20 Second Timeout

Russell Westbrook's Legacy is Defined by His Work Ethic and His Elite Productivity

Russell Westbrook's catchphrase is "Why not?" and his career is defined not just by that boundless optimism but by the fierce work ethic that justified his faith in himself. Westbrook retired on Wednesday after a tremendous 18 season career, announcing the decision in a social media post that began, "Sometimes you don't even know when you've already watched the end. You had to be there. And now it's over." The post included a video of Westbrook's highlights narrated by Michael B. Jordan. Westbrook silently walked through an unfinished Museum of Unspoken Answers while wearing a shirt that reads "Don't Rock With What They Say" on the front and "Why Not?" on the back. Westbrook reportedly had offers to play this season from the Sacramento Kings--the team he played for last season--and the Washington Wizards (one of his former teams), but he decided to leave the game on his terms.

Make no mistake, Westbrook can still play--and he is not playing at a veteran minimum salary level, either. Last season,Westbrook averaged 15.2 ppg, 6.7 apg, and 5.4 rpg for the Sacramento Kings in 64 games. Those numbers ranked 59th, 13th, and 67th in the league. He averaged more assists than regular season MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, more rebounds than Tobias Harris (the starting power forward for the number one seed in the Eastern Conference), and more points than Nikola Vucevic, Jaden McDaniels, and Mikal Bridges. Westbrook ranked first on the Kings in assists, fourth in scoring, and fourth in rebounding (minimum 300 total rebounds). 

Early in the season, he passed Jason Kidd for most career rebounds by a guard. Westbrook and LeBron James are the only players in pro basketball history who have scored at least 25,000 points and dished for at least 10,000 assists. Westbrook ranks fifth in ABA/NBA history with 10,351 assists, and 16th in ABA/NBA history with 27,176 points. He is the all-time leader in triple doubles in a career (209) and a season (42 in 2016-17). Westbrook led the league in triple doubles in six seasons (2015-19, 2021), he led the league in assists three times (2018-19, 2021), and he won two scoring titles (2015, 2017). He won the 2017 regular season MVP plus two All-Star Game MVPs (2015, 2016); unlike many of his peers, he played hard in All-Star Games. Westbrook and Oscar Robertson are the only players who averaged a triple double for an entire season, a feat that Robertson accomplished once (1961-62; he averaged an aggregate triple double for his first five seasons), and that Westbrook did four times (2017-19, 2021). Westbrook earned selection to the NBA's 75th Anniversary Team.

Westbrook reached the top of the game but--unlike many NBA superstars--he was not highly recruited out of high school. He eventually landed at UCLA, and after two years as a Bruin he worked his way up to being the fourth pick in the 2008 NBA Draft by the Seattle Supersonics, who moved to Oklahoma City before the start of the 2008-09 season. Westbrook averaged 15.3 ppg, 5.3 apg, and 4.9 rpg as a rookie to finish fourth in Rookie of the Year voting behind Derrick Rose, O.J. Mayo, and Brook Lopez.

In his third season, Westbrook earned the first of nine All-Star selections and the first of nine All-NBA Team selections after averaging 21.9 ppg, 8.2 apg (ninth in the league), and 4.6 rpg. The Thunder improved from 23-59 in Westbrook's rookie season to 50-32 in his second season to 55-27 in his third season while making the first of four Western Conference Finals appearances in a six year span. By that time, Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook had formed one of the best duos in the league. In 2011-12, Durant made All-NBA First Team, Westbrook made All-NBA Second Team, and James Harden won Sixth Man of the Year as the Thunder advanced to the NBA Finals before losing 4-1 to the Miami Heat. 

The Thunder seemed poised to become the NBA's next dynasty, but that iteration of the squad did not reach the NBA Finals again. Harden refused to accept sixth man status, so the Thunder shipped him to Houston before the 2012-13 season. The Thunder did not miss a beat without Harden, finishing first in the Western Conference with a 60-22 record with Durant (All-NBA First Team) and Westbrook (All-NBA Second Team) leading the way. However, disaster struck in the second game of the first round as Houston's Patrick Beverley crashed into Westbrook, tearing Westbrook's right meniscus. The Thunder still beat the Rockets 4-2, but without Westbrook they lost to the Memphis Grizzlies 4-1 in the second round.

Westbrook did not miss a game in his first five seasons but his right knee did not completely heal prior to the 2013-14 season, and he played just 46 games in that campaign. Westbrook hit his stride down the stretch, averaging 26.2 ppg, 7.0 apg, and 6.0 rpg in six April games. Westbrook maintained that high level of play in the postseason, averaging a then playoff career high 26.7 ppg, 8.1 apg, and 7.3 rpg as the Thunder advanced to the Western Conference Finals before losing 4-2 to the eventual NBA champion San Antonio Spurs. 

Many media members make no secret about playing favorites, and it was evident early in Westbrook's career that he was not on the favorites list. In 2014, I prophetically asserted that he was poised to inherit Kobe Bryant's dual status as best guard in the NBA and underrated superstar:  

Kobe Bryant has been the best guard in the NBA for the better part of the past decade or so but an Achilles injury knocked him out of the 2013 playoffs and caused him to miss most of the 2013-14 regular season before a broken leg sidelined him for the remainder of the current campaign; he made the 2013 All-NBA First Team but his reign as the league's top backcourt performer is likely over, even if he returns to action next season. Bryant has been underrated for most of his career, with critics sniping at his alleged selfishness and foolishly suggesting that the L.A. Lakers were better off when Bryant shot fewer times even when Bryant was at the height of his powers, leading the Lakers to championships while also setting various individual scoring records. There are many reasons that the Lakers have sunk to historic lows this season but the biggest single factor is that Bryant played in just six games.

One player seems poised to fill both of Bryant's roles--best guard in the NBA and vastly underrated superstar: Russell Westbrook. Westbrook helped lead the Oklahoma City Thunder to the best record in the Western Conference last season (60-22) after playing a major role in the Thunder's run to the 2012 NBA Finals but the Thunder's 2013 championship hopes were dashed when Houston's Patrick Beverly wiped out Westbrook's knee during the first round of the playoffs; sans Westbrook, the Thunder struggled to eliminate the mediocre Rockets before getting blasted 4-1 in the second round by a flawed Memphis team that was promptly swept by the San Antonio Spurs. 

By 2015, Westbrook had firmly established himself as an elite player while foreshadowing the triple double dominance that would define his career:

Westbrook has already earned four All-Star selections and three All-NBA Second Team nods but in the second half of this season he has taken his game to a new, almost unprecedented level. Westbrook averaged 31.2 ppg, 10.3 apg and 9.1 rpg in February, joining Oscar Robertson as the only players in NBA history to average 30 points, 10 assists and eight rebounds in a calendar month (minimum 10 games). During a five game span starting February 24, Westbrook ranked in the top five in the league in scoring (38.2 ppg, first), assists (9.8 apg, third) and rebounding (12.4 rpg, ninth).

He also became just the fourth player in NBA history to have at least three straight 40 point--five rebound--five assist games. Elgin Baylor did this for four straight games in 1960-61, while Michael Jordan (1988-89) and Wilt Chamberlain (1963-64) did it for three straight games each. Baylor also did it for three straight games during the 1962-63 season.

Westbrook has performed at a high level throughout the season and he is the only player in the league who ranks in the top five in scoring (27.3 ppg, first), assists (8.3 apg, fourth) and steals (2.1 spg, third).

Westbrook's critics say that he shoots too much, that he is selfish and that he does not play a winning style of basketball but the Thunder's record states otherwise. The Thunder are 30-19 with Westbrook this season (.612 winning percentage), including 12-5 since February 1 as the team began making a late playoff push despite being without the services of 2014 NBA MVP Kevin Durant for much of that time (the Thunder are 6-4 in the most recent 10 game stretch that Durant has missed). The Thunder are just 5-10 (.333 winning percentage) without Westbrook (that record includes some early season games that both Durant and Westbrook missed).  

In 2014-15, Durant suffered a foot fracture and played in just 27 games as the Thunder posted a respectable 45-37 record but lost a tiebreaker for the eighth and final playoff berth. With Durant sidelined most of the season, Westbrook won his first scoring title (28.1 ppg) and finished fourth in MVP voting.

The last hurrah for the Durant-Westbrook duo happened in the 2016 Western Conference Finals. The Thunder raced to a 3-1 lead versus the defending NBA champion Golden State Warriors before the record-setting 73-9 Warriors won three straight games to return to the NBA Finals. Westbrook finished fourth in MVP voting that season, while Durant was a distant fifth, and Westbrook made the All-NBA First Team while Durant made the All-NBA Second Team. 

After shooting 1-7 from the field in the fourth quarter of a game six Western Conference Finals loss at home before losing game seven 96-88 on the road, Durant decided that he preferred to flee Oklahoma City to join the Warriors instead of accepting the challenge of trying to beat them. 

Westbrook reacted not by complaining or demanding a trade but by signing a two year contract extension at a time when the franchise was in a vulnerable state. Over the next three seasons, Westbrook solidified his elite status while keeping the Thunder relevant, starting off with a record-setting 2016-17 season during which Westbrook became the only player other than Oscar Robertson to average a triple double for an entire season. The MVP voters have often been wrong in the past several decades, but I noted that they got it right when they selected Westbrook in 2017: 

Westbrook won his second scoring title (career-high 31.6 ppg), he ranked third in assists (10.4 apg) and he finished 10th in rebounding (10.7 rpg, an unprecedented average for a 6-3 point guard). Westbrook tallied three 50 point triple doubles, setting both the single season and career records in that category.

Westbrook's amazing individual numbers directly correlated with his team's success. He broke Oscar Robertson's single season record by notching 42 triple doubles and the Oklahoma City Thunder went 33-9 in those games, compared to 14-26 in the remaining games; a 33-9 record projects to 64-18 over a full 82 game season, while 14-26 projects to 29-53. Essentially, when Westbrook played at a historically great level he elevated the Thunder to elite status but when he was "merely" good the Thunder were the equivalent of a Draft Lottery team. The Thunder's relative performance when Westbrook was on the court compared to when he was off the court told the same story: with Westbrook on the court, this flawed roster could compete with just about anyone but take Westbrook out of the game and the Thunder morphed into the league's worst team by far. 

His critics note that Westbrook did not win an NBA title, but the reality is that Westbrook's teams often outperformed reasonable expectations, and his MVP season epitomizes that: the Thunder with Westbrook leading the way sans Durant were much better than anyone could have reasonably expected. 

The way that Westbrook's historically great individual performance impacted team success is the most underrated aspect of his career. As David Aldridge recently noted, Westbrook's teams posted a 153-56 record in his 209 regular season triple double games. That .732 winning percentage is equivalent to a 60-22 record for an 82 game season, and such high level team success refutes the notion that Westbrook was chasing individual glory at the cost of his teams; his teams would have not won nearly as many games if Westbrook had not played with such heart and if he had not been so productive. 

In 2019 after Westbrook logged just the second 20-20-20 game in pro basketball history, I placed not just this accomplishment but Westbrook's overall dominance into historical perspective:

Russell Westbrook is on the verge of clinching his third straight season of averaging a triple double--an unprecedented feat that is, inexplicably, largely being ignored--and he is doing so with style: during Oklahoma City's 119-103 win over the L.A. Lakers on Tuesday night, Westbrook posted 20 points, 20 rebounds and 21 assists, just the second 20-20-20 game in pro basketball history. As you probably would guess if you did not know, Wilt Chamberlain was the first player to accomplish this, with 22 points, 25 rebounds and 21 assists in Philadelphia's 131-121 win over Detroit on February 2, 1968.

After Westbrook's jaw-dropping performance, Hall of Famer Isiah Thomas--serving as a TNT commentator during the "Players Only" telecast--said that in an era of great point guards Westbrook is not mentioned enough. Thomas also declared that Westbrook is the "most dominant" point guard of this era. That is true. No other point guard is equally dominant as a scorer, rebounder and passer the way that Westbrook is. Westbrook can match anyone in the league bucket for bucket as a scorer, he rebounds better than most centers and he has become the league's best playmaker, defying the critics who used to say that Westbrook was a shooting guard masquerading as a point guard.

The best thing about Westbrook, though, is the thing that we should be able to take for granted about pro athletes but is in fact an increasingly rare quality: Westbrook plays hard, all the time. He would agree with Jeff Van Gundy's oft-repeated statement that the idea of "load management" is a load of something else...

I understand--but don't accept--that media coverage of basketball is largely driven now by hype and memes and highlights and tweets, but how many NBA players are actually better at playing basketball--at scoring, rebounding and passing--than Russell Westbrook?

After the Thunder lost in the first round for the third straight year, they traded Westbrook to Houston, reuniting him with his former teammate James Harden. The Rockets lost in the first round in the 2020 "bubble" playoffs, and then they sent Westbrook to the Washington Wizards for John Wall. 

Oscar Robertson's career triple double record stood for nearly 50 years--longer than Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's career scoring record that LeBron James broke. After Westbrook surpassed Robertson during the 2020-21 season, I placed this feat in historical context:

It is important to understand Robertson's rightful place in basketball history in order to appreciate what Russell Westbrook has accomplished and how great Westbrook is. Westbrook's 28 points, 21 assists, and 13 rebounds in Washington's 125-124 loss to Atlanta on Monday night broke his tie with Robertson on the career triple double list, and established Westbrook as the all-time triple double king. Robertson's record stood for the vast majority of NBA history up to this point, and even with the increasing number of triple doubles we see today it may very well be 50 years before anyone surpasses Westbrook's final total; the second highest ranking current player, LeBron James, has 99 triple doubles. A player could play 72 games a year for 10 seasons, have a triple double every four games, and still not match Westbrook's current total; the high level of durability and productivity necessary to perform like Westbrook does is vastly underrated. 

The fact that the transcendently great Nikola Jokic is likely to pass Westbrook on the career triple double list next season speaks to Jokic's elite status more than it diminishes the value of Westbrook's accomplishment. Jokic currently has 198 career triple doubles, and the next active player on the list is LeBron James (125), followed by Luka Doncic (90). James is not going to approach Westbrook's total, and Doncic's triple double pace has slowed significantly in the past two years, making it unlikely that he will catch Westbrook.

Westbrook averaged a triple double (22.2 ppg, league-leading/career-high 11.7 apg, career-high 11.5 rpg) in his lone season with the Wizards. I am only being slightly hyperbolic when I say that leading the Wizards to the playoffs while averaging a triple double is sufficient to earn Hall of Fame induction for Westbrook, but it should be emphasized that the Wizards did not make the playoffs in the two years prior to Westbrook's arrival and have not made the playoffs in the five years since they traded him to the L.A. Lakers. 

Perhaps the nadir for Westbrook's career was when LeBron James and his media sycophants attempted to make Westbrook the scapegoat for all of the Lakers' problems. It is worth noting that after James led the Lakers to the 2020 "bubble" title, he led the Lakers to just one Western Conference Finals, one second round loss, three first round losses, and one non-playoff season. During Westbrook's lone full season with the Lakers, he played in a team-high 78 games while James was eighth on the team with 56 games and Anthony "Don't Call me 'Street Clothes'" Davis was 11th on the team with 40 games played. I cannot recall another situation during which the team's two best players missed so many games but somehow the team's failure to perform well is supposedly the fault of the team's third option. 

Hubie Brown--who is perhaps the greatest NBA game analyst of all-time--praised Westbrook's play with the Lakers even in a loss: "I'm happy for him. He never quit on himself. He keeps playing hard...He knows that he is going to get hit (driving to the hoop) but he punishes himself because he wants to win the game...He took over this game in the third quarter, and you love to see it because that is who he is. You can knock him, you can say you don't like him, but he plays hard and he earns his money every night."

In marked contrast to Brown's objective take on Westbrook, Amin Elhassan and Zach Harper propagated the unfounded notion that Westbrook is a selfish player who allegedly stole rebounds from his teammates. In 2019, I critiqued this stubbornly held assertion in Are Rebounds Fungible?: 

Last season, Westrbook led the Oklahoma City Thunder in rebounding (11.1 rpg, 10th in the league) and the team ranked second with 48.1 rpg. The Thunder ranked sixth in rebounding differential (+2.4), which means that their high rebounding totals are not just related to pace; they outrebounded their opponents on a consistent basis.

This season, Westbrook plays for the Houston Rockets. If Westbrook were "stealing" rebounds from his teammates, then one could reasonably expect that his former team's rebounding prowess would not decline much in his absence, and that the next best rebounder on his former team (Steven Adams) would increase his rebounding average. Instead, through 24 games (30% of the season) the Thunder rank 25th in rebounding (43.0 rpg) and 23rd in rebounding differential (-2.4). Adams is averaging 9.4 rpg, essentially the same as his 9.5 rpg average last season.

Meanwhile, last season the Rockets without Westbrook ranked 28th in rebounding (42.1 rpg) and 27th in rebounding differential (-3.4). This season, the Rockets with Westbrook rank third in rebounding (48.0 rpg) and ninth in rebounding differential (+1.8).

The numbers show that after losing Westbrook the Thunder went from being an elite rebounding team to being a poor rebounding team, while after adding Westbrook the Rockets went from being a poor rebounding team to being an elite rebounding team. Yes, there have been other personnel changes for both teams--particularly the Thunder, who also lost Paul George--but if rebounds were fungible and if Westbrook were really just "stealing" rebounds it is unlikely that his old team and his new team would have swapped places in terms of their rebounding rankings.  

Westbrook concluded his career by playing a little over one year with the L.A. Clippers followed by single season stints with the Denver Nuggets and the Sacramento Kings. During his brief time in Denver, Westbrook and Jokic set a record by becoming the first teammates to each have a triple double in the same game twice in the same season.

The false perceptions and narratives about his time with the Lakers may have damaged his value toward the end of Westbrook's career, but Westbrook also faced the same reality that many NBA veterans are dealing with now: the league's salary structure is focused on highly compensating the elite players combined with cost control for young players and low salaries for aging veterans. Westbrook proved long ago that he can perform at an MVP/All-NBA Team level for teams that make deep playoff runs, and he also showed that he could raise the floor of a moribund team like the Wizards. The notion that Westbrook somehow damaged his legacy by playing for several teams in his last few seasons makes as little sense as the assertion that he "stole" rebounds from teammates. Vince Carter glided into the Basketball Hall of Fame as a first ballot selection with a resume that is not half as good as Westbrook's: Carter did not win an MVP, a scoring title, or an assists title, he never made the All-NBA First Team and in his final seven seasons he played for four teams while averaging more than 10 ppg just once. Those facts are not cited to belittle Carter but rather to point out the absurdity of the comments that are made about Westbrook. 

In an era during which the NBA developed a lot of collective bad habits--including overreliance on three point shooting, the rise of load management, and as many as a third of the league's teams tanking--Westbrook stands out as a player who attacked the hoop to score, rebound, and pass, who loathed missing games, and who would not dream of doing anything other than trying 100% to win every game. 

The NBA is worse off without Westbrook and the example he set.

Labels: Denver Nuggets, Houston Rockets, James Harden, Kevin Durant, L.A. Lakers, Oklahoma City Thunder, Russell Westbrook, Sacramento Kings, Seattle Supersonics, Washington Wizards

posted by David Friedman @ 12:50 AM

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Don Nelson Lived a Full Basketball Life

Last Sunday, Don Nelson--who won five NBA titles as a player for the Boston Celtics before becoming one of the greatest coaches in NBA history--passed away at the age of 86. Nelson was a basketball innovator. He may not have originated the "point forward" concept, but during his tenure in Milwaukee he popularized it with players such as Marques Johnson and Paul Pressey. Pressey averaged 7.8 apg in 1985-86, setting a record for small forwards that stood until LeBron James averaged 8.6 apg in 2009-10. Nelson's teams often played "small ball," albeit out of necessity as much as by choice. Nelson tinkered with having his center shoot three pointers decades before teams widely adopted the practice of having big men operate behind the three point arc on offense. Nelson held the NBA record for regular season coaching wins from 2010-2022, surpassing Lenny Wilkens before being overtaken by Gregg Popovich, who served under him as an assistant coach during Nelson's first tenure in Golden State. Nelson earned the NBA Coach of the Year award in 1983, 1985, and 1992. Popovich and Pat Riley are the only other three-time winners of that award, though it should be noted that Larry Brown won the ABA Coach of the Year award three times before also winning the NBA Coach of the Year award once. In addition to his significant NBA coaching success, Nelson coached "Dream Team II" to the gold medal in the 1994 FIBA World Championship two years after the original Dream Team won the Olympic gold medal.

Nelson averaged 10.3 ppg and 4.9 rpg in his 14 season NBA playing career before leaving an indelible mark as a creative and shrewd coach. Nelson never averaged 20 ppg or 10 rpg in a season, but he had some notable achievements as a player, including leading the NBA in field goal percentage (.539) in his second to last season (1974-75), and ranking fourth in playoff scoring (11.4 ppg) on the 1974 NBA champion Celtics. Nelson played his final 12 seasons for the Celtics after playing for the Chicago Zephyrs (which became the team now known as the Washington Wizards) as a rookie before doing a two year stint with the L.A. Lakers. 

After Nelson retired in 1976, he started the next season with the Milwaukee Bucks as an assistant to Larry Costello before Costello resigned with a 3-15 record. Nelson became the head coach, and the Bucks went 27-37 the rest of the way. The Bucks missed the playoffs that season, advanced to the second round the next season, and then missed the playoffs again in 1979 before reaching the playoffs for eight straight years with Nelson at the helm. That run included seven straight Central Division titles (1980-86) and three Eastern Conference Finals appearances (1983-84, 1986). Nelson's Bucks never made it to the NBA Finals because either Larry Bird's Boston Celtics or Julius Erving's Philadelphia 76ers blocked their path each time they went on a deep playoff run. Nelson resigned after the 1986-87 season.

Nelson did some national color commentary work during the 1987-88 season before the Golden State Warriors hired him prior to the 1988-89 season. Nelson's seven years with the Warriors are most remembered for the spectacular play of the "Run TMC" trio, even though Tim Hardaway, Mitch Richmond, and Chris Mullin were only teammates for a little over two years. After Nelson's passing, Hardaway reflected on his impact: "Nellie was ahead of his time and there was nobody else like him. He had an incredible impact on my career and on the game of basketball. I'm going to miss him, and my thoughts and prayers are with Joy, Donnie and the entire Nelson family."

The Warriors led the NBA in scoring (116.3 ppg) in 1989-90, the Hall of Fame trio's first season together, but the Warriors ranked second to last in the league in points allowed (119.8 ppg) and finished with a 37-45 record. The Warriors went 44-38 in 1990-91, the team's best record since 1981-82. Prior to the 1991-92 season, the Warriors traded Richmond for the rights to Billy Owens. Owens finished third in Rookie of the Year voting as the Warriors went 55-27, their best record since the defending NBA champion Warriors went 59-23 in 1975-76. Injuries took a major toll in 1992-93 as the Warriors plummeted to 34-48, but they bounced back to 50-32 in 1993-94. Nelson clashed with Chris Webber, the team's second leading scorer and the NBA's 1994 Rookie of the Year, so Nelson resigned midway through the 1994-95 season. The Warriors did not make the playoffs again until 2007, the first season of Nelson's second stint as Golden State's coach.

Nelson coached the New York Knicks for less than a full season, guiding the team to a 34-25 record before being fired during the 1995-96 season. After one season away from coaching, Nelson served as the general manager and coach of the Dallas Mavericks starting in 1997. Nelson orchestrated the trades that resulted in the Mavericks acquiring future Hall of Famers Dirk Nowitzki and Steve Nash. Nowitzki posted a heartfelt tribute to his former coach and mentor:

Nellie… You didn't just draft me. You believed in me. You saw things in my game before I ever realized I could do them. I've said it a million times and I will always say it: I don't think my career could have turned out how it did without you being my first coach and giving me the freedom to play my game. I can only say THANK YOU. For everything. RIP legend.

The Mavericks had not made the playoffs since 1990 before Nelson guided them to four straight playoff appearances (2001-04), including a 60-22 season capped by a Western Conference Finals run in 2003. 

Nelson resigned as Dallas' coach late in the 2004-05 season and appointed Avery Johnson as his successor. After the season ended, Nelson resigned as general manager, tapping his son Donnie as his replacement. Nelson took a year off from coaching before going back to Golden State. The Warriors improved from 34-48 to 42-40 to earn the eighth playoff seed. Nelson outcoached his protege Avery Johnson as Nelson's Warriors authored one of the most memorable upsets in NBA playoff history by beating the top seeded 67-15 Mavericks 4-2 in the first round of the 2007 playoffs. The "We Believe" Warriors lost 4-1 in the second round. 

The Warriors improved to 48-34 next season, but missed the playoffs in a stacked Western Conference. That season, Nelson and Webber had a rapprochement, and Webber rejoined the Warriors, though he only played nine games before injuries forced him to retire. During the next two seasons, free agency and trades depleted the roster, but before departing the Warriors prior to the 2010-11 season Nelson laid the foundation for the team's future championship success by pushing the front office to select Stephen Curry with the seventh overall selection in the 2009 NBA Draft. It may be hard to imagine now, but at that time it was far from clear that Curry would be an All-Star, let alone an all-time great. The Warriors went 26-56 in Nelson's last season as Curry averaged 17.5 ppg and 5.9 apg to finish second to Tyreke Evans in Rookie of the Year voting.

Curry reacted to Nelson's passing with this statement:

One of the big reasons I was drafted by the Warriors was because of Don Nelson. The story is he never liked rookies, but from Day 1 he challenged me and gave me an opportunity to be my best self on the court. He taught me a lot during our one season together and I'll never forget the night he became the winningest coach in NBA history in Minnesota. We were so happy for him.

He had an immeasurable impact on the sport and will go down as one of the greatest minds in the history of the game. He's a true icon and will be missed by the countless number of people he touched, including myself, during a legendary career.

Nelson displayed keen insights in player evaluation not only in terms of the players he drafted and molded but also in some of his public comments about various players. For example, unlike many so-called experts who ignorantly bashed Kobe Bryant as selfish, Nelson fully appreciated Bryant's greatness, as indicated by this 2008 quote: "He allows these guys to do their thing and be successful and encourages them. He makes them even better than they are by playing alongside of him. He truly makes everybody better when he's on the floor with them. And you couldn't say that five years ago. But now you can say it. That's why he's such a complete player. When coaches look at players, we look at them a little bit differently. Do they make their surrounding teammates better? The answer with him is yes, yes, yes."

In another comment during Bryant's MVP-winning 2007-08 season, Nelson declared, "Kobe now has a grasp on the game like no other player and he controls it when he wants to. He makes the players alongside him succeed and he is a real leader out there. He has the whole package going for him; he is not just the best player in the league but probably the best leader. He could get 50 any time, I'm sure."

As part of the NBA's 50th anniversary celebration in 1996-97, Nelson was named one of the top 10 NBA coaches of all-time, and when the NBA celebrated its 75th anniversary in 2021-22 Nelson was honored as one of the top 15 NBA coaches of all-time. Despite not winning an NBA title, Nelson will long be remembered as one of the greatest and most innovative NBA coaches.

Labels: Boston Celtics, Chris Mullin, Dallas Mavericks, Dirk Nowitzki, Don Nelson, Golden State Warriors, Marques Johnson, Milwaukee Bucks, Mitch Richmond, New York Knicks, Paul Pressey, Steve Nash, Tim Hardaway

posted by David Friedman @ 12:32 PM

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Implications of the Miami Heat's Reported Acquisition of Giannis Antetokounmpo

NBA trades for the upcoming season do not become official until July 6, but assuming that the reports are correct and that nothing happens to scuttle the deal, the Milwaukee Bucks will send franchise cornerstone Giannis Antetokounmpo to the Miami Heat along with Bobby Portis in exchange for Tyler Herro, Kel'el Ware, Jaime Jaquez Jr., Kasparas Jakucionis, three first round draft picks, a second round draft pick, and a pick swap. No other teams are reported to be involved at this time, but last year the Kevin Durant trade that initially included just the Houston Rockets and the Phoenix Suns morphed into a massive seven team deal.

In general, the winner of an NBA trade is the team that acquires the best player involved in that deal; in basketball, several good players rarely are as valuable as one great player, and hoarding draft picks is akin to trading in risky futures and commodities: for draft picks to pay off, the person making the selections must be a skilled talent evaluator, the players who are drafted must be blessed with good health, and the coaching staff must do well at talent development. I would rather have a great player now than the potential of drafting a great player later, but that viewpoint is not universally held. 

Pat Riley has been the Miami Heat's president since 1995, and his consistent team building modus operandi relies not on hoarding draft picks but on trading for players who have earned multiple All-Star selections: the list of All-Stars who Riley acquired by trade includes Tim Hardaway, Alonzo Mourning, Shaquille O'Neal, LeBron James (via sign and trade after the infamous "Decision"), Chris Bosh, and Jimmy Butler. 

Antetokounmpo performed better last season (27.6 ppg, 9.8 rpg, 5.4 apg, .624 FG%) than any of the above players did in their season prior to joining the Heat with the exception of James, who won the 2010 regular season MVP before fleeing Cleveland to form the first "super team" of the modern era. The only downside regarding Antetokounmpo is that injuries limited him to a career-low 36 games last season--Antetokounmpo played in at least 61 games in each of his other 12 NBA seasons, and he finished fourth or better in regular season MVP voting for seven straight seasons (2019-25) while winning back to back MVPs in 2019-20. It will be interesting to see how fit and healthy Antetokounmpo is with the Heat, a team that is notorious for demanding that its players maintain high conditioning levels with low body fat percentages. Antetokounmpo is just 31 years old, and we have seen in recent years that well-conditioned NBA stars can play at an elite level past age 35--and, in LeBron James' case, past 40.

In 2021, Antetokounmpo led the Bucks to their second NBA title 50 years after the 1971 Bucks featuring Hall of Famers Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Oscar Robertson, and Bob Dandridge swept the Baltimore Bullets in the NBA Finals. Antetokounmpo scored 50 points in Milwaukee's series-clinching game six win versus the Phoenix Suns, tying Bob Pettit's record for the most points scored in a Finals-clinching victory while also becoming just the sixth player to have at least three 40 point games in one NBA Finals. Antetokpoumpo joined Michael Jordan and Hakeem Olajuwon as the only three players who have won a regular season MVP, a Finals MVP and a Defensive Player of the Year award (the Finals MVP was first awarded in 1969, and the Defensive Player of the Year award was first bestowed in 1983). Antetokounmpo averaged 35.2 ppg, 13.2 rpg, and 5.0 apg in the Finals while shooting .618 from the field, the first player in Finals history to post all of those numbers in the same series. 

However, since that championship run the Bucks have not been a potent playoff team: they lost in the second round in 2022, and then suffered three straight first round exits before not even qualifying for the Play-In Tournament in 2026. After the Heat eliminated the Bucks in five games in the first round of the 2023 playoffs, Antetokounmpo responded to a question about the Bucks' season being a failure:

You asked me the same question last year, Eric. Do you get a promotion every year? No, right? So, every year you work is a failure? Yes or no? No. Every year you work, you work toward something--toward a goal--which is to get a promotion, to be able to take care of your family, to be able to provide a house for them or take care of your parents. You work toward a goal. It's not a failure. It's steps to success. If you've never--I don't want to make it personal.

Michael Jordan played 15 years. Won six championships. The other nine years was a failure? That's what you're telling me? I'm asking you a question...Exactly, so why you ask me that question? It's the wrong question. There's no failure in sports. There's good days, bad days, some days you are able to be successful, some days you are not, some days it is your turn, some days it's not. That's what sports is about. You don't always win. Some other group is gonna win, and this year somebody else is gonna win. Simple as that. We’re gonna come back next year and try to be better, try to build good habits, try to play better--not have a 10 day stretch of playing bad basketball. Hopefully we can win a championship.

So, 50 years from 1971 to 2021 that we didn't win a championship, it was 50 years of failure? No, it was not. There were steps to it. And we were able to win one and hopefully we can win another one.

Sorry, I didn't want to make it personal, because you asked me the same question last year, and last year I wasn't in the right mind space to answer the question back--but I remember it.

Antetokounmpo understands that it is not possible to win a championship every year and that a season without winning a championship is not automatically a failure--but he also wants to have more chances to win another title before he retires. After it became apparent that the Bucks' championship window had closed, Antetokounmpo wanted out while the Bucks wanted to rebuild. 

The Heat now have an excellent and versatile frontcourt anchored by Antetokounmpo, three-time All-Star/six-time All-Defensive Team member Bam Adebayo, 2022 All-Star/2022 NBA champion Andrew Wiggins, and 2021 NBA champion Bobby Portis. The Heat are very thin in the backcourt, and they are likely to lose 2026 All-Star shooting guard Norman Powell in free agency. Davion Mitchell is serviceable at best as a starting point guard, and even if the Heat run their halfcourt offense through Antetokounmpo they still need point guards who can run the fastbreak and defend opposing point guards. The Heat also need to replace the three point shooting provided by Herro and Powell (assuming that Powell does not return). 

Until the Heat upgrade their backcourt, their realistic best case scenario is a 50 win regular season followed by a second round exit--but if they improve their backcourt then they can be a championship contender. In the 12 seasons since James left the Heat to return to Cleveland in 2014, the Heat missed the playoffs four times (including last season), lost in the first round four times, lost in the second round once, reached the Eastern Conference Finals three times, and lost in the NBA Finals twice; even if the Heat lose in the second round next season, that will be a better finish than they had in eight of the previous 12 seasons. Clearly, Riley did not acquire Antetokounmpo with the goal of losing in the second round; the point is that there is a limit to how far a team can go without an MVP-caliber player, and now the Heat have such a player for the first time in a dozen years.

The Heat's future may be uncertain, but includes the potential upside of winning an NBA championship. The Bucks' future is much grimmer. Consider what happened the last time the Bucks traded their cornerstone player; in six seasons, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar led the Bucks to two NBA Finals and one NBA title while winning three regular season MVPs, and the Bucks won at least 60 games in three of those seasons--but the Bucks won 38 games or less in three of the first four seasons after trading Abdul-Jabbar to the L.A. Lakers with Walt Wesley for Junior Bridgeman, Brian Winters, Dave Meyers, and Elmore Smith. The Bucks eventually became a contender again, making the playoffs for 12 straight seasons from 1980-91, but they never advanced beyond the Eastern Conference Finals, losing three times in that round. After losing in the 1986 Eastern Conference Finals, the Bucks reached the Eastern Conference Finals once (2001) between 1987 and 2019 (Antetokounmpo's sixth season). 

Rebuilding may sound good on paper or in soundbites, but NBA championships are won by teams led by players like Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Giannis Antetokounmpo, not by the very good players who their teams received after trading them. Abdul-Jabbar won three regular season MVPs, five NBA championships, and one NBA Finals MVP with the Lakers. He had the good fortune of being paired with Magic Johnson and James Worthy, but they also had the good fortune of being paired with him. 

The Heat may not win a title with Antetokounmpo, but they have a better chance of winning a title in the next five years than they have had since James left; the Bucks traded a generational player for some good players and several draft picks, and if the aftermath of the Abdul-Jabbar trade is an indicator it may be 50 years before they have another generational player who leads them to the NBA Finals. 

Labels: Bobby Portis, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Jaime Jaquez Jr., Kasparas Jakucionis, Kel'el Ware, Miami Heat, Milwaukee Bucks, Tyler Herro

posted by David Friedman @ 12:40 AM

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Jalen Brunson Erupts for 45 Points as Knicks Beat Spurs 94-90 to Capture First NBA Title Since 1973

The 2026 NBA Finals pattern is familiar by now: the San Antonio Spurs take a double digit first quarter lead before the New York Knicks storm back to win a close game, and that happened again in game five. The Knicks' 94-90 victory enabled them to win their first NBA title since 1973. The Spurs raced out to an 18-8 first quarter lead and were ahead 31-15 at the 8:29 mark of the second quarter before the Knicks slashed the margin to just 42-37 at halftime. The Spurs were on top 70-55 with just 2:25 to go in the third quarter and still had a 10 point lead (83-73) as late as the 7:43 mark of the fourth quarter, but the Knicks outscored the Spurs 21-7 the rest of the way. The Knicks are the first NBA champions with four comeback wins of at least 10 points each in the NBA Finals in the past 50 years. 

As is often the case in closeout games, neither team shot well: the Knicks shot 31-87 (.356) from the field, and the Spurs shot 33-86 (.384) from the field. The biggest difference in a hard fought game was Jalen Brunson's efficient and clutch scoring: Brunson scored 45 points on 14-27 field goal shooting to earn the 2026 Bill Russell NBA Finals MVP after averaging 32.6 ppg, 4.6 apg, 4.2 rpg and 2.0 spg in the NBA Finals with shooting splits of .421/.389/.860. Brunson is the first Knick to score at least 40 points in an NBA Finals game, and the first player to score at least 15 points in the fourth quarter of an NBA Finals-clinching win since Michael Jordan in 1998. He also tied the record for most points scored in a Finals-clinching win on the road, and he tied Jordan for the third most points in any Finals-clinching win, trailing only Giannis Antetokounmpo's 50 in 2021 and Bob Pettit's 50 in 1958. 

Brunson was the only Knick to make more than half of his field goal attempts as his teammates combined to shoot just 17-60 (.283) from the field. Mikal Bridges was the Knicks' second leading scorer with 14 points on 5-10 field goal shooting, and he had a team-high four assists. Josh Hart added 13 points on 4-11 field goal shooting and a team-high 11 rebounds while accumulating a team-high +15 plus/minus number. OG Anunoby had 11 points on 3-11 field goal shooting, eight rebounds, and a game-high tying three steals. For the series, Anunoby ranked second on the team in scoring (21.2 ppg) and led the Knicks in blocked shots (1.4 bpg) while averaging 4.8 rpg and posting shooting splits of .525/.500/.867. 

Brunson and Anunoby were the only Knicks who scored a point until the 9:04 mark of the second quarter, when Karl-Anthony Towns made his only field goal of the game to cut the Spurs' lead to 28-15. Towns finished with just two points on 1-7 field goal shooting while committing a game-high five turnovers, but he also had 10 rebounds and a game-high tying three steals before fouling out after playing just 23 minutes. Towns averaged 13.0 ppg (third on the team), 10.6 rpg (first on the team), 2.4 apg, and 1.0 bpg in the NBA Finals with shooting splits of .490/.333/1.000.

The Knicks did not get much production from their bench with the notable exception of Mitchell Robinson, who had 10 rebounds in 20 minutes, including an important offensive rebound with 22.2 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter and the Knicks clinging to a 91-88 lead.

Dylan Harper led the Spurs with 25 points on 10-19 field goal shooting in 31 minutes off of the bench. He also had five rebounds, four assists, and no turnovers, so his -12 plus/minus number is paradoxical and an example of why plus/minus is not always meaningful in small sample sizes. 

Victor Wembanyama had 19 points, a game-high 14 rebounds, and a game-high five blocked shots, but he shot just 7-19 from the field--including 1-6 from three point range--and he was almost invisible in the fourth quarter: three points on 1-5 field goal shooting, two rebounds, no blocked shots. He looked like he ran out of gas, and that will be an interesting trend to monitor throughout his career: will Wembanyama stay healthy enough and become fit enough to not just survive a long regular season and a deep playoff run but to be dominant late in games when his team needs him the most? Wembanyama averaged 26.0 ppg, 11.2 rpg, 2.6 apg, and 3.6 bpg in his first NBA Finals with shooting splits of .423/.273/.786. He ranked second on the Spurs with 33 three point field goal attempts, and that number is too high for a player who can be so dominant in the paint, particularly considering that he shot very poorly from beyond the arc in this series.

Julian Champagnie (14 points, seven rebounds) and Devin Vassell (12 points, seven rebounds) had solid performances, but the Spurs' starting backcourt struggled: De'Aaron Fox had seven points on 3-15 field goal shooting plus a game-high five assists, and Stephon Castle contributed just six points on 1-10 field goal shooting along with five rebounds and four assists. Castle ranked third on the team in scoring in the Finals (14.6 ppg) but shot just .377 from the field, and Fox tied Vassell for fourth in scoring (12.8 ppg) while shooting .343 from the field. Vassell was the Spurs' only rotation player who shot better than .500 from the field (.537) in the Finals.

The teams combined to miss their first six field goal attempts of the game, foreshadowing how this contest would be more about grit than about high octane offense. Wembanyama opened the scoring with a fast break dunk at the 9:48 mark of the first quarter (the official play by play sheet says that Wembanyama made the shot at 9:44). Brunson answered with a three pointer, but the Knicks started the game shooting 2-13 from the field and they trailed 23-13 by the end of the first quarter. The Knicks' 13 first quarter points tied for the second fewest first quarter points in an NBA Finals game in the shot clock era, which dates back to the 1954-55 season. Harper led the Spurs with seven first quarter points, while Wembanyama stuffed the box score with six points, four rebounds, and three blocked shots. Brunson paced the Knicks with eight points on 3-6 field goal shooting, but his teammates scored just five points on 1-16 field goal shooting; the notion that the Knicks were just 36 minutes of game time away from becoming NBA champions seemed farfetched if not preposterous--until one recalled that the Knicks erased a 29 point second half deficit in game four. 

Neither team shot well in the second quarter, but the Knicks scored 24 points on 9-22 (.409) field goal shooting to chip away at the Spurs' lead. With their season on the line, the Spurs managed just 19 second quarter points on 6-23 (.231) field goal shooting, and they needed Vassell's fadeaway jumper at the buzzer to have a 42-37 halftime lead. Brunson led both teams with 16 first half points, but he was just warming up for a fantastic finish. Harper (11 points) was the only Spur who scored in double figures in the first half.

The Spurs scored 30 third quarter points on 11-20 (.550) field goal shooting, but Brunson kept the Knicks in contact by scoring 14 of his team's 28 third quarter points. A play that could have been a turning point happened at the 5:29 mark of the third quarter. After Brunson drilled a top of the key three pointer to slash the Spurs' lead to 59-53, his left foot landed on top of Wembanyama's right foot and Brunson slumped to the floor holding his left ankle. By rule, that should have been deemed a flagrant foul on Wembanyama for interfering with Brunson's landing area--and that rule is in place because of the dirty play by Zaza Pachulia that put Kawhi Leonard out of action in game one of the 2017 Western Conference Finals when Leonard's Spurs enjoyed a 23 point lead versus the Golden State Warriors. The Warriors rallied to win that game, and then swept the next three games with Leonard unable to play due to the ankle injury he suffered from the Pachulia foul. Imagine if Brunson had not been able to play for the rest of game five or beyond; that could have altered not just the game but the entire series. Also, if Wembanyama had been called for a flagrant foul then based on his total flagrant foul points in the 2026 playoffs he would have been automatically suspended for game six of the NBA Finals if game six had been necessary (or for his next regular season game since the Knicks won game five). Brunson admitted after the game that he was hurting but that he blocked out the pain to focus on finishing the job. The NBA must do a better job of consistently enforcing its rules, particularly rules that relate to player safety. 

The fourth quarter was the Brunson show: 15 points on 4-6 field goal shooting to nearly match the Spurs' scoring output in the final 12 minutes (18 points) by himself. Brunson hit three free throws with 3:40 remaining to give the Knicks their first lead (86-85) since the 7:49 mark of the first quarter. The Spurs later tied the score once, but they never led again. Late game free throw shooting was a problem for both teams, but more so for the Spurs because they trailed and needed to score quickly. In the final 26.1 seconds, Hart, Anunoby, and Bridges each split a pair of free throws before Harper missed two free throws. Anunoby finally sealed the win by making one out of two free throws with 7.7 seconds left, after which Wembanyama missed a long three pointer. 

In my NBA Finals Preview, I picked the Spurs to win in six games but said that the Knicks could beat the Spurs if the Knicks won the possession game by outrebounding the Spurs and by committing fewer turnovers than the Spurs. The Knicks outscored the Spurs 522-510 in the series, and they won the possession battle both on the boards (226-222) and by committing fewer turnovers (60 for the Spurs, 56 for the Knicks). It is interesting to note that although Wembanyama was the top shot blocker in the series by a wide margin (18-7 over Anunoby), overall the Spurs led the Knicks in blocked shots by just 29-24. Even though the Knicks won the series 4-1, this was a closely contested series decided by the Knicks' ability to be more efficient in the clutch moments and by the Knicks' slight edge in the possession game.

Wembanyama is portrayed as the player of the future and the Spurs are talked about as the team of the future, but all of that is just speculation; the reality is that the Knicks are the team of right now, and a team that will be remembered in New York for at least as long as the 53 year NBA title drought that they ended.

Mike Brown has been doubted and unfairly criticized by media members, but now he has an NBA championship ring as a head coach to add to the four championships he earned as an assistant coach with San Antonio (2003) and Golden State (2017, 2018, 2022). 

Jalen Brunson has been doubted throughout his NBA career, but he silenced his critics with his clutch shooting and his focused leadership; in 2024, I pointed out that most 6-4 and under guards are not able to lead a team to an NBA title while suggesting that Brunson may prove to be the exception to that general rule. Hall of Famer Becky Hammon was perhaps the most vocal of many commentators who questioned whether Brunson could be the best player on an NBA championship team. Asked what he would say to his critics after winning an NBA Finals MVP and an NBA title, Brunson did not ask for or demand respect but instead he replied, "I didn't respond to them then, and I'm damn sure not going to respond to them now." 

Karl-Anthony Towns has not only been doubted; he has been mocked for his playing style and for his tendency to accumulate fouls in bunches, but during this season and this playoff run he displayed his versatile basketball talents and his willingness to do whatever his team needs him to do to win, even at the cost of his personal statistics. In moments of triumph, some people express bitterness or defiance, but Towns took a different route, thanking his former teammates with the Minnesota Timberwolves for helping him grow as a player. 

The Knicks overcame the doubters to beat a talented team and win a championship that will forever have a special place in the annals of New York sports lore. 

Labels: Dylan Harper, Jalen Brunson, Karl-Anthony Towns, New York Knicks, OG Anunoby, San Antonio Spurs, Stephon Castle, Victor Wembanyama

posted by David Friedman @ 4:01 AM

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"Moses and the Doctor": A Dual Biography of the ABA Duo Who Led the 76ers to the 1983 NBA Title

Luke Epplin's Moses and the Doctor: Two Men, One Championship, and the Birth of Modern Basketball (Grand Central Publishing, 367 pages, $30) is a dual biography tracing the initially parallel but ultimately intersecting careers of two of the greatest basketball players of all-time: Julius Erving and Moses Malone each started their professional basketball careers in the ABA before joining forces to lead the Philadelphia 76ers to the 1983 NBA title in one of the most dominant championship seasons in NBA history. Epplin did not interview Malone (who passed away in 2015), but he spoke with Erving and with many players who played with and against Erving and Malone.

If you classify Erving and Malone as basketball superheroes, it must be said that their "origin stories" were very different: Erving was a New York city kid with a flashy playing style yet he was lightly recruited as a high schooler, while Malone was a kid from a small Virginia town whose playing style was brutally direct and who was one of the most highly recruited high schoolers of all-time. 

It may be almost inconceivable to younger readers that a player as fantastically gifted and as spectacular to watch as Erving was so unheralded, but it is important to remember that when he finished high school he was a 6-3 "tweener" built like a guard but with the jumping ability and rebounding prowess necessary to play forward. Erving made a name for himself not only at the University of Massachusetts but also at Rucker Park and as the MVP of the U.S. Olympic Development Tour after not making the 40 man roster and only joining the team because one of the originally selected players got hurt.

Malone was heavily recruited by many colleges after his dominant high school career, and he initially committed to the University of Maryland before signing a huge (for that era) five year deal for approximately $1 million to play for the ABA's Utah Stars. Erving was the biggest star in the ABA--if not all of pro basketball--at that time: he won the 1974 ABA regular season MVP, the 1974 ABA Playoff MVP, and the 1974 ABA scoring title (27.4 ppg), while Malone spent the 1974 season as a high school senior in Petersburg, Virginia.

Erving and Malone first faced each other in the first game of Malone's rookie season as Erving's defending ABA champion New York Nets defeated Malone's Utah Stars, 105-89 on October 18, 1974. 

Here is a UPI photo of Erving and Malone from that game:

Erving scored a game-high 27 points, snared 10 rebounds, dished for seven assists, and swiped a game-high five steals, while Malone had 19 points and 11 rebounds. This game was a rematch of the 1974 ABA Finals, which the Nets won 4-1. Asked after the game what he thought of Malone--the first player to jump directly from high school to pro basketball--Erving replied simply, "I believe."

In 1974-75, Erving finished second in the ABA in scoring (27.9 ppg), eighth in rebounding (10.9 rpg), seventh in assists (5.5 apg), fourth in steals (2.2 spg), fourth in blocked shots (1.9 bpg), and sixth in three point field goal percentage (.333). He won the second of his three consecutive ABA regular season MVPs (this time sharing the honor with another future teammate, George McGinnis). 

Malone enjoyed a successful rookie season, averaging 18.8 ppg while ranking fourth in the ABA in rebounding (14.6 rpg), first in offensive rebounding (5.5 orpg), third in field goal percentage (.571), and 10th in blocked shots (1.5 bpg). He made the All-Star team, and he finished third in the Rookie of the Year voting behind Marvin Barnes and Bobby Jones, a fellow future Hall of Famer who was the NBA's inaugural Sixth Man of the Year in 1982-83 while teaming with Malone and Erving on Philadelphia's championship team.

In 1975-76, Erving had one of the greatest all-around seasons in pro basketball history, winning his third ABA scoring title (29.3 ppg) while ranking third in the ABA in steals (2.5 spg), fifth in rebounding (11.0 rpg), seventh in assists (5.0 apg), and seventh in blocked shots (1.9 bpg). Erving won his third ABA regular season MVP, and he was selected to the ABA's All-Defensive Team. Michael Jordan later received a lot of publicity--and one Defensive Player of the Year award--after notching back to back seasons with 200-plus steals and 100-plus blocked shots, but in 1975-76 Erving tallied 207 steals and 160 blocked shots to become the first 200-100 player. Erving, Jordan, Scottie Pippen and Hakeem Olajuwon are the only players to record at least 200 steals and 100 blocked shots in a season since those numbers have been officially tracked (1972-73 in the ABA, 1973-74 in the NBA); Erving and Olajuwon are the only players who have had both a 200-100 season and a 100-200 season (Erving had 190 steals and 204 blocked shots in 1973-74, narrowly missing becoming the only member of the 200-200 club). 

Erving was even more dominant during the 1976 playoffs, leading the ABA in playoff scoring (34.7 ppg) for the fourth time in his five year career while also ranking second in rebounding (12.6 rpg), third in blocked shots (2.0 bpg), third in steals (1.9 spg) and sixth in assists (4.9 apg). He shot .533 from the field--the best playoff field goal percentage of his 16 season career--and .804 from the free throw line. 

Erving led the Nets to the ABA's last championship as the Nets beat the powerful Denver Nuggets in six games, and he was the easy choice for ABA Playoff MVP honors after setting ABA Finals records for points (226) and scoring average (37.7 ppg, the fourth highest pro basketball Finals average at that time and still sixth on the all-time list). Michael Jordan holds the all-time Finals scoring record (41.0 ppg in six games in 1993), followed by Rick Barry (40.8 ppg in six games in 1967), Elgin Baylor (40.6 ppg in seven games in 1962), Shaquille O'Neal (38.0 ppg in six games in 2000) and Jerry West (37.9 ppg in seven games in 1969). Erving shot 79-134 from the field (.590) and 66-84 from the free throw line (.786) in the 1976 ABA Finals. 

The cash-strapped Stars sold Malone to the Spirits of St. Louis early in the 1975-76 season. Malone averaged 14.3 ppg and 9.6 rpg for the Spirits of St. Louis, with various injuries limiting him to just 43 games. The team went 35-49, did not make the playoffs, and was not included in the ABA-NBA merger, although the team's owners received a settlement package that proved to be very lucrative. After the 1975-76 season, four ABA teams joined the NBA: Denver Nuggets, Indiana Pacers, New York Nets, and San Antonio Spurs. The cash-strapped Nets traded Erving to the Philadelphia 76ers in a $6 million deal, with roughly half of that money going to the Nets and the other half going to Erving as part of a six year contract.

Erving made the All-NBA First Team in 1977 and from 1980-82, and he won the 1981 NBA regular season MVP--becoming the first non-center to earn that honor since Oscar Robertson in 1964--but during that era a team had to have a Hall of Fame center to win the NBA title. Erving's 76ers had the NBA's best cumulative regular season record from 1976-77--1981-82, and during that six season span Erving led the team to three NBA Finals and five Eastern Conference Finals, but most of those playoff runs ended in losses to teams led by a Hall of Fame center: Bill Walton's Portland Trail Blazers (1977 NBA Finals), the Elvin Hayes/Wes Unseld Washington Bullets (1978 Eastern Conference Finals), Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's L.A. Lakers (1980 NBA Finals), Robert Parish's Boston Celtics (1981 Eastern Conference Finals), and Abdul-Jabbar's Lakers (1982 NBA Finals). Parish was not the Celtics' best player, but the 7-0 center was an important part of a huge frontcourt featuring fellow Hall of Famers Larry Bird (6-9) and Kevin McHale (6-10) plus Cedric Maxwell (the 6-8 winner of the 1981 NBA Finals MVP) and Rick Robey (6-11). 

While Erving was immediately a big star in the NBA, Malone's ascent took a little longer. After the ABA-NBA merger, the Portland Trail Blazers selected Malone in the ABA dispersal draft of players who were not on the rosters of the four ABA teams that joined the NBA. Portland already had Bill Walton, so the Trail Blazers sent Malone to the Buffalo Braves for a first round draft pick that later became Rick Robey. The Braves then traded Malone for two first round picks, one of which became Wesley Cox and the other of which became Michael Ray Richardson.

Malone averaged 13.2 ppg and 13.1 rpg (third in the league) in 1976-77. He did not make the All-Star Team or the All-NBA Team, but he finished sixth in MVP voting behind Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Bill Walton, Pete Maravich, Bob Lanier, and Julius Erving. Erving's 76ers defeated Malone's Rockets in the Eastern Conference Finals, 4-2 (yes, Houston was in the Eastern Conference). Erving averaged a series-high 28.3 ppg, 6.3 rpg, and a team-high 6.0 apg while shooting .570 from the field and .800 from the free throw line (the NBA did not use the three point shot until 1979-80). Malone ranked third on the Rockets in scoring (18.0 ppg) with shooting splits of .467/.691, and he led both teams in rebounding (17.2 rpg).

The Rockets missed the playoffs in 1978, lost in the first round in 1979, and were swept by the Boston Celtics in the second round in 1980. Erving's 76ers beat the Celtics 4-1 in the Eastern Conference Finals before losing to the Lakers in the NBA Finals. The Rockets moved to the Western Conference for the 1980-81 season, and they reached the NBA Finals after going just 40-42 during the regular season. After the Celtics came back from a 3-1 deficit to beat the 76ers in the Eastern Conference Finals, the Celtics defeated the Rockets 4-2 in the 1981 NBA Finals. The Rockets lost in the first round in 1982, while the 76ers beat the Celtics in the Eastern Conference Finals before losing to the Lakers in the NBA Finals. 

By 1982, Erving had a 12-6 playoff series record with the 76ers with three Eastern Conference titles but no NBA titles, and Malone had a 5-5 playoff series record with the Rockets with one Western Conference title but no NBA titles. Malone had won two regular season MVPs (1979, 1982) and led the league in rebounding three times. 

The Rockets were disinclined to give Malone a market value contract after the 1981-82 season, so they traded him to the 76ers for Caldwell Jones plus a first round draft pick that later became Rodney McCray. Erving now had the Hall of Fame center that was a prerequisite for winning an NBA title, and Malone now had enough perimeter talent around him to avoid losing in the playoffs or even missing the playoffs altogether. 

The Malone-Erving duo teamed with Hall of Fame point guard Maurice Cheeks, Hall of Fame forward Bobby Jones, and guard Andrew Toney (who had Hall of Fame level talent but had his career cut short by foot injuries) to form one of the most dominant single season teams in pro basketball history. The 76ers set a record by starting the season 50-7, and they were threatening to become the first team to win 70 regular season games before late season injuries to Malone and Erving slowed the team to a "mere" 65-17. Neither Malone nor Erving were fully healthy during the playoffs, but the 76ers still set a record by going 12-1 in the postseason, including a 4-0 NBA Finals sweep of the Lakers. The 76ers outrebounded the Lakers 192-171 in the NBA Finals, with Malone grabbing more rebounds (72, 18.0 rpg) than any other two players in the series. Erving ranked second in the series with 34 rebounds (8.5 rpg); in the 1982 NBA Finals, the Lakers outrebounded the 76ers, 284-250, with Erving leading the 76ers with 49 (8.2 rpg), which was not enough to offset the efforts of Magic Johnson (65, 10.8 rpg) and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (46, 7.7 rpg).

It is tantalizing to wonder what might have been if Erving and Malone had teamed up earlier and stayed together longer; they were only teammates for four seasons. The duo posted a 5-2 playoff series record, including wins in the 1983 Eastern Conference Finals and 1983 NBA Finals. Their 1984 title defense ended in a shocking first round loss to the New Jersey Nets, and then in 1985 they stormed through the first two rounds of the playoffs with a 7-1 record to reach the Eastern Conference Finals before losing 4-1 to the defending NBA champion Boston Celtics. In 1986, the 76ers finished third in the Eastern Conference standings, but their championship hopes were dashed after Malone suffered a right orbital blowout fracture that prevented him from participating in the playoffs; the 76ers beat the Bullets 3-2 in the first round before falling to the Milwaukee Bucks 4-3 in the second round. While it does not seem likely that the 76ers would have won the championship even if Malone had played in the 1986 playoffs, they would almost certainly have defeated the Bucks and at least had an opportunity to battle the dominant Celtics in the Eastern Conference Finals. 

After the 1985-86 season, the 76ers traded Malone, Terry Catledge, and two draft picks to the Bullets for Jeff Ruland and Cliff Robinson, a deal that turned out disastrously for the 76ers when injuries forced Ruland to retire after playing just five games with the 76ers (he made a brief comeback to the NBA for the 1992 and 1993 seasons). Malone made the All-Star team in each of the first three seasons after the trade. 

Erving played one season after the Malone trade before retiring. The 76ers had the NBA's best cumulative regular season record during the first 10 seasons after Erving joined the team before falling to second place behind the L.A. Lakers after Erving's 11th (and final) NBA campaign.  

Malone played one season for the 76ers as a backup center (1993-94) before retiring after the 1994-95 season. His playoff series record after being traded to the Bullets was 0-4, and his career playoff series record was 10-12. Erving's career playoff series record was 24-13, including 18-10 with the 76ers.

When two superstars play together, egos often get in the way, but that did not happen with Erving and Malone. After Malone joined the 76ers, he publicly declared, "This is Doc's team. I'm just here to help." Malone was the more dominant player by that stage of their careers, and he won the regular season MVP and the NBA Finals MVP in 1983--but the 33 year old Erving was no slouch: he finished fifth in regular season MVP voting, and he joined Malone, Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, and Sidney Moncrief on the All-NBA First Team. Erving was the oldest player on the All-NBA First Team by five years, and the only player on the All-NBA Second Team who was older than Erving was Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who was 36.

Epplin notes that Malone's willingness and eagerness to embrace not just Erving but all of his teammates is exemplified by the fact that Malone refused the 76ers' offer to retire his jersey until the team agreed to put the names of every one of his 76ers' teammates--not just his teammates from the 1983 championship team--on the banner honoring him. Erving and Malone were the team's superstars, but they won as a team, and Erving and Malone were two of the most team-first superstars ever. It is impossible to imagine either of them demanding to be given "respect" on a personal level to detract from a team-first approach the way that Lebron James did after the L.A. Lakers won the 2020 "bubble" title.  

I wrote about Malone's jersey retirement: 

For a variety of reasons that fall outside the scope of this article, it is difficult to determine which basketball team is the greatest team ever but Philadelphia's 1983 championship team takes a back seat to no single season squad in pro basketball history; that does not mean that they are definitely the best, but it means you cannot point to a single team that is clearly better.

Malone was the dominant force on that dominant team, along with the incomparable Erving, and it is fitting that the 76ers honored not only Malone's greatness but that they did so in keeping with his wish to recognize all of his teammates as well. 

Epplin concludes that the impact that Erving, Malone, and the ABA had on pro basketball history was as great as it was underrated: 

The open-floor game and in-air improvisations that had struck basketball fundamentalists as heretical soon became as commonplace as bounce passes. Even so, as of this writing, the NBA has yet to incorporate ABA statistics into its record books. As a result, the ABA remains stuck in a liminal state, remembered more as a colorful curiosity than as a cradle for so much of what has elevated pro basketball into a worldwide phenomenon.

Yet the popular narrative about Johnson and Bird resuscitating a faltering league is incomplete without mention of the ABA and two of its signature players who merged their divergent talents in the NBA to disrupt the decade-long dominance of the Lakers and the Celtics on a team as bold as its boast of sweeping the playoffs. The legacy of the ABA lives on through the 1983 Philadelphia 76ers, a testament to the beauty and the guts of a league that made the game modern.

I have spent more than 25 years insisting that the NBA should officially count ABA statistics, and I hope that Epplin's book brings renewed attention to the shameful way that the NBA minimizes ABA history, ABA statistics, and the greatness of ABA players.

Labels: Andrew Toney, Billy Cunningham, Bobby Jones, Julius Erving, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, L.A. Lakers, Magic Johnson, Maurice Cheeks, Moses Malone, Pat Williams, Philadelphia 76ers

posted by David Friedman @ 9:58 PM

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Anunoby Game-Winning Tip-In Caps Largest Comeback in NBA Finals History as Knicks Take 3-1 Lead Over Spurs

Depending on your perspective, game four of the NBA Finals either featured the greatest comeback or the greatest collapse in NBA Finals history; the San Antonio Spurs led the New York Knicks 81-52 with 9:40 remaining in the third quarter, but OG Anunoby's tip-in of Jalen Brunson's missed three pointer with 1.2 seconds left in the fourth quarter proved to be the game-winning shot as the Knicks prevailed 107-106 to take a 3-1 series lead. The Knicks accomplished the largest comeback in NBA Finals history, and the largest halftime comeback in NBA playoff history. This series has repeatedly featured wild momentum swings--with double digit leads repeatedly being built and squandered by both teams--but at the end the games have consistently been close, and this is just the second NBA Finals with multiple games decided by just one point, with the first being the 1975 Finals when Rick Barry's Golden State Warriors swept the Washington Bullets. 

Brunson scored a game-high 36 points on 12-25 field goal shooting while dishing for a game-high tying seven assists, grabbing five rebounds, and swiping a team-high three steals in a game-high 44 minutes. Anunoby had 33 points on 10-15 field goal shooting, including 7-9 from three point range. His blocked shot on De'Aaron Fox' layup attempt with 11.1 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter gave the Knicks the opportunity to take the lead and win the game. Karl-Anthony Towns was the Knicks' only other double figure scorer with 13 points plus a team-high 10 rebounds and a game-high +17 plus/minus numbe. Special mention must be made of reserve guard Jose Alvarado, the Knicks' fourth leading scorer with eight points on 3-4 field goal shooting in 16 minutes. Alvarado tied Brunson and Josh Hart (six points, eight rebounds, six assists, two steals) for the team's second best plus/minus number (+11). Alvarado scored all of his points in the fourth quarter when he took the place of the ineffective Mikal Bridges, shooting 3-3 from the field while leading the team with three assists. In the fourth quarter, Brunson (nine points), Anunoby (eight points), and Alvarado (eight points) combined to outscore the Spurs by themselves.

Victor Wembanyama scored a team-high 24 points and corralled a game-high 13 rebounds, but he shot just 9-25 from the field, including 2-8 from three point range. As the Spurs collapsed in the second half, Wembanyama had just eight points on 3-14 field goal shooting. Dylan Harper contributed 21 points off of the bench with a team-high +12 plus/minus number. Fox added 18 points on 6-16 field goal shooting while passing for a game-high tying seven assists. Stephon Castle had 13 points, five rebounds, and five assists, but he shot just 2-7 from the field. 

Saying that a game was a "tale of two halves" is an old cliche, but that is a precise description of this game. 

The first half tale saw the Spurs leading 76-49 after shooting 28-47 (.595) from the field and committing just two turnovers while holding the Knicks to 15-37 (.405) field goal shooting with seven turnovers. The Spurs shot 14-26 (.538) from beyond the arc while setting NBA Finals records for most three pointers in a half and biggest halftime lead by a visiting team (which was also the third biggest halftime lead by any NBA Finals team). Four Spurs scored at least 13 first half points: Victor Wembanyama (16), Dylan Harper (15), Devin Vassell (15), and De'Aaron Fox (13). Brunson led the Knicks with 19 points and Anunoby added 14 points, but the other three New York starters had just 14 points while seven New York reserves combined to score two points.

The second half tale was even more improbable than the Spurs' first half dominance, as the Knicks outscored the Spurs 58-30 while shooting 21-41 (.512) from the field and limiting the Spurs to 8-39 (.205 field goal shooting). The Spurs shot 3-17 (.176) from beyond the arc in perhaps the ultimate example of why high volume three point shooting is a high variance style of play; although "stat gurus" praise high volume three point shooting as the paragon of supposedly efficient offensive play, the reality is that teams that rely too heavily on three point shooting make themselves susceptible to long scoring droughts, particularly in the playoffs against tough-minded defensive teams. Charles Barkley of ABC/ESPN called the Spurs' second half three point barrage some of the dumbest basketball that he has seen in the 40-plus years that he has been involved with the NBA. Barkley is prone to hyperbole, but considering what was at stake and the fact that the Spurs have a 7-4 player who is supposed to be the future of the league, it is not extreme to suggest that the Spurs should have at least considered the option of slowing down, feeding the ball to Wembanyama in the paint (or at least inside the three point arc), and forcing the Knicks to guard him possession after possession. It cannot be emphasized enough that when the Spurs built their huge first half lead they outscored the Knicks in the paint 24-18, which indicates that the Spurs attacked the paint and then created rhythm three point shots by collapsing the defense. This is in marked contrast to the second half, when the Knicks outscored the Spurs in the paint 16-4.

This game provides a great example of why teams should not get frustrated by officiating or stop playing hard even when everything seems to be falling apart. Towns, who is often prone to collect fouls at an alarming rate, had two fouls in the first 1:02 of the game, resulting in him missing most of the first quarter. His second foul was initially whistled against Wembanyama, but then after a coach's challenge it was determined that Towns had committed an offensive foul on his drive to the hoop by hooking Wembanyama. The Spurs were already up 5-2 when Towns was replaced by Mitchell Robinson, and then the Spurs went on a 7-0 run to take a 12-2 lead. The Spurs were up by as much as 21 points in the first quarter, and were on top 41-22 entering the second quarter. 

New York coach Mike Brown shuffled 12 players into the game in the first half as the Knicks dealt with foul trouble and struggled to find a five man unit that could be effective at either end of the court, but the Spurs still won the second quarter, 35-27.

It was not immediately apparent in the third quarter how drastically this game would shift. Nearly four minutes into the quarter, the Spurs were still up 81-59. The Spurs' lead fluctuated between 16 and 20 points for most of the third quarter before Brunson's feed to Robinson for a dunk cut the margin to 87-72 at the 2:43 mark. Vassell answered with a three pointer to nudge the lead back up to 18, but Anunoby closed the third quarter scoring with a trey to trim the deficit to 90-75 entering the final stanza. Coming back from 29 points down in the NBA Finals sounds impossible, but erasing a 15 point lead in the fourth quarter is quite doable, particularly considering that the Knicks beat the Cleveland Cavaliers in the first game of the second round after trailing by 22 points with 7:52 left in the fourth quarter. 

In the fourth quarter, the Spurs nearly pulled off a collective "Harden" (referring to when a player--usually Harden--has more turnovers than field goals made), shooting 4-19 (.211) from the field while committing four turnovers. The Spurs still led 104-97 with 3:31 to go after Wembanyama made a jump shot, but the Knicks went on an 8-0 run in the next 2:09 to take their first lead of the game on a Brunson floater. Castle's two free throws put the Spurs up 106-105 with 30.3 seconds remaining, and it still seemed possible that the Knicks' huge comeback would be for naught. Brunson missed a floater in the lane with 16.1 seconds remaining, and Fox pushed the ball up the court after snaring the rebound. Fox could have held on to the ball to run the clock down and force the Knicks to foul him, but instead he attempted a layup with 11.1 seconds remaining. He later explained that his idea was to put the Spurs up by three points so that the Knicks would need a three pointer just to tie the game. Anunoby's chase down block gave the Knicks one last chance. Alvarado advanced the ball past midcourt before the Knicks called timeout. After the timeout, Anunoby inbounded the ball to Brunson and cut hard to the hoop. Brunson's three point shot looked good but was just off, and then Anunoby made the tip-in that will be replayed for decades (particularly if the Knicks win the championship). The Spurs called time out to advance the ball but were not even able to get off a shot in the final 1.2 seconds. 

After steamrolling the Knicks 41-22 in the first quarter, the Spurs got trampled 32-16 in the fourth quarter. The NBA is often a first quarter league--a point that I have repeatedly made, and that ABC/ESPN play by play announcer Mike Breen mentioned early in the third quarter--but in this game the fourth quarter proved to be decisive.

Casual fans may not understand how long an NBA game is, or how long a playoff series is. This comeback was unprecedented, but in general a 48 minute game provides plenty of time for a comeback, and an NBA best out of seven series is far different from a 40 minute NCAA tournament game in which the better team can go cold for five or 10 minutes and be eliminated by an inferior team. In the 2026 NBA Finals, the Spurs have had big runs, often seemed to have the much-talked about "momentum," and enjoyed a lead in the final two minutes of all four games, but now they trail 3-1 and face a daunting task to defeat a resilient Knicks team that never loses faith and never quits. The Spurs have the most talented player in the series, but they have not figured out how to consistently exploit Wembanyama's height, reach, agility, and shooting touch; meanwhile, in game four the Knicks did a masterful job of utilizing matchups and switches to drag Wembanyama out of the paint on defense to clear driving lanes for scores in the paint and for kick out passes for open three pointers.

Labels: Dylan Harper, Jalen Brunson, Jose Alvarado, Karl-Anthony Towns, New York Knicks, OG Anunoby, San Antonio Spurs, Stephon Castle, Victor Wembanyama

posted by David Friedman @ 3:22 AM

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Put Away the Brooms, New York: Spurs Win Game Three, End the Knicks' Sweep Dreams

For the third straight game, the San Antonio Spurs took a double digit first quarter lead versus the New York Knicks, but this time the Spurs did not collapse in the fourth quarter's final moments and they posted a 115-111 win to cut the Knicks' NBA Finals lead to 2-1. The Knicks--whose 13 game playoff winning streak ended--dreamed of sweeping their way to their first NBA title since 1973, but now the Spurs are one win away from reclaiming homecourt advantage. 

The Knicks outrebounded the Spurs 46-37, but the Spurs countered by committing just eight turnovers while the Knicks had 13 turnovers. The Knicks only had two more fouls than the Spurs (23-21) but the timing of fouls is important: the Spurs got into the bonus early enough to earn 32 free throw attempts compared to 22 free throw attempts for the Knicks, and the Spurs made 25 free throws while the Knicks made 18 free throws. 

In his postgame remarks, New York coach Mike Brown emphasized that the Spurs "played great" and that he does not often complain about officiating, but he pointed out that in the second half the Spurs attempted 24 free throws while the Knicks attempted eight free throws. Calling out officiating and free throw disparities is a time-honored NBA coaching tradition, particularly during the playoffs, but suffice it to say that the Knicks would be better served figuring out how to not fall behind early in each game, before foul trouble or free throws are relevant. However, I don't blame Brown for complaining; every coach does it not only because they think that it works but because it also generates an "us against them" mentality in the locker room by taking the focus off of what the players could have done better. 

My main issue with the game three officiating echoes an observation made by ABC/ESPN commentators Richard Jefferson and Tim Legler: the officials let a lot of contact go early in the game only to then call things more closely later in the game, leaving players to rightly wonder why the same stuff that they got away with in the first quarter was whistled later in the game. I have played a lot of basketball, and I believe that it is a player's obligation to adapt to how the officials decide to call the game--but once the officials set the tone then the officials should be consistent throughout the game. I don't want to make this whole recap about officiating, so I will conclude this portion of my analysis by doing something I rarely do: agree with Draymond Green, who said during ESPN's postgame show that the officials generally favor the more aggressive team, and in game three the Spurs were the aggressor from the start of the game.

Victor Wembanyama scored a game-high tying 32 points on 11-18 field goal shooting while also grabbing eight rebounds, dishing for six assists, blocking three shots, snaring two steals, and committing just one turnover. He was selective and efficient (2-4) from beyond the arc. Wembanyama is the second youngest player to have at least 30 points, at least five rebounds, and at least five assists in an NBA Finals game, trailing only Magic Johnson, who accomplished the feat in the 1980 NBA Finals as a 20 year old rookie en route to leading the L.A. Lakers to the NBA title while winning the NBA Finals MVP. Stephon Castle added 23 points on 8-14 field goal shooting along with five rebounds, five assists, and two steals. Dylan Harper shot just 5-18 from the field, but he made a significant impact off of the bench with 13 points, a game-high tying nine rebounds, four assists, and no turnovers in 32 minutes. De'Aaron Fox had 12 points on 4-14 field goal shooting, but he made his impact felt with a game-high eight assists and two blocked shots. Julian Champagnie (12 points, three assists) and Devin Vassell (11 points, four rebounds) made solid contributions.

Jalen Brunson had a game-high tying 32 points on 11-25 field goal shooting with five rebounds, five assists, and a game-high five turnovers. OG Anunoby scored 28 points while shooting 9-13 from the field, and he had five rebounds and two blocked shots. Josh Hart had another excellent all-around game: 16 points, game-high tying nine rebounds, five assists. Karl-Anthony Towns--the best player in the series through the first two games--had 11 points, eight rebounds, and just one assist. During much of the Knicks' winning streak, they ran their offense through Towns as a distributor who also contributed timely baskets. In this game he only had 10 field goal attempts, so he was not involved enough in the offense as either a scorer or a playmaker. Jordan Clarkson provided a spark with 10 points in 13 minutes off of the bench, but that type of contribution is only noticed during a win and tends to be overlooked in a loss.

Although both teams made runs throughout the game, the Spurs set the overall tone early, reinforcing an important point: the NBA is often called a fourth quarter league, but it is really a first quarter league because in the first quarter the winning team can identify and exploit matchup advantages that will work throughout the game. Wembanyama had nine points on 4-4 field goal shooting in the first five minutes of the game, and he did all of that work in close proximity to the hoop. Yes, he can make three pointers, but he is most effective when he attacks the hoop as his first option. Defensively, the Spurs positioned Wembanyama so that he spent most of his time protecting the paint, with a secondary responsibility of closing out to shooters on the baseline, instead of assigning him to chase Towns around the perimeter. The Spurs led by as much as 12 in the first quarter, and they were ahead 33-22 heading into the second quarter.

The Knicks set a franchise NBA Finals record by pouring in 42 points in the second quarter, with Anunoby (11 points) and Brunson (10 points) doing much of the damage. Brunson's three pointer at the 4:18 mark gave the Knicks their first lead of the game, 50-49. Castle had 11 of the Spurs' 24 second quarter points. The Knicks led 64-57 at halftime, and noted prognosticator Charles Barkley declared during the halftime show that the game was over, joking with Shaquille O'Neal that he would bet his house that the Knicks would win. 

The Knicks started the third quarter sloppily with turnovers on their first two possessions leading to six straight San Antonio points on a Champagnie drive, a Champagnie three pointer, and a Champagnie free throw after Brunson was called for a flagrant foul for a reckless close out on Champagnie's trey. The Spurs took their first lead of the second half, 72-71, on a Vassell three pointer with 7:26 left in the third quarter. The rest of the third quarter was closely contested, with the Spurs on top 92-91 heading into the final stanza.

Considering how the previous two games ended, the Knicks must have felt ecstatic about the prospect of yet another game going down to the wire. The Spurs did not lead by more than eight points during the fourth quarter, but they never let the Knicks tie the score; the Knicks had a chance to all but clinch the championship by winning the fourth quarter to win game three, but instead they scored 20 fourth quarter points on 7-27 (.259) field goal shooting. The Spurs shot almost as poorly (6-21, .286) from the field, but they shot 10-10 from the free throw line. Every play that seemed to give the Knicks momentum only served to keep the game close without pushing the Knicks over the top. For example, Wembanyama hit a three pointer to give the Spurs a 103-93 lead and the officials called a foul on Mitchell Robinson to create a four point play opportunity--but the Knicks challenged the call, and the officials correctly ruled that Keldon Johnson had pushed Robinson into Wembanyama, thus wiping out not only Wembanyama's potential free throw attempt but also his three point shot. After Brunson's driving layup cut the Spurs' advantage to 100-95, it looked like the Knicks were in position for another late game rally. The Knicks got as close as 113-111 on Anunoby's three pointer with 9.4 seconds remaining, but Castle calmly answered with two free throws to keep the game out of reach. Brunson led both teams with 12 fourth quarter points on 4-7 field goal shooting, but the Spurs had built just enough of a cushion that his late game heroics did not save the Knicks.

The game to game overreactions by pundits are amusing; perhaps the overheated rhetoric generates clicks or views or ratings, but the reality is that each game in a playoff series has a distinct character and in the long run the team that best exploits matchup advantages will prevail four times. Even though the Knicks won the first two games on the road, it is not like they dominated the Spurs from start to finish; the Knicks overcame a 14 point deficit to win game one, and they won game two after squandering a 14 point lead. 

It should be obvious that these teams are closely matched and that each team has the ability to win on the road. The Spurs have the most talented player (Wembanyama) plus a fleet of young and athletic perimeter players who are harassing Brunson into a low field goal percentage much like they harassed two-time regular season MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander into a low field goal percentage in the Western Conference Finals. The Knicks have more playoff experience, a versatile big man (Towns) who is capable of challenging Wembanyama at both ends of the court, and a crafty lead guard (Brunson) who rises to the occasion in close games.

Instead of reasoned analysis of matchup advantages, offensive sets, and defensive schemes, we will now spend the next two days hearing about how the Knicks are in trouble, are lucky that they are not down 3-0, and are being outcoached, outhustled, and/or outdone in terms of the vaunted "in game adjustments"--and the people making those bold pronouncements will be the same ones who declared before game three that the Knicks are on the verge of sweeping the series. It is a lot easier to ride emotional waves than to analyze what is happening while it is happening.

Labels: De'Aaron Fox, Jalen Brunson, Josh Hart, Karl-Anthony Towns, New York Knicks, OG Anunoby, San Antonio Spurs, Stephon Castle, Victor Wembanyama

posted by David Friedman @ 2:56 AM

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