NBA: Finals, Games One through Five; Head Coaches, GM’s & Musical Chairs // MLB: Mid-June Standings; Rockies & Phillies.

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NBA  ---   Except for the NBA Finals Game One resulting in a San Antonio Spurs defeat of the Miami Heat, 92-88, the point spread in subsequent challenges has been unexpectedly wide. Each of Games Two through Five ended with a win by 10 or more points, Game Three being the blockbuster, Spurs over the Heat, 113-77. The Heat took Game Two, 103-84, and Game Four, 109-93. The Spurs bought Game Five, 114-104.

While it’s now a 3-2 series and the Spurs a game away from “the ring,” when adding up the points earned by the two sides it’s 496 for the Spurs, 481 to Miami, a difference of 15 points, the Heat at the low end. But how low is this really? Any single game lost by 15 points in the NBA is just short of humiliation, but when averaging the 15 points across the five NBA Finals events held, it becomes only three points down per game for the Heat, data that tells us that the Heat isn’t a Finals version of the regular season’s Charlotte Bobcats.

Too, the scoreboard switchbacks, that is, the team that finished far behind in a previous game suddenly being the victor by 10 in the next, signaled from it is that a Game Seven can start with the Heat having achieved frontline balance, the point deficits only history, the Spurs and the Heat roughly even for a final shot at the NBA championship.

But Game Five showed how difficult defending against the Spurs can be. Some teams look for the shot to take immediately, while others, like the Spurs, they often create the shot methodically and still carefully against the clock. Noted throughout the series so far, is that the Spurs offense maximizes ‘economy of force,’ for them ball-handling just isn’t about a player grabbing the ball, stopping and looking to his teammates for the opening of a play or for his own hurl to the basket, be it for a standard field goal, three-pointer or a drive to lay the ball up and buy the net. The Spurs offense seems to create the space for drives toward pre-selected shooting positions, and they seem to do this with minimum breaks in movement of the ball, the basketball constantly in motion for a purpose, primarily for reaching a shot position with least amount of effort and least amount of seconds going by. Whether rehearsed pre-game, or if this is controlled improvisation, is hard to tell, and that’s part of Spurs coach Gregg Popovich’s magic.

Also, the Spurs have a star power trio just like the Heat---Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobili, and Tony Parker. On Sunday (Game 5), the three combined for 67 points, Duncan 17, Parker 26, Ginobli contributing 24. Compounding this and sealing the Heat’s fate were 24 points earned by the Spurs Danny Green, who completed six three-pointers and now holds the NBA record for most netted three-pointers during NBA Finals.

Not that Game Five painted the Heat in shame---LeBron James and D. Wade scored 25 points each, and Ray Allen had 21. Combined, these three stars put up 71 points, more than that which the Spurs three stars produced; the argument that Danny Green’s deliveries made the Game Five difference for the Spurs is far from irrational. But no matter what the offense of either team provided on Sunday, collectively the Heat’s defense lacked the smothering power seen from them in Games Two and Four. Unless the latter improves for the Heat during Game Six (tonight), a Spurs championship takeaway is likely.

Coaches, GM’s & Musical Chairs  ---  Six franchises that failed to make the 2012/13 NBA playoffs released their head coaches, and six that had made the playoffs also released their coaches. Several of these have lost their GM’s. That’s nearly half the NBA floor leadership. Among those fired is 2013 NBA Coach of the Year, George Karl, who delivered the Denver Nuggets to NBA playoffs nine years straight and this year got them there with 57 regular season wins. So, what can be discerned from these moves? For starters, there will definitely be 12 makeovers, 2013/14. Is this because there’s something new and powerful that hasn’t been identified yet within the NBA culture? Is it that owners and front-office execs no longer believe in head coaches growing steadily from their failures, turning lessons learned into victories year after next? If so, how will this impact prospects for a next-generation of coaches?

And, while all the coaches likely to be honcho-ing other teams have proven they can be counted upon for a good season run, only two, maybe three stand out above the rest, anyway data-wise. That is, except for Karl there are no recently released coaches of the Phil Jackson/Gregg Popovich/Pat Riley/Red Auerbach/Doc Rivers/Red Holzman caliber. Does this mean that though faces and names on city sports pages will be new, analysts and fans will be agreeing by the next NBA All Star break that the more things change the more they stay the same?

Also, the head coaches of the two teams competing in the current NBA Finals, they reflect the opposite of change---Gregg Popovich has been with the Spurs more than a decade, Erik Spoelstra has been with the Heat for several years. Next question, “Is building and maintaining ‘effective permanence’ a more important factor for an eventual post-season championship than any series of makeovers?

MLB   ---    Baseball’s All Star break is approximately a month away, when any team behind first place in its division by double digit losses is deep enough in a hole that only handicap numbers could bring them to the surface, and baseball isn’t Sunday morning amateur golf, no sweetened handicaps allowed. Right now, seven MLB franchises are in that lowly situation, worst the National league East’s 21-47 Miami Marlins, 19 games below the 41-28 Atlanta Braves. Next, the NL Central’s 28-40 Chicago Cubs and 28-40 Milwaukee Brewers, each 16 games behind the 45-25 St. Louis Cardinals. Then it’s the AL West’s 26-45 Houston Astros, 15 back of the 42-30 Oakland Athletics, followed by the NL East’s 25-39 New York Mets, 13 back of the Braves, and AL West’s 30-39 Los Angeles Angels, 10 behind the Athletics; and, the AL Central’s Chicago White Sox have 10 fewer wins than the 39-29 Detroit Tigers have.

All of the NL double-digit "lost" games, they add up to 64 vs. the AL’s 35. Moreover, the fact that four of the seven teams now with double-digit losses reside within the NL, and that the NL’s total double-digit loss column is now 166 games down vs. the AL’s 122, such suggests that the AL has the better line-up of teams and is the superior league. But then the two winningest teams in both leagues are NL franchises, the NL Central's 45-25 Cardinals and the NL Central’s 43-28 Cincinnati Reds. And, the NL Central’s 41-29 Pittsburgh Pirates and the NL East’s 41-28 Atlanta Braves are just behind the AL West 42-30 A’s and the AL East’s 42-29 Boston Red Sox. Also, the NL has four teams with 40 or more wins, the AL three. Bottom line here, the leagues are still a lot closer to parity this year than first glances at the numbers suggest.

Rockies, Phillies  ---  Few three and four-game series characterize professional baseball completely, standing out as having all the ups and downs, the highs and the lows, that can occur when two MLB franchises face off. A recent Colorado Rockies/Philadelphia Phillies series belongs with that rare set of games, when the best and the worst, the proverbial good, bad and ugly surface unexpectedly, causing witnesses to grind their teeth and have to be satisfied with the French phrase, “Cest Le Guerre (such is war)!” Here’s some of the picture attained by the Rockies: Game One, a smooth-sailing Colorado RH Juan Nicasio start of five runs against the Phillies zip was upturned fast by a string of Philadelphia hits, final score: Phillies 8, Rockies 7, this after news that a Thursday injury will keep Colorado star, SS Troy Tulowitzki, unable to play for six or more weeks. Yet in that game, Colorado’s LF Carlos Gonzalez banged out his 19^th home run of the season, finishing the game 4-4, both teams ending with 13 hits each, implying that the Rockies offense was as effective, if not more so, than that of the Phillies, but it was the Rockies defense that caved, primarily the sudden Nicasio fallaway allowing several hits + Rockies reliever, RH Wilton Lopez, giving up three of those Phillies hits + a walk, which resulted in two more runs for the Phillies. Game Two, and as if to avenge, the Rockies whipped the Phillies, 10-5, the team’s starting pitcher being the earlier underestimated Tyler Chatwood---he held the Phillies down with the help of an amazing catch by LF Carlos Gonzalez, by a difficult stop by 3B Nolan Arenado, and by an offense led by catcher Wilin Rosario’s triple and two doubles. Here we saw what has been missing in previous Rockies games, numerous runners on base reaching home “early on,” to wit: the Rockies achieved six runs against Philadelphia in the first inning. Game Three of the series edged forward with a Colorado/starting pitcher RH Jhoulys Chacin "shutout" spoiled in the ninth inning by a double from Phillies IF Jimmy Rollins. Still, the Rockies thwarted a subsequent near-rally, final score: 5-2, Phillies down, Rockies owning the series, 2-1.

Presently the NL West 37-34 Rockies are in second place of the division, a game behind first place Arizona Diamondbacks, and two wins ahead of the San Francisco Giants. By our standard, the NL West is currently the more interesting of the NL’s three divisions, in that it’s the more competitive. Including all five teams, its last place team is but seven games behind first place, which is the lowest in the AL as well as within the NL. The three teams back of the Rockies can still overtake and occupy first or second spot. Starting June 28, the Rockies will be facing 16 straight games versus NL West teams. Given the Rockies present status, this could be the most important series of games between now and late September if the Colorado franchise is to be seen upon a post-season MLB field.

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