stars. Not that it helped me much.
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