Go Clock Go (6/11/14) [under construction]

As many commentators have noted, last night’s Game Three was a remarkable display of offensive basketball.

 

In the first half, Miami shot 56% from the floor, plus 50% from three (making 7 threes), for an effective shooting percentage of 66% (because, you know, threes are worth more than twos).  The result of that shooting display by the home squad:  The Heat down 21 points. 

 

Claremont All-American Chris Greene was nice enough to send the half-time stat sheet from inside the American Airlines Arena, knowing it would get him a shout out in this fake blog for Game Three.  Note the Spurs effective shooting percentage:  86%, plus 14 free throws.  Put another way:  71 points on 33 shots.  At one point, the Spurs were 19 for 21, including 6 threes – effective shooting percentage of over 100%.   As Popovich said after the game: Crazy.

 

 

 

 

You may wonder why this edition is entitled “Go Clock Go”.  That was an expression we used when we had a decent but not overpowering lead late in the game.  At those moments, the faster the clock runs, the better for the team in the lead.  Last night, the Spurs were so dominant early that I began the Go Clock Go chant halfway through the second quarter.

 

The other thing I remembered last night is how nerve-wracking it is to have an early big lead early.  While getting blown out early isn’t pleasant for the team on the receiving end, it also gives that team so much more time to fight back.  Which also caused me to write the following on my notes just after I began the Go Clock Go chant:  “ If the Spurs blow this lead, they will not win this series.”

 

As we all know, the Spurs did not blow the lead, and the series goes on.  But you know what:  They thought about it. 

 

Miami went on a 6 – 0 run in the first 46 seconds of the third quarter, cutting the lead to 15.  I know, 15 sounds like a big lead, but not when it was 21 46 seconds earlier.  And it got worse.  After futzing around for much of the third quarter (the Spurs scored 15 in the entire quarter after scoring 71 in the first half), Miami cut the lead to only seven (7) points with two minutes left in the quarter.  In what might have been the most important shot of the game, Marco Belinelli (who did not play a second in the first half) drilled a three.  It was the only shot he made all night.  The lead was back to ten, and all right-thinking basketball fans breathed a sigh of relief.

 

In the fourth quarter, the lead never dropped below ten, largely because the Heat stopped scoring – they scored only 17 in the fourth.  Ultimately, the clock did its job, Go Clock Go worked, and the game ended.  Of course, many of the hardy Heat fans had bailed out long before, as is their custom.

 

Other thoughts (or stolen stats):

 

1.       Miami has turned the ball over on 19.9 percent of its possessions in this series, a number that would have been the worst in the league for the season.  And San Antonio is not traditionally a team that forces turnovers.

2.       Kawhi Leonard had not broken double figures in points in either of the first two games.  Last night, he broke double figures in the first 4 minutes.

3.       In the prior series, the Thunder offense often devolved into 4 guys watch Kevin Durant or Russell Westbrook go one on one.  While the Heat offense generally does a good job moving players and the ball, they have also fallen into the habit of watching Lebron or Wade go one on one – especially when Lebron gets hot, as he did in Game Two, but did not repeat last night.

4.       After Game Two, I said that one reason for the Spurs to be confident about Game Three was that Lebron was unlikely to repeat his shooting performance that won Game Two:

 “Another reason for some level of confidence:  Lebron shot 11 times in the second half, all from distance.  He made 5 of 8 “long 2s”, all well-defended, several with the shot clock winding down.  During the season, he shot 38% on long 2s.  He went 3 for 3 from three.  During the season, he did not shoot 100% from three.”

The same analysis applies to the Heat for Game Four.  Since no one in the history of NBA playoff basketball has had an offensive half like the Spurs did in Game Three, it is highly unlikely that the Spurs will do it again on Thursday.   Which is why the Heat, not the Spurs, are 5 point favorites for Game Four.

 

That being said, that first half was something basketball fans will talk about for a long time.  Some people with much more skill than me made some great little montages of various plays.  I have borrowed one of them that was especially creative.  Note that all 5 Spurs touch the ball, with 6 passes, all perfect, and two guys cutting at the end, leading to an off-hand lay-up by my favorite player.  This only takes 60 seconds – go ahead, live it up, and watch:

 

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=uTFrWoMx8d8

 

 

 

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No cramps, no bloating, only baskets for Lebron -- Game Two (6/9/14) [under construction]

A Stat I Stole:

 

“Dating from the 2011-12 season, up to and including last night’s Game 2, the Heat and the Spurs have played 14 games. In those 14 games, the Heat have scored a total of 1,385 points and the Spurs have scored 1,386 points.” 

 

Manu’s “clutch” and meaningless 3 at the buzzer last night puts the Spurs up one for this fake stat.

 

And another stat I stole:  In the third quarter of Game Two, the teams combined for 69 points with only two turnovers between them.  That, my friends, is some good playing.

 

All this led to the result – A down to the wire game that the Heat won.  (If you didn’t know the Heat won, you are not allowed to read further.)   You will hear that this game “was decided in the last minute”, or perhaps in “the last 1:17” which is when Bosh made the three pointer to change a one point deficit into a two point lead.  In fact,  games are never decided in the last minute.  All the plays that happen earlier also decide the final score.  Put another way, the points scored or allowed in the first quarter happen to count just as much as the points scored or allowed in the fourth. 

 

Put yet another way, I used to tell my players – “this isn’t Double Jeopardy”.  In the TV game show that has been on the air since before television was invented, correct “questions” in the second round count double.  In basketball, points in the second half count the same as those scored earlier.   Which means that all these earlier moments helped decide Game Two:

 

SECOND QUARTER, SPURS UP 30 -19.   Bellinelli misses wide open 3, so the Spurs don’t score.  On the subsequent possession, both Bellinelli and Diaw go with the roller in a pick and roll situation, instead of some guy with the ball named Ray Allen.  Allen drills the wide-open three.

 

After a steal by Kawhi Leonard, Tiago Splitter decides to go “coast to coast” with the ball, crashing into traffic at the rim.  Unfortunately, Splitter doesn’t make it all the way to the coast, instead running into a roadblock near San Bernardino.  The Spurs don’t score.

 

The next time Splitter gets the ball, he wisely gives it to another Spur.  Unfortunately, that Spur then gives the ball back to Splitter, who then decides to give it to Miami.   The Spurs don’t score. 

 

So even though Miami only scored the gift three to Allen, the Spurs miss the chance to go up something like 37 – 22.  Instead, when the Spurs miss a couple more shots, Miami decides to score some themselves, and the game goes from a big Spurs lead to a dogfight.  I would have preferred the big lead. 

 

Here is that skirmish, one that caused me to write in my notes: “Worst Two Minutes Ever”.  An exaggeration, but the Splitter “coast to coast” was still fresh in my memory banks.

 

10:18		19-30	Kawhi Leonard misses jumper
10:17		19-30	Tiago Splitter offensive rebound
10:06	Ray Allen personal foul (Marco Belinelli draws the foul)	19-30
9:55		19-30	Marco Belinelli misses 25-foot three point jumper
9:53	LeBron James defensive rebound	19-30
9:40	Ray Allen makes 25-foot three point jumper	22-30
9:38	Spurs Full timeout
9:38		22-30	Tony Parker enters the game for Patty Mills
9:38	Rashard Lewis enters the game for Chris Andersen	22-30
9:17		22-30	Tony Parker lost ball turnover (Dwyane Wade steals)
9:07	Dwyane Wade lost ball turnover (Kawhi Leonard steals)	22-30
9:02		22-30	Chris Bosh blocks Tiago Splitter's layup
9:00	Ray Allen defensive rebound	22-30
8:45	Rashard Lewis misses 23-foot three point jumper	22-30
8:45		22-30	Tiago Splitter defensive rebound
8:33		22-30	Tiago Splitter bad pass (Ray Allen steals)
8:29	Dwyane Wade makes layup (LeBron James assists)	24-30
8:00		24-30	Kawhi Leonard misses 16-foot jumper
7:58	LeBron James defensive rebound	24-30
7:52	LeBron James makes layup	26-30
7:37		26-30	Tony Parker misses three point jumper
7:35	LeBron James defensive rebound	26-30
7:31	LeBron James makes layup	28-30

 

 

And here is a play that led to two free throws, and another two points that made the difference, and not just because the fake foul call on Manu was his third.  I hope the NBA fines DWade, though I would rather have the two points back.

 

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2090514-dwyane-wade-draws-foul-on-manu-ginobili-after-pretending-to-get-hit-in-face?utm_source=cnn.com&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=cnn-sports-bin&hpt=hp_bn15#articles/2090514-dwyane-wade-draws-foul-on-manu-ginobili-after-pretending-to-get-hit-in-face

 

I understand Manu was shocked, just shocked, that flopping is going on in here.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SjbPi00k_ME 

 

The Spurs also gave away two points at the end of the first quarter.  On an inbounds play in front of the Spurs bench with 3 seconds left, Splitter set a screen away from the ball, immediately slipped the screen and cut to the rim, was hit with a perfect pass – and air-balled the lay-up.  Coaches love drawing up these types of plays.  Less so when your seven-footer doesn’t hit the rim with the shot.

 

Of course, the other points “given away” were the four consecutive free throws the Spurs missed after the Mario Chalmers flagrant foul elbow to Parker’s rib cage.  That elbow could have broken a rib, and certainly led to Parker short-arming each of his two free throws.  For good measure, and perhaps in a show of solidarity, Tim Duncan then immediately short-armed his two free throws moments later.  Four points the Spurs didn’t score, and which would have been nice to have in the bank during the last five minutes.

In those last five minutes, Miami largely went “big big”.  They removed Chalmers, played Lebron as “point guard”, kept Birdman as the 5, with Bosh/Voldemort as 4, with Wade and Allen as wings.  This put Lebron on Parker (as the Heat did for much of Games 6 and 7) and allowed the Heat to switch most screens, effectively bolloxing up the Spurs offense. 

 BOLLOX, alt. bollix: to do (something) badly; bungle (often followed by up ): His interference bollixed up the whole deal.

One other reason the Spurs offense got bollixed up is Duncan’s inability to score on a post-up.  After the game, Pop was talking about the necessity for the Spurs to move the ball and players in order to score:  

"It's how we have to score," Popovich said. "We can't put it in somebody's hands and have them create everything for us. It's got to be a group effort and we didn't do that. That puts a lot of pressure on everything else. It means we're going to have to be perfect on defense, we can't miss four free throws in a row, those sorts of things. You move it or you die."

In the old days, the Spurs could put it in Duncan’s hands and he would create.  He would score if not double teamed, or pass to shooters and cutters if doubled.  Now, virtually all of Duncan’s points are created by someone else – a penetration, a seal and drop pass, or a tip in of a missed shot.  He still gets his 20 per game on this stuff (he has great hands and instincts), but the days of dumping the ball into TD in the post and having good things happen are gone.  The Spurs were hoping that Kawhi Leonard might be the guy who could create.  That hasn’t happened yet in this series (unlike last year’s Finals, when he was the breakout star).

Other thoughts:

1.      The Spurs going on the road for Games 3 and 4 does not scare them as much as it would other teams.  The Spurs were 30 – 11 on the road this year.  Put another way, if they played the entire season on the road, their projected record would have been 60 - 22.  That would have been the best record in the NBA this year.

2.      Another reason for some level of confidence:  Lebron shot 11 times in the second half, all from distance.  He made 5 of 8 “long 2s”, all well-defended, several with the shot clock winding down.  During the season, he shot 38% on long 2s.  He went 3 for 3 from three.  During the season, he did not shoot 100% from three.

3.      The Spurs had 11 offensive rebounds on 46 misses, a decent but not great 24% -- but still much better than Miami’s 5 on 43 misses, 12%.  Of course, the Spurs gave away this six possession advantage by not shooting as well as the Heat, either from the field or the free throw line.

4.      Watch this play – so much is going on.  This is the Bosh 3 with 1:17 left in the fourth. Click on the picture for the GIF.  From the top:

 

Parker is fronting Chalmers, who is setting a ball screen for Lebron.  But instead of stepping in front of Lebron, Parker picks off Leonard.  Fronting the screener can be effective, but Parker is facing the wrong way.  If he faces Lebron, he might blow up the screen and roll – instead Parker blows up Leonard.  Duncan comes from the weakside to cut off the drive – but it should have been Diaw helping.  Diaw was covering DWade in the corner, instead of Duncan leaving the better shooter, Bosh.  Leonard, wiped out by Parker on the screen, nonetheless (showing remarkable instincts and hustle) recovers to run at Bosh in the distant corner – but the perfectly timed pass to Bosh allows him to catch and release before Leonard can get there.  And the Heat, down two, go up by one and win Game Two.  Now everyone takes their talents to South Beach for Game Three.

 

As always, feel free to forward.  And if you tried to read this on your phone, your appreciation of the finer points of this fake blog will be enhanced by reading on an actual computer.

 

Things to watch for in the Finals, and more

These are a few things to look for while you watch the games, and other comments:

1.       The obvious thing to watch, throughout the series:  Tony Parker’s health.  Luckily, in Boris Diaw, the Spurs are the only NBA team with an extra Frenchman.  And for good measure, the Spurs also have the hero of Game 6 against the Thunder Corey Joseph.  He was born in Canada –  a country with two official languages:  English and French.  The Spurs have one and a half Frenchmen in reserve.  That, my friends, is being prepared.

2.       On a related subject, I was reading a Spurs article in which new Spurs guard Marco Bellinelli described how great it was to have Manu on the team, because sometimes Marco needs to have Manu explain plays and defensive rotations to Marco in Italian.  It’s funny because Manu is from Argentina, not Italy.  Ah, to be multi-lingual.

3         Watch for the teams “going small”, “going big small” or “going big”:   When I was growing up, which includes up until today, we were always worried about matching up against teams that were bigger.  In high school, that often meant falling back into a zone and trying to protect the basket.  In my Thursday and Sunday games, it means trying to have enough bigs on each team to keep the teams balanced.  In the NBA now, teams are doing the opposite. They are “going small” and forcing big guys to try to cover smaller guys spotting up at the three-point line – and worrying less about the big guys posting up smaller defenders. 

Throughout the regular season, and first 2 rounds of the playoffs, the Spurs’ preferred line-up had Tiago Splitter at the five, Duncan at the four.  But when Ibaka came back in Game 3 for the Thunder, and spent Games 3 and 4 hanging around the rim and blocking shots, Pop countered with a Stretch 4 (Matt Bonner or Diaw) who would force Ibaka away from the rim.  Interestingly, Splitter and Duncan could defend Ibaka and Kendrick “The Human Illegal Screen” Perkins.   Ibaka is not a true Stretch 4 and Perkins couldn’t score on his honeymoon.  However, Splitter’s own lack of range allowed Ibaka to stay near the rim when the Spurs had the ball, and muck up the Spurs’ ability to attack the basket – so it was offense, not defense, that forced the Spurs’ adjustment.   In Games 5 and 6, Splitter and Duncan were never on the floor together.

Miami did the same thing to Indiana.  After spending most of the season starting Voldemort (Bosh) and another big (Haslem), Miami switched to having Voldemort and Rashard Lewis as starters – both capable 3 point shooters – thereby exposing Indiana’s huge Roy Hibbert’s inability to defend away from the rim.

In the Finals, will either team return to their bigger line-up, or will they stay “small”? 

Also remember Miami’s ability to go “big small”, which is what I call it when they play without a true point guard or center.  A team with Lebron or DWade handling the ball, with Voldemort, Ray Allen and Lewis, has no true bigs and no true point guard – but has five guys who can spread the floor, attack the rim and defend everyone on the other team.  In the 80s, I attended a lecture by Pat Riley in which he said his dream team was to have 5 interchangeable guys like Magic, all 6’7’’ or 6’8’’.  The 5  Miami guys I just listed are close to what Riley described 25 years ago.  Interestingly, the Spurs can go “big small” too – with Manu playing point, with Danny Green, Bellinelli, Diaw, and Kawhi Leonard also on the floor.

4.       ESPN had a poll – by states – asking “who do you want to win”?  Nationwide, the Spurs “won” handily. The  Spurs were the most popular in Texas (of course), followed by Massachusetts (Celtic fans upset that Lebron is now on All Time team instead of Larry Bird), Oklahoma (wishes it were Texas), and Indiana (who the Heat just beat like a drum).  The only state rooting for the Heat is Florida.

Side note:  A prior fake blog, entitled Who Do You Want to Win, was written the year after the Dallas Mavericks beat the first Miami Big Three team.  I wrote: 

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.

I find it interesting that 3 years later, most of America continues to root against the Heat – which is now playing a team that has more non-U.S. born players than U.S. players. Is this a residual effect from the Decision? Rooting against the Goliath, rooting for the Spurs -- or something else?

5.       The most important statistic in determining who wins a particular game is. . .  the final score.  However, a hidden stat I have discussed before (and which newcomers to this fake blog have not previously heard from me) is percentage of offensive rebounds on a team’s missed shots.  A good number for the offense is above 25 or 30 per cent.  Thus, a team that misses 60 shots from the field would want to get 15 to 18 offensive rebounds.  This stat is much more important than total rebounds, though that is the stat you hear most.

Another misleading stat you hear a lot is “points after turnovers”.  Turnovers lead to better scoring opportunities only if they are “live ball turnovers” – primarily steals.  A dead ball turnover – a travel, offensive foul or ball out of bounds, allows the defense to get set, while a “live ball” turnover does not.  The latter often leads to highlight dunks and three point plays.   This year in the NBA, teams shot an effective 61%  after “live ball turnovers”, but only 46% after dead ball turnovers.  For this reason, the “points after turnovers” statistic is fairly useless if it does not distinguish between live and dead ball turnovers.   While watching the game, watch for live ball turnovers.  Blocked shots that are recovered by the defense (and don’t go out of bounds) are similar.  They often lead to easy baskets the other way.

6.       All-NBA teams were just announced:  “The Thunder's Kevin Durant was the lone unanimous selection to the All-NBA First Team, appearing on all 125 ballots. The Heat's LeBron James garnered 124 first-team votes. The Clippers' Chris Paul, the Rockets' James Harden and the Bulls' Joakim Noah also made the first team.” 

Read that again: Lebron got 124 out of 125 votes -- Who didn’t vote for Lebron James for All-NBA First Team? He averaged 27 points, 7 boards and 5 assists per game, shot 56% from the field, and was second team All-Defense. For MVP voting, 123 of the 124 voters had Lebron first or second.  One person had him third.  No one had him 4^th or below.  How could anyone not have him as one of the five First Team NBA guys?

7         Speaking of silly things, the LA Times sports section had an article about the Finals, and of course mentioned last year’s Finals.  The author, who shall remain nameless here, talking about the Spurs devastating loss in Game 6 last year, said:

“There was a Game 7 two days later, though it almost needed an asterisk because San Antonio was already a beaten team.”

What a crock.  The Spurs, supposedly a beaten team, were down 1 on the road going into the 4^th, missed a 3 pointer which would have put them ahead with 1:25 left, and had a Tim Duncan lay-up and follow up tip-in with 46 seconds left that would have tied the game if either went in – which of course they didn’t.  Two players who actually folded in the last game were Heat starters:  Neither Mike Miller nor Voldemort scored a single point  -- Bosh had zero points and five fouls.  Ray Allen, hero of Game 6, also scored zero points in Game 7.  And now a year later this writer describes the Spurs in Game 7 as “already a beaten team”.

I sometimes wonder what people think about when they write stuff. 

(Of course, you may think the same about some of the stuff I write.)

GO SPURS.

 

 

High Noon, again, in the NBA Finals fake blog (6/1/2014)

Former Haverford College teammate, UCLA Law classmate and basketball savant Tony Ciasulli had a great line about the difficulty of being a gunfighter in the Old West:

“Everybody you meet is undefeated.”

While neither the Heat or Spurs are undefeated, they meet again at High Noon.  The Heat are probably asking how the Spurs even played this season after last year’s devastating ending.  The Spurs are thinking that they had the Heat beat last year, and now they need to do it all over again – and hope the bounces go their way this time.  Perhaps home court advantage will make the sliver of difference between winning and losing this time – though remember the Finals have switched from the 2-3-2 format followed for decades to the 2-2-1-1-1 format followed in the earlier rounds.  The Heat had home court advantage, and therefore Games 6 and 7 last year were in Miami.

For those who want to plan their lives around the Finals, here is the schedule:

Game 1: Thu. June 5 at San Antonio, 9 p.m., ABC.Game 2: Sun. June 8 at San Antonio, 8 p.m., ABC.Game 3: Tue. June 10 at Miami, 9 p.m., ABC.Game 4: Thu. June 12 at Miami, 9 p.m., ABC.Game 5*: Sun. June 15 at San Antonio, 8 p.m., ABC.Game 6*: Tue. June 17 at Miami, 9 p.m., ABC.Game 7*: Fri . June 20 at San Antonio, 9 p.m., ABC.

One thing to remember.  The Heat had a much easier trip to the Finals.  First round:  the Charlotte Hornets, who had never been to the playoffs in their existence, whose best player was Al Jefferson – if your best player is Al Jefferson, by definition you are not an elite team.   On top of that, Best Player Al Jefferson was hurt for the series.  By games 3 and 4, he could barely drag his bad foot around the court.  Second round:  Brooklyn Nets.  The Nets were outscored on the season.  All stats guys will tell you that the best way to determine team quality is total points scored vs. total points surrendered.  Much more telling than win-loss record, which has a lot of randomness involved.  And I repeat – Nets were outscored on the season.  Not surprising, since their best players – Garnett, Pierce, Joe Johnson, Duron Williams were all former excellent players.  Take it from me, it is better to have players who are excellent now. 

Miami’s third round series:  The confusing, and confused, Indiana Pacers.  After a great start, they were a .500 team since February 1.  Another telling stat for team quality:  How you played in the most recent games.  In the last 40 games, Indiana was average, and then barely beat a below .500 team in the first round.  Atlanta was 38 – 44 on the season in the awful Eastern Conference, and like the Nets, outscored on the season.

Compare that to the Spurs.  In the first round, they played a 49 win Dallas team that would have been the #3 seed in the East (and who outscored their opponents by over 2 points per game.)  Second round, Spurs played the Portland Trailblazers, who had the same regular season record as a team you may have heard of:  The Miami Heat.  Tellingly, the Blazers outscored opponents by 4.0 per game playing most of their games in the Western Conference, comparable to the Heat’s 4.4 per game playing in the East.

Finally, the Spurs had the Thunder in the WCF.  The Thunder had the second best record in the NBA (second to the Spurs), had outscored opponents by 6.3 per game (43% higher than the Heat) – and got to the conference finals by beating the Clippers (who have been in the news recently) who had a better record than anyone in the East, and had outscored opponents by 7.0 per game.  I am trying to remember what else has been newsworthy about the Clippers…  Oh, now I remember:

Greenberg Glusker Advises Shelly Sterling in the $2 billion sale of the Los Angeles Clippers to Steve Ballmer

 

Greenberg Glusker is lead counsel to Shelly Sterling in the historic $2 billion sale of the Los Angeles Clippers basketball franchise to Steve Ballmer. The Sterling family has owned the Clippers since 1981. Ms. Sterling retained the Los Angeles law firm last month. Pierce O’Donnell, a nationally renowned and accomplished trial attorney who recently joined Greenberg Glusker, is counsel to Ms. Sterling, providing strategic litigation and business advice to help Ms. Sterling navigate the complex and controversial process leading to the sale of the franchise. Bob Baradaran, Managing Partner of the Firm, serves as lead transactional counsel of the Greenberg Glusker deal team that negotiated simultaneously with multiple bidders and achieved the landmark deal in a matter of days. Baradaran serves as outside general counsel to numerous companies in sports and entertainment-related industries and now adds the Los Angeles Clippers to a roster of clients that already includes the Oakland Athletics and San Jose Earthquakes. O’Donnell and Baradaran’s team drew on the Firm’s multi-disciplinary depth, employing litigation, corporate, real estate, entertainment, trust and tax counsel to address all aspects of the transaction.

Anyway, back to the fake blog.  The OKC – Spurs series was a strange beast.  The average margin for victory in the first 5 games of Spurs - OKC was 20.4 per game, with the home team winning each game.  Put another way – a 41 point swing depending on whether the game was in Texas or Oklahoma.  No wonder there are so many tornadoes there.

And game 6 was a doozy (as they would have said in the 1950s).  The Spurs were down 7 at halftime, decided to not play Tony Parker for the second half, and instead started the immortal Corey Joseph.  He had not even played in 4 of the 18 Spur playoff games, which is remarkable since many of the games were blowouts.  Hell, before starting the second half, he hadn’t played in this game.  In the 14 games he had played in, he averaged less than 6 minutes per game.  And like much of what else Pop does – it worked.  In the seven minutes Joseph played, the Spurs outscored OKC by 7, tied up the game, and turned what looked like another potential Thunder home blowout into a barn-burner (as they would have said in the 1940s).

And the game then turned on this play, OKC down 1 with 40 seconds left:

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1xw98f_kawhi-leonard-blocks-russell-westbrook-game-6-wcf_sport

Even the guys in my Sunday morning game wouldn’t call a foul on that one.  Well, some of them would.

The Spurs have two big advantages from the schedule they played in the playoffs.  First, they have been tested, and pushed, much more than the Heat have.  Second, the match-ups have been remarkably similar for the Spurs.  In rounds one and two, each opponent had excellent offensive teams powered by a jump-shooting 4-man and a dynamic scoring point guard (Nowitski/Ellis – Aldridge/Lilliard).  With OKC and Miami, the Spurs face teams with two great players each (KD/Westbrook – Lebron/Wade) and inconsistent 3 – 12 players.  And Ibaka and Bosh are similar too as the “third” of the so-called Big Three on each team.

Of course, the Heat have the advantage of having the best player in the world, abundant rest, and everyone healthy.

The team match-ups are fascinating.  As recounted in earlier fake blogs, the Spurs have had one top-20 pick in the past 20 years:  Duncan.  Who is now 38.  They start a guy, Danny Green, who was waived a few years ago by the Cleveland Cavaliers, when they were in last place.  Their leading scorer in Game 6, Boris Diaw, was waived two years ago by the Charlotte Hornets, who were in last place at the time.  For games 5 and 6 against the Thunder, Spurs started the Red Rocket – Matt Bonner – who was a second round pick, 45^th overall.  Of course, that was 12 picks earlier than my man Manu, 57^th pick overall.  They also give big minutes to little Patty Mills from Australia – second round pick, 55^th overall, who couldn’t get off the bench for two earlier teams.  Amazingly, with Mills, Green and Marco Bellinelli, the Spurs have 3 of the top 15 three point shooters in the league: 

Compare that to the Heat.  Lebron – No. 1 player in the world – in his prime at 29 years old.  No. 1 pick in the draft.  D Wade, 3^rd  or 4^th best shooting guard ever (MJ, Kobe, Jerry West/Wade) – 5^th pick in the draft.  Bosh a/k/a Voldemort, 4^th pick in the draft:

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Anyone-else-think-Chris-Bosh-looks-like-a-black-Voldemort/215852795114653#!/215852795114653/photos/a.215855475114385.62085.215852795114653/215855478447718/?type=1&theater

Plus Ray Allen (before Curry, maybe best shooter ever), Rashard Lewis (former Max Contract guy), Michael Beasley, former No. 2 pick in the draft, and this guy, former No. 1 pick in the draft:

http://espn.go.com/nba/player/_/id/3225/greg-oden

So the Heat model was to put together the Big Three (honestly, now Two and a Half Men) and surround it with big-name talent.  The Spurs model is to take guys off the scrap heap, tell them to play hard, pass the ball, and shoot when they are open – unless a teammate had a slightly better shot.  Once again, this re-match will be a test of models. 

OTHER THOUGHTS

 

Technology:

As you might guess, I watched a lot of the playoffs.  And in every game, when they panned the first row of the seats, there was always a few people – in the first row of an NBA playoff game – with their head buried in a damn cell phone, texting away.  Like this:

 

The NBA should start removing those people from the arena.  Just like they did with Sterling. (The evil one, not our client.)

DFish:

One of my favorite players, Derek Fisher, may have played his last NBA game last night.  I watched him after the game last night, not wanting to leave the floor, trying to soak it all in one last time.  I am sure he spilled much well-deserved Sad Water after the game (as described in earlier fake blog):

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."

If DFish retires, he will retire as the player with the most NBA playoff wins of any player ever.  Read that sentence again.  Most.  Ever.  From Arkansas Little Rock.  Drafted by the Lakers, 24^th pick late in the first round.  Look at the guys drafted at about the same place, and tell me this guy did not have a remarkable career:

21	NYK	Dontae' Jones	Mississippi State
22	VAN	Roy Rogers	Alabama
23	DEN	Efthimi Rentzias	Greece
24	LAL	Derek Fisher	Arkansas Little Rock
25	UTA	Martin Muursepp	Estonia
26	DET	Jerome Williams	Georgetown
27	ORL	Brian Evans	Indiana
28	ATL	Priest Lauderdale	Central State
29	CHI	Travis Knight	Connecticut

When DFish left the Lakers to go to the Warriors years ago, I predicted he would come back some day as Laker coach.  Here’s hoping I was right, and it happens NOW.  (Unless he wants to keep playing – I still do, and I wouldn’t blame him at all.)