He absolutely did not. Left foot.
1:45 Tho’ he did lift his pivot when shooting.
Video of the play and review here. At 2:25 there’s a zoom-in of the shot that they run back and forth a few times and while it’s just barely out his hand, it’s definitely out of his hand. Good call.
Great game. When Parker has it going like that, drilling his midrange shot, there’s just no good way to defend the Spurs. Though they only had 4 turnovers, this wasn’t San Antonio’s best game by any stretch, they were outrebounded by 9, shot just 30% from three, and Duncan went 8 for 19 and missed a lot of bunnies. And they still won. Great sign for the series.
That Parker shot was insane, talk about turning chicken shit into chicken salad!
I think Miami is wise to get Bosh going, he’s had success in the past taking Duncan off the dribble. It can’t just be the LBJ show again, only a great team effort can beat the Spurs.
Bosh as a 15 million per year mediocre three point shooter is a horrid waste.
That late-game wing 3 was a badly-run play, Bosh should have been in the corner and Miller on the wing. The Spurs will give Bosh a wing 3 whenever he wants it.
That said, while he didn’t get many shots to fall, Bosh was more Bosh-like than he’d been in the Indiana series, attacking off the dribble and shooting at the rim, as well as some very makeable mid-range 2’s. He shot twelve 2-pointers (making six) and only 4 threes (making none), after all.
If he’d just move in 6 feet, he’d be in his sweet spot.
This is going to be a fun series.
A small one, too. San Antonio rolled out their own small-ball lineups to match Miami’s, using three of Tony Parker-Gary Neal-Danny Green-Manu Ginobili with Leonard and Duncan. Obviously, it was effective. That’s good for the Spurs, LeBron’s 18 rebounds likely isn’t sustainable, but Duncan’s 14 might be, with no other true bigs on the floor except the rebound-allergic Bosh.
If the two teams play small there are going to be plenty of available rebounds - whether they go to LeBron or Anderson or Bosh or Haslem doesn’t really matter for the Heat. But they definitely don’t want Bosh taking that many threes from the wing and they could’ve used LeBron finishing a few more drives at the rim or playing from the post.
Sure, but Duncan will vacuum in a good share, and the rest will be distributed around the Heat and Spurs. That is, when they play small, only the Spurs have an elite rebounder: Duncan. Prediction: San Antonio out-rebounds Miami by at least 5 in Game 2.
LeBron should post up more, but Leonard did a very credible job at holding his ground and contesting what post-ups there were. He’s broader and stronger than Paul George, and seems more comfortable defending in the post. And San Antonio’s help defense was typically stellar.
Hey, I was right. The Spurs nabbed 44 rebounds, the Heat 36. Duncan had 11, and Leonard 14.
That 33-5 run was something, wasn’t it? To see the Spurs get run over like that was disconcerting, like seeing the President in a fist fight or something. Just out of character.
Still, the Spurs have to be pleased to be tied 1-1, with the next 3 games in San Antonio. They will scheme around Miami’s switching their pick and roll, and I can’t see Duncan continuing to shoot such a low percentage, or Ginobili continuing to struggle just handling the ball.
For all the difference it made. 
It was a little like watching someone caught in a natural disaster. When the Spurs are on they make the other team look slow and confused. When the Heat are on they make the other team look helpless.
Ginobili’s been struggling like that for the whole playoffs. It’s kind of sad to watch. And Duncan may shoot better but I would also expect more scoring from LeBron in the next games. I don’t see San Antonio winning three in a row at home - it’s very hard to do, which is a good argument for changing the format, by the way - so I guess it comes down to those little adjustments and which team is able to repeat the high points of its performance from those first two games: Parker slicing and dicing in game one or the Heat going supernova in game two.
Well, yeah…but still! +8 in rebounds, -10 in turnovers. And so many of the turnovers were of the live-ball sort that Miami just feasts on.
Bill Simmons calls what the Spurs do the Fundamentals Torture Chamber, where they are just a step ahead in passing the ball to whomever has the best look, finding cutters at the rim, and protecting the ball. Miami gets you in the Atheticism Torture Chamber, where it’s just rim run after rim run, and their small forward blocking a dunk by your center.
2-3-2 needs to be abandoned as soon as Adam Silver takes over the league.
Duncan got hardly any post-up opportunities, and on the few he did get he seemed oddly reluctant to shoot. Only once he execute a drive and a move (which picked up a foul from Bosh), for the most part he just held the ball for a while, then took a bad fallaway or kicked it out. He had success posting up Haslem and Andersen in game 1, hope they are able to go back to that.
If the Heat are going to wall off or trap Parker the way they did last night, and he’s not able to pass out of the trap cleanly, the Spurs might not win another game. So much of what they do depends on Parker putting pressure on the defense, either collapsing to the middle and freeing shooters, or overloading on the wing and freeing rollers.
Part of what made the Splitter block so great is that while the play developed I had just enough time to think “wow he’s going up really far from the hoop” before KABLAM.
I really hope that the league addresses the awful formatting of the finals. I’ve always hated it, it’s just so damn unnatural for basketball. Bring back 2-2-1-1-1!!
Any thoughts on Jason Kidd agressively pursuing a head job? If I’m the Nets, I’d be targeting Lionel Hollins or George Karl (tho they might have to wait on the Clippers, who are possibly a more attractive landing spot for either of them).
It sounds like the Nets are really interested in Kidd. Hollins is definitely going to be available because the Grizzles have decided they won’t bring him back, but I don’t know if the Nets are going to wait that long. Things with Kidd seem to be happening fast. I don’t know if it’s the best situation for a coach with no experience but it should at least be really interesting.
Mark Jackson’s success in Golden State has opened up the idea of a veteran point guard being able to run a team.. Just as Isaiah had ended that thought.. Hollins is an old point guard as well.. I would seriously pass on George Karl.. he’s Marty Shottenheimer.. how can you seriously tell your fan base that you’re about competing for titles with a guy who’s nearly two decades removed from being any sort of playoff force.. Like George.. but its commentary and consulting time for him..
I’d be awfully leery of hiring a head coach directly after his last season as a player. That seems like a huge gamble, particularly for a team like the Nets that are built for success right now.
You mean like current head coaches Jacque Vaughn, Scott Brooks, Maurice Cheeks, or Doc Rivers?
Karl’s teams haven’t had a lot of success in the playoffs, but generally they’ve lost to higher seeded (i.e. better) teams. You can only blame so much of that on the coach.