NBA: the Playoff’s Best Shooters  //  World Tennis: the French Open  // MLB: “Around The Horn.”

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NBA  ---   IT’s our guess that the 2012/13 NBA playoff-Finals will set the San Antonio Spurs against the Miami Heat unless the East’s Indiana Pacers rev it up in truly surprising ways. But let’s put that issue aside, for there’s another NBA ramp-up that will continue, that which reflects NBA players having scored the most points since the 2012/13 post-season began, and what that has to say about the NBA game. For instance, among top NBA scorers during the current year’s playoffs, only one player from a Western Conference team entering the Finals is on the top 10 list, the Spurs Tony Parker, as of Saturday Parker in at number eight on the list having scored 285 points and posted a 21 points-per-game average. Does this likley sole entry into the Finals mean that high scoring stars aren’t as relevant for getting there as many NBA observers keep arguing, strengthened when noted is that if the East’s Indiana Pacers make it to the Finals they’ll be without any team member on the top 10 scorers list.

Yet if the Heat dominates, it could very well be because of the East’s second highest high scorer on the top 10 list, LeBron James, who if in this year’s Finals will have an opportunity to lead the 10 best scorers list with more than his current 282 playoff points and his playoff 25.1 ppg average, though he’s now number four within the top 10, in spite of his having the most field goal points---126.

Is the James factor saying that it’s the top ten-level scorers who pull a team across playoff games into the Finals? 

A significant data point is that the top three of the 10 best playoff scorers are with teams defeated and eliminated from the playoffs, the current number one being Oklahoma City Thunder’s Kevin Durant having 339 total points. With 91 of those being free throw points, his ppg average rose to 30.1, higher than LeBron’s and higher than that of number two on the top 10 list, the N.Y. Knicks Carmelo Anthony, who accrued 346 points with only 71 being FT’s, leveling his ppg at 28.1. Number three on the top 10 list is the Houston Rockets James Harden, his 158 points gained during only six games, therefore he has a 26.1 ppg average, higher than James’ ppg but less points than James’ 282 that were from 11 games played. Well, these three high scorers weren’t enough to keep the Thunder, the Knicks and the Rockets from reaching the Finals.  

Also revealing is that six of the top 10 playoff scorers are from the West, and two of the top three are from the East, a kind of rough balance, but when combining all points accrued separately by West and East players on the list the West leaps ahead, 1,336 vs. the East’s 930.

But a factor drawing West and East back into a rough balance is that if it’s to be the Spurs vs. the Heat, the only top 10 scorers in the Finals will be the West’s Parker and the East’s James. A third show of balance is that of the top 10 playoff scorers, five are from major market/big city organizations, the other five from mid-market/mid-size city teams, with numero uno Durant from the former, and number nine on the list, Ty Lawson (Denver Nuggets), also from a mid-market/mid-size city.

And, the West has two players from the same division on the top 10 playoff scorers list, while the East has three, close enough to suggest an East/West balance re. number of top playoff scorers.

So, what can we make of all this? Surely that the NBA has tilted West over East this playoff season when it comes to scoring prowess, a kind of save-face data point should the West lose to the East in the Finals.

An argument is that since six of the top 10 playoff scorers have consistently been regular season star shooters, that’s what a team needs to get to the playoffs, but this is an argument that’s weakened when noted is that the remaining four top playoff scorers have not been star shooters during the regular season and they play for teams known more for teamwork reliance than for one or two superb shooters, this latter fact strengthened when noted is that only one or two players from the top 10 scorers list will be in the year’s Finals.

If there’s an upshot from the above-cited heavy mix of numbers, it’s that an NBA team having top-of-the-heap shooters can certainly matter, especially if that’s all that a franchise has for the playoff possibility, but that certainly isn’t the end-all.

French Open --- The French Open began only a few days ago, and is the second of four Grand Slam tennis events after the Australian Open. The Fr. Open always occurs in late May, then comes Wimbledon (London, U.K.), afterward the U.S. Open (NYC). Here’s data for anyone wanting to be other than clueless about the Paris happening---

The Fr. Open has been around since 1891, an Open since the late 1920’s. It is always held at Paris, now at the city of lights’ “Roland Garros” arena.”

In 1928, the Fr. Open went from “grass” to “red clay” and has remained the latter.

Among the 16 countries that have had winners in the men’s Fr. Open since WW2, France is not among them. Since WW2, 12 of the 16 have had multiple Fr. Open winners in the men’s category, the most belonging to Australia and the United States, 11 each (Not number of wins per player, rather number of players with multiple wins). Next is Sweden, 10, the United Kingdom being tied at the bottom with two multiple winners along with Argentina and Egypt.

Among the 19 countries with multiple Fr. Open winners in the women’s category, France is among them---seven wins, though the U.S. is highest in the category with 13 multiple female winners since the Fr. Open went from only amateur to all-inclusive in the late 1920’s. Next is Australia, Belgium, Germany and Yugoslavia, tied at four players having multiple wins.

Since WW2, the Fr. Open men’s competitor with the most wins is Spain’s Rafael Nadal---seven victories. Next, Sweden’s Bjorn Borg, with six wins. The American male with the most Fr. Open wins is Ivan Lendl, three (1984, 1986, 1987).

The woman player with the most Fr. Open wins is America’s Chris Evert, with seven. Next since WW2 is Germany’s Stefi Graff, with six. Third is Australia’s Margaret Court, with five wins. America’s Martina Navratalova is tied with four others at two wins.

U.S. men that have won the Fr. Open one or more times in the past 50 years, they are Ivan Lendl, Michael Chang, Jim Courier and Andre Agassi, who is the last American male to win the Fr. Open (1999).

U.S. women who have won the Fr. Open one or more times---Chris Evert, Martina Navratalova, Jennifer Capriati, and Serena Williams.

The only U.S. Fr. Open women winners since year 2000 are Jennifer Capriati, 2001, and Serena Williams, 2002, having defeated sister, Venus Williams, in the Final match-up.

The 2012 holder of the Fr. Open women’s title is Russia’s Maria Sharapova.  

Starting 2005, and except for 2009 when the event went to Switzerland’s Roger Federer, Spain’s Rafael Nadal has won the Fr. Open every year. .  .  After having defeated Federer recently at the Italian Open, analysts are suggesting that Nadal will win the Fr. Open again this year.

Among women players expected to reach the semi- and finals this year, analysts are saying that America’s Serena Williams will be among them and has what it takes to win the women’s title. This weekend, her sister Venus, a seven time Grand Slam event winner but never a Fr. Open winner went down in the first round, losing to a player ranked 40^th among world players.

MLB   ---   The St Louis Cardinals, the Atlanta Braves, the Texas Rangers and the Boston Red Sox are now the only MLB division first place teams with 30 or more wins---33, 30, 32 and 32 respectively. Closest with 30 or more wins and as division second and third place clubs are the Cincinnati Reds, the Pittsburgh Pirates and the New York Yankees---32, 31, 30 .  .  .   The NL Central and the NL West appear to be the more contentious among the six MLB divisions, in that the NL Central’s top three teams, the Cardinals, Red and Pirates, are 32, 32 and 31 wins respectively, while the NL West’s top three, the Arizona Diamondbacks, the Giants and the Colorado Rockies, are 29, 28 and 27 wins respectively, and NL West’s fourth and fifth place teams are but six and seven games behind.   .   . The NL West’s disparity between first place and last is the least within both MLB leagues, the Los Angeles Dodgers being only seven games behind first place team, the Diamondbacks.  .  . The greater disparities within the MLB belongs to the NL East and the AL West, where both last place teams, the Miami Marlins and the Houston Astros are 17 games behind first place teams, the Braves, the Rangers.  .  . First place teams with least number of wins to date within both leagues are the Diamondbacks and the AL Central’s Detroit Tigers, each with 29 wins.  .  .  Sixteen of the 30 MLB clubs are now above .500, eight from each league. Were the majors competing with a similar pair of pro- leagues today, they’d be a winning enterprise.

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