Category: NBA (Page 52 of 595)
T.J. Simers, LA Times: Allen Iverson goes off in Game 1, the 76ers win, but never again. Chris Paul runs around making the Lakers look vulnerable, but then disappears. Now he has to stop Nowitzki. What a wonderful way for the best coach in the NBA to go out, handed one of the greatest challenges in league history. Given his resume, why should folks think it’s too much to ask? … Down 0-2, the Lakers have the Mavs right where they want them — in a position to prove Dallas is short on championship heart. I expect we will see that. The Lakers are still the better team and ordinarily get better in a playoff series with Jackson in command. I cannot imagine the Lakers rolling over and playing dead in Jackson’s final days as a coach.
David Haugh, Chicago Tribune: To a man, Bulls players and coaches blame most of Boozer’s inconsistency on accumulating health issues. If that plausible explanation indeed is true then the Bulls need to address it now. Don’t put Boozer on the bench for Taj Gibson in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference semifinals. Put him in a fancy suit and make him watch from the Scalabrine seats with others on the inactive list. The Bulls can win the Hawks series without Boozer. But the Bulls can’t beat the Heat or the Celtics without a meaningful contribution from their $75 million man. If Boozer continues to gut out a toe injury that limits him and appears to get worse the more he plays, he won’t be in the best condition to contribute when the competition stiffens. Bulls doctors wouldn’t allow Boozer to play now if he were at risk, yet I wonder if a week’s rest would help him more than it hurts his team.
Randy Galloway, Star-Telegram: The man who went to LA for four days, was the center of Southern California media attention, particularly since the Dodgers need a new owner, and basically zipped it for his entire stay out there. Didn’t say spit. The only way we knew Cuban was still alive was when the TNT cameras picked up a big smile that kept popping up behind the Dallas Mavericks’ bench at the Staples Center. I’m wordless over this development, being someone who spent the last decade telling Mark to shut up. He finally did, and improbable stuff has happened to his Mavs. Never thought I’d say this: Everyone needs to now take a behavioral cue from Cuban. Lay low.
Ken Sugiura, Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Somewhere right now, Joakim Noah is nudging someone out of a buffet line, outhustling a teammate to the hot tub or maybe sealing off the magazine rack in his hotel gift shop. The NBA’s top offensive rebounder in the postseason drove the Hawks to madness Wednesday in the Chicago Bulls’ Game 2 victory. If the Hawks don’t counteract Noah and his ball-hawking teammates Friday in Game 3 at Philips Arena, trouble awaits. The Bulls outrebounded the Hawks 58-39 in their series-tying win Wednesday. The Hawks’ problems hardly ended there — see more below — but among the primary goals Friday will be not to get hammered on the glass.
Short answer: No. But they’re on life support.
With Game 1 already in the bag, the Mavericks had very little to lose on Wednesday night. Boosted by the Lakers’ dreadful three-point shooting (2-for-20, 10%), and some nifty play from J.J. Barea (12 points, four assists in 17 minutes), Dallas is leaving L.A. with a 2-0 lead on the defending champs.
Barea’s line does not tell the whole story. In the first nine minutes of the fourth quarter, he had six points and two assists, but literally took over the game offensively for the Mavs. None of the Laker guards (Derek Fisher, Steve Blake or Shannon Brown) could stay with him on the countless ball screens that the Mavs ran during that span. He got into the lane at will and either made the runner/layup or found the open man for the easy attempt. What’s worse — the Lakers couldn’t punish him on the other end of the court because none of those aforementioned guards is a capable post player.
Of course, the Mavs wouldn’t be up 2-0 without Dirk Nowitzki. He scored 24 points on 9-of-16 shooting and hit a series of awkward shots, including a three-point play from 18-feet with 2:50 to play to give Dallas a 13-point lead.
But back to the Lakers, who looked completely out of sorts on Wednesday night. As far as I can tell, they have three major issues in this series:
1. Guard play
Steve Blake (0-5 3PT, two turnovers) was dreadful Wednesday night. He missed all of his shots and had two crucial turnovers in the fourth quarter that enabled the Mavs to expand their lead. Derek Fisher (2-for-7, four points) and Shannon Brown (3-for-4, six points) didn’t do much either. Most importantly, none of these guys could stop J.J. Barea’s game-changing penetration in the fourth quarter.
2. Overconfidence
For years, the Lakers have been able to “turn it on” at will. At the end of the third quarter, Steve Kerr said that he overheard Lamar Odom talking to someone in the crowd about how the Lakers would win the game (at that point L.A. was down six) and then he proceeds to go 1-for-6 in the final period. Kobe did his best to carry his team, but he’s not capable of single-handedly outscoring the Mavs anymore, especially when they’re hitting their shots.
3. Three-point shooting
The Lakers went 2-for-20 from long range and the first make wasn’t until the 2:43 mark in the fourth quarter. In Game 1, they went 5-for-19 (26%), which is better, but that’s not saying much. They’re going to have to start knocking down some shots to draw the Mavs’ defense out of the lane. Right now Dallas is simply crowding the Laker bigs inside. Andrew Bynum (8-for-11, 18 points) doesn’t seem to mind, but Pau Gasol and Lamar Odom are having trouble putting the ball in the basket.
Let’s not forget that these are the champs and they are perfectly capable of winning two games on the road to even up this series. In fact, it might do this team some good to get away from an unsupportive Laker crowd which is clearly too spoiled to realize that its team desperately needs its support. Instead, Laker fans are booing Pau Gasol, who was instrumental in the last two championships. That behavior is befuddling considering what he has meant to the organization over the last three years.
Game 3 is in Dallas on Friday night. Obviously, this is a ‘must-win’ for L.A., but the Mavs would do well to treat it as a Game 7. There is blood in the water and the last thing Dallas needs to do is give this Laker team some confidence.
Derrick Rose accepted the MVP award in a pregame ceremony and played like a MVP to help the Bulls win Game 2. He didn’t play great, mind you — 25 points on 10-of-27 shooting, 10 assists, six rebounds and eight assists — but he played like the Bulls’ most valuable player. Chicago needs him to score, so he scores. Right now, the Bulls aren’t getting the kind of production they need from Carlos Boozer, who should be an 18/10-type of guy, but is shooting 40% from the field and averaging under 11 points per game in the playoffs.
Joakim Noah was outstanding (19 points, 14 rebounds and three steals), but the Bulls aren’t going to get that kind of scoring production out of him on a nightly basis. Luol Deng (14 points, 12 rebounds) was his steady self, but he’s not good enough offensively to be the Bulls #2 option on that end of the floor.
Based on what I’ve seen of the Bulls this postseason, I don’t see them getting by the Heat in a potential matchup next round. Without solid production from Boozer, they are too dependent on Rose to score and he can’t pour in 30 points every night.
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