Category: NBA (Page 41 of 595)

Wrapping up the 2011 NBA Playoffs

June 13, 2011 / John Paulsen

In an attempt to put the final nail in the coffin that is the 2010-11 NBA season, it’s a good time to look back on the 2011 Playoffs and try to make sense of it all.

Let’s start with…

DIRK’S LEGACY

Easily the biggest winner of these Playoffs, Dirk has shrugged off charges that he was soft and/or a choker by leading the Mavs on one of the most epic postseason runs in recent history. Firing up the NBA StatsCube, we’ll find that Dirk averaged 47.5 points per 36 minutes in the clutch (game within five points with under five minutes to play). Not only did he score a ton, but he did it efficiently, shooting 54% from the field, 97% from the free throw line and 60% (!!) from long range. Even in Game 6, after a miserable 1-for-12 first half, Nowitzki had the mental toughness to go out and score 10 points on 5-of-6 shooting in the final 7:22. He’s never going to win as many championships as Larry Bird, but dynasties are a rarity these days (which favors Bird, historically speaking), so now the Bird/Nowtizki comparisons are legit.

CUBAN

Yes, he’s irritating. Most billionaires are. He made his fortune during the internet bubble and had enough sense to get out when the getting was good. He parlayed that into an NBA team, and is definitely ~~a loudmouth~~ outspoken, but in an age when team owners don’t always show a commitment to winning, Cuban has been more than willing to spend in his chase for a ring and in collecting all these aging All-Stars, he finally found a combination with enough grit, determination and defense to put his franchise player in a position to close the deal. Love him or hate him, he’s entertaining, and in a matchup with the Heat, he was most definitely the lesser of two evils. (And give him credit, when interviewed after the Game 6 win, he was quick to defer the spotlight. Classy move.)

KIDD, MARION

Jason Kidd didn’t do much stat-wise in the Finals, and seemed to turn the ball over a lot, but he hit a huge three towards the end of Game 5 and played tough defense on LeBron and Wade for the entire series. After leading the Nets to back-to-back Finals in the early ’00s, he finally got another chance at a ring, and played an important role, even at 38-years-old.

The Mavs got a similar contribution from Shawn Marion, who many left for dead after stints in Miami and Toronto. He helped score when Dirk was getting his rest and played inspired defense on LeBron and Wade at different points in the series. Dallas would not have won the title without The Matrix, especially once Caron Butler went down during the season.

THE JET

Other than Dirk, I can’t see a bigger winner (legacy-wise) in these Finals than Jason Terry. He jumped from also-ran status to clutch Finals performer — one who most definitely backed up his smack talk. He outplayed LeBron down the stretch and didn’t miss a free throw in the clutch in the entire Playoffs. When we look back on these Playoffs a decade from now, we’ll remember Dirk, the Jet, and the Heat’s disappointing performance.

THE BIG THREE

There’s plenty of time for LeBron to redefine his legacy, but this was not a good start. He was mediocre to bad in the fourth quarter for most of the series, and it sure doesn’t seem like this leopard is going to change his spots after tweeting that God decided that it just wasn’t his time to win a title. Um, okay. That doesn’t sound like a guy who is going to hone his post game (like MJ or Kobe) or spend all summer with a shooting coach to make his jumper more consistent.

As for Wade, he doesn’t get off scot-free after fumbling away a chance to tie Game 5 and dribbling the ball off his foot late in Game 6, but he already has a ring, so his legacy has a higher floor than LeBron. And it’s not like the guy didn’t produce — he averaged 27-7-5 and shot 55% from the field in the Finals.

Lastly, let the record show that Chris Bosh played his best ball of the Finals when the chips were down. In the last three games, he averaged 21-8 on 55% shooting, and even hit the winning jumper in Game 3 after a rough shooting night. Bosh was something of a punchline during the season, but he came up big against the Bulls (23-8, 60% shooting) and did some damage in the Finals.

Where does Miami go from here? While some are arguing that Pat Riley should trade LeBron for Dwight Howard, this is certainly not the last we’ve seen of this trio. They made it to the Finals in their first try, and did it with a substandard supporting cast. I expect changes to be made, but I’d be shocked if any of the stars are moved.

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Reactions to the LeBron James no-show

June 13, 2011 / Gerardo Orlando

Basketball fans will be talking about this series for years, as we’ve never seen anything like it. Superstars have had bad performances in the past, but have we ever seen anything like the LeBron James vanishing act? Those of us who watched him in Cleveland came to understand over the years that he lacked judgement, and after Game 5 last year against Boston, we learned that he could quit under pressure. Yet none of us were prepared for what we saw against the Mavs.

There are plenty of reactions to the debacle, but it’s really not a controversial subject. Everyone saw the same thing – an elite athlete who wilted under the pressure.

Naturally, Bill Simmons had quite a bit to say about it all. He points out that LeBron wasn’t the same after Wade bitched him out late in Game 3 for not being aggressive enough. In his blow by blow summary of the second half, this moment sticks out:

6:42: Just wanted to commemorate this moment: Miami down three, gets a rebound and gets the ball to LeBron on the right side of the key, with J.J. Barea defending him one-on-one … and LeBron turns and throws a pass 20 feet backwards to Wade at midcourt. A few seconds later, Miami gives it back to LeBron, who reluctantly backs Barea down to the low post … and bowls him over. Offensive foul. All hail the King!
(Note that’s too important to be a footnote: If that sequence alone isn’t enough to inspire LeBron to lock himself in a gym all summer until he emerges with a spin move, a jump hook, and a Jordan-eseque fallaway, then he’s the biggest waste of talent in NBA history. You know at the car wash when they offer the “everything” package? That’s what God gave LeBron. He’s threatening to waste it. In a nutshell, this is what makes us so angry about him. It’s not The Decision, or his lack of self-awareness, or the fact that he’s a front-runner … it’s that he’s blowing the “everything” car-wash package. You see an athlete get handed the “everything” package maybe only five times in your life.)

This might go down as his most embarrassing moment. If LeBron James can’t punish J.J. Barea in the post, then he’s become a joke.

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Laughing at LeBron

June 13, 2011 / Gerardo Orlando

Dan Wetzel from Yahoo! Sports sums up the mood in Cleveland very well after watching the LeBron James meltdown in the Finals:

Late Sunday night, a crowd of Clevelanders gathered here to watch their onetime hero turned all-time traitor, and with each disinterested LeBron offensive possession, each failed LeBron chase down of Jason Terry, each embarrassing LeBron crunch-time turnover, the prevailing emotion was simple.
Laughter.
They weren’t hating LeBron here. They were laughing at him.
LeBron started it, of course, laughing at Cleveland nearly a year ago when he took himself to a Boys and Girls Club in Connecticut of all places to announce on national television that he was taking his talents to South Beach. That South Beach has about a million nightclubs and technically no basketball arena said it all.
So on Sunday, Cleveland laughed right back.
All over Flannery’s and places like it across Ohio, they cracked oft-told jokes. (“I asked LeBron for a dollar, he gave me 75 cents back. He doesn’t have a fourth quarter.”) They showed pictures on their cell phones mocking LeBron as a quitter. Bartenders rang bells and shouted things like, “Last call for LeBron.”

He’s right. I watched it and I was laughing away throughout the fourth quarter. We saw LeBron’s limitations under pressure, but everyone else around the country bought into LeBron’s excuses. His teammates weren’t good enough. They didn’t rise to the occasion. He couldn’t win in Cleveland.

Well, he couldn’t win with Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh either. And he wilted. His performance was an embarrassment.

If you want to understand how people felt in Cleveland, read the entire article.

And as Wetzel said at the end of his column, “LeBron James had the right to leave. And Cleveland has the right to laugh.”

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External Sports, NBA

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Nowitzki, Mavs finish off the Heat

June 12, 2011 / John Paulsen

With LeBron’s legacy (not to mention, the NBA title) on the line, the Mavs went into Miami and beat the Heat on their home floor. Dirk Nowitzki struggled to 1-of-12 shooting in the first half, but rebounded with 18 points in the second half, including 10 points in the final 7:22 to help close out the series.

Nowitzki was unbelievable in the Playoffs, averaging (a 36-minute adjusted) 52.6 points per game in the clutch (under five minutes to play with the score within five points), and deservedly won the Finals MVP. Jason Terry kept the Mavs in the game in the first half, and scored 27 points on the night.

As for the Heat, LeBron James finished 9-of-15 for 21 points, six assists and four rebounds, but he turned the ball over six times and wasn’t able to take the game over when it mattered most. Dwyane Wade went 6-for-16 from the field but turned the ball over five times. It should be noted that Chris Bosh (7-of-9 from the field, 19 points) played the best of Miami’s “Big Three.”

LeBron and the Heat better brace for even more criticism after the loss. Ever since “The Decision” and the trio’s over-the-top celebration last summer, throughout a season of ups and downs, the team became one of the most scrutinized in league history. Questions remain about LeBron’s play in the clutch and whether or not the “Big Three” actually fit together.

No matter how many championships the trio goes on to win, this loss to the Mavs will tarnish the legacies of LeBron, Wade and Bosh – they had control of the series after Game 3 and let it slip away.

Kudos to Mark Cuban, Rick Carlisle, Dirk Nowitzki and the entire Dallas Mavericks franchise. I picked the Mavs to lose to the Blazers in the first round, but have been impressed by the team’s grit and resiliency throughout these Playoffs. I’ll gladly eat some crow after this performance.

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