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Clippers-Spurs series

NBA Playoffs: LeBron Carries Miami

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You can’t say LeBron James answered his critics on Sunday—that will take at least one championship, probably more, all with him winning Finals MVP honors, before that happens. But LeBron delivered the kind of game everyone’s been waiting to see—a completely dominating performance with all the money on the table—as Miami beat Indiana 101-93 to even their NBA Eastern Conference semi-final series up at two games apiece. TheSportsNotebook recaps this game, along with San Antonio’s closeout against the Los Angeles Clippers, and we look ahead to tonight’s doubleheader…

Miami 101 Indiana 93: The final numbers are staggering—40 points, 18 rebounds and 12 assists. That’s what King James put on the board as the Heat reversed a halftime deficit and took the game over in the third quarter. And they overshadow a big-time performance from Dwayne Wade, who dropped 30 and got nine rebounds of his own. LeBron and Wade not only carried the scoring load, they did it efficiently—getting almost 70 percent of the team’s points, while taking a less than two-thirds of their shots. And the two stars were the reason the Heat won the rebounding battle 47-38. And they got their teammates involved with good assist numbers. Udonis Haslem was the biggest beneficiary of the latter, scoring 14 points, most in the fourth quarter.

Indiana suffered because it’s frontline couldn’t get into the game offensively. Roy Hibbert was a non-factor on Sunday, as was David West. If you’re an Indiana fan you can take heart in this—two of the three players who have to play well for you (the other is Danny Granger, who had 20 points) were missing in action, LeBron and Wade had a dominating game and you still had a chance to win in the end. And while Miami has to feel good about reclaiming homecourt advantage, I don’t know realistic it was to think Indiana would win all three home games to begin with. I think at this level of the postseason, an underdog has to think of terms of getting a 2-2 split on the road and the Pacers will have the chance to do that in Game 5. But that’s to talk about tomorrow. The aftermath of Game 4 is about LeBron, and if this is the year for him to get the monkey off his back, Sunday’s is the game that will live on for the ages.

San Antonio 102 LA Clippers 99: The balance of the Spurs stood out again, as did their ability to get the free throw line. San Antonio got eight more free throw attempts than the Clippers and scored seven more points at the stripe, thus creating the difference in a closely contested game at the Staples Center and closing out the Spurs’ second consecutive four-game sweep of the postseason. Tony Parker once again got the line consistently, hitting  7-of-9 and while Tim Duncan stepped up with a 21 points/9 rebounds night, consider the play of the role players—Daniel Green knocks down 14, Tiago Splitter has 11/7 in Duncan’s backup role, Parker backup Gary Neal hit 5-of-7 from the floor and scored 14 and Manu Ginobli, coming off the bench at this stage in his career, scored 11 and shot 44 percent from the floor.

The only nitpick to have is that it took 53 percent shooting for the Spurs to win this game. When the conference finals start, presumably against Oklahoma City, San Antonio will have to tighten up the defensive reins. As for the Clippers, Chris Paul was ready to go, with 23 points and 11 assists, but Blake Griffin again disappeared on the boards with only five. If Los Angeles was going to have a chance, Griffin needed to be attacking the glass each night and Game 3 was the only time he did. Perhaps it’s the knee strain he suffered in the Memphis series. Perhaps it’s the growing pains of a kid in the playoffs for the first time. Whatever the reason, it has to be something that doesn’t happen next year, because for the time being Los Angeles can feel good about making the playoffs and winning a series as they go into the offseason.

The Clippers may be followed into the offseason by their crosstown brethren tonight, when the Lakers visit Oklahoma City for Game 5. The Lakers were already dealing with a tough loss in Game 4 and now are dealing with some fallout from Kobe Bryant’s decision to throw Pau Gasol under the bus in the postgame interview. If this means that Kobe’s frustrated and is going to try and singlehandedly win this game, we may as well start the OkC-San Antonio conference finals series right now. If this means that Kobe is trying to motivate Gasol to be in position to get the ball and to hit the glass with more frequency, then we’ll have a ballgame on our hands. I think the Thunder are going to come out roaring and clinch this series tonight, but if they don’t, I consider it a virtual certainty that it ends up going seven.

Boston hosts Philadelphia in the pivotal fifth game of a series knotted at two. Three of these four games have been nail-biters and it’s been the young Sixers, not the veteran Celtics, who’ve made the key plays down the stretch, winning 2 of these 3. A combination of law of averages and homecourt makes it likely that the tide turns the other way if Game 5 comes down to the wire, and I really see no reason to think it won’t.

NBA Playoffs: Black Saturday At Staples

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Yesterday at the Staples Center will undeniably go down as Black Saturday in the developing history of the 13-year-old Los Angeles arena. The Clippers and Lakers each hosted must-win playoff games, each had them seemingly in control and both let them slip away. TheSportsNotebook recaps both games and looks ahead to Sunday’s twinbill in the NBA playoffs…

San Antonio 96 LA Clippers 86: I was in a car driving back from Baltimore listening on XM Radio and when the Clips were ahead by 24 early in the game, I audibled down to baseball and general talk shows. I missed a devastating San Antonio turnaround highlighted by a 24-zip run in the third quarter. Beyond the obvious—and accurate—talk about how this shows the Clippers are still learning, while the Spurs are championship tough, the thing that stands out most in the big picture is free throw shooting. San Antonio got the line more frequently and did it via the backcourt. Tony Park and Manu Ginobli were 10-of-14 from the foul line, while Chris Paul was only 2-for-2 and Randy Foye never got a charity stripe attempt. Furthermore, the Clippers bricked the free throws they did get, with Reggie Evans 3-of-10 being the biggest culprit. Overall, the Spurs 17-9 scoring advantage in this area accounts for most of the margin of victory in a game evenly contested elsewhere. Los Angeles got positives—Blake Griffin finally played like a stud, with a 28 points/16 rebounds showing and Paul dished 11 assists. But whether the season ends in Game 4 at home or Game 5 back in San Antonio, those are lessons to build on next year. The Spurs are up 3-0 in games and this one’s over.

Oklahoma City 103 LA Lakers 100: The meltdown wasn’t quite as dramatic in this one, but the Laker lead hovered in the 10-point neighborhood for most of the game, before Oklahoma City finally made a decisive push at the end. Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum were not nearly active enough on the boards, neither in double digits and Gasol a mere five. It became a battle of the stars at that point and with Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook and Kobe Bryant all having huge nights, the Thunder had one more star. Westbrook hit big shots all game long to keep his team afloat, Durant gained steam in the fourth quarter and finally buried a trey in the face of Metta World Peace that proved be the game-winner. Bryant was accurate in complaining after the game that Gasol needed to be more aggressive, although I’m sure Kobe’s diplomacy on the subject will be called into question and that’s equally accurate.

I do think the whole back-to-back game thing hurting the veteran Lakers more than the young Thunder has to be given some credence here. Oklahoma City played its best basketball in the fourth quarter, Bryant went 1-for-8—a sure sign he was losing his legs—and the Laker perimeter defense suffered. It’s hard not to see some fatigue issues in there. No question Durant and Westbrook played big, and the former’s continued clutch play stands in sharp contrast to LeBron James at the halfway point of the second round. But the Lakers did not get a fair deal from the schedule-maker and I continue to wonder why Boston-Philadelphia got the entire weekend off while the LA teams played back-to-back. It makes even less sense when you consider that NBA planners are worried about tonight’s game with the Clippers, since if the LA Kings’ playoff game with Phoenix goes multiple overtimes, there will be an issue with clearing the ice to set up the basketball court. If a rush job has to be done and any moisture on the court creates an injury look for there to be a real media furor over a situation that could have easily been avoided.

That Clips-Spurs game tonight offers little in the way of storylines. We’ll see how hungry the home team is to stay alive one more game and how hungry the veteran team is to close quickly. I suppose we could read long-term stuff in there, like Los Angeles developing some mettle for future championship runs or San Antonio showing further hunger for the coming conference finals, but I’ll need to see this series stretched to a Game 6 before I’d be ready to go there.

Indiana-Miami is the big one this afternoon. I’ve been high on Indiana’s chances of taking this series this distance from the start and to win it since Chris Bosh went down, but I’m also not ready to give Miami a free pass for their play in Game 3. Say what you will about Bosh, losing him is not an excuse for a 19-point defeat, unless Dwayne Wade is hurt worse than he’s letting on, as I’ve seen suggested. Furthermore, Durant and Westbrook showed last night that a two-man show can at least give you a chance to win. If Wade is better than Westbrook—and he is—and LeBron is really the MVP (I don’t agree, but it’s still close enough)—than shouldn’t they be enough to take this game to the wire. And if Paul Pierce can carry a decimated team to a win in Atlanta, can’t both LeBron and Wade do the same here? I say they can, and look for both big guns to have huge games. Whether Indiana answers depends on whether Roy Hibbert continues to have nights like he did on Friday, when he scored 19 to go with his usual stellar rebounding and defensive effort. He’s the one man the Heat have no answers for.