Category: NBA Finals (Page 45 of 58)

Vladimir Radmanovic: good shooter, horrible defender

Luke Walton: poor shooter, good defender

If you combine the strengths of these two players, you have a pretty good small forward. If you combine their weaknesses, you have the worst player in the NBA.

Walton had a couple of bad plays at the end of Game 3 that cost his team a chance at a comeback win. With the Lakers down seven and under five minutes to play, Walton failed to box out Boozer, who was shooting the second of two free throws. Boozer got his own rebound and made a strong move to the hole to complete the four-point play. Then, on a jump ball with the Lakers down four with 0:14 to play, Gasol tipped the ball to Walton who proceeded to fumble the ball away. It was interesting to see Kobe’s reaction after the play. (He screamed at Walton, who probably deserved it.)

These are two pretty simple plays for a supposedly high-IQ guy like Walton. I’ve never been much of a fan of his game and I don’t think he’d be in the NBA if he weren’t Bill Walton’s kid. It’s almost like Bill made a contract with the devil like that kid on “Reaper.” Send my kid to the NBA and you can have his eternal soul. I simply can’t understand how the fairly non-athletic poor-shooting Walton is getting crunch-time minutes on a good team in the playoffs. It’s just mind-boggling. (He did make a three with 1:07 to play to cut the Jazz lead to four, so there is that.)

I saw first-hand how Radmanovic can shoot. He hit five or six straight threes in a playoff game when he was with the Clippers. But he is just lost defensively, and he doesn’t seem to be getting any better on that end of the court.

The Lakers owe Radmanovic $19.5 million over the next three years. They owe Walton $26.3 million over the next five years. Walton’s contract is especially awful when you consider that the Lakers were pretty much bidding against themselves for his services. Who else was going to give him that kind of money? (That leads me back to my contract-with-the-devil theory.)

All things considered, Mitch Kupchak has done a pretty nice job getting the Lakers back to the top of the West, but he spent way too much money on these two guys, who are, at best, bench players.

If I were Phil Jackson, I might run Kobe at small forward in crunch time, and play Farmar at point guard and Derek Fisher at the two. Of course, Farmar played pretty miserably in Game 3, so maybe Jackson should go with Ronny Turiaf at power forward and put Lamar Odom at the three. Bryant and Odom can both play multiple positions, so the Lakers have options. They just need to use them.

I wrote a few days ago about how the Hornets’ speed is killing the Spurs, and while speed and quickness is also playing a role in the Lakers’ 2-0 start against the Jazz, their length has been a bigger factor.

Specifically, I’m referring to Lamar Odom and Pau Gasol. Their considerable wingspans are really causing problems for the relatively short-armed and undersized Carlos Boozer, who has shot a woeful 9-24 (38%) from the field in the first two games. His 12.5-point average in the series is well below his 21.1-point regular season average. Simply stated, if he posts his usual stats, the Jazz probably win one of those games in L.A.

As it stands, they head back to Utah where they hold the best home record (37-4) in the league. However, one of those four losses came against a Pau Gasol-less Laker squad back in late March. This certainly doesn’t bode well for the Jazz, who really didn’t play all that great at home against the Rockets in the first round.

The key for the Jazz is to get off to a good start. They outscored the Lakers in the second half of each of the first two games, but a crappy second quarter in Game 1 and an even crappier first quarter in Game 2 put them behind the eight ball.

As with any team heading home down 0-2, this is a must-win for the Jazz, who can get right back into the series with a win. For that to happen, the Lakers’ 89-46 free throw advantage will have to even out a bit. I think part of that is home court advantage, and part of it is that the Jazz just aren’t quick enough to handle the Lakers’ perimeter players. Only time will tell which is the dominating factor.

It’s still way too early in the series to write the defending champs off, but I think that even the most ardent San Antonio supporter would admit that things aren’t looking too good. The Spurs entered the series with a serious advantage in playoff experience, but all that’s got them thus far is a pair of 18+ point defeats.

It looks like the Hornets are a horrible matchup for the Spurs. San Antonio’s offense starts with Tony Parker, who is typically able to use his quickness to get into the lane at will. But with the speedy Chris Paul and even speedier Jannero Pargo splitting defensive duties, those driving lanes aren’t nearly as open as they usually are. If Parker’s jumper isn’t falling – and at the moment it isn’t – his effectiveness is severely limited.

Inside, the Hornets are trapping Tim Duncan just about every time he gets the ball. Tyson Chandler is the type of player that can give Duncan problems down low. He’s long and very athletic, and he has enough strength to keep Duncan from getting deep post position. They aren’t trapping every time he gets the ball, and that’s playing mind games with Duncan, who doesn’t know for sure if the double-team is coming. The Hornets’ plan is to get the ball out of Duncan’s hands and force some of these other players – Bruce Bowen, Michael Finley, Kurt Thomas, Ime Udoka, etc. – to beat them. The neat thing is that the Hornets have enough team speed to rotate (or recover) to those perimeter shooters, so those open shots aren’t so open.

In my preview, I suggested that the Hornets might use Julian Wright, the very athletic rookie out of Kansas, to cover Manu Ginobili, and they have. He has long arms and a great motor, and he’s been able to keep Ginobili from getting a good offensive rhythym. They are also surprising Ginobili with the occasional double-team when he’s near the sideline, which contributed to three straight first half turnovers by the reigning Sixth Man of the Year.

Offensively, the Hornets can hurt you in so many ways. Chris Paul looks like he’s toying with Bruce Bowen, and the Spurs simply don’t have a matchup with David West, who is displaying a serious mean streak. Throw in some terrific shooting from Wright, Peja Stojakovic and Morris Peterson, and the Spurs have their hands full.

Game 3 is an obvious must-win for the Spurs, and I expect them to give it everything they’ve got. There’s still a chance that Pop will make the necessary adjustments and turn the tide of the series, but Byron Scott is no pushover when it comes to strategy.