NBA Finals

[Latrinsorm]

Go on record! They start Thursday, so time is short.

[Drew]

Well America has spoken:http://i.imgur.com/CeqL32D.png

[Latrinsorm]

Obviously we have a delicious parallel going on with the 2007 Finals. Here is a list of players who won the MVP on a team that won the championship:

Cousy
Russell (teammates)
Chamberlain (beat Russell's Celtics in 1967)
Reed (beat Wilt's Lakers in 1970)
Abdul-Jabbar (never beat Reed, whose career was cut short by injury)
Moses Malone (beat Kareem's Lakers in 1983)
Bird (beat Kareem's Lakers in 1984)
Magic (beat Bird's Celtics in 1987)
Jordan (beat Magic's Lakers in 1991)
Olajuwon (never beat Jordan, whose career was interrupted by "I bet I can play baseball")
O'Neal (beat Olajuwon's Rockets in 1999, won title & MVP next year)
Duncan (beat O'Neal's Lakers in 2003)
LeBron (???)

Note that with the exception of O'Neal, all years listed were the title & MVP years, and his was only 1 year away.

[AnticorRifling]

If Ditka is an option you have no choice but to choose Ditka.

[Latrinsorm]

Let's further revisit those 2007 Finals, which were closer than you think.

-Game 1 was won by 9, Game 2 by 11, those are legit wins.
-Game 3 was a 75-72 cringefest where the Spurs went 10 of 19 from 3 and the Cavs went 3 of 19 (including Boobie Gibson's 0 for 5). You might wonder how the Spurs managed to make 10 3s and only score 75 points: by shooting 18 of 49 from 2 (37%!!), including The Great Tim Duncan's 14 points on 17 shots.
-Game 4 saw the Spurs stave off a furious Cavs comeback to win 83-82. The last 6 minutes of the 4th looked like this for the Spurs...

Tim Duncan offensive foul
Ginobili and-1 but misses the FT which is put back by Duncan for 2
Tony Parker turnover
Manu 3
Manu miss
Bowen miss
Duncan miss
Oberto make, and-1
Oberto make
Manu 3 miss
Duncan miss
Oberto miss
Manu make
***last minute***
Manu miss
Manu 2-2 FT
Finley 1-2 FT
Manu 2-2 FT
Manu 2-2 FT

Suggestively, Tony Parker did absolutely nothing: 1 turnover, 0 assists, 0 rebounds, 0 points, 0 fouls drawn. Does this make it even more of a joke that he was given the Finals MVP when Tim Duncan recorded more assists, more steals, and less turnovers than him? Even though it was already a sick, disgusting joke... YES! Parker got shut down by the backcourt of Boobie Gibson, Eric Snow, Damon Jones, and Larry Hughes. Is he going to show up against Mario Chalmers, Norris Cole, Dwyane Wade, and oh yeah LEBRON JAMES? I wouldn't bet on it.

.

But speaking of rosters, let's rank the LeBron and Duncan sides by regular season Win Shares per game played for both years, including only those players who were in the playoff rotation (so no 2013 Captain Jack, no 2007 Bonner), and starting with 2007:

0.176 - LeBron James
0.163 - Tim Duncan
0.141 - Manu Ginobili
0.125 - Tony Parker
0.091 - Brent Barry
0.085 - Zydrunas Ilgauskas
0.081 - Anderson Varejao
0.081 - Drew Gooden
0.057 - Michael Finley
0.056 - Larry Hughes

Spurs with 4 of the top 5, which shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone. Let's look at 2013:

0.254 - LeBron James
0.141 - Tony Parker
0.139 - Dwyane Wade
0.122 - Chris Bosh
0.120 - Tim Duncan
0.107 - Kawhi Leonard
0.101 - Tiago Splitter
0.075 - Manu Ginobili
0.074 - Danny Green
0.068 - Ray Allen

This time LeBron's team has 3 of the top 5, but the Spurs still have 6 of the top 10, which might come as a bit of a surprise. Finally let's look at the top 10 for all 4 rosters:

0.254 - LeBron James - 2013
0.176 - LeBron James - 2007
0.163 - Tim Duncan - 2007
0.141 - Manu Ginobili - 2007
0.141 - Tony Parker - 2013
0.139 - Dwyane Wade - 2013
0.125 - Tony Parker - 2007
0.122 - Chris Bosh - 2013
0.120 - Tim Duncan - 2013
0.107 - Kawhi Leonard - 2013

Is today's Tony Parker much better than the Tony Parker who put up 13 assists to 12 turnovers, 53% FT in the 2007 Finals? Maybe, maybe not. LeBron is much better, Duncan is old, Manu is old, Wade and Bosh are a million miles ahead of Hughes and Ilgauskas. I'm liking the Heat!

[Latrinsorm]

And because Jordan's ghost looms over everything, and everyone knows Jordan never needed a game 7 in the Finals, did Jordan ever need a game 7 before the Finals? As it turns out, yes:

1992 2nd round, 4-3 over the Knicks, 647 points to 620 (average margin of under 4), lost the first game at home, got killed on the boards, won the last game by 29 points. Ewing put up 22 points, 11 rebounds, 2 blocks for the series, and in the next the Bulls only managed to contain the criminally underrated Brad Daugherty because Pippen went off for 11 rebounds per game. That's why LeBron will never win a ring.

1998 3rd round, 4-3 over the Pasers (sp?) of Indianapolish, 671 to 642 (avg. margin of just over 4), was inexplicably only +8 FTA over the first 6 games, then was +13 in the last game alone. We would expect that the famously centerless Bulls would get torn a new asshole by the 7'4" Rik Smits (as Hibbert did to Miami this year) but he only averaged 16 points and 5 boards, so... that seems pretty much impossible.

[SHAFT]

Jordan never missed a shot, what're you smoking? I hear he never committed a foul either.

[Latrinsorm]

He was the most competitive, gritty, driven, competitive player who ever lived but he absolutely did not ever flop or otherwise exaggerate contact or outright fake contact or get the benefit of any calls ever. I hope that's clear to everyone.

.

It has been strange to see/hear so many comments about Miami's lack of depth or over-reliance on their big 3. Mike Miller only barely plays for them, and he would start for literally all 3 of the other conference finalists. Over Lance Stephenson easily, over Tony Allen easily, over Danny Green by a nose. You're telling me you'd rather have Ian Mahinmi, Boris Diaw, or Darrell Arthur over the Birdman? I think not!

Miami has secretly, surprisingly, and possibly illegally acquired vast reservoirs of depth. If an NBA game went 58 minutes instead of 48, they could legitimately go 13 deep. The Pacers? 6 deep, maybe 7 if you count Granger, which I would not. Spurs? 7. Grizz? 8 if you include Davis, although they are overloaded at bigs so it's really 7. Is anyone 4-13 on Miami as good as Wade at his peak? Of course not, but that's a stupid requirement. Few in the NBA are as good as Parker at his peak, we don't say the Spurs are top-heavy because Cory Joseph couldn't step in if Parker twisted a knee.

[SHAFT]

Jordan did push off of Brian Russell though. And he fouled Karl Malone going for the steal. That happened.

[Latrinsorm]

YOU ARE BANNED FOR LIFE FROM BASKETBALL SIR >:[

[Latrinsorm]

A simple yet breathtaking tabulation courtesy of Henry Abbot: playoff wins over the past 3 years...

Heat 42
Thunder 27
Spurs 24
Grizzlies 18
Pacers 18
Celtics 18
Mavericks 16
Bulls 16
Hawks 10
Lakers 9
Sixers 8
Knicks 7
Warriors 6
Nuggets 6
Clippers 6
Nets 3
Rockets 2
Hornets 2
Blazers 2

Kobe greatest of all time, very competitive with the friggin' Hawks and the friggin' 76ers. People are going to look back at this era in astonishment that we ever gave Kobe any credit at all. If you will excuse me, it's time for another rum and haterade.

[SHAFT]

That's the last 3 years. Care to get a count of Kobe's total playoff victories against every other team on this list during the same time frame?

[Latrinsorm]

Very easily: 0.

If you would like to know the Lakers' total playoff victories, I can tabulate that as well, but it will take some time.

[SHAFT]

You know what I meant. You brought Kobe into this.

[Latrinsorm]

On second reading, I'm not sure how to parse your request. Do you mean for Kobe's career?

[SHAFT]

Yes. I was asking for the Lakers playoff wins over the course of Kobe's career and the other teams on the list total playoff wins over the same time frame

[Latrinsorm]

Ok. It's obviously going to be the Spurs at the top, but ok...

2005-2010 (post-Shaq pre-Bron-Brawn-Bron)

Spurs 53
Lakers 50
Pistons 45
Cavs 42
Celtics 41
Suns 36
Heat 31
Mavericks 30
Magic 28
Jazz 20
Nuggets 15
Rockets 15
Bulls 14
Hawks 11
Nets 11
Hornets 8
Pacers 8
Sonic Thunderers 8
Wizards 8
Clippers 7
Sixers 5
Warriors 5
Blazers 4
Bucks 4
Kings 3
Raptors 3

1997-2004 (note, 1997-2002 were best of 5 first round)

Lakers 78
Spurs 53
Pacers 47
Jazz 39
Knicks 33
Nets 32
Pistons 32
Kings 31
Bulls 30
76ers 28
Heat 24
Blazers 22
Hornets 20
Mavs 19
Timbrewolves 17
Bucks 15
Sonics 14
Rockets 13
Suns 10
Celtics 9
Hawks 8
Magic 8
Raptors 8
Cavs 1
Nuggets 1

.

Le gran total

Lakers 137
Spurs 130
Heat 97
Pistons 77
Pacers 73
Celtics 68
Mavs 65
Bulls 60
Jazz 59
Sonicumulonimbus 49
Nets 46
Suns 46
Cavs 43
76ers 41
Knicks 40
Magic 36
Kings 34
Hornets 30
Rockets 30
Hawks 29
Blazers 28
Nuggets 22
Bucks 19
Warriors 19
Grizzlies 18
Tawaulfs 17
Clippers 13
Raptors 11
Ensorcelled Bullets 8

Wh... what?!? Alright, so the Lakers are the top until next year, fair enough. All told we have 29 franchises represented for (no bullshit) 1337 total wins, and of course it's the Bobcats who aren't in.

.

Final note: shouldn't Hornacek be introduced by the Flight of Conchords song involving the Rhymenocerous being horny HE'S HORNY!!!?

[Latrinsorm]

Never let it be said that Kobe wasn't incredible off the bench, a definite perennial contender for 6th man of the year. You can say the same about all the all-time greats. Michael didn't start until... oh, he started his first year? And led the league in points scored, which Kobe didn't do until his 7th year?

Ok, but compare preps to pros to preps to pros to... that sentence got away from me a little. LeBron didn't start his first year... oh wait, he did too? 79 games? Well he didn't win Rookie of the Year like Kobe did. Shit, he did? And Kobe didn't receive a single vote? Greatest of all time, count the rings.

[RichardCranium]

A simple yet breathtaking tabulation courtesy of Henry Abbot: playoff wins over the past 3 years...

Heat 42
Thunder 27
Spurs 24
Grizzlies 18
Pacers 18
Celtics 18
Mavericks 16
Bulls 16
Hawks 10
Lakers 9
Sixers 8
Knicks 7
Warriors 6
Nuggets 6
Clippers 6
Nets 3
Rockets 2
Hornets 2
Blazers 2

Kobe greatest of all time, very competitive with the friggin' Hawks and the friggin' 76ers. People are going to look back at this era in astonishment that we ever gave Kobe any credit at all. If you will excuse me, it's time for another rum and haterade.

You spelled Pelicans wrong.

[Latrinsorm]

In my defense, Ensorcelled Bullets. And I'm pretty confident The Unibrow will surpass The Marcus very shortly, making the matter moot.

[Latrinsorm]

Is Tony Parker a good shooter?

Not really, no. He is above league average in all categories, especially in the 3-9 feet range (Float City). However, if we start with the 154 players who played at least 25 minutes per game for at least 40 games this year and require at least 6 shots from 10+ feet, we end up with 78 ranging from Martell Webster's 6 to Carmelo Anthony's 14.1. Tony ends up at 52nd in eFG% of this group, between Kobe Bryant and David West. Is eFG% on 10+ feet shots a good read on shooting ability? Let's look at the top and bottom 5:

Top: Kyle Korver, Danny Green, Jose Calderon, Steph Curry, Kevin Martin.
Bottom: John Wall, Josh Smith, Carlos Boozer, Andre Iguodala, Al Jefferson.

So yes.

One obvious caveat is that as the player with point duties he usually creates his own shot, as reflected by having the 8th lowest overall Ast% on those shots. (Absolute lowest is obviously Russell Westbrook.) This excuse doesn't turn out to be super compelling, though, as three of the players with lower Ast% have higher eFG%s (Jarrett Jack, LeBron James, and Chris Paul) and much higher at 51% to 46%. Additionally, every one of the 9 players directly after him in Ast% have higher eFG%, even Brandon Jennings and (again) Kobe Bryant.

Conclusion: he's a technically above-average shooter, but among his usage peers he's average at best. Just something to keep in mind when you hear people say things like "Tony Parker is a great shooter now!"

[Latrinsorm]

I talked once before about how the game between Boston with Jeff Green at 4 against Miami with LeBron there was a beautiful display of basketball. Although the Spurs start with a twin towers line-up of Duncan and Splitter, Splitter has actually played more minutes at C than PF. Bonner (20%) and Diaw (39%) make up most of San Antonio's PF minutes, and obviously Miami still loves going small when Roy Hibbert isn't giving them wedgies all night. So we've got that going for us.

[gs4-PauperSid]

One down. Go spurs!

[Latrinsorm]

First of all, thank God we're out of that miserable Eastern Conference. It's amazing to see two teams that can play offense again.

I'm confident for the Heat.

-dominated the boards, as expected.
-shot better, as expected, and anecdotally I felt like they were getting every look they wanted.
-The Spurs surprisingly had 4 turnovers after being a poor turnover team in the regular season.
-If every game comes down to an off-balance, contested Tony Parker 20 footer with 0.00001 left on the shot clock, the Heat are fine.
-Very low whistles, but they happened to cluster around Heat bigs in the first half.
-Both teams looked tired, which is to be expected after ~100 games, especially on defense. Even LeBron had a lot of plain disinterested moments, which isn't good, but the Heat are a much deeper team, so I expect that to eventually play into the Heat's favor.

[Latrinsorm]

Another fun thing, the last player with 18 rebounds and 10 assists in the Finals: Tim Duncan, with 21, 20, 10, and EIGHT BLOCKS in 2003.

[Latrinsorm]

I had forgotten about this, but two really weird moments in the pre-game production thing:

1. Kobe and Shaq were the only players named during the montage of Finals years past. George Mikan got a 0.4 second blip, but the two most famous players of 10 years ago got their name in lights? Odd.

2. The Spurs referred to as "the original big 3", which... that's just bad.

[Androidpk]

2. The Spurs referred to as "the original big 3", which... that's just bad.

Crazy. Everyone knows the original big 3 were Bird, McHale, and Parish.

[Latrinsorm]

I hate to give the conspiracy nuts any more ammo, but it lends even more credence to ESPN's famous Midwest bias.

[Latrinsorm]

Gregg Popovich does not give any fs whatsoever (http://espn.go.com/nba/playoffs/2013/story/_/id/9355736/2013-nba-finals-lebron-james-miami-heat-criticism-done-more-lost):

"[LeBron is] a grown man," Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said. "He doesn't need any of you to tell him anything. He knows more than all of you put together. He understands the game. If he makes a pass and you all think he should have shot it, or he shoots it and you think he should have made a pass, your opinions mean nothing to him, as they should not mean anything to him."

It's a little weird that a coach who so openly antagonizes the media is so beloved by the same, but the sentiment is in the right place: Pop's having absolutely zero time for the affected coachspeak of grit and desire and clutchnessosity is very refreshing.

[Latrinsorm]

An interesting example of interpretation in Adande (http://espn.go.com/blog/truehoop/post/_/id/59470/the-spurs-second-unit-proving-first-rate)'s recent piece. The facts:

1. In the regular season the Spurs went 11-5 (68.8%) without Parker and therefore 47-19 (71.2%) with him.
2. In the playoffs the Spurs are +54 with Parker sitting (187 minutes) and therefore +146 with him on the court (558 minutes). Put another way, +13.9 per 48 minutes w/o, +12.6 w/.

What, if anything, would you conclude from this? Adande concludes that Popovich is a brilliant strategist whose aggressive resting schemes give his backup unit enough reps to play well when called upon. (Of players to play at least 60 games, Parker was 52nd in MP/G, Duncan 76th.) Adande also compares this performance unfavorably to how the Heat without LeBron perform, but doesn't explicitly criticize Spoelstra. There's no question Popovich is brilliant, but the Spurs have been dreadful with Gary Neal on the court, hemorrhaging about 10 points per 100 possessions. Cory Joseph has fared somewhat better (about broken even) but in limited minutes.

What if the real answer is that Tony Parker just isn't that good? And, piggybacking on that, let's review the lineup Adande cites as an anecdote: Neal, Green, Ginobili, Leonard, Duncan. What if even a hobbled and visibly aging Ginobili can run the offense well enough with The Great Tim Duncan on the court to stir the drink, especially with 2 strong outside shooters in Green and Leonard?

Everyone was very excited about how the Heat were going to stop Tony Parker, but let's not go nuts here. He scored 21 points on 18 shots (no 3s), got to the line 4 times, had 6 assists to 0 turnovers. Those are fine numbers, but they're not terrifying numbers, especially when the turnovers are going to regress to the mean very shortly.

[Latrinsorm]

I wonder if Gary Neal owes money to Woody Paige and therefore played one of the worst games of his career just to stick it to Adande.

[Latrinsorm]

You often hear people say things like "all that matters is getting the split" of the first 2 games in a best of 7, sometimes in conjunction with "there are no points for style", "points don't carry over to next game", etc. I wondered if that had empirically been the case. The NBA Finals has had the 2-3-2 format since 1985. First, let's see how teams have done following each condition:

Home team wins first two games: 12-1 (Dirk is soft), decided by an average of 5.42 and 6.00 games.
Home team wins first game, loses second: 4-5, decided by 6.25 and 5.80.
Home team loses first game, wins second: 3-1 (Kobe is soft), 5.67 and 5.00.
Home team loses first two games: 0-2, N/A and 5.00.

(In total, the home team is 19-9, 5.63 and 5.56. 4 series were sweeps, 7 went 5, 14 went 6, and only 4 went 7.)

All told the pattern is roughly win = win, split = split, lose = lose. That's good, but what if we introduce a third outcome of "tie" for any game decided by less than ten points? Then we get...

WW: 4-0
WT: 6-2
TW: 4-1
WL: 0-1
LW: 1-0
TT: 4-3
TL: 0-1
LT: 0-1

...or ignoring order...

WW: 4-0
WT: 10-3
WL: 1-1
TT: 4-3
TL: 0-2

Interestingly (though insignificantly), the two -1 conditions do not correspond with the two LL conditions, but instead correctly predicts the 2004 Lakers were soft.

.

This is all very pretty, but it would be nice to take into account that a sweep is more demonstrative than a seven game slugfest. Let's call losing in 4 "0", then each better result higher until winning in 4 which is "7". Then the average results are...

WW: 5.00
WT: 4.77
TT: 3.86
WL: 3.00
TL: 0.50

...compared to "all that matters is a split"...

WW: 5.31
WL: 3.46
LL: 1.00

Thus, winning (or losing) a game decisively is more correlated with overall victory than outright victory or (loss) so far. I look forward to revisiting this analysis in 30 years or so when we have a much bigger sample size.

[Drew]

I didn't get this post. Can you explain it to me as though I were a 10 year old?

[Latrinsorm]

I'm having trouble articulating it concisely. Let's look at an example: the Miami Heat have home court advantage this year and split the first two games with the Spurs. Our two questions are:

1. What does their being 1-1 over the last two games tell us, based on the history of the Finals since the adoption of the 2-3-2 format?
2. Does it matter that the loss was a close loss and the win was a blowout?

Question (1) is pretty straightforward. Out of the 28 Finals, the home team has started 1-1 in 13, of which it went on to win 7 - pretty close to 50/50 odds.

Question (2) can be answered by describing each game as W (won by 10+ points), T (decided by less than 10 points either way), or L (lost by 10+ points). Under this methodology this year's Heat would have one W and one T, or WT for short. By coincidence, 13 teams have also started the Finals that way, but they went on to win 10 - 77%.

We can go even further by seeing how many games it took the teams to win or lose, based on the theory that winning in 4 games (on average) represents more dominance than winning in 7. We can do this by assigning each outcome a number from 0 to 7, where 0 represents losing in 4 games, 1 represents losing in 5 games, and so on to 7 represents winning in 4 games. When we do this, the same groups above work out to...

one win, one loss: 3.46 (which corresponds to halfway between a 7 game win and a 7 game loss, but slightly closer to the loss side)
one blowout win, one close game: 4.77 (which corresponds to slightly longer than a 6 game win)

That felt better to say, hopefully it was better to read. :)

[Malgaftan]

All that to say Heat in 6? Or did that just go so far over my head I began hallucinating.

[DoctorUnne]

I'll take a stab at it.

Latrin's point is that a blowout win and a close loss are a stronger indicator that Miami is a better team and therefore more likely to win the series than a close win and a close loss, even though the series is 1-1 in both cases. I don't think anyone would disagree with that. In fact, I would even argue that a blowout win and a close loss are a stronger indicator that Miami is a better team than two close losses, even though they obviously would be less likely to win that particular series being down 2-0.

Having said that, the Spurs chances of winning this series, even if not 50%, are higher than they were heading into the series, and therefore most of their fans are probably pretty happy with the outcome.

[Latrinsorm]

Latrin's point is that a blowout win and a close loss are a stronger indicator that Miami is a better team and therefore more likely to win the series than a close win and a close loss, even though the series is 1-1 in both cases.Yes, this.
I don't think anyone would disagree with that.Some people do, often those who also place a premium on clutchness.
In fact, I would even argue that a blowout win and a close loss are a stronger indicator that Miami is a better team than two close losses, even though they obviously would be less likely to win that particular series being down 2-0.I think this should read "two close wins", no? And I agree.
All that to say Heat in 6? Or did that just go so far over my head I began hallucinating.The interesting part is that the same data says Heat in 6 and Spurs in 7 depending on whether you take into account margin of victory or not.

Personally I still feel pretty good about my Heat in 5 prediction.

[DoctorUnne]

Yes I meant two close wins

[Atlanteax]

Latrin, what does it mean if the Miami Heat...

Lose by a little, Win by a lot... and then Lose by a lot?

[Androidpk]

Game is not over yet.

[RSR]

It means Pops is a much, much better coach than Spoelstra and the Heat are in trouble. I think the Spurs will win the series because they've got the better coach. Spoelstra has talented players but that doesn't make him a good coach.

[Atlanteax]

At this point, I'm wondering if one of the Heat players (Birdman perhaps) wiill lose their cool during the 4Q and be suspended for Game 4.

[Atlanteax]

Damn, 6 minutes left in 4Q, and definitely looks like a foregone conclusion at this point.

My Spurs in 6 pick may end up right on the mark.

[Keller]

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~~~▄▄██▌█ Cargo: Miami Championship shirts and hats
▄▄▄▌▐██▌█ Destination: Nicaragua
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▀(@)▀▀▀▀▀▀▀(@)(@)▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀(@)(@)▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀( @)

[Stretch]

Am I the only one hoping that Duncan's divorce was a result of his wife cheating on him with Tony Parker?

[Atlanteax]

Am I the only one hoping that Duncan's divorce was a result of his wife cheating on him with Tony Parker?

That'd be a ... stretch.

[Latrinsorm]

Latrin, what does it mean if the Miami Heat...

Lose by a little, Win by a lot... and then Lose by a lot?I'm not going to go through every Finals again right now, but my guess is it's not good news. It suggests the teams are evenly matched (one big win each way, one tie), and if the Spurs go .500 from here they win.
It means Pops is a much, much better coach than Spoelstra and the Heat are in trouble. I think the Spurs will win the series because they've got the better coach. Spoelstra has talented players but that doesn't make him a good coach.I think the main conclusion we can draw is that Pops is a much, much better coach than Brooks. Case in point, willingness to experiment with rotations. In the second quarter he ran out a crazy lineup which incredibly went uncommented on by the (normally very on-point) announce team of Breen and Van Gundy. To start the 2nd:

Parker - Neal - Ginobili - Leonard - Splitter
This is small ball, but not ridiculously so, and the same line-up with Diaw in Leonard's place logged 24 minutes in the regular season, so it's not totally unprecedented. Then, with a minute gone by, Green entered the game... for Leonard.

Parker - Neal - Green - Ginobili - Splitter
It's a WOW moment. Splitter nominally starts at PF but is a C, that's fine. Neal is a combo guard, Green and Ginobili are pure SGs. It's crazy how small this line-up was. In fairness IIRC Brooks also ran out a three point guard set in Game 1 of last year's Finals (the only game they won - coincidence?) but I don't remember him playing Sefolosha too many minutes at power forward, for God's sake. Pops has no fear.

Now, at the same time, this wasn't the line-up that killed Miami, and the Spurs are still one miracle Tony Parker shot away from being down 2-1 instead of up. I got some flak from the Doctor of Melmond for anointing Wade as All-NBA 2nd team, but his regular season was magnificent. 2nd highest PER of any guard, 4th highest WS/48, by far the highest shooting % of his career. For Spoelstra through scheme and rest to be able to coax that out of a player who is aging before our eyes deserves at least a little credit.
Am I the only one hoping that Duncan's divorce was a result of his wife cheating on him with Tony Parker?I cringed.
That'd be a ... stretch.I cringed even more.

[Latrinsorm]

More thoughts:

Literally career games for both Green and Neal. Some of it is poor defense/defensive effort, some of it is good shooting, but sometimes guys just make shots they won't on average. Take Danny Green: everyone knows Green had an excellent 3p% in the regular season, but the overwhelming majority of those were spot-up: he was assisted on 94.4% of his 3s, Neal on 75.3%. Last night they were hitting in isolation, in the pick and roll, off the dribble everywhere. Green had made 1 pick and roll 3 all season before the 2 last night and none in isolation, mostly because he had only attempted 6 and 8 respectively (while attempting over 300 spotting up).

This also goes back to the point about Pop. Those two guys didn't make those shots because Pop rests starters in the regular season. (For one thing, Green is a starter.) Sometimes guys just make shots they won't on average. That it wins a team a Finals game instead of a January game against Minnesota doesn't mean it's any less of a small sample.

.

With that said, it has been astonishing how poorly both big 3s have played as supporting players (even guys who played very sparingly in the regular season like Neal and Miller) have been unconscious. Check it:

(San Antonio is currently +21 for the series.)
Parker: +9; 13.3 points, 1.7 rebounds (!), 6.3 assists, 2.3 turnovers, 43% FG, 12.3 FGA, 3.7 FTA
Duncan: +13; 13.7, 13.0, 2.0, 2.3, 37%(!!!), 14.3, 4.0
Ginobili: -14; 8.3, 1.3, 3.3, 38%, 8.0, 2.0
James: -6; 16.7, 12.3, 7.3, 2.0, 39%(!!!), 18.0, 2.0(!!!!!)
Wade: -36; 14.3, 1.3(!!!), 4.3, 1.7, 44%, 14.3, 2.7
Bosh: -21; 12.3, 8.3, 3.0, 2.3, 44%, 12.0, 2.7

Only LeBron has a better +/- than his team, Ginobili is astonishingly low, nobody's getting to the line, nobody's shooting well. Duncan and James are shooting like Bob Cousy. Again, credit some of it to defense, but you have to wonder if these guys are just out of gas after long careers of long seasons. If someone held a gun to your head and demanded you pick a Finals MVP from the big 3s, you'd pretty much have to go with LeBron, right? And he is playing miserably by his standards. Even if we open it up to supporting casts, Neal was ***dreadful*** in game 2 and scored 7 points on 9 shots in game 1. Green has acquitted himself very well on the offensive end, but as a spot-up shooter. Steve Kerr didn't win any Finals MVPs, you know?

.

San Antonio fans (and their simulacra for this series) complain(/whine) about how the Spurs don't get attention, but it also works in their favor. For starters, imagine if the Heat were the #1 seed and lost in the first round as the Spurs did in 2011. Twitter would melt down, and I mean that literally. Jeff Twitter would come to work the next day and his tubes would be sitting in a puddle on the floor. We saw "blow up the Heat?" articles when they were tied in the Conference Finals. Review those stats above for James vs. Duncan. LeBron is clearly playing better, but the front page articles on espn.com are...
"Not Again, LeBron" (two articles)
"What's Wrong with LeBron?"
"James-Wade Broken?"
"Next Heat Adjustments?" (that one's pretty neutral)
0 of 5 about the Spurs stars playing atrociously, 0 of 5 about Parker going to the back with a hamstring sprain and the Spurs blowing the doors off the gymnasium without him. Can you imagine if the Heat went on any sort of run with LeBron on the bench?

Now, you could retort that the Heat deserve this because the Decision, but if I may remind you of the first sentence of this section: San Antonio fans complain about not getting this attention, but it also works in their favor.

.

Can't wait for game 4. :D

[Atlanteax]

but the front page articles on espn.com are...
0 of 5 about the Spurs stars playing atrociously, 0 of 5 about Parker going to the back with a hamstring sprain and the Spurs blowing the doors off the gymnasium without him. Can you imagine if the Heat went on any sort of run with LeBron on the bench?

I saw a headline about Parker being injured ... and the article was about him going to the bench after sensing his hamstring was being weird, playing a bit in 4Q, and then sitting to play it safe.
There was another article, but a vague headline, and it was about the Spurs non-big-3 having a career night behind the arc.

I could had sworn there was a 3rd article that talking about Duncan having a great game in comparison to the Heat players.

So no, I don't think it was *all* Heat-related headlines.

[Latrinsorm]

I can't speak for whatever was up there when you looked at espn. When I made that post I literally went to espn nba and c/ped the headlines.

But even what you saw proves my point. "Parker goes to the bench", "Parker might be injured", not "Is Parker good if the Spurs are dramatically better when he sits?", not "Parker sits, Spurs go on 365874-0 run". "Duncan has great game" with a friggin' 12-14, 4 turnovers, and the worst +/- of any Spurs starter. If LeBron has a game with 12 points, 14 rebounds, and 1 assist to 4 turnovers, it's a referendum on his entire career (high school, professional, and theoretical college, which is the second lamest college behind the electoral).

[Latrinsorm]

Last thing for now: for another project I was looking up number of games played over a certain span, and it stood out how few players play only for one team. Since the 1997 season, here are the most games played for a single team:

1239 - Bryant
1180 - Duncan
1108 - Nowitzki
1102 - The Captain
872 - Parker
764 - Foster
727 - Ginobili
676 - Jos. A. Smith
669 - Collison
669 - Haslem
669 - Miller (think about it, think about it... yep, Reggie)

1 Laker, 3 Spurs, 1 Maverick, 1 Celtic, 2 Pacers, 1 Hawk, 1 Sonicare, 1 HEATer.

[DoctorUnne]

Now, at the same time, this wasn't the line-up that killed Miami, and the Spurs are still one miracle Tony Parker shot away from being down 2-1 instead of up.

Weren't the Spurs up 2 when he hit that shot? If he misses it they still have a better than 50/50 chance of winning the game, so not sure I agree with that statement. Having said that, the media overreacted to the latest game as usual and it wouldn't shock me at all if the Heat won game 4 handily. I still think Heat in 7.

[Keller]

Can you imagine if the Heat went on any sort of run with LeBron on the bench?

Not even in my wildest imaginations.

[Latrinsorm]

Weren't the Spurs up 2 when he hit that shot? If he misses it they still have a better than 50/50 chance of winning the game, so not sure I agree with that statement. Having said that, the media overreacted to the latest game as usual and it wouldn't shock me at all if the Heat won game 4 handily. I still think Heat in 7.Yes, but also remember that the Heat were able to draw up a play to get a Wade layup afterwards. No reason to think they wouldn't be able to do so down 2 (when you have to guard 3s) instead of down 4 (when you pretty much just have to not foul).

[Latrinsorm]

I've seen a bit of a recurring theme in basketball comments here and there: losing in the Finals indicates a flaw in LeBron, whether in terms of game, will, personality, clutchness, whatever. The comparison is always to Jordan going 6 for 6 in the Finals (potentially telling note: people do not say Jordan's teams, just Jordan). It is an interesting question, and I mean that sincerely. Let's review their team's playoff performances to this point in their respective careers, and assume the Heat lose this series...

LeBron
DNP
DNP
2R
Finals (sweep)
2R
3R
2R
Finals
Champion
Finals

total: 2 DNP, 3 2R, 1 3R, 3 Finals, 1 Champ. Average: 2.6

Jordan
1R
1R (sweep)
1R (sweep)
2R
3R
3R
Champion
Champion
Champion
2R

total: 3 1R, 2 2R, 2 3R, 0 Finals, 3 Champ. Average: 2.8

Jordan goes 3 for 3 in the Finals, LeBron goes 1 for 4.
Jordan goes 7 for 10 in the first round, LeBron goes 8 for 8.
Jordan gets swept twice (although in best of 5s), LeBron once (although in the Finals).
Jordan never misses the playoffs.

These are the facts (again, assuming the Heat lose this year). If we assume for the sake of argument that Jordan had an inner strength to refuse to lose in the Finals, why didn't he use that strength in the first round? If we assume for the sake of argument that Jordan was so competitive his team never missed the playoffs, where did that competitiveness go as his team was getting swept, twice?

Isn't the most logical way of looking at it that Jordan's teams were just luckier in the Finals and LeBron's teams were just luckier in the first round? Sometimes the ball bounces one way, sometimes the other, sometimes you score 63 and (but? therefore?) lose, sometimes you average 17 12 and 7 and (but? therefore?) your team goes 1-2. Would you care to guess the last person to pull off a 17/12/7 for the Finals? Nope. Nope. Not him either. Nope.

It has never happened. Why doesn't he score more like Jordan? Why doesn't he assist more like Magic? Because he's not Jordan, and he's not Magic. He's LeBron. There will never be another Jordan, there will never be another Magic, there will never be another LeBron. My advice is to tune out of the instant overreaction circus and enjoy him while you can.

[DoctorUnne]

People have an obsession with rankings, especially in sports.

[Keller]

Lolololol bosh dunk at end of second half.

[Atlanteax]

During 2Q, I was thinking that the Heat was probably going to 'comfortably' win Game 2, after re-extending lead after Spurs pulled to wiithin 3. But now I think Spurs still are likely to win, with it being tied at half-time, and the Heat's early burst probably will not be sustained in 2nd half.

[Bobmuhthol]

People have an obsession with rankings, especially in sports.Spoken like a true mediocre person.

[SHAFT]

Lolololol bosh dunk at end of second half.

Oh hey it's Keller. You know, you're the only person on the PC to lose a bet and to never have paid me. You lost a 2m bet to me last year and another a few weeks ago. Pretty pathetic you can't cough up 4m or the cash equivalent, which is roughly $50.

Ill do you a solid pal and let's forget the debt. Instead, take the 4m/cash equivalent and shove it up your ass. You might as well be added to the list of cheats that includes inspire, zimzum, mureii, Allen, etc. ill get you added to it when I get a chance. You've earned it.

[Atlanteax]

During 2Q, I was thinking that the Heat was probably going to 'comfortably' win Game 2, after re-extending lead after Spurs pulled to wiithin 3. But now I think Spurs still are likely to win, with it being tied at half-time, and the Heat's early burst probably will not be sustained in 2nd half.

Welp, halfway thru 4Q, Heat up by 15 ... looks like I was wrong about the halftime pulling Spurs ahead for 2nd half... they just showed Parker with 0 points. Guess we know what the headlines will be tomorrow, Latrin?

Edit: Wow, Ginobilli just got his 1st FG with 2:30 left in 4Q. Headlines = Parker & Ginobilli = DISAPPEARED!

[Geijon Khyree]

Thank god the Heat woke up. This was depressing if it went 3-1

[Latrinsorm]

The lineup chicken being played by both coaches is really astonishing. Putting Splitter and then Diaw (who somehow seems to have gained 10 pounds since game 2, and he wasn't exactly svelte to start with) on Wade?!?!? Then on the Miami side, essentially trading Birdman for Miller is some cojones. Going to Cole after about 4 minutes of Chalmers in the first half was also shocking. And Spo really never gets enough credit for this: being able to resist the urge to put LeBron back in every time the lead dips with him on the bench.
Welp, halfway thru 4Q, Heat up by 15 ... looks like I was wrong about the halftime pulling Spurs ahead for 2nd half... they just showed Parker with 0 points. Guess we know what the headlines will be tomorrow, Latrin?

Edit: Wow, Ginobilli just got his 1st FG with 2:30 left in 4Q. Headlines = Parker & Ginobilli = DISAPPEARED!Headlines are going to be all Heat, just like always. People were having a coronary when Wade was averaging 14, Ginobili is now averaging 7.5... nobody cares.

I can't believe Splitter only recorded 3 turnovers. It seemed like every time he touched the ball Wade or James was tearing it away from him. Again: nobody cares, but the biggest thing that's surprised me about Splitter has been all the Brazil features with absolutely 0 mention of Leandro Barbosa.
Oh hey it's Keller.I warned him! Now the consequences will never be the same.

[Latrinsorm]

+/- updates for big 3s, San Antonio overall currently at +5:

Parker: +3
Duncan: +9
Ginobili: -36(!!!)
James: +2
Wade: -31(!)
Bosh: -15

It's pretty crazy.

[Atlanteax]

I can't believe Splitter only recorded 3 turnovers. It seemed like every time he touched the ball Wade or James was tearing it away from him.

Wow, the Spurs had a total of 18 turnovers ... *18*. Game would had been significantly closer if that was single-digits, like Miami's 9.

[DoctorUnne]

Spoken like a true mediocre person.

1. DoctorUnne
2. Bobmuhthol

[Keller]

Oh hey it's Keller. You know, you're the only person on the PC to lose a bet and to never have paid me. You lost a 2m bet to me last year and another a few weeks ago. Pretty pathetic you can't cough up 4m or the cash equivalent, which is roughly $50.

Ill do you a solid pal and let's forget the debt. Instead, take the 4m/cash equivalent and shove it up your ass. You might as well be added to the list of cheats that includes inspire, zimzum, mureii, Allen, etc. ill get you added to it when I get a chance. You've earned it.

Looks like someone is having a temper tantrum.


I just hope Keller will pay me in this calendar year.


Put it on my calendar for December 28.

[SHAFT]

Looks like someone is having a temper tantrum.

I guess I'm just an old fashioned kind of guy. If I lose a bet I pay, if I win a bet I expect to be paid. That's how things used to go right? The world is changing so fast, I might've missed it if someone changed the rules.

I've asked you numerous times to pay up over the last few weeks and you've pretty much told me to fuck off. I'm not going to sweat it. Your life as a pacers fan looks pretty bleak in the future so ill take some joy in that. You guys were soooooo close......so close! Always next year pal. Keep your chin up.

[Keller]

I guess I'm just an old fashioned kind of guy. If I lose a bet I pay, if I win a bet I expect to be paid. That's how things used to go right? The world is changing so fast, I might've missed it if someone changed the rules.

I've asked you numerous times to pay up over the last few weeks and you've pretty much told me to fuck off. I'm not going to sweat it. Your life as a pacers fan looks pretty bleak in the future so ill take some joy in that. You guys were soooooo close......so close! Always next year pal. Keep your chin up.

Let's recap for those playing at home.

I lost a 2M silver bet that the Pacers would win the NBA championship. At the time I lost that bet, you had taken some sort of hiatus from the PC.

You came back and asked me to pay. I told you I don't play anymore, so we'd need to coordinate me signing on. You said I could just let it ride on the Pacers/Heat series.

I did. I lost and you asked me to pay.

I offered to log in and pay when I read the message. You said you couldn't get on right then and would contact me to coordinate payment.

You didn't and then posted that you hoped I'd pay within the calendar year. I repaid you snarkiness with snarkiness of my own and told you I'd put it on my calendar for Dec. 28.

Again, you can throw a temper tantrum if you want. Or you can coordinate a time for me to log in that works for you, which you said you'd do but have not yet done.

[SHAFT]

You can try to spin it however you want, but the last pm I sent you regarding the matter you responded back that you'll pay me on dec 28th. Not exactly cooperative.

If you want to make things right, please make a donation to help the people involved in the Oklahoma tornados. They certainly need the money more than I do. They might need it before December 28th too. You can find a few donation centers listed in the link below.

http://m.lubbockonline.com/local-news/2013-05-31/monetary-donations-best-way-help-oklahoma-tornado-victims

[Keller]

http://i417.photobucket.com/albums/pp256/bobberyt/7bf58a19-a4f6-4f98-974d-fc52bd3cfd86_zps2b5164ff.jpg?t=1371231250


If you want to make things right, you can apologize for throwing a temper tantrum and acting like I've not offered to pay when I did and you didn't take the simple step of setting up a time.

[Drew]

TMB tab open, confirmed that is Keller.

[SHAFT]

I'm not really big on apologizing. However, that donation is very kind of you Keller. I'm glad we teamed up and helped some people in need.

[Keller]

TMB tab open, confirmed that is Keller.

I actually had to back out of the "***OFFICIAL SLUTTY SPRING BREAK PICTURES" thread before I took the screen cap.

[msconstrew]

I actually had to back out of the "***OFFICIAL SLUTTY SPRING BREAK PICTURES" thread before I took the screen cap.

And yet you left the Westlaw tab open!

[Keller]

And yet you left the Westlaw tab open!

I work, sometimes.

[msconstrew]

I work, sometimes.

Disappoint.

[Latrinsorm]

The more I think about the game last night, the less satisfied I am with the explanations of "aggression" or "body language". Here is what happened last night:

1. Dwyane Wade took multiple jump shots that went in. Wade shot 43% on jumpers in the regular season and has a devastating shot fake (which should not be news but apparently is to EVERY DEFENDER IN THE NBA), so it's not a terrible play, but it's not a great play either.
2. Dwyane Wade gambled constantly on defense and got steals.
3. LeBron engaged in multiple out of control drives to the rim that resulted in points. If you had to pick anyone in the NBA to hurtle towards the rim and figure it out as he goes, of course you'd take LeBron, but it's not a great play.
4. Shane Battier was visibly gun-shy, and Miami as a whole shot very poorly from 3: only 3 makes all game before LeBron's garbage time iso 3.

Why did these first three plays work out? It could be Miami finally getting some of the outlier performances that have made Green, Neal, and Miller so productive, but I think it has more to do with what I talked about before: it's a long friggin' season, and everyone is exhausted. Yes LeBron is the best player anyway, but I don't see how it's a coincidence that the most freakishly gifted athlete(/cyborg) is the only player out of really everybody playing well.

.

ESPN's NBA headlines:
Can Ginobili bounce back?
Flash (ed. note: ugh) back
SA's "big" issue
Bosh good
James good

So someone did bring up Ginobili, I was wrong about that. However, nobody (in the article or the comments) mentioned trade, or blowing up the core, even though the Spurs stars are significantly older than the Heat stars. This is what I mean about benefiting from no attention. People remark on Ginobili's struggles, they're not evidence that he should retire, has no heart, is washed up, etc.
Wow, the Spurs had a total of 18 turnovers ... *18*. Game would had been significantly closer if that was single-digits, like Miami's 9.Yes, but the Spurs are a poor team at not having turnovers and an average team at forcing them, while Miami is average at not having and good at forcing. It would be like saying the Mia-Ind series would have been a lot more Miami-sided if Miami had had more rebounds. Yes, but there's no reason to expect them to. We should expect Miami to have a turnover advantage throughout the series, it's game 1 that was the outlier.

[Latrinsorm]

So I was poking through some NBA Finals stats and saw how Eric Snow played for the 76ers in 2001, giving him a 6 year gap between Finals appearances. This reminded me how the Spurs' stars (and Bonner) have the same gap, and I wondered: how common is that?

Not counting this year, 730 players have appeared in at least one Finals, of whom only 313 ever made it back, of whom 32 took at least 6 years to return. Here's the full list:

A.C. Green
Alex Hannum
Arnie Risen
Bill Walton
Brian Scalabrine
Bryon Russell
Carl Braun
Clyde Lovellette
Dennis Rodman
Earl Cureton
Elden Campbell
Eric Snow
Gary Payton
Gerald Henderson
Hakeem Olajuwon
Horace Grant
Jack Coleman
Jacque Vaughn
Jason Kidd
Jeff Mullins
Jerome Kersey
John Salley
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
Karl Malone
Leroy Ellis
Mark McNamara
Mitch Kupchak
Rick Barry
Rodney McCray
Sam Cassell
Shandon Anderson
Tom Hawkins
The names really run the gamut. Olajuwon, Abdul-Jabbar, and once this year is added Tim Duncan: top 10 all-time players. Scalabrine, Snow, Cureton: not so much. The largest gaps go to Elden Campbell (1991 Lakers and 2004 Pistons, in both cases the Lakers lost) and Sam Cassell (1995 Rockets and 2008 Celtics, won both) with 13 years each.

[Drew]

Jacque Vaughn


Wasn't this a baseball player?

[Latrinsorm]

There was a Greg Vaughn who played in Tampa, but I'm guessing you're thinking of Jacque Jones. Jacque Vaughn played 7 minutes for the 1998 Jazz and 41 for the 2007 Spurs (among many others), and currently coaches the Magic.

Another fun thing I found, here are the players who have 10+ rebounds per games for their Finals careers...


Alvan Adams
Ben Wallace
Bill Russell
Bob Pettit
Charles Barkley
Charles Oakley
Cliff Hagan
Clifford Ray
Dale Davis
Dave Cowens
Dave DeBusschere
Dirk Nowitzki
Dwight Howard
Elgin Baylor
Elvin Hayes
Gene Wiley
George Yardley
Hakeem Olajuwon
Jack Sikma
Larry Bird
Luke Jackson
Marvin Webster
Maurice Lucas
Moses Malone
Nate Thurmond
Neil Johnston
Otis Thorpe
Patrick Ewing
Pau Gasol
Red Kerr
Shaquille O'Neal
Shawn Kemp
Tim Duncan
Tom Gola
Wes Unseld
Wilt Chamberlain
Zydrunas Ilgauskas

...and here are the players with 10+ assists per game...


Magic Johnson

...basketball is a big man's game.

Bill Russell played a total of 3185 Finals minutes, which is more minutes than anyone played in the regular season this year.
More Russell Finals records that will never be broken: 70 games (would need 7 a year for 10 years), 1718 rebounds (would need 20 a game for 86 games), 225 personal fouls (would have to foul out for 38 games in a row, which only 16 players have even played).

Kobe Bryant has the most three point misses at 105. His 3P% of 31.4 puts him directly between Boobie Gibson and Ron Harper.

Magic has the most assists and turnovers by far, at 584 to Cousy's 349 and 190 to Kobe's 123. His ast/tov ratio of 3.07 is better than his regular season ratio of 2.89.

Tomorrow I will see if I can adopt PER to these stats, although it will obviously have to be somewhat simplified.

[Latrinsorm]

Before I mess with PER, I remember once remarking on how Michael Jeffrey Jordan was the last man to record 10+ assists per game for a single Finals (tied with Magic), and now that I have box scores that extend back for generations I can compose the full list:

Bob Cousy (1960, 1961)
Walt Frazier (1970)
Norm Nixon (1982)
Magic Johnson (1983, 1984, 1985, 1987, 1988, 1991)
Michael Jordan (1991)

Five people ever, and Magic did it more than the rest combined. I may look down my nose at people insisting that Magic was a point guard when he was the 4th tallest player on the floor, but there can be no argument he was an all-time great.

[Latrinsorm]

Alright, there are two ways we could go with PER:

1. Calculate it out with respect to season (or even with respect only to the two teams playing in the Finals), as PER requires the league rate of assists to field goals, offensive rebounds, value of possession, and even free throws (and attempts) to fouls.
2. Say "screw it" and take a rough average for those figures, which is just what I'll do:
assists to field goals = 58%
offensive reb % = 30%
value of possession = 1
ft/pf = .9
fta/pf = 1.2
fg/ft = 1.8
"factor" = .59

Now, a big issue with PER in general is that it includes every box score stat and only every box score stat, but a lot of these weren't recorded at all before 1974 and the crucial MP wasn't recorded for the 1950-1954 and 1956 Finals. This and other charming recording inconsistencies leads to (for instance) Alex Hannum having a 1455 PER due to going 27 for 1 from the field in 2 minutes (obviously this did not actually happen). If we only look at post-1978 gentlemen who played at least 10 minutes per game, we get...


36.65 Michael Jordan
36.29 Julius Erving
34.15 Shaquille O'Neal
33.67 Dwyane Wade
33.02 Magic Johnson
32.49 Charles Barkley
31.94 Bill Walton
31.69 Hakeem Olajuwon
31.45 Austin Croshere
31.26 Moses Malone

1. The cheese stands alone.
2. Dr. J and Chuck could really play.
3. Noticeably absent, of course, is LeBron James (and to a lesser extent David Robinson), players the advanced metrics usually love. In fact, LeBron's 23.3 pseudo-PER is behind even Kobe Bryant's 23.8 (a player the advanced metrics usually despise).
4. Requiring 40 MP/G instead of 10 drops Erving (39.77), Walton (21.59), and obviously Croshere (24.17) for Bird, Durant, and Duncan (29.99 pseudo-PER). We can probably round up and keep the Doc, or just require 36 MP/G.
5. Because of the peculiarities of PER, guys who bridge various stat-keeping eras like Russell and Chamberlain end up basically SOL. Russell posts a "12.6", Chamberlain a "14.3", when obviously their real PERs would be much higher, especially for a stat hound like Wilt. Just keep in mind this is a 1978-present ranking and we'll be alright.

With all that said, this is only taking into account what happened before this year. LeBron has as many steals as turnovers this year and while not shooting great is bringing his shooting pct up (although, interestingly, not his 3p% so much). With Wade and Duncan crapping the bed overall, it's possible LeBron makes a strong move upwards.

[RichardCranium]

Quick, who is the best power forward to ever play the game?

[Latrinsorm]

I can answer that question fairly readily provided two axioms:

1. Is Tim Duncan a power forward?
2. Is LeBron?
3. Hell, how about Hakeem?

[RichardCranium]

I can answer that question fairly readily provided two axioms:

1. Is Tim Duncan a power forward?
2. Is LeBron?
3. Hell, how about Hakeem?

I am disappoint.

[Latrinsorm]

I don't know how many times I have to tell you this, Maravich was NOT a power forward.

[Latrinsorm]

An interesting tidbit inspired by a Haberstroh tweet. The four longest tenured coaches in the NBA:

Popovich (16)
Rivers (9)
Spoelstra (5)
Carlisle (5)

Which is identical to the list of the four current coaches with rings. Hard to say which direction the causation goes, if any, but an interesting correlation nonetheless.

[Latrinsorm]

It's interesting to look over San Antonio's drafts (http://www.basketball-reference.com/teams/SAS/draft.html) since 1994, when Pop took over, and we'll call a hit anyone who put up .100+ WS/48 for their careers (184 of the 469 player-seasons this year had that), roughly equal to a rotation player. We'll only look at first rounders because the second round is all fliers anyway.

1994 (not clear if this was Pop's regime or the old one): miss
1995: miss
1996: none
1997: hit (Duncan)
1998: miss
1999: miss
2000: none
2001: hit (Parker)
2002: miss
2003: hit (Barbosa)
2004: miss
2005: hit (Mahinmi)
2006: none
2007: hit (Splitter)
2008: hit (Hill)
2009: none
2010: miss
2011: miss (so far, still young though)
2012: none

19 drafts, 6 hits out of 14 tries (43%). Obviously there's no other team that has had the same front office for that long, but if we pick out Seattle and go through the same time period, we get 7 hits out of 21 tries (33%, many years with multiple 1st round picks), or Indiana and see 7 for 15 (47%). It all seems pretty much the same. Obviously finding guys like Luis Scola and Manu Ginobili in the second round is commendable, but remember that (like the Patriots and Tom Brady) the Spurs drafted other guys higher: John Salmons and Leon Smith respectively.

[Keller]

Manu flopped, but Shane Battier complaining about it was rich.

[Drew]

I feel like I'm watching an early 2000s Lakers game when the refs wouldn't call fouls on Shaq because he was just so athletic for his size, but LeBron is getting hammered everytime he goes into the paint.

[SHAFT]

I hate Danny green

[Keller]

LOL!!

Battier does his best Jake Long impression and the refs call a foul on Manu. Unreal.

[Keller]

10-0 since the poor call on the drive blocking drill by Shane Battier.

Karma.

[Stretch]

Watching Green and Allen trade shots throughout the game was kind of like watching He Got Game, only Ray Allen played the role of Denzel, the movie was longer, and there wasn't a depressing storyline about a hooker.

[Latrinsorm]

The Heat just played slow, and slower than the Spurs. Not going to win that way.

It's really odd to see people continue to complain about how Miami gets all the calls. San Antonio has had more FTAs and less PFs in every single game, and is currently at +27 FTAs and -22 PFs for the series. It seems like the thinking man's hater response would be "see? Miami can't win when they don't get the calls!" Continuing to complain about the calls makes no sense.

Teams that go down 3-2 don't go on to win the championship too terribly often, but perhaps more often than you might guess. All told 8 of 63 champions have done so, and 3 in the 28 years of 2-3-2 format. Also, the road team up 3-2 is only 5 of 8 winning the series, while the home team up 3-2 is 9 of 9 (and 8 of 9 winning in one). As the Spurs are not the home team, take the stats you are going to see about teams up 3-2 winning the series 82% (14 of 17) of the time with a grain of salt.

[Androidpk]

Not that I want to give Miami advice.. but they should have let Allen play more minutes. His shooting tonight was top notch. I think he outperformed everyone else on his team.

[Latrinsorm]

With only 8 cases we may as well run down the names:

1985 Lakers: win at Celtics
1988 Pistons: two losses at Lakers
1993 Bulls: win at Suns
1994 Knicks: two losses at Rockets
1998 Bulls: win at Jazz
2006 Heat: win at Mavericks
2010 Celtics: two losses at Lakers
2011 Mavericks: win at Heat

And perhaps interestingly (but actually a meaningless coincidence), the only 1 of the 9 home teams not to close the deal in one game were the 2005 Spurs.

[Latrinsorm]

Not that I want to give Miami advice.. but they should have let Allen play more minutes. His shooting tonight was top notch. I think he outperformed everyone else on his team.Allen still can't play defense. This is why even though he scored 21 points on 7 of 10 shooting with 1 assist and no turnovers, which is excellent offense, Miami was outscored by 12 when he was on the court, worse than everyone on the team except Cole (-14 in 7 minutes, yeesh) and Haslem (-20 in 9, YEESH).

It's particularly puzzling that Haslem is still in with the acquisition and ascension of the Birdman. When our other options were Juwan Howard or Jamaal Magloire, sure, but it's time to get serious now. Battier has also finally recovered some shooting touch, and San Antonio's bigs have not made Miami pay for any small lineup.

[Latrinsorm]

Last thought: is LeBron the MVP so far, even if the Spurs win? The Finals MVP has only ever gone to a player from the losing team once, to Jerry West in 1969, the first year it was awarded. Options for the Spurs and their current line scores:

Parker - 16.2 points, 2.0 rebounds, 6.6 assists to 2.6 turnovers
Duncan - 15.6 points, 11.2 rebounds, 1.8 blocks, 8 assists to 11 turnovers
Ginobili - 10.8 points, 1.6 rebounds, 4.4 assists to 2.0 turnovers
Leonard - 12.2 points, 10.2 rebounds, 6 assists to 5 turnovers
Green - 18.0 points, 3.4 rebounds, 5 assists to 5 turnovers

LeBron - 21.6 points, 10.8 rebounds, 6.8 assists to 2.0 turnovers, 1.0 blocks, 2.2 steals

I dunno, unless you give it do Duncan to make up for the 2007 Finals MVP travesty, which seems insulting to everyone, LeBron seems to be doing more than any individual Spur.

[Keller]

It's really odd to see people continue to complain about how Miami gets all the calls.

To be clear, you're not talking about me, right?

Just wanted to make sure. I assume you're referring to talking heads or twitter or some other forum.

[Androidpk]

If Ditka is an option you have no choice but to choose Ditka.

What if one of the options is Ditka with a taco?

[tyrant-201]

I am appalled that Ditka was an option, but not sausage. You cannot have Ditka without sausage.

[DoctorUnne]

No chance LeBron wins the MVP if the Spurs win the title. For that to happen, you'd need a) no player on the Spurs to stand out, and b) LeBron to have otherworldly numbers in absolute terms, relative to his teammates and relative to his typical performances. You've got the first part, but with Wade really stepping up the past two games and LeBron well below his scoring and shooting averages (44% FG and 32% threes compared to 57%/41% in the regular season), it's not going to happen. There's just too much of a bias towards giving the MVP to the winning team. I bet you could find better historical instances of someone from a losing team more deserving of an MVP than LeBron (Wilt comes to mind).

[Latrinsorm]

To be clear, you're not talking about me, right?

Just wanted to make sure. I assume you're referring to talking heads or twitter or some other forum.I'm talking to all y'all haters.

[Keller]

I'm talking to all y'all haters.

I can't imagine a worse reality than having to root for a team of flopping whiners. Call it hating, but I'll keep laughing.

I hope Lebron can get out of Miami. I really, really​ want to root for him. He was just soft enough going into Miami that he bought into the Miami way of playing basketball.

[Sile]

For the record, the 2 - 3 - 2 format sucks.

[Latrinsorm]

No chance LeBron wins the MVP if the Spurs win the title. For that to happen, you'd need a) no player on the Spurs to stand out, and b) LeBron to have otherworldly numbers in absolute terms, relative to his teammates and relative to his typical performances. You've got the first part, but with Wade really stepping up the past two games and LeBron well below his scoring and shooting averages (44% FG and 32% threes compared to 57%/41% in the regular season), it's not going to happen. There's just too much of a bias towards giving the MVP to the winning team. I bet you could find better historical instances of someone from a losing team more deserving of an MVP than LeBron (Wilt comes to mind).We agree (a) is a check.

(b) LeBron is currently leading his team in points (by 8 over Wade), rebounds (10 Bosh), assists (7 Wade), second in steals (by 1 behind Wade) and blocks (by 3 Bosh) for the Finals, so "to his teammates" is a check. Wade has turned on the scoring, but is still at -37 for the series, worst of any player. I think people should be intelligent enough to factor in pace (88.38 so far) and opposition (Spurs were #3 defense in the regular season) when looking at scoring and shooting respectively, not to mention the repeated blowouts removing a significant number of minutes for games 2-4 for all the star players. In fact, a lot of this can be calculated out pretty directly: pace and Spurs defense alone would reduce average Miami numbers to 88.38/90.7 * 101.6/105.9 = 93.5%, or about 1.8 of LeBron's 5.2 missing points per game.

To your point about Wilt, let's look him over. 6 trips to the Finals, 4 of which came in the Finals MVP era, 1 of which was a win (and he received the FMVP for that). That leaves 1969, 1970, 1973...

1969: 12 points, 25 rebounds, 3 assists per game. Led everyone in the world in rebounds, obviously, but was fourth on his own team for points and assists.
1970: Much better at 23 (2nd), 24 (1st), and 4 (4th), but that was the Willis Reed Finals, and Tony Parker does not rise to that level.
1973: 12 (a distant 4th), 19 (it must be fun being tall), 4 (but good for 2nd on the team). Also it was only a 5 game series, whereas this one is going at least 6.

I'll try my faux-PER measurement to get a bead on the best statistical Finals performances for 30+ mp/g and see which of those were and weren't awarded, and to save some typing anything without a comment means the player won the FMVP and his team won the series...

2002 Shaq
1987 Magic
1977 Erving (lost both, but Walton came in 7th by this metric with a friggin' 19/19/5/1/3)
2000 Shaq
1991 Michael
1993 Michael
1977 Walton
1980 Kareem (won series but missed last game and Magic sniped the FMVP, which for the record I also think is a joke)
1989 Dumars
1969 West (lost series, won FMVP)
2001 Shaq
1974 Kareem (lost both, Havlicek's 32 Finals ~PER is pretty good but not incredible)
1992 Jordan
2011 Wade (lost both, Nowitzki's 30 same as Havlicek)
1985 Kareem

So far this seems a pretty good metric, especially since there aren't any white guys on San Antonio, just throwing that out there. If we look at this year's Finals so far, we get faux-PERs for the big 6 of...

LeBron: 38.2
Wade: 35.6
Bosh: 31.5
Duncan: 28.8
Parker: 26.9
Ginobili: 16.6

Other interesting entries are...
Green: 31.4
Leonard: 28.9
Haslem: -1.0 :(

Like I said, I don't think people are ready to give FMVP to a spot-up shooter. Duncan's rating is pretty good, and he is owed one, but I think LeBron's got a better chance than you think, especially if the series goes 7.

[Latrinsorm]

I can't imagine a worse reality than having to root for a team of flopping whiners.Don't worry, I think if Indy trades Granger for Calderon and a couple tough guys they can really shape up. Georgie especially will stop waving his arms after every call if he knows the Spanish Assassin is lurking on the bench.

[SHAFT]

No chance LeBron wins the MVP if the Spurs win the title. For that to happen, you'd need a) no player on the Spurs to stand out, and b) LeBron to have otherworldly numbers in absolute terms, relative to his teammates and relative to his typical performances. You've got the first part, but with Wade really stepping up the past two games and LeBron well below his scoring and shooting averages (44% FG and 32% threes compared to 57%/41% in the regular season), it's not going to happen. There's just too much of a bias towards giving the MVP to the winning team. I bet you could find better historical instances of someone from a losing team more deserving of an MVP than LeBron (Wilt comes to mind).

Danny Green should win the MVP if the Spurs win it.

[Keller]

Don't worry, I think if Indy trades Granger for Calderon and a couple tough guys they can really shape up. Georgie especially will stop waving his arms after every call if he knows the Spanish Assassin is lurking on the bench.

Bad post is bad. It is a Battier worthy flop.

[Latrinsorm]

I've seriously never seen someone complain so incessantly about calls that didn't involve him in any way.

And seriously, if Indy drops Granger for Calderon they will be extremely dangerous. Memphis made the same mistake of "oh we have Gay coming back, we just pushed the consensus most talented team in our conference to 7 games without him, we're gonna be rad!" after the 2011 playoffs, it don't work like that. You won because you didn't have him, not despite it. And Calderon immediately solves your Augustin problem and your "no one on our bench can make 3s" problem. If it wasn't clear before these Finals that today's NBA is a 3 point shooting contest, it should be now.

[Parkbandit]

http://www.sportsgeekery.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/lebron-flop-3.gif

[SHAFT]

Clearly Rose hit him in the face

[Androidpk]

With a coraesine air flare?

[SHAFT]

Lebron is the only one who flops by the way

http://i184.photobucket.com/albums/x176/shaft4783/doq3xx_medium.gif (http://s184.photobucket.com/user/shaft4783/media/doq3xx_medium.gif.html)

http://i184.photobucket.com/albums/x176/shaft4783/anigif_enhanced-buzz-17854-1335181420-32.gif (http://s184.photobucket.com/user/shaft4783/media/anigif_enhanced-buzz-17854-1335181420-32.gif.html)

[Androidpk]

No one is saying that he is. It's just hilarious when he stated so adamantly that he doesn't flop and he's not that type of player.. yet he contines do flop in a dramatic manner.


http://www.totalprosports.com/2013/05/29/lebron-james-flop-gif/

[Keller]

No one is saying that he is. It's just hilarious when he stated so adamantly that he doesn't flop and he's not that type of player.. yet he contines do flop in a dramatic manner.


http://www.totalprosports.com/2013/05/29/lebron-james-flop-gif/

He wasn't a flopper before he got to Miami. Hopefully he can get out of that organization and reclaim his manhood.

[Keller]

I've seriously never seen someone complain so incessantly about calls that didn't involve him in any way.

And seriously, if Indy drops Granger for Calderon they will be extremely dangerous. Memphis made the same mistake of "oh we have Gay coming back, we just pushed the consensus most talented team in our conference to 7 games without him, we're gonna be rad!" after the 2011 playoffs, it don't work like that. You won because you didn't have him, not despite it. And Calderon immediately solves your Augustin problem and your "no one on our bench can make 3s" problem. If it wasn't clear before these Finals that today's NBA is a 3 point shooting contest, it should be now.

I'd prefer Dragic and Dudley for Granger. But Calderon isn't bad.

[Latrinsorm]

Suns would have to be real suckers to give up two starters for Granger, but yeah if you can get it, sure. I was thinking Calderon SnT because they're losing him anyway, Jerebko to replace Tyler Hansbrough in every way (and I include being adopted as Ben Hansbrough's brother in that statement), hopefully shed some $$ while doing it to make room for West's contract and then George/Stephenson's next summer. That gives you...

point - Hill and Calderon
wing - Born Ready, George
big - West, Jerebko, Hibbert, Mahinmi

You're still one short, but maybe you can get someone drunk and have them take Gerald Green (under contract until 2015!!!!!) for a wing that can actually play basketball. You only have the one true point, but each of Hill, George, Stephenson, even West can run a little offense in one way or another. I think it's your best realistic play, so I really hope Calderon ends up on the Kings or something.

[Latrinsorm]

Another thing to keep in mind when judging LeBron is what Ramona Shelburne (http://espn.go.com/nba/playoffs/2013/story/_/id/9395718/lot-line-lebron-james) had to say about his performance thus far:

"James has been great in some games, lethargic in others, and overall pretty good."

James is averaging 21.6 points, 10.8 rebounds, 6.8 assists, and only 2.0 turnovers so far. Let's just look at 21 points, 10 rebounds, and 6 assists for the Finals, see who has managed to do that...

1980 Magic Johnson - 21.5 points, 11.2 rebounds, 8.7 assists, 5.0 turnovers
2012 LeBron James - 28.6, 10.2, 7.4, 3.8
1995 Shaq - 28.0, 12.5, 6.3, 5.3

Pretty good. Ho hum. Has happened 3 times in 63 years. Yawn. The lesson: we are incredibly spoiled by LeBron James. (The other lesson: Ramona Shelburne is not much of a journalist.)

[Geijon Khyree]

Looks like he's the MVP even if they lose the series. I think they do something crazy like give it to Green or Parker though. Thats of course if the Spurs hold on because the Heat are going to thunder whip them in Game 6.

[Keller]

Looks like he's the MVP even if they lose the series. I think they do something crazy like give it to Green or Parker though. Thats of course if the Spurs hold on because the Heat are going to thunder whip them in Game 6.

Is thunder whip a colloquial saying for lose an elimination game at home?

[DoctorUnne]

I think people should be intelligent enough to factor in pace (88.38 so far) and opposition (Spurs were #3 defense in the regular season) when looking at scoring and shooting respectively

Like I said, I don't think people are ready to give FMVP to a spot-up shooter. Duncan's rating is pretty good, and he is owed one, but I think LeBron's got a better chance than you think, especially if the series goes 7.

It's dangerous to assume MVP voters have intelligence. You have a stronger case that he should win MVP if they lose the series than that he will win MVP, even though I disagree with both based on the results so far. Most of your statistical comparisons that illustrate how good LeBron's performance has been revolve around his rebounding numbers, but I think his rebounds are a little misleading because SA deliberately chooses to not crash the boards to get back on transition D. Given that LeBron also brings up the ball a lot, I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of times Miami's other players just run out and the rebound is just conceded to LeBron. He's only averaging 2 offensive rebounds a game.

I'm not trying to say LeBron's having a bad series, but it's not good enough to win MVP. In fact, I'll bet you up to $1,000 and give you 10:1 odds (so you put up $100) that if SA wins the series LeBron won't win MVP. That should be pretty attractive to you if you really believe what you're saying.

[RichardCranium]

If the players that should own MVP awards actually received them Chris Paul would have a couple by now.

[Keller]

Joey Crawford is officiating.

Who is going to start the "NBA 2013-14 Predictions" thread?

[Latrinsorm]

It's dangerous to assume MVP voters have intelligence. You have a stronger case that he should win MVP if they lose the series than that he will win MVP, even though I disagree with both based on the results so far. Most of your statistical comparisons that illustrate how good LeBron's performance has been revolve around his rebounding numbers, but I think his rebounds are a little misleading because SA deliberately chooses to not crash the boards to get back on transition D. Given that LeBron also brings up the ball a lot, I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of times Miami's other players just run out and the rebound is just conceded to LeBron. He's only averaging 2 offensive rebounds a game.Couldn't you hypothesize the same things about Magic? Magic actually leads all players for career defensive rebounds in the Finals (defensive rebounds not recorded until 1974), he does not in offensive rebounds. His percentage of rebounds that were offensive is 22.4%, LeBron's is currently 19.9%. A little higher, but not ridiculously so. In fact, let's look at nearest neighbors in that metric from the regular season for 1k+ MP: Stuckey, Rondo, Gay, Paul, Ridnour, Prince, Livingston, Parsons, Tyreke Evans, Iguodala. Pretty eclectic mix.

Also worth keeping in mind is that if LeBron goes into the post and gets 5 orb 10 drb tonight his career Finals % goes to 20.9%.
I'm not trying to say LeBron's having a bad series, but it's not good enough to win MVP. In fact, I'll bet you up to $1,000 and give you 10:1 odds (so you put up $100) that if SA wins the series LeBron won't win MVP. That should be pretty attractive to you if you really believe what you're saying.I don't bet.
Joey Crawford is officiating.It really says something about a guy that both fan bases are made suspicious by this assignment.

[Stretch]

You are a bigger homer than Bob Ryan.

[Latrinsorm]

Bob Ryan kicked Larry Bird off his aliens team to make room for LeBron.
Bob Ryan isn't from Akron.
Bob Ryan should start talking like Bob Dole, I think we can all agree.

.

Actually I looked it up just now and he kicked off Duncan, so... whatever.

[Keller]

You are a bigger homer than Bob Ryan.

I think he is more of a bandwagon fan than anything. He's a LeBron fan and will follow him wherever he winds up.

What we can all agree on is that LeBron needs to get the hell out of South Beach before he literally becomes Nathan Lane in the Birdcage.

[Latrinsorm]

How dare you impugn Nathan Lane's offensive rebounding abilities that way?!?

[DoctorUnne]

Maybe Ray Allen should win MVP

"And speaking of spacing, the Heat have scored 116.2 points per 100 possessions in 132 minutes with Allen on the floor in this series, and just 93.5 in 108 minutes without him, per NBA.com. Even in a small sample, that is an eye-popping gap any team would have to take into account; it's much larger than the difference between Miami's league-best offense and Washington's league-worst brick machine."

[Latrinsorm]

The trouble is, as Lowe also points out, Ray Allen might be the worst defender in this series. "But Latrinsorm!", I hear you cry, "isn't the Heat's DRtg better with Allen on the court?" As it turns out...

+18 with 116.2/100 for 132 minutes, therefore
(1.162 - defense on) * 132 minutes * 90ish possessions per 48 minutes = 18
d on = 108.9 per 100

-33 with 93.5/100 for 108, therefore
(.935 - defense off) * 108 * 90/48 = -33
d off = 109.8 per 100

...yes! But this is because it is easier to guard Ginobili (bench version) and Joseph than Green and Parker. Miami is a much deeper team than San Antonio, we already knew that.

[SHAFT]

I'd have paid 54.99 for this game. This is better than every boxing match I've gotten in the last 10 years

[Androidpk]

I want to hate Ray Allen so much.

[SHAFT]

I want to hate Ray Allen so much.

Wasn't ray Allen a free agent and he chose to sign with the heat?

What happens now that doc rivers and garnett have flirted with the clippers? Will you hate them?

[Androidpk]

I said I want to, didn't say I did.

[SHAFT]

The announcers keep saying ginoboli was fouled, but he took 4 steps! He traveled anyway.

Game 7! Wow

[DoctorUnne]

Miami is a much deeper team than San Antonio, we already knew that.

I assume you're joking.

[Latrinsorm]

I wish it were possible for every Heat fan except Latrin to have their team win the championship, but for Latrin to exist in a world where the Heat didn't trade for Ray Allen, LeBron took that last second three (like the one he did just before that), and he bricked it (like the one he did just before that). You don't deserve to have another ring for LeBron after all you've hated on Allen.Quote from my notes: "hat tip to Unne". Like I would forget, pfft. And if I may also quote from my own analysis: "The only thing we remember is the big 3, and he'll absolutely have those as well."
I assume you're joking.Would you rather have Andersen or Splitter?
Would you rather have Allen or Neal?
Would you rather have Battier or Bonner (or Diaw, although the positions don't line up as well)?
Would you rather have Miller or Ginobili (this year)?
Would you rather have Cole or Joseph (or in the ridiculously over-the-top bench celebration department, Mills)?

Miami is the deepest team in the league. People remember the 2011 Heat (who were quite possibly the shallowest Finals team of all time), but that team is long gone.

[Latrinsorm]

People give me heat for being stats-heavy, but last night provided I think the definitive response in my favor:

The stories are already written. That's bad.
Every game starts with everyone's stats at zero. That's good.

Examples

Suppose LeBron James scores 25 points in the first half, then scores 0 in the 4th quarter on 0 for 4 shooting while the Spurs catch up a 10 point deficit. He would be getting ***crucified*** today. This is exactly what Tim Duncan did, but the headline is "Spurs waste TD's night" (Adande), in the recap his disappearing act receives one third of one sentence: "was shut out after the third quarter". The story is already written: Duncan gets tired, LeBron chokes.

Suppose Wade puts up 9 points and 8(!!!) turnovers, flagrantly forearms Tony Parker in the throat, goes 1-2 from the line down the stretch to keep the Spurs alive. He would already be in trade scenarios with 31 teams (that includes the Austin Toros and Dortmund Borussia) and be peppered with faux-respectful "just throwing this out there, maybe he should retire?" stories. This is exactly what Ginobili did, but the tweets are about what a good sport he is for owning up to it. The story is already written: Ginobili is a pro, Wade is washed up.

Suppose the Heat are up 5 with under 30 seconds remaining, a situation that teams have won 98.6% of the time, and fail to close it out. It would be LeBron's fault for choking (regardless of what he did or didn't do), Spoelstra would be overrated and deserve to be fired, the Heat wouldn't have what it takes to win titles. The story is already written: the Spurs are consummate professionals with great fundamentals and mental toughness, the Heat are prima donnas who skate by on talent and can't handle crunch time.

The stories are already written, and in a game with 200 possessions involving 10 players a night, you can always find one play to make your case (even if only in your mind). If LeBron puts up 32 10 11 and loses, he should have put up 34, and Kobe would have put up 38.

.

This is how you decide LeBron's legacy.

Shane Battier banks in a 3. Shane Battier is not Larry Bird.
Miller his a 3 with one shoe.
Ray Allen hits a miracle 3 off of a miracle offensive rebound.
Tony Parker hits a miracle step-back 3 from straightaway. Before last night he was 1-3 on the season from that area, let alone on step-backs. Since 2006, when the Spurs gave up on Parker being a 3 point shooter, he's 10 for 43 - 23.3%.
Tiago Splitter hits two (for him) miracle hook shots.

Any of those don't happen, the game is completely different, the Spurs easily could win, and (in your peoples' minds) LeBron's legacy is irrevocably altered.

Seriously? That's asinine.

.

Not one Grantlander made the analogy from LeBron's headband to Kenpachi's eyepatch. The only anime reference was to Super Saiyan for a guy with 1/16th inch hair. Very disappointed.

Everyone is tired - players, coaches, sportswriters, announcers. I could not believe that neither Van Gundy nor Breen noticed that Wade didn't start the second half, only commenting on it as Wade was coming in from the locker room, which Van Gundy HILARIOUSLY described as "going back" to the locker room. It's a long friggin' season.

Elated by Chris Bosh's performance. He was also exceptional in last season's Finals, talk about peaking at the right time. My favorite play that no one will ever talk about: Ray Allen makes the first free throw, gets ready to take the second. He's Ray Allen. He shoots basically 120% on FTs. It's basically impossible to get an offensive rebound on free throws on the block. Ball goes up, what does Chris Bosh do? FIGHTS FOR AND OBTAINS POSITION, BABY. The ball goes in, so nobody cares, but I see you Chris Bosh.

[Latrinsorm]

And one more that I can't believe I missed the first time around, but I can pretty much guarantee you missed it too, because the story is already written: Mario Chalmers outscored Tony Parker, the player Bill Simmons recently (and inconceivably) christened as The Best Point Guard In The NBA.

Nobody cares.

Can you imagine if Kawhi Leonard outscored LeBron James in a potential title-clinching game? Can you??? It's really not that implausible, considering he (Leonard) outscored everyone else on the Heat but James last night, and he's a good three point shooter, blah blah blah: Skip Bayless' head would explode, okay? It would be incontrovertible proof that LeBron doesn't know how to close/win/play. LeBron could out-assist Leonard 4 to 1, as Parker did to Chalmers last night, and if this was brought up PB would have 9 jpegs at the ready to mock whoever did so.

Which brings me to my next point: I sympathize with our leading gifsmiths who no doubt were hard at work on compositions including LeBron's crybaby face (for a low-affect guy, it's surprisingly demonstrative) coupled with a Heat loss. The face after the astonishing no-call on Tony Parker wrapping up LeBron in the post is the main one I'm thinking of, but there were several. Although said smiths let me (and America) down by not putting a cheeseburger in Boris Diaw's astonished-face, I still sympathize.

[DoctorUnne]

My favorite play was Ray Allen wins the game and probably the title for the Heat on DEFENSE by stripping Ginobili of the ball on his final drive.

[Latrinsorm]

I'm sure I mentioned at some point how Ray Allen's regular season defense was atrocious except against small forwards, and Ginobili is moving about as well as the average power forward right now, so that stands to reason: I'd expect Allen to strip Matt Bonner on a drive, too.

Look, it was a great sequence for Allen. No question. I don't think this invalidates my point, though. Don't be a drag, Doc.

[DoctorUnne]

Would you rather have Andersen or Splitter?
Would you rather have Allen or Neal?
Would you rather have Battier or Bonner (or Diaw, although the positions don't line up as well)?
Would you rather have Miller or Ginobili (this year)?
Would you rather have Cole or Joseph (or in the ridiculously over-the-top bench celebration department, Mills)?

Miami is the deepest team in the league. People remember the 2011 Heat (who were quite possibly the shallowest Finals team of all time), but that team is long gone.

To answer your questions in a slightly different way since you ignored my new favorite player in the NBA, Kwahi Leonard, excluding the big 3 on each team (which is a pretty fair measure of depth)

I would rather have Green over Chalmers
I would rather have Leonard over Miller's offense + Battier's defense combined
I would rather have Splitter over Birdman or Haslem

The only one I agree with you on is I would rather have Allen over Neal. Cole and Joseph play 5 minutes a game so are kind of irrelevant.

Here are some stats to back up my argument, although I don't have the time to do as comprehensive research as you.

In the NBA finals Miami's highest scoring player has 24% of its points while San Antonio's has 18%. Miami's top three scorers have 58% of its points while San Antonio's have 51%, and one of those three guys isn't even part of the conventional big three. Miami's top five scorers have 81% while SA's have 75%. So at each level of depth Miami's production is more heavily concentrated than San Antonio's is, i.e. SA is the deeper team.

I bet you'd get the same kind of results over the regular season.

[Latrinsorm]

although I don't have the time to do as comprehensive research as you.Ouch, low blow.
In the NBA finals Miami's highest scoring player has 24% of its points while San Antonio's has 18%. Miami's top three scorers have 58% of its points while San Antonio's have 51%, and one of those three guys isn't even part of the conventional big three. Miami's top five scorers have 81% while SA's have 75%. So at each level of depth Miami's production is more heavily concentrated than San Antonio's is, i.e. SA is the deeper team.

I bet you'd get the same kind of results over the regular season.I will assume this is oll korrect, and that your bet pays off.

And?

Loathe as I am to disagree with Mr. Russell, this game is not now and has never been all about buckets. Indeed, it may even buttress your point to broaden your view, as Kawhi Leonard is having a historically great rebounding Finals. (Spoiler: it does not buttress your point. I played a trap card. Yu. gi. OHHHHH!!!)
I would rather have Green over Chalmers
I would rather have Leonard over Miller's offense + Battier's defense combined
I would rather have Splitter over Birdman or Haslem

The only one I agree with you on is I would rather have Allen over Neal. Cole and Joseph play 5 minutes a game so are kind of irrelevant.It is well-established that 5 minutes is the edge of glory, but I think a full chart is necessary for this comparison. Again, I will assume all of your points are correct:

Green > Chalmers
Leonard > Miller AND Battier
Splitter > Birdman OR Haslem (as last game's enormous Spoelstra balls demonstrated, they are basically interchangeable at this point)
Neal < Allen

This leaves [Duncan, Parkour, Ginobili] for the Spurs and [LeBron, Wade, Bosh] for the Heat.
You have to take Wade over Ginobili, by a lot.
You have to take LeBron over Parker, by a lot.
Duncan and Bosh have pretty much played to a draw, but after last game I'll give you a slight edge for Duncan.

So you have 3 wins for the Spurs and 1 close win, 1 win for the Heat and 2 ENORMOUS wins. 2 ENORMOUS > 2 and 1 close. The net goes to the Heat. The Heat are deeper. QED.

[Latrinsorm]

Oh and another point on the topic of "Manu isn't suspended for an MMA knockout elbow aimed at the throat while Andersen was suspended for a sissy little shove" "and also, Cheap Shot Rob", the Spurs cheated in game 6 by substituting Duncan during the Ray Allen review at the end of regulation.

The rules don't allow for substitution.

They did it anyway.

The Spurs are lying cheaters.

.

The above is sarcastic (except for Rob Horry being a coward and a thug, which is incontrovertible fact), but goes back to the point I will beat well past death: the story is already written. Nobody is going to call out the Spurs for this, because they're the good guys...

...

...right?

[Latrinsorm]

I should read all the NBA stories before I post, so I can get it all out of my system at once, but this drives me up the wall and across the ceiling.

Miami loses a game - "The Heat stagger their energy, drift through possessions on both ends of the floor and ignore essential assignments and tasks." "Could smugness doom the Heat?"
San Antonio loses a game - "It wasn't the result of willful neglect or even carelessness. The Heat also made some huge plays and there were a fair share of random events."

From the same Goddamn writer, Kevin Arnovitz. And you wonder why I prefer stats? A rebound is a rebound is a rebound. Either you get the ball or you don't. None of this pop psychoanalysis bullshit where the Spurs rebound because they want it more and have great fundamentals but the Heat rebound because they got lucky.

.

From the same article, from Andrew McNeill: "If Ray Allen hadn't sank that 3, I don't know how much criticism James would've been able to avoid."

Either LeBron played bad or LeBron played good. Ray Allen's play (let alone a single Ray Allen play) has no relationship whatsoever to how LeBron played, only on whether the team won or lost. I will ruin this house with my anger.

[Drew]

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1678104-tim-duncan-may-have-been-illegally-substituted-in-during-game-6-of-nba-finals


NBA confirms Duncan sub was illegal. Imagine if Parker had made that final shot.



Also when Ray Allen hits the 3 you can read his lips "Get that mother fucking rope out of here." Awesome.

[DoctorUnne]

Ouch, low blow.

Green > Chalmers
Leonard > Miller AND Battier
Splitter > Birdman OR Haslem (as last game's enormous Spoelstra balls demonstrated, they are basically interchangeable at this point)
Neal < Allen

This leaves [Duncan, Parkour, Ginobili] for the Spurs and [LeBron, Wade, Bosh] for the Heat.
You have to take Wade over Ginobili, by a lot.
You have to take LeBron over Parker, by a lot.
Duncan and Bosh have pretty much played to a draw, but after last game I'll give you a slight edge for Duncan.

So you have 3 wins for the Spurs and 1 close win, 1 win for the Heat and 2 ENORMOUS wins. 2 ENORMOUS > 2 and 1 close. The net goes to the Heat. The Heat are deeper. QED.

Sorry, my comment about your research wasn't intended as a dig. It was intended to concede that the quality of your stats and research is better than mine.

I dunno when I think of depth I think that means quality of the team beyond the top X players. All you really did by including the big 3s was argue Miami has the better overall team, not the deeper team, in my opinion.

And Ray Allen is obviously not a good defender. And he clearly didn't singlehandedly win Miami that game. I just don't understand how as a die-hard Miami fan you can't be euphoric that he is on your team right now.

[Latrinsorm]

Sorry, my comment about your research wasn't intended as a dig. It was intended to concede that the quality of your stats and research is better than mine.Well, thanks! You are surely not to blame for my neurotic paranoia. (Are you???)
I dunno when I think of depth I think that means quality of the team beyond the top X players. All you really did by including the big 3s was argue Miami has the better overall team, not the deeper team, in my opinion.In looking back I'm not sure where I was going with comparing the top 3, but I think it has to do with Ginobili (traditionally) coming off the bench, so you were hiding a weaker SA starter on a MIA bench player...? Like I said, not sure. But if we look past those names we named, Miami still has 3-point winner James Jones, Finals starter Joel Anthony (Tracy McGrady did not start in the Finals), serviceable shooter Rashard Lewis. San Antonio has Diaw's (non-lactating) breasts and nobody. It does present an interesting question: which depth is do we mean by depth? Depth to 3, depth to 9 (rotation-ish), depth to 13 (roster-ish)?
And Ray Allen is obviously not a good defender. And he clearly didn't singlehandedly win Miami that game. I just don't understand how as a die-hard Miami fan you can't be euphoric that he is on your team right now.My thought process as that play unfolded was:
I had no thoughts. I certainly had emotions, but James Coburn and I will be damned if we could put them into words. Could the aforementioned Jones have hit that shot? Would Miller have been there if we never picked up Allen? Would we have been winning anyway if we had played Wade more, left Miller and Jones on the bench, never went to Allen? Would we have already won the series? Another neurosis of mine is being analytical, especially when no answers could possibly be forthcoming. It was an amazing shot at the best possible moment, and I have been taught to be skeptical of boiling 5000 minutes of basketball down to that.

I'd shake his hand, that's for sure.

[Narthsin]

I just want to say that I enjoy reading the stats you put together quite a bit. It's interesting to look at and really sheds light on a lot of stuff that announcers or writers either overlook, or are too biased to mention.

So, thanks.

[Sile]

I'm one of those people who only really watches playoff basketball. Although I preferred watching the bulls dynasty in the 90's, this series has been golden so far. I don't care for either team to be honest. But the Spurs are the team I least dislike.

[Latrinsorm]

Thanks quite a lot! @ narthsin :) Gosh, this is a very positive spate of posts that will 60% make up for the Heat's blowout and historic loss in game 7. (Bill Simmons copyright reverse jinx.)

[Latrinsorm]

I'm one of those people who only really watches playoff basketball. Although I preferred watching the bulls dynasty in the 90's, this series has been golden so far. I don't care for either team to be honest. But the Spurs are the team I least dislike.Does it drive you crazy how people talk about the best teams ever when there is only one possible choice? 1996-1998 Bulls; thank you, please drive through.

[Sile]

Does it drive you crazy how people talk about the best teams ever when there is only one possible choice? 1996-1998 Bulls; thank you, please drive through.

I still remember the game 5 of the 97 series. Most memorable playoff game ever imo.

[Narthsin]

I still remember the game 5 of the 97 series. Most memorable playoff game ever imo.

I was a Stockton/Malone fan growing up, and that game wasn't cool to watch as a teen. Not at all. All this time later, I now realize what I was watching, I was just rooting for the wrong team.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2os-hfXSUlA

It is worth watching now, that's for sure.

[Keller]

LeBron can finally get rid of the "LeChoke" moniker.

Next season I hope he can rid himself of LeFlop.

[SHAFT]

LeBron can finally get rid of the "LeChoke" moniker.

Next season I hope he can rid himself of LeFlop.

What a series! So glad Duncan didn't hit 5 championships to match kobe. Say what you will about lebron, but isn't it nice to see him dominate like this? It's like Jordan or magic all over.

[Keller]

What a series! So glad Duncan didn't hit 5 championships to match kobe. Say what you will about lebron, but isn't it nice to see him dominate like this? It's like Jordan or magic all over.

Been a LeBron fan since he was on the cover of SI at 16. If the Heat had to win, that is exactly how I wanted it to happen. Triple-double in game 6. He took over game 7 a la the greats.

[Latrinsorm]

What a series! So glad Duncan didn't hit 5 championships to match kobe. Say what you will about lebron, but isn't it nice to see him dominate like this? It's like Jordan or magic all over.Deserves repeating, but not in a good way. In 2011 he excised the long jumpers from his game. In 2012 he learned how to post. In 2013 he became a quality spot-up shooter.

In game 7, he said "fuck it" and went back to isolation 2s and 3s. They went in - but they wouldn't most of the time. Similar story with Wade. You could say it made up for Dallas' astonishing perimeter shooting in the 2011 Finals, or even Danny Green's in games 1-5, but the fact is the Heat got really lucky in this game.

[Latrinsorm]

List of repeat champions:

52-54 Lakers
59-66 and 68-69 Celtics
87-88 Lakers
89-90 Pistons
91-93 and 96-98 Bulls
94-95 Rockets
00-02 Lakers
09-10 Lakers
12-13 Heat

Of those, teams that had at least one player with an MVP year (first awarded 1956):
Celtics
Lakers
Bulls
Rockets
Lakers (00-02)
Heat

Of those, teams that had a player win MVP in back to back championship years:
Celtics (1961, 1962, 1963; Bill Russell)
Bulls (1991, 1992; Michael Jordan)
Heat (2012, 2013; LeBron James)

.

Least losses (combined regular and postseason) by a defending champion since season went to 82 games and playoffs went to 3 rounds of 7 in 1968 (increased to 4 rounds with byes in 1975 and 4 full rounds in 1984):

17 - 1997 Bulls
22 - 1992 Bulls
23 - 2013 Heat
26 - 1998 Bulls
27 - 2001 Lakers
28 - 2002 Lakers
28 - 1990 Pistons
29 - 1988 Lakers
29 - 1993 Bulls
32 - 2010 Lakers
40 - 1969 Celtics
42 - 1995 Rockets

Don't ever underestimate the heart of a champion.

[Narthsin]

I'd just like to point out that I was the ONE person to vote for Heat in 7. Thanks, that's all. :)

[Warriorbird]

My NBA Finals feed on ABC turned blue about two minutes before the end and continued through the festivities.

The results were more hilarious by far than my level of caring about who won.

[SHAFT]

How about tony Parker not showing up? He wilted. How about bosh, miller, and Allen shooting for a combined 0-14 and the heat still winning? Battier deserved an interview after lebron after this.

Lebron is unreal. I can't wait to see what else he does in the future. He's not as likeable Jordan or magic, but watching him play is just as enjoyable. God I hope the lakers lure him from Miami in 2014 with Phil Jackson has his 11 rings.

[tyrant-201]

Good job Lebron. Win 3 more and we'll talk.

[Latrinsorm]

LeBron's final Finals boxscore: 25.3 points, 10.9 rebounds, 7.0 assists, 2.3 steals, 2.6 turnovers. Since turnovers were first recorded in 1978, here are the players who have averaged at least 20 points and 7.0 assists with no more than 2.6 turnovers:

1987 Magic Johnson: 26.2, 8.0, 13.0, 2.2
1989 Isiah Thomas: 21.3, 2.5, 7.3, 2.5

End of file.
How about tony Parker not showing up?Outscored by Mario Chalmers in two Finals closeout games in a row. He'll never win a ring.

Tim Duncan chokes on a layup and tip-in while being defended by the 6'8" Shane Battier. He'll never win a ring.

Manu ends up +6, best of all Spurs, and he threw the ball directly out of bounds at least twice. Easily the sloppiest collective game by both teams of the Finals if not the entire postseason, and again it's really telling that the only guy who played strong throughout is in fact the cybernetic ghost of basketball past from the future. The season is just too long, and the product is suffering for it.

[SHAFT]

Good job Lebron. Win 3 more and we'll talk.

He probably will. 4 finals appearances, 2 wins and 2 mvp's is still elite. He has another 5 years of dominating play, maybe more.

Magic Johnson was 5 out of 9 for finals wins. Unless you're Jordan, its ok to lose. Kobe lost 2.

I think people have put an absurd amount of pressure on lebron. Instead of questioning and critiquing him, why not sit back and watch? If Jordan hadnt won 6/6, the pressure wouldn't be as high.

[Latrinsorm]

What I really hope happens next year is that the Heat copy the Spurs' roster management style. If they bring everyone back (only Chris Andersen isn't under contract) they'll have legit NBA players 13 deep. Dwyane Wade never plays both games of a back to back, hell sit the entire big 3 in those situations against overmatched opponents. The Heat have one of the best regular seasons of all time on their resume, which led to everyone respectfully noting the energy they expended doing so... oh wait, led to everyone SHRIEKING that they had to blow up the roster as soon as their series was TIED against Indiana, shrieking that became ever more hysterical in the Finals. It's time to tank, tank, tank for the playoffs so everyone can shriek about how the Heat don't take the regular season seriously and gin up some faux moral outrage about how they're betraying their ticket holders.

[Latrinsorm]

Good job Lebron. Win 3 more and we'll talk.The problem LeBron has as a power forward is that he can't jump directly on the back of a center and get carried to multiple rings. He's just too big. That's something only those little guys running around the perimeter can get away with.

[SHAFT]

Latrin, tony Parker was finals MVP once. You mean he'll never win another?

[Latrinsorm]

No. Failing to meet any arbitrary standard of performance in the Finals (or playoffs, regular season, exhibition, and international friendlies) means that the player will never win a championship. That Tony Parker has already won 3 only means you're a Parker fanboy, you fanboy, fanboy a little harder!!! Also it means they should be traded immediately, obviously, unless you want losers on your team that you're such a homer for.

[Latrinsorm]

Both teams played hard. Hat tip to the Spurs and especially Tim Duncan. It would be really hard to retire after back to back backbreaking losses, leaving his spine 180º out of alignment, but it's hard to see the Spurs getting this far again next year. The Warriors are coming, the Thunder probably won't have another catastrophic injury, Memphis could pick up Calderon too, Fear the Beard, Clips and Nuggets are in flux but lots of potential, the Lakers HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. Meanwhile the Spurs just keep getting older. They have some space next year but need to resign Splitter and Neal, who could get big offers elsewhere, and Ginobili will surely sign for less but it won't be the vet's minimum. Those deals alone could push them to the cap.

It would really be one of the best last hurrahs for an all-time great though. No limping around in Washington or Toronto, no depressing injury or abortive comeback, just one last blaze of glory and off into the sunset.

[SHAFT]

You won't be laughing in 2014 latrin. Mark my words and mark them well boy!

[Atlanteax]

If Danny Green was not 1-12 from behind the arc, but more like 4-12 or 5-12, we may have seen the Spurs hosting the trophy.

[Keller]

If Danny Green was not 1-12 from behind the arc, but more like 4-12 or 5-12, we may have seen the Spurs hosting the trophy.

And if Danny had regressed to the Green before Games 6 and 7, maybe the Heat win in 5.

[Atlanteax]

True enough.

[DoctorUnne]

and again it's really telling that the only guy who played strong throughout, besides Kawhi Leonard, is in fact the cybernetic ghost of basketball past from the future

much better. Congrats to the Heat. Sad Leonard didn't get a finals MVP for that performance

[SHAFT]

Kawhi Leonard is a beast. Kids only 21.

[tyrant-201]

The problem LeBron has as a power forward is that he can't jump directly on the back of a center and get carried to multiple rings. He's just too big. That's something only those little guys running around the perimeter can get away with.

So he's such a great player, but if he doesn't have a smaller dude who can jump on his back and let him carry them to multiple rings, it's all good?

I see the point you were trying to make. No one debates Shaq's greatness. But the argument could be made that Shaq wouldn't have won those 3 without Kobe, as well.

[Atlanteax]

I see the point you were trying to make. No one debates Shaq's greatness. But the argument could be made that Shaq wouldn't have won those 3 without Kobe, as well.

Shaq would had been physically broken years sooner had he had to try to carry the load himself. He probably figured he'd get meaningful help when he bolted for LA Lakers.

[Latrinsorm]

much better. Congrats to the Heat. Sad Leonard didn't get a finals MVP for that performanceLeonard certainly played well, but that buttresses the point. Only played 58 games in the regular season this year, only played 31 minutes per game in those games.
So he's such a great player, but if he doesn't have a smaller dude who can jump on his back and let him carry them to multiple rings, it's all good?

I see the point you were trying to make. No one debates Shaq's greatness. But the argument could be made that Shaq wouldn't have won those 3 without Kobe, as well.That was actually a veiled cheap shot at Kobe rather than Shaq, but yeah, we can do it both ways.

.

The Heat win the Finals despite scoring 5 less points for the series than the Spurs, and despite being at a FTA disadvantage in every single game. I'm going to go ahead and guess those are very uncommon qualities in a champion, but I'll look them up and get back to you.

[Latrinsorm]

Going back to 1964 (when the game by game boxscores end)...

Champions with less FTAs in every game and less points:
2013 Heat - 679 to 684, 118 to 158, 7 games
1969 Celtics - 741 to 744, 201 to 284(!), 7 games

Champions with less points and less total FTAs, but not every single game:
2000 Lakers - 629 to 640, 179 to 182, had less in 3 of 6 games. Special note: in game 2 the Pacers had 39 FTAs, and so did Shaq. The second highest FTAs for a player in a Finals game since 1964 is 25.

Champions with less points but more FTAs:
2005 Spurs - 594 to 607
1994 Rockets - 603 to 608
1988 Lakers - 691 to 709
1984 Celtics - 806 to 822
1982 Lakers - 674 to 675

Champions with less FTAs at all (but not every game) turn out to be pretty common, so listing them more briefly:
2009 Lakers
1997 Bulls
1993 Bulls - in game 3 the Bulls had 9 FTAs, and so did Barkley, and in total the Suns had 31. That Jordan, he got all the calls.
1992 Bulls - had less in 4 of 6, but game 6 was a tie and in game 5 they were only +1. That Jordan! He got ALL the calls.
1990 Pistons
1989 Pistons
1987 Lakers
1985 Lakers
1981 Celtics
1978 Bullets
1977 Blazers
1975 Warriors
1966 Celtics
1965 Celtics
1964 Celtics

Champions with less FTAs in every game, but more points:
1991 Bulls - 92 to 137, 5 games. God, could they give Jordan any more calls?!??
1973 Knicks - 96 to 170(!!!), 5 games. Were doubled up in FTAs in 2 out of 5, and Wilt only had 38.
1970 Knicks - 160 to 256, 7 games.

All told, Jordan's Bulls got more FTAs in 4 of 16 games in their first three-peat. For that matter, they finished 22nd, 16th, and 26th (out of 27 teams!!!) in total FTA those regular seasons. So apparently: yes. Yes they could have given him more calls, and they could have started by giving him a league-average number of calls.

[Drew]

http://i.imgur.com/eS0SsaP.gif

All of LeBron's shots from game 7.

[SHAFT]

That seems unfair, having all of those Lebrons on the court at one time. No way only 5 of the Spurs could guard them all. The most amazing thing is the Lebrons got all of the shots to go in at the same time!

[Drew]

That seems unfair, having all of those Lebrons on the court at one time. No way only 5 of the Spurs could guard them all. The most amazing thing is the Lebrons got all of the shots to go in at the same time!


Schrodinger's net.

[Parkbandit]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hofst6YUktQ#at=31

Couldn't imbed this one, but it's funny:

http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/5048702f7f/lebron-james-it-s-in-my-blood

[Latrinsorm]

One reason I like not being a hater is not having to go to increasingly desperate lengths to find something to criticize.