Duncan’s 30 gives Spurs lead in Game 6 (Yahoo! Sports)
MIAMI (AP) — Tim Duncan scored 30 points and grabbed 14 rebounds to lift the San Antonio Spurs to a 75-65 lead over the Miami Heat after three quarters in Game 6 of the NBA Finals on Tuesday night.
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JaVale McGee gives $100 to homeless man
It’s been awhile since we did a post about Denver Nuggets center JaVale McGee and this time, it seems that JaVale decided to do a good deed for another. Watch the below Vine video where JaVale give a homeless man under a blanket, a cool crisp one-hundred bill: After posting the video, he followed with this tweet: RT @JaValeMcGee34 I WONDER WAT THAT HOMELESS guy GONE DO WIT THA MONEY! — Pierre McGee (@JaValeMcGee34) June 14, 2013
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Toledo gives basketball coach contract extension (Yahoo! Sports)
TOLEDO, Ohio (AP) — The University of Toledo has signed coach Tod Kowalczyk to a two-year contract extension through the 2018-19 season.
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San Antonio Spurs Will Gladly Take What the Defense Gives Them
The Miami Heat play defense with an aggression unmatched by any other team in the NBA.
They attempt to cut off pick-and-rolls at the head by trapping the ball-handler as he comes around the screen, counting on the athleticism of their back-line defenders to close up any holes that may open as a result of the double-team. They aggressively front post-up players to deny the entry pass, again relying on their collective speed, length and pinpoint rotations to plug any leaks behind the play.
In Game 1 of the NBA Finals, the San Antonio Spurs elected to counter that aggression with patience, routinely pursuing secondary and tertiary options within their sets.
There are a few tried-and-true ways to beat a fronting defense. The first—and probably most commonly used—is to flash a player to the free-throw line area, swing the ball there and have him throw an entry pass over the top of the defense.
Against Miami, the Spurs tried something different.
Here, Udonis Haslem is aggressively fronting Tim Duncan in the post in an effort to deny an entry pass from Kawhi Leonard on the wing. Notice the placement of the other Spurs on the court; they’re all drawing their man out of the lane. Tiago Splitter brings Chris Bosh out to the top of the key, Tony Parker runs Mario Chalmers into the corner, and Manu Ginobili spaces the floor on the weak side.
Leonard drives directly at the front, while Duncan converts his post-up attempt into a screen, sealing off the only available help defender with a chance to disrupt Leonard’s jaunt to the rim. Dwyane Wade—who was guarding Ginobili—tries to meet Leonard at the rim, but he’s too late, and the challenge means Ginobili is wide-open with no one within about 10 feet of him if Leonard were to pass.
Later in the quarter, Danny Green encounters a similar situation.
LeBron is again guarding the ball, but this time it’s Bosh fronting Duncan in the post because the Heat have gone to a “small” lineup with Bosh at center, LeBron at power forward and Mike Miller at small forward. So Green, like Leonard before him, drives directly at the front, and look what happens.
Duncan again turns his post-up attempt into a screen, effectively sealing off Bosh from being able to provide help. Because of this, Wade has to slide across the lane from his position defending Leonard in the weak-side corner to prevent a layup. In turn, Chalmers has to drop down to cut off a pass to the weak-side corner, and it leaves poor Mike Miller stuck guarding both Ginobili and Gary Neal.
Four defenders converge on Green, Green kicks it out to Ginobili, Ginobili delivers a touch pass to Neal, and Neal drains an open three-pointer.
Another way to beat the front is to simply ignore it and pursue a different option. That’s what Danny Green does when presented with this look.
Bosh is fronting Splitter in the post while Tony Parker comes off a double-pin-down screen from Leonard and Duncan on the weak side.
Rather than trying to force the ball to Splitter, Green just gives him a quick look and swings it to Parker at the top of the key. Splitter then comes up to set a screen for Parker, kicking off a pick-and-roll. He draws two defenders at the basket, throws it crosscourt to Leonard in the corner and continues cutting along the baseline, where he receives the ball back from Leonard for a jumper.
This play is probably the optimal pick-and-roll result for San Antonio. It gets Tony Parker matched up with Joel Anthony near the top of the key, and Anthony doesn’t stand a chance. Parker is a blur coming off the Tim Duncan pick, screaming to the basket for a barely contested layup.
Most of the time, though, San Antonio can’t get something that clean and easy against Miami’s defense, especially because it doesn’t usually play the soft coverage Anthony displayed on that particular play.
Far more often, this is what Parker (or here, Ginobili) sees when he comes around a screen: two Miami defenders right in his face. While that strategy creates a two-on-one for the defense on the ball, San Antonio has a four-on-three advantage off the ball, which it can take advantage of if it just chooses the right man to pass to.
Ginobili chooses the right man
LeBron abandons Leonard in the corner to handle the threat of Splitter near the rim, so Ginobili fires a jump pass to Leonard in the corner. Of course, LeBron is superhuman, so he actually beats the ball to the spot and is right up on Leonard as he receives the pass.
But Leonard throws a nice ball fake toward the baseline, gets LeBron to open his hips just a bit and is able to attack the middle of the lane with a drive.
Here’s another example from the second half. Though it’s not as aggressive as the one on Ginobili in the previous video, this is still basically a double-team that Parker sees as he comes around the screen. Both LeBron and Bosh’s eyes are trained on him, so Parker swings the ball to Ginobili.
The ensuing rotations that resulted from the quick double of Parker as he came around the screen were fast and furious.
Miller, guarding Green on the weak side, drops all the way into the lane to tag Duncan on his roll to the rim. While LeBron, Wade or even Battier can make this rotation consistently and sometimes fairly easily, Miller lacks the athleticism and foot speed to go from the perimeter to the lane and back to the perimeter to contest Green’s three.
Here, Parker is aggressively trapped by Norris Cole and Battier as he comes around a screen from Matt Bonner. They’re able to redirect him slightly backward, but Parker fires a crosscourt pass to Green, keeping the Spurs a step ahead of the defense. Because he was initially on the weak side and wasn’t an immediate post-up threat, Duncan has Bosh on his back and is able to easily receive an entry pass from Green.
The Spurs fully clear that side of the court and let him go to work.
The Spurs found a modicum of success with their regular pick-and-roll attack, but it’s not always easy come, easy score, so they supplemented it with some double-screen action.
Pay attention to the position of Wade, Bosh and James as Ginobili gets screens from Duncan and Leonard. Wade is on the ball, seemingly unaware of the coming screen. Bosh is giving a bit of a soft hedge, not really ready to jump out on the ball-handler. And LeBron is hanging way back near the free-throw line.
They’re each responsible for cutting off a certain pocket of space, but look what happens.
Wade gets clobbered by the second screen, and both Bosh and LeBron chase after Ginobili as he dribbles to his left. This again leaves Miller to make the up-down-up rotation from Neal to Duncan to Neal, but again he’s too late. Neal throws a pump fake to shake Miller and gets an open jumper.
The Spurs worked for shots like these all game long, and even though they won, they didn’t really play to their full offensive potential. They left plenty of points on the floor in the form of missed open jumpers. Although they likely won’t turn the ball over only four times in a game again, they probably also won’t miss quite so many shots they usually make.
The Heat won’t struggle to score as much as they did in Game 1, but if they don’t clean up their defense, it might not matter.
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Mark Cuban Throws Cash at Problem; Mavericks Owner Gives $100K to Study Flopping
If you thought the constant debate over NBA players and their growing propensity for flopping was taxing on the mind, consider the poor academics tasked with studying those specific antics thanks to money donated by Mark Cuban.
ESPN reports the Dallas Mavericks owner is funding a flopping study to determine what constitutes an actual flop.
One of Cuban’s company has provided $100,000 to Southern Methodist University for an 18-month investigation of the forces involved in basketball collisions and try to figure out if video or other motion capture techniques can identify legitimate collisions and instances of flopping.
Just when you thought the debate and scrutiny over NBA players wildly throwing themselves to the ground wasn’t outrageous enough, Cuban steps up to push the bar just a little bit higher.
As the report reminds, the NBA has tried to curb the amount of flopping in the league by instituting fines for each melodramatic instance of acting.
Unfortunately, flopping remains as much a part of the game as overpriced seats. Players given a flopping violation are hit with a $5,000 fine on their first offense, which is a drop in a very big bucket for most players.
Per the report, “A total of 19 players were given warnings during the season, and no player was assessed more than a $5,000 fine.”
It’s best not to worry your head on the problem of stopping flops from taking place around the league, because it’s a losing battle. This example of gamesmanship has arrived en masse into the Association and it’s not going anywhere.
That hasn’t stopped Cuban and Southern Methodist academics from attempting to solve another problem that is just as daunting a task. Cuban provides that with this tweet:
Peter G. Weyand, a SMU biomechanics expert, expounds in an SMU post on the study.
The issues of collisional forces, balance and control in these types of athletic settings are largely uninvestigated. There has been a lot of research into balance and falls in the elderly, but relatively little on active adults and athletes.
Cuban and SMU experts are undertaking a grand study to show the world what constitutes a flop. For 10 dollars I could help them out just by using my own eyes.
Here are just a few examples of the most extreme versions the NBA could provide.
I don’t think I need a study to tell me that in each case the acting was far more severe than the physical contact.
I enjoy the enthusiasm, but defining a flop will do little to rid the game of the growing scourge of athletic theatrics. We know exactly what makes a traveling violation, but we continue to see those take place every single game.
Hit me up on Twitter for more sports shenanigans: Follow @gabezal
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Parker’s shot gives Spurs 1-0 lead over Heat (Yahoo! Sports)
MIAMI (AP) — One by one, Tony Parker was confronted by Miami’s Big Three, surrounded even as the shot clock ticked toward zero and his San Antonio Spurs clung to a two-point lead.
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Andre Iguodala Rumors: George Karl’s Departure Gives Guard Reason to Test Market
The 2013 NBA Coach of the Year won’t be back to attempt a repeat performance next season, and along with George Karl goes any certainty of the Denver Nuggets retaining shooting guard Andre Iguodala.
As David Aldridge of NBA.com noted, Karl’s departure (along with that of Executive of the Year Masai Ujiri) is sure to create a ripple effect that could impact what the 29-year-old decides to do this summer when he becomes a free agent.
Aldridge was in contact with Iguodala following Karl’s dismissal, and he tweeted a text the guard sent him in regards to the news:
That’s probably not the response Nuggets fans would have hoped for given Iguodala’s importance to the budding championship contender. Things didn‘t exactly go according to plan when Denver made its playoff appearance this season, but the pieces are (or were) in place for another attempt in 2013-14.
The No. 9 pick in the 2004 draft, Iguodala needed a couple seasons to adjust to the pace of the NBA. But in his third season, the Arizona product made a huge leap in tallying 18.2 points, 5.7 rebounds and 5.7 assists per game, giving the Philadelphia 76ers plenty of hope for his future with the team.
After three more terrific seasons, Iguodala’s production began to decline. Then in 2012-13, he found himself on a Nuggets squad with some tremendous young talent and a very good chance to make waves in the postseason.
But with a premature exit from the playoffs, Iguodala was left to contemplate a big decision. As quoted by Benjamin Hochman of the Denver Post, the shooting guard still has to let it all sink in:
When I got to Los Angeles and sit down and talk to my agent — we’ll start having conversations. I didn’t really think the season would be ending this early. It was never on my mind what I would do next year.
I know what type of potential this team has; so that won’t weight heavily on my decision. … The timeline of my career going forward, I definitely want to win a championship. At the same time, it’s a business, but I don’t think it’s a factor. The front office knows what I bring to the team, so we’ll see what happens. There are so many factors that I haven’t even thought of yet. Which is why I’ll just sit down and weight all my options, take my time with it, and not rush into anything.
None of those factors probably had anything to do with George Karl. With the nine-year Denver head coach out the door, Iguodala will have even more to think about.
As he hinted to Hochman, Karl’s determination was one of his focuses when discussing the future:
“I think that started with bringing me here. He’s really hungry, Coach [George] Karl is hungry, and we have a lot of hungry players as well.”
With Karl and Ujiri gone, the loyalty factor is all but dried up. Apart from a one-year stint with his Denver teammates, Iguodala has no reason not to test the market in search of a team with more stability and a greater chance of making a championship run next season.
That’s not to say the Nuggets aren‘t still in position to compete, but the offseason process is fluid. With one big free-agent signing (like Dwight Howard or Chris Paul), plenty of teams could become contenders, especially with a complement like Iguodala in the fold.
And it still remains to be seen what Denver will choose to offer the shooting guard this summer. Given the team’s total unwillingness to entertain the idea of retaining Karl, why should Iguodala expect a competitive offer when he becomes a free agent?
So much of this is speculative at this point in the process, but there’s reason to believe Iguodala will be more inclined to test the waters with Karl no longer in town. He doesn‘t exactly have a history with the Nuggets and, apart from some young talent, there’s no longer a comfortable foundation to stand on.
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Popovich gives Riley credit for building ‘Big 3′ (Yahoo! Sports)
MIAMI (AP) — When the Miami Heat pulled off what so many thought was unthinkable and signed LeBron James and Chris Bosh to play alongside Dwyane Wade three summers ago, San Antonio coach Gregg Popovich was impressed.
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Dr. J Gives Paul George Major Props After Game 4 Victory over Heat
Unless you’re holding that $590 million Powerball jackpot ticket, Indiana Pacers star Paul George is probably having a better month of May than you are.
The former Fresno State star has been putting the finishing touches on his breakout, All-Star season by guiding his team farther than the franchise had ventured in the playoffs since 2004.
He opened the postseason with a triple-double (23 points, 12 assists, 11 rebounds), then added two more 20/10 games to his resume before the Pacers sent the Atlanta Hawks fishing after six games.
He was tasked with stopping the reigning scoring champion, Carmelo Anthony, in the next round and helped hold the versatile offensive weapon to 43.3 percent shooting for the series. And his defensive duties didn’t keep him from stat-sheet-stuffing performances, as he torched the New York Knicks for 19.5 points, 7.0 rebounds and 5.0 assists.
Up next on his assignment sheet was none other than LeBron James, MVP in four of the past five seasons. George needed less than two games to draw some on-court praise from the King, who walked away from Miami’s bench after the end of the third quarter for a handshake that seemed to symbolize the third-year player’s arrival to the elite ranks, via SportingNews.com.
But George’s year got even better on Tuesday night, and that had nothing to do with Indiana’s 99-92 Game 4 win to even the Eastern Conference Finals with the defending champion Miami Heat.
Drawing praise from a peer, even one as dominant as James, is one thing. But earning recognition from an all-time great has to be a new high for the soaring Pacers star who may never come down after this:
Dr. J told Paul George he “really admires his game.” Talk about a ‘feather in the cap’ moment.
— NBA Guru (@NBAGuru) May 29, 2013
George is a rare breed in today’s game. He’s a blossoming star on both ends of the floor, and one whose humility leaves him perfectly suited to shine in the Circle City.
But after getting props from the legendary Julius Erving, he’s certainly earned a few minutes to think about just how good it is to be Paul George:
So awesome. MT @jadubin5 Paul George just sitting there and hears Dr. J say “I really admire your game.” What a great moment for him.
— Rey-Rey (@TheNoLookPass) May 29, 2013
On second thought, George might even be pacing that lottery winner at this point.
After all, there are some things that money can’t buy.
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Spurs coach gives one-word sideline interview
“Turnovers.”
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