Dude Weather Subscribe to Secrets Minneapolis / St. Paul
On the Ball
NBA Finals, Open Thread
I had every intential of putting up another trey after Orlando's Game Three win, but more lucrative deadlines intervened and prevailed. Hours before Game Four, let me just say that Orlando's backcourt made like Lazurus, especially Alston and Pietrus, who played incredibly well on Tuesday night. For that matter, the entire Magic squad pretty much rose to the occasion, setting a Finals record for FG accuracy at better than 62%. Throw in a blatant off game from Kobe, especially in his metier, crunch time, and it should give Magic adherents pause that the outcome was in doubt for as long as it was, in a must-win home game, no less.
Anyway, much to my chagrin, this has to be an open thread, as I just now finished a large assignment that drastically shortened my sleep window and tomorrow morning bright and early I'm among those who go down and eat breakfast with new Wolves honcho David Kahn. So, the unspooling of Game Four can take place in this playpen if you folks are so inclined. As always the quality--in depth, originality and compassion--of the comments here makes me proud to be associated with this site. Thanks for your contributions. And obviously nobody *has* to chime in here about anything, especially since I'm not going to be around to set the table in the morning.
But I will return to the Target Center and provide my feedback to whatever is going on, and maybe even embark on my long-promised posting related to the Wolves.
One more thing before I sign off until tomorrow: The commenters here, and others who have either directly or indirectly written about my I said vis a vis Gasol and Odom in my last post have convinced me that I was wrong. I remember what I saw in last year's Finals, and what I thought about it, but too many smart people have rebutted it in too many uncoordinated but highly effective ways for me to simply assume my memories and impressions trump statistics and the logic that has been presented. Maybe it's because I picked the Lakers over the Celts and needed some scapegoats that I got down on the LA forwards. No matter: Without revisiting the videotape, I'm pretty sure now I was wrong. And that's fine, not only because it's ultimately a blessing to have such smart feedback to challenge my assumptions, but also because it is at worst moot and at best reinforcing of my admiration for both Gasol and Odom in this Magic series. Gasol has been pretty solid throughout; Odom has come on mostly in the last five games. But if Kobe dishes the rock to Gasol more often on Tuesday, i'm not so sure the Magic, 62.5% FG and all, aren't playing to avoid a sweep tonight.
So, thanks for your passion and your intelliegence. I'll be watching Game Four and then hitting the sack so I can wake up sufficiently prepared to be dazzled by Mr. Kahn over scrambled eggs. And right or wrong you'll eventually get my take on Game Four and the series in general before the weekend has elapsed.
13 Reader Comments
Trevor Ariza is making himself a good deal of money, with this performance he's putting on in the '09 post-season. His perimeter shot and defense make him exactly the kind of role player that championship teams need. He played a great game, last night. I still don't think it would be smart for a team like the Wolves to throw a lot of money at him, since our needs are in the "star" category, and he's not going to be that, but LA can't afford to let him go, now that they've found the type of tough, athletic shooter that complements Kobe and Pau so well.
As much as I want the Lakers to win this title, I feel bad for Van Gundy and the Magic. That was a total and complete choke-job, last night. It reminds me of Memphis in last year's NCAA's, where it would have only taken one thing out of many to go right, for them to win. Howard misses both free throws, then Nelson inexplicably allows Fisher to launch a trey in his face. That must have stung for all Orlando fans.
I think Stan Van Gundy is a pretty good coach and a lot of the criticsm against him is unwarranted. But I think his rotations in this series have been terrible. Nelson is clearly not 100% at the moment and not playing Alston, who had a great game 3 and a good 1st half, in the 2nd half or overtime was a mistake. I also think Anthony Johnson should be getting some burn, since I think he can be a calming voice on the court.
On the other side, kudos to Phil for sticking with Derek Fisher, even though people were calling for his head only one series ago.
I'll admit that I was one of those knocking Fisher all game long. But there's no way he knocks down those shots if he's riding the pine and comes in cold, so props to Phil Jackson for sticking with his guns. But I still seriously question Kobe's Lebron imitation in the OT - is going one-on-five really the best way to win the ballgame, or does Phil just have to appease Kobe's ego at this point? I feel like the Lakers team had huge momentum going into that OT, but the gameplan was still to get the ball to Kobe.
Also, anyone's take on the Target Center event today would be appreciated. Apparently commenting on this blog isn't good enough for an invite ;)
One thing that's generally true about the NBA championships is that playoff and Finals experience always seems to matter. The Magic are a little out-gunned there, eh? And, btw, that experience is what has kept Fisher on the Lakers and on the floor.
Regarding SVG's coaching, there's probably some truth to Shaq's recent badmouthing, calling Van Gundy "a master of panic," because he had seen firsthand how Van Gundy was not successful in the playoffs.
Wrt to Alston's playing time, I think SVG should have pulled him sooner in the 3rd Qtr, looking to steady both Alston (on the bench) and perhaps the team (on the floor). But also, Alston needed to come back into the game in the 4th. The PG situation for the Magic is more than a little goofy. Perhaps Van Gundy did indeed panic, perhaps he's "ruined" Rafer for the rest of the series.
When this series started I was of the opinion that one of the keys to Orlando's success was to not substitute Jameer Nelson for Alston in the rotation. I did not feel that you could afford to allow Nelson to work himself back into game shape in the NBA Finals.
So what was Stan Van Gundy thinking last night letting Jameer Nelson play what seemed to be the entire fourth quarter ? You can point to Nelson as the culprit in the Fisher's game-tying trey or to Orlando missing all of those free throws but I think the key is that when you disrupt a team's offensive flow by taking out the PG who got you to the Finals, you're making a big mistake. Nelson had some really nice assists to get Howard some buckets but other than that he was not a threat to score himself. That was really needed since whenever Howard got the ball, LA dusted off the Hack-o-Shack strategy and it worked wonderfully when Howard missed his last two FT's of regulation. I believe Alston would have done a much better job of guiding Orlando down the stretch and we'd be looking at a 2-2 series.
Instead, I don't see Orlando bouncing back from this now. LA was able to win Game 5 last year after a devastating Game 4 loss but I don't think Orlando has that kind of mental toughness.
Once Nelson entered the game with 1:28 remaining in the 3rd, he played all of the remaining minutes.
SVG's feeling was that Orlando outscored the Lakers in the 4th quarter and taking out Nelson may have undermined that. Plus, maybe SVG got sick of his terrible ball handling team and opted to go with the true PG instead of Alston who's not a good passer at all in traffic (always looking to shoot).
Not sure I agree, but its sensible.
As for Fishers 4Q trey, SVG sent 3 guys to trap in the back court, including Nelson. Because Pietrus & Hedo had to trap the inestimable Kobe 70ft from the basket, Nelson picked up Ariza. Then, Nelso ran crosscourt to get in front of his man, Fisher, but by the time he reached him and set, he was on the wrong side of the 3pt line.
Thats the ripple effect of trapping Kobe and why the Lakers are best when Kobe gets the hockey assist (Kobe pass to open man who makes the right decision). The coaches are frank about that, that Lakers suffer when Kobe tries to make the perfect pass for a true assist or split traps. That time he made the right pass, Ariza made the right pass and they caught Orlando scrambling.
What did others think of the no-call on Kobe's elbow to Nelson?
I would have been upset if I were cheering for Orlando. The only defenses for it are probably that Nelson ran at him and Kobe didn't swing his elbows, as much as he just pivoted that direction, and that it's a late-game situation and the contact had no effect on the play.
Still, it was a foul that probably should have been called.
I think Kobe's elbow to Nelson's face was a borderline no-call. An earlier play that chapped me was when Kobe stripped the ball from Howard on the low right block by basically raking down Dwights arm from his biceps to his hands.
There was a lot of contact allowed in this game and it almost got out of hand. But neither Orlando or L.A. should worry about the refs. I felt that Orlando basically lost the game in the 1st half with all their turnovers -- it could have been a blowout.
Perhaps he played Nelson because nobody else can effectively pass to Howard? The magic aren't very good at passing to the post, and Howard isn't very good in the post unless he's spoon-fed a dunk (in fact, he's got to be the worst post player ever to be considered a superstar I think). Up to that point Howard had a monster game on defense and the boards, but was doing nothing on offense. The lakers had also shut down Lewis all game, so perhaps he van Gundy hoped that Nelson could ignite those two by breaking down the defense and passing. Well, still probably a bad decision.
Great stuff here, exactly what I would have talked about, unfortunately I have one more day of hectic assignments elsewhere but will chime in tomorrow.
One thing I will mention tomorrow, that you folks can get a head start on here if you wish: Why play Courtney Lee at all when you know he's nothing but fodder for Kobe, and that the Lakers are going to dare him to shoot at the other end of the court? Perfect strategy for LA, getting in Lee's head on FG misses as well as Kobe embarrassment. A wide open Lee went 1-4 FG in 3:07 before picking up 2 fouls trying to guard Kobe.
It should have ended there. But SVG inexplicably put him back out to start the second half for 4 minutes, just long enough to help trigger a 7 point LA run. Thus in 2 stints of 7:08, Courtney Lee was minus -9, or just enough to be the margin of defeat.
Regarding the Kobe elbow, I watched that play several times (reg speed, and slow), and IMHO it was clearly an intentional elbow. When Nelson started coming towards Kobe, Kobe did not see him as he was beginning his pivot. Halfway thru the pivot, his eyes turned towards Nelson and he switched the angle at which he threw out his elbow. He was looking right at Nelson when it hit him square.
The goat was still Hedo choking on 3 of 4 FTs. Nice he opted out today. What are the thoughts here on Hedo's fit on the Wolves?
Most of the "regulars" here are over on stop-n-pop's site, canishoopus.com
I think that a big "small" forward like Hedo who can run, handle, pass, shoot, "get his own shot", rebound, and play defense against folks like LBJ, Carmelo, etc is definitely necessary if the Wolves stick with the Jefferson/Love combo.
Turkoglu is in the free agent spotlight now, along with Trevor Ariza. Hedo is currently making $10 mill, and no doubt Trevor will be getting a big free agent "pay raise" from his current $3 mill deal. Good luck getting either of them to play here even if Taylor would spring for them -- which I doubt.
Atlanta is reportedly looking to trade Josh Smith (who might also fill the bill - again, for over $10 mil/year), but he has a 6 million dollar trade kicker that Glen Taylor would likely kibosh out of hand.
Stop-and-Pop recently proposed a trade scenario for Utah's Andrei Kirilenko that I thought was at least possible. AK47 might be the right player for the Wolves, though he is pushing 30 and making $15 mill.
Kahn gets my kudos if he manages to get any one of those four without breaking the bank.
Post new comment
Blogs
Sports
Baseball:
Warning Track Power by Alex Halsted
Sports:
On the Ball by Britt Robson
Society
Weather:
Dude Weather by Jimmy Gaines
A&E
Fiction:
Write Now! by Terry Faust
Retired
Hockey:
Spazz Dad by Todd Smith
Style:
Hook & Eye
Misc:
Is This News?
Fiction:
Yo, Ivanhoe by Brad Zellar
Food:
Consider the Egg by Stephanie March
Wine:
Beyond the Cask
Food:
Food Fight!
Media:
To the Slaughter
Misc:
Outrage by Staff
Food:
Chef's Table
Guest Commentary:
Just Passing Through
Humor:
Spazz Dad by Todd Smith
Cars:
Road Rake by Chris Birt
Commentary:
Read Menace by Tom Bartel
Society:
The Adventures of Melinda by Melinda Jacobs
Politics:
Defenestrator by Rich Goldsmith
Food:
Breaking Bread by Jeremy Iggers & Ann Bauer
Books:
Cracking Spines by Max Ross
Music:
Hear, Hear by Staff
Art:
The Vicious Circle by 6 Critics
Secrets:
Secrets of the Day by Kate Iverson
Theater:
Seen in the City by Staff
Film:
Talk About Talkies by Staff
- Contact:
- Secrets Staff
- Write to Editors
- Send Press Release
- Reprint Request
- Work at Secrets of the City
- Our Address:
- Secrets of the City
- PO Box 3690
- Minneapolis, MN 55403
- (651) 356-8714
©2002-2009 Entropy Publishing, LLC. No part of this site may be reproduced in any form without the express written permission of Entropy Publishing, LLC. except that an individual may print for personal use and/or forward articles via e-mail to a reasonable number of recipients for personal, non-commercial purposes. Thanks to FAMFAMFAM and Tango Project for their icons.
Media Partners
