Kawhi Leonard's "disappointing" season

In the 2013 NBA Finals, Kawhi Leonard burst on the national scene (at least for non-Spurs fans) by matching up with King James, and holding his own - and then some. For stretches of the Finals, including Games 6 and 7, he outplayed the best player in the known universe. In Game 1, he covered Lebron for 35 minutes, and did not commit a single foul. Despite the disappointing outcome of the Finals for the Spurs, Kawhi seemed poised for a break-out regular season in 2013-2014.

But Kawhi did not have a break-out year in 2013-2014, and many were disappointed. He missed a stretch of the season after breaking his hand. His points, rebounds and assists per game went from 13.7/6.9/1.8 in 2012-2013 to 15.8/7.7/2.5 in 2013-2014. Solid numbers, sure, but he wasn't going to get any all-NBA votes with them. Of course, part of that is because the Spurs system spreads the ball and the minutes, and rarely runs plays to get any particular player shots -- not even the future face of the franchise.

But Kawhi's numbers are much more impressive than at first glance. Going from 13.7 to 15.8 points per 36 minutes is a 15% increase, and the improvements in rebounds and assists were 11% and 38%. He also kept his three point shooting percentage near 38% and increased his 2 point percentage from 55% to 58%.

More importantly, Kawhi did what we used to ask our players to do each year when I was coaching. Each summer, we wanted our guys to either add a new skill or improve on an existing one. It could be increasing shooting range, improving ball handling, getting stronger, or adding a new move or counter-move. In watching the Spurs last year, I believe Kawhi vastly improved in two important skills.

Defensively, we knew from the prior year's Finals he could match up with his designated cover. Last year, he added or improved his ability to match up with whatever perimeter player was in front of him, even if it was the other team's point guard. He incorporated what I always told my players when I was coaching - the most important thing about playing defense is caring that the other team not score. In shorthand: The most important thing about defense: Caring.

This then keyed the Spurs transition defense. Kawhi's willingness and ability to match up with whomever was in front of him eliminated the need for the other perimeter players to scramble back to their man. With Kawhi, he could put up his hand to announce "I got this" and match up with the opposing point guard, especially on those occasions when Tony Parker had just finished a hard drive to the hoop and was unable to get back to the other team's point.

A small forward with the ability to match the fastest player on the opposing team is a luxury most teams don't have. Among other things, it also frees players like TP to attack the rim, or Patty Mills to fire the corner 3, knowing that someone has their back in transition. As a result, it improves both the Spurs defense and the Spurs offense.
The second skill Kawhi added was the ability to take a defensive rebound and immediately push the ball up court himself, eliminating the need for an outlet pass. This skill clearly arose from a great deal of work on his ball-handling, which allows the coaching staff to give him the freedom to get the board and go. Just as MagicJohnson and Scottie Pippen did on their championship teams, grabbing a board and pounding the rock up the middle creates great opportunities.

With Kawhi, this often led to an open 3 for the Spurs shooters sprinting ahead, a coast to coast for Kawhi, or a smooth transition into the Spurs early transition game, with the defenders scrambling to avoid their own mismatches. And memorably, in Game 5 of the Finals, it led to Kawhi pulling up and drilling the 3 to give the Spurs their first lead - that was something he clearly would not have done the year before.

So will it be another disappointing season for Kawhi? If the standard is another year of across-the-board improvement in all facets of the game, mastery of two new skills, and another NBA Finals MVP award, Spurs fans should hope for another such disappointing season from their young star.

In my next piece, I will give some ideas about ways the Spurs might expand Kawhi's role as the season goes on and he begins the transition to the lead player role. Stay tuned.

When I coached against Gregg Popovich

When asked about his most intense experience as a coach, Gregg Popovich answered, "Hands down, Pomona-Pitzer vs. Claremont McKenna in Ducey Gymnasium."

J.R. Wilco asked me to introduce myself by describing how I became a Spurs fan and the newest member of Pounding the Rock's team of writers. The explanation starts with Pop's quote above , though most of the words he uses are probably foreign to most.  Let me define them:

Pomona-Pitzer is a combination of two outstanding liberal arts colleges, united in one athletic program, located 30 miles east of downtown Los Angeles. It has excellent NCAA Division 3 teams, known as the Sagehens. Yes, the Sagehens. Pop's last head coaching job before the Spurs was at Pomona-Pitzer.

Claremont McKenna is an outstanding liberal arts college located 30.1 miles east of downtown Los Angeles. It has an excellent NCAA Division 3 athletic program, known as the Stags. For several years while Pop was at Pomona-Pitzer, I was the assistant basketball coach for the Stags. I was (and remain) a full time trial lawyer in Los Angeles. During my tenure at Claremont McKenna, to my knowledge, I was the only practicing lawyer/NCAA basketball coach in the country.

Ducey Gymnasium is the Stags' home court, named after renowned former Stag coach Ted Ducey.  Interestingly, Coach Ducey's son, Jim Ducey, was once an assistant basketball coach for Claremont McKenna. He was also an assistant to Pop at Pomona-Pitzer .  Jim is both an all-around good guy and now the head coach at another league school, Redlands University.  In 2013, Redlands broke Claremont's run of 4 straight league titles, though the Stags came back and won again in 2014.

Pomona-Pitzer and Claremont are so close that on game nights the basketball teams simply walk down 6th Street in Claremont that one tenth of a mile to get from one school's gym to the other. For two of Pop's last years, when Pomona's new gym was being built, the Pomona team practiced (at 6:30 a.m. most days) and played their home games in Ducey Gymnasium.

Before the season, the players from the schools often play pick-up ball with and against the other team's players.   Players at the schools take classes on both campuses,  and most of the best players were recruited by both schools. The two teams are traditionally among the best in the league. As one can imagine, the rivalry between the teams, and the fans, is crazily intense. The games were so loud that we had to call in plays and defenses by holding up pieces of cardboard with different colors or numbers on them because the players didn't have a chance of hearing us over the crowd.

And because Ducey Gymnasium is so small, the players, coaches, officials, and fans are literally on top of each other for the standing room only during these rivalry games. We all remember Game One in San Antonio in last year's Finals, with no air conditioning.  Anyone who attended a Pomona-Pitzer vs. Claremont McKenna game in Ducey Gymnasium knows exactly what that was like.

Nowhere else in the country do two college teams inhabit virtually the same campus, have players in class together and then play against each other that night, walk down the street from one gym to the other for the rivalry game, have the outcome of the rivalry game determine not only bragging rights among fans and players, but often the league title for that year -- and hold the contests in a classic small-college gym in which the coaches would routinely sweat through their suits, all with the fans breathing down their necks from the row behind.

That's the environment that led to Pop's quote above.

***

Everyone in our league (the Southern California Interscholastic Athletic Conference - the SCIAC) kept an eye on Pop after he left Pomona-Pitzer to begin his NBA journey that led to the Spurs head coaching gig. He started as an assistant to Larry Brown with the Spurs (he had earlier taken a sabbatical from Pomona to coach a year with Brown at Kansas), then went to Golden State assisting Don Nelson before going upstairs for the Warriors, and then back to the Spurs as GM - and finally to coach of the Spurs.  And we all know how that has turned out.

While Pop was Larry Brown's assistant for the Spurs from 1988 through 1992, Claremont's head coach, the late great David Wells, and I met Pop at a TGIF in L.A. after a Lakers-Spurs game. He told us several fascinating things, including that he thought John Stockton was in many ways the best player in the league. He also was amazed that David Robinson, all 7'1'' of him, was the fastest player on the Spurs and often came in first in conditioning drills.

Even though it was hard to root for the Spurs when they played my Lakers in those early years, it was easy to root for the Spurs against the rest of the league. And the 1999 - 2010 decade was especially great.  Virtually every year, one of my two teams was in the NBA Finals. As time went on, I was won over by the Spurs' organization and their style of play as they were coached by my old colleague Gregg Popovich (I'm being generous with that term as I was just an assistant coach). Then, in 2012, I started writing my fake blog, which was actually just emails sent to friends, co-workers, and my ex-players -- trying to point out certain things about the game that I felt the experts and commentators were missing.

As a fully converted Spurs fan, I was thrilled when my favorite player, my man Manu, had the "Manu Game" in Game 5 of the 2013 Finals. And I was devastated after Games 6 and 7 of those same Finals. Finally, all was redeemed this past June.

And that my path to being asked to join the staff here, writing from distant California, with my basketball heart in San Antonio, especially since being a Laker fan today is really just rooting for laundry. So I am proud and honored to be invited to contribute. My comments will come from my unique perspective as a Spurs fan living in L.A., former college basketball player, and former college coach who had the privilege to coach for a time against the head coach of our rival school - Gregg Popovich.

And I should admit that my insights may perhaps be occasionally tainted due to my being an attorney.

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.