To piggyback on Steve's piece from last night (consecutive days of Manual Buzzer for the first time...ever?), we have to discuss what has to be Blake Griffin's forgettable Playoff debut. If there was one reason why the Clippers shouldn't have won that game, it would have to be Griffin's paltry effort against that amazing Grizzlies front line through the first 3 quarters. I never thought anyone could make him look mortal in the same vein that I never thought that anyone could make Amar'e look mortal when he was playing alongside Nash. But Griffin is by no means the strongest player on the court. Marc Gasol and Z-Bo and Speights and Cunningham are an excellent front line that can wear him out, especially without a decoy on the Clippers.
I appreciate how Blake pulled it together late, and I'm sure he has a big game in him sometime this series. My main bone to pick with Blake, that I have had anytime I've watched him, is his half-court game. As Steve referred to Bledsoe and Evan's penchant for playing out of control, in isolation, Blake gets lost and tries to do too much in the half court. I always loved Amar'e's game in the half court because he could jab and blow by his defender for a dunk or fake the drive and hit those elbow jumpers. Blake's shot is sporadic, and when he needs to adjust on the drive, you usually see some wild shot thrown up.
The Clippers are reminiscent of the Amar'e-Nashty Suns, and while Paul is a way better defender and scorer and an equal as a passer to Nash, I think Blake's inability to create quality shots on his own will be the Clippers' downfall, especially against a deep frontline who can focus on stopping him. (For all intents and purposes, Reggie Evans Game 1 "masterpiece" will garner little defensive attention, and there isn't another scoring big on that team anyhow.) Unlike Steve, I'm saying Grizzlies in 6, and an apathetic LA crowd gives home-court back to the Grizz.
Apr 30, 2012
Ten Reasons the Clippers won Game One
How do you possibly comeback from a 24 point deficit with eight minutes left in a road game? Does this feat become even more improbable when you factor in that the Red Sox bullpen wasn’t prominently involved (a zinger like this would have bothered Dannymac once upon a time, but apparently he only roots for the Sox when they are good. I’ll have to text him that the Nats FAILED MISERABLY in their first games against a living, breathing opponent this season to get under his skin)? I’ve got some answers for you, since I’m one of the maybe twenty three people who didn’t turn the game off in the third quarter.
I’ve heard a lot of people bashing Memphis for losing this game, and justifiably so. Dick Stockton and C Webb both said that they’ve never seen a collapse like that in the playoffs before, and really I can only think of one game that even came close (Celtics vs. Nets in 2002), but it certainly wasn’t with less than eight minutes left, and it certainly wasn’t the road team that came back. So in that sense, yes Memphis deserves a lot of heat for what happened last night. To me though, this is much more about the Clippers unbelievable resolve to make that comeback, than the Grizzlies choking the game away. Look, most teams in the NBA (or any sport for that matter) when you have a seemingly insurmountable lead take their foot off the gas and stop executing. The other team normally pulls its starters and rests up for the next game. The Clippers resolve to even think they had a chance in that game blows me away, and solidifies my opinion that Chris Paul is the best leader in the game, and will go down as the greatest point guard to ever play the game. That’s what I will take away when I think about this game ten years from now, and I think that’s how all real fans of the game should view it. For something as improbable as being down 95-71 with eight minutes and winning, a whole lot of things had to happen on both sides to make it possible. Here are ten reasons that the Clippers won game one 99-98.
10. Fool’s Gold- The Grizzlies were the worst three point shooting team in the NBA both in terms of number of makes per game (4.2) and percentage (32.6%). When Mike Conley rattled in his final three of the night to put the Grizzlies up twenty four points, Memphis had made eight out of ten from downtown. Everyone (including myself, and I stick by it) that picked Memphis to come out of the West did so, for one reason, because they have such a unique advantage in their frontcourt. When this game got in the fifteen point range, Memphis should have given the Clippers undersized frontline a steady diet of Gay, Zebo, and Gasol on the block. This didn’t start to happen until the game was in single digits and the sky was falling.
9. Caron Butler broke his hand- I have respect for Caron, but when he’s in the game, he bogs down the Clippers offense, and to be blunt they look stale and old when he’s in there. His ball stopping style of play kills the Clippers when his jumpers aren’t falling. Put it this way, Chris Paul won’t be giving us the Nancy Kerrigan “WHY!!!” if Butler misses significant time.
8. Vinny Del Negro’s Tie- Following the ritual of his forefathers Mike Dunleavy, and Donald Sterling, Vinny Del Negro wore a tie to the game last night that costs less than $20. Want to know how I know this? I have the exact same tie, and bought it at Marshall’s for $12. Does it surprise me that Vinny Del Negro shops at Marshalls? No, not one bit. Can you be more used car salesmanish than Vinny?
7. Beat LA chant- As pappy pointed out on Twitter, are Grizzly fans really that lazy that they are using the “Beat LA “ chant on the frigging Clippers? They already had strike one against them for the “white out” t shirt gimmick. I’ve said before that no professional fan base has an excuse for this amateurish gimmick, other than the 2007 Warriors. Fans that all wear the same non team color for an NBA game are the ones who I’m sure only cheer when some wisecracking PA announcer or the Jumbotron tells them to. I can say with pretty good confidence that Knicks, Celtics, Bulls, or even Lakers fans would not have let their home team lose a game like that, because they would have known when to lift their team. The Beat LA chant to the Clippers just sums up how stupid some of these fan bases are.
6. Eric Bledsoe/Reggie Evans Insanity- These two came in and just started running around like a couple of first graders in gym class. We’ve all played with that guy in pickup ball who’s so out of control that it’s effective for him, since nobody wants to break their nose in a pickup game. Well that is pretty much what Bledsoe and Evans were out there doing. They weren’t always making the best basketball play, but it was always the craziest. Bledsoe grabs the rebound, goes the length of the floor and jumps off of Marc Gasols back for a dunk! Reggie Evans ties Tony Allens shoe laces together and takes the ball from him! The best part is that they aren’t even the two best irrational confidence guys (#Simmons) on their own bench…
5. Kenyon Martin- Martin’s psychotic self sat on the bench cold for a good stretch of the fourth quarter, and was somehow able to play outstanding defense against Rudy Gay’s last second jumper…no easy feat. Which reminds me…
4. Gay’s last shot- I know that Kenny covered this on Inside the NBA last night after the game, but what an awful last possession by Memphis. Aside from the fact that running it down to the buzzer doesn’t give you the opportunity to foul if the shot is missed…MEMPHIS HAS THE BEST FRONT LINE IN THE LEAGUE!!! Take a jumper with five seconds left and let Zebo or Gasol get a rebound against the college sized front line of the Clippers. Or if you don’t want to take a jump shot at five seconds, have Rudy Gay drive on Martin. This would seem to make sense being that Gay is one of the best slashers/finishers in the game, and Kenyon Martin is a 35 year old seven footer who looks like he’s one bad day from being in jail for 25-life any given day. Sometimes I just don’t understand
3. Nick Young- Nick Young’s back to back to back threes were some of the most clutch shots that I’ve seen in a long time. He was the reason that the game seemed realistic for the Clippers. I’ve probably watched 10,000 games over the years where a twenty five point lead gets cut to like thirteen as the game is winding down. It never means anything. Young gave all us basket ball fans who’ve ever thought in their heads “if someone can just catch fire and hit like three three’s in a row this thing isn’t over” hope that someone on our own favorite team can do this one day. The ultimate streak shooter, everybody in the arena and watching the game knew that Young’s last three to cut it to 96-93 was going in as soon as we saw Young sprint to the corner on that fast break. Cutting the lead from thirteen to three in about 90 seconds was the biggest stretch of the game that made it seem realistic for the Clippers.
2. Tony Allen not guarding Chris Paul- I tweeted to Pappy after the game about this. When Memphis felt this game slipping away, why wouldn’t you put the best perimeter in the league on Paul. Pappy said that he figured that whoever the two guard on the floor was (Nick Young) would post Conley up and get him in foul trouble. This is something that would have been valid at the beginning of the game perhaps. When you’ve just watched a twenty four point lead decrease to say six, wouldn’t you take your chances and try to cut off the head of the Clippers? Allen is the best perimeter defender I’ve seen in my lifetime of watching the NBA. Chris Paul legitimately struggles to get his shot off against only one player in the league-Tony Allen. Hollins put Allen on Paul for the final possession, and Allen bottled Paul up, despite Paul getting bailed out by a highly questionable call after Allen picked his pocket. The move came about seven possessions too late.
1.Chris Paul’s brilliance- I can say with 100% confidence that you could have replaced Chris Paul with any other player in the league, and none of them would have willed their team to a win last night. The only other player in the league who would be crazy enough to still think their team had a chance in that spot is Kobe, but Kobe isn’t a strong enough leader/motivator to get the rest of the team to believe as well. LeBron has the talent that Chris Paul have, but being one of the all time front runners, I can say with great confidence that Bron would have been biting his nails with a towel over his head once his team got to 95-71. Paul’s tame (for him) stat line of 14 and 11 doesn’t tell the story. The aforementioned three by Nick Young was one of the most brilliant plays I’ve seen in basketball. Down 96-90 with about two minutes remaining, Paul comes up with a loose ball and is leading a three on one break. On his left, Blake Griffin is streaking to the hoop for an alley-oop that would have given the Clippers two points with 100% certainty. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Nick Young streaking up the right side of the floor. Young was not completely wide open. In about a millisecond Paul was able to conclude that;
-Nick Young is an unstoppable scorer in bunches, and that once he’s hit two in a row you can bet the house that he’s hitting a third
-Cutting the lead to a single possession would be devastating psychologically to the Grizzlies. Unless you’ve played basketball it’s hard to explain that huge difference (even more so than the obvious difference between one and two possessions) between a four and a three point lead.
-Young was sprinting all out to get to that spot, and Paul hit him so perfectly in the hands that it was almost like an alley oop jump shot for Young.
Again, nobody in the league but Paul makes that pass, or would have been able to process all that information so fast. That’s why I have no doubt that when it’s all said and done that Paul will go down as the best point guard to ever play.
I’m sticking with Memphis to win a knock down heavyweight fight in seven. They just have so many advantages this series, and we’ve seen this team bounce back from tough losses before. One last point…The Knicks series is over in four, MAYBE five games. People who didn’t watch the Knicks closely this year just don’t realize how important Iman Shumpert is to the Knicks. He’s tied with Avery Bradley for the second based perimeter defender in the league, and can legitimately give Wade fits. Without him, the Knicks just aren’t nearly athletic enough on the perimeter to stay with Miami. In the words of Kobe Bean Bryant “What the fudge?!?!?!” There’s always next year I guess.
Apr 10, 2012
Calipari's letter to Nerlens Noel
Editors Note: This is the fictional letter that I picture John Calipari sent to recruit Nerlens Noel in the days leading up to his decision on where he will attend school.
Dear Mr. Noel,
As a life-long fan of basketball, and now as the current coach of the national champion Kentucky Wildcats, I write you this letter in an attempt to help you weigh your options in choosing which college you will attend in the fall. Wednesday April 11, 2012, you are going to announce to the world the school colors that you will wear for the next ten months or so. It is my intention to sway you to attend class(haha get it?) and get you ready for your long and successful career in the pros.
Now Nerlens, you and I both know that this decision comes down to Big Blue and the Orange. I don’t need to do much to sell you on us here at Kentucky. Were coming off a National Championship, we have some of the most rabid, enthusiastic fans in the world, and most importantly, by the end of this years’ draft we will have produced roughly TEN first round picks in the three years that I’ve been here. Were basically an assembly line in making young men like yourself life-long millionaires. Simply put, I barely even need to sell you on Kentucky at all.
This brings me to the Orange. Coach Boeheim certainly is one of the all time greats, and his statistics make it clear that he is one of the top ten coaches to ever coach in College Basketball. I just want you to consider a few concerns that I would have if you decided to go to the Orange…
First off, have you seen the ‘fans’ of Syracuse in their treatment of their former center Fab Melo? This kid, much like you entered their program with expectations that were through the roof. To his credit, he put in hard work and morphed into one of the best defensive players in the country, after a shaky freshman season. He was the most valuable player on a team that had its greatest regular season in school history. People loved Fab. So what happened? Well, as you may or may not know Fab was from Brazil, and English was his second language. Apparently Fab struggled with academics, and right before the NCAA tournament was ruled ineligible to play in the tournament. Literally no other detail was given besides those. And yet, what happened? Well, instead of taking it as a bad break that happened to a very good player on their favorite team, the city of Syracuse turned Fab into its own personal whipping boy. A public outpouring of racial slurs, derogatory comments about his intelligence, and even threats to his safety flooded the fan forums and social media. It’s gotten so bad, that even now when Fab posts something on Twitter, invariably his replies fill with seething, nasty hatred towards him from the SU fans. Keep in mind, nobody really knows what happened, but ask yourself, would you want to play for these ‘fans?.’
One of your good friends is Michael Carter Williams. Why don’t you ask him what happens when Coach Boeheim doesn’t think you are ready to play. Does he assimilate you in the flow slowly, as gradually your confidence builds, and by the end of the year you are ready for battle? Or does Jim get into petty personal battles that waste a year of eligibility for a player that is trying to grow and get better. Twice in three years, Boeheim refused to play talented young big men DeShonte Riley, and Rakheem Christmas any meaningful minutes throughout the season, and then rushed them into action in a pinch when they weren’t ready in the biggest games of the year. Would you want to play for a coach who kept your best friend-and probably most talented guard- on the bench all year to rot? Do you want to sit on the bench all year if you start slow, and then be rushed into an NCAA game and be made the scapegoat when you aren’t ready?
You may want to take a look at the track record that Syracuse players have in the pros. With the exception of Carmelo Anthony-who let’s be honest, even Isiah Thomas could have succeeded in coaching- you will see a long history of players who never reached their ceiling and, who aren’t really disciplined on either end of the floor. The zone that they play is an effective tool to throw your opponent off on this level, but it’s going to put you at least a year behind in the pros, where no team plays zone as its primary defensive set.
Nerlens, do you really want to play in a cold city, where the fans turn on its players, the coaches let petty fights and impatience with freshman effect playing time, and has a history of underachievement at the next level, or do you want to play for the school that has no downside. Hope to see you soon
Coach Cal
Speaking on behalf of the Syracuse fans, we have a lot of work to do. I'm guilty, I called Melo out the first day the story broke out of frustration. In retrospect and now it's a disgrace that a large group of trolls still spit venom towards Fab, and towards Kris Joseph publicly in forums and on Twitter. If you don’t think that top players talk amongst each other, and relate this stuff you are crazy. As much as I would love to see Nerlens Noel playing for Syracuse next year, he’s not going to. Put it this way, if I were him, I would take that fictional letter from Calipari, think that his points are valid, and play for Kentucky. Maybe as fans, we can stop giving rival coaches gold for their smear campaign against our favorite team, and show a little respect for things like maxing out limited potential (Joseph), or struggling with academics in your second language (Fab). Don’t think for a second a coach as wily as Calipari won’t use all that against Syracuse, and you know what??? he’d have valid points.
Dear Mr. Noel,
As a life-long fan of basketball, and now as the current coach of the national champion Kentucky Wildcats, I write you this letter in an attempt to help you weigh your options in choosing which college you will attend in the fall. Wednesday April 11, 2012, you are going to announce to the world the school colors that you will wear for the next ten months or so. It is my intention to sway you to attend class(haha get it?) and get you ready for your long and successful career in the pros.
Now Nerlens, you and I both know that this decision comes down to Big Blue and the Orange. I don’t need to do much to sell you on us here at Kentucky. Were coming off a National Championship, we have some of the most rabid, enthusiastic fans in the world, and most importantly, by the end of this years’ draft we will have produced roughly TEN first round picks in the three years that I’ve been here. Were basically an assembly line in making young men like yourself life-long millionaires. Simply put, I barely even need to sell you on Kentucky at all.
This brings me to the Orange. Coach Boeheim certainly is one of the all time greats, and his statistics make it clear that he is one of the top ten coaches to ever coach in College Basketball. I just want you to consider a few concerns that I would have if you decided to go to the Orange…
First off, have you seen the ‘fans’ of Syracuse in their treatment of their former center Fab Melo? This kid, much like you entered their program with expectations that were through the roof. To his credit, he put in hard work and morphed into one of the best defensive players in the country, after a shaky freshman season. He was the most valuable player on a team that had its greatest regular season in school history. People loved Fab. So what happened? Well, as you may or may not know Fab was from Brazil, and English was his second language. Apparently Fab struggled with academics, and right before the NCAA tournament was ruled ineligible to play in the tournament. Literally no other detail was given besides those. And yet, what happened? Well, instead of taking it as a bad break that happened to a very good player on their favorite team, the city of Syracuse turned Fab into its own personal whipping boy. A public outpouring of racial slurs, derogatory comments about his intelligence, and even threats to his safety flooded the fan forums and social media. It’s gotten so bad, that even now when Fab posts something on Twitter, invariably his replies fill with seething, nasty hatred towards him from the SU fans. Keep in mind, nobody really knows what happened, but ask yourself, would you want to play for these ‘fans?.’
One of your good friends is Michael Carter Williams. Why don’t you ask him what happens when Coach Boeheim doesn’t think you are ready to play. Does he assimilate you in the flow slowly, as gradually your confidence builds, and by the end of the year you are ready for battle? Or does Jim get into petty personal battles that waste a year of eligibility for a player that is trying to grow and get better. Twice in three years, Boeheim refused to play talented young big men DeShonte Riley, and Rakheem Christmas any meaningful minutes throughout the season, and then rushed them into action in a pinch when they weren’t ready in the biggest games of the year. Would you want to play for a coach who kept your best friend-and probably most talented guard- on the bench all year to rot? Do you want to sit on the bench all year if you start slow, and then be rushed into an NCAA game and be made the scapegoat when you aren’t ready?
You may want to take a look at the track record that Syracuse players have in the pros. With the exception of Carmelo Anthony-who let’s be honest, even Isiah Thomas could have succeeded in coaching- you will see a long history of players who never reached their ceiling and, who aren’t really disciplined on either end of the floor. The zone that they play is an effective tool to throw your opponent off on this level, but it’s going to put you at least a year behind in the pros, where no team plays zone as its primary defensive set.
Nerlens, do you really want to play in a cold city, where the fans turn on its players, the coaches let petty fights and impatience with freshman effect playing time, and has a history of underachievement at the next level, or do you want to play for the school that has no downside. Hope to see you soon
Coach Cal
Speaking on behalf of the Syracuse fans, we have a lot of work to do. I'm guilty, I called Melo out the first day the story broke out of frustration. In retrospect and now it's a disgrace that a large group of trolls still spit venom towards Fab, and towards Kris Joseph publicly in forums and on Twitter. If you don’t think that top players talk amongst each other, and relate this stuff you are crazy. As much as I would love to see Nerlens Noel playing for Syracuse next year, he’s not going to. Put it this way, if I were him, I would take that fictional letter from Calipari, think that his points are valid, and play for Kentucky. Maybe as fans, we can stop giving rival coaches gold for their smear campaign against our favorite team, and show a little respect for things like maxing out limited potential (Joseph), or struggling with academics in your second language (Fab). Don’t think for a second a coach as wily as Calipari won’t use all that against Syracuse, and you know what??? he’d have valid points.
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