This guy better talk to Reality and get the "small ball" story for the Spurs right!
http://insider.espn.go.com/nba/playo...ohn&id=284625210 key observations from first playoff weekend
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By John Hollinger
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OK, Golden State beating Dallas I can accept. Lord knows it's not the first time that's happened.
But Golden State beating Dallas with defense? That wasn't supposed to be part of the script. Yet that was the defining element in the Warriors' surpring 97-85 win over Dallas in Game 1 on Sunday.
The Mavericks, who were second in the league in Offensive Efficiency this season, appeared utterly confused the entire evening. Dallas shot 35.3 percent and likely MVP Dirk Nowitzki was way off his game, making 4-of-16. (He wasn't the worst Mav though -- Jerry Stackhouse was 0-for-6 with five turnovers. Ugh.)
Obviously, Don Nelson's familiarity with the Mavericks is something he's used to his advantage. Nellie threw smaller defenders at Nowitzki, forced him to go right. And Nelson sent double-teams at Nowitzki once he put it in on the floor to take away his spin move for a jumper. Stackhouse's spin-back move also appeared unavailable last night.
But that wasn't the only factor. Golden State's effort level and cohesiveness was several notches better than it appeared for most of the season. The Warrior D produced the defining play of the game -- Jason Richardson's swat of a Devin Harris lay-up that led to a game-icing 3 by Matt Barnes at the other end. And while they lack size, playing big chunks of the game with four players between 6-6 and 6-9 makes it easy to switch without causing matchup worries -- especially when the opponent is playing small too (more on that in a minute).
Golden State always has been able to put up points, but if it can bring this kind of defense against Dallas the entire series, we could be in for a much better 1-versus-8 matchup than we'd bargained for.
The Warriors' win was part of a larger trend of favorites struggling this weekend. Two of the three Western favorites lost and the other trailed by well into the second half. The defending champions lost too, and the East's top seed need plenty of help from the opponent to avoid a similar fate. As our Marc Stein noted Sunday night, maybe this first-round isn't as cut-and-dried as we thought.
Golden State's defense was the biggest surprise, obviously, but here are 10 other important stories that caught my eye this weekend:
1. The whining must stop: It's playoff season, and that means it's whining season. If you lost a close game, rest assured that it's because of the refs and not your own failures.
The Pistons have the worst reputation for this, but of late perhaps nobody has become more insufferable than Shaquille O'Neal.
Look, I'm a Shaq fan. I think he's been unfairly jobbed out of multiple MVPs because writers always are looking for a David to beat Goliath, and on his good days he's one of the game's most entertaining spokesmen.
But just once, could he lose a playoff game without complaining about the refs or opponents' flopping? Shaq's completely predictable whine after Chicago's Game 1 victory was notable as the postseason's first (though unfortunately not it's last) postgame pity-fest.
"My intention was to come out and be myself, until Eddie Rush derailed me," O'Neal said. "It's just unfortunate that people fall for that."
If you're keeping score, the Eddie Rush he referred too is the same veteran official who looked at Eddie Jones and motioned for him to get up after the Miami player's failed flop attempt in the third quarter. Sounds like a real sucker.
And while we're checking facts, here's another interesting one for you, Shaq: Two of your fouls came when you tried to flop. Remember those?
And just so we're on the same page: If you turn your elbow into Ben Wallace's face, he's going to fall down. That's not flopping, that's physics.
"He says that about every team, so I wouldn't put too much into that," Bulls coach Scott Skiles said about Shaq's complaints, and he's absolutely right. Remember, O'Neal was spouting the same excuses last year when the Bulls won Games 3 and 4.
The fact is, O'Neal's declining conditioning is what's causing the foul trouble. He averaged a foul every eight minutes this season; if he keeps that up in the playoffs, foul trouble at some point in a game will be the rule, not the exception. Which means we should get ready for more whining.
2. Did Avery overreact? Besides Golden State's defense, the most interesting plot line in Dallas's Game 1 loss was the way Mavs coach Avery Johnson chose to match up with the Warriors. Rather than use normal starting center Erick Dampier, Johnson went small with Devean George and, oddly, used him to defend Baron Davis for much of the game.
While that took away Davis's post-up game, it seems he more than compensated for it against the bigger, slower George (more on that below). But the bigger-picture story is this: Who's the No. 1 seed here? Shouldn't Johnson be making the Warriors match up with him, or at the very least prove they can beat Dallas' regular starters with their quirky small-ball attack before he hits the panic button?
Dampier would have been a defensive liability, yes, especially if he was trying to guard Al Harrington man-to-man. On the other hand, he would have absolutely destroyed Golden State on the glass (as it was, he got three rebounds in two minutes, two of them offensive).
For further proof that bigger might be better for Dallas, consider this note provided by our Henry Abbott: The Mavs were plus-8 with DeSagana Diop on the court, but minus-20 with George.
Not only did the switch not seem to slow Golden State much, it also might have been a factor in Dallas' offensive woes. The Mavs gave 44 minutes to George and Greg Buckner, and were rewarded with 10 points and two assists. I'm guessing the Dampier-Diop combo -- which produced seven offensive rebounds in 16 minutes against the tiny Warriors -- could have done better.
I'm really hoping we'll see Dallas revert to its usual style in Game 2, but the fact it came out so defensively speaks to the idea that maybe, just maybe, Golden State really has gotten into the Mavs' heads.
3. Overreactions? ... Part II: Many people are wondering if Johnson caved in too quickly to Golden State's matchups by starting George. But the other Western power to lose Sunday night also went away from its usual playing rotation.
All year long, San Antonio has played stretches with Michael Finley as its de facto power forward in a smallish lineup that also has Manu Ginobili as one wing and either Bruce Bowen or Brent Barry as the other. The Spurs didn't use this look once against Denver on Sunday.
Granted, this departure wasn't nearly as pronounced as Dallas'. Moreover, the Spurs mostly used Robert Horry and Fabricio Oberto in that spot, and both players performed extremely well -- they combined for 22 points and seven boards in 40 minutes of action. The big loser on the exchange ended up being Barry, who only played 12 minutes.
Obviously, the reason San Antonio didn't try this was because of Denver's front line. With both Marcus Camby and Nene up front, there would be a major mismatch for whatever player opposed Finley at power forward.
Nonetheless, I do have to wonder if we'll see this lineup in Game 2. One of the main strategies against Camby has been to force him to guard somebody so he can't roam and go for shot blocks. He can play the roamer role if he's guarding Francisco Elson or Oberto, but against the likes of Finley he'd have to stay honest.
Defensively, San Antonio would have to go zone, but is that really such a bad idea against this team? The Nuggets have struggled with 3-point shooting all year. Meanwhile, getting an extra "bat" in the lineup might help cure San Antonio's Game 1 offensive woes. Speaking of which ...
4. No no Nene: A massively underrated factor in the Nuggets' Game 1 upset over San Antonio was Nene's ability to defend Tim Duncan one-on-one. Denver didn't give the Brazilian big man much double-team help, but he held Duncan to 7-for-17 shooting and five turnovers, and he was able to do it while avoiding foul trouble. In fact, Duncan finished with a meager two free-throw attempts on the night.
Because he was able to defend Duncan without help, it made the Nuggets' task against the other Spurs that much easier. And for all the talk of Carmelo Anthony and Allen Iverson both having 30-point nights, Nene was an underrated key there, too. His eight offensive boards helped the Nuggies overcome a pretty mediocre offensive night in most other respects, and might force the Spurs to switch Duncan onto him in Game 2 just to keep him off the glass: He was checking Camby last night.
5. First half points count, too: Consider this my opening salvo in my mission to get coaches to stop overreacting to foul trouble. The first playoff game of the year, Toronto versus New Jersey, and what happens? Raptors star Chris Bosh gets a quick two fouls in the first quarter, and goes to the bench with 6:01 remaining.
Amazingly, he stayed there for nearly a full 12 minutes, not checking in until 6:18 was left in the second. It would be a brief cameo, too, as he would check back out with 2:21 left. Overall, he played only 3:57 of the second quarter, even though he was fully rested and still had the two fouls.
In a related story, the Raptors only scored 19 points in that quarter, losing the period by nine points in a game they ultimately lost by five. In other words, the Raptors' efforts to keep Bosh out of foul trouble pretty much cost them the game.
I keep harping on this, but just to remind all you coaches out there: Points in the second quarter count just as much as points in the fourth quarter. I don't know why this is such a difficult concept to process. Yes, it would be great if Bosh could avoid picking up that third foul before halftime … but he does get three more fouls after that one, and he's not liable to pick up a whole bunch if he's guarding Jason Collins.
In the end, Bosh played only 33 minutes -- even though he played the entire second half. He finished with three fouls. That was the story of the game to me -- not Vince Carter or Richard Jefferson, but Raptors coach Sam Mitchell (who despite this mistake deserves the Coach of the Year award) willfully submarining his team's offense in the second quarter by keeping his best player nailed to the bench.
(By the way, for all the harping on Carter's rough shooting day, let me ask this: When was the last time you saw a player block three jump shots in a game? No, he didn't have it offensively, but give Carter props for his defensive effort.)
6. The Baron: 33-14-8. I won't spend too much time harping on this since so many people are talking about it already, but good heavens, what did Nellie do to Baron Davis? What happened to all the contested 3-pointers with 21 seconds left on the shot clock? Where were the attempts to pass directly behind him when driving the lane, leading to 3-on-none breaks the other way? And whither the move where he beats his defender with a crossover, only to dribble right back into his path with a second, totally unnecessary cross?
Alas, all of my favorite Baron staples were missing on Sunday. What was there instead was all the brilliance that in the past were dulled by those myriad mistakes. Davis's 33-point, 14-rebound, eight-assist performance was one for the ages, especially since it came attached to his (now) usual defensive prowess and knack for making end-of-quarter shots. Just one more reason the Mavs could be in more trouble than anyone expected.
7. Whither AK? While Tracy McGrady was effortlessly firing in jumpers over Derek Fisher, Andrei Kirilenko watched from the bench. Not that he'd done much in the game's first three quarters -- two points and one rebound, necessitating the use of Matt Harpring during crunch time -- but in retrospect, the Jazz have to wonder if using a bigger defender against T-Mac might be more effective. Kirilenko is the most obvious candidate, although rookie Ronnie Brewer is another possible option.
Of course, none of that will matter if Utah can't make a basket. Mehmet Okur and Carlos Boozer combined to shoot 6-for-31 on Saturday as the Jazz shot 35.7 percent and, uncharacteristically, only mustered 17 free-throw attempts.
But until further notice, the biggest mystery in this series will be Utah's $12 million small forward. Kirilenko's 16 impact-free minutes in Game 1 were the latest setback in a disappointing campaign that's seen his scoring and rebounding averages nearly halved from a year ago. One has to wonder if we're seeing his last games as a Jazzman.
8. The Smush effect: It says something about how far Smush Parker has fallen that the turning point of the Suns-Lakers series was Jordan Farmar's fourth foul. After two suspect calls went against the rookie guard in the third quarter (a charge into Steve Nash that sure looked like a blocking foul to me, and a defensive foul where he was guilty of letting Amare Stoudemire run into him), Phil Jackson pulled Farmar and inserted Parker.
And immediately, the fireworks went off. Parker's passionless defense of Phoenix's Leandro Barbosa turned a six-point lead into a two-point deficit in seconds flat, as the Brazilian Blur ripped off eight straight points on Parker faster than you can say "Ipanema."
Two of Barbosa's scores were blow-by layups, but the most vexing play came at the end of the third quarter. Barbosa caught the ball in his own end with three seconds on the clock and began dribbling upcourt ... and Parker just kept backing up! Yo Smush, there's three seconds left! What do you think he's going to do here, run a side pick-and-roll? No, he's going to pull up for three just before the buzzer goes off, of course. And he nailed it.
"I thought they would be closer to me," Barbosa told the L.A. Times. "I was surprised." Not as surprised as Phil Jackson, I bet.
(While we're on the topic, here's my favorite moment from the Suns-Lakers game: After the recently-returned-to-action Kwame Brown missed a finish at the basket, the announcers said it looked like he was out of sync. Actually, that seemed perfectly in sync to me. Really, this play was different from the rest of his career because ... why? Anyway, that got me thinking. Let's say Kwame really was out of sync. How would you tell? What could you possibly offer as proof?)
9. A brief scare: Perhaps the only interesting moment we'll see in the Washington-Cleveland series came in the third quarter Sunday when LeBron James went down holding his ankle. It turned out he was fine, or at least fine enough to finish out the game.
As Gregg Easterbrook would say, this fulfills my obligation to say something about the Cavs-Wizards' series. With that, we now return you to your regularly scheduled four-game sweep.
10. The Magic touch: Yes, the Magic spent the day yesterday pulling bullets out of their feet, wasting a brilliant shooting night (58.1 percent) by shooting a dreadful 18-of-36 from the line and making 20 turnovers. Dwight Howard was the main culprit, as again his penchant for offensive mistakes undermined an otherwise solid effort. He made a Shaq-ian 3-of-11 from the line and had six turnovers, offsetting a dominating night on the boards (19).
But here's the part you're not hearing as much about: Orlando still didn't defend well enough to win. The Magic gave up 100 points in (by my count) 88 trips to the Pistons, which equates to 113 points per 100 possessions, which equates to a big fat L on most nights. Orlando did nothing well -- it allowed a high percentage (49.3 percent). The Magic couldn't keep Detroit off the line (31 attempts) and they didn't force turnovers (9).
So while the Magic's turnovers and free-throws woes were unfortunate, the conclusion is the same -- they still deserved to lose.
John Hollinger writes for ESPN Insider.
