The NBA Finals: Rest vs Rust

The NBA Finals tipped off last night and all I heard in the buildup to game 1 was ‘Rest vs Rust’. How would the Spurs handle all of that time off?

Round 1 goes to Rest.

9 days off seemed to have the Spurs rejuvenated, while battling the Pacers to 7 games seemed to wear Miami out. At least that’s what Heat fans are hoping for. Miami played well for 3 quarters, well enough to win. But they turned in a disastrous 4th quarter and Tony Parker made a miraculous shot, allowing the Spurs to steal game 1 and take over the homecourt advantage in this series.

I got the feeling all night that Miami should’ve been up by more. They seemed to be playing well, making shots, Tony Parker wasn’t killing them. Yet every time I looked at the score, it was Heat by 4-5 points. The Spurs just hung around and made a late run that Miami just couldn’t answer.

A lot of Heat fans are going off on Chris Bosh today for taking that 3-pointer late in the game. On Facebook, the chatter was all about how Bosh shouldn’t be shooting 3’s.

So to those who say Bosh shouldn’t have shot that 3 pointer, I present to you the following….

A lot of you are playing the result. If he makes that 3 everyone is celebrating, screaming “good shot!”. I didn’t like the amount of 3’s he shot during the game, but I can’t be upset at a guy for shooting a wide open three who has history of making some timely ones. If anything, get mad at LeBron for not attacking Tim Duncan at that moment.

He came down the lane and should’ve gone right at him. Where’s the killer instinct???

So enough about the Heat. Lets talk Spurs and how exceptional that team is. All of the guys who needed to play well for them did. Tony Parker was giving kids the blues in the 4th quarter. I thought Popovich did an excellent job with subbing, having Parker fresh for that 4th qtr run.

Tim Duncan also found out what Hibbert found out, Miami is soft inside. The Big Fundamental took Miami’s bigs to school. Helping the Spurs to 20+ 2nd chance points.

Kawhi Leonard and Danny Green definitely didn’t look afraid of the moment either. Making big plays and shots all night.

The one thing Miami now knows is this Spurs team is not going to make a lot of mistakes. To beat them you better execute and be disciplined down the stretch, because they’re going to do what they do.

It’s boring to some, but its beautiful to me. The Art of Basketball at its finest.

Despite the lost, I still think Miami wins this series in 6 games. Miami has to up the tempo to offset the Spurs defense and LeBron needs to be in attack mode.

If we can get 5-6 more games like game 1, we’ll all be happy. We’ll be sleepy as all hell too, but we’ll be happy.

So who do you think is going to win? Comment and let us know.

– N.D. Face

What Have We Learned: Spurs vs Grizzlies

I can’t begin to tell you how disappointed I am that the Grizzlies got swept. I had suck high hopes for this series, hell I picked the Grizzlies to win the series for crying outloud! I really thought Memphis had the goods to take the Spurs out.

Memphis had their chances to win games in the series, but just couldn’t execute on either end of the court down the stretch. I’ve never seen a professional team give up so many backdoor layups. You’d think they would’ve figured it out and adjusted to what they were doing. Thank goodness we still have Heat vs Pacers.

So what have we learned about these teams after this sweep?

Tony Parker is Dat Dude…

Its funny, I’ve always been reluctant to give Parker credit for being a 3-time world champion and I’m not alone. When people start naming the best point guards in the nba, you rarely see anyone outside of texas, say he’s the best PG in the league. You’ll hear Chris Paul, Deron Williams, Derrick Rose, Russell Westbrook, but I don’t hear Parker’s name brought up like that.

For me, I always devalued him because his supporting cast was outstanding. It wasn’t until 2005 that he really showed his growth as a player, being named the Finals MVP.

He destroyed Memphis in this series. Whether it was off pick & roll or coming off of screens, Parker was unguardable. He got into the paint at will, so Memphis made him a jump shooter, and he made those too. When he wasn’t scoring he was dropping dimes. An incredible performance vs the best defensive team in the league.

Its about time the Basketball world shows this man respect.

That Rudy Gay Trade Was a Bad Idea

We don’t curse on this blog. But if we did, I’d have some choice words for Tayshaun Prince. How bout this, since I can’t curse I’ll get Evelyn Lozada to come in tell y’all how we feel about Tayshaun’s performance…

Yep, that dude was a non-@#$%!& factor the whole series. There were plenty of moments where I was watching the games thinking ‘damn, they could really use Rudy Gay right now…’.

Conley was  being chased all over the perimeter, running P&R’s and taking dribble handoffs, trying desperately to create something. With him being the only creator, the Spurs loaded up on him. He went against Parker, then the longer defenders Danny Green and Kawhi Leonard. Conely really stepped up his game post-trade, but he can only do so much.

Looking back on how this series went, it would’ve been nice to have Gay on that court. A 6’9″ super athete, who can create his own shot and also hit 3s. Plus down the stretch I’d rather have Gay taking late game shots over Jared Bayless or Quincy Pondexter.

I’m sure the Grizzlies wish they had a do-over with that one.

As customary with a sweep, we leave you with the Turbo “Broom Dance”. Time to get those vaacation plans ready fellas

 

– N.D. Face

Grizzlies vs Spurs: Game 2 Preview

The Tragic Johnson staff is all about that real Hip Hop. Hip Hop and bball go hand and hand, so before I get into the Memphis Grizzlies/San Antonio Spurs series, gotta say that if you don’t have Talib Kweli’s new joint “Prisoner of Conscious” you’re missing out on the best album I’ve heard all year. Tragic Johnson approved….word to Pinky.

Ok now to the bball. A lot of people tore acl’s and twisted their ankles jumping off of the Grizzlies bandwagon after game 1. Its understandable, they caught a Red vs Debo style beatdown.

They got knocked the F*** out, but that’s why the NBA playoffs are great. Each game is it’s own entity. You can lose game 1 by 40, but you’re only down 1-0 and you have another game coming.

Its all about adjustments right now and the adjustments Memphis needs to make shouldn’t be hard to implement and I fully expect them to bounce back with a strong game 2. They’re 0-3 in game 1’s this playoffs and they’re here in the WCF. They make adjustments quite well, thank you…

Spurs won game 1 and they get credit for hitting over 50% of their 3’s, but I think that was a case of over-helping and under-rotating if that makes any sense.

Memphis defenders were helping on penetration when they didn’t need to. That plus the late/lazy rotations lead to Bonner and the other Spurs shooters getting WIDE open looks. Give the Spurs credit for knocking those shots down, but you should hit those shots when you’re THAT wide open.

So what do the Grizz do? They’ve got to adjust the pick and roll coverage. I saw Mike Conley going over the top of the screens which basically gave Tony Parker a running start at the big who showed defensively. This created so many openings, that Parker was just picking them apart. He got layups, pullup J’s, and kickouts for 3’s. You’ve got to take something away from TP. I think he’s much more dangerous in the paint, so I’m thinking the Grizz go under the screen on P&R take away a couple of the options.

If he hits contested, midarange jumpers then give him a pound and keep it moving. But he can’t light you up AND get the Red Rocket and the other shooters going. Way too easy in game 1. Count on those 3’s being neutralized.

As for offense, I’m not expecting Z-Bo to play that bad again. Duncan did a masterful job of moving his feet and using his length to keep Randolph quiet all game. I fully expect to see a steady diet of high-low play between Marc Gasol and Z-Bo. I don’t like the straight up iso postup on Duncan, so look for there to be some guards setting offball screens on Duncan to get Zach on the move. If he catches it on the move, that will make his jab step and pump fake more effective. Plus he’s the best at sealing inside, if there happens to be a switch its buckets.

The Spurs can’t count on all of those 3’s again, so I think they’ll try and get Ginobilli. He wasn’t needed too much in game 1, but he hit some shots late that turned an 6-8 point game into that massive pimp slap.

They’ll look to see what Memphis does, they’ll adjust, and we’re going to have a great game tonight.

I’ll get you a breakdown of Heat/Pacers tomorrow. We’re going to have 2 great conference finals. Basketball fans rejoice!

– N.D. Face