You knew they’d be a desperate team in this game and would battle hard and probably win, especially on their home court, but the way the Boston Celtics defeated the Lakers last night to even the NBA Finals series at 2-2 was astonishing. One of their “big four”, Paul Pierce, got off to a quick start and got the Celts an early lead, but in the 4th quarter they took control of the game with a lineup on the floor that consisted mainly of Glenn Davis, Nate Robinson, Tony Allen, Rasheed Wallace and only one of their regulars, Ray Allen, and he contributed pretty much the least of any of the guys out there. Coach Doc Rivers kept sending the starters over to the scorer’s table to put them back in, then Robinson or Wallace would drain a 3-point shot or Davis would grab a big rebound or score a huge basket and Rivers would call the starters back to the bench. While this was going on the starters – Kevin Garnett, Rajon Rondo, Pierce and Kendrick Perkins – were leading the cheers from the bench for their replacements. This is 2010 in the NBA, the era of the superstar, and I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the 2 teams in the finals are the teams whose “superstars” play unselfishly. The Lakers also usually get big contributions from their bench, but nothing like what the Celts’ bench did last night. I had to laugh when the Cleveland Cavaliers post-season began to unravel against Boston. As the Celtics continually shut down or contained LeBron the announcers would say that he’s getting no help from his supporting cast. So after racking up the league’s best regular season record by running an offense that pretty much consists of running down the shot clock to about 10 seconds and then clearing out for LeBron to do his thing, now the supporting cast is supposed to figure out what to do to “help” LeBron. If the Cavs somehow manage to resign James, they’ll only win a title when they figure out that it’s not who the players are playing around James but the style of play the team is playing that revolves around him. Obviously the Celtics don’t have that problem, as they dominated the fourth quarter with all their stars on the bench, and you didn’t hear one whimper of a complaint from any of those stars afterwards. Now if they can only tone down Rasheed’s drama queen diva act every time he draws a foul!
Archive for the ‘Basketball’ Category
John Wooden Remembered
What struck me the most when reading the many articles this weekend on the passing of basketball coaching legend John Wooden were the words being used, by the people who knew him best, to describe him – kind, selfless, humble, honest, wise, loyal, gentleman, teacher, grounded in faith, loving, fair, patient. One article noted that one of his team rules was no cursing. Can you imagine that rule on a Bob Knight-coached team? When U.C.L.A. decided to honor Wooden and his wife by naming the court at Pauley Pavilion after them, Wooden insisted that his wife’s name be put first, so it became officially the Nell and John Wooden Court. His career numbers as a coach are staggering – 10 national championships (the next highest total for one individual coach is 4), a record 88 game winning streak, total domination of the college game and similar to Wayne Gretzky’s numbers as an NHL player. Some critics might argue that he was blessed with some of the greatest players of all time, including legends Kareem Abdul Jabbar (then known as Lew Alcindor) and Bill Walton. I would agree with the comments of Bryan Burwell of the St. Louis Post Dispatch, who noted that Wooden’s accomplishments are even more amazing because they came in a time of turmoil, when young people were striving to be individuals and protesting against the Vietnam War, for Civil Rights and against the “establishment”. Yet he managed, year after year, to pull his team together and convince them to put their individualism aside to strive for the team goal. His story is the ultimate statement that nice guys CAN finish first.
NBA Finals – Classic Matchup
The two most successful franchises in the NBA will meet, starting on Thursday, in a Finals series that should be a classic. The teams are meeting for the title for the 12th time, and history says that the Celtics should win, holding a 9-2 edge in championship series victories over the Lakers. That domination dates back as far as 1959, when the Lakers were still located in Minneapolis, and the Celts swept them. Boston, behind legends Bill Russell and Bob Cousy, dominated the Lakers again in the 1960s, winning all six meetings between the clubs. The Lakers had their only success against the Celts in the 1980s, when the Magic Johnson-led “Showtime” Lakers won 2 of 3 Finals meetings against Larry Bird’s Celtics. The Celtics won again in 2008, and with Kevin Garnett now back from injury should be the favorite to win this year also. Boston has shut down (or at least contained) their opponents’ star player in the last 2 series prior to the Finals, frustrating two of the game’s best players, LeBron James of Cleveland and Orlando’s Dwight Howard. Can they do the same to the game’s most dominant player, Kobe Bryant? For the Lakers, the key is whether they have the size up front to counter Boston’s physical front court. Pau Gasol, Lamar Odom and Andrew Bynum were handled pretty easily by the Celtics in 2008, but the Lakers are hoping that the combination of those players maturing and the addition of physical “small” forward Ron Artest will help them when the games get physical, as they surely will.
NBA – Lakers, Celtics open with convincing wins
The conference finals in the NBA opened over the last couple of nights, and the Boston Celtics and Los Angeles Lakers, the league’s two most storied franchises, were impressive in registering victories in their respective series openers. The Lakers dominated the surprising Phoenix Suns behind Kobe Bryant’s 40 points and a workmanlike performance from the rest of the squad, with the other main offensive contributor being Lamar Odom. The Celtics, in dispatching the overrated Cleveland Cavaliers and stealing the home court advantage from Orlando in their opener, have been the most impressive defensive team in the playoffs. They are healthy and having won the NBA title just 2 years ago have the experience to roll to another championship. However, in an earlier post I had said that Orlando would defeat either team that survived the Boston/Celeveland series, so I’ll stand by that pick. Although Boston’s work on Dwight Howard was stifling, I feel the loss was more a result of the Magic being rusty from the long layoff after they swept their previous series over Atlanta. I still look for them to find their bearings and rebound to win a long, tough series.
NBA – Brooms for everyone!
The word of the day for the NBA conference semi-finals is BROOM! Three of the four series have already ended in sweeps. The 2 teams who met in the NBA finals last year, the Lakers and the Orlando Magic, made quick work of their opponents. The Lakers’ opponents – the Utah Jazz – are perennial bridesmaids in the NBA so the result of that series is no surprise, but the sweep is surprising. The Magic, who look like a better team this year than last, totally dismantled the Atlanta Hawks in a series that wasn’t even close. They now await the winner of the Cleveland / Boston series. The Cavaliers should clearly be the better team in this series, but they have fallen into the habit of only playing hard when they absolutely have to. The Cavs lost to Orlando in the Eastern finals last season but unless they get their act together on a consistent basis, they won’t even get past the Celtics, who are aging but are a proud team only a year removed from being NBA champs. The team that is looking really scary is the Phoenix Suns, who also swept their West semifinal series, over San Antonio. The Suns are normally in the same category as Utah, a good team that fades in the playoffs every season. But they are clicking on all cylinders this year, and their series win over the 4-time champion Spurs was impressive. I like the Lakers to beat them in a long hard-fought series, and I also feel that Orlando will defeat either the Cavs or Celtics, setting up a repeat of last year’s final series.