This is exactly the point I was questioning. What does it mean? What situations?
I was at the game. 
I didn’t think it could have gotten any louder after he hit that 3, but then Lillard grabbed the PA mic and shouted “Rip City!” and I went deaf for a few seconds.
0.9 seconds left. How the hell did Houston let Lillard get so wide open? Make them inbound the ball across the court.
He was covered (can’t remember who was trying to catch him), but he does that impossible jump shot while moving sideways to the basket. I used to try that when I was younger, but the physics of moving sideways and making the ball hit the basket always defeated me. Most players have to stop, square up and then take a shot, but he seems to have some sort of internal laser guidance system.
Morbo: ::jealous:: It was stressful enough being at home and shouting at the TV every time somebody fat-fingered the damn ball and threw away an opportunity, or when the refs made another of their really awful calls.
I had to look at the clip of that last shot a few more times. As it turns out, Lillard did square off before the shot. He’s so damn fast that it was just a blur during the live broadcast. Still, that takes tremendous athleticism.
He couldn’t have been more wide open. Watch the video. They bunched up on the far side of the court from the inbound and Lillard lulls Parsons by acting lackadaisical, before taking off towards the inbound while Mathews and Williams set a double screen. It looks like Williams gave Parsons just a little tug as he was going by to slow him down.
Great shot by Lillard, but the Rockets fell asleep. Harden just stood there while Parsons had to go around the screen a step behind.
Three game sevens in a single evening. Bliss.
DeAndre Jordan was great for the Clippers. It makes me think how some “second-tier centers” are anything but, when they can rebound like that and come up big at key moments. I mean, who would you rather have on your team, an All-Star like Dwight Howard, or a get-it-done rebounder-plus like Ben Wallace circa 2004 or DeAndre Jordan circa 2014? I’d go with the latter.
(You might argue that the Dwight Howards of the world are centers you build a team around, not mere role players. But when’s the last time a truly center-dominant team won the championship? Not Shaq’s Lakers (Kobe), nor his Heat (Wade)…I’d say it was Olajuwon’s Rockets, 20 years ago. Might never happen again.)
He got the jump on him alright, but it was a footrace, so I’m not sure I’d agree with him being “wide open”. If he had been just a bit slower on the catch-and-shoot, Parsons might have spoiled the moment for him.
Dwight Howard is a great player and can bring you a ring… but only as long as he’s the second best guy on your team. I don’t see in him the mental toughness it takes to lead 12 people to win the NBA championship, and he may never have it.
I think it’s probably fair to say that after Shaq hung 38 and 17 per game on the Pacers in the Finals while Kobe was scoring 16 on 37% shooting, the Pacers felt like they had played a center-dominant team. If that doesn’t fit the definition there’s probably only been one center-dominant title team in the history of the league.
The Spurs have also been pretty center-dominant; they just call him a power forward.
JohnT- it might be a fun exercise to list all the guys you do see that mental toughness in, and then see over the next few years who leads teams and who doesn’t.
Jimmy, I wasn’t aware Kobe had been so ineffective in that particular series (I missed it; I wasn’t living in the US at the time.) You make a good point, I suppose – go ahead and add that particular Lakers year to the short list of center-dominant champs. (Note how the Ewing-era Knicks never quite go over the championship hump, etc.)
As for Duncan, IMHO they really have played him more as a power forward (barely) more often than not, over the years – but YMMV.
Man, the charge/block rule works so poorly in practice that people get irate now at even the most obvious blocks. You can be sliding to your left and have a foot in the air, but if you’re even relatively motionless in the instant before the collision, people (including announcers) are conditioned to expect a charge. The Raptors announcing crew just freaked out about a block call on Terrence Ross while they were watching the slow motion replay of him shuffling into view well after Deron Williams left his feet.
It has been terribly officiated, though. I blame referees and Mike Krzyzewski for this.
Lowry got manhandled by like three people in that last play.
I’m not so sure. Looked like the Nets were just clogging up the lane and getting their hands near/on the ball.
Jayhawk power! Paul Pierce’s fingertips cleanly brush the ball after Lowrie’s shot…Brooklyn is in the second round. I’m not sure Jason Kidd’s decisions at the end were working out (essentially letting Toronto have two 2-point layups in a row, without burning off much clock)…I guess he thought Toronto would make any free throw attempts…but it all worked out in the end (barely) for the Nets.
San Antonio seems to be serious about winning game seven. The first half has been a rout. Portland is going to have their hands full.
C’mon Digital C… Lowry didn’t get fouled on the last play… his mistake was keeping his head down… they crowded him well. should’ve swung the ball to DeRozan…
Nets really played crappy last two minutes. expected better from a veteran ball club…
Dallas just ran outta steam… they got smoked…
Is it just me, or does anyone else see Portland as a slightly better version of Dallas? Damian Lillard is a better version of Monte Ellis. As far as these playoffs are concerned, LaMarcus Aldridge is as good as Dirk’s been. I like Portland’s supporting cast better too, though I think Shawn Marion’s presence was big in the Spurs/Mavs series. On the radio, they’re giving no chance to Portland but I think this could be another close series. I’m not 100% sold on the Spurs beating the Blazers, am I the only one?
With the way Blake’s been playing lately, I don’t think Serge Ibaka’s going to be able to slow him down. Blake’s doing all his normal stuff plus he’s hitting his outside shots. Sure, Memphis slowed the game to a crawl and that was the Thunder’s Achilles Heel, but I think the Clippers play better than the Thunder at fast breaks. They don’t have a Westbrook, but Chris Paul’s just as good and they have 2 big men who can jump over anyone on the Thunder’s team. And they were only separated by like 2 games this year. I’m picking the Clippers over Thunder, its their year!
I hope the regular season means something and the Nets knock out the Heat. But I have no confidence they will, damn it. Maybe they’ll get lucky and Garnett will instigate a fight that will result in him and Lebron being suspended, that’s my only hope
With what happened to Indy in the first round, I have absolutely no predictions in their series with the Wizards. Roy Hibbert finally woke up from a coma in game 7, but like Barkeley said in the post game show, if it was him that got a measely 13 points and 7 rebounds, they’d tell him to retire. Winning fixes things a bit, so I think whatever locker room issues Indy had in the first round gets buried a little here, but if they face adversity and go down 0-1 or 1-2 in the first few games, I think all that will surface again.
Start of the 2nd round:
Wizards 1, Pacers 0
Nets 0, Heat 0
Blazers 0, Spurs 0
Clippers 1, Thunder 0
Clippers and Wizards win their Game 1’s convincingly.
Both teams built big leads in the first quarter, 39-25 and 28-15, respectively.
The final score of the Washington-Indiana game is much closer than the game was. Though as good as the Wizards looked throughout the game, it’s a bit worrisome that they kind of faded toward the end. Through the middle of the 4th neither team could buy a basket, but Washington was drawing foul and not making its free throws. Had they made their FTs and hit a few buckets in that span, they’d have won the game by 20 and those three desperation 3’s the Pacers hit in the final minute wouldn’t have mattered; they still didn’t, because Washington started making their foul shots on the other end, but the Pacers threatened to make it a one possession game with about 30 seconds left.
I don’t think Indiana has much of a chance. Atlanta was a team that barely belonged in the playoffs, they came in with a massive slump that almost allowed NY to sneak in the last spot and their best player has been gone most of the season. And they still pushed Indiana to the brink. Washington isn’t a title contender but it is twice the team Atlanta was and Indiana looks pathetic out there for most of the game.