NBA: Finals, “the Heat Victory”; Leadership Anew---Brooklyn Nets, Denver Nuggets // MLB: AL/NL Standings; Colorado Rockies “On The Road.”
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NBA --- THE Miami Heat won the NBA Finals trophy last night, second time in a row, by defeating the San Antonio Spurs, 95-88, during the last game of a best-of-seven series. Yet there’s still a big “if” to the notion that Miami
An asset that exists between (a) Strategy & tactics, and (b) Winning, is what we often call “Guts,” a.k.a. “Powerful determination,” “Rabid desire to come out on top,” “Do-or-die,” which coaches pay homage to before and at half-time and during time-outs, shouting words they hope will inspire players to go beyond their best, give more than their “all.” Such had a great deal to do with the Heat prevailing over the Spurs in Games Six and Seven of the 2012/13 NBA finals, an attribute that transcends the tres amigos application. It certainly empowered the Heat in the last period of Game Six, especially when the team’s Ray Allen escaped a Spurs defense to activate the win with a field goal.
Too, Finals MVP, LeBron James, went to second-power level in Game Six’s fourth quarter, during which he scored the better portion of his more than 30 points, and it existed afire throughout Game Seven as James scored 37 points, while the Heat’s Wade battled back from a knee injury as if the pain he raced against moved faster than a cheetah, his 23 points helping to keep a Spurs lead from being unreachable and unsurpassable.
Also, in Game Six and in earlier post-season games the three-star strategy was benched, if you will. Performances by the Heat’s Allen, Mario Chalmers, Chris Andersen and Shane Battier were carrying the team for more than just fleeting moments. Note, too, the many superb passes and assists from James re. collaboration with other than Bosh or Wade, when James could have attempted to dominate the court for additional shots, much the way that Michael Jordan piled on points solo in his early days with the Chicago Bulls, a selflessness that allowed for easier-to-make points by these teammates.
And, the Spurs Duncan/Ginobili/Parker-trio hadn’t the offense-consistency expected during Games Six and Seven. When free to net the basketball, they often missed. Were it not for their backing off as shooters and passing to teammates guard/forward Danny Green, small forward Kawai Leonard and others, the Spurs would not have been the difficult challenge to the Heat that they became in the latter part of the series, they wouldn’t have had a 10 point lead vs. the Heat in Game Six’s fourth period, which James helped put asunder with his comeback shooting---a triple-double contributing to the Spurs 103-100 loss.
The Heat/Spurs series was the first to go seven games since 2010 (Lakers over the Celtics, 4-3). It’s not irrational to think that had this year’s Finals-Game Seven kept on, the two teams would have traded leads quite often, and that without the Heat having more “fire in the belly” the Spurs may have won Game Seven also by six points, collecting a Finals trophy for the fifth time.
Surely the Heat will be thinking about a 3-peat, 2013/14. The first team to accomplish that was the Minneapolis Lakers, 1951-1953. It didn’t happen again until the Boston Celtics repeated as NBA champions eight years in a row, 1958-1966. Then it seemed impossible until the Chicago Bulls wrapped up three straight, 1900-1993. The Bulls captured three in a row again, 1995-1998. The Los Angeles Lakers were last to pull it off, 1999-2002.
The Heat’s first NBA championship occurred 2005/6, when they beat the Dallas Mavericks, 4-2, a team they lost to at Finals-2010/11. The Heat became NBA champions the following season by defeating the Oklahoma City Thunder, 4-1, but no NBA team has come close to the eight consecutive NBA end-of-year trophies obtained by the Celtics, five taken vs. the Minneapolis/L.A. Lakers.
NBA, Leadership --- Within a day or so after his retirement as an NBA player, Jason Kidd became the Brooklyn Nets head coach. That he’s been one of the game’s more intelligent floor leaders as point guard for the New Jersey Nets, Dallas Mavericks and New York Knicks was a major factor over-riding that Kidd’s never held the title “coach.” From asking any teammate of his, we’d learn that in the heat of any game Kidd’s been a coach’s hardwood surrogate, and off the court a teacher to his younger and less experienced teammates, always the superb tactician within the flow of competition.
Elsewhere in the league, the Denver Nuggets hired Tim Connelly as General Manager, who seems to see duality correctly within the GM role---leadership + responsibility for building an effective team architecture that includes adaptability to change, thus creation of a team that matches owner/president-intention, presumably for the Nuggets a post-season within which the team reaches Conference and then League Finals. Connelly comes with executive experience obtained with the New Orleans Penguins, a team that has delivered praise for Connelly’s potential as a superior GM, impressing Nuggets owner/president, Josh Kroenke.
Now the Nuggets have another leadership role to fill, that of a head coach that can, like George Karl, get the Nuggets to win 50+ games season after season, reach the playoffs and ascend to a championship. Presently, the top candidates are Brian Shaw, assistant coach for the Indiana Pacers 2012/13, and Lionel Hollins, released as coach from the Memphis Grizzlies. Both the Pacers and the Grizzlies made the 2012/13 playoffs, which speaks well for both men.
Former Nuggets head coach, George Karl, saw defense as one of the weaker Nuggets attributes. From as far back as 2007, Karl helped improve that beyond expectations, but it wasn’t enough to lift the Nuggets past a playoff’s first round except once during his nine years as Nuggets head coach. Hollins’ reputation as head coach has relied much on his defense emphasis, chiefly what brought the Grizzlies to the playoffs 2012/13.
Shaw is the more all-around of the two candidates, exceptional at modifications of the “triangle offense” and regarding fast transitions into defense via systematic means, but he’s not one to insist on rigid attention to systems. From working with L.A. Lakers legendary coach, Phil Jackson, he’s learned to master unexpected situational flow and, like Karl, allows players on the floor to improvise their next move, meanwhile Shaw concentrating on the right rostering from the bench as situational changes dictate. This versatility could be several points in Shaw’s favor, moot, however, if Shaw is drawn toward a better deal from the L.A. Clippers.
The Nuggets are among the few NBA franchises without superstar power, without players of ppg averages higher than 20. Yet the Nuggets team-wide ppg is high, from six players building up double-digit ppg averages early in a season and sustaining that. The choice between Shaw and Hollins for Nuggets head coach could---no, should---have a lot to do with which candidate has greater faith in “teamwork over star power.”
MLB Standings --- Eight among all MLB teams have 40 or more wins to date, and each holds a first place division slot, yet only two have substantial leads over second place franchises, the NL East’s 43-31 Atlanta Braves being six games ahead of the 36-36 Washington Nationals, and the AL Central’s 40-31 Detroit Tigers having four over the 36-35 Cleveland Indians. All other division leaders are but two or three wins ahead of teams directly behind, so their status could drop in a week’s time.
The NL West’s 39-33 Arizona Diamondbacks are the only division/number one team with fewer than 40 wins, just two up on the 37-34 San Francisco Giants, and all division third place teams except for the Colorado Rockies are four and more wins behind first place, worst being the L.A. Angels, nine games back. The Rockies are three back of the Diamondbacks.
Right now, the NL Central’s St. Louis Cardinals are the leading franchise within both leagues, 47-26, the AL East’s Boston Red Sox second, 44-31.
However, were least number of losses the measure determining which MLB team was best the picture would be quite different than with wins as the measure. For instance, the 44-30 Cincinnati Reds and the 43-30 Pittsburgh Pirates would be tied for second place within both leagues behind the Cardinals (not so now). Also “not so now,” four teams would be tied for third place within both leagues, the NL’s Braves and the AL
Least number of wins held by a last place division team belongs to the AL East’s Toronto Blue Jays, 36. All other last place teams have 40 or more losses, worst being the Miami Marlins, its 49 losses just two less than the number of wins held by the season’s current most wins franchise, the Cards.
Colorado Rockies --- Is it “the Road to Ruin” or a repeat of past summers when during road trips the Rockies lost several games in a row and then recovered enough to return home without great embarrassment, with still more losses than wins to speak of? After being swept in Canada by the Blue Jays, the Rockies dropped the first of a four-game road series vs. the Washington Nationals, 5-1, dropping to 37-37 and third place within the NL West, now being at that .500 watermark below which any team is classified “loser.” This has happened after a 10-5 pummeling of the Philadelphia Phillies, when nearly every member of the Rockies line-up became a base runner.
Trust that it isn’t one thing that has stymied the Rockies suddenly on the road, and maybe “stymied” isn’t a strong enough word when a team loses three in a row to a weaker MLB club, the AL East’s last place 35-36 Blue Jays. It’s been a pile-up for the Rockies, multiple crashes, e.g., top hitter and superb SS Troy Tulowitzki, and lead-off hitter, CF Dexter Fowler, injured and being benched, plus starting pitchers LH Jeff Francis and RH Juan Nicasio plateauing beneath what’s needed for as many as five inning suppressions of runs, leaving need for a starter who can pull that off every four or five games; next a bull pen with ERA’s diminishing rapidly; and, no Rockies hitter, not even LF Carlos Gonzalez, catcher Wilin Rosario or RF Michael Cuddyer able to offset the losses of Tulowitzki and Fowler.
But hope has been spurred by acquisition of National League Cy Young pitcher, RH Roy Oswalt, who against the Nationals last night struck out 11 batters, of little difference, of course, when the opposing team also gets 11 hits from which five runs occur. Too, a pitcher can strike out 20 batters and it can make little difference when a line-up fails to put up more than one run versus five. Still, 11 K’s, that’s no minor accomplishment---Oswalt could be the right replacement for the Francis/Nicasio fallbacks, and that Rockies 10-5 defeat of the NL East’s third place Phillies was without Tulowitzki and with Fowler’s hitting capacity turned down by injury. There’s still some hitting depth that can turn the Rockies road mess around, as such has happened before, which consists of OF Tyler Colvin, IF D.J. LeMahieu, IF Josh Rutldege, 3B Nolan Arenado, and catcher Yorvit Torrealba; they are all Ferris Wheel players in that they go up and down steeply from multiple-hit to no-hit days. More hits from these players, yes, but more than that, “RBI hits.”
On the dark side, were it not for the Rockies 16-11 record in April, surely the team’s 12-16 May record, and now 9-19 June record, would have the team lower in the standings. On the bright side, with but thee games behind first place in the NL West, the Rockies are still contenders for a post-season billet.
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