SOME PLAYOFF OBSERVATIONS
I just took a welcomed brake from preparing for trial to watch the Miami v. Detroit game 3. Obviously this was a huge game for Miami and the next one is just as big, but I’m not chiming in to break down the game, but rather to offer a few observations about both the series going on right now.
1. Why do Antoine Walker’s coaches allow him to shoot so many 3s? If I were coaching him, I would tell him that if he ever shot a 3 that wasn’t wide, wide open or if his 3 to drive ratio fell below 5-1, he would sit the bench. Walker is an incredibly talented player and when he attacks the rim both he and the Heat are a much, much, much better team. When you play defense like a matador, you better do more than just miss a bunch of 3s on the other end. He was great tonight just because he took the ball in. It’s not complicated, so why is it so inconsistent?
2. What happened to Gary Payton? He was one of my favorite players for years and years after leaving OSU and playing in the northwest. He was one of the best on the ball defenders I have ever seen. Maybe the best. Now, he is one of the worst. He actually makes Jason Williams look like a capable defender. Seriously, what happened? I don’t get it? Sam Cassel, who couldn’t hold Payton’s jock a few years back is only a year younger and still playing at an all-star level. It makes me sad.
3. I hate the way the refs officiate Shaq. He gets so many fouls just for being big and strong it is ridiculous. Just because people aren’t strong enough to hold their ground, doesn’t make it a foul. He is good and fun to watch for the fans and the game would be better off if the refs would let him stay on the floor.
4. It is not news that Hubie Brown is one of the worst commentators in any sport, but what I really wanted to comment on was his constant discussion of how you had to feel sorry for the “proud” Ben Wallace who was humiliated at the FT line again tonight being fouled on purpose and delivering by missing nearly every free throw. Feel sorry for him? Why? Oh, poor Ben, he is too lazy to practice free throws. He’s too arrogant to believe he’s not hurting his team. He’s to distracted by his millions to concentrate enough to hit the easiest shot in basketball. Poor guy. If he were so proud, maybe he would spend enough time in the gym to do what plenty of 8th graders do and make more FTs than he misses. Make no mistake, when you get paid to play basketball and can’t hit 70% from the line, you are a lazy, selfish choke artist and you get none of my sympathy.
5. Why is Jason Terry not scorching the Suns even when Bell doesn’t play? No defense is played, ever, so why can’t a guy who was playing so well, play well when no one is guarding him? I don’t know.
6. Charles and Kenny were dead wrong last night and Steve Kerr was right (which only happens every time they disagree. Why can’t Kerr call every game?), Diop makes a difference for Dallas. It goes back to my earlier column about the flinch. He makes the Suns players at least think about it before the stroll down the lane. In a series where neither team defends well, Diop is giving Dallas just enough defensive edge to make a difference. That said, Dallas is in trouble. Phoenix has not played well and played short-handed and should have won both games in Dallas. Dallas has to step up.
7. How in the world did Atlanta not see what they had with Diaw? That guy is amazing. He is truly unselfish (not just a wuss), but can score, rebound, pass, handle, defend. What’s not to like exactly? Atlanta didn’t play him and then gave him away? Whoever was coaching in Atlanta while he was there should not be working in basketball. Every time I watch him I am more impressed.
8. Bill Walton is just terrible. It is time to rise up as a nation and put an end to his nonsense.
9. If Billups plays like he did tonight, Detroit will not win another game. Don’t be fooled by his great scoring numbers. He is the PG and should only be scoring like that if a couple other guys have it going (like Wade with Shaq and Walker tonight). Instead, he dribbled and drove and made some nice shots while no one else got in a rhythm and the forwards, who only touch the ball if Billups gives it up, contributed absolutely nothing. Everyone kept asking after the game tonight, what happened to Sheed and Prince and no one gave the right answer. Billups hogged the ball, that’s what happened.
10. D Wade is shooting over 65% and absolutely shaming the best defensive team in the league. If I were starting an NBA franchise, I would take LeBron over Wade, but that said, Wade should be getting every bit as much praise and hype as LeBron. Don’t talk to me about the fact that Wade has Shaq. If anything, it makes what he is doing more impressive, because unlike LBJ, Wade is told to make himself 2nd fiddle for long stretches of the game and unlike Kobe did with younger Shaq, Wade doesn’t get that many open looks because of Shaq and still gets double teamed out on the perimeter which is just incredible. I love Lebron, but Wade is just as big a stud and it’s time to realize we’re all witnesses of not just one, but two guys that could go down in the conversation for top 10 of all time.
Comments
1. Toine - I think the similarities between Walker and Luke Walton should be mentioned. Walton is a poor man's Toine, but their games are surprisingly similar. They are very good passers, solid ball-handlers, and guys that should avoid threes as much as possible. Also, Walker is less athletic than people think and Walton a bit more athletic than people realize. They kind of average out to the same player. And both really help their teams when they create and dish, but not when they shoot. I also think it is worth mentioning that Rasheed Wallace better have a really badly sprained ankle to excuse the defense he played on Walker in Game Three. He never even came close to stopping him off the dribble, not even once.
2. The best thing about Payton and his atrocious D is that Hubie said, "Now, you love Payton because he can come in and guard Billups" and then Breen said, "They like to use him on Billups in the fourth quarter." So, who is on crack here ... the ABC broadcasting team or Pat Riley?
3. Shaq - I am with you on this one. The irony is that back when Shaq was really killing everyone and winning titles for the hated Lakers, the refs let him do whatever he wanted. He almost killed Brian Grant (the other one that died, not the cloned version that now plays for Phoenix) and probably forever altered the shape of Mutombo's head in the 2001 Finals. Why couldn't they call a few fouls on him then? They have to wait until he's on the way down to do it?
4. Hubie is a mess. I think he's said "right in your face" about 14,312 times in the postseason. As for Wallace, I couldn't believe that either. I have less sympathy for Wallace for three reasons: 1) He laughed after airballing against the Cavs, which to me was just another instance of Detroit thinking they were too awesome to even be on the court with Cleveland, 2) Wallace has no horribly misshapen wrist ala Shaq, so there is no excuse for not being able to perfect a decent stroke, and 3) Big Ben acts like a big baby and never gets called out for it. Everyone treats him like the ultimate warrior, but he mopes around half the time and even refused to go into a game toward the end of the season. It's amazing how players get tabbed a certain way and then it is over. Big Ben is a blue collar player and Iverson is a gangster, so when one refuses to go in a game he takes no heat and when the other arrives late for a game that he's not playing in, the whole world goes bananas. I hate that crap.
5. Terry is a streaky player and one of those guys that I think plays how he is going to play regardless of whether anyone is on him or not. Plus, as Kenny pointed out (after you wrote this), he plays better in transition, but the Mavs want to slow things down against Phoenix.
6. You and Kerr are right, but it is more than that with Diop. Barkley and Kenny just hit the "play" button under the file "big man in the game against Phoenix." Usually, it is a bad idea to play a center against the Suns, but in this case, Diop is athletic enough (now that he gave birth and no longer weighs 422 pounds) to roam around and make plays. Dampier would be worthless, but Diop has value. That said, if Tim Thomas starts raining threes on Dallas in Game Four, it will probably force Avery's hand again. Good chess match.
7. I remember seeing Diaw play a full game once for Atlanta during his rookie year and he went for like 7-10-8. His playing time was spotty that year, but he got quite a few 30+ and even a few 40+ minute nights and he always seemed to flash that triple-double potential. This was less a case of Atlanta not knowing what they had and more a case of them not valuing what they had, which is even worse. The biggest thing is that they knew he could pass and board, but because he didn't have much range on his shot, they gave up on him as a shooting guard. Why they failed to consider him as a post player (you, since he is 6'8") is beyond me. I mean, did he say, "I'm a guard" and that was the end of it? Give Phoenix credit for being the team that said, hey let's play him at power forward. The Suns have become masters of reinventing players and this is no different. Plus, always remember that the Hawks are morons. They have drafted small forwards with their last three first round picks (despite already having Al Harrington) and the word is that Billy Knight is enamored with Rudy Gay. Oh boy.
8. Walton is a genius. We will never agree on this, but that is okay. Pure comedy. He lives to drive people like you crazy - it is what fuels him.
9. Billups - he is pounding the ball into the floor like he used to do in his vagabond days coming out of Colorado. I think Celtics fans are having horrible flash backs right now.
10. Wade is a monster. I am actually working on a blog entry right now entitled "Superman Returns" that details how the Wade that was so amazing last year in the playoffs is finally all the way back. The real question is: what is his kryptonite? It is obvious that Detroit can't stop him, and neither could New Jersey (which is hilarious, because Jason Kidd was inexplicably named first-time all defense, and yet he couldn't have guarded Wade even if he was equipped with a taser); however, the Bulls kept him under wraps for most of that series. (Under wraps for Wade, at least.) Was it the pressure of playing games in his hometown? I tend to think that Hinrich is the perfect guy to throw at Wade. A scrappy, hard-working defender that stays low to the ground, knows his limitations, and works hard at funneling D-Wade to certain spots on the floor where he can get help (rather than just trying to stop him). The funny thing is that Lindsay Hunter can do all of that and with more quickness, yet Flip hardly plays him. You know Wade doesn't want to see Hunter with all that chesting up and flopping (I hate the way Hunter plays defense), so why let him off the hook? In Game Three, Hunter came in and Wade made sure to pull up for three straight jumpers as if to send the message, "Hey, no charging fouls today, I am just going to shoot right over this midget." But why give up at that point? I would rather have Wade (as good as he is) shooting 19-footers than taking it to the rim and abusing Rip Hamilton all night. I think this series - and the whole postseason - is proving that Flip was indeed part of the playoff problem in Minny. Should he have been fired for it? Well, considering that the Wolves didn't even make the playoffs without him, probably not. But Saunders is going to be the big loser in this series if Miami wins.
Okay, that should do it. I might have wrote longer comments than the original post. But what can I say? I'm wordy. Besides, Stump, you asked for it!
Mostly though, brilliant comments on Lindsay Hunter. I had that same thought when I was watching one of the first two games and Hunter had back to back steals on Wade and then barely guarded him again, but you nailed it, especially adding in Flip's inability to see this happening.
That reminds me, Avery Johnson has completely impressed me as a coach for one main reason. He is willing to make dramatic changes to his STARTING lineup depending on the matchups. Hardly anyone has that sort of courage or trust from his players to make it work, but Avery has been doing it in every series. Dunleavy's refusal to do this with a deeper, more talented Clippers team is the exact reason the Suns are still playing and the Clips aren't.
As for Flip and Lindsay Hunter, they tried to employ this tactic against Wade tonight and he just torched them anyway. Aside from a mysteriously quiet third quarter (when he took zero shots), Wade just shot over Hunter, blew by Hunter, posted up on Hunter, back-doored Hunter, and basically abused Hunter whenever he felt like it. I blogged this, but Wade has been at the absolute apex the last two games. He's back to the level he was playing at last year before he hurt his rib. Just sick. The thing that impressed me most was the way he destroyed Rip on the defensive end. Hamilton scored a mere 11 points in the most important game of the season. Amazing.
Also, what is Detroit thinking? Prince obviously had it going early and there is no way Antoine can stay with him (we don't even know if he desires to stay with him) ... so why not keep feeding him the ball? It was like invasion of the body snatchers after the first quarter. I know you went to get Sheed and Billups going, but that was weird. I think if the Heat close this series out, it is all coming down on Flip's head, rightly or wrongly. Personally, I think this Pistons team is wildly overrated (I can explain how they have had the luckiest three year run in NBA history), but people seem convinced this is some kind of mighty team, so when they lose, you know they blame it on the new guy.