Wednesday 5/16
New Jersey v Cleveland (Cavaliers up 3-2) – As bad as Game 4 was, and it was pretty ugly, last night’s tilt takes the cake. Low scores don’t bother me if the games are well played, like Utah-Houston in the first round for example. But cripes this was painful to watch. The Nets scored *six* points, shot 1-15 from the field, 4-10 from the free throw line and committed six turnovers in the 4th quarter…and they won. Yikes. Jason Kidd (20 points) led a balanced offensive attack in which NJ had five guys score 12 or more points.
Cleveland on the other hand was dreadful, shooting a paltry 24-72 (33.3%) overall from the field. The Cavs only scored 13 points on 3-17 shooting themselves in the 4th, but somehow they still had a chance to win anyway. Cleveland ended up blowing a plethora of opportunities to steal this one after a 3-pointer by Larry Hughes cut a 22 point 3rd quarter lead to nine with 4:31 to play. LeBron James (5-14) and Hughes (3-17) shot a combined 25.8% from the field, and after Zydrunas Ilgauskas (16) and James (20), no other Cav tallied more than 8 points. Yuck.
Even though I may be letting my peeps down here, I have to admit that this series has become pretty much unwatchable for me. I was never a fan of the Bad Boys or the New York and Miami teams of yore, and this mess is giving me flashbacks to those days. That said, I think this one goes the full seven games unless Bron has an otherworldly performance on Friday.
San Antonio v Phoenix (Spurs up 3-2) – In what turned out to be a surprisingly competitive game last night, SA used a 17 to 6 closing kick to outlast the gritty gutty Suns. The Spurs outscored Phoenix 32 to 23 in the 4th quarter and 55 to 41 in the second half. The Suns deserve tons of credit for their performance though. Phoenix coach Mike D’Antoni used basically six players with Steve Nash, Shawn Marion and Raja Bell all playing 46 minutes or more. If Leandro Barbosa (3-12 from the field) has a halfway decent game, the Suns probably win.
D’Antoni also deserves credit for two extremely successful adjustments he’s made so far. The first is putting Marion on Tony Parker after TP shot 14-22 from the field in Game 1. Since then Mr. Longoria is shooting only 40.6% and seems to have lost all his confidence. The next, and by far the most critical, is double-teaming Tim Duncan as soon as he catches the ball in the post. Phoenix debuted this late in Game 4 when Duncan was in foul trouble and it seemed to frustrate him a little. In Game 5 they started early in the 3rd quarter when Tim got off to a hot start. TD still played his normal game, but this tactic seemed to completely disrupt the Spurs offensive flow.
Which brings me to SA. Man-o-man did they ever look tight – dare I say nervous – for the majority of last night’s contest. Their perimeter players looked flat out confused about what to do after Duncan was doubled, and no one could make a jump shot until the 9:47 mark of the final stanza. Manu Ginobili deserves the lion’s share of the credit since he had a monster 4th quarter. Manu had 5 rebounds, scored 15 points on 3-4 shooting (2-3 threes), but most importantly he was 7-7 from the free throw line. While Ginobili was great, Michael Finley and the much maligned Bruce Bowen really hit the two biggest shots of the night. Fin’s deep three with 5:03 to play started the Spurs 17 to 6 finish and Bowen’s three with :36 seconds left sealed the deal.
As this series shifts back to the Alamo I can’t help but think that SA’s closing mojo has left them. I can’t remember the last time I saw the Spurs flummoxed in any tough situation, especially something as routine as Timmy being double-teamed. It goes without saying that SA coach Gregg Popovich has some serious work to do in this area. For the Suns I expect Amare Stoudemire to be on a mission in Game 6 and have his best performance of this post season. This is where the loss of Robert Horry is really going to hurt the Spurs. Those two factors are why I see this series going the full seven and the NBA getting their wish. (Did I really just type that?)
Cleveland on the other hand was dreadful, shooting a paltry 24-72 (33.3%) overall from the field. The Cavs only scored 13 points on 3-17 shooting themselves in the 4th, but somehow they still had a chance to win anyway. Cleveland ended up blowing a plethora of opportunities to steal this one after a 3-pointer by Larry Hughes cut a 22 point 3rd quarter lead to nine with 4:31 to play. LeBron James (5-14) and Hughes (3-17) shot a combined 25.8% from the field, and after Zydrunas Ilgauskas (16) and James (20), no other Cav tallied more than 8 points. Yuck.
Even though I may be letting my peeps down here, I have to admit that this series has become pretty much unwatchable for me. I was never a fan of the Bad Boys or the New York and Miami teams of yore, and this mess is giving me flashbacks to those days. That said, I think this one goes the full seven games unless Bron has an otherworldly performance on Friday.
San Antonio v Phoenix (Spurs up 3-2) – In what turned out to be a surprisingly competitive game last night, SA used a 17 to 6 closing kick to outlast the gritty gutty Suns. The Spurs outscored Phoenix 32 to 23 in the 4th quarter and 55 to 41 in the second half. The Suns deserve tons of credit for their performance though. Phoenix coach Mike D’Antoni used basically six players with Steve Nash, Shawn Marion and Raja Bell all playing 46 minutes or more. If Leandro Barbosa (3-12 from the field) has a halfway decent game, the Suns probably win.
D’Antoni also deserves credit for two extremely successful adjustments he’s made so far. The first is putting Marion on Tony Parker after TP shot 14-22 from the field in Game 1. Since then Mr. Longoria is shooting only 40.6% and seems to have lost all his confidence. The next, and by far the most critical, is double-teaming Tim Duncan as soon as he catches the ball in the post. Phoenix debuted this late in Game 4 when Duncan was in foul trouble and it seemed to frustrate him a little. In Game 5 they started early in the 3rd quarter when Tim got off to a hot start. TD still played his normal game, but this tactic seemed to completely disrupt the Spurs offensive flow.
Which brings me to SA. Man-o-man did they ever look tight – dare I say nervous – for the majority of last night’s contest. Their perimeter players looked flat out confused about what to do after Duncan was doubled, and no one could make a jump shot until the 9:47 mark of the final stanza. Manu Ginobili deserves the lion’s share of the credit since he had a monster 4th quarter. Manu had 5 rebounds, scored 15 points on 3-4 shooting (2-3 threes), but most importantly he was 7-7 from the free throw line. While Ginobili was great, Michael Finley and the much maligned Bruce Bowen really hit the two biggest shots of the night. Fin’s deep three with 5:03 to play started the Spurs 17 to 6 finish and Bowen’s three with :36 seconds left sealed the deal.
As this series shifts back to the Alamo I can’t help but think that SA’s closing mojo has left them. I can’t remember the last time I saw the Spurs flummoxed in any tough situation, especially something as routine as Timmy being double-teamed. It goes without saying that SA coach Gregg Popovich has some serious work to do in this area. For the Suns I expect Amare Stoudemire to be on a mission in Game 6 and have his best performance of this post season. This is where the loss of Robert Horry is really going to hurt the Spurs. Those two factors are why I see this series going the full seven and the NBA getting their wish. (Did I really just type that?)
posted by D$ at 8:53 PM
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