Basketball is one of only three real sports invented in the USA. The other two are volleyball and lacrosse. (There is also some sport called Team Handball they play in the Olympics, but it is a weird combination of soccer and basketball that no one actually plays other than in high school P.E. classes when it is raining outside.)
The best team in the National Basketball Association at the moment starts only two players born in the USA. One of the USA starters is Danny Green, recently cut by the woeful Cleveland Cavaliers. Green is the first one subbed out in every game, by my man Manu, who was born in Argentina and starred in the Italian pro league before getting picked in the second round by the Spurs about a decade ago. Three starters are non-USA born -- Timmy Duncan (Virgin Islands), Tony Parker and Boris Diaw (both France -- Diaw was picked up after being cut by the even more woeful Charlotte Bobcats). The Spurs back-up big man Tiaggo Splitter is from Brazil. End of the bench back-up point guard Patty Mills is from Australia. (A good argument can also be made that back-up small forward Stephen Jackson, picked up from the woeful Golden State Warriors, is from Mars.) The majority of the Spurs top players are foreigners living in the city recently cited for having the worst weather in the county.
Coincidentally or not, last night while they were showing the arena from the aerial blimp, the announcer informed us that the 7 p.m. temperature in San Antonio was a muggy 91 degrees. Yikes.
Poor Nick Collison. He went to Kansas to play college ball, and then was picked by the Seattle Supersonics. He got to live in the one of the most beautiful big cities in the country for five years, a place much better than Kansas. The team then moved to Oklahoma, a place not better than Kansas.
I feel terribly for the Supersonic fans who had their team plucked away from them just as the team was getting good -- but the fans didn't have to move out of Seattle. (I do wonder if they root for the Zombie Sonics.) Collison, who was surely thrilled to escape Kansas five years earlier, had to leave to go back to a place as bad as where he left.
As great as it would be to be a pro athlete, it is one profession that you don't have much choice as to where you live. It is as if the top students from the top law schools in the country were, upon graduation, assigned to law firms around the county -- and the worst firms got the top picks. Congratulations, you were No. 1 in your class at Stanford -- you have been selected by a personal injury firm in Kansas City!
Speaking of bad choices of where to live -- in the article about the Clippers deciding to extend coach Vinny Del Negro's contract for one more year, they mentioned that Vinny lives in Phoenix during the off-season. Does he not know that the basketball off-season is during the summer? Who chooses to live in Phoenix during the summer? That fact alone would have caused me to fire the guy.
Other thoughts about Spurs - OKC:
1. Watching last night's game, you would think that the Spurs were on fire from three. Actually, they went 11 for 26 -- 42%. For the entire season, they shot 41% from the three point line. They weren't hot last night -- this is just what they do. (Laker note -- the Lakers didn't have one player who shot as well as the entire Spur team shot from the three point line.)
2. The Spurs pick and roll with Parker and Ginobili constantly. What they do differently than other teams involves the screener. The screener often stays high to screen a second or third time, and when he rolls, he is looking to catch and pass, not shoot. The screener rolls for two steps, knows there will be help coming, stops and immediately kicks it to one corner or the other to a shooter. You know, one of those guys who shot 41% for the season. I am sure Spurs big men practice doing that 20-30 times every practice, which is why it looks so seamless. (That play also explains why Parker had "only" 8 assists last night, and his assist numbers are often lower than other elite point guards. Many of his assists are "hockey assists" in which his pass leads to another pass which leads to the hoop.)
3. From super-broker and all around good guy Corey Spound:
"Watching San Antonio tonight was stupefying. What an astounding performance. I mean, the intelligence and movement by every player, the whole game, is so impressive. And then being able to deliver on all that great coaching by hitting the 3’s and the back-door drives to the hoop is the other part of the spectacle."
Other than being a perfect summary, Corey also wins the award for best use of the word "stupefying".
4. From J.A. Adande at ESPN:
"In many ways Game 2 was an optimal game for the Thunder. Oklahoma City coach Scott Brooks had plenty of good things to say about his team afterward. Their big three of Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook and James Harden went off. They turned the ball over only 10 times. They made 47 percent of their 3-point shots. They grabbed 16 offensive rebounds. They extracted 36 free throws from a Spurs team that makes a point of not fouling.
And the Thunder never had a shot -- as in one shot that could have tied the game or given them the lead during the final 35½ minutes of the game. The best they could do was cut a Spurs lead that was 22 points in the third quarter down to six points in the fourth."
What he didn't say was that the Thunder defense was pretty terrible, and their bench and non-big 3 was fairly non-productive. The non-big 3 was Laker bench-like, shooting an astounding 11 for 34 from the field. One problem is the Thunder non-big 3 players include several non-scorers (Perkins, Collison, Sefalosha, and last night DFish, who went 2 for 11). The other problem is that other than DFish, who decided he was Allen Iverson and shot every time he touched it, none of the other Thunder non-stars wants to shoot -- or even expects to get the ball in a place to shoot it. Because the Thunder offense revolves around their wonderfully talented big 3 creating their own shot, the other players wind up being spectators, with a pass going to them as the last option, not the first. (Sounds a bit like the Lakers offense at various times.) Contrast that with the other team playing in this series...
5. OK, that other team is the Spurs. As noted in a prior fake blog, the Spurs non-big 3 are not only allowed to shoot, they areexpected to do so when the right shot is there. In some ways, these Spurs are like the 2001 Laker team. The "non-stars" like DFish, Horry, BShaw and Rick Fox knew they were getting the ball and had no hesitation in shooting the ball at the right time. And while the triangle never had as much player and ball movement as this Spurs team, it did require constant movement of ball and players. That Lakers team had a pretty good coach too.
6. OKC's Hack-a-Shaq on Splitter may have changed the momentum, and since the Spurs were scoring virtually every time down when the Thunder went to it, it may have even been good statistically. However, fouling like that takes away any chance of a fast break off a rebound or a steal. When OKC was fouling on every play, they were forcing themselves into a half-court game offensively, which is where the Spurs defend the best, and the Thunder struggles. The Thunder comeback in the 4th quarter was after they stopped fouling and were able to get out and run.
From a fan's standpoint, the Hack-a-Splitter broke up the best stretch of offensive basketball many of us have ever witnessed. When Manu completed that stretch in the third quarter by flipping the ball behind his back to Parker in the corner, who of course drilled the 3, leading to a time out by the Thunder, it was like the end of a great book, song, or movie -- you know you had just witnessed something great, and wanted it to go on and on.
7. Were the Spurs "lucky" to win the first two games? In Game One, they came from 9 down in the fourth to beat a very good OKC team. Yes, the Spurs played well to do so, but to come back from that big a deficit in the fourth against a good team requires some good breaks.
Last night, they won with Tony Parker shooting 16 for 21, which is 76%. Very few were lay-ups -- almost all long jumpers. His shooting percentage for the season was 47% -- which would translate into 10 for 21. Six less hoops would have been twelve less points -- and possibly a different outcome
I would not be surprised if the Thunder win a game or two in OKC. Who would be surprised? The Spurs. They don't expect to lose to anyone.
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