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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.

NBA Playoffs: Sixers & Lakers Win Survival Tests

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The Philadelphia 76ers and the Los Angeles Lakers each faced virtual must-win spots on their home floors—in both cases a loss would have moved them to within a game of elimination with two more road dates ahead of them, in Boston and Oklahoma City respectively. But the Sixers and Lakers got it done and kept their conference semi-finals series alive. TheSportsNotebook recaps both games and looks ahead to Saturday’s doubleheader…

Philadelphia 92 Boston 83: The Celtics had big lead early—they scored the first 14 points and led by 15 at the half, before the Sixers showed the kind of all-heart, refuse-to-lose effort you normally expect from battle-tested teams, not those that “should” be just happy to be in this round. Philadelphia dominated the glass, with a 52-38 edge in rebounding and nowhere was their advantage more pronounced than on the bench. The Philly bench combined to produce 44 points and 24 rebounds, with Lavoy Allen and Thaddeus Young being the key players. By contrast the Boston bench submitted a 12/9 number.  Then add the terrible the Celtic bench play to the continued non-showings by Ray Allen and a cold shooting night by Kevin Garnett—the center came to play, with 11 rebounds, but at 3-of-12 from the floor just couldn’t get his offensive game going. Eventually Philly took over and won and knotted the series two games apiece. One bad sign in the Sixer win—Evan Turner shot of 5-of-22 from the floor. Unless Evan suddenly reappeared to play for Ohio State again, there is no reason for him to ever take 22 shots in a game, particularly when he’s cold.

LA Lakers 99 Oklahoma City 96: I’ll admit my conspiracy radar is going off right now, as the Lakers got 42 free throw attempts to the Thunder’s 28. This isn’t quite at the level of the 2002 Western Conference Finals, where LA was all but gifted a win over Sacramento, but it’s an awful lot of foul shots for a marquee team in a must-win game. I’m not saying the NBA is insistent that Los Angeles win this series as they were back in ’02, but the prospect of Kobe and Durant going a long way surely has some appeal in a postseason were key players are dropping like flies and the Eastern Conference doesn’t have anyone left who can run an offense. Anyway, give the Lakers their due for making an astonishing 41 of those free throw attempts. We can further add that they got to the ball to Andrew Bynum and Pau Gasol, who combined for 27 points and more importantly, for 22 rebounds. It gave Kobe the support he needed to knock down 36 and help produce a win. Oklahoma City meanwhile is getting killed by the non-performance of Kendrick Perkins. As a Boston fan, the no-show of Perkins is hurting me on many levels—on a night where the Celtics & Red Sox each lost close games in Philadelphia, the continued failures of Perkins hurt the C’s excuse for losing the 2010 Finals after he went down with a torn ACL in Game 6.

It’s a big day in Los Angeles today as both games on the NBA docket will be at the Staples Center, giving this the feel of a second-round NCAA Tournament day with its doubleheader at each venue. The Clippers host the Spurs in a 3:30 PM ET tip. Right now we’re really just looking for Chris Paul to prove he get his shot going and Blake Griffin to prove he can get more than one rebound a game. Until that happens there’s no reason to even speculate on San Antonio getting beat. Then in the nightcap, the Lakers and Thunder are right back at it. This makes for a great day in Los Angeles sports—one that continues tomorrow when the Kings play at Staples to try and clinch the NHL’s Western Conference title—but it’s lousy and unfair scheduling in the NBA. The compressed schedule favors the younger Thunder to begin with and like a doubleheader in baseball, it favors the team who only needs to split two games. This happens while Boston’s veterans get the entire weekend off to gear up for a crucial Game 5 against younger Philadelphia. This whole circumstance leads me to suspend my conspiracy theories noted above and give the Lakers the benefit of the doubt. For now.

NBA Playoffs: Miami Reeling, San Antoino Cruising

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The Miami Heat are officially in serious trouble—not getting a serious challenge—but trouble, as in can lose this series to the Indiana Pacers after a blowout defeat last night left the Pacers up 2-1 in the series. And one team that’s not in serious trouble is San Antonio, who laid waste to the LA Clippers to defend their home floor and take a 2-zip series lead. TheSportsNotebook recaps the games and looks ahead to a playoff doubleheader on Friday…

Indiana 94 Miami 75: Roy Hibbert was great when he had the opportunity to be, and Dwayne Wade was awful when he couldn’t afford to be. That’s the microcosm of the Pacers-Heat game. Hibbert was a dominating force inside for the Pacers, with a 19 points/18 rebounds night while Wade shot a woeful 2-for-13 from the floor and finished with an unbelievable five points. Miami, apparently frustrated by their inability to hit three-pointers in the first two games of the series, decided to unleash from long range on Thursday night and they ended up 4-for-20. Conversely, Indiana used its interior edge, one decidedly enhanced by the injury to Chris Bosh. David West chipped in a 14/9, while Pacer fans had to be heartened to see Danny Granger get into the series, with a 17-point night. If you’re Miami, look at it this way—you got 25 from Mario Challmes and maybe that’s a sign Wade’s running mate is going to start contributing and you have three shots to pick up a win in Indy, presuming you defend the home floor in Games 5 & 7. Do that, maybe Bosh makes it back, and you can restore some order. But on the floor right now, Miami has no answer for Indiana’s inside game and that has nothing to do with whether or not LeBron wants to take a winning shot.

 

San Antonio 105 LA Clippers 88: For as much joy as the city of Los Angeles is getting in hockey and baseball right now, thanks to the Kings and Dodgers (and maybe the Angels before it’s all over), their NBA season looks to be headed for an ending within the next week. One night after the Lakers went a 2-0 hole against Oklahoma City, the Clippers take a bad beating, because they aren’t defending the perimeter and their stars are coming up short. Chris Paul had eight turnovers and Blake Griffin had one rebound. You can say both players are hurt—and that’s almost surely true—but that doesn’t explain why everyone else lets San Antonio shoot 52 percent from the floor. And lest we make this all about LA shortcomings, let’s also point out how much the Spurs’ depth shone again on Thursday night. The team hit 10 three-pointers, but it wasn’t Manu Ginobli doing the damage. This time it was Daniel Green, who bagged four treys. The NFL motto of “Next Man Up” applies even more perfectly to Gregg Popovich’s team.

Tonight the Lakers start what they hope will be the comeback trail against Oklahoma City. Los Angeles’ needs are pretty clear—they need both Andrew Bynum and Pau Gasol to both have big games, and do it both rebounding and scoring. Oklahoma City has a nice defensive presence inside with Serge Ibaka and Kendrick Perkins, but they don’t match up with a motivated and focused Bynum/Gasol tandem. With Metta World Peace back in the lineup the defense has seen a noticeable uptick on the perimeter, but at the end of games Kobe Bryant has to show he can execute better than Kevin Durant, a rather mindboggling question given the respective stage of their careers. And when I say “execute” I don’t mean score. Create a shot for someone else if necessary. Take a look at the recap Jeff Fogle over at Stat Intelligence did on the Laker meltdown on Wednesday, essentially pointing out that Kobe completely blew this one. The 27 hours that define the LA season start tonight—this series comes right back Saturday night with a back-to-back and the Lakers need to sweep.

Boston’s playing with house money tonight in Philadelphia, having reclaimed homecourt advantage. Will they come out focused and looking for the kill, or hunker down and just try and win home games in Games 5 & 7 to advance? They can do the latter and win the series, but if they want to make the NBA Finals, there’s no team in basketball that needs the rest an early clinch would provide.