Who wears sunglasses inside? -- and other issues concerning the NBA Finals 2013

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.com/the-ball-tells-the-truth-an-interview-with-chip-engelland    From all I have heard, he is a very good guy, even though his ancestors couldn’t spell “England”.  More importantly, a GREAT shooting coach.  Tony Parker couldn’t shoot from outside 6 feet when he  came into the league.  Now he rarely misses from inside 20 feet.  Indeed, in a league dominated by dunks, lay-ups and 3s, Parker continues to shoot what stat-hounds correctly identify as the worst shot in basketball – the long 2.  Of course, it is the worst shot only when you don’t make virtually all of them, like Parker does.  Great stat to show how good Skip is – SIX Spurs shot their career high from the free throw line this year.  Including Duncan, now at over 80%.

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 3^rd and 4^thbest 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?

http://www.hlntv.com/article/2013/06/04/justin-bieber-heat-pacers-game-7-twitter?hpt=hp_c4

NBA Finals 2013 -- Fake Blog Intro

Age and treachery beats youth and exuberance every time.  Except when it
doesn't.

Last Thursday night, super-daughter Alissa graduated from high school.
End of an era.  Super-brother Pablo, who graduated 10 years earlier, is
the wise older brother in the picture attached above.  This is more than
an excuse to attach a picture of two of my three children.  It is an
intro to the long-awaited NBA Finals Fake Blog, 2013 edition.

Greg Popovich started with the Spurs in 1994, the year Alissa was born.
Just as most Chicago Cub fans were not alive when the Cubs last won the
pennant, Pop has been coach or GM of the Spurs the entire time Alissa
has been alive.  His last head coaching job before the Spurs was with
the Pomona Pitzer Sagehens, when I was the assistant coach at Claremont
McKenna.   Pablo, who many of you know, used to come out to practice and
games with me during his "formative years", one of the reasons he became
a terrific player -- from an early age, he saw what the game was
supposed to look like.

Now, the 2013 NBA Finals may in large part turn out to be a battle
between the widely acknowledged best coach in the game vs. the widely
acknowledged best player in the game.  You know who they are.  This fake
blog is designed to try to point out things that others may not be
saying.  "Others" often include the game announcers and other experts,
some of whom offer great commentary, some, not so much.

Two examples of things others don't point out, both of which I have
given before.  First, the percentage of offensive rebounds vs. missed
shots is a much more meaningful stat than total rebounds.  If both
teams' offensive rebound percentage is the same, total rebounds normally
just measures who shot and defended better.  The better rebounding team
can only be determined by what percentage of its own misses it got back
-- and what percentage of the other team's misses it prevented the
offensive team from getting a second chance to score.  If a team gets
more than a third of its misses back as offensive boards, it has
rebounded well -- and the converse is true.  Just look at the box score
to see how many misses there were -- 45 for 90 means there were 45
misses, all of which were offensive rebounding opportunities.  (I have
had many a game where I supplied my team's big guys with many offensive
rebounding "opportunities".)  If the offensive team gets 15 or more of
those 45 misses back as offensive rebounds, that is pretty good -- and
the opposing coach is upset with his guys.

Similarly, "points off turnovers" means virtually nothing -- unless it
is a steal that leads immediately to a dunk or open shot.  Total
turnovers matter:  The team that turns it over has zero chance on
scoring on that possession.  Since most teams score about a point per
possession, each turnover generally costs about a point.  Put another
way, if Team A has 10 turnovers, and Team B has 15, that is generally
worth about a 5 point swing.  Technical fouls and defensive 3 seconds
are worth about a point each too, since normally the team puts a 90%
free throw shooter at the line for the free throw.  All those points add
up -- they count just as much as that "clutch" free throw in the last
minute.

The group who gets this fake email range from those who know more about
the game than I do to those who have no clue how they wound up on the
list.  Feel free to forward to anyone who you think might enjoy it.
Also, feel free to either comment directly to me, or to the entire
group.  However, if you send it to the entire group, remember it is a
bunch of people you don't know -- don't pull a Roy Hibbert and refer to
the media as...  well, many of you know what he called them, and though
it started with "mother", it didn't involve Mother's Day.

Also, do me a favor -- don't read these on your cell phone.  I spend
more time than I should on these, and probably wouldn't bother if I knew
all of you were reading it on a 2 inch by 3 inch box while waiting for
the elevator.  And if you do, you miss the full glory of some cool
attachments -- like this one:

http://fansided.com/2013/05/24/paul-george-dunks-on-chris-birdman-anders
en-gets-handshake-from-lebron-video/

That dunk on Birdman was one of the highlights of the pre-Finals
playoffs, and not only because Chris Anderson, the "Hey, everyone, look
at me" Birdman was dunked on -- but because now everyone who sees that
video does in fact look at him, and just for a moment, can enjoy that he
looks ridiculous for a reason other than just intentionally looks
ridiculous.

Two other highlights of the pre-Finals.  First, the Curry Flurry:
Attached is the 2 minute 11 second highlight reel of Stephen Curry's 22
point third quarter against the Nuggets.  Great fun -- he might make me
a Warrior fan once the Lakers and Spurs transition to being lousy ( the
Lakers got a jump on it already).  Anyway, the Curry Flurry:

http://deadspin.com/steph-curry-is-still-a-folk-hero-484282341?utm_campa
ign=socialflow_deadspin_twitter&utm_source=deadspin_twitter&utm_medium=s
ocialflow

Finally, at my Sunday hoops game, I was discussing this play, which I
saw live (on TV).  I knew immediately it was a clip all coaches should
show.  It starts with all 5 guys touching the ball, none for more than a
second, a perfect last pass from my Man Manu, and then the final guy
"touching" the ball a second time.   If you don't want to read the short
article before the clip (and you should), just watch the clip at the
end.  You can time the 4 passes from the scoreboard clock -- the ball
goes from the first guy to the fifth guy in about 3 seconds...

http://www.grantland.com/blog/the-triangle/post/_/id/62485/the-kawhi-leo
nard-conundrum-and-why-life-is-unfair

I will have more to say about the upcoming Finals -- for now just assume
I will be rooting for the age and treachery of the Spurs.

We were Witnesses

Super Client Ken invited me, Stag soccer legend and uber-skier Sean Carney, and corporate law maven and Master of the Teardrop Aaron Gafni to the Laker – Heat game last Thursday night.  Excellent seats, row 6 on the side, essentially right at the basket the Heat attacked for the first half.  We also had a perfect view of D12’s airball free throw with 2 minutes left.

It was a fascinating game in many ways.  The Heat didn’t make a shot other than a lay-up or dunk for the first twenty (20!) minutes of the game, bricking every 3, jumper and floater they took.  Whatever they were drinking, Kobe shared the same Sad Water from the same glass – going into the 4^th quarter, he was 3 for 16.  Ouch.  Lakers had sixteen (16!) turnovers in the first half – 16 would be a bad number for a full game.  And then, for a 9 ½  minute period in the 4^th, both teams looked like championship contenders.  Unfortunately, NBA 4^th quarters are generally 12 minutes long, and the Heat played all 12 of those minutes, finishing the game on a 9 – 0 run.  The Lakers continue to set in the west, and it is not a pretty sunset.

Other thoughts:

1.      Lebron (39) and Wade (27) combined for 66 of the Heat’s 99 points.  For you math wizards out there, that is 2/3 or 66.66% of the Heat points.  You could probably go all season without seeing another team win with such unbalanced scoring.  In the alternative, you could have seen the OKC Snow Thunder game the next night.  Durant (52!) and Westbrook (31) combined for 83 of the Thunder’s 117 in a win over Dallas.  That was 71% (!!) of the Thunder’s points.  Durant shot only 13 for 31 – but went 21 for 21 from the free throw line.  Best free throw shooting I have seen since I made 88 in a row after practice at Claremont one day.  Yes, I had a witness.

2.      Speaking of living in the past, an aging point guard who can’t beat his man off the dribble, who is questionable defensively, and can’t create his own shot has lost much of his value.  Oh, you thought I was talking about Steve Nash?  No, I was taking about me.

3.      The Heat took Nash out of his comfort zone, and the Lakers out of their offense, by essentially playing a college style defense. Knowing the Lakers wanted to pound it inside, the Heat fronted the post, pressured the ball handler, closed the passing lanes, and double teamed the dribbler off all ball screens.  The Lakers reacted like an overmatched college team, trying to force difficult passes into the post instead of reversing the ball to the other side through the high post, and only then dumping it down to the fronted big guy.  It will be interesting to see how a team coached by an ex-college coach (Popovich, just to pick a name at random) will handle that defense.  Pop’s decision to hold his Big Three out of the Spurs - Heat game last month may have been more about not letting the Heat know how he will attack that defense than the official “resting my guys” excuse (which cost the Spurs $250,00 in a game they almost won anyway).

4.      Speaking of college coaching, we would always make offense – defense substitutions when the situation called for it.  With 17 seconds left in the first half, shot clock off, the Heat had the ball and took a timeout to set up their last shot.  The Lakers had both 38-year old Nash and 38-year old on the floor, neither of whom we good defenders when they were 28 years old.  Did any of the 27 Laker assistant coaches suggest subbing in Darius Morris and Earl Clark?  If they did, the head coach decided not to embarrass his two veterans (both of whom should have volunteered to come out without being asked).  By the Corman Outcome Theory, the Lakers should have subbed them out. The Heat scored 2 points – because basketball is not Jeopardy where second half points count double, those 2 points hurt as much as Ray Allen’s amazing fall away over D12 with two minutes left in the fourth.  (The only possible excuse for not subbing was that the Heat’s timeout was a “20-second” timeout, and there may be some special NBA rules about the ability to substitute during on the other team’s 20-second timeout.  If so, my bad.)

5.      Speaking of Morris, anyone else notice that he has now taken Jodie Meeks’ time as the back up 2-guard.  For several minutes of the game, the Lakers had Duhon, Morris, Clark, Pao and Jamison on the floor.  That is not a good NBA squad.  In my first fake blog, I opined that Jodie Meeks’ ability to score when Kobe was out may be a key to the season.  I may have been right.  The Lakers also went with one of the oldest line-ups I have seen in a game not being played in a YMCA:  Nash, Jamison, Kobe, Metta, and Pao.  Before the season, I told several people that the Lakers may have assembled a team built for how teams played in the last century.   Many teams now play with 5 inter-changeable parts instead of traditional point, shooting guard, small forward, power forward, and center.  In the fourth, the Heat went with no point guard (6’8’’ 260 pound Lebron was “point”), Wade, Ray Allen, Battier and Bosh.  Not a “1” or a “5” in the group.  Is this the new wave – or is Lebron so out of the world that he allows the Heat to break all the rules?

6.      Slightly off topic, though still within the college basketball theme.  I coached at Claremont McKenna College for 8 years.  At my firm, we have people who graduated from Claremont, Scripps, Occidental and Redlands.  Other people in LA went to Azusa Pacific, Cal Poly Pomona and Cal State Dominquez Hills.  The LA Times Sunday morning sports section listed about 150 college basketball scores from the night before.  The list included Elms 82 Regis (Mass.) 63, Richard Stockton 71 William Patterson 60 (a one-on-one game?), Cornerstone 88 Marygrove 66, Lees-McRae 60 Coker 58,  and Park 58 Hannibal-LaGrange 50 (a bit too close to Hannibal Lechter for my taste).  I played college basketball for 4 years, coached it for 8 – and I have no idea where any of these schools are.  Yet, they made the LA Times sports section – but Claremont, Oxy, Redlands, Pomona, Chapman, Cal Poly Pomona, Azusa Pacific, and Cal State Dominguez Hills did not.  When I mentioned this to my Sunday morning hoop group, someone pointed out that I could go online and get the scores I wanted on-line.  Which of course means that the LA Times print edition decision not to list local basketball scores (despite listing similar scores from around the country (even red states) has the practical effect of pushing people away from print and to the internet.  Nice business plan.

7.      Everyone who was at the Heat – Laker game was lucky to be there.  As in the Nike as campaign for Lebron, we were all witnesses.  http://www.fanpop.com/clubs/lebron-james/images/546521/title/all-witnesses-wallpaper  I am sure that virtually everyone at the game walked out with the blasphemous thought that maybe, just maybe, he will wind up being better that Saint Michael Jordan.  From our seats in Row 6, we were eye-level with the rim – as was Lebron on that first quarter dunk.  On one play, he got the ball in the backcourt, and as he dribbled up court, he saw before he reached half-court that he could get to the rim.  I really think I heard the turbo boosters kick in -- WHOOOOOOSH – and four steps later he was at the rim.  Thanks to Ken for letting us be Witnesses.

8.      My dad’s birthday is today.  One of the best things he ever did for me growing up was to plan his schedule (he was on the road a lot) so that he didn’t miss any of my high school basketball games.  Thanks Dad – and happy birthday.  Or as they say on the Big Island -- Hau`oli lã hanau.

Sad Water and Thunder Snow

My daughter Alissa, who I have mentioned before in this fake blog, is a senior in high school this year.  I take her to school most days, and it is often the highlight of the day. 

Alissa is playing soccer for her high school, playing a position called “sweeper”.  Surprisingly, this does not mean she sweeps up after games – instead, she is the crucial last line of defense.  Even though she didn’t play her freshman and sophomore years, and was only a sometime starter last year, this year she is starting and playing virtually the whole game every game, even though the team is much better:  5 wins, 1 tie, 1 narrow loss so far.  

I don’t know if she will play in college, as college teams at all levels are generally composed of only the very best players on their high school teams.  (Contrary to the myth that anyone is good enough to play Division 3 sports.)  Nonetheless, yesterday morning we were talking about her trying out for the team next year if she goes to a small school.  We know that she probably wouldn’t actually make it or would be a bench person, but it is a great way for a freshman away from home to meet people on the new campus.  I used the phrase “Instant friends” to describe the players on the team -- to which she replied with something that I heard as “Sad Water”.  I had no idea what she meant, but it did sound like it could be an actual expression, or at least the name of some great Indian Chief who played lacrosse centuries ago.  In a moment, I realized she has said “Just add water” to my “instant friends” comment, and we both laughed a lot.

After I dropped her off, I turned to NPR news, where they were talking about the snowstorms blowing across the mid-west.  Apparently, these storms include both lightning, thunder and heavy snow –  the thunder and lightning during a snow storm is something most of us haven’t witnessed, even if we have lived in cold climates.  NPR then called this condition “Thunder Snow”.  What a great expression – almost the “polar” opposite (pun intended) of “sad water”.  This juxtaposition led me to do what hundreds of you have been clamoring for –  do my basketball analysis fake blog about the Lakers.  (Or more accurately, what several of you have gently inquired about – “hey, what do you think about the Lakers?”).  So here it is – my holiday gift to each of you. 

“Sad Water and Thunder Snow – My take on the best team money tried to buy.”

And if you order in the next ten minutes, my final recap of last year’s Finals between two other weather events (Heat vs. Thunder) is free, free, free, or at least attached at the bottom of this one.

TOP HEAVY:  The Lakers were consciously designed as a top heavy team.  They have 3 maximum salary guys (Kobe, Pao, Dwight) and one close to it (Nash).  When that happens, the rest of the team is necessarily limited because of the salary cap – -unless the GM is great at filling the bottom of the roster with quality low income guys.  Mitch has not been, unlike, for instance, the Spurs GM.  This top heaviness also means that if one of the top 4 is out, it is a big drop off.  For the first 30 games of the season, the Lakers have had one guy (Nash) out the entire time, another (Pao) either playing hurt or out altogether, and a third (Dwight) still playing at 80% after back surgery.  Put simply, it is too early to panic – there will be plenty of time to panic later.

And another thing – who would have turned down either deal that brought Dwight and Nash?  Lakers gave up Bynum for Dwight – Bynum hasn’t played a minute, unless you count bowling.  We got Nash for a “trade exception”.  While Nash has only played one full game, that is one more game than a “trade exception” plays.

TWIN TOWERS:

Will the Twin Tower concept work?  Who knows?  (See the previous paragraph.)  Pao and Bynum played very well together at times – especially on D and rebounding (at both ends).  Dwight and Pao barely know each other  Give it time.  Speaking of time, if you assume that both will play about 32 minutes, one or the other can be the sole post about 16 minutes of the time.  Without Pao, those 16 non-Dwight minutes would got to Sacre.  Sacre bleu, no! 

With Pao and Dwight, we can also match up well with two other top Western Conference teams – OKC, which plays Dead Man Walking Perkins along with Ibaka, and the Spurs, who play Duncan and Splitter together.

METTA:

Frankly, Metta is playing well, much better than I would have thought.  And using him at the 4 when Pao or Dwight is out means we don’t have to play Jamison, who can’t cover anyone.  Who ever thought Metta would be the glue guy?  Losing the extra 20 pounds sure helped.

MEEKS:

Playing Metta at 4 has opened up time for Jodie Meeks.  Playing in the D’Antoni system is great for a good shooter.  Shooters always shoot better when they shoot without hesitation knowing the coaching staff wants them to let it fly.  The D’Antoni system has ALWAYS been great for shooters, and even made shooters out of guys who previously not.  Meeks already was a good shooter – let’s see if he can become a better one.  Key to the season?  Perhaps.

POINT GUARDS;

Lakers have been playing their 3^rd and 4^th options, neither of whom should be playing at all (though Morris is actually a pretty good defender).  Who would have thought we would miss Steve Blake?

KOBE:

He continues to take bad shots, especially in the last 2 minutes.  He is nowhere near the defender he once was.  He turns it over too much, though that should improve when Nash comes back.  But the dude is leading the league in scoring at 34 years old, and shooting his highest percentage in years, both from 2 and 3.  Put it another way – he is scoring more than Kevin Durant, who has only one other guy allowed to shoot in the starting line-up.  Kobe is a force of nature.  I worry about what he will do with himself when he retires.  Will he find a new way to channel that intensity, or will he somehow learn to dial back?  The other options aren’t good.

D-12

He is playing significant minutes even though he was not supposed to be playing at all yet.  He is about 80% (and I don’t mean his free throws), playing a new system (after spending training camp learning a different system) with all new teammates -- and is still averaging 18 and 11.  Good player at 80%, and will get better.  Also, might have the biggest smile ever put on a guy.

OTHER TEAMS

Clippers are playing much better than anyone expected.  If you were a Clipper fan 5 years ago, you are entitled to be a fan now.  Otherwise, no bandwagon jumping.  To qualify, you must nod knowingly at this old piece from the Onion (courtesy of Thunder Dan Hoffer.  http://www.theonion.com/video/fatal-staples-center-collapse-brings-merciful-earl,14379/

Spurs are still the new-Spurs.  Two nights ago they played all 12 guys more than 10 minutes –unlike the Lakers, the Spurs 6 -12 guys all contribute.  Duncan is still very good.  My man Manu is banged up, but they still win almost all their games.

OKC (the Snow Thunder?) have only 2 starters who can score, they play Dead Man Walking Perkins 20 minutes a game (normal line is 0 points, 0 assists, 4 or 5 boards), and they just won 12 in a row.  Ah, youth.

The Heat will be in the Finals.  Lebron has scored over 20 every game this year, the fourth longest opening streak in NBA history.  Ray Allen was the perfect pick-up for this team.  But as I said last year, a team with a legitimate post presence, like D-12, forces them to play one of their crappy post players, and that interferes with everything they do at the other end.

SAD WATER

I can’t think of a single way to work the expression Sad Water into this fake-blog.  But I still loved the Alissa story – and it did spur me to write something down for the masses.  Masses, this is for you.  Happy holidays to all – this is the only gift you will get from me.  I assume your family and friends will treat you right.  If not, you can just chalk it up to Sad Water.  Hey, I used it!  Maybe it will go viral.  Happy New Year and Sad Water to all.

Who do you want to win?

The comment from Claremont hoops legend Henry Albrecht -- 89% of the Seattle Supersonic fans root against their former team -- brought to mind Jerry Seinfeld's comment about rooting for the local team, which is rarely comprised of players from that town: 

“So you’re rooting for a shirt. We’re cheering for laundry.”

One minute all those Sonic fans were rooting for the players on the team -- the next, they want them to lose every game.  Cavs fans lived and died with Lebron -- and now passionately want Lebron to fail, along with every other member of the Miami Heat.  I always liked Duke, and former Duke star Shane Battier. Now he is playing with Lebron, and to support my friends from Cleveland, and because I didn't like the hubris of the Wade, Bosh, Lebron coupling, I root against the Heat too, along with much of America.   In last year's Finals, everyone outside of South Florida rooted for a team from Texas owned by Mark Cuban whose star is from Germany against a team whose stars all represented the USA in the last Olympics. 

Most disgustedly, last night I was rooting for the damn Celtics.  I felt like I needed to take a shower after last night's game to get the Celtic Green off my soul.  Luckily, it hadn't soaked in and was easily removed -- and will be long gone if the Celtics are in the Finals.  I will feel much better about myself as a person when I get back to hoping all the Celtics foul out in the first quarter of each game against either Western Conference team.

How do we do decide who we want to win?  A lot is passed down from family. I have been a Dodger and Laker fan forever, and was a Rams fan until they left town for St. Louis (though I never switched to rooting against the Rams for doing so).  Sometimes I root for the "overall happiness" result.  Best example -- USA vs. Canada gold medal game in hockey in the last Winter Olympics.  Because the average USA fan would be fairly pleased with the team getting a Silver Medal, and Canada would have imploded (or frozen over) if they didn't get the Gold, I was perfectly happy with the result (Canada won).  And Canadians are such nice people.  Of course, when the USA beat Russia in the Miracle on Ice, I was of course rooting for that result -- maybe the last time I cared much about a hockey game.

Sometimes people start rooting for a team because they like a particular player.  I think Vince Young's brilliance in college caused many people to root for Texas, including my son, young super broker Pablo -- but I bet not many people have been faithful enough to Vince to root for each of the various NFL teams he has (barely) played for since.  Does anyone even know which team he is on now?  Even so, Pablo continues to root for Texas, and not just because he looks good in that strange burnt orange Longhorn color.

I root for the Spurs because of the Popovich factor, which led to an appreciation of how well they play the game -- and an appreciation of my man Manu and how damn hard he competes.  Even in the loss of critical Game 5, everyone watching must have respected his passion.  Frankly, both teams played really really hard -- they passed my "do they care" test on defense virtually every possession, even though both teams were still good offensively.

Watching that game, it was clear to me that the Lakers could not have beaten either of them playing at this level.  The Thunder, perhaps because they knew they were underdogs, have raised their game to a new level in this series, knocking the Spurs back on their heels.  (Has any team ever won 20 in a row, then lost 3, or 4, in a row?)  Surprisingly, it is the Spurs bench, a strength all season long, that is letting them down.  With Duncan on the floor in Game 5, the Spurs were +17, with Manu + 13.  With Stephen Jackson on the floor, the Spurs were -15 in his 30 minutes, -17 with Gary Neal for 15 minutes, -12 with Tiaggo Splitter in 10 minutes, and -10 with Blair in 7 minutes.  Yikes. 

If OKC wins one of the next two, I would be very surprised if either Boston or Miami could keep up with them in the Finals.  Celtics won last night with Pierce going 6 for 19, Ray Allen 2 for 9, and Rondo 3 for 15 (last time he played in Miami, he scored 44!).  That type of production may beat the offensively lopsided Heat. It won't beat the Thunder. 

It also won't beat the Spurs, who are still alive -- especially if they can avoid the turnovers that lead to dunks at the other end, shots on which the Thunder shoot 100%.  Mis-leading stat of the day is "points on turnovers".  The only turnovers that leaddirectly to points are "live turnovers'' that the defense can immediately convert to points.  A steal is a "live turnover", often leading to a dunk or other easy basket.  A 3-second call, an offensive foul, a travel, even a ball thrown into the seats, do not lead to anything except the defense getting to take the ball out of bounds while the offense sets its defense at the other end -- it is a chance to run a half-court offense.  While all turnovers are bad -- they deny the offense a chance to score and/or get a foul on the other team, the "live turnovers" are the killers.  And the Thunder are great at converting these types of turnovers into hoops.

With OKC's youth and talent, and with how they have improved and grown up in this series, and if they beat the Spurs, would a victory in the Finals be the first of several crowns?  If so, their Big 3 will need to start getting some nicknames. 

I would start by giving James Harden a nickname other than Ginobili 2.0.   How about James "the Dictator" Harden?   

James Harden, The Dictator

Tears are part of what we are -- March Madness and Sad Water

All -- This fake blog won't deal with the NBA.  Instead, it addresses college basketball, high school soccer, and related stuff.  More NBA comments once we get to the playoffs (or for the Lakers, IF we get to the playoffs).

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March Madness.  Every basketball fan loves it.  Every basketball player dreams of playing in it.  We all remember the highlights of the Tourney - here are 75 of them   http://espn.go.com/ncb/feature/video/_/page/Top75moments/ncaa-75-college-basketball

Other than winning the championship game, the biggest celebrations often occur in that moment when a team wins its league tournament, or receives its invite on Selection Sunday, and thereby qualifies to go to the "Big Dance".  A wild celebration ensues - even though the celebrating teams are almost certainly setting themselves up for tears.  Of the 68 teams which celebrate getting in, 67 will lose their last game.  Of those 68 teams which celebrate getting in, 52 are sent home that first weekend.  Those losing locker rooms have many tears, especially the seniors, most of whom will never play "organized ball" again.

In my last fake blog, I talked about super-daughter Alissa and the possibility of her trying out for the soccer team when she goes to college this year.  This led to the "invention" of the phrase "sad water - to remind you....

"I don't know if she will play in college, as college teams at all levels are generally composed of only the very best players on their high school teams.  (Contrary to the myth that anyone is good enough to play Division 3 sports.)  Nonetheless, yesterday morning we were talking about her trying out for the team next year if she goes to a small school.  Whether she makes the team or not,  it is a great way for a freshman away from home to meet people on the new campus.  I used the phrase "Instant friends" to describe the players on the team -- to which she replied with something that I heard as "Sad Water".  I had no idea what she meant, but it did sound like it could be an actual expression, or at least the name of some great Chief who played lacrosse centuries ago.  In a moment, I realized she has said "Just add water" to respond to my "instant friends" comment, and we both laughed a lot."

Since that time, we have used the phrase "sad water" to mean tears.  This became even more meaningful when her wonderfully close-knit varsity soccer team did what most all teams do - they lost their last game.

After being a fairly weak team the year before, their new coach this year molded the team into a powerhouse - both because of their skills and teamwork, and because the team cared about playing the game the right way.  Watching them play, I finally understood why soccer is called "The Beautiful Game".

During the year, the team knocked off the top ranked team in their division and won most of their games.  They also turned the tables on several teams who had crushed them the year before.  Alissa's team (Crossroads) beat one of those teams (Archer) in the last regular season game.  Archer knew they would not be making the playoffs this year, and that this would be their last game.  They were extremely motivated to go out with a win - especially the Archer seniors.  With the score tied 1 - 1, Crossroads' wondrous midfielder scored in the last minute, clinching the win.  The team, and our sideline, exploded in joy.  At exactly the same time as our joyous celebration, several of the Archer girls, knowing that their season (and careers) were over, collapsed to the ground in tears.  Much sad water.

Crossroads then went to the playoffs and  won two playoff games.  The second win was the final home game of the year, and all the seniors got a rose.  Many smiles all around.  A picture of Alissa, with her rose and her smile, is attached below.

With that win, the team was now in the CIF quarterfinals.  Unfortunately, though they played valiantly,  they lost 3 -1, in a hard-fought game.  They went down swinging, but, as in all games, one teams loses.  Sad water all around, a lot of it.

That evening at home, my wise daughter told me she and her team were crying not because they lost (though that was part of it), but because their special season was over.  It was the loss of the team, and the camaraderie, not the loss of the game, that hurt so much.  As I said, very wise.

Her comment made me realize that not all teams dread the end of the season.  Some teams don't have that feeling of camaraderie.  My oldest son, super-broker Pablo, was an outstanding high school basketball player - all-league at Santa Monica High in the tough Bay league.  His high school coach was not a good guy and went out of his way to make the team miserable.  In their final playoff game Pablo's senior year, the game went to overtime against a team the coach believed was not as good as Pablo's team.  The coach's "pep talk" before overtime was telling the team how much he didn't like them.  When they lost in overtime - surprise! - the team did not shed much sad water.  As they say, there wasn't a wet eye in the house.  The team, especially the seniors, was in many ways glad it was over.

Pablo then went to play junior college ball at College of the Sequoias - and had the opposite experience.  They had a great coach, and the team was a band of brothers who loved playing together.  In the second year, the team was ranked No. 1 in the state for a good part of the year, and went to the Final Four for California.  Unfortunately, they didn't win - and justifiably earned the right to shed sad water.  We now know that the shedding of sad water was an extremely good thing.  When losing hurts enough to cry at the end, that proves you cared.  If we are very lucky, tears are part of what we are.  I hope that the 67 teams that lose during March Madness care enough to cry when their seasons end.

Jesse Winchester wrote and sings a song called "If Only", lyrics below.  Click on the link below for the song itself.  Enjoy March Madness, for both the one team that wins it all, and the 67 other winning teams that don't.

"If we only lived on the ocean floor
Below the waves and the storm and roar
We'd stroll along in our garden blue
Where the flowers all come and play with you It's true we'll live in a great big tear But the world above will never harm us here

Oh I, I just wonder where would I
Be without the tears I've cried
Unless you're from another star
Tears are part of what we are."

http://www.myspace.com/jessewinchestermusic/music/songs/if-only-lp-version-29883085

NBA Finals !!

For the NBA Finals, I have stolen two quotes.  The first is from a piece with a quote which great SI writer Joe Posnanski himself stole from the original Hustler, with Jackie Gleason and Paul Newman.  This is Newman talking, and what he says applies to any athlete who has had "that feeling" at some point in his life.  Joe put this in his piece after Lebron's Game 6.

 "Why’d I do it Sarah? Why’d I do it? I coulda beat that guy. I coulda beat him cold. He never woulda known. But I just had to show him. I just had to show those creeps and those punks what the game is like when it’s great, when it’s really great. You know, like anything can be great. Anything can be great. I don’t care: Bricklaying can be great … if a guy knows. If he knows what he’s doing and why, and if he can make it come off.

I mean when it’s going, when I’m really going, I feel like … like a jockey must feel. He’s sitting on his horse, he’s got all that speed and that power underneath him. He’s coming into the stretch, the pressure’s on him -- and he knows, just feels, when to let it go, and how much. ‘Cause he’s got everything working for him -- timing, touch. It’s a great feeling, boy. It’s a great feeling when you’re right, and you know you’re right. It’s like all of a sudden I got oil in my arm. Pool cue’s part of me. You know it’s … pool cue’s got nerves in it. It’s a piece of wood, but it’s got nerves in it. You feel the roll of those balls, boy, you don’t have to look. You just know. … You make shots that nobody’s made before you. And you play that game the way nobody’s ever played it before.”

In much fewer words, my brother and uber-skier Mark said the same thing with some fake haiku which fits well into this fake blog;

Wouldn't life be sweet
Living in the rareified air
Elbows  

above the rim
 

More than in years past, this Finals is likely to have much "Wow, did you just see that?" -- perhaps more than any other Finals in terms of sheer wow-factor.  Reminiscent perhaps of Houston-Louisville from the 1983 Final Four: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0BkTNb6roKg  

We are guaranteed to see highlight reel dunks from Lebron, "and one" drives from the Dictator and Wade, silky "nothing but net" jumpers and floaters from Durant and Bosh, incredible athleticism from Westbrook, and out of nowhere blocks from Ibaka.  Unfortunately, we will also see illegal screens from Perkins -- but with no one on Miami for Perkins to cover, we shouldn't see him on the floor much.  Which makes it easier for everyone in LA to root for the Tsunami over the Heat.

Trivia point of the day, which I haven't seen mentioned anywhere else:  This is first NBA Finals in which both team names are in the singular.  Certainly makes it difficult for all bloggers to know whether to use "is" or "are" when talking about the teams.  The Thunder is going to win, the Heat are going to lose, or vice versa

In my Sunday morning game, I ran a contest to pick the winner of the series.  Predicting with our hearts, not our minds, we have 12 picks for OKC, 2 for Miami.  In truth, with the addition of Bosh to the Heat line-up, the series is as close to a coin flip as one could imagine.  As a result, more than any other recent series, it will likely be decided not by the highlight plays listed above, but by the little things, like free throw percentages, getting loose balls and close calls, "live" turnovers that lead to immediate hoops at the other end -- and which team will have a non-Big 3 player step up and win a game or two.  OKC was able to prevail over the Spurs because of unexpected contributions from Ibaka, Sefalosha and DFish, and Miami beat Boston with surprising contributions from Battier and Chalmers -- and an unexpected game from Bosh in Game 7.  His three 3s were more than he had ever made in any game ever.  The fact that he had not made that many in a game is not surprising since he is a career 29% 3-point shooter.  Don't expect him to do it again, and don't expect Ibaka to go 11 for 11 in a game either.

The Finals are here.  Last year was the first time in a while that one of my teams (Lakers and Spurs) was not in the Finals.  That definitely reduced the stress, and had the added advantage of making it easier to sit back and enjoy the show.  With these Finals, that will be great -- these Finals should be an absolute blast.