Category: NBA Finals (Page 7 of 58)

      Is Kobe on the decline?

      April 26, 2010 /

      In a piece entitled “The slow death of a competitor,” HoopsHype’s Roland Lazenby discusses how much mileage Kobe Bryant has on his body.

      In his 14th season, Bryant heads into Tuesday night’s pivotal first round Game 5 against the Oklahoma City Thunder having played better than 44,400 minutes of regular season and playoff basketball.

      If somehow the Lakers manage to survive and and advance, Bryant could wind up with better than 45,000 minutes on the odometer after this season.

      Jordan, long considered the standard because he drove the Bulls to a championship as a 35-year-old NBA guard, played a total of 48,485 minutes over his 15-year career, the final 5,000 of which were frustration filled.

      I don’t think there’s much of a question that Kobe is at the tail end of his prime. Perhaps he’s even started the slow, inevitable decline that most superstars experience as they get into their 30s. Since he’s playing a few more minutes, his stats haven’t dropped much since last season, though his PER (21.95) is at an eight-year low.

      He shot just 30% in three April regular season games, and is shooting 38.4% against the Thunder. Maybe his finger is bothering him, or maybe it’s the defense of Thabo Sefolosha (and Kevin Durant), or all of the above. Game 2 Kobe dropped 39 points and got to the line 15 times. After the Lakers lost Game 3, Game 4 Kobe deferred for much of the game, taking only 10 shots and scoring just 12 points as the Lakers tried to exploit their size advantage.

      But this is nothing new. Kobe has pouted his way through playoff games in the past. (Anyone remember that Suns series a few years back?) The problem with the Lakers is not Kobe Bryant. The biggest thing standing in the way of a second-straight title is this team’s lack of hunger. Led by Kobe’s insatiable appetite, last year’s Lakers would not be denied. But now that they have their rings, getting motivated is not as easy, especially when there are a dozen or so teams with comparable talent and better chemistry waiting in the wings.

      Ron Artest is a disaster offensively, Andrew Bynum is coming off an injury, and Derek Fisher is showing his age. Lamar Odom is averaging a career low in playoff points, rebounds and FG%, and at times looks like he’s ready to start his summer with Khloe Kardashian.

      In short, these are not the same Lakers we saw last year. The good news — for Laker fans, anyway — is that there is time to straighten this out. The sky is not falling. Game 5 at Staples is a good opportunity to start. If they can get their swagger back and win the series, another Finals appearance is well within reach. The West is talented, but Utah is thin on the front line, Dallas is on the verge of collapse, San Antonio is aging and the Suns are…well, they’re the Suns.

      Then again, if OKC is able to win Tuesday night and go on to win the series, we could see a veritable sea change in L.A. Artest, Bynum, Fisher and even Phil Jackson could be headed for new zip codes this summer.

      And to think, this is just the first round.


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      External Sports, Fantasy Basketball, NBA, NBA Finals, Rumors & Gossip

      Poll: Does a Cavs championship mean that LeBron will re-sign?

      April 26, 2010 /

      Every so often we examine the results of our weekly poll. Last week, we asked the following question, and 204 readers responded. Here are the results:

      (Click on the picture for a bigger version.)

      I’m a little surprised that almost a quarter answered that a Cavs championship would lead to LeBron’s departure because it seems counter-intuitive. If winning is the most important thing, and he just won a title with this roster, why would he bolt?

      I understand the argument that he would have just brought a title to Cleveland, so now he can leave, but this isn’t a prison sentence, is it? The idea is to win multiple championships, right? Why start over somewhere else?

      If the Cavs do win the title, I can only see LeBron leaving if he, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh all agree to take a little less money to meet up in New York, and that scenario is a longshot at best.

      External Sports, Fantasy Basketball, NBA, NBA Finals, Rumors & Gossip

      Are the Mavs done?

      April 26, 2010 /

      With their 92-89 loss in Game 4, the Dallas Mavericks find themselves down 3-1 and facing elimination. This is hardly what owner Mark Cuban expected after pulling (expensive) trades for Shawn Marion, Caron Butler and Brendan Haywood in the past nine months and watching his new-look team win the #2 seed in the West. But the Spurs aren’t your ordinary #7-seed.

      If you would have told Cuban that his Mavs were going to hold Tim Duncan, Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili to just 31 points on a combined 9-of-34 (26%) shooting in Game 4, I’m sure he would have felt pretty good about his team’s chances. But with George Hill’s 29 and Richard Jefferson’s 15, along with some old school San Antonio defense that held Dallas to under 42% from the field, the struggles of the Spurs’ Big Three didn’t matter much in the end.

      With two of the next three elimination games in Dallas, the Mavs do have a chance to pull out this series, but they’re in for some tough sledding. Vegas now puts the Mavs’ odds of advancing at around 4-1, which sounds about right.

      The question that Cuban doesn’t want to think about, at least not yet, is what does he do with this expensive lineup if it can’t even get past an aging Spurs team in the first round?

      Part of the problem is that, at least against the Spurs, the Mavs can’t play their five-best players at the same time. Assuming Rick Carlisle wants his most trustworthy shot-maker, Jason Terry, at the two (alongside Jason Kidd), then that pushes Butler back to his natural position (small forward). So unless he puts Dirk Nowitzki at center, there’s no room for Marion, who spent much of the fourth quarter riding the pine. It doesn’t make sense to pull Haywood when he was doing such a nice job on Duncan, and Carlisle wisely doesn’t want Nowitzki guarding Duncan for long stretches. Regardless, the Spurs are controlling the matchups and forcing one of the Mavs’ best defenders to the bench.

      If Dallas goes on to lose this series, we’ll be talking about what this playoff implosion means for a franchise that had a pretty good season. Cuban could elect to tweak the lineup around the edges, make a big change or two, or blow the entire thing up.

      But, for now, he is just hoping that his team can win Game 5 and make this a series again.


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      External Sports, NBA, NBA Finals, Rumors & Gossip

      Phil is in Durant’s kitchen

      April 21, 2010 /

      Last week, Phil Jackson said that Kevin Durant gets too many calls and the third-year superstar took umbrage. Now it’s a thing and Durant is showing irritation when he gets asked about it repeatedly.

      The easy-going Oklahoma City Thunder star became riled up when responding to yet another question about his reaction to Lakers coach Phil Jackson, who last week criticized officials for how the call the game for Durant.

      And so when Durant was asked once again whether he overreacted to Jackson, Durant, well, overreacted.

      “Do you think I overreacted?” Durant asked the reporter, who responded by saying he didn’t know.

      “Are you one of them?” Durant continued. “Nah, I didn’t overreact. Why, because I’m a third-year player I can’t say nothing back to Phil Jackson? I’m standing up for myself and what I believe in. I really don’t say nothing to too many people in this league who say stuff about me and our team and how I play and how we play. But I felt I had to say something back.

      “I’m always quiet. I’m always nice and (respectful) to other people, not just on the basketball floor but off the basketball floor, like you guys. But I felt at that time I had to take up for myself. It is what it is. It’s over with. It had nothing to do with this series.”

      Phil Jackson has taken residence in Durant’s kitchen and it doesn’t look like he’s leaving anytime soon. Had Durant simply said something like “Phil’s a great coach and he’s entitled to his opinion” and left it at that, the story would have died quickly. Instead, he got defensive and it became a bigger story that is going to follow him around for the rest of the series, maybe longer.


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      NBA, NBA Finals, News, Rumors & Gossip

      OKC had its shot last night

      April 21, 2010 /

      The Lakers/Thunder series isn’t technically over, but it’s well on its way. After a pair of Russell Westbrook free throws, OKC held an 88-86 lead with 2:49 to play in the fourth quarter. But three straight turnovers — a Serge Ibaka goaltend, a Kevin Durant offensive foul, and a bad pass by Durant — coupled with a 7-0 run by the Lakers (six points came from Kobe) led to a 93-88 Laker lead and L.A. never looked back.

      Kobe Bryant posted 39-5-1 (39 points and one assist…wow!), while Pau Gasol added 25-12. Ron Artest was tasked with guarding Durant, and did a pretty good job, especially down the stretch. His defense forced the first Durant turnover during the aforementioned game-changing run. KD finished with 32 points on 26 shots.

      This was the Thunder’s chance to make this a series. While they could still potentially hold serve in Games 3 and 4, and tie the series up, it’s more likely that the Lakers steal one of those games in Oklahoma City and finish the Thunder off in Game 5 in L.A.


      Photo from fOTOGLIF

      Fantasy Basketball, NBA, NBA Finals

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