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LeBron James fell one vote shy of being the unanimous MVP. He had no such issues with the All-NBA Team.
The superstar forward of the Miami Heat was the only unanimous selection to the First Team, announced Thursday by the NBA. He was chosen by all 119 media members, whose voting habits remain somewhat questionable.
It seems to me we are all missing the obvious here. Dwight Howard has absolutely no intention of re-signing with the Lakers. Why should he?
Have you looked at that roster?
Howard is entering what should be the prime of his career. He turns 28 in December. He is the only – and I mean ONLY – player on the Lakers’ roster under the age of 32 who you would even remotely want on your team, long term.
Jodie Meeks? Earl Clark? Please.
For the Indiana Pacers, the game was theirs for the taking. Dwyane Wade fouled out. They won the free throw and rebounding battles while forcing 21 Miami Heat turnovers. Yet when the final buzzer sounded and LeBron James’ layup gave the Heat a 103-102 overtime win in Wednesday night’s Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals, Indiana was left sulking and stunned while asking themselves “what the hell happened?”
“It just felt like everything was in our favor,” Pacers forward Paul George said. If Indiana, as expected, gets eliminated in the league’s semifinal round, the team will undoubtedly be kicking itself for not taking this game on the road.
So what the hell happened? Forget about the Pacers leaving Roy Hibbert out of the game on the final play in overtime, which will be widely covered and discussed in other articles and forums. Indiana was soundly defeated at its own game. How else could you explain the frontcourt-loaded Pacers being outscored by 12 in the paint, 60-48?
ESPN Stats & Info pointed out that Miami averaged just 30.7 points in the paint against Indiana during the regular season, but nearly doubled that total in Game 1.
ESPN Stats & Info
There are still more questions Indiana has to address after its series-opening defeat. How could LeBron James have more rebounds (10) than Hibbert (9), David West (5) and George (4)? If Indiana is such a strong defensive team inside, how could Chris Bosh and Chris Andersen combine for 33 points on 13-for-18 shooting from the floor?
Indiana is supposed to be an excellent defensive team at every position, yet it was Miami’s perimeter defense that proved to be superior. How else could you explain the starting Pacers backcourt of George Hill and Lance Stephenson combining for 12 points on 4-for-19 shooting?
“Two great teams just throwing punch for punch,” Indiana coach Frank Vogel said. “Our spirit is very high, very confident. We know we can play with this basketball team.”
LOOKING FOR MIAMI HEAT TICKETS? LOOK NO FURTHER
If Indiana wants to have a puncher’s chance in this series, the team also has to stop the star players not named LeBron. Namely, Wade and Bosh. Despite fouling out, Wade had a really strong effort, scoring 19 points on 9-for-15 from the floor to go with six rebounds, five assists and three steals.
| Wade & Bosh | FG % | Points | Reb | Assists | FTA |
| Playoff Avg | 46.3 | 25.9 | 12.1 | 6.3 | 5.9 |
| Game 1 | 57.7 | 36 | 8 | 6 | 10 |
For a team that prides itself on its defensive play, it allowed Wade and Bosh to shoot 11 percentage points better than its playoff average and score 10 more points.
There were, of course, a lot of things that Indiana did well. Otherwise, they would not have come so close to taking Game 1 on the road. Hibbert, George and West combined to shoot 24-for-41 from the field with a total of 72 points. Tyler Hansbrough canceled out Andersen’s production by scoring 10 points on 5-for-8 shooting, while getting six rebounds in just 12 minutes. Perhaps he needs more time on the floor. Indiana held Norris Cole and Ray Allen to six total points on 2-for-12 shooting.
Despite all those things that the Pacers were successful in doing, there are several key corrections they need to make going forward. There’s no way Indiana can be successful by being outscored in the paint. Hill and Stephenson need to contribute offensively, and the team has to reduce its number of turnovers; it was 20 in Game 1 and a woeful 16.2 per game this postseason. That won’t fly against a team as good as Miami. It’s also going to be difficult to contain bench players like Allen, Cole and Shane Battier all series long, but Indiana has the defensive stoppers to limit the production of Wade and Bosh.
Indiana certainly came close to taking Game 1, but there’s still a ton the team has to do to avoid losing this series in four or five games.
Shlomo Sprung loves advanced statistics and the way they explain what happens on the court. He is also the web editor of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle. A 2011 graduate of Columbia University’s Journalism School, he has previously worked for the New York Knicks, The Sporting News, Business Insider and other publications. His website is SprungOnSports.com. You can follow him on Twitter.
Every summer comes and goes and brings with it the joy of the NBA Playoffs as well as the intrigue of the offseason.
The first major event of the offseason is the NBA Draft, which will occur June 27th at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. But, the Draft is not without its fair share of pomp and circumstance. Before the Draft ever occurs, representatives for each team in that failed to make the playoffs—or those with high potential draft picks acquired via trade from those who aren’t in the playoffs—must await the results of the NBA Draft Lottery.
Afterwards, potential draftees must undergo rigorous drills to test their individual skills and athleticism in the NBA Draft Combine. They also must endure many sit down interviews with NBA team general managers and coaches, who are looking to figure out their moral character and test their basketball acumen.
In recent years, the league has begun televising the combine to give its hardcore fans an inside look into the draft process and a look at the potential talent that they can expect to be called on draft day in late June. But rarely, if ever, do fans get a peek into the interview process…that is, until now.
Enter Houston Rockets GM Daryl Morey.
Morey was kind enough to give fans an inside look into some of the more ridiculous answers that GMs in the league sometimes get when interviewing potential draftees. Some of them are funny and others, such as the guy who didn’t know that his agent was his agent, just make you shake your head in bewilderment.
Such is the life of an NBA general manager, asking questions and hoping for positive, intelligent answers.
Best of luck in this year’s draft.
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When the San Antonio Spurs beat the New York Knicks in the 1999 NBA Finals, it was considered a championship coronation for long-time Spurs center David Robinson.
With plenty of help from second-year power forward Tim Duncan, that title validated Robinson’s career. But more importantly, it spawned a run of sustained success that is incredibly unique in the NBA, especially for a small-market franchise like the Spurs.
