Although the move has yet to be finalized, it sounds like the Los Angeles Lakers and owner Jerry Buss have decided to go with former-Cleveland Cavaliers’ coach Mike Brown as their replacement for Phil Jackson. Brown, the cheapest of the three finalists, should be signing a contract with the Lakers within the next day or so.
One of the biggest issues that appears to have factored into the potential signing of Brown is his price tag. After Jackson drained Buss’ checkbook with a robust eight-figure salary to go along with the highest-paid roster in the NBA, the Lakers are looking to find a good coach at a reasonable price. Of the three candidates, including Brown, Lakers’ assistant coach Brian Shaw and former Houston Rockets head coach Rick Adelman, Brown would most likely take the smallest offer of them all.
Heh. I figured it would be Rick Adelman, Jerry Sloan, or maybe Brian Shaw because Kobe had his back. Mike Brown always had his Cavs at the top of their game defensively, but their offense could’ve been better, and I never felt that he was a dude who had great command over his players, which is the kind of coach that I feel like a team full of egos (like LA) needs. Phil Jackson commanded a certain type of respect that Mike Brown simply does not. Two hands full of rings will do that for a dude. Mike Brown has five fewer than his new star player. This may not end well.
Looks like we’re in for a rematch of the ’06 finals. The Heat have moved ahead of the Bulls 3-1, a lead that all but assures them a trip to the NBA’s finale. LeBron James led Miami to their third straight victory with 35 points, and when he wasn’t busy filling it up he got all the help he needed from… Mike Miller?
That’s correct: Mike f@ckin’ Miller showed up in a meaningful game for the first time all season. With 1:55 remaining in the third quarter (and the Heat down 63-57), Erik Spoelstra removed D-Wade in favor of Miller, whom it seems hadn’t scored a basket since he was a Memphis Grizzly. Although Dwyane wasn’t scoring the ball well himself, you certainly could’ve called it a questionable decision. Having faith in a shooter through a slump is one thing, but Miller hasn’t been able to do anything all damn year. Eventually, you’ve just got to make the goddamn shot. Make the goddamn shot is what he was finally able to do… twice… in a row! He nailed a three and an 18-footer on consecutive possessions, and individual 5-0 run that gave the Heat their first lead since the first half. He was then taken back out of the game for D-Wade, but the Heat went through a little slump and lost that lead.
Erik Spoelstra then decided to go with the no-point-guard lineup that I had envisioned when Pat Riley elected to send Michael Beasley to Minnesota for Miller way back in… whenever the hell that trade was made. Almost immediately upon re-entering the game, Miller knocked down a long two, then drove past a crowding D-Rose for a layup. Mike had forced the Bulls to respect his jumper at that point, and he made an excellent play that tied the game at 80. Following about three minutes of various turnovers, scrambles for loose balls, and blocked shot attempts, the game remained tied up (at 85 a piece) with 15 seconds to play.
Each team had a chance to win this thing in regulation, starting with Miami. LeBron attempted a backdown on Ronnie Brewer, but dipped his shoulder just a tad and was called for the offensive foul. I guess it was a good call, but I didn’t really like it… he didn’t really mow Brewer over… there was minimal contact, and I think Brewer flopped. Anyway, it is what it is. With about eight seconds to work with, Chicago put the ball in the hands of Derrick Rose–a pretty solid option. He had LeBron dogging him, though, and he had to shoot a contested jumper off of a crossover from about two feet inside the three-point line. It wasn’t even close. I would’ve preferred to see D-Rose attack the paint in that situation. LeBron’s length and athleticism makes it very difficult for Rose to create space for a half-decent look at a jumper. LeBron makes it hard for Rose to score one-on-one period. Maybe he should’ve kicked it out to Luol Deng for the wide-open three. I have a hard time criticizing anything Rose does in crunch time because he’s been so good, but this was one decision that I didn’t like. He could’ve created a better opportunity either by driving or by passing.
A few weeks ago I recall writing something about how it seems that the team that makes the comeback to force an OT seems to be the team that wins the OT. I guess it makes sense, they’d be the ones with the momentum. Anyway, this game was another example of my theory, as was Mavs/Thunder game four. The Bulls failed to score in the first half of the OT, and the bucket that finally broke the ice was a Ronnie Brewer three (of all things). When Ronnie Brewer is your leading scorer for an OT period, it’s probably safe to say you’re gonna lose the game. Rose went scoreless on one shot (excluding his heave at the buzzer)…
^That was the one shot. Derrick Rose’s last two shots of this game (once again, excluding the heave)–a close game, a big game–did not hit the rim. Credit Miami’s defense; they forced each of the misses… it’s not like Rose got open and just choked it or anything. Said the MVP: “It’s extremely hard when a 6-8 guy can easily defend you.”
His 23 points on 8-27 with 7 TOs are a testament exactly how hard it is, and how good Miami’s D is as a unit; it is what has carried them to the finals (yes, this thing is over). When this Heat team was assembled, I figured they’d be putting a shit-ton of points on the board, running their oponents to death in transition. While LeBron and D-Wade do get out on the break a couple times a night, they’ve had to rely on their defense much more than I thought they would because that uptempo offense I envisioned never really became a reality. I still think Miami is underachieving, to be honest… they could very well win this year’s Championship, but I still don’t feel like they’ve even come close to reaching their full potential. The offense is too stagnant, and it lacks any real cohesion… it’s just a bunch of individual stuff. Fortunately, they’ve got three franchise-level players, so that individual stuff can work well enough to take them as far as they’ve gone.
Mario Chalmers was the Mike Miller of the first half. With Miami trailing 19-12 at the :55 mark of the first, Chalmers came in and knocked down all three of his shots during a 24-15 run that spanned about 10 minutes of the first half. He didn’t score (or shoot) in the second half, but I had to give him his props for helping Miami get back within two by halftime.
Gotta do a little highlight recap for this game…
Despite the large quantity of highlights, this game was a tad ugly at times. The Heat’s no-point-guard lineup resulted in Udonis Haslem making an attempt at brining the ball up the floor on one occasion, and there were a combined 34 turnovers. Actually, ugly isn’t the word I’m looking for here… it was a hard-fought battle. Both teams were out there busting their asses, diving on the floor for loose balls, digging in at the defensive end… it was a pleasure to watch, so “ugly” doesn’t fit the description.
I was listening to a little sports talk radio yesterday (wasn’t in my car, so don’t blame me for having it on), and some dude was on there rambling about how we’re seeing “a new LeBron James with a never-before-seen hunger for a title,” or something like that. Do people really believe this sh!t? Like, do people really think LeBron was some sort of perenial choke-artist in Cleveland, and his close-out performances in game five with the Cs and game two with the Bulls are the first clutch offerings of his life? Yes, he kinda flamed out in last year’s Boston series, but christ, let’s not forget that the man still averaged 29/9/8 on 50% for that postseason, and he f@cking dismantled the Bulls in the first round. Let’s also not forget that he dragged a team which featured Larry Hughes as it’s second most potent offensive threat to the finals, and led his team to the top of the NBA’s regular-season standings two seasons in a row. A hunger-less choke artist doesn’t accomplish any of that sh!t. The only difference between current LeBron and Cavalier LeBron is that current LeBron plays with Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh instead of Mo Williams and Antawn Jamison. He suddenly has hunger now because he couldn’t beat the Celtics (who were a year younger) with those guys, but he can with a couple other All-NBA talents? How do these tards get on the radio/TV, and why am I stuck making like five cents a day in advertising revenue? News flash for dumbies: Cavalier LeBron put 45 f@ckin’ points on the ’08 Cs in game seven of the second round. He averaged 35 a game in the ’09 postseason. How is that any less impressive than what he’s done this season? The dude has been great; However, he didn’t have the mindset necessary to drag a band of bums to a title, and he still doesn’t… that’s why he chose to play for the Miami Heat alongside Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh. A new hunger? GTFO. A new team is more like it.
I guess that little rant just goes back to the thing I was talking about yesterday: I hate how individual career/performance rankings are effected so insanely by how much a guy wins… because how much a guy wins depends so much on who a guy is fortunate enough to play with. Winning is the whole point of the game, but sh!t, I was more impressed by this…
…then anything LBJ has done in these playoffs… chip or no chip. LeBron does not have some sort of new-found hunger or clutchness; he’s the same ol’ dude with the same amount of hunger. He’s stepped up before, he’ll step up again, but he never had (and does not suddenly have) the hunger it took to be the guy who led a franchise like the Cleveland Cavaliers to an NBA title. He does, however, have a hunger to be a member of what I’m sure he hopes will go down as the greatest NBA team of all-time.
LeBron will never become the greatest player ever winning titles down in Miami (and he knew that when he left Clevland; that clearly isn’t what drives him). I don’t care how many rings this Heat team wins… it’s not like what Jordan did when he led a team that had never won a Championship to six titles, and it still won’t be like that if he wins seven or eight of ‘em. So, if you thought LeBron was a hunger-less bum before these playoffs, well, I’d call you a ‘tard, but your opinion should remain the same (he has, and always has had hunger, just not to be the GOAT… which disappoints many, including myself, because he has all the tools). So, stop flip-flopping on players every time their situation changes; giving too much credit to the guy on the great team, and no credit to the guy who plays for some trainwreck of an organization makes you look like a tool… or gets you a job on the radio.
As I watched Kendrick Perkins open last night’s contest with a bucket and a driving assist which set up a Serge Ibaka jumper, I kind of figured the Thunder would do something like make their first nine shots. It was precisely the start they needed to build some early momentum in what was essentially a must-win game. Equally as important, though, they were able to hold Dallas down a bit at the very beginning of the game. In comparison to OKC, the Mavs kind of sputtered early on, missing three layups during that stretch of nine-straight OKC buckets. I can’t really credit the Thunder for forcing the misses–Chandler and Marion kind of just blew three bunnies–but I can credit them for forcing three turnovers in the first four minutes, resulting in sh!t like this…
As you can see, that made it a 10-point game… it was the first time all series long that OKC had led by double figures. With his Mavs struggling to score and the opposition pulling away a little bit, Rick Carlisle inserted some offense into the game in the form of Jason Terry and Peja Stojakovic. Terry didn’t do anything, but Peja burned the Thunder for an uncontested layup (sh!t was inexcusable… he very slowly plodded into the paint and casually plopped the ball into the basket) and a 10-foot floater. So, OKC had played one of their best quarters of the series–they put 31 points on the board–but I felt like they were fortunate to hold a nine-point lead. The offense had shown up, but the defense was still just not up to par. They played with energy and deflected some balls, but honestly, Dallas very easily could’ve scored 31 of their own had they not missed some pretty damn makable shots.
Somewhere between now and halftime, I learned that Jeff Van Gundy’s middle name is William. I just felt the need to include that in the post. I also noted that “Kendrick Perkins travels every time he touches the ball.” This must’ve been right after his consecutive layups that fell between the 1:09 and :22 marks of the second quarter. He shuffled his feet on one of them, and earlier in the game he had done the same thing. Kendrick Perkins can’t do anything without doing some sort of non-basketball motion first–he has to travel before he attempts to score, he has to wind up before he dunks, he has to move before while he sets a screen… it’s so painful to watch… I can’t understand how anyone likes the guy.
So, here are the OKC Thunder, at home, shooting over 50 percent, with six points and an assist out of Kendrick Perkins… leading by five. Safe to say Dallas is the better team? I think so. Don’t forget about all the missed layups and turnovers from the first quarter, either (Thunder had seven steals at halftime). The Mavs probably should’ve been ahead. OKC is capable of scoring with the Mavs, but they can’t stop them at all. The most unstoppable Mav of them all was about to put on another jump-shooting exhibition, too.
The Thunder actually appeared to have this game under control with five minutes to go. They led by 15, and Dallas couldn’t seem to find any offense. The JJ Berea/Dirk Nowitzki pick and roll wasn’t really producing the points it usually produces, and jumpers weren’t falling for anyone in a blue jersey. I’d chalked it up as a 2-2 series. The Thunder would go through a serious slump, though… they scored one bucket in the final five minutes of the fourth, and it was Dirk Nowitzki time…
…and those two weren’t even the toughest of the 11 points he scored in the final 3:15 of regulation. I have a question: how the f@ck is the jumper he hit in Nick Collison’s grill at the 1:25 mark not on Youtube? How is that possible? If you saw the shot, you know what I’m talking about. It’s in the game highlights at 1:53, but my god, how does that not have it’s own upload? My readers know damn well that I love a good ‘ol slam dunk, but christ, how does an uncontested Russell Westbrook fastbreak jam get Youtubed and that shot doesn’t? I almost feel ashamed of my blog’s image right now… I feel just a little bit responsible for this. We need to take more time to appreciate a shot like that, because we may never see one exactly like it again. That is like the “Lister Blister” of jumpshots… the unltimate pwnage. What more could Nick Collison have done? Nothing. There is nothing you can do about that, just like there was nothing poor Alton Lister could’ve done (well, except run, I guess). There is nothing anyone could’ve done about anything Dirk did down the stretch in this game. Hell, Collison was playing great defense (and holding him/pushing him) the entire time… but great offense beats great defense… simple as that.
As for the OT, OKC was visibly shook after blowing a 15-point lead in five minutes, and they only managed two more baskets. Inspired by Dirk’s godliness, Jason & Jason stepped up and scored D-Town’s final nine points. Jason Kidd stuck the go-ahead three-pointer with 40 seconds to play…
^That video was uploaded by “NBAHDIZZLE.” Greatest username in the history of the internet? I think so.
So, with this 112-105 victory, the Mavs move up 3-1 going back home… R.I.P. ’10/11 Oklahoma City Thunder. I figure it happens in five after this crushing defeat. Dirk Nowitzki had 40 points on 12-20 in this one… he did miss a freethrow (14-15, Dirk? C’mon son. That’s weak), but other than that his play was pretty much flawless. OKC shot themselves in the foot with 26 turnovers that resulted in 26 points. They had a huge edge on the offensive glass (20-5, mostly thanks to Nick Collison, who has been very impressive throughout this series), but the turnovers pretty much neutralized that. In case you were wondering, Russell Westbrook accounted for six of them. He also missed 15 of 22 shots. Kevin Durant went for 29/15, but after starting out red-hot he couldn’t really hit a damn thing (finished 9-22; 5 of those makes came prior to 7:54 in the first).
Not a single photo of DeShawn Stevenson from this game… not a single one. There is this hilarious one of Nate Robinson, though…
I’ve never understood how a dude who never plays can get so excited. Maybe it’s easier to enjoy sitting out every game when you’re on an NBA salary.
Carlos Boozer: “The Miami Heat have two great players.”
Chris Bosh: “SIGNATURE CHRIS BOSH SCREAM!”
You know what they say… actions speak louder than words, and last night, Chris Bosh’s actions indicated that the Miami Heat have three great players. His 34 points on 13-18 were not only the game high, but the series high, and Carlos Boozer was forced to ADMIT (Skywalker, if you’re reading this, that one is for you!): “I always have respect for [Bosh].”
I’m sorry, but LOL. Way to flip-flop there, Carlos. I was going to let you off easy because you also had one of your most productive games of the postseason (26/17 on 8-19), but you’ve made the urge to clown you irresistable…
…so, Booz, I must admit that I actually agree with you: the Miami Heat have two great players… and one who falls just short of such acclaim. However, two great players is one more than the Chicago Bulls have… and they don’t have any others that I would say border on achieving that level, either. You’re a step below Chris Bosh, Carlos, and you should praise the basketball gods for Derrick Rose and Taj Gibson, because without their dominance down the stretch in game one, everyone would be talking about how you’ve been owned twice in three games. Chris Bosh already had a 30-point game in this series, a game in which Carlos Boozer went for what has become his usual 14 points on blah for blah from the field. No one gave a sh!t because he was yet to do it in a winning effort, but Chris Bosh had already given Boozer and the Bulls the business once, and now he’s averaging 25 PPG for the series (in which his team leads 2-1 with game four at home). Chicago’s in a bit of trouble here, and Boozer is already on the wrong end of CB’s little coming out party in the “what have you done for me lately?” world of the NBA. I figure Miami will go on to win this series in six or seven, and if Bosh throws in another good game or two, Carlos is going to be the goat… and I don’t mean Greatest Of All-Time, either.
While clowning on Carlos Boozer has been fun, I do think people are overreacting to this 34-point night. Is this reeeeally the “game of Bosh’s life?” I’ll agree that it’s the game of his season, and his best performance in a game of this magnitude, but the game of his life? Is 30/5 against Carlos Boozer reeeeally better than 39/15 against Dwight Howard’s Magic? The ’07/08 Craptosaurs did lose that game (and that series), but sh!t, their second best player was arguably TJ Ford; what the f@ck do you expect? I hate the way things have become as far as how individual performances are ranked–it’s like a dude can’t possibly have had an amazing game unless his team won. I like this quote from Dwyane Wade: ”A lot of people don’t understand how difficult it’s been to make the adjustment, to play with two other players who dominate the ball so much. Some games he gets it. Some games he doesn’t. So to find a flow, to find a rhythm, sometimes it’s tough. But Chris is a professional. He’s stuck with it and he’s been able to explode and have big games.”
No knee-jerk reaction there. Bosh is a really good player who had a really good game. He does that sh!t from time to time. However, he’s the third-best player on his team, so he doesn’t do it every night. Pretty simple sh!t that gets blown way out of proportion every time he has a statistically-unusual game, good or bad.
I suppose I don’t really have anything more to say about this game… to be honest, not a single thing jumped out at me during the game that I felt the need to write about. Even this Chris Bosh stuff didn’t really leave me feeling inspired, but I had to say something, right? Here’s a link to the box score… I’ll let each reader do their own numbers breakdown.
Oh, and, uh… this is just funny:
Who do you think looks goofier when they get over-excited, Lebron or Chris Bosh? I can’t honestly say that either of the two have much celebratory swag. They should hire Shawn Kemp for lessons; he could probably use the money.
Tired of DeShawn Stevenson? Well I’m not, so that’s too goddamn bad!
Before I get to talking about last night’s game, I’d like to announce that I’ve dropped the price of my NBA247365.COM t-shirts from $20 to $15. Apparently, a new level of swag isn’t worth $20 to… anybody. So, $15 it is, and the shipping is still just $5 no matter where you live. I don’t think I could ship a shirt to my neighbor for five bucks, so that’s a bargain. They aren’t cheap shirts, either… they cost me over $7 each to make (I had them done by a professional screenprinter on high quality shirts), and with shipping typically costing me upwards of $5 I’m not really making anything, and I’m certainly not trying to rip you off.
Moving right along… the Dallas Mavericks picked Oklahoma City’s defense apart with surgical precision for the first 24 minutes of game three, and appeared to be on their way to a rout. However, [NBA] basketball is a game of runs (that’s one of my favorite basketball-related sayings because it’s so true), and OKC made one.
The Mavs began last night’s contest on a 9-2 run that didn’t leave a hungry band of Thunder enthusiasts much to get excited about. DeShawn Stevenson got the ball rolling with his first of two threes, then Tyson Chandler/Shawn Marion combined to score three consecutive layups. Dallas’ ball and man movement were both on point early on in this game. They were getting extremely easy looks right at the rim, and when they couldn’t get those it was a wide-open jumper. Dallas was already leading 11-4 by the time Dirk Nowitzki even scored a basket in this game, and the other guys on the floor were Jason Kidd, DeShawn Stevenson, Tyson Chandler, and Shawn Marion. That’s how easy Dallas was scoring. Stevenson scored a driving layup off the dribble, the first two-point basket I’ve seen him make since his time with the Washington Wizards. The Mavs were making it look far, far too easy. The Thunder, on the other hand, couldn’t make a goddamn thing. They had eight points with just over two minutes to play in the first, and they trailed 27-12 when the period wrapped up. The second quarter was essentially a repeat of the first for Dallas, but more NBA-like for the Thunder… Dallas added 25 more to their total, but they only out-scored OKC by one. Nick Collison and Serge Ibaka put in a little work in the paint early on that helped the Thunder get a little somethin’ going, and Russell Westbrook manufactured a few points. Still, OKC trailed by 16 at the half, and Dallas hadn’t even gotten much of anything out of Nowitzki yet. It certainly wasn’t looking too promising.
I’ve got to give Thunder fans some props here: with their team down 18 early in the third, showing no signs of life on either end of the floor, they continued to cheer and chant as if their heroes were ahead by double figures. I’m not a big fan of the way the team was taken from Seattle, but hey, these Oklahomans have been very supportive of this basketball team, and the Ford Center seems to have a really great atmosphere. It’s no Oracle Arena circa 2007, but it’s definitely one of the league’s livelier venues. So, there the Thunder fans are, loudly chanting “O-K-C!” with their team down 18… and Russell Westbrook launches an airball. The chant died, and I figured the Thunder died with it. To me, that was the low point of the game for them… I didn’t take note of the exact time when it happened, but looking back at the play-by-play, I believe it was around the 11-minute mark. They’d actually end up trailing by as many as 23 (23… yes, that’s the same defecit that Brandon Roy and the Blazers came back from to beat the Mavs in the first round), but they’d cut it to 14 by the time fourth quarter was set to begin. Dallas was only able to score 18 points in the third… they really needed a little boost from Dirk at that point, but they weren’t getting it. Nowitzki had just one basket in the period.
So, even though the Mavs aren’t getting much from Dirk, the role players have produced enough to have them up 14 with just a quarter to go. I told you earlier that the Thunder would make a run, though, and here is where it began: OKC inserted some offense in the form of James Harden and Daequan Cook, and made four of their first five shots of the quarter… lead down to 10. Russell Westbrook then exploited a size mismatch with JJ Berea on like four straight possessions… that resulted in an 8-2 Thunder run, and made it a single-digit game for the first time since early in the first. Jason Kidd had to be brought back into the game at that point, and with their lead cut to seven, they once again looked to Dirk Nowitzki to bring it home. Fortunately, for the first time in this game, he was able to deliver. Three of his seven buckets came in the final 5:13 of the fourth, and he made a couple freethrows, too. There were a couple of misses, blocked attempts, and a turnover mixed in there, but he made enough shots to get the job done, and I suppose that’s all that matters. Dallas ended up taking it 93-87–it really wasn’t as close as it looks–OKC never was able to get over the hump. Said Nobrickski (I like Dirk, and he’s playing great, but I also like that nickname): “We didn’t really have a lot going in the second half offensively, so I’ve got to keep attacking for this team like I have for the last 13 years. This team needs me to score and to keep being aggressive.”
Nope, they certainly didn’t have a lot going on offensively in the second half, but they got off to such a strong start that they were able to build an insurmountable cushion. I believe it was after game two that I said OKC would have to play much tougher defense if they want to win this series. They certainly didn’t bring the kind of D I called for in this game. Dallas got whatever the hell they wanted in the first half… Shawn Marion was running rim to rim for easy buckets (18 points on 9-13), and guys like Stevenson and Stojakovic were left open on the perimeter (OKC’s defensive rotations were pretty weak… Dallas got a ton of open looks… they made seven threes to OKC’s one [that was on 17 attempts, too]). The stats don’t indicate how well Dallas played in the first half because they struggled so much in the second, but even at 44 percent for the game they out-shot OKC by nearly eight percent.
To sum everything up: Oklahoma City allowed far too many open looks in this game. Tyson Chandler was 3-3. Shawn Marion was 9-13. DeShawn Stevenson only had to take three threes to make two. Dirk didn’t kill ‘em, but it was made far too easy for the other guys to pick up the slack. Jason Terry didn’t even have a good shooting night… it was the guys who are in the game for defense doing a large portion of the scoring. To me, that indicates a lack of defensive intensity and discipline on OKC’s part. Marion/Chandler/Stevenson aren’t the most gifted offensive players in the world, but they’re in the NBA for a reason: give them wide open looks, especially layups, and they’ll knock ‘em down at a pretty good rate. You can’t just allow them easy shots and expect that they’ll miss… you have to make them miss. It shouldn’t take much; just keep Chandler and Marion out of the paint, and get a hand in Stevenson’s face.
Russell Westbrook had another one of those 30-point games that left me feeling not as impressed as a 30-point game usually leaves me feeling. I’ll give him credit for leading that late push that came up too short, but I’ll also show you his seven TOs and 8-20 shooting. There were times when Kevin Durant had Peja Stojakovic on him in the first half and he wasn’t given the ball. I don’t care if KD is on some 7-22 sh!t… I’ll put his O against Peja’s D and live with the results. Russell Westbrook isn’t a point guard. He’s an undersized shooting guard that can’t shoot. He’s a very talented player that can help a team win basketball games, but OKC really needs a point guard right now. As great as Dallas looked in the first half, that’s how bad OKC looked. They were getting contested jumpers with the shot clock winding down. A point guard’s solution? Run some offense, try and get some movement going, get the ball to the superstar. Russell Westbrook’s solution? Play one-on-five.
James Harden has credited Baron Davis as the inspiration for his beard. Apparently, the art of beard growing isn’t the only thing that Harden has learned from The Baron…
That……… was shameful. I can’t believe Mark Jackson described that as “making a play.” Yes, you play to win the game… but there are some things you just don’t do… and flopping like that is one of them. I’d rather lose, or see my team lose, than win by one point because of some sh!t like that. There’s no honor in that “play,” James/Mark.
…due to an incident with the same girl that was involved in his last arrest. Via KTBS.com…
Professional basketball player Stromile Swift has been arrested in Shreveport on stalking charges involving an ex-girlfriend.Swift had been arrested in February for an incident involving the same woman.
Shreveport police said they arrested the 31-year-old Swift about 9:40 p.m. Thursday after officers were called to a domestic dispute on the west side of the city. Police said a woman told them she had been arguing with Swift and he was following her in a vehicle as she tried to get away from him.
Patrol officers got a description of the vehicle and eventually arrested Swift without incident in the 3300 block of Ivy Lane.
Police said they found a shotgun and a handgun in Swift’s vehicle.
The ex-girlfriend was not injured, police said.
Swift, of the 9500 block of Stonehaven Drive, was booked on a charge of stalking and later released on bond.
Swift was arrested last February on aggravated assault charges. Police said they were investigating a report of vandalism at the 28-year-old woman’s southwest Shreveport residence when Swift showed up there with a gun.
Swift played at Fair Park High School and LSU before being drafted as the second overall pick in the 2000 NBA draft. He played in the NBA for nine years and now plays in the Chinese Basketball Association.
A shotgun and a handgun? Jesus Stro, you’re going to wind up in jail if you aren’t careful.
I have no idea what this girl did to Stromile, but I’ve always been under the impression that he’s pretty mild-mannered (it was a problem on the basketball court)… so I’m baffled. Hopefully he gets some help or something… he’s clearly having a tough time getting over whatever the hell happened between he and this woman, and even though he’s wrong for following her around with weapons in the car, I feel bad for him. You’ve got to be pretty goddamn upset to be doing some sh!t like that. I really hope he’s able to get past this and get his personal life together so he doesn’t end up broke and/or in prison.
Every once in a while I’ll google Stro’s name to see if he’s joined another CBA team or something (contrary to what the article says, he didn’t play in China last season), but all I ever find are reports of my dude being arrested. It makes me sad… I always hope to see him playing basketball again. He’s only 31, and he’s only a few years removed from playing minutes in the NBA. It’s a troubling story, really… I mean, it’s got to be hard when it seems that you have everything you could ever want, yet you still aren’t happy. Most people aren’t going to feel any sympathy for a former NBA player with millions of dollars to his name, but this story is nothing but more proof that money can’t fix everything.
With the Thunder slumping early on in last night’s eventual victory, KD decided to help the cause by unleashing the best dunk of his career over poor Brendan Haywood…
Poor, poor Brendan Haywood… this is one of those dunks that only gets better with each replay angle, so it’s as if he keeps getting mashed on harder and harder as you watch. At first, I didn’t react to this one as dramatically as I did to Taj Gibson’s dunk from a few days ago–it didn’t look as crazy in live motion–but when I realized how high he got and how far he had to extend, I realized what I had just witnessed: the best dunk of the 2011 NBA Playoffs. That’s right, I think it’s better than Gibson’s, even though I don’t think it was quite as aesthetically pleasing. This dunk reminds me of Blake on Mozgov… look at the way Durant continues to elevate after the contact, and then the way he throws the ball through the hoop… they really are very similar plays.
Yes, I’m aware that the photo contrasts with the headline… but it was far too interesting for me to pass up. I would’ve posted it later on, but as you’ll find out, all the photo space is going to be used for another purpose.
So, first of all, I’m going to have to keep this relatively brief because I’ve actually got to work at my job today. Working at my job… I know, it’s a tough break. Hopefully it won’t become the usual routine.
Anyway, both Conference Finals are tied at one game a piece as venues are set to change, and something I advised Scott Brooks to do about midway through the Memphis series helped to make it that way: he benched Russell Westbrook… for the entire fourth quarter. The straw that finally broke the camel’s back was yet another turnover–his fourth of the game–with 28 seconds left to go in the third period. Jason Kidd ripped him, and Westbrook sent him to the stripe for two. Brooks finally decided he’d had enough of Russell’s shenanigans, and inserted Eric Maynor. Dallas led 76-73 at that point, but James Harden was about to change that with a four-point play. That four-point play apparently activated his beast-mode, because from that point on he made everything he tossed at the rim with the exception of a three and a freethrow. He accounted for 10 points in the fourth, and hit this ridonkulous jumper…
…the Youtuber described that play as Harden “showing his handles.” I feel like “showing that bad shots go in from time to time” probably would’ve been a more appropriate title. I mean, his handles didn’t really get him anywhere; he just made a ridiculously difficult shot after dribbling in place for seven seconds. I’m not knocking Mr. Harden… this is the NBA, these are the best basketball players in the world, and they make a tough shot from time to time. Sometimes these are simply the kind of shots that need to be made to win an NBA game in the middle of May. In game one, Dirk made them (Serge Ibaka was all up in his mug throughout that fourth quarter). In game two, a combination of Thunder players including James Harden and Kevin Durant made them. Durant bottomed a bonkers fall-away jumper in the face of my main man DeShawn Stevenson with about six minutes left… Daequan Cook nailed a triple with five minutes left… hell, even Kendrick Perkins made a jumpshot in the second half. The majority of the Thunder roster simply had it going on offensively; they shot 56 percent from the field, and I think it had more to do with them making shots than it did with Dallas’ defense. Seriously, it was kind of like game one, except the other way around and minus all the freethrows. Dallas was good, but OKC was better. Dirk was really good (dude had 16 of his 29 points in the fourth), as Durant was in game one, but a combination of Thunder players simply hit all the necessary buckets to stay on top, as Dallas did in game one (yeah, it was mostly Dirk, but Terry nailed the dagger). JJ Berea was productive off the bench once again with 11 on 4-8, but Eric Maynor bested him with 13 of his own. One guy who didn’t contribute his usual numbers was Jason Terry… he was uncharacteristically quiet with eight points on 3-9. Throw in the fact that his counterpart (Harden) went for 23, and you’ve come up with one major difference in this game.
Like I said, Nowitzki was excellent down the stretch with 16 points in the fourth. He was the only reason Dallas had a chance to make it a one-possession game with 36 seconds left, but he picked an awfully bad time to miss his first freethrow of the series. In fact, he’d knocked down 39 in a row until the second of three attempts in what was then a 104-99 game. I guess he was due for a misfire, and waaaay overdue to become a victim of the broadcaster jinx (I figured he’d clunk one at the end of game one as the commentators constantly rambled about the record he had set).
Back to the Russell Westbrook thing for just a moment… even though I thought it was pretty clear that a statement had to be made regarding his decision making down the stretch, I want to give a lot of credit to Scott Brooks for actually making it happen. It’s easier to call for the benching of an all-star PG in favor of Eric Maynor from my recliner than it is to actually put such a bold plan into action… especially with a trip to the NBA finals and your professional reputation hanging in the balance. So, big ups to Scott Brooks for making such a bold move, even if it may have happened a little late. Had he not made the decision he made, I have a funny feeling James Harden doesn’t score all those points down the stretch, and Dirk’s 16 fourth-quarter points may be enough to get the Mavs over the hump.
Random note that I couldn’t seem to work into the post: I think the Mavericks played better defense than the Thunder in this game. How the hell can I possibly say that about a team that gave up 57 percent shooting? Well, like I said, OKC made tough shots, and a lot of Dallas’ makes… weren’t so tough, especially in the first half. I wasn’t counting, but Tyson Chandler must have burned them on cuts or simply beaten them down the floor for a lob at least three times before the half. Dirk certainly didn’t have any trouble… his 29 on 10-17 were nearly as efficient as Harden’s 23, it’s just that his game one was so ridiculous that anything other than another 40-pointer would make it seem as if he didn’t do much. Basically, the Thunder’s offense carried the load in this one… but I feel like Dallas is the better offensive team, so if the Thunder ultimately want to advance, they’re going to have to play better defense than they did last night.
NBA247365.COM hero DeShawn Stevenson went just 1-6 in this game, but his SWAG was 100 percent. Three-point SWAG:
Udonis Haslem was trucking down the lane, and Keith Bogans probably shoulda got the hell out the damn way…
…but he didn’t, so he got layed the f@ck out like a door mat. Yes, I’ve been listening to a lot of rap music today. Honorable mention to Haslem himself for his other slammer-jammer-bing-bong, and also to Jamaal Magloire.
Ok, before I say anything about last night’s game, I have to go on a mini-rant. Why? Because those “expect great” WNBA commercials are back. That’s right, I saw one during the game last night for the first time since last summer.
Yes, as a matter of fact I would say that… and don’t worry, I won’t watch you. It’s not that you settle for midrange jumpers, or don’t try to play defense… it’s that you can’t make the midrange jumper when you do settle for it, and the girl you’re guarding can’t score even when you do slack off. Basketball is basketball my ass. I think they had Kobe and Dwight reciting that line in the version I caught yesterday… so each of those two drop a few notches on my totem poll for blatantly lying to innocent NBA viewers. Some of these young, impressionable kids may not know that you’re full of it, guys… they may actually tune into a WNBA game expecting great, and come away more disappointed than the day they found out Santa Claus was fake.
Well, my rec league team makes the majority of our layups, and we can all hit the rim from the three-point line… so yeah, probably!
Moving right along to the NBA–where you really can expect great–LeBron James has done it again. Done what again? Come up big late in a close game. What do you mean, “done it again?” LeBrick iz teh choke artist!!!1 Well, not really… I mean, yeah, I think he mailed it in against the Celtics last season; and yes, he missed his share of “big” shots during the regular season… but last night was the second time in three games that he put his team on his back late in the fourth and carried them to victory in a game that really did matter.
Each of the three buckets you just saw came in the final 4:30, a stretch during which LBJ dropped 9 of Miami’s last 12 points in the 85-75 W. Aside from LeBron’s clutch performance? It was defense–and Udonis Haslem–that won Miami this game. Chicago scored just two points during that stretch that LeBron dominated, and they only managed 10 in the entire fourth quarter (29 in the second half). Miami was able to successfully bottle up Derrick Rose for the entire game, something that no one’s really been able to do all season long. Rose hardly got any good looks at the rim, and when he got free for open jumpers, he missed most of them (finished with 21 on 7-23). He missed all four shots he took in the fourth quarter, and I’m not sure what’s more alarming: that he missed them all, or that he only got four. We all know D-Rose is a fourth-quarter assassin with an uncanny ability to leave the first three quarters in the past and step his game up, but last night, he was never able to create any opportunities for himself down the stretch. Credit Miami’s defense… it was the best effort on D-Rose that I’ve seen all year long. They contained him, and as he tacked on a few missed shots that he normally makes, he was completely neutralized.
As for Udonis Haslem… he played Taj Gibson’s role from game one.
What the video doesn’t show you is his rejection on D-Rose that preceeded the first poster dunk. Miami built momentum as he made those three highlight-reel plays, and his 4-4 shooting in the third is what kept Miami out front to finish up the third quarter. I didn’t expect much from Haslem in these playoffs… I mean, he missed the majority of the regular season, and there’s no way he was feeling in rhythm as he got up off the bench having played under seven total minutes in two playoff games. This is the first time he’d played a significant minute since November of 2010, and he came up absolutely HUGE. Without his 13 points off the bench, Miami probably loses this game. Maybe I’m crazy, but I don’t see Juwan Howard making those plays. If Haslem can contribute anything like this on a somewhat regular basis, that could be exactly what the Miami Heat need to get the job done this season. That being said, I’m not counting on it. I’ve found that guys sometimes tend to play really well immediately upon returning after a prolonged absense, but then struggle for a little while. I’m sure Haslem was running on pure adrenaline last night, but there’s no way he’s in game shape. I think his play could reflect that in upcoming games… but maybe not.
I’ve got to give some props to Taj Gibson even though the Bulls dropped this one. Taj scored all eight of his points in the fourth quarter… he single-handedly kept Chicago afloat from the 12-minute mark until LeBron’s takeover. Derrick Rose did set up two of Taj’s buckets, so I suppose he did do a little something in the fourth, but it was hardly a Rose-like quarter, obviously. Anyway, I think it’s safe to say that Taj Gibson has out-played Carlos Boozer so far in this series. If I had a nickel for every makable layup that Carlos Boozer missed, I’d have a solid 15 cents. Dude needs to step the f@ck up–it’s time.
Kyle Korver could’ve made a huge difference in this game had he been able to knock a few shots down. He had multiple open looks from three during the fourth quarter with the game hanging in the balance, but he missed them all. One of ‘em was halfway through the rim, but it spun out. His only bucket (1-7) came in the second quarter… Chicago is really missing the boost he provided throughout the first round.
To sum that all up… it was another defensive struggle, but LeBron bounced back from a rough game one and took over down the stretch, finishing with 29/10/5 on on 12-21. Miami turned the ball over too many times and gave up a lot of offensive rebounds, but Chicago was unable to make shots… it all kind of evened out in the end, and the game was right there for the taking by either team. Credit LeBron James for grabbing the Bull by the horns (no pun intended). Like I said, it’s the second time he’s done this in three games. Keep that in mind next time you call him a choke artist.
The statement play had Chicago won this game:
You gotta love Omer Asik. He fits into the NBA’s image about as well as Brian Scalabrine, but you’ve got to respect him, because he always makes plays, and I’m not talking about midrange jumpers. He’ll meet you at at the top, bang it in your face, fight you for a rebound… pretty much everything that you’d assume he’d never do upon first glance.
What a badass! It kind of makes me sad that the Bulls lost… this could’ve been such an epic moment. Speaking of epic moments, LeBron’s was capped off with one of the most awkward celebrations of all-time…
Mike Miller… dude… since you forgot how to play basketball, do you think you could at least try to become a half-decent towel waver/chest bumper? You’ve had like one good game all season, and it was against the f@cking Craptards… find a way to contribute, dammit!
