North Carolina vs. Duke: Looking Ahead to the 2013 Battle of Tobacco Road
North Carolina vs. Duke… or… Duke vs. North Carolina?
Whichever way you look at it, this is the best rivalry in college basketball.
Maybe the most extreme in all of college sports.
The Tar Heels are losing four (Harrison Barnes, John Henson, Tyler Zeller and Kendall Marshall) of their five starters from their 2011-12 team that went 32-6.
The Blue Devils only lose Austin Rivers from their squad that posted a 27-7 record.
What will happen when these two great programs clash in 2013?
Who will be matched up when UNC and Duke go head-to-head?
Here’s a quick look at what we can expect in this coming year’s Battle of Tobacco Road.
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NBA Playoff Schedule 2012: Complete Guide to Thursday’s Game 2 and 3 Action
With multiple season-ending injuries, player ejections, series sweeps and a first-round exit by the Chicago Bulls, you’d have been forgiven for thinking that the 2012 NBA playoff schedule had already thrown up enough drama.
Yet the drama looks set to continue with another night of playoff basketball ahead.
In the Eastern Conference, the Miami Heat will be looking to take the series lead over the Indiana Pacers despite the absence of big man Chris Bosh. In the West, the Los Angeles Clippers face the tough task of stopping the San Antonio Spurs, who haven’t lost a game in the 2012 playoffs so far.
Both games have plenty at stake, and your complete guide to Thursday’s Game 2 and 3 action is right here. So with that, let’s roll!
Miami Heat at Indiana Pacers
7 p.m. ET at Bankers Life Fieldhouse, Indianapolis.
Series So Far
The Miami Heat entered their series against the Indiana Pacers with home-court advantage as the higher seed and started in the best possible way, with a dominating 95-86 victory in Game 1. However, an injury to star forward Chris Bosh and a clutch performance from the Pacers allowed Indiana to level the series at 1-1 and take away Miami’s home-court advantage heading into Game 3.
Key for the Heat
Without Bosh, the Heat had one of the most bizarre offensive performances in Game 2 with only Dwyane Wade and LeBron James scoring more than five points. In fact, it was the first time in the 24-year history of Miami that only two players had recorded more than five points. Thus, it’s crucial in Game 3 that they get their offense back into gear and find scoring options other than the star duo.
For me, Joel Anthony could be a huge factor for Miami in this one. Indiana can be dominant inside—as we’ll discuss shortly—and so it’s crucial for the Heat to establish some presence in the paint early in Game 3. The absence of Bosh shouldn’t force the Heat into hitting deep shots all night; Anthony must rebound well and set up good position to give the Heat some needed offensive assistance.
Key for the Pacers
Simply put: Don’t let Miami shoot. After watching the Heat shoot 27-of-78 from the field and just 1-of-16 from deep on Tuesday night, the Pacers could be tempted to let the Heat take their shots from outside and banking that they don’t go in. Only problem with that strategy is this is the Miami Heat—one of the most explosive offensive teams in the league and a team that will get it together offensively sooner rather than later.
The Pacers must do what they’ve done successfully throughout the playoffs so far and use their big men to lead them on both ends of the court. Roy Hibbert and David West are both averaging double-doubles for the series and will seek to stifle the Heat offense through strong defensive rebounding—just like we witnessed in Game 2.
Game 3 Prediction
The Eastern Conference appears to be wide open with no team reaching out and claiming the mantle as the team to beat. For me, if the Miami Heat can win big here, they’ll have justified themselves to be the No. 1 team left in the East.
They’ll need to improve offensively—no doubt—but behind a strong defensive performance with plenty of turnovers, the Heat have the personnel and ability to steal back home-court advantage and take a 2-1 series lead heading in to Game 4.
With or without Bosh.
Miami Heat by eight points.
Los Angeles Clippers at San Antonio Spurs
9:30 p.m. ET at AT&T Center, San Antonio.
Series So Far
With just the one game played so far in the series, it’s been all the San Antonio Spurs, who haven’t been defeated in the 2012 NBA playoffs yet. After a series sweep of the Utah Jazz, they won Game 1 108-92 over the Los Angeles Clippers—hitting an incredible 13 three-pointers en route to victory.
Key for the Clippers
After watching the San Antonio Spurs dominate from both inside and outside the paint, the Los Angeles Clippers must bring a stronger defensive presence to Game 2 if they hope to level the series. The Spurs reeled in 11 offensive rebounds between four players in Game 1 and ended up winning the rebounding battle 47-34 for the game.
For me, the Clippers must be OK to watch the Spurs shoot from deep as long as they can rebound well when they miss. San Antonio is not going to have another franchise-best night shooting three-pointers in Game 2, and if Los Angeles can dominate inside, they’ll force San Antonio into making more shots from deep and earning every point they get.
Key for the Spurs
Reflecting on Game 1, Spurs veteran guard Tony Parker commented on the Clippers defense, stating:
“From the beginning of the game, they wanted to take me out; trapping me and forcing me to give the ball up. If they want to do that strategy, Timmy [Duncan] is going to have a lot of wide-open shots and all our shooters is going to have a lot of open shots…”
For me, the key for the Spurs in Game 2 is the exact same as it was in Game 1—ball movement. There will be matchups that favor the Spurs at times and they must move the ball well to exploit any holes in the Clippers defense. Chris Paul and Blake Griffin are both carrying injuries for the Clippers—could some more traffic be directed their way in attack?
The Spurs had 29 assists in Game 1 compared to 19 by the Clippers and as Parker emphasizes above, their ball movement was paramount in getting good shots off at the right time. Strong and competitive across all fronts, the Spurs’ ball movement will once again be the key in Game 2.
Game 2 Prediction
I do think that the Los Angeles Clippers will win a game in this series—I just don’t think it’s going to come in San Antonio. With the demolition that they received in Game 1 not quite forgotten, I expect the young Clippers to size up a lot more on the defensive end and force the Spurs in to some poor turnovers early.
However, San Antonio’s defense will be just as good as whatever Los Angeles brings, and they too will force the Clippers into poor shooting. Paul will throw and Griffin will dunk, but ultimately, the San Antonio Spurs will control the game and run out comfortable winners in the end.
San Antonio Spurs by 15 points.
These are my thoughts and predictions for Thursday’s action in the NBA playoffs.
I would love to hear yours, so comment below or follow me on Twitter:
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Heat regroup, heading to take on confident Pacers (Yahoo! Sports)
LeBron James and Dwyane Wade were not carrying ”Help Wanted” signs around the Miami Heat practice floor on Wednesday. The mood was not grim, voices were not hushed and scowls were not prominent.
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Kentucky Basketball: 5 Reasons Marquis Teague Will Be a Big-Time NBA Player
Yes, I said Marquis Teague. Yes, I said big-time NBA player. And I mean it.
First, let me define what I mean by big-time player. Marquis Teague will not necessarily have a Kyrie Irving-type rookie season, dominating the competition and looking like a star game in and game out.
Teague will not lead the league in assists, he will not win any scoring titles, he will not be Chris Paul 2.0.
But what he will be is a solid point guard who can make big plays for a contender.
Playing one year of college ball was more beneficial to Teague than to many other NBA-bound point guards. Teague now has all of the tools to become a very good, if not great, point guard.
In a few years, he will be playing a Darren Collison or Brandon Knight-type role. Or Mario Chalmers on a good night (but a bit better).
Despite what many consider a lackluster freshman campaign, Teague will make his mark on the NBA. And quickly.
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2012 NBA Free Agents: Veterans That Must Slash Salary to Join Contenders
The 2012 NBA free-agency class isn’t anything extraordinary this year. There are no LeBron James-, Amar’e Stoudemire-, Chris Bosh-types that teams are patiently hoarding cap space to spend on over the summer.
In fact, it might just be the opposite. Instead of giving out max deals, franchises may be looking to pick up some veteran stars for a cheaper price than they are used to.
Let’s take a look at some of these aging players that will have to take a pay cut to win a ring.
Steve Nash
The two-time MVP has accomplished almost everything possible during his long and prosperous NBA career, with the notable exception of raising a banner.
After two stops in Phoenix and some time in Dallas, Nash has been on a lot of contenders and playoff teams. He just hasn’t been able to join a squad good enough to win it all.
If the 38-year-old is willing to work with, say, the Miami Heat’s brass to fit a new contract under their cap room, the future Hall of Famer could add “NBA champion” to his resume.
Antawn Jamison
The 35-year-old forward has carved out quite a career for himself, although he’s been largely forgotten over the past two seasons on the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Jamison was brought over by Cleveland to help LeBron James win a ring, but obviously that never came to fruition. Antawn has still got time and one last contract to try and make his dream a reality.
Plenty of competitive teams need capable big man in their rotation—and considering no franchise is paying him anywhere near his $15 million 2012 salary—it’s likely that Jamison lands with a good roster next year.
KG helped erase all doubts about his greatness when he helped lead the Boston Celtics to a ring in 2008. However, the man has a competitive fire that burns greater than most other people in this world.
He’s certainly not satisfied with Boston’s playoff failures since winning in the NBA Finals, and he’s definitely not going to play out his last few years for a terrible team for a few extra dollars.
Look for “The Big Ticket” to play for whatever price, as long as the organization gives him a chance to win.
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Erik Spoelstra: ‘Nothing is going to come easy’
The Heat believe they’re up to the challenge of taking back home-court advantage from the Pacers, even without the injured Chris Bosh.
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Rudy Gay: Should He Remain the Memphis Grizzlies’ Go-to Scorer?
Rudy Gay gave the Memphis Grizzlies some questionable moments in the first-round series against the Los Angeles Clippers.
He missed two buzzer beaters and had a horrible shooting game when he took more shots than he should have. Seeing Gay’s disheartening misses might have driven Lionel Hollins to drive the offense through Zach Randolph again.
Grizzlies fans were let down by Gay missing shots when a leading scorer needed to make them. In Game 1, Gay missed a potential game-winning shot at the buzzer when the Grizzlies had a couple of other good looks and a few seconds to set up a better shot. In Game 3, he missed another potential game-winner in the final seconds.
In Game 4, Gay dragged down the Grizzlies by shooting 8-of-25 from the field. He didn’t often shoot 25 times in a game, let alone shoot worse than 40 percent while doing it.
To be fair, Gay shot well, Game 4 aside, shooting 44.9 percent from the field.
Gay was the leading shooter by a significant margin. He took 16.2 field-goal attempts per game in the series. Randolph took 12.6 shots per game. Mike Conley took 10.9 and Marc Gasol took 9.9 per game.
In the regular season, Gay was by far the leading shooter. He took 16.4 field-goal attempts per game. Gasol took 11.4 shots per game and Conley took. In the games he played, Randolph took 10.2 shots per game.
Randolph took a slightly lower number of shots than Gay did in 2010-11. He took 15.8 shots per game on the season to Gay’s 16.1, but his average went down in the second half of the year, with other players stepping up to replace Gay’s scoring with him injured.
In the first half, Randolph took 16.5 shots per game, 0.4 more per game than Gay took.
Also of note, Randolph scored more in 2009-10 and 2010-11 than Gay did. In 2009-10, Randolph averaged 20.8 points per game to Gay’s 19.6. In 2010-11, Randolph averaged 20.1 points per game, compared to Gay’s 19.8.
That’s because the Grizzlies ran a different offense when Randolph was healthy from what they ran after he went down with a partial MCL tear in January, with a more open transition offense with players pushing the fast break and Gay often going end-to-end off steals or rebounds to score.
Also, the Grizzlies ran the half-court offense a bit quicker with Randolph out. Gay didn’t hesitate to make plays off the dribble. Tony Allen, who is generally not much of a shooter, averaged just above 10 points per game while taking quick shots, often rushing his decisions with the ball.
The Grizzlies ran a double post offense before Randolph became injured, pairing him with Marc Gasol as the post men. Gasol and Randolph would give mirrored looks on pick-and-rolls and post-ups.
They’d also spin out to the perimeter simultaneously, giving defenses a hard time to figure out who they’ll double down on in that set.
The Grizzlies turned the ball over less while running the double post than they did while running the Rudolph-less offense. They turned it over 14 times per game in 2010-11, compared to 14.3 per game after Randolph went down this season.
In 2010-11, they turned it over in 13 percent of plays, compared to 13.6 percent of plays this season.
The best move would be to go back to the double post offense. The Grizzlies would be able to cut down on turnovers and hurried play on offense. They’d maximize their top-three scoring options in Gay, Randolph and Gasol. Gay would still get his looks as an option outside the post and the key scorer in transition.
This would make Gay a bit less of a go-to scorer. He may end up with about the same proportion of field-goal attempts as the previous two seasons.
Moreover, it would maximize Randolph’s effectiveness and further emphasize the balanced scoring of a Grizzlies team where players rarely take 25 shots in a game or score 30 points.
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Syracuse Orange: Laurie Fine Lawsuit May Shed Light on ESPN’s Journalistic Style
ESPN, the self-described “Worldwide leader in sports,” yesterday found itself served with a lawsuit regarding one its most sensational stories of the past year.
Last October, following hard on the heels of the Jerry Sandusky child abuse allegations, ESPN aired a report that accused then-Syracuse men’s basketball assistant Bernie Fine of years of sexual abuse of young men connected with the basketball program.
One of the main pieces of evidence used to give credence to the allegations against Fine was a secret audio tape of his wife, Laurie Fine, that purported to be a conversation between her and one of Fine’s accusers.
In it, Mrs. Fine appeared to implicate her husband in the alleged abuse and acknowledge that she suspected the activity was taking place.
On Wednesday, Mrs. Fine announced that she had filed a lawsuit charging that ESPN had libeled her and sullied her reputation. Her most explosive allegation was that ESPN had selectively edited the tape recording used in its report to cast both her and her husband in a negative light.
The allegations against Fine and ESPN’s reportage have bothered me from the very beginning. The story seemed designed to piggyback on the Sandusky story to create a sense of hysteria about the allegations of sexual abuse; a sort of sports version of the sex abuse fever that swept the nation in the mid-to-late 1980s and early 1990s.
After the Sandusky story broke, ESPN aired a raft of stories focusing on abuse allegations, while simultaneously fending off questions about the timing of the Fine story. When it was learned that ESPN had the allegations years in advance, yet had done nothing to really investigate them, it brought quite a bit of public disapproval their way.
What is most disturbing about this particular story in my view is the recklessness ESPN exhibited in covering the initial allegations.
ESPN seemed desperate to turn the allegations against Fine into a scandal that could possibly be the undoing of Jim Boeheim’s tenure as Syracuse head coach.
Very little vetting was done of the accusers at the time, two of whom have recanted their allegations against Fine. Instead, ESPN ran story after story that presumed the men were being honest in their allegations and seemingly designed to hasten Boeheim’s departure.
Very little credence was given to Bernie Fine’s protestations of innocence. Instead, ESPN turned to the now-disputed audio tape and interviews with “witnesses” who witnessed nothing as a means to bolster the media case against Bernie Fine.
It was as if ESPN had developed tunnel vision in its reporting, refusing to notice any evidence or testimony that disputed the belief that Fine was guilty as charged.
The way the Fine case was handled, coupled with the sudden moralistic prattling that the network did in rushing to condemn Joe Paterno for Jerry Sandusky’s alleged crimes, serves, in my opinion, to discredit ESPN as a credible journalistic source.
In this story and many others, ESPN looked more interested in creating a story than in reporting one.
Sitting on the Fine allegations for years, then ignoring the credibility issues with the accusers is not exactly a ringing endorsement of the network’s journalistic integrity.
Even if the Fine lawsuit lacks credibility, as ESPN’s legal mouthpieces pronounced, it may very well shine a much-needed light on what look to be some of ESPN’s shadier journalistic practices.
Maybe this dose of sunshine will disinfect the ESPN newsroom and force it to clean up its act.
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NBA Playoffs 2012: LA Lakers’ Takeaways from Game 2 Loss to OKC Thunder
The Lakers dropped to 0-2 following their heartbreaking 77-75 loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder. Los Angeles controlled the ball and the score for a majority of the fourth quarter, but collapsed in the final two minutes due to a series of missed shots and turnovers.
Here are a few takeaways from the Lakers’ loss.
Horrendous Three-Point Shooting
The Lakers continued to struggle from three-point land on Wednesday night, going 2-for-15. In case your computation skills are as bad as the Lakers’ shooting, that’s a mere 13 percent from deep.
Kobe Bryant led the atrocious exhibit, going 0-for-6.
The Lake Show will have to prove their ability to hit shots from the Promised Land if they plan on pushing the Thunder to the brink of elimination.
Inside Dominance
The silver lining in all of this may have been the dominance of Lakers bigs in the paint. Andrew Bynum, Pau Gasol and Jordan Hill made nearly 54 percent of their shots in and around the painted area. Bynum received significantly more touches than in Game 1 and was much more assertive, although not quite as efficient.
L.A.’s dominance inside the key was also partially due to their control of the glass and activity on the offensive boards. The Lakers’ frontcourt had 13 offensive rebounds in all, converting seven of the extra opportunities into points. Hill was especially impressive, grabbing three offensive rebounds and capitalizing on two of them himself.
Better Defense
Another positive from the Lakers’ nauseating breakdown was the fact that they played much better all-around team defense.
L.A. improved leaps and bounds from Game 1. Bynum and Gasol showed more effort defending the pick-and-roll, resulting in fewer made mid-range jumpers. Russell Westbrook, whose jumper nearly single-handedly dismantled the Lakers in Game 1, went 2-for-9 on mid-range shots.
Mike Brown’s squad’s intensity and communication was more visible as well, as evidenced by quicker and more effective defensive rotations. The Lakers swarmed to the ball on nearly every extra pass by the Thunder, paving the way for a 42 percent shooting night.
Obviously, the degree to which the Lakers impacted the Thunder’s offense is up for debate, but the overall improvement was evident.
Phantom of the Mamba
The curious case of Bryant, which started in Game 5 of the Nuggets series, continues.
Bryant came out hot at the beginning of fourth, making two consecutive difficult jumpers over the outstretched arms of defenders.
Kobe and the Lakers’ downward spiral didn’t begin until the midway point of the quarter when Bryant missed his first of five jumpers. The Black Mamba also contributed to two turnovers in the final minute, the first of which culminated in an easy transition dunk for Kevin Durant.
It’s tough to watch the supposed consensus best and most reliable closer in the game come up empty in the biggest match of the season. Instead of stopping the bleeding, Bryant proved to be the catalyst behind the Lakers’ collapse.
If the Black Mamba wants to get out of the second round, let alone win his sixth ring, he’ll need to stop sippin’ out of the same fourth quarter cup as LeBron James.
Other Articles: Lakers’ Takeaways from Game 1 Loss to OKC Thunder
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Lakers’ Ebanks, Bynum fined by NBA (Yahoo! Sports)
NEW YORK (AP) The NBA has fined Lakers forward Devin Ebanks and center Andrew Bynum for separate violations during the team’s second-round series against Oklahoma City.
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