Two-Time NBA Defensive Player of the Year Mark Eaton Passed Away at Just 64
If you grew up watching NBA basketball in the 1980s, you remember several signature plays: Julius Erving's dunks and finger rolls, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's skyhook, George Gervin's finger rolls, Magic Johnson's no-look passes, Larry Bird's three pointers, Michael Jordan's dunks. Signature plays tend to happen on offense, but if you really followed the game during that era one of the signature plays was Mark Eaton's blocked shot. Eaton, who led the NBA in blocked shots per game four times, passed away on Friday, apparently due to a bicycle accident. Preliminary reports indicate that no other vehicles were involved, nor is foul play suspected. He was 64 years old.
The 7-4 Eaton spent his entire 11 season NBA career with the Utah Jazz.
Eaton made the 1989 All-Star team and received MVP votes in 1985 and
1989 even though he never averaged more than 9.7 ppg. He won the
Defensive Player of the Year award in 1985 and 1989. Eaton holds the pro basketball single season record for blocked shots with 456 in 1984-85. Artis Gilmore is the only other player who has blocked at least 400 shots in one season (422 in 1971-72) since the blocked shot has been an official statistic (1971-72 for the ABA, 1973-74 for the NBA). Eaton ranks fifth on the career blocked shots list with 3064, trailing only Hakeem Olajuwon, Dikembe Mutombo, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and Artis Gilmore. Eaton holds the career record with 3.50 blocked shots per game.
After his retirement from the NBA, Eaton worked with the National Basketball Retired Players Association, including serving as that organization's president. He was both highly respected and well-liked. During Saturday's NBA coverage on TNT, Charles Barkley said that the announcement of Eaton's death "just broke my heart" and he referred to Eaton as "the ultimate gentle giant."
Labels: Mark Eaton, Utah Jazz
posted by David Friedman @ 7:19 PM
Stephen A. Smith Proves Kwame Brown's Point
In a steady stream of videos posted online, Kwame Brown has conveyed several important messages, including that Stephen A. Smith is not qualified to analyze basketball and that Smith has made a career out of personally attacking Brown.
Smith and his ESPN overlords decided that the best response to Brown is to give Smith over eight minutes to do voiceover narration of a selection of lowlights from Brown's career. During the narration, Smith repeatedly mispronounces Brown's first name. Smith is not intelligent or funny. He has demonstrated that he is a petty person who does not deserve a national platform to spread his ignorance and disrespect.
Brown last played in the NBA in 2013, so lowlights of his career are hardly newsworthy footage--and I am pretty sure that you could splice together a few minutes of lowlights from any player's career, including some of the greatest players of all-time (to cite just one example, Magic Johnson once dribbled out the clock in a tied game in the NBA Finals). There is no reason for ESPN to show Brown's lowlights other than to humiliate him. It is breathtaking that ESPN thought that this was a good idea.
Brown has posted a response video noting that it is easy to verify that the lowlights footage comes from games during which Brown was limited by various injuries, but that is not even the main point--though it does show how disingenuous Smith and ESPN are. The main point is that one of the NBA's primary media partners ran an eight minute video to mock a retired player. This is not Shaqtin' A Fool, Shaquille O'Neal's lighthearted clips of active players (and O'Neal often makes fun of himself as well); this is a video designed to prove that Brown was a bad player.
Who appointed Smith to determine that Kwame Brown must be mocked as a bad NBA player?
Smith's 15 minutes of fame have lasted a lot longer than they should have. Brown has exposed Smith as the fraud that intelligent observers of the NBA always knew him to be. It is well past time that ESPN reassign Smith to a role befitting his qualifications, as opposed to placing him front and center of the network's NBA coverage. The longer that Smith is on the air, the more that he embarrasses himself and his employers. I don't know how NBA Commissioner Adam Silver handles his business, but former Commissioner David Stern made a regular practice of contacting media organizations that portrayed the league in an unfair or disparaging manner. Silver should consider calling ESPN and asking the network to focus its coverage on the 2021 NBA playoffs, not a blooper reel of a retired player.
Labels: ESPN, Kwame Brown, Stephen A. Smith
posted by David Friedman @ 7:26 PM
When Fans Become Fanatics, the NBA Must Act Decisively
Prince once said that he did not want fans because "fan" is just short for "fanatic"; he called the people who truly love his music "friends."A small but vocal, ignorant, and active number of NBA "fans" are proving Prince's point. This is not about people who buy tickets to cheer the home team, or even boo the road team; this is about people who think that a ticket's limited license provides unlimited license to act like a fool, to say ignorant and hateful things, and even to attack another person.
Last night, while Russell Westbrook left the court after suffering an ankle injury, a "fan" dumped popcorn on Westbrook. This is not the first time that "fans" have acted like ignorant fools toward Westbrook (and other players, but he seems to be a favorite target for abuse), and the NBA must act decisively to stop this before it gets even more out of hand.
Although statutes vary from state to state, the general template for an assault statute is that assault is defined by creating the apprehension (which means awareness, not necessarily fear) that a person is imminently going to make unwanted and offensive contact with your body--and the general template for a battery statute is that a person has made unwanted and offensive contact with your body. Assault and battery are actionable both under civil law (i.e., the victim can sue for damages) and criminal law (i.e., the state can prosecute the perpetrator).
If Westbrook saw what the "fan" was doing before the "fan" dumped popcorn on Westbrook, then Westbrook is the victim of assault. Being hit by the popcorn makes Westbrook a victim of battery.
Today, the Philadelphia 76ers (the home team) announced that the perpetrator has been banned "indefinitely," adding, "We apologize to Russell Westbrook and the Washington Wizards for being
subjected to this type of unacceptable and disrespectful behavior. There is no place for it in our
sport or arena."
The NBA also issued a statement: "The return of more NBA fans to our arenas has brought great excitement
and energy to the start of the playoffs, but it is critical that we all
show respect for players, officials and our fellow fans. An enhanced fan code of conduct will be vigorously enforced in
order to ensure a safe and respectful environment for all involved."
In a related story, the New York Knicks have "indefinitely" banned the "fan" who spat on Atlanta Hawks guard Trae Young.
Banning criminals from attending sporting events is not a sufficient response, and a more effective response must happen before something tragic occurs. The 76ers, Knicks, and any other team whose "fans" commit criminal acts should provide any available evidence to the authorities for possible criminal prosecution. It is unlikely that it would be worth it for Westbrook or Young to pursue civil action--each would have to prove damages, and even if they proved damages they would only collect to the extent that the perpetrators are able to pay--but if the league and the teams acted decisively then "fans" would learn that buying a ticket is not a license to commit mayhem.
Right now, "fans" feel protected and entitled--this is the "internet tough guy" writ large--but the NBA can nip this in the bud with correct and decisive action. Adam Silver, the ball is in your court.
Labels: NBA, Prince, Russell Westbrook, Trae Young
posted by David Friedman @ 6:12 PM
Kwame Brown's Important Messages
Unless you are completely disconnected from any form of social media, you have seen, heard, or at least read about the videos that Kwame Brown has posted recently. Brown's first video included his reaction to an exchange on a recent episode of the "All the Smoke" podcast hosted by Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson. During an interview with Jeanie Buss, Buss discussed the Lakers' trade of Marc Gasol and Kwame Brown for Pau Gasol when Barnes and Jackson interrupted Buss to assert that there was only one player on the other side of the Pau Gasol trade, as if Brown has no value. Brown has been the butt of insults dating back to when he was the number one overall pick of the 2001 NBA Draft, and Brown fired back with an extended NSFW response.
It is easy to dismiss Brown as angry or say that he is ranting; that is often the reflexive reaction of people who do not want to address the substance of another person's message. In the initial video and then a steady stream of follow up videos, Brown has delivered several important messages, which I will paraphrase here in no particular order and without the NSFW language:
1) The very use of "All the Smoke" in the title of the podcast endorses both marijuana use and a confrontational approach to life; Barnes and Jackson pride themselves on being marijuana users who do not back down from conflict.
2) Barnes and Jackson are delivering negative and destructive messages to youth in general, and specifically minority youth. Brown urged Jackson to pull up his pants, act like an adult, and stop spending all night smoking weed and playing cards. It should be noted that this is not about whether or not marijuana use is legal (or should be legalized) in a particular jurisdiction, but rather about whether or not that lifestyle is the best lifestyle to promote to youth.
3) Jackson tries to portray himself as both a Black Lives Matter activist and a "gangsta," but Brown considers both stances to be inauthentic. Jackson's response on Instagram (since deleted), a veiled threat to meet Brown on the street, only adds to Brown's credibility while diminishing Jackson's credibility.
4) Brown questioned why certain people are given media platforms and asserted that to get a media platform you have to be willing to compromise your values and compromise truth. Stephen Jackson is best known for running into the stands to confront fans in Detroit, and he has revealed himself to be an antisemite who unapologetically endorses Louis Farrakhan, so it is certainly reasonable to ask why major media corporations are so eager to work with him, and why so many people are eager to associate themselves with him.
5) Brown noted that Jackson brags about how much money he spent on, shall we say, "entertaining" himself, and Brown asks why Jackson does not use his wealth and resources to help others.
6) Brown said that the only jokes people have about him are basketball jokes and he asked when people will get tired of that same old joke. He made over $60 million playing pro basketball, so he does not consider himself a bust in life; he owns property, grows his own food, and answers to no one.
Paraphrasing a line from the movie "Searching for Bobby Fischer," I would note that when Kwame Brown played in the NBA he was better at basketball than the vast majority of people will ever be at anything. How many people rank in the top 350-400 in the world at anything?
7) Brown said that his frequent critics Stephen A. Smith and Skip Bayless are losers who never accomplished anything, and Brown asked what qualifies them to talk about basketball. Brown said that if he is a "scrub" and a bust like they asserted then he should be called "Houdini" for fooling so many teams into paying him to play basketball, and he asked if being a number one draft pick who plays in the NBA for over a decade constitutes failure then what are we to think of the athletic careers of guys like Smith and Bayless?
8) Brown talked about how former player Jalen Rose tried to explain to Smith and Bayless that someone who plays for over a decade in the NBA is not a scrub and not a bust, but they just kept shouting Rose down.
9) Brown pointed out the NBA's double standard in punishing Lou Williams for violating COVID-19 protocols but not punishing LeBron James for violating the same protocols.
10) Brown praised his mother for her good advice, and he noted that he is a success story who overcame a difficult background. He is in no way a "scrub," and he contrasts his life path with what he termed the "degenerate" lifestyle afflicting minority communities, a lifestyle that he feels is encouraged and promoted by Barnes and Jackson.
I don't think that Brown is lashing out in anger. Ignore the NSFW language, and he has made a series of powerful statements. He is right about Barnes and Jackson not being good role models, and not being qualified for the huge media platform that they have been blessed to have. He is right that Smith and Bayless generally have no idea what they are talking about, and that they often take personal shots at people instead of just making a skill set analysis. Rose kept telling them that there is a difference between evaluating a person's basketball skills and just calling that person names, but Smith and Bayless disregarded what Rose said.
Brown is frustrated by the stupidity of so much that is said and depicted in the media. I share that frustration. Brown often predicts how his targets will respond to his videos, and he has been on target; he says that he is going to expose these people for who they really are, and to this point he has outsmarted them and made them look foolish. For instance, Brown has mentioned that people try to tear him down based on things that his family members did years ago, but Brown rightly noted that actions of family members when he was a young child have nothing to do with him and nothing to do with his message. Charlamagne tha God--and what person who has self-awareness gives himself such an outlandish name?--went on his podcast to talk about Brown's family history, and Brown just eviscerated the rapper, calling him out as a child rapist and asking why companies keep hiring him after the crime he committed. Charlamagne tha God, not quite understanding when to quit when he was only a little behind, had his lawyer send Brown a cease and desist letter stipulating that Charlamagne tha God pleaded guilty to contributing to the delinquency of the minor, not rape. Brown read the letter during his next video, said that he retracts calling Charlamagne tha God the "r word," and then expressed his opinion (in words that I will not repeat here) about the character of a person who contributes to the delinquency of a minor. Brown said that he does not care about the lawyer's letter, that he will keep expressing his opinion about Charlamagne tha God, and that he appreciates the lawyer informing him the exact name of the crime to which Charlamagne tha God admitted his guilt.
Brown was living in quiet obscurity until Barnes and Jackson decided to crack sophomoric jokes on their big-time show. They had a chance to reach out man to man to apologize but did not do so. Every target of Brown's videos went after Brown first, often in personal ways. They asked for what they are getting, and it seems like Brown is going to keep giving it to them.
Kwame Brown is speaking truths that many are afraid to speak, and it will be interesting to see what happens next.
Labels: Kwame Brown, Matt Barnes, Skip Bayless, Stephen A. Smith, Stephen Jackson
posted by David Friedman @ 9:52 PM
Brief Recaps of Sunday's Playoff Quadrupleheader
Saturday's four playoff games featured two wins by the road team, and two road teams won on Sunday as well--but the one road team that many people expected to win came out flat, and lost to a team whose starting point guard played most of the game with one arm.
Here are thoughts and observations about each game from the second quadrupleheader of the 2021 NBA playoffs.
Philadelphia 125, Washington 118
Tobias Harris scored 28 first half points on 12-19 field goal shooting en route to a playoff career-high 37 points on 15-29 field goal shooting, and Joel Embiid overcame foul trouble to finish with 30 points on 9-16 field goal shooting. Ben Simmons only scored six points but he led both teams in rebounds (15) and assists (15). Philadelphia's "Big Three" is not only big in production but also in terms of size, as Embiid is 7-0, Simmons is 6-11, and Harris is 6-8.
Bradley Beal led the Wizards in scoring (33 points on 13-23 field goal shooting) and rebounds (10), while Russell Westbrook contributed 16 points, a team-high 14 assists, and five rebounds. Westbrook shot 7-17 from the field and had a game-high six turnovers, including three turnovers in the final 4:29.
The 76ers used their size advantage to generate points in the paint early in the game, and then they drilled three pointers whenever the Wizards trapped to contain a player in the paint. The 76ers jumped out to a 17-8 lead at the start of the game, and it was apparent that the Wizards' best chance was to speed up the pace to score in the open court. The Wizards used a 10-0 run to go up 26-22, with Ish Smith and Davis Bertans providing a lift off of the bench. The eighth seeded Wizards stayed competitive throughout the contest, but they could not generate enough offense or string together enough stops to prevail.
Foul trouble limited Embiid to 30 minutes, and that helped keep the score close. He finished with a game-best +20 plus/minus number, and at one point in the first half the 76ers were +13 with Embiid in the game and -10 with Embiid on the bench. It is evident that the Wizards cannot guard Embiid, so his ability to stay healthy and his ability to stay out of foul trouble could turn out to be the two biggest factors in this series.
Phoenix 99, L.A. Lakers 90
In a game featuring several veteran future Hall of Famers with much playoff experience, the star of the game was playing in his first playoff game. Devin Booker showcased his all-around skill set with a game-high 34 points, a team-high tying eight assists, and seven rebounds while playing 45 minutes. Booker shot 13-26 from the field, and proved that he can beat double teams not only by scoring but also by making plays for his teammates. One of those teammates, Deandre Ayton, scored 21 points on 10-11 field goal shooting while grabbing a game-high 16 rebounds.
The Suns played with great energy and enthusiasm, but the Lakers looked lethargic. LeBron James led the Lakers in scoring (18 points on 6-13 field goal shooting) and assists (10) but he did not make an imprint on the game. Anthony Davis was missing in action for most of the game, finishing with 13 points on 5-16 field goal shooting, plus seven rebounds.
The Suns outscored the Lakers 32-25 in the first quarter, including a 10-0 advantage in fast break points. The Suns extended that margin to 38-29 before Chris Paul suffered a right shoulder contusion and had to leave the game at the 9:19 mark of the second quarter. The Suns were still up by nine (44-35) when Paul returned with 5:32 remaining in the second quarter. It was immediately apparent that Paul could barely use his right arm, though the commentators did not discuss this very much until deep in the second half--and the Lakers did not seem interested enough to figure out that it might be a good idea to test Paul's ability to dribble, shoot, and defend. The righthanded Paul repeatedly dribbled up the court using his left hand, and on the few occasions that he dribbled with his right hand he handled the ball with all of the dexterity of Edward Scissorhands. Paul attempted one shot during his first half return to action and he missed horribly. He played defense as if his right hand were tied behind his back, yet no one on the broadcast team thought to at least bring up (1) the possibility that playing one handed could hurt his team and (2) the Lakers should have been targeting Paul not to hurt him but to exploit his obvious limitations.
Early in the third quarter, Paul made an awkward looking midrange shot, and Jeff Van Gundy belatedly mentioned that not only was Paul having trouble dribbling with his right hand but he was not able to shoot using his normal shooting stroke. It also seemed like Paul had great difficulty accurately making a pass covering a distance longer than 10 feet; he spent most of the game laboring to bring the ball up the court with a left handed dribble only to then make a short drop off pass and then camp out far away from the action. Paul finished with seven points, eight assists, and four rebounds, but he accumulated most of those numbers before he suffered the injury.
The defending champion Lakers lost to a team playing four on five!
This is not meant to take away any credit from Booker, Ayton, and the rest of the Suns who played their hearts out, but it is not hard to picture Bill Russell or Michael Jordan rather forcefully telling their teammates exactly how and why they are not going to lose a game to a team playing with a one-armed point guard. For those too young to remember or know, Russell's comment about the famous Willis Reed game was that if he had been Wilt Chamberlain he would have taken it as a personal insult that Reed thought that he could step on the court in an NBA Finals game and play against him on one good leg.
Paul seemed to take a stab at evening the odds by using his left arm to hook James' left arm and then undercut/pull down James as the two players chased a missed James free throw at the 9:01 mark of he fourth quarter. ABC's Jeff Van Gundy, referencing the odd 10 second count violation called against Giannis Antetokounmpo on Saturday, noted that if the referees are going to enforce seldom-enforced free throw rules then they should do so consistently; Paul entered the three point arc prior to James' shot hitting the rim, James crossed the free throw line before his shot hit the rim, and other players also committed violations on the play, but none of the violations were called. James crashed hard to the floor after Paul pulled him down, and James immediately grabbed his left shoulder. With James, you are often not sure at first if he is flopping, or a little banged up, or actually injured. While James writhed on the floor, Paul offered his right arm (!) to help him up, and Phoenix' Cam Payne got into an altercation with the Lakers' Alex Caruso, inspiring Montrezl Harrell to run halfway across the court to push Payne. It took several minutes of replay review to sort everything out, with the end result being that Paul received a common foul for undercutting James, Caruso received one technical foul, Harrell received one technical foul, and Payne received two technical fouls (with the accompanying automatic ejection).
Phoenix led 86-77 prior to the Paul foul and the ensuing skirmish, and the Lakers never got closer than seven points the rest of the way. Paul continued to play one-armed, the Lakers continued to play lethargically, and the result was never in doubt.
I did not think that the Lakers could win three series without home court advantage to get back to the NBA Finals, but they will have to play better than this just to make it out of the first round. On the other hand, the Suns did not manage to score 100 points against a Lakers team that barely seemed interested for most of the game, and the Suns did not even win by double digits despite Ayton dominating Davis. It remains to be seen how limited Paul will be the rest of the way--but he has a history of getting hurt and/or wearing down during the playoffs, which is one of the explicitly stated reasons that I picked the Lakers--and it also remains to be seen if the Lakers will adjust their game plan if the Suns brazenly insist on playing four on five.
Atlanta 107, New York 105
Trae Young's playoff debut in Madison Square Garden could not have gone better. He finished with 32 points, 10 assists, and seven rebounds, joining LeBron James as the only players to post at least 30-10-5 in their first playoff game. Young topped off his statistical dominance by hitting the game-winning floater with less than a second remaining in regulation, becoming just the second player in the past 25 years to hit a go-ahead field goal in the final 10 seconds of the fourth quarter or overtime in a playoff debut (Dwyane Wade is the other player).
It may have been reasonable to assume that the Knicks' Julius Randle would be the best player in this series, but his playoff debut did not go well as he scored just 15 points on 6-23 field goal shooting, though he did grab 12 rebounds and dish for four assists.
The Hawks jumped out to a 22-11 first quarter lead, and they led most of the way, though New York rallied to go up by as much as seven, and the Knicks led by 103-100 with 1:11 left in the fourth quarter.
Both of these teams are playoff neophytes, and this looks very much like a series that will last six or seven games.
Memphis 112, Utah 109
Donovan Mitchell did not play due to his ankle injury, and the Jazz shot just 12-47 from three point range; without Mitchell, they just could not generate enough offense, and they also had trouble matching up with the Grizzlies' dynamic guards Ja Morant and Dillon Brooks. Mitchell has not played since April 16, but he had been expected to play in this game and when he was a late scratch even his teammates were surprised.
Brooks scored a game-high 31 points on 13-26 field goal shooting, while Morant added 26 points on 11-21 field goal shooting. Bojan Bogdanovic led Utah with 29 points on 8-16 field goal shooting, but he missed a three pointer at the buzzer that could have sent the game to overtime.
This was a choppy game in which Memphis led by as many as 17 points and Utah led by as many as 14 points. Utah outrebounded Memphis 50-42, but squandered those extra possessions with missed three pointers and turnovers (16, compared to Memphis' nine). Even though the Jazz built a double digit lead without Mitchell, if he does not make a healthy return soon, the Jazz could be in trouble.
Labels: Atlanta Hawks, L.A. Lakers, Memphis Grizzlies, New York Knicks, Philadelphia 76ers, Phoenix Suns, Utah Jazz, Washington Wizards
posted by David Friedman @ 3:05 AM
Bucks, Mavericks, Nets, and Trail Blazers Win As NBA Playoffs Begin
I watch the first game of each playoff series with special interest, because the game one winners prevail in an NBA playoff series with the seven game format nearly 80% of the time. Unless the game one winner is a huge underdog that won because of a fluke or the game one winner is later debilitated by injuries, the matchup advantages that are decisive early tend to be decisive the rest of the way.
Here are thoughts and observations about each game from the first quadrupleheader of the 2021 NBA playoffs.
Milwaukee 109, Miami 107 (OT)
It might seem odd to suggest that the pressure is on the third seeded team in a matchup with the sixth seeded team, but the Heat defeated the Bucks 4-1 in the second round of the 2020 playoffs, winning the first three games before losing game four in overtime and then closing out the series by nine points in game five. Therefore, the Bucks needed to set the tone that this series will be different.
This game followed a rocky and winding road for the Bucks--who dominated the boards 64-51 but gave up 20 made three pointers while shooting just 5-31 from three point range--but Khris Middleton's dagger jumper at the end of overtime lifted them to victory. The Bucks no longer rely on having Giannis Antetokounmpo attack the "wall" set up by opposing defenses; they now can go to Middleton (27 points, six rebounds, six assists) or Jrue Holiday (20 points, 11 rebounds, three assists) with Antetokounmpo stationed on the baseline or in the paint forcing the defense to prevent him from catching lobs or grabbing offensive rebounds.
Make no mistake, though, Antetokounmpo is the best player on the court (26 points, 18 rebounds, five assists, three steals), though his shaky free throw shooting (6-13) almost proved fatal for the Bucks in game one.
This was a defensive struggle in which the Bucks shot poorly from the field (.438) and the Heat shot even worse (.364). Antetokounmpo shot 10-27 from the field, but the Heat's Jimmy Butler had the worst shooting game of his playoff career (4-22), though he did hit a key bucket to force overtime.
Dallas 113, L.A. Clippers 103
During last year's playoffs, the Clippers dispatched the Mavericks 4-2 and took a 3-1 lead versus the Nuggets before imploding with three straight "come from ahead" losses, but this time the implosion came in the first game of the first round: the Clippers led by as many as 12 points, but the Mavericks closed the game with an 18-5 run.
Luka Doncic did everything all over the court, finishing with a game-high 31 points on 11-24 field goal shooting while also grabbing 10 rebounds and passing for a game-high 10 assists. Doncic has three triple doubles in his seven career playoff games, with all seven games played versus the Clippers. If he is the best player on the court every game then this will be an unexpectedly short playoff run for the Clippers.
Kawhi Leonard led the Clippers with 26 points, but he shot just 9-22 from the field. He tied Doncic with a game-high 10 rebounds and he tied Paul George with a team-high five assists. George scored 23 points on 8-18 field goal shooting.
Despite all of his "load managing," it seems like Leonard is not 100% physically. That is not an excuse, but just a statement of fact. The Clippers have players with reputations as tough guys, but collectively the team seems a bit soft both mentally and physically; they manipulated the end of the season to avoid the Lakers and to get the Mavericks in the first round, and in my playoff preview I criticized the tanking and cautioned that the Clippers should be careful what they wish for, though I did still pick them to win this series.
The grass is not always greener on the other side. I can understand why Leonard left the Spurs if he felt like the organization mishandled his injury and then slandered him in the media, but he won a championship in Toronto with a close knit, mentally tough team. Why leave? So many players are chasing what they think/hope will be the next super team. Bring back the 1980s, when the same star players on the same teams battled each other year after year in the Conference Finals and the NBA Finals: the Philadelphia-Boston, Philadelphia-L.A., and Boston-L.A. rivalries were better than anything we see in the NBA today, and the Philadelphia-Milwaukee rivalry was very good as well, even though Milwaukee never made it to the NBA Finals during that era. Then Isiah Thomas led the Detroit Pistons from the cellar to the penthouse, kicking in the door to the exclusive three team club of NBA champions in the 1980s.
If the Clippers fall short and Leonard jumps to yet another team I will lose some respect for him. He chose to make his bed in L.A., and now he needs to figure out how to get the most of this talented team. As Michael Jordan advised Kobe Bryant, the best player has to work with what he has, not complain about what he does not have.
Brooklyn 104, Boston 93
The Nets, a super team put together to challenge the LeBron James-Anthony Davis Lakers, took a page out of James' book and spent the first half in "chill mode," trailing 53-47 at halftime. The "Big Three" shot 0-11 from three point range in the first half, but then led the Nets to an 18-4 run to start the second half. Kevin Durant led both teams in scoring (32 points) and rebounds (12). He did not shoot very well overall (10-25), but when the chips were down the Celtics had no answers. Kyrie Irving scored 29 points on 11-20 field goal shooting, while James Harden added 21 points on 5-13 field goal shooting. Harden contributed nine rebounds and a game-high eight assists. Harden is well-suited to being the third option on a contender, and it bodes well for the Nets that he understands his role as opposed to doing the "dribble, dribble, dribble"/jack up shots routine that failed to deliver a single NBA Finals appearance during his eight full seasons in Houston.
The Nets are not known for playing strong defense, but these Celtics--in marked contrast to the squads that advanced to the Eastern Conference Finals three times in the past four seasons--are not known for consistent effort; the Celtics shot just .369 from the field, with Jayson Tatum (6-22 field goal shooting) and Kemba Walker (5-16 field goal shooting) leading the bricklaying parade.
The Nets are talented enough to sweep this series, but it will be interesting to see if they can sustain that kind of focus. Is it important to the Celtics to compete, or do their players just want this dysfunctional and disjointed season to end? Game two will help to reveal the answers.
Portland 123, Denver 109
There are no secrets in this series: Denver has most of the size, while Portland has small guards who are deadly three point shooters. The Trail Blazers shot 19-40 from three point range in this game, while the Nuggets did not dominate enough in the paint to compensate for all of that long range bombing. Damian Lillard led both teams in scoring (34 points) and assists (13). He did not shoot that well overall (10-25) but he connected on 5-12 from three point range plus 9-9 on free throws. C.J. McCollum added 21 points, and Carmelo Anthony chipped in 18 points off of the bench.
Nikola Jokic tied Lillard with 34 points, and Jokic also had a game-high 16 rebounds, but the skillful passer only had one assist. Michael Porter Jr. scored 25 points, but the Trail Blazers created mismatches to exploit his perimeter defense; either he must do better, or the Nuggets must tweak their defense to provide more help.
The Nuggets tend to fall behind in games and in series before mounting comebacks, and teams led by small streak-shooting guards tend to not win too many playoff series, so of Saturday's four game one winners Portland is the least likely to win the series--but the Nuggets would be well advised to not trail 2-0 heading to Portland for two games.
Anthony's emergence as a somewhat effective sixth man (13.4 ppg on .421 field goal shooting while starting just three of 69 games during the regular season) has inspired many commentators to wax poetic about what a supposed injustice it was that Anthony was out of the league for over a year. Let's set the record straight: Anthony will be inducted in the Basketball Hall of Fame primarily because of his scoring (and also for leading Syracuse to the 2003 NCAA title), but he is no longer capable of consistently being a big-time scorer, and the other areas of the game that were never strong suits have not improved. Therefore, he is best suited to coming off of the bench--and when that idea was first proposed to him, he laughed out loud, much like Lamar Odom said that Phil Jackson "must have bumped his head" when Jackson determined that Odom should be the Lakers' sixth man. Unlike Anthony, though, Odom soon embraced his new role. When Anthony refused to accept his role and/or be effective/comfortable in that role, he ended up out of the league; when Anthony decided to accept that role and be reasonably productive (albeit not very efficient) in that role, Portland signed him.
In the last four games that Anthony played in before the playoffs (he was inactive for two games during this run), he scored three points (1-3 field goal shooting), 18 points (7-13 field goal shooting), five points (1-7 field goal shooting), and 10 points (3-10 field goal shooting). That works out to 9.0 ppg on .364 field goal shooting--and before anyone calls this "cherry picking," those numbers are not that much worse than his season averages, and if you scan through his 2020-21 game log you see 25 games in which he shot less than .400 from the field--that is more than one out of three of his total games played. Anthony shot .300 or less from the field in 18 games. Maybe if he was still a primary offensive threat who was drawing double teams to open up the floor we might be able to cut him some slack for all of that bricklaying, but he is the team's fifth leading scorer--and he is not making much of a contribution in rebounding (11th on the team in rebounds per minute), assists (eighth on the team in assists per minute) or defense.
Do the commentators who say things like "Carmelo Anthony is a walking bucket" realize how uninformed they sound every time they open their mouths? Carmelo Anthony is an aging former All-Star who is still capable of scoring double figures, albeit not very efficiently.
There is no doubt that Anthony enjoyed scoring 18 points versus his former team in game one. How many 18 point games will he have in this series? He matched or exceeded that total in 19 out of 69 games this season, so if this series goes seven games he might have one more 18 point game, but there is a decent chance that this turns out to be his highest scoring and best shooting game in the series.
That is not "hate"; that is just looking at his production, and projecting what is most likely to happen. If Anthony can exceed his established production rate, good for him.
Labels: Boston Celtics, Brooklyn Nets, Dallas Mavericks, Denver Nuggets, L.A. Clippers, Miami Heat, Milwaukee Bucks, Portland Trail Blazers
posted by David Friedman @ 2:47 AM
