Tuesday 5/8
New Jersey v Cleveland (Cavaliers up 2-0) – This series is playing out pretty much exactly like I thought it would. Cleveland’s bigs (Zydrunas Ilgauskas, Drew Gooden & Anderson Varejao) have absolutely dominated the boards to the tune of 100 to 69 overall. If you thought that was bad, the disparity on the offensive glass is even worse at 39 to 12. Yikes. Obviously the Nets are going to have to clean up that facet of the game to have any chance. NJ coach Lawrence Frank can start with scrapping his zone defense, which has left an undersized Nets crew confused as to who their box out assignments should be.
These contests being closely contested throughout does not surprise me either because these clubs are so evenly matched. What has caught me a little off guard though is how much better the Cavs defense is than NJ’s. The numbers might not show it, but Cleveland has been able to lock the Nets down consistently when they’ve needed big stops. Vince Carter has been pretty much a no-show for NJ thus far shooting 17-49 (34.7%) from the field. This is yet another reason why I like the Cavs, because I’ll take LeBron James (28.5 points, 9.5 assists, 6 rebounds & 2 steals per game this series) over VC in the clutch every single time.
San Antonio v Phoenix (tied 1-1) – The Suns, and more specifically Steve Nash, showed me what they were made of last night by making this a bona fide series. Nash ripped into his teammates after Game 1 with this rant…
“We have to be a little hungrier. I think some of us just didn't have the fire it takes to beat a championship team. How many times can you talk about it? We just have to have a bigger heart and continue to push through these invisible barriers that seem to pop up. I don't know what they are, but sometimes we just don't play as hard as we should.”
(Very Bird-esque, no?)
Like all great leaders, Steve walked his talk right from the start of Game 2. It was evident to me that Nash was not going to let his squad lose come hell or high water. TNT’s Magic Johnson agreed with me saying at halftime…
“This is why Steve Nash has won the MVP the last two years. At eight minutes to go it was a one point game. This man took the game over, had seven points and six assists in the last eight minutes to take it to a seven point lead. That's what a leader does, that's what an MVP is supposed to do.”
Phoenix coach Mike D’Antoni also deserves some major credit for making what I feel is his best post season adjustment to date. Mike inserted Kurt Thomas into the starting lineup and moved James Jones to the bench. While this did shorten the Suns rotation to seven guys, KT’s defense on Tim Duncan was invaluable. Not only did Thomas do an above average job on Duncan, but Amare Stoudemire was freed up from foul trouble danger at the same time.
As the NBA Finals…err…this series shifts to AT&T Center I’m interested to see what kind of effort the Spurs give. In Game 1 SA displayed the single minded focus of a champion, but in Game 2 I didn’t get that same sense. Don’t get me wrong, the Spurs still played relatively hard, but I got the feeling that they were satisfied with their split and accepted their fate (a 20 point loss) rather nonchalantly. I'll leave you with the three individual matchups I’ll be watching closely on Saturday.
1. Raja Bell on Manu Ginobili – Anybody seen Manu...anybody...Bueller?
2. Shawn Marion on Tony Parker – The Matrix did a much better job disrupting TP's flow in Game 2.
3. Kurt Thomas on Tim Duncan – Timmy will be ready for him in Game 3, that much I promise you.
These contests being closely contested throughout does not surprise me either because these clubs are so evenly matched. What has caught me a little off guard though is how much better the Cavs defense is than NJ’s. The numbers might not show it, but Cleveland has been able to lock the Nets down consistently when they’ve needed big stops. Vince Carter has been pretty much a no-show for NJ thus far shooting 17-49 (34.7%) from the field. This is yet another reason why I like the Cavs, because I’ll take LeBron James (28.5 points, 9.5 assists, 6 rebounds & 2 steals per game this series) over VC in the clutch every single time.
San Antonio v Phoenix (tied 1-1) – The Suns, and more specifically Steve Nash, showed me what they were made of last night by making this a bona fide series. Nash ripped into his teammates after Game 1 with this rant…
“We have to be a little hungrier. I think some of us just didn't have the fire it takes to beat a championship team. How many times can you talk about it? We just have to have a bigger heart and continue to push through these invisible barriers that seem to pop up. I don't know what they are, but sometimes we just don't play as hard as we should.”
(Very Bird-esque, no?)
Like all great leaders, Steve walked his talk right from the start of Game 2. It was evident to me that Nash was not going to let his squad lose come hell or high water. TNT’s Magic Johnson agreed with me saying at halftime…
“This is why Steve Nash has won the MVP the last two years. At eight minutes to go it was a one point game. This man took the game over, had seven points and six assists in the last eight minutes to take it to a seven point lead. That's what a leader does, that's what an MVP is supposed to do.”
Phoenix coach Mike D’Antoni also deserves some major credit for making what I feel is his best post season adjustment to date. Mike inserted Kurt Thomas into the starting lineup and moved James Jones to the bench. While this did shorten the Suns rotation to seven guys, KT’s defense on Tim Duncan was invaluable. Not only did Thomas do an above average job on Duncan, but Amare Stoudemire was freed up from foul trouble danger at the same time.
As the NBA Finals…err…this series shifts to AT&T Center I’m interested to see what kind of effort the Spurs give. In Game 1 SA displayed the single minded focus of a champion, but in Game 2 I didn’t get that same sense. Don’t get me wrong, the Spurs still played relatively hard, but I got the feeling that they were satisfied with their split and accepted their fate (a 20 point loss) rather nonchalantly. I'll leave you with the three individual matchups I’ll be watching closely on Saturday.
1. Raja Bell on Manu Ginobili – Anybody seen Manu...anybody...Bueller?
2. Shawn Marion on Tony Parker – The Matrix did a much better job disrupting TP's flow in Game 2.
3. Kurt Thomas on Tim Duncan – Timmy will be ready for him in Game 3, that much I promise you.
posted by D$ at 8:41 AM
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