NBA Blog, NBA News

AP

The ability for teams to intentionally foul players away from the ball who are poor free throw shooters — originally labeled “Hack-a-Shaq” for when it was used extensively against Shaquille O’Neal — is a perfectly legal strategy. But it’s also an excruciating one to watch that grinds things to a halt, and that most observers of the game couldn’t be less interested in sitting through.

We’ve seen it this season with Dwight Howard, most memorably in a game where he ended up shooting 39 free throws against his former team, the Orlando Magic. We’ve also seen it on a smaller scale as recently as Game 1 of the first round playoff series between the Grizzlies and the Clippers, when Memphis went to the strategy for a few possessions late in the fourth to try to get back into the game.

Many have wondered whether the league might look at doing something to eliminate this option, because for a game built on aesthetics, it’s brutal to see it reduced to nothing more than an extended free throw shooting contest. But David Stern says it’s not something the NBA is interested in addressing.

From Brian Mahoney of the Associated Press:

In what will be news of interest to both the Lakers and the Spurs, Commisioner David Stern said there still remains no interest in removing fouls away from the ball – the original “Hack-a-Shaq” – but does expect the league to revisit the idea of resting healthy players.

Spurs coach Gregg Popovich has used intentional fouling against Shaquille O’Neal and current Lakers center Dwight Howard, another notoriously poor free throw shooter, as a way to slow the opposing offense. League president Joel Litvin said owners and the Competition Committee felt that abolishing the strategy, which does slow games down, would be “rewarding a guy who can’t shoot free throws.”

Stern went on record as recently as December saying he wants the rule changed, but it isn’t up to him. There’s a competition committee in place that votes on these matters, and as long as the people there have no issue with the way that intentional fouls away from the ball affect the game, the strategy is here to stay.

Source

Getty Images

It looks like the Lakers will head into Game 3 against the Spurs Friday night without their top four guards.

Steve Blake is out indefinitely with a right hamstring injury suffered in the fourth quarter of the Lakers latest loss on Wednesday night, the team announced Thursday afternoon. The injury was checked out by ultrasound and found to be moderate but that is enough he is done for a while.

Both Steve Nash (hip and hamstring, for which he had his third epidural) and Jodie Meeks (sprained ankle, kept him out of Game 2) are listed as doubtful for Friday night. Mike D’Antoni said, “realistically Meeks is more doubtful than Nash,” but I wouldn’t bet on either playing.

And we all know that Kobe Bryant is sitting at home with a torn Achilles and not tweeting.

What that means is a lot of Darius Morris (covering Tony Parker), a lot of Anthony Goudelock, a lot of Chris Duhon. All that up against Manu Ginobili and the rest of the Spurs in a must-win game for the Lakers. Good luck with that.

The problem for the Lakers is there advantage is inside but in the NBA you can take away what a team does best in the playoffs — the Spurs have fronted the post, hand help nearby and generally crowded the paint and made life difficult for Dwight Howard and Pau Gasol. The Spurs have size with Tim Duncan and Tiago Splitter, but they are throwing the kitchen sink at the Lakers bigs. The Spurs can do that because they pay no price for largely ignoring the Lakers guards — there is no outside shooting the Spurs fear, no guy slashing into the paint messing up their plans.

You’re not going to beat the Spurs in the playoffs with your first option, you are going to need your second and third options. And right now the Lakers options are not pretty.

And for game three they are just ugly.

Source

Zach Randolph didn’t have much of an effect at all on the first two games of the Grizzlies playoff series against the Clippers in Los Angeles. In a must-win Game 3 situation once the series shifted to Memphis, he was the reason the Grizzlies stayed alive.

Randolph finished with a game high 27 points and 11 rebounds as Memphis came away with the 94-82 victory that cut the Clippers lead in the series to two games to one.

The play of the Clippers’ bench had been the story of the series to this point, but as is often the case with role players on the road, those performances tend to disappear. That was certainly the case with Eric Bledsoe, who had sparked the Clippers in each of the first two games, but couldn’t get anything going in Memphis. Bledsoe finished scoreless in 14 minutes of action with three personal fouls, and he probably shouldn’t have been left out there even that long considering the negative impact he was having on the game for his team.

Instead, it was the reserves of the Grizzlies who were able to provide a lift, led by Quincy Pondexter with 13 points in 26 minutes of action.

But even in the first two games that the Clippers won in this series, Memphis largely was able to outplay L.A. when both teams had their starting units on the floor. That was once again the case in Game 3, but it was even more extreme.

In addition to Randolph’s monster performance, Marc Gasol was effective offensively with 16 points, and was consistently free of defenders with plenty of space to shoot. That was helped by Randolph’s presence inside, as well as by Mike Conley‘s ability to distribute, which gave him 10 assists against zero turnovers for the game — numbers that outweighed his lackluster 1-for-9 shooting performance.

Statistically, this was essentially a reversal of Game 1, where the Clippers got everything they wanted and killed the Grizzlies on the boards. In Game 3, Memphis won the rebounding battle 45-33, but more troubling for L.A. was the Grizzlies’ 17-5 edge on the offensive glass that led to a 22-4 advantage in second chance points.

In addition to the Clippers’ bench not providing the spark L.A. has grown accustomed to over the first two games of the series, Chris Paul was completely ineffective in this one in running his team’s offense. He finished with just eight points and four assists, to go along with an uncharacteristically high five turnovers.

It’s funny, because the very first possession of the game for the Clippers was executed to perfection. Blake Griffin posted deep on the low block in isolation, Chauncey Billups found him with a clean entry pass, and Griffin spun toward the basket and banked home a four-footer for the first points of the game. From then on, it seemed as though the Clippers were struggling to even initiate their sets, and possessions became reduced to dribbling misadventures that more often than not resulted in long jumpshots (or heavily contested ones) as the shot clock was about to expire.

A great performance from Randolph came just as his team needed it the most, but overall, in a game that essentially would have meant the end of the Grizzlies’ season had they lost and fallen behind 3-0 in the series, the bounce-back effort from a 56-win Memphis team was to be expected.

The Clippers aren’t expecting to see two subpar games in a row from Chris Paul, and they will likely make adjustments to ensure that Randolph goes back to a closer version of the player they saw in the first two games. The pressure on the Grizzlies won’t be any less in Game 4, however, because a loss would mean an opportunity for the Clippers to close out the series at home next week.

Source

Reuters

The Milwaukee Bucks are hustling this series. Give them credit, they are giving a real playoff effort.

Their problem is the Miami Heat are far more talented and when they give their best effort Miami runs away and hides.

The Bucks effort meant Game 2 was a three-point game after three quarters, but the Heat opened the fourth quarter on a 12-0 run and that was all she wrote. Miami went on to win 98-86 to take a 2-0 series lead as things head back to Milwaukee for Game 3.

The Bucks can steal a game in this series at home if they can get all of the parts of their game clicking on the same night. That just didn’t happen often in the regular season and it feels a longshot in this series.

The Bucks did a lot of things they wanted to do in this one right from the start. They got points from guys on the frontline — Ersan Ilyasova had 12 points, they shot a 55.6 percent, they forced six turnovers. It was a good first quarter for them. And it was still 25-23 Miami.

But the Bucks didn’t have balance. Miami had made it’s focus taking the ball out of the hands of Monta Ellis and Brandon Jennings and it worked — the pair had one point on five shots in the first half. The pair came out more aggressive in the second half but it didn’t help much — Jennings finished with 8 points on 3-of-15 shooting, Ellis had 7 points on 2-of-7 from the floor.

Ilyasova picked up the slack with 21 for the game, and Mike Dunleavy added 16.

The first three quarters of the game continued like the first. The Heat didn’t seem to have their full focus nor execution — Erik Spoelstra will have plenty of things to go over on tape — and the Bucks energy kept them close.

But you knew the Heat would have one big run.

It came at the start of the fourth and it was a 12-0 run — fueled by stops and turnovers leading to hustle points. When Norris Cole hit a three and the Bucks called a timeout it was too late, the score was 80-65 and you knew how it would end from there.

Miami got 21 points from Dwyane Wade, who really seemed to direct the Heat attack for the night, plus 19 from LeBron James. But as a team the Heat hit just 13-of-42 (31% from three) and guys like Chris Bosh (10 points) faded into the background.

Miami is going to have to shoot better from deep and play more consistent defense to get wins in Milwaukee, because you know the Bucks are going to play better at home. More of their game will come together.

But when the Heat are focused and bring their full effort, this series isn’t much of a contest.

Source

Getty Images

Joakim Noah scored his first point and on the next possession, in his 27th minute, he closed hard to marginally, if at all, bother a wide-open corner 3-point attempt.

Tonight, that was plenty.

The Bulls – with lots of help from Brooklyn – crippled the Nets’ offense and watched one more airball as time expired, preserving a 79-76 Game 3 win. Chicago surrendered a late 12-0 Brooklyn run, but the Bulls are still the only lower-seeded Eastern Conference team to win a playoff game, and they now have a 2-1 series lead.

Those positives, of course, mean plenty of negatives for the Nets, who are the NBA’s only higher-seeded team losing its series.

The Nets’ final numbers, 82.2 offensive rating and 34.6 field-goal percentage, don’t show how anemic their offense was for most of the game. Until Marshon Brooks entered the game in the fourth quarter, Brooklyn shot 27.9 percent from the field.

The Nets’ three offensive centerpieces – Brook Lopez (22 points), Deron Williams (18 points) and Joe Johnson (15 points) – weren’t terrible, at least in the context of this game. Their combined field-goal percentage (43) was much higher than their teammates’ (24).

But absent other reliable scoring options on the court, Tom Thibodeau used his strong-side-flooding defense to smother Lopez, Williams and Johnson. Without space to operate, the trio couldn’t do much.

Blatche was the Nets’ only reliable complementary offensive threat during the regular season, but in a physical playoff series, they can’t count on him. Blatche has done a lot to overcome his reputation for being a mentally weak player, but he made that progress against teams other than the hard-nosed Bulls. In the second quarter, Blatche took a fairly typical playoff foul from Nazr Mohammed and responded by elbowing Mohammed and getting a technical. In this tough series, Blatche showed his true colors, and that bodes poorly for the Nets.

If the Nets don’t get supplementary scoring from Blatche, who shot 3-for-9, who can they get it from? Down the line, the answers are uninspiring.

Finally, P.J. Carlesimo turned to Brooks. Brooks didn’t play particularly well, scoring two points on 1-of-3 shooting, but the threat of him scoring opened the offense. When playing Brooks with its Big Three, Brooklyn’s offensive rating surged to 121.5. That was in just five minutes, so small-sample caveats apply, but alternative lineups have a longer track record in this series of not working offensively.

The Bulls’ offense wasn’t pretty, either – their final offensive rating was 84.7 – but their gameplan was a bit better suited to this type of defensive struggle. Like the Nets did with Lopez, Williams and Johnson, the Bulls funneled their offense through their top offensive players. Carlos Boozer (22 points) and Luol Deng (21 points) combined to take nearly half Chicago’s shots.

Even though Boozer and Deng aren’t as gifted scorers as Lopez, Williams and Johnson, the Chicago duo shot more efficiently. That’s because Boozer and Deng play with Kirk Hinrich and Jimmy Butler, two above-average 3-point shooters, and Noah, a plus passer and finisher – three players who help space the floor.

The marginally positive help tonight was based mostly on reputation, though. Hinrich and Butler combined to shoot 1-for-6 on 3-pointers, and Noah went 0-for-7 with as many turnovers as assists (two). Like I said, it wasn’t pretty.

But as C.J. Watson’s final shot, his seventh miss in eight tries, sailed by the rim, it proved good enough.

Source

Told Marc Gasol won Defensive Player of the Year and that he finished 14th, Dwight Howard didn’t sound thrilled with the result. Mark Medina of inside the lakers:

The news caused Dwight Howard to say “it’s funny,” but he wasn’t offering his signature smile.

“It’s just funny,” Howard said. “That’s okay. We got next year and I got a long time. This year’s funny.”

Howard averaged more defensive rebounds, blocks and steals – both per minute and per game – than Gasol.

Like when LeBron James lost MVP to Derrick Rose, nothing held Howard back more than voters’ irritation with how he changed teams. Howard probably could have handled his departure from Orlando better, but that doesn’t affect how well he defends.

The second-biggest factor working against Howard was his drop in production relative to previous years, but he shouldn’t have been competing with previous versions of himself. He should have been competing with other players in 2012-13.

However, unlike the LeBron-Rose situation, Howard didn’t deserve the award. Gasol did.

With Gasol on the court, the Grizzlies’ defensive rating was 95.4. With Howard on the court, the Lakers’ defensive rating was 101.7. Gasol played with better defensive teammates, but they didn’t account for such a large gap. Besides, Memphis’ defense improved more when Gasol played than Los Angeles’ did when Howard played.

But don’t bother Howard with those advanced stats. Via Medina:

“Serge Ibaka with all the stuff he did this year, he should’ve been the guy to win it this year and last year,” said Howard, though the award went last season to New York’s Tyson Chandler. “With the stuff he’s done on the defensive end. I thought he was the clear cut winner. But people saw it otherwise.”

“He led the league in blocks. That’s what defense is all about,” Howard said of Ibaka. “He led the team and was number one in blocks this year. You can’t play defense without having any shot blockers. He was the No. 1 shot blocker the last two years. That’s great defense right there.”

I don’t hear Howard saying he shouldn’t have won Defensive Player of the Year in 2010-11, when Ibaka led the league in total blocks and Andrew Bogut led the league in blockers per game. But here is a summary of what Howard did say:

1. Blocks = defense

2. Every Defensive Player of the Year since he won has been incorrectly assigned.

Source