If you can't stand the Heat, get out of the kitchen: Game One 2014 (6/6/14) [UNDER CONSTRUCTION]

One thing I haven’t heard mentioned anywhere about Game 1:  17,000 Texans and 24 sweating athletes in a confined space with no air conditioning. 

Wow, it must have stunk.

What also stunk was the commentary of Mark Jackson, former (thankfully) coach of my Golden State Warriors, and now back in the booth.  When Lebron first pulled himself out of the game with cramps in the 90 degree heat, Jackson (who I don’t think is an actual doctor) suggested that Lebron needed to tell his body that this was a big game and get back in the game. 

Wouldn’t it be nice to live in Jackson’s world, where physical maladies could be commanded to disappear:  “Devil, be gone!”  That only works with coaches, something Warrior ownership did at the end of the season: “Jackson, be gone”.  And so it was.

Would the outcome of the game been different if Lebron had Jackson’s gift of auto-cure and not totally cramped up at the 3:59 mark of the fourth quarter?  Impossible to know, but there are several indications that it would not have changed the outcome.

First, while Lebron was on the floor, his plus/minus was actually zero.  Second, when Lebron left, the Heat was down two, on the road, and the Spurs had the ball, so the Heat was already an underdog.   Third, Danny Green (who Lebron would not have been covering anyway) had already heated up, as had the rest of the Spurs.  Finally, this is what happened in the two minutes that followed. The play that may have sealed the deal was Ray Allen’s missed three pointer (he made his first three 3s, then missed his last five):

3:59	Rashard Lewis enters the game for LeBron James	92-94
3:59		92-94	Tony Parker enters the game for Patty Mills
3:49		92-97	Danny Green makes 24-foot three point jumper (Manu Ginobili assists)
3:31	Dwyane Wade misses jumper	92-97
3:30		92-97	Tim Duncan defensive rebound
3:24		92-99	Boris Diaw makes layup (Manu Ginobili assists)
3:02		92-99	Manu Ginobili personal foul (Mario Chalmers draws the foul)
3:00		92-99	Tony Parker personal foul (Mario Chalmers draws the foul)
2:46	Mario Chalmers makes three pointer	95-99
2:26		95-99	Tim Duncan bad pass
2:08	Ray Allen misses 24-foot three point jumper	95-99
2:06		95-99	Tim Duncan defensive rebound
1:49		95-99	Tony Parker misses layup
1:49		95-99	Tim Duncan offensive rebound
1:49	Dwyane Wade loose ball foul (Tim Duncan draws the foul)	95-99
1:49		95-99	Kawhi Leonard enters the game for Danny Green
1:43		95-102	Kawhi Leonard makes 26-foot three point jumper (Tony Parker assists)

So, while the Spurs clearly pulled away after Lebron left, the way things played out could have happened similarly even in Lebron was on the floor:  Green would likely have made the three to put the Spurs up 5, Wade would have missed his jumper (he was clearly dragging down the stretch) – and Allen (also dragging) couldn’t have been much more open if there had been 4 Lebrons on the court, all of whom would have passed the ball to the wide-open Ray Allen.  

Perhaps more interesting is why Lebron, and only Lebron, cramped up.  Everyone else was tired, and more so with the conditions.  But the Spurs were clearly fresher down the stretch.  Perhaps they are more used to the smell of 17,000 sweaty Texans.

Other comments:

1. While Lebron’s plus/minus was zero, the Spurs second Frenchman (Boris Diaw) was an unheard of +30 during his time on the floor.  Yes, in the 33 minutes Diaw played, the Spurs outscored the Heat by 30.  Including this pass that got Green started (double click on the picture for GIF):

1. My man Manu was similar – Manu was +22 during his 32 minutes on the floor, largely as a result of his 11 assists.  Like Ray Allen, Manu made his first three 3s, and missed his last three.  The difference is that Manu filled the stat sheet with other stuff too – the assists, 5 boards, 3 steals and only two turnovers.  His low number of turnovers was totally unlike the rest of the Spurs.  I think the 90 degree temperature made it difficult to distinguish the red uniforms from the white ones.  Hence, 22 turnovers, 9 in the third quarter alone.  When the Spurs stopped throwing the ball to the red shirts, they had more opportunities to shoot the ball.  Which is a good thing.  Especially when you shoot 59% from the floor, including 13 for 25 from three – for an effective shooting percentage of 69% (because, you know, threes count more than twos).
2. I wondered before the game whether the Spurs would play much with Duncan and Splitter on the floor together.  Short answer:  Nope.  They were together for only 8 of the 48 minutes.  Essentially, the first 4 minutes of each half.  But Splitter still contributed (unlike last Finals).  He gave the Spurs good minutes when Duncan was on the bench, especially a never before seen 9 points in a row bridging the 3^rd and 4^th quarters.   Just as importantly, he allowed Duncan to get valuable minutes on the bench, presumably drinking Gatorade, and not Powerade:

Ryan Koo@ryanbkoo

Hey @Gatorade where's all your sports science magic for preventing cramps in your no. 1 client @KingJames?

  

Gatorade ✔@Gatorade

@ryanbkoo The person cramping wasn't our client. Our athletes can take the heat.

4.      Another interesting stat from the game:  San Antonio Spurs had 30 assists on their 40 baskets.  Miami “Can’t Handle the” Heat had only 16 assists on their 37 baskets.  (Last year, the Spurs had assists on 60% of their baskets in Games 1 – 5, when they went up 3 – 2, but fell to 38% in Games 6 and 7 – largely because Parker was hurt and unable to generate much offense or push the ball up court.)  Another thing to watch for!  Assist percentage.

5.      The point about Parker’s health in last year’s Finals is key.  Will he stay healthy this time?  Will Manu and DWade?  And will Lebron have any lingering effects from his cramp-out in Game 1?  The extra day of rest between Games 1 and 2 will help. 

6.       The good news is that the Spurs’ crack electrical engineers, who successfully sabotaged the Heat in Game One with the AC malfunction, have apparently “fixed” that “problem”. Game 2 should be played in better conditions for all.  It will certainly smell better.  Go Spurs.

Redemption (6/17/14)

It is widely accepted that winning never feels as good as losing hurts. But maybe that is not always true. 

After winning the NBA Championship Sunday night, several Spurs went out of their way to say that this wonderful season, and the way they dominated the Finals, made last year’s loss OK.  Essentially, last year’s defeat gave them a common pain.  That common paid bound the Spurs together in a common goal.  They decided to do everything they could to make this season’s ending different. Perhaps included in that was the desire to play so well that the Spurs would not lose on the sort of freak plays that led to the Game Six loss last year – which means not allowing close games.

As a result of that common goal, this year’s Spurs crushed teams in the playoffs.  It takes 16 wins to become NBA Champions.  In 12 of the Spurs 16 wins, the margin of victory was 15 or more.  The Spurs essentially eliminated the margin of error that leads to close losses.  One missed shot, funky bounce or bad call (or one Ray Allen step back three from the corner) doesn’t matter as much when you are winning by 20 points.

Sometimes teams win because of a fortuitous series of breaks mixed in with good plays.  Other times, teams dominate their opponents.  While the first type of win is great, the sense of satisfaction from the second type of win is priceless.  The Spurs after Game Five surely had the second feeling.  They could say “We are the best”  and “We gave it all we had” – and no one who watched this Series could dispute it. 

The Spurs, without preening or pounding their chests, looked genuinely happy, and that is a very good thing.  They didn’t need to preen or pound their chests.  They could just look up at the scoreboard, laugh, smile, hug and say meaningful things in each other’s ears.  And feel at peace.

Which makes next season’s betting line interesting.  The Heat, who were outscored by 70 in this five-game series, with everyone relatively healthy and available, are favored to win it all next year.   Ahead of the Spurs.  Are the Heat expected to be better next year, or are the Spurs expected to be worse? 

One thing I realized Sunday night was that while the Spurs are considered to be the “old” team, the Heat are no spring chickens.  When the Heat wanted to shake up their starting line-up for Game Five, they inserted Ray Allen into the line-up.  Yes, 38 year old Ray Allen, who is deciding whether to retire or not.  When the Heat changed their line-up to start the second half of Game Five, they replaced Rashard Lewis (34) with Birdman (35).  Of course, DWade is 32 going on 52.   With that in mind, here are the early betting lines for next season.

2014-2015 NBA FUTURES

(Courtesy LVH SuperBook)

Team	Odds
Heat	5-2
Thunder	9-2
Spurs	9-2
Clippers	10-1
Pacers	12-1
Bulls	12-1
Warriors	20-1
Rockets	20-1
Trail Blazers	30-1
Wizards	30-1

And there may be some logic in that analysis.  As with this year, the Heat will have a much easier road to the Finals next year too.  The Spurs, OKC and Clippers will need to overcome each other, along with other teams who would be top 2 or 3 in the East:  the Blazers, Warriors and Rockets.  Who do the Heat need to worry about in the East?  As long as Lebron stays, they will be odds-on favorites.

But enough about next year – the Spurs can revel in this moment, in this team, and what they accomplished now.  It will be a much more enjoyable summer than last year. 

Other thoughts and stolen stats:

1.       Stolen stats:

“San Antonio's .528 shooting percentage was an NBA Finals record, but that doesn't tell the whole story of how well the Spurs shot the ball. They made 55 3-pointers -- more than any team has ever made in a Finals of fewer than seven games -- and shot them at a 46.6 percent clip.

Effective field goal percentage, which accounts for the additional value of 3s by treating them as 1.5 field goals, does a better job of capturing San Antonio's efficient shooting. The Spurs' 60.4 percent mark blew away the previous record (55.5 percent by the 2002 Lakers).”

2.        From my Game Four recap, talking about how Miami had only 48 points midway through the third quarter:

“The lead was back to 64 – 48, and then back to twenty at 68 – 48 halfway through the third.  Look at that second number.  48.  48 points, halfway through the third quarter, playing at home, in a must-win game in the NBA Finals.”

Who would have expected that Game Five would be worse – especially after the Heat scored 29 points in the first quarter? Halfway through the third quarter of Game Five, Miami had only 42 points – 6 points less than at the same time in Game Four.   And Game Five was an absolute “must win”.  Perhaps the Spurs can also defend.  Indeed, I don’t remember the Heat completing, or even attempting, one of their signature lob passes for a dunk.  The Spurs ran one lob play in the series – a play we used to call “Key”, which Pop stole from us.  Note how the Spurs clear the right side of the floor to open up the lob pass, one of the few they ever throw. 

The Heat had only 42 halfway through the third quarter of Game Five because the Spurs outscored the Heat 59-22 from 5:04 remaining in the first quarter until 5:01 left in the third.  That is almost exactly one-half of a game.  Which means if the teams played two halves at that scoring pace, the final score would be 118 – 44.  

Yes, 118 – 44. 

3.       Kawhi Leonard fouled out of Game Five.  I wonder if he is the first Finals MVP to foul out of the deciding game.  Also, people are talking about how he played much better in the last three games, which all turned into Spurs blow-outs.  Coincidentally, Pop changed the starting line-up in those games, replacing Splitter with Diaw.  Perhaps that change helped Leonard.  It spread the floor and gave him more room to operate – and added Diaw’s exquisite floor vision and passing ability.

4.       Any guesses as to which Spur played the most minutes Sunday night?  Boris Diaw.  In last year’s season ending fake blog, I wrote:

The Spurs aren’t dead? Not if Green adds another dimension to his game, Kawhi Leonard keeps up his Finals pace (22/11 in Game Six, 19/16 in Game 7), Parker stays healthy, and Boris Diaw does the Duncan diet this summer.

It turns out Diaw did enough of the Duncan diet to make my prediction last year come true.  (And Green added another dimension to his game, Kawhi resumed his 2013 Finals pace in Games Three, Four and Five, and Parker stayed healthy in the Finals.  Interestingly, the last one turned out to be the least important – Parker played OK, but was never the Spurs best player.)

5.       One of the best things about winning is that everyone on the winning team can feel like they contributed.  For the Spurs, a remarkable number of their players contributed in key ways – and not just the big 3, Leonard and Diaw.  Corey Joseph, who barely played in the Finals, helped the Spurs knock off OKC (in OKC) by playing the first 7 minutes of the second half of Game 6 when Parker was yanked for overall soreness and noodle ankles.  Mario Belinelli made the huge 3 in Game Three of the Finals after the Heat had cut the huge lead to only 7 in the third quarter – and came in Sunday night for a quick two minutes in the second quarter, and made a “pump fake, step in jumper” as the momentum was switching horses.  Patty Mills, after barely playing in last year’s Finals, was truly great in these Finals.  That included Game Five’s en fuego run demolishing the last hopes of the Heat.  (I really hope the Spurs can re-sign him.)  Tiago Splitter played great defense on Nowitzki and Lamarcus Aldridge in the first two rounds.  Speaking of redemption, Splitter also exorcised some personal demons from last year’s Finals with this block (double click on picture for GIF):

Speaking of highlights, I like this one too.

6.       I would be remiss not to mention Lebron’s first quarter Sunday night.  17 points/6 boards – he took the team on his back, and was awesome.  He was on a pace to score 68 points with 24 boards.  Sounds like something Wilt would do -- but the burden of carrying this Heat team clearly got too heavy for Lebron. 

Lebron has some huge decisions to make.  While I am sure he loves living in Miami (remember he grew up in Akron), I do not believe he can be enthusiastic about covering for DWade for the next two years, while Wade collects $20M each year for playing an abbreviated schedule.  Of course, Bosh will collecting the same amount, though he too is clearly no longer a “max” type player.

Lebron is also entitled to receive some criticism.  The commentators on ABC got in the habit of using a Pop phrase – don’t let the ball stick.  That means either pass, dribble or shoot – do not just hold the ball.  Lebron was surely the stickiest guy in the Finals.  On numerous occasions, the ball would be in his hands for half of the shot clock, either holding it against a defender or dribbling it in one spot.  The side effect of doing so is that the other Heat players would stop moving too.  (Laker fans have seen this scenario play out with Kobe many times.)  The ball needs to move – when it moves, players move.  (See, e.g., the Spurs.)

7.       In Game Five, the Heat had 5 offensive rebounds on 45 missed shots, a dreadful 11%.  This was a series long issue, and an important one.  For the Series, the Heat got an offensive rebound on only 15% of their misses.  (The Spurs were at 22.5%.) When the Heat missed, 85% of the time the Spurs rebounded the ball and attacked, feeding into their offensive dominance.  (Interestingly, when Kawhi Leonard rebounds, he almost always pushes the ball up court himself, with the guards sprinting ahead in order to spot up ahead of him.)  Another facet of the Heat’s lack of offensive rebounding is that they were not giving themselves second chance opportunities.  The lack of offensive rebounding probably grew out of the lack of ball movement – and the Heat’s decision to go without anyone who habitually would attack the offensive glass.  Lebron, Bosh, DWade, Lewis, Allen, and Chalmers led the Heat in minutes played.  Do you consider any one of them as a beast on the offensive glass?

8.       From music, soccer and Playing the Right Way maven Marc Cimino, after Game Five:

Somewhere on that court John Wooden, Red Holtzman and Dr. Jack were standing side by side with big smiles.    Big win for basketball!

9.       Bad news/Good news.  With 15 seconds left in the 3^rd quarter of Game Five, Tony Parker finally made a basket after starting 0 for 10.  The other starting guard, Danny Green (who otherwise played a great series) did not score all game.  That’s the bad news.  The good news?  Parker’s basket put the Spurs up by 21 points.

The related good news is that Spurs 3^rd guard, Patty Mills, scored 17 points in 17 minutes, including this flurry:

5:54		42-59	Patty Mills makes 25-foot three point jumper (Boris Diaw assists)
5:37	Chris Bosh makes layup (LeBron James assists)	44-59
5:28		44-62	Patty Mills makes 25-foot three point jumper (Manu Ginobili assists)
5:09	LeBron James misses 14-foot two point shot	44-62
5:07		44-62	Kawhi Leonard defensive rebound
5:01		44-65	Manu Ginobili makes 26-foot three point jumper (Kawhi Leonard assists)
5:01	Heat 20 Sec. timeout
5:01	Michael Beasley enters the game for Dwyane Wade	44-65
5:01	Mario Chalmers enters the game for Ray Allen	44-65
5:01	Shane Battier enters the game for Udonis Haslem	44-65
4:39	LeBron James makes jumper	46-65
4:18		46-65	Manu Ginobili misses 13-foot jumper
4:16	Michael Beasley defensive rebound	46-65
4:09	Mario Chalmers makes layup (Michael Beasley assists)	48-65
4:07	Spurs Full timeout
3:42		48-68	Patty Mills makes three point jumper (Tiago Splitter assists)

Man, that was fun. The Heat scored 6 points in 90 seconds (an explosion for them).  The Spurs scored 12 on four of five shots over about two minutes  -- including 9 points on 3 threes in 53 seconds.  (Interesting side-note:  Pop called an “angry time-out” after the Chalmers lay-up which cut the lead to 17.  That time-out led to the final Mills three – “Three from Down Under!!”) --- (Second side-note:  It truly was a Three from Down Under – the pass was from a Brazilian to an Aussie.  )---  (Third side-note:  Am I the only one who notices these things?)

10.   I ended last year’s finals in a much worse mood.  As I said then, losing close hurts more than losing by a lot, and losing close and badly (like the Spurs did last year) hurts worst of all. 

But I am taking a lesson from the Spurs -- I am now over that.  2014 has cleared the books on the 2013 Finals. 

11.   And like One Shining Moment at the end of the NCAA Final Four, I will end once again with “My Favorite Things”  (updated from last year):

In the meantime, I will spend the dog days of summer thinking back on my favorite NBA memories. This list grew out of a question from masters division hoops multi-time champion Steve Carlston about my favorite players. In my lawyerly way, I instead answered the question I wanted to answer – about favorite memories. Like these:

Coop in a defensive stance, Stephen Curry looking for any opening to shoot a 3, Magic in the middle dishing this way – no, that way, Patty Mills water-bugging to find himself an open three, Horry spotting up in the last minute of a playoff game, Kawhi Leonard D’ing up on LeBron, or Durant, or Westbrook, or whoever else Pop sends him after, Kyle Korver running around 4 screens to get free for a catch and shoot 3, Kobe leading an improbable comeback, Manu dunking on the Heat in Game Five of the Finals, DFish bellying up on a guy bigger faster quicker and more talented, Boris Diaw as a Swiss Army Knife (or a French one), Nash dancing around a ball screen, Donald Sterling being forced to sell the Clippers, Jerry West dribbling hard right and pulling up for a jumper, Walton rebounding and outletting, Wilt finger-rolling, Parker tear-dropping, Rick Barry underhanding, Bosh bricking, Dirk step-backing, Earl the Pearl spin-dribbling, Pistol Pete (or Ricky Rubio) behind-the-back passing, Kevin Durant nothing-but-netting, Chick Hearn hyper-ventilating, Dr. J dunking, Popovich angry time-outing, Worthy baseline spinning, Westbrook attacking, Duncan blocking a shot and controlling it, Stockton pocket passing, Lebron chasing down a seemingly uncontested breakaway lay-up – and in honor of this Team Victory: the Spurs making five passes in six seconds to get a good shot (and then throwing one more pass to get a great shot).

Yes, these are a few of my favorite things. So is writing this fake blog. Feel free to suggest your own. Thanks again for following along.

Reruns (6/13/14) [under construction]

 

 

When I was growing up, there were only 3 channels.  In the summer, if you wanted to watch TV, you watched reruns.  And not reruns of great shows like Hill Street Blues, West Wing, Cheers, or the Sopranos.  Reruns of Gilligan’s Island.  We didn’t know any better. 

 

Last night, I felt like I was watching a rerun of Game Three.  A twenty point halftime lead.  The Spurs consistently getting, and taking, good shots.  (A very under-rated skill:  Not taking bad shots.). Miami looking a step slow.  “Daddy, why are they letting that one team beat the other team so badly?”  “Isn’t there a mercy rule in basketball?”  So Game Four did look like a rerun of Game Three.  I almost called this fake blog “Game ThreeFour”.

 

But there were differences in the two games.  Most obviously, the Spurs’ shooting.  In Game Three, the Spurs third miss was half-way through the second quarter. They started 19 for 21.  In Game Four, the Spurs missed their first three shots.

 

More importantly, though, was the total absence of drama for much of Game Four.  In Game Three, the Spurs first half was thrilling to watch.  And for much of the game, I was chanting Go Clock Go.  It always felt that the Heat were about to make a run.  Hell, they cut it to 7 in the third quarter and the Spurs were hanging on for dear life, with an energized crowd urging them on.  I used the word “nerve-wracking” to describe the last two and a half quarters of Game Three. 

 

Game Four – no such fear.  There was never a point where the Heat appeared to have the will, the energy, the spirit, the desire, or the talent to seriously challenge the Spurs.  The Heat had one little run to cut the lead to 13 in the third.  But Pop took a time out, the Spurs scored on the play designed in the huddle (a pass from Boris Diaw, of course, to Duncan), the Heat missed a couple of shots, the Spurs scored a couple times in a row. The lead was back to 64 – 48, and then back to twenty at 68 – 48 halfway through the third. 

 

Look at that second number.  48.  48 points, halfway through the third quarter, playing at home, in a must-win game in the NBA Finals. (Game Four is almost always a “must-win” game for one team or the other.)  One reason the game had so little drama after halftime is that I never had the feeling the Spurs would allow the Heat to score enough points to make it interesting.  It would be like being behind 4 – 1 in the second half of a World Cup game. (Obligatory soccer reference.) 

 

That low score was not only the result of the Heat playing badly on offense.  After Game Three, all the Spurs commented on the need to tighten up  their defense.  They knew that the Heat had scored fairly easily in the first half of Game Three, and absent the other-worldly (and unrepeatable) first half shooting, the game could have been much different.  (And was in the third quarter of Game Three when the Spurs scored only 15.)  So in Game Four, the Spurs’ focus was on defense – and Miami scored only 17, 19, and 21 in the first three quarters.  So while much of the commentary after the game was about the Spurs beautiful game on offense in Games Three and Four, the Spurs old-school defense made it a blow-out.  And I hate to say it, a fairly boring blow-out for the second half. 

 

Not as bad as watching a rerun of Gilligan’s Island, but I did wonder whether the Heat would ever get off that damn island.

 

=======================

 

Other thoughts and random stolen stats:

 

 

1.       The Spurs really run two types of offenses. Both involve movement of players and the ball.  Both also emphasize the ball moving from one side of the court to the other, and back again.  They differ in one key way.  In the “pass” offense, there is very little dribbling, other than the point guard (normally Parker) in pick and rolls.  The rest of the players catch and immediately either pass, shoot or pump fake for a pull up jumper.   This is the offense that will occasionally create 5 passes in 5 seconds.    The second offense is what I would call “attack”.  While the ball still moves quickly, and from side to side, the players catching the ball will often attack the rim with the dribble.  They attack, force the defense to attack, pass the ball, and while the defense recovers to the receiver, that player will re-attack, and pass again.  This is the offense that was followed in the wondrous first half of Game Three and much of last night.

 

Lebron: "Man, they move the ball extremely well. They put you in positions that no other team in this league does, and it's tough because you have to cover the ball first, but also those guys on the weak side can do multiple things."

 

Stolen stat:  “The Spurs shot 10-of-14 (71 percent) on shots that came off possessions in which they made at least five passes.” And unlike many offenses where the point guard gets most of the assists, only one Spur had more than three assists  -- power/point forward Boris Diaw with nine.

 

 

 

2.       In Game Three, LeBron totaled 8 points, 7 turnovers and zero free throw attempts in the second, third and fourth quarters.  In Game Four, he scored 28 points on 10-for-17 shooting.   19 of those points came in the third quarter, after the Heat were already down by as much as 22. And he had only two assists.

 

3.       Who had the better game last night between Lebron and Kawhi?  Lebron had 28 points (including 4 for 8 from three), 8 boards, 2 assists, 0 blocks, 0 steals, 3 turnovers.  Kawhi had 20 points (1 three), 14 boards, 3 assists, 3 steals, 3 blocks and 1 turnover.  Oh, and Kawhi’s team won.  You decide.

 

4.       Random fact I stole: Aussie Patty Mills averaged 18.9 minutes per game off the bench for the Spurs.  He made more 3-pointers than any Spurs player this season. According to SportVU cameras, no NBA player runs faster on average than Mills, at an average speed of 4.9 miles per hour this season.

 

5.        I mentioned in an earlier edition the Spurs’ percentage of assisted baskets.  Last night was again high: 25 assists on 40 baskets (60%).  And it would have been higher if Patty Mills was given an assist on this play for missing a 3 pointer.  His miss led to this play, which effectively ended Game Four:

 

http://www.sbnation.com/nba/2014/6/12/5805706/kawhi-leonard-dunk-game-4

 

 

By the way, just like rock beats scissors, youth and energy defeats age and lethargy – double click on picture for GIF:

 

 

6.       Once again, the commentators talked about the Spurs rebounding edge using the raw, and less meaningful, number: 44 – 27 advantage in total rebounds.  The Spurs should have had more rebounds – the Heat missed 9 more shots.  The more meaningful number:  (Long time readers can repeat after me.)  Offensive rebound percentage.  The Spurs had 12 offensive boards on their 30 misses – 40%.  That is a huge percentage, and must have drove the Heat crazy.  They would finally get a stop, the Spurs would crash the boards and get the ball back – and put the Heat defense back into the blender.  Chris Bosh, the Heat’s center for most of the game, had only 4 defensive rebounds (and zero offensive) in 39 minutes.  Boris Diaw, who is shorter and slower than Bosh – and frankly a bit pudgy – had 9 boards in 36 minutes, including 3 offensive.  The Heat had only 6 offensive boards on 39 shots – a very crummy 15%.  Defense is not complete until the defense gets the rebound – and the Spurs did that on 85% of the Heat’s misses.  (They also committed 6 less fouls – see below about Danny Green.)

 

6.       Speaking of Bosh, everyone is talking about Boris Diaw’s pass to Splitter for a rare dunk. (Splitter is a good player who can’t jump.  At all.)  But look at Bosh’s feeble attempt to double team by running up directly behind DWade, who is covering Diaw.

http://www.hoopmixtape.com/boris-diaw-sick-look-pass-splitter-dunk/

 

7.       Every member of the Spurs roster scored.  All 13 of them.  In an NBA Finals game.  On the road.

 

8.       Of the Spurs 106 points, the Big Three scored only 36.  Before the series, I talked about the different ways the teams put together their non-stars.  The Heat have a bunch of former top draft picks.  The Spurs have a bunch of guys off the scrap heap (including two of the Big Three).  Scrap heap won:  The Spurs non-Big Three scored 70.  The Heat “stars” not named Lebron (All-Stars DWade and Voldemort) and bench players scored 58.

 

9.       This is an outstanding piece on Danny Green defending breakaways.  I used to tell my players that defense is not necessarily completely stopping the offensive player.  Instead, it is reducing his shooting percentage.  If the defender can reduce the offensive player’s shooting percentage by 10% by putting a hand up and contesting a shot, we will win.  That could be reducing a three point shooter’s percentage from 45% to 35% by running at him, or in the attached piece, Danny Green turning a 90% chance of scoring on a breakaway to 80%.

http://grantland.com/the-triangle/danny-green-spurs-transition-defense/

10.   I taped last night’s game, so I could play in my own game from 7:30 – 9:30.  On the way to the gym, I stopped in a store to pick something up.  Also in the store was Rudy Tomjanovich, former Houston Rocket and Laker coach (and great player).  I said “hi, Coach!” (Ex-coaches are still called “Coach” just like heavyweight champions are always called “Champ”.)  As I walked out, not knowing the score of the game (I was taping it and in a media blackout), I wondered why Rudy T, a basketball lifer, was not watching the game.  Today I figured it out.  He had probably watched the first quarter and could tell who was going to win -- and decided to go to the store for something to eat for when he went back home to watch Gilligan Island reruns.

Here is Rudy T.  Is he talking about the Miami Heat?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5-1jgNhopNo