Spurs (and cathartic art lovers) lose after Kawhi goes down.
Awaiting The Real Stuff
This year’s NBA’s regular season was highlighted by the brilliant individual play of Russell Westbrook, who duplicated Oscar Robertson’s thought-to-be-unmatchable feat of averaging thirty points, while also recording double figures in points and rebounds [1].
Westbrook’s incredible numbers, achieved while averaging only thirty-four on-court minutes, were nearly matched by Houston’s James Harden, making the upcoming MVP decision not only a close one, but one in which LeBron James was relegated to a sideline position, though “The King” is still universally regarded as the best player on the planet.
Numbers, numbers, numbers! Just substitutes for the competitive balance that the NBA had lost, along with much of my interest, when Kevin Durant joined Golden State’s Warriors–as I formally dub them–who won 67 regular season games, and then marched through the first three rounds of the playoffs without a single loss.
Charles Barkley The Player was fond of referring to the regular season as the “pre-season,” but this year, the pre-season seemed to extend through the first three rounds of the playoffs. Golden State went 12-0 and Cleveland 12-1, its only loss coming in a game in which they relinquished a 21 point third quarter lead to a seemingly demoralized Boston Celtics team that was playing without its high scoring 5’9” guard Isaiah Thomas, injured in the previous game.
All year, the non-competitiveness I’d foreseen (see “Overkill,” in First last year) had me watching only sparingly. After all, I had axes to grind against three of Golden State’s four stars: Durant the traitor/deserter, who should have closed out last year’s Thunder-Warrior Western Conference Final when his team led 3-1; Green the dirty player (formerly my favorite) who goes for the chops of opposing stars; Curry the physically weak faux super-star, a defensive liability who needs Klay Thompson to cover tough point guard match-ups. Hey, Klay: I still love you.
For my required dose of basketball pleasure, I’d turned to Westbrook and Harden, now and then to the incredibly gifted, young, and long young guns: Anthony Davis, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Joel Embid, and Kristaps Porzingis; then, come playoff time, to Washington’s spectacular backcourt duo of John Wall and Bradley Beal (legitimate peers of Thompson-Curry, Inc.), but Boston eliminated them, along with their combined playoff scoring average of 52 points, in Game Seven.
The burning question was “When, if ever, would the Warriors be tested? When would things finally get interesting?” With three of the game’s greatest shooters, four players at or near the super-star level, and a deep bench of experienced veterans, could anyone pose a true challenge this year? Maybe the San Antonio Spurs, with wily Greg Popovich guiding a revamped team built around Kawhi Leonard and LaMarcus Aldridge?
Even Cleveland, which won only 51 times in the regular season (two fewer than Boston’s Celtics and the same number as Toronto’s Raptors; Cleveland rested its stars down the stretch, seeming to care more about its players rested and fresh for the playoffs than about their seed) might be overmatched. Yes, LeBron James being LeBron James, anything could happen, but still.
If that wasn’t enough, added to all that, the Warriors had Lady Luck consistently smiling down upon them: taking nothing away from their three year record of sustained excellence [2], the Warriors have consistently faced tired or injured [3] opponents, and had eluded–until this year’s Spurs series–the more feared match-ups that might interfere with their march into June for their annual date with glory, and, yes, yes, with LeBron James as well.
Western Conference Finals
The first game of the Warriors-Spurs series was heart-breaking, for those left among us who would prefer a good old ball game to the execution of technical perfection (“that’s a clinic we’re watching!”) offered us by that most model of all post-modern sports franchises, whose expectable front office response might be something like “what the fuck, bro, we can be ourselves here and just call ‘em the Dubs.”
When what figured to be the Warriors’ first real challenge in the West in three years finally materialized, San Antonio led Golden State by more than twenty points for most of Game One; three minutes into the third quarter, they led 78-55, when Kawhi Leonard sustained a severe ankle injury, caused by Warrior center Zaza Pachulia, a thick-bodied and giftedly clumsy 7 footer who is a key element in the group of reserves brought in (deemed affordable) by the Warriors’ numbers crunchers in the slim jeans up front.
Zaza “closed out hard” on Leonard (who was shooting from the deep left corner, leaving him unable to step back and remain in bounds), and resulting in Leonard’s turning and re-injuring his left ankle, putting him out for the rest of the series. Though not exactly a thug, Pachulia uses his non-basketball body very effectively to create a menacing presence. Not great for a shooter’s concentration to have 275 out of control pounds bearing down on you, with the sideline only a foot behind.
ESPN commentator Jeff Van Gundy flatly termed it a dirty play: reckless and out of control. For his colleague Mark Jackson, despite lack of specific intent to harm, it was a “two-step closeout into the shooter’s body,” reckless and dangerous by its very nature in that it put Pachulia’s feet under Leonard’s rightful landing space.
Leonard, now widely recognized as a superstar in the same category as LeBron James and only a handful of others- including Durant (whose breath-taking agility and feathery shooting touch make it impossible–all grudges aside–not to appreciate him) had twenty-six points at the time. Without him, San Antonio’s 78-55 lead lasted just five more minutes: Golden State secured a 113-111 victory, a demoralizing loss for the Spurs and for anyone hoping at last to witness a competitive series after consecutive 4-0 sweeps in the earlier rounds in both divisions.
With Leonard unable to suit up for Game Two, whatever hopes of a competitive series the Spurs were entertaining now depended on their winning both games at home, where they would have a partisan crowd and, they still hoped, Leonard. Their shatteringly poor showing was a shock even to those who gave them little chance of pulling another shocker–like Game One’s first half [4].
It was as if the Spurs recognized their fate when Leonard went down. Without his pressure-easing presence, San Antonio’s other big scorer, the massive LaMarcus Aldridge, was exposed as slow and plodding. Aldridge had a big size advantage to exploit against the Warriors, but you have a serious problem if you are going to try to beat Golden State by going at Draymond Green. Nonetheless, that was Aldridge’s’ job, and he clearly wanted no part of it in Game Two.
It was Green who quickly signaled the coming rout, making an incredibly fluid behind the back pass while going full tilt across the lane and followed it with one of those targeted assist passes he delivers so perfectly to Curry for a wide open three; suddenly it was 14-6 in less than five minutes. Despite an inspired effort by Leonard’s replacement Jonathon Simmons, Aldridge’s indecisiveness and inept low post footwork only dug the Spurs a deeper hole. Soon it was 47-24, with only Simmons seeming to have a pulse. But he was in jail. The lead mounted: 64-35; 72-44; finally 136-100.
With Westbrook, Beal, and Wall–my compensatory delights–eliminated already, I had only Doris Burke’s lucidity and competence to give me pleasure.
Back East, With An Eye Resting On–And On Resting Like–The West
The case for actual competitiveness was made no better the next night: the Boston Celtics, holding the top seed in the East, but exhausted from a seven game battle with Wall and Beal, proved no match for well-rested Cleveland. Boston’s offense was built around the incredibly nimble 5’9” Isaiah Thomas, who had suffered the tragic loss of his 22 year old sister earlier in the playoffs, but come back to excel in the earlier rounds. But as incredible and unique a player as Thomas is, winning 53 games with an offense that runs through a 5’9” guy only underscores the coaching prowess of the imperturbable Brad Stevens [5].
Trouble was, for fans of competitive basketball, if Cleveland romped, then we had another non-series, another drag before the Finals, but if Boston made it a close series, Cleveland gets beat up before Golden State, and the Warriors reap yet another friendly quirk of schedule and luck.
Cleveland’s superiority was evident immediately: Game One was 61-39 at halftime, with James scoring lay-up after lay-up– seemingly at will–as Boston tried defending him with a big man. Game Two was no better, the Cleveland lead mounting to 72-31, at the half, with James and Love combining for forty. Then, with the game and the series no longer in doubt, Isaiah Thomas was injured toward the end of the 130-86 rout: almost exactly the script as with Leonard, at least on the surface, the big difference being that Boston was finished, and there appeared to be no more hopes to dash. Meanwhile, the next night, the Warriors won Game Two by a similarly ridiculous score: 136-100, making it a 61 point margin in the game and a half since Leonard exited.
Both series seemed over after just two games, but Cleveland could not close the deal in Game Three at home, squandering a 77-56 lead to lose 108-106. Boston was playing without injured Thomas, who, as great as he has been, because of his unique size, poses difficulties not only for opponents, but sometimes for teammates as well, sometimes inhibiting their movement. With Thomas constantly racing around to get open, ball watching sometimes substitutes for ball movement. Additionally, Thomas’s size makes him a defensive liability, severely limiting the degree to which Boston can make needed switches on defense: with players of relatively equal size, switching becomes more viable, an excellent way to increase defensive pressure. This is a signature piece of the Warriors’ defensive prowess, especially when Shaun Livingston substitutes in for the smaller Curry.
In Game Three, Thomas’s replacement–Marcus Smart, a huge point guard with a chest reminiscent of former football great running back Hershel Walker, made seven of ten threes! Even more saliently, Boston’s ball movement was dramatically better. Remarkably, James had only 11 points, seeming simply, and inexplicably, to disappear, in ways reminiscent of his first Championship Finals with Miami, when he confounded everyone with his lackluster and seemingly aimless dispassionate play.
Why? What might it portend? The benign interpretation was that he was making space for Kyrie Irving, an hypothesis that gained credence with Irving’s outsize performance the rest of that game and in Games Four and Five.
With the Warriors safely in, and resting, Cleveland hosted Boston again, and James continued to puzzle. After picking up four first half fouls, he came out with his team trailing 43-33. The Cavs quickly went down by 16 (49-33), before Irving went off, beginning to play like a James who had no Irving to fall back upon: he had a spurt of ten points, for a total of 22 in the first half, to cut Boston’s lead to 57-47 at half-time.
In the second half, with LeBron back on the floor, there was a signature acknowledgement play when Irving passed up a lay-up to assist James on a vicious (even for him) dunk. It was an arrogant exchange, bringing the Cavs within seven (61-54). Mutually energized, they both just kept it up, with a 40-23 third quarter, with James complementing Irving’s playoff career high of 42 (15-22 shooting, following his 10-15 in Game Three) by adding 34, and Kevin Love also excelling as a scorer, rebounder, and outlet passer.
James’ and Irving’s numbers were reminiscent of Cleveland’s last three Finals games against last year’s not-yet-Durant-infused Warriors. Irving had 21 in the third quarter, whetting appetites to see him take on Curry (who must rely on team-mate Klay Thompson to guard Irving). The Cavs shot 44-74 (60%), guaranteed to make life easy for everyone.
It was not so much that the Celtics were overmatched, but that Irving went nuts, while LeBron was busy being LeBron. More ominously, and in line with the fates that so often befall Warriors playoff opponents, both Irving and Kevin Love appeared to be nursing ankle injuries. Best end this series soon, LeBron!
And he did, in a magnificent Game Five in which he scored 35 points on 13-18 shooting (4-7 on threes; not his strong suit, but clearly improved this season), passing Michael Jordan as the NBA’s all-time playoff scoring leader. With supporting stars Irving and Love also in great form, it was 109-74 when he retired after three quarters, headed for his seventh straight Finals, the most ever for anyone who was not a Boston Celtic during the Bill Russell era. That is, he doubly passed Jordan that night. Alongside Love and Irving, he watched the fourth quarter play out: 135-102.
The Finals: long awaited, but can anyone really compete with Golden State’s all-star entourage? Wake me up after the Cavs win at least one. Till then, in Silicon Valley parlance, my opinion is my IPO: it will take a Herculean effort by James–or a very unlikely extreme meltdown by Green–for the series to go more than five games.
NOTES
1 The catchy notion of a triple double actually trivializes Westbrook’s and Robertson’s achievement, as double figures in points is really no feat at all, whereas thirty-ten-ten is a whole other world!
2 Under Head Coach Steve Kerr and a couple of healthier assistants–Luke Walton, who left to coach the Lakers, and the highly experienced current Head Assistant Mike Brown, both of whom have filled in for Kerr so well that they have complied even higher winning percentages than the record-shattering ones of the mother franchise. This team is so talented and smart that they can adapt easily to coaching changes, and probably could coach themselves. In that sense, they resemble Red Auerbach’s old Celtics, whose players routinely found themselves coaching and/or managing NBA teams.
3 In 2015, the Warriors faced the Memphis Grizzlies, who were without star guard Mike Conley and defensive ace Tony Allen, both injured,and then faced the Houston Rockets, with defensive ace Patrick Beverly hurt. The San Antonio Spurs, considered the greatest threat in the West, were knocked off in the first round, before getting to face the Warriors. Then, in the Finals, Cleveland played without both Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love, James’s injured co-stars.
This year, injuries deprived the Spurs of veteran point guard Tony Parker and claimed superstar Kawhi Leonard halfway through Game One, with the Spurs holding a 23 point lead that was insufficient to withstand Leonard’s absence.
4 Earlier in the season, the Warriors had come from twenty-two points behind to beat the Spurs.
5 The Celts had just acquired the Number One Lottery pick. Were Brad Stevens and Danny Ainge about to hand the franchise over to Lonzo Ball, with his outsize father Lavar all the while looming? Imagine Ball The Elder and Donald Trump locked together in a room. Where is fight promoter Don King when we need him most?