Category Archives: Heat

Where’s the Help D?

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I wanted to take a quick minute and discuss what Charlotte did wrong in the final possession of last night’s game against Miami. Gerald Henderson picks up Wade close to five feet beyond the arc. Henderson forces Wade to his left, but there is absolutely no help there. Corey Maggette, for some reason, sticks to LeBron at the left baseline, essentially making Henderson’s ‘force-left’ futile. We keep hearing stats about LeBron not taking any 3′s so far; well, Corey, you should have helped on the drive and forced LeBron to take his first long ball of the season. Wouldn’t you rather have that as opposed to a one-on-one drive by Wade?
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‘Three-hundred-and-sixty, behind my back
I take your monkey ass to the rack like Jerry Stack’
Charlie 2na – ‘The Game’

Follow me on Twitter @RohitGhosh

NBA Tipoff: 5 Things to Look Forward to This Season

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Every season a new story line that takes over the NBA. Last year, it was the Heat with their self-proclaimed fame, leading to a very timely demise at the hands of the Dallas Mavericks. This year, at least so far, we see rising to the surface of almost all nba conversations, the great mythical fables of young Blake Griffin and CP3, making a splash in the purple and gold lakes of Los Angeles.  With the regular season less than 12 hours away, I wanted to discuss 5 things I’m most excited for in the 2011-2012 season.

Josh Smith losing ~25 pounds in offseason

Smith has been hitting the practice facility day in and day out, beating his teammates to the gym, and usually being the last one there.  This sort of work ethic doesn’t go unnoticed, and even more evident is this-  J-Smoove is approximately 25 pounds lighter, proof that not all NBA players go with the Shawn Kemp diet during lockouts.  Jokes aside, I’m interested in seeing how Smith’s game is affected.  He is down to about 225 pounds on his 6-foot-9 frame. He says he desired the quickness he had as a rookie seven years ago.  So, good news: Smith will be dunking the ball, alot.

What troubles me however is that his leaner body will struggle against bigs in the paint, an issue that could force Smith to take more jump shots. Smith spent much of the 2009-10 NBA season in the paint, but reverted back to old instincts in 2010-11, settling for outside jump shots.  But, but .. Josh Smith hit a career-high percentage from three-point range in 2010-11! .. The problem with that is his career-high is a measly 33 percent from beyond the arc.

So here’s to Josh Smith’s quicker, leaner body and to all the fans and Coach Drew hoping it leads to everything but more jump shots.

How the LA Clippers will manage with little depth

The Clippers start a top 2 point guard, a top 10 power forward, and an athletic center who complements both their games.  Add 2 veteran shooters to fill in the blanks, and the starting five here is solid (CP3, Billups, C. Butler, B. Griffin, DeAndre Jordan). The Clips’ lack of depth up front is the only thing that keeps them from being a top notch contender, IMO. The Clippers are in desperate need of frontcourt depth and even after the adding Reggie Evans, the team is dangerously thin up front. At the moment, Griffin and DeAndre Jordan will have to log heavy minutes to get this team to a solid record and playoff berth. In a season where the schedule is unfriendly to say the least, wearing down their young bigs could prove to be troublesome as the season moves forward.

Russell Westbrook / OKC Thunder passing

Last year’s playoff run showed us a huge problem in the Thunder offense: no desire to pass the ball.  Each offensive play was seemingly an isolation set with whoever had the ball for that moment.  There was little off ball movement, and the frustration built play after play, both for the team and their fans.

I don’t like judging players on their stats, but rather how they impact a game.  You can have 0 assists but still be the main distributor on the team.  One of the understated ways in which great point guards (Jason Kidd or Magic for example) impact their teams is not simply by passing the ball to the open guy, but also in the way that their passing attitude infects the entire team’s mindset.  When a player like Kidd is on the court, it immediately becomes apparent that the way in which Kidd thinks about the game is infused into his teammates.  So, even when Kidd leaves the floor for his backup, the mentality of looking for the open man and running through the offense is still ingrained with the others.

So, please Mr. Westbrook, pass the ball a little more.  Go through the offense instead of continuous dribbling followed by a futile attack to the basket.  And last, but not least, be the floor general OKC needs, not the scorer it already has (KD).

Improvement in LeBron’s game?

I flip to the Magic/Heat preseason game the other night (Dec 21st) just as the game is starting, and Lebron did something for me to dislike him even more: he airballed a freethrow in the first quarter of the game.  After hearing so much about Lebron working on his game during summer, specifically his post game with Hakeem over the summer, I’d expect little things like airballing free throws to stop.  I say stop because it has happened before. Sure he had 27 points in 30 minutes, but what ‘chosen one’ would ever airball a free throw?

Since 2003, I’ve watched LeBron do very little to his game; let it be noted, he hasn’t really had to.  His pure strength and athleticism has provided him with great individual success in the league, and I can see why people would say he has very little to change to his game.  To all those people, you couldn’t be any more incorrect.  When teams really lock down on defense (say, the playoffs for example), LeBron’s constant drives to the basket aren’t getting it done. So, please Lebron, don’t work on your game just to tell us you’re working on it, but do it so you can actually win someting meaningful.  Put in time at the gym with just you and the ball. No Hakeem, no media, no nothing. Work on your game so you can stop airballing free throws.  Work on your game so that you can add an up and under move to your arsenal.  Work on your game so that you have moves B, C and D, when the defense takes away A. Work on your game so you can be remembered for something substantial, not just a sore loser who never reached his full potential.

Javale McGee Dunks

JaVale McGee can dunk the ball, and well, we all enjoy seeing dunks on people’s heads.  Pierre enjoys them too, mostly because he can stare them down after the fact. Welcome to the league young Vucevic.

Javale welcomes Vucevic to NBA

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This is the jump off, face off, kick off and first pitch

Opening serve or tee off, take your pick

I’m the Mailman delivering styles that I’m concocting

While my man Mr. E assists like John Stockton

I stay wilding, mad range like Ray Allen

And while you rock your anthem I refuse to stay silent

 Akrobatik - “Sportscenter”

 

Best Brian Cardinal Videos Ever

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Here’s Brian making two and a half big plays in a Mav’s uni.

Now here’s Brian with the T-Wolves getting physical with Chris Bosh.

Now here’s where the real Cardinal-Bosh action begins

Mavs in 7 Mavs in 7 Mavs in 7 Mavs in 7 Mavs in 7 Mavs in 7 Mavs in 7 Mavs in 7 Mavs in 7 Mavs in 7
Mavs in 7 Mavs in 7 Mavs in 7 Mavs in 7 Mavs in 7 Mavs in 7 Mavs in 7 Mavs in 7 Mavs in 7 Mavs in 7

Follow Ryan @rpravato where he is the Brian Cardinal of Twitter.

Celtics Need Shaq More Than We Thought

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What the Celtics need to remember is a little phrase that Kevin Garnett himself screwed up in 2008; “anything is possible.” He meant to say “impossible is nothing”, the slogan of his former shoe sponsor, Adidas, but that’s besides the point. What matters here is the idea behind the phrase. While the Celitcs are looking at an improbable 2-0 hole, it’s not an impossible one. CelticsBlog did most of the leg work to breakdown the Celtics chances based on the NBA’s playoff history to actually come back and win this series.  According to the numbers, NBA teams have come back to win a series after going down 2-0 only 14 times.

But the game of basketball isn’t a coin flip and historic percentages don’t guarantee future results. Adjustments need to be made if the Celtics want to comeback to win. Watching the first two games, Miami seemed to outclass Boston in all aspects of basketball. in Game 1, the Heat won on virtue of their outside shooting. Not only did they hit 47% of their 3-pointers, they continually knocked down improbable jumpers from 17-20 feet out, one of the most inefficient shots you can take. The final result in the game was a  9-point victory for Miami but as a Boston fan, you weren’t that fearful. Pierce had been ejected in the game and outside of Ray Allen, no one showed up. Looking at the box score to see that Miami held the Celtics to just 42.7% shooting (Boston leads the NBA in FG%) was the most encouraging sign. There was no way Miami would stay that hot from the floor and Boston was bound to find the basket sooner or later.

Game 2 came and Miami’s shooting returned back to Earth but Boston still couldn’t find the rim and their defense seemed to be more Clippers than Celtics. Boston gave up 38 points in the paint and was only able to get Miami to turn the ball over 10 times. Add to that Miami’s game leading 44 rebounds, 12 of them on the offensive glass, and you begin to paint a picture of exactly how the Heat ground the Celtics down to pulp.

But this can’t be all the Celtics have left int he tank, can it? The Celtics beat the Heat three out of four times in the regular season and, for the most part, did it convincingly. So what’s different here?

Shaquille O’Neal.

Shaq has missed the last four games vs. Miami. Boston won the first game he missed but they had the assistance of Kendrick Perkins but dropped the final match-up of the season after Shaq was sidelined with injuries and Perkins was delt to the Thunder. In the games without a big man to clog the middle, Boston has gone 0-3 against the Heat. Not to knock Jermaine O’Neal but he’s played no more than 21 minutes in each of the playoff games vs. Miami. He’s played well,

having an overall +/- of +2 despite the Celtics being an overall -20 for the series but his limited minutes lead to long stretches of the game where Garnett or the struggling Glen Davis have to man the middle.

So, can a 39-year old, oft-injured, Shaq really be the answer? Currently, the Celtics are struggling on both ends of the floor so they can use all the help they can get. According to 82games.com, the line-up of Rondo, Allen, Pierce, Garnett, S. O’Neal played 266 minutes together and produced an offensive rating of 117 points per 100 possessions while only allowing 99 points per 100 possession and producing a +/- of +101 points.  It’s not that Shaq is an all-world defender or a threat to win his 4th finals MVP trophy. He’s just big. He’s big and he can still score one-on-one due to his massive size.

One of the biggest issues Boston is having is with Wade and LeBron playing the passing lanes, essentially neutralizing Rondo’s greatest strength, passing. Rajon loves to get deep into the defense and then find the open man with a kick-out, but with Davis struggling and Jermaine not giving anything on offense, the Miami defense is able to rotate more and shoot the passing lanes in comfort. A few times in game 2 Rondo beat his defender off the dribble, got into the lane and had the defense collapse around him. He had no inside threat to hand the ball off to (Garnett loves to hang out at the 17-ft range) and was unable to get the ball to the shooters because Wade and LeBron had no need to rotate off of Allen and Pierce. The results from Rondo’s drives were a variation of a forced layup by Rondo, a blown lay up by Davis or steals on the desperation kick-out passes to the Boston shooters.

In the first three games with Miami, Boston won by a total of 16 points. In those games the Celtics had over 40 rebounds twice and had 19+ assist in all 3 games. They also got to the free throw line 25+ times in each game. Since the third game Boston hasn’t had a game of where they collected more than 39 rebounds, they haven’t had more 18 assists or gotten tot he line more than 22 times. They’ve also lost the battle for the paint. Boston scored a combined 112 points int he paint over the course of the first three games. over the last 3, they have scored just 90. They’ve also been outscored in the paint by 18 in those 3 games compared to their +22 point advantage in the paint over the previous 3 games.

Shaq’s ability to be that dump-down guy for Rondo will help immensely. Not to mention, it will probably force Spoelstra to play Big Z more minutes which will send unsung hero, Joel Anthony, to the bench for longer than Miami can afford. It worked in the first three match-ups and Boston has to hope it works in the playoffs. But the key, as has been since Danny Ainge decided to ship Perkins off, will be Shaq’s health. If he can fill in the 20+ minute void that Jermaine O’Neal is leaving behind, Boston will have a good chance to get back into this series, especially with three of the next four games being played in Boston.

It’s going to take a lot of hard work and some luck for the Celtics to turn this one around. Thankfully, the Big Shamrock is finally active for game three. Now let’s see if he’s effective.

Shane is a contributor to Stacheketball.com, LarryBrownSports.com & NBAoffseason.com. You can find him babbling about basketball all over the net or tune in as he tweets nonsense on twitter @Suga_Shane.