Will Cuban Say "Blog This!" to David Stern or Will Shaq Get a Ring for his Middle Finger?
Recently I mused about the possibility of
David Stern presenting the championship trophy to Mark Cuban. AP Sports Columnist Tim Dahlberg just
wrote about the same subject. If Dallas wins, it certainly will make for an interesting entry at
Mark Cuban's blog.
Orlando Sentinel writer Brian Schmitz, noting Shaquille O'Neal's penchant for giving himself nicknames, says that Shaq might call himself
The Big I Told You So if the Miami Heat win the title. Usually when players get their fifth title it is called "one for the thumb." This would be Shaq's fourth championship and I wouldn't be surprised if he called it "one for the middle finger." There is no doubt that he would love to flash that digit at Kobe Bryant, the L.A. Lakers' management and anyone else who he feels has disrespected him.
So, whoever wins this year's Finals, someone will be saying--or thinking--"vengeance is sweet."
posted by David Friedman @ 7:58 PM
"March Madness" has Nothing on "Win or Go Home"
The NBA Playoffs may never supplant the popularity of the NCAA Tournament, more commonly referred to as "March Madness"--but the NBA's "Win or Go Home" postseason tournament has produced at least as much excitement and higher quality games to boot. During the height of March Madness, I wrote a
post comparing the NBA Playoffs to the NCAA Tournament; I noted that this year's Tournament included several games with low scores, low shooting percentages and high turnover totals. I acknowledged that there were some exciting moments but concluded, "I enjoy watching college basketball and look forward to next weekend's Final Four--I just don't accept the premise that NCAA basketball is in any way superior to NBA basketball."
The first three rounds of the 2006 NBA Playoffs are now in the books. We have been treated to four series that went the distance; granted, three of the seventh games were duds but the fourth--Dallas versus San Antonio--was a classic and may very well have decided this year's championship. We have seen LeBron James' breathtaking playoff initiation, eight overtime games--including two that were series clinchers--a pair of 50-point gems by Kobe Bryant and Dirk Nowitzki and several dramatic buzzer beating shots. Not all of the games have been close but the overall standard of play has been high and very entertaining to watch.
I correctly predicted the outcome of 9 of the first 12 series and batted .500 in the Conference Finals round. The Spurs were my original pick to win the championship but I said from the start that they were
"just thismuch better than Dallas," so when the Mavericks eliminated San Antonio it was only natural for me to pick them to beat Phoenix in the Western Conference Finals. As for the Eastern Conference Finals, I have picked against the Miami Heat the last two rounds and been wrong both times. It is possible that I am focusing too much on the Heat's weaknesses (heavy reliance on Shaq and Wade; defending against perimeter players on dribble drives and in pick and roll plays) and not enough on how well the team has come together recently under the leadership of Pat Riley. Nevertheless, I am
picking against Miami in the NBA Finals, too; I expect that Dallas will exploit Miami's weaknesses more effectively than New Jersey and Detroit did.
posted by David Friedman @ 1:25 AM
Dallas Versus Miami Preview
NBA FinalsDallas (60-22) vs. Miami (52-30)
Miami can win if…Shaquille O'Neal averages 25-plus ppg and 12-plus rpg and Dwyane Wade averages 25-plus ppg.
Dallas will win because …Miami has no answer for Dirk Nowitzki or for the Mavericks' depth, which will wear down the Heat as the series progresses.
Other things to consider: Josh Howard is listed as a forward but he can guard 1s, 2s or 3s. He will probably be matched up with Wade at least part of the time and he has enough athleticism and length to cause Wade some problems. Dallas won both regular season meetings, but O'Neal did not play in one of them and the Heat are a much more cohesive unit now than they were when those games were played. Pat Riley is making his ninth Finals appearance as a coach, while Avery Johnson is coaching in his first NBA Finals; each one an NBA championship as a player. Miami will have a difficult time defending against Dallas' versatile offensive attack: Nowitzki is a matchup nightmare, Jason Terry and Devin Harris can create havoc with dribble penetration, Jerry Stackhouse provides bench scoring and Howard is a very good offensive rebounder.
posted by David Friedman @ 12:26 AM
Dwyane Wade's Sunday Conversation with Rachel Nichols
ESPN's
Sunday Conversation featured Rachel Nichols' interview with Dwyane Wade. Wade made a couple interesting comments:
1) Asked how many players he would select before himself if he were starting a team today, Wade said that to build a great team you have to take a dominant center first. His choice would be Shaquille O'Neal, despite O'Neal's advancing age. Then he would pick either himself or LeBron James.
2) Wade explained that the reason that he and Shaq get along better than Shaq did with Penny Hardaway or Kobe Bryant is that Shaq is at a different stage of his career now. The young Shaq and the young Penny were both exciting players who wanted to be the main guy on the team and the same conflict took place with Shaq and Kobe. Wade added that now Shaq realizes that he cannot shoot 30 times a game and is happy to defer to a young, unselfish Wade. Wade indicated that he and Shaq have talked about this subject and that what Wade told Nichols reflected what Shaq said to him.
This made me wonder three things: 1) How do Magic and Lakers fans feel about this transformation in Shaq's thinking? 2) How much better would the Lakers have been in 2003 and 2004 if Shaq would have dealt with Kobe the way he deals with Wade now? 3) How well would Shaq and Wade get along if Shaq resisted deferring to him the way he refused to defer to Kobe? As C & C Music Factory sang many years ago, these are things that make you go hmm.
posted by David Friedman @ 1:00 AM
Dallas Wears Down Phoenix, Advances to the NBA Finals
The Phoenix Suns hit the Dallas Mavericks with their best shot and had a 15 point lead midway through the third quarter of game six of the Western Conference Finals--but the Mavericks stayed disciplined, stuck with their game plan and wore down the Suns in a 102-93 win. It was like watching Muhammad Ali beat George Foreman in the famous "Rope-a-Dope" fight. Foreman pounded on Ali for the first several rounds until Ali looked at him and said, "Is that all you've got?" Years later, Foreman reflecting back on how stunned he was that anyone could withstand the onslaught, recalled thinking, "Yeah, that's about it." Ali then knocked him out. Dallas watched Phoenix run up and down the court for two and a half quarters and then collectively looked at the Suns and asked if that was all that they had. The scoreboard told the story from that point, as Dallas outscored Phoenix by 24 the rest of the way.
Dallas will meet Miami in a matchup of teams that have never played in the NBA Finals before. Dirk Nowitzki only scored eight points on 2-9 shooting from the field in the first half but he made five straight shots and scored 12 points in the third quarter as Dallas cut Phoenix' lead to 66-62 going into the fourth quarter. Nowitzki had two big three point plays in the period, drawing Leandro Barbosa's fourth foul and then doing the same to Tim Thomas. Nowitzki finished with 24 points, 10 rebounds and three blocked shots. Josh Howard had 20 points and 15 rebounds and Jerry Stackhouse, who played 40 minutes because Jason Terry and Devin Harris got into early foul trouble, contributed 19 points. Boris Diaw scored 30 points and added 11 rebounds for Phoenix and Steve Nash had 19 points, nine assists and six rebounds.
The Mavericks made their first shot of the game and then missed their next eight, shooting only 4-18 from the field in the first quarter. Phoenix bolted out to a 26-10 lead and the score was 29-14 at the end of the period, Dallas' lowest scoring quarter of the 2006 playoffs. Phoenix pushed the lead to 44-26 after Shawn Marion hit a three pointer from the baseline. Nowitzki's three point play with less than three minutes remaining trimmed the margin to 13 and Phoenix led 51-39 at the half. Diaw already had 20 points on 8-11 shooting. During TNT's halftime show, Magic Johnson blasted the Mavericks' performance: "This is not a championship effort. They came out soft." Johnson, who won five championships as a player, should know that it is not how you start that matters but how you finish. Or, as Bjorn Borg might say (
"You Gotta Love It": Clippers Force a Seventh Game Versus the Suns), it's the fifth set that matters, not the fourth one. In this game, the second half told the story.
Dallas trailed 53-43 when Diaw went to the bench with his fourth foul, but Barbosa made a three pointer and a fast break layup to push the lead back to 60-45. Then Nowitzki took over, driving to the basket, making two three point plays and setting off a 17-6 Dallas run to end the third quarter. Howard tied the game early in the fourth quarter on his offensive rebound put back and then a DeSagana Diop put back gave the Mavericks a 68-66 lead, the first time they were ahead since Diop made the first basket of the game. Dallas outscored Phoenix 63-42 in the second half, putting the clamps on Phoenix' running game and then pounding the ball inside.
Phoenix battled Dallas very hard throughout this series but Dallas' depth and ability to get defensive stops proved to be too much for the Suns to overcome. The series pretty much went the way that I expected it to go; this is what I wrote in my
series preview:
Dallas will win because because…Dirk Nowitzki will have a big series and Dallas has enough athletes to beat the Suns at their own game but has more of a defensive mindset and will be able to get key stops at crucial points during games.Dallas Coach Avery Johnson has pointed out that his team is capable of playing at a slow or a fast tempo. His Mavericks are very much made in the mold of Gregg Popovich's San Antonio Spurs, who beat the offensive-minded Suns in last year's playoffs and then defeated the defensive-minded Pistons in the NBA Finals.
posted by David Friedman @ 1:05 AM
Would You Pay $20 Million for an Old Diesel?
Would you pay $20 million for an old diesel? Perhaps this seems to be a strange question to ask right after Shaquille O'Neal had his best performance of this year's playoffs (28 and 16 versus Detroit to win the Eastern Conference Finals beats 30 and 20 versus Chicago in my book). I could point out that this article was researched and written before the Miami Heat's game six win but the reality is that O'Neal did not do anything to refute my basic premise: unless he leads the Heat to an NBA title, he is overpaid because he is the NBA's highest paid player but is clearly no longer the best player in the league. If Miami wins the championship, then it is certainly justifiable to pay O'Neal more than he would be worth based strictly on his individual numbers. O'Neal's strong performance in eliminating Detroit was very timely and it will be interesting to see if he is able to sustain that level of play throughout the NBA Finals.Shaquille O’Neal has a lot of nicknames—Shaq Daddy, the Diesel, the Big Aristotle—but unless he and the Miami Heat are able to win an NBA title he is going to earn a new one: "overpaid." O’Neal is the highest paid player in the NBA, taking in $20 million a year. Whether or not any athlete should make that much more money than surgeons, police officers, teachers and others is a separate issue—big time movie stars make much more than athletes do and no one seems to be up in arms about that. The question here is whether or not O’Neal’s production justifies his salary relative to what other NBA players make.
Here are O’Neal’s regular season statistics for the past five seasons:
| GP Min FG% FT% RPG APG SPG BPG TPG PF PPG |
|
| 01-02 LAL 67 36.1 .579 .555 10.7 3.0 .61 2.04 2.55 3.00 27.2 |
| 02-03 LAL 67 37.8 .574 .622 11.1 3.1 .57 2.37 2.93 3.40 27.5 |
| 03-04 LAL 67 36.8 .584 .490 11.5 2.9 .51 2.48 2.91 3.40 21.5 |
| 04-05 MIA 73 34.1 .601 .461 10.4 2.7 .49 2.34 2.78 3.60 22.9 |
| 05-06 MIA 59 30.6 .600 .469 9.2 1.9 .39 1.76 2.85 3.90 20.0 |
Here are his playoff numbers for the same time span:
01-02 LAL 19 40.8 .529 .649 12.6 2.8 .53 2.53 3.26 3.26 28.5
02-03 LAL 12 40.1 .535 .621 14.8 3.7 .58 2.83 2.92 2.83 27.0
03-04 LAL 22 41.7 .593 .429 13.2 2.5 .32 2.77 2.50 4.09 21.5
04-05 MIA 13 33.2 .558 .472 7.8 1.9 .38 1.46 3.23 4.00 19.4
05-06 MIA 16 32.1 .597 .400 9.3 1.3 .50 1.50 3.81 3.56 19.6
(through May 31)
The pattern is very evident: O’Neal’s field goal percentage has increased but his minutes, free throw percentage, rebounding, assists, steals, blocked shots and points are all heading downward. His turnovers and fouls are increasing despite his diminished time on the court. He has gone from being the most dominant player in the game to "just" an All-Star level center, receiving no MVP votes this season after finishing a close second last year. His decline becomes even more apparent when you consider the numbers that he put up in 1999-2000, the year that he won his only regular season MVP and the first of his three championships: 29.7 ppg, 13.6 rpg, 3.03 bpg and 3.8 apg in the regular season and 30.7 ppg, 15.4 rpg, 2.39 bpg and 3.1 apg in the playoffs. Also, he misses between 15 and 23 games a year. O’Neal is more injury prone than ever and has lost a lot of the quickness and athleticism that he had a few years ago. His "breakout" game six in the first round versus Chicago—30 points and 20 rebounds against the likes of Michael Sweetney and Tyson Chandler—would have been a routine playoff outing a few years ago. O’Neal maintains a high field goal percentage because, to his credit, he never takes shots out of his range—dunks, jump hooks and short jumpers. He is no longer quick enough to consistently get good post position without committing offensive fouls, so he is not able to get off enough of those high percentage shots to regularly score 28-30 points like he used to do.
Many people are saying that O’Neal looks better than he has in years. Superficially, this is true, but it is important not to let one’s view be swayed by a couple spin moves and a coast-to-coast drive. O’Neal averaged roughly 20 ppg, 9 rpg and 1.8 bpg in the regular season. His numbers overall in this year’s playoffs are virtually identical to that and his statistics in the Eastern Conference Finals are only slightly better. One thing that O’Neal is doing in the playoffs that does not show up in these numbers is "showing"—on screen and rolls, that is. Heat Coach Pat Riley has demanded that when O’Neal is defending screen and roll plays that he leave the paint and “show” so that teams do not get easy shots like they have in the past against O’Neal’s teams. O’Neal has always been reluctant to do this but is now making a concerted effort in this area.
O’Neal made the All-NBA First Team for the eighth time this year but Ben Wallace, the Defensive Player of the Year for the fourth time, has a bigger impact on the defensive end of the court and Yao Ming had overall numbers that were at least as good as O’Neal’s this season: 22.3 ppg (first among centers), 10.2 rpg (third among centers), 1.65 bpg (ninth among centers), .519 field goal shooting and .853 free throw shooting. O’Neal trailed Yao in scoring, rebounding and free throw shooting and had virtually identical shot blocking numbers; his only significant advantage is in field goal percentage. Miami had a much better record than Houston and that no doubt was a major factor in the voting. Both players missed a significant number of games—23 for Shaq, 25 for Yao.
O’Neal calls himself the "LCL"—the last center left. Unlike some big men who fancy themselves to be guards and try to play on the perimeter, O’Neal has always understood that he belongs on the block. His sheer size still commands double-teams at times—not as frequently as when he was in his prime, but enough to create open shots for his teammates. Clearly, Dwyane Wade is the best player on the Miami Heat at this point, but O’Neal still has a definite impact on the team’s won-loss record. It is interesting that O’Neal willingly defers to Wade, something that he refused to do when he played with Kobe Bryant.
Purely based on production there is no question that O’Neal is overpaid—he is receiving the NBA’s top salary but is clearly not the NBA’s best player. However, Miami’s ultimate goal in acquiring him is to win the championship, so the latter part of his career must be looked at in that context. Pat Riley signed O’Neal and then came down from the Heat’s executive offices to coach Wade, O’Neal and the veteran laden roster that he assembled around his two stars. Riley’s reasoning can be summarized by borrowing from a popular advertising campaign: Cost for a future Hall of Fame center? $20 million. Winning an NBA championship? Priceless.
Labels: Miami Heat, Shaquille O'Neal
posted by David Friedman @ 2:24 AM
Diesel Powered: Shaquille O'Neal Fuels Miami's First Trip to the NBA Finals
Dwyane Wade had the flu, but Shaquille O'Neal made the Detroit Pistons feel sick. O'Neal shot 12-14 from the field and had 28 points, 16 rebounds and five blocked shots to lead the Miami Heat to a 95-78 win over the Detroit Pistons in game six of the Eastern Conference Finals. The Heat will now make the franchise's first appearance in the NBA Finals. Rip Hamilton led Detroit with 33 points but shot only 12-28 from the field. The other Pistons starters combined to shoot 12-40 from the field.
Wade spent most of Saturday getting treatment for a stomach virus and he got off to a slow start in the first quarter, shooting 0-2 from the field and picking up two fouls, although he did have three assists--two of them lob passes to O'Neal for dunks. O'Neal shot 4-5 from the field in the first quarter and the Heat players other than O'Neal and Wade combined to shoot 7-9, including a 4-4 performance by Jason Williams. Yet Miami only led 25-20 at the end of the quarter, mainly because the Heat committed five turnovers and the Pistons did not have any. Wade's first field goal came early in the second quarter and gave Miami a 28-21 lead. Williams' pull up fast break jump shot extended the margin to 38-27 at the 4:11 mark and Miami maintained that distance the rest of the half, leading 47-36 at the break. O'Neal had 19 points on 9-11 field goal shooting, nine rebounds and three blocked shots in the first half. The Pistons made only 11 field goals in the first half. Flip Saunders' "liberation offense" that Pistons players raved about all season looked like it had been locked up in a maximum security prison.
After halftime, it has become customary for sideline reporters to talk to a member of each team's coaching staff. Rarely do any earth shattering revelations come out of these conversations but Jim Gray's recapitulation of what Saunders told him was quite interesting. Gray said that Saunders told him that Detroit had just played its worst half of the playoffs and that he didn't know what to do. Give Saunders credit for being honest, but if he's telling Jim Gray that he doesn't know what to do what did he tell his players? Whatever it was, it didn't help, because Miami outscored Detroit 25-17 in the third quarter. Wade stayed in the locker room during the early part of the quarter to get some more treatment but when he returned he brought his shooting touch with him, making 5 of 6 shots and scoring 10 points.
Hamilton scored 12 quick points in the fourth quarter but Detroit never mounted a serious charge because the Pistons--whose postseason media guide last year was titled "The Defenders"--simply could not get a stop. Miami shot .557 from the field for the game. The Pistons had no answer for O'Neal, made Williams look like an All-Star and did nothing special against Wade after he got his legs under him. Wade finished with 14 points, 10 assists and four rebounds, content to pick apart Detroit's porous defense with his passing. Williams made his first 10 shots from the field and finished 10-12 with 21 points and six assists.
The playoffs have been quite a turnaround story for the Heat. As ESPN's Hubie Brown pointed out, during the regular season Miami had a losing record against plus-.500 teams and went 2-12 against division winners. The Heat looked less than dominant in the first round against Chicago but since then they have gone 8-3 against New Jersey and Detroit, the Eastern Conference's other two division champions--talk about peaking at the right time.
The Detroit Pistons are also quite a turnaround story--but in a bad way. Detroit won a franchise record 64 games and earned home court advantage throughout the playoffs. The Pistons felt that if game seven of last year's Finals versus San Antonio had been a home game that they would have defended their title. Game seven against Miami would have been in Detroit but the Pistons failed to make it that far. Only one other team in NBA history, the 68-14 1972-73 Boston Celtics, won more regular season games without capturing the championship; the Celtics lost a tough series to a great New York Knicks team after John Havlicek injured his shoulder. How much blame does Saunders deserve for this? He is the only major change to the core group that made it to two straight NBA Finals and won one championship. The players did not always look energized or focused--but that is part of his job. The great coaches come up with game plans and motivational gimmicks that ensure that the team is concentrating on the task at hand. Saunders is to be commended for how well he responded to the pressure in the regular season but this was not a good playoff run for a veteran team like Detroit. The Pistons' trademark defense was absent for long stretches and the offense misfired like an old jalopy. Joe Dumars handed Saunders the keys to a sleek, championship winning race car and Saunders led most of the laps of the race only to crash with the finish line in sight.
posted by David Friedman @ 12:29 AM
We Are All Nowitznesses: Dirk's 50 Sinks the Suns
Dirk Nowitzki scored a franchise playoff record 50 points and the Dallas Mavericks held the Phoenix Suns to .456 shooting from the field in a 117-101 game five victory. The Mavericks can advance to the NBA Finals for the first time in team history with a win in Phoenix on Saturday night. Nowitzki had 22 points in the fourth quarter, two more than the entire Suns team. He shot 14-26 from the field and 17-18 from the line and had 12 rebounds, bouncing back from his 11 point, seven rebound performance in game four. Nowitzki joins Billy Cunningham, Bob McAdoo, Charles Barkley and Karl Malone as the only players to have a 50-10 game in the NBA playoffs since 1970. Kobe Bryant is the only other player to score 50 points in a playoff game this year. He also did it against Phoenix, in the Lakers' game six overtime loss.
Josh Howard added 23 points and seven rebounds for the Mavericks, while Tim Thomas led Phoenix with a playoff career-high 26 points, making six of his eight three point attempts. Steve Nash (20 points, 11 assists) and Shawn Marion (20 points, 10 rebounds) each had double-doubles. Raja Bell, who provided such a lift for Phoenix last game, was clearly hobbled by his calf injury and scored only three points on 1-5 field goal shooting.
There were several remarkable momentum swings before Nowitzki seized control of the game in the fourth quarter. Dallas led 36-20 after the first quarter, forcing the Suns into an unheard of three 24-second violations. The Mavericks executed their game plan to perfection: minimize their turnovers, force Phoenix to turn the ball over, drain the shot clock unless there is a clear advantage. Nowitzki already had 13 points and the Mavericks seemed poised to blow Phoenix out. Of course, it is rarely that easy against Phoenix, because the Suns are a very resilient team that has a lot of offensive weapons. Tim Thomas scored 11 points to key a 32-22 Phoenix second quarter advantage that vaulted the Suns right back into the game. That momentum carried over into the third quarter and with 3:17 remaining in the period Thomas hit a three pointer that extended Phoenix' lead to 74-70. After the game, Nowitzki told TNT's Cheryl Miller that he felt that everything that Dallas had worked so hard for all year was slipping away. He decided that he had to take over, so he scored seven of Dallas' points in a 10-0 run. The Mavericks would not trail again the rest of the way.
Phoenix kept the game close early in the fourth quarter and only trailed 89-85 with 8:55 remaining. Then Bell fouled Howard and compounded matters by receiving a technical foul. Suns' Coach Mike D'Antoni complained so vociferously about those calls that he too was whistled for a technical foul. Nowitzki made both free throws and hit a jump shot; this four point play gave Dallas an eight point lead and Phoenix never got the margin closer than six after that.
The Lakers and Clippers each pushed Phoenix to the brink only to fall short in the seventh game. Dallas will not have that problem. The Mavericks are deeper than either of those teams and much better able to withstand--or even prevent--the Suns' trademark scoring runs. Phoenix will no doubt play with tremendous energy in game six but the Suns will fall just short of forcing their third straight seventh game.
posted by David Friedman @ 12:32 AM
