Series issues
Not “serious” issues – series issues. These are things I will watch over the entire series. As always, I try (not always successfully) to raise questions or find things that the mainstream media may not be emphasizing. Obviously, there are many cool issues about this series that others have raised already – these are mine:
1. Who will Lebron cover? Lebron is the best on ball defender in the world. He can cover any other player on the court. He also does what a great on ball defender does – takes that man out of the game. Against a great on-ball defender, the offensive guy doesn’t shoot 4 for 20 because he won’t get 20 shots. The best player I ever coached, Claremont All American Chris Greene, once held Pomona’s leading scorer to 2 shots for the entire game. In game 7 against the Pacers, Lebron took the wondrous young Pacer star out of the game – I think he took 7 shots, and fouled out with 6 minutes left. Who will Lebron cover on the Spurs? Interestingly, the wing positions he covers best are not the Spurs’ primary threats. I would be very surprised if he covered the Spurs best player (Tony Parker) or spent too much time on one of the Spurs bigs. Chasing Parker around off screens all day is not Lebron’s cup of tea, and doing that or fronting a big guy takes too much energy. He may start on Kawaii Leonard, switch to my man Manu when he is in – but the lack of an obvious wing guy for him to cover and the Spurs overall balance may minimize the impact of Lebron’s on-ball brilliance.
2. Who will cover Lebron? Kawaii Leonard is the only Spur who seems capable – which presents a problem. If Leonard gets into foul trouble, that forces smaller guys like Manu or Danny Green onto Lebron, which in turn lead to double teams if he goes into the post, which leads to open shots. Hopefully, those will be shot by the late Chris Bosh a/k/a Voldemort, and not the Heat’s 3 point shooters.
3 On a related point, the Spurs defend the transition break by having their perimeter players match up with whoever is running the lane on their side. Watch them match up as they run back after misses, and see how seamless it is. They can do this because Leonard, at 6’8”, has the lateral movement and desire to cover the other team’s point guard. In this series, doing so means someone else will have to cover Lebron. This is both a serious issue and a series issue. As great as it is that the Spurs play a lot of people, the problem in this series is that they play a bunch of undersizedperimeter guys –Manu is big enough for a 2, but not as a 3 in this series, Gary Neal is small, Parker’s back up Corey Joseph is small, Danny Green is big enough for a 2 but not as a 3 in this series, Parker is great on O but has slipped on D (probably because he constantly moves on offense). The Spurs back up post guys (Bonner, Diaw) have as much chance of covering Lebron as I do. The Spurs’ lack of a big enough back-up 3 is trouble.
4 Who will shoot better from 3? Put another way, who will defend the 3 better? The Spurs defense thrives at not allowing open 3s – as proven by shutting down the Warriors vaunted 3 point attack in the second round. If they can avoid being forced to double Lebron, they may be able to do the same to the Heat, even though Ray Allen, Mike Miller, Voldemort and Lebron are all good to excellent shooters from 3. (Funny moment in Pacer-Heat Game 7: Kerr referred to Ray Allen as the best 3 point shooter ever. He then laughed and said with all due respect to the guy sitting next to him, Reggie Miller. In fact, Reggie is probably about number 10 on the list – and no one mentioned that Kerr is the no. 1 three-point shooter in terms of percentage. The difference in how Kerr handled that (deferring to Reggie) and how Reggie handled it (never thinking to mention Kerr)explains why people like Kerr and don’t like Reggie.) For the Heat, can they cover or prevent the Spurs’ corner 3s? By the end of the Spurs – Grizzlies series, the Grizzlies guards were sprinting from above the free throw line to cut off the baseline passes from Parker and the post guys to the corners. See if the Heat do the same.
5 Speaking of shooting, the long-time Spurs shooting coach is Skip Engelland. Here is a good piece on him: http://www.48minutesofhell.
6 Will the Spurs ever throw a lob pass? The Spurs throw the fewest lob passes in the league. In a league where numerous teams love the lob, like the Clippers and the Heat, Popovich and his staff clearly decided that either (a) the lob is not a high percentage play or (b) the Spurs don’t have anyone who can jump high enough to catch and dunk a lob pass.
7 Will Tim Duncan average 20 and 10 in the series? Amazing stat: Ten years ago, when Duncan was 27 and in his athletic prime, he averaged 21.3 points, 11.8 boards, 3.6 assists, 2.7 blocks, and 0,6 steals per 36 minutes. This year, while no longer in his athletic prime, he averaged 21.3 points, 11.9 boards, 3.2 assists, 3.2 blocks, and 0.9 steals per 36 minutes.
8 Will my man Manu show up? If he does, the Spurs 3rd and 4thbest players (Leonard and Manu) will be better than Miami’s (Bosh and ??). That advantage, along with the Spurs’ overall depth, may help overcome Lebron’s overall brilliance.
9 Who will make better adjustments during the series? Smart money is on Pop.
10. Why do celebrities think it looks cool to wear sunglasses indoors at sporting events? Does anyone think this looks good?
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