NBA: WESTERN CONFERENCE FINALS, "SPURS AFIRE, THUNDER TO ASHES," EAST: "HEAT UP, PACERS DOWN" // MLB: STANDINGS & NEARING THE TOP; COLORADO ROCKIES & "THE UNKIND ROAD"

sports-notebook.blogspot.com . . . FOR MORE ANALYSIS, GO TO "MILE HIGH SPORTS RADIO," AM1510 or FM93.7, and to Denver’s best sports blogging team---milehighsports.com. SPORTS NOTEBOOK posts its columns Tuesday and Friday of each week. Ed., Publ., Marvin Leibstone; Copy & Mng. Ed., Gail Kleiner . . . NBA: WESTERN CONFERENCE FINALS, “SPURS AFIRE, THUNDER TO ASHES,” EAST, "HEAT UP, PACERS DOWN" // MLB: STANDINGS & NEARING THE TOP; COLORADO ROCKIES & “THE UNKIND ROAD". . . NBA: SCROLL back to last night, and watch---“HAVING tunneled through a weak spot in a line of big defenders, a San Antonio Spurs ball handler seems ready for a layup, but he passes the ball way back or to a far corner, to a Spurs shooter who floats a successful field goal.” This kept happening last night, along with other openings driven forcefully up, down, around and through the Oklahoma City Thunder’s defense, allowing the Spurs to push their NBA 2013/14 Western Finals competitor into a bubble of humiliation, final score, 117-89, bringing the WC ranking to Spurs three games up, Thunder, two. Distillation of the crisis will surely leave the Thunder with a truth about NBA playoff competition relative to regular season games: “It’s more about speed of transition to a rotational defense, especially against a team that can exploit rebound-capturing for the fast break + improvisations that can outsmart opposing responders.” Even with the appearance of exceptional forward, Serge Ibaka, the Thunder’s WC Game Five defense application hadn’t the seamlessness that existed in versus Spurs games all year; and, when free for the successful shot, the Thunder’s star-quality shooters, Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook, were off-beam, largely from the Spurs fast and smothering defense activity. Yet the Thunder took the Spurs down on Monday last, 105-92, Durant and Westbrook able to break from Spurs coverage for more than a combined 50+ ppg. Tomorrow night’s WC Game Six could end it, with Spurs becoming the WC champion if the Thunder is again minus a fast and punishing defense wire-to-wire, with Durant and Westbrook unable to produce the shooting accuracy so evident in previous games. . . EASTERN CONFERENCE:---Again, scroll back, “See on Wednesday night the Miami Heat dropping a game to the Indiana Pacers, the Pacers finishing ahead, 93-90 (OT). The EC is now set at the Heat being three games up, Pacers with two, tonight being the Heat’s chance to return to the NBA Finals for the fourth year straight. Wednesday’s highlight was the Pacers Paul George breaking away for 37 points, also the Pacers defense re-imagined as a stop-LeBron James gang. LeBron ended the Wednesday game below double-digits re. points---seven (Ugh!), foul trouble a contributor. Envision a Heat/Pacers playoff series at three-3, and in Game Seven Le Bron offers up only seven points and the Heat suffers at the end, 93-86, eliminated from a go at the NBA Finals. It won’t matter why. BUT, the Pacers aren’t counting on another LeBron downturn happening easily---LeBron’s bad shooting consistency rating is among the lowest this year, last year and probably re. 2015. . . // . . MLB---TWO division second place teams are looking up from deficits that are hard to diminish when the clubs above them have been consistent winners at home and also away from home. A damper for these number two’s is that they have faltered either at home, or on the road not within both categories. The American League Central’s now 28-27 Chicago White Sox are four games behind the 30-20 Detroit Tigers mostly from losses on the road, worsened from the White Sox away from home record being 12-15. And, the National League West’s 29-25 L.A. Dodgers are six games behind the 35-19 S.F. Giants, much from a below .500 record at home, 11-14. Of the two categories, 15 of the 30 MLB clubs have, to date, lost more games on the road than they have won at home, while, of the 30 teams, 13 have won more games at home than they have lost. Four clubs are at .500 in the at home category, the NL Central’s 12-12 Cincinnati Reds, the NL East’s 14-14 Washington Nationals, the AL West’s 13-13 Texas Rangers and the AL East’s 11-11 N.Y. Yankees, and two are at .500 re. road games, the NL West’s 14-14 Arizona Diamondbacks, and the NL East’s 12-12 Philadelphia Phillies. Worst away from home are the AL Central’s 9-19 Cleveland Indians and the NL Central’s 9-19 Chicago Cubs. Best on the road, that’s the AL West’s 18-10 Oakland A’s, and the NL West’s 18-11 Dodgers. Presently, the worst at home record belongs to the NL West’s last place team, the Diamondbacks, 9-19. Best today at home, that’s the NL West’s 19-9 Giants. . . COLORADO ROCKIES---WERE the National League West’s 28-25 Colorado Rockies “away from home” record reversed today, 18-12 instead of 12-18, the club would be tied for first place with the 35-19 S.F. Giants. The Rockies, in the NL West’s third position and one game behind number two team, the 29-25 L.A. Dodgers, they now hold the NL West’s worst away from home record, and within the entire NL the Rockies are third worst behind the NL Central’s 9-19 Chicago Cubs and the NL East’s 8-17 Miami Marlins. So, it’s the 16-7 “at home” record that has kept the Rockies from dropping to fourth position within the NL West. It’s the second best home record in the NL-West today, and second best home record within the entire NL, and were the Rockies an AL team they’d be tied for first re. number of at home wins with the AL Central’s 16-12 Chicago White Sox and the AL East’s 16-12 Toronto Blue Jays. . . Frustrating for the Rockies is that they haven’t reached a clear explanation as to why their games won away from home have been in the negative Starting pitchers have performed better at home, yet over the years some of the best games won by the Rockies starters have been on the road. The same can be said about the Rockies batters, super-great when great, maximum-bad when bad. Could it be that as more than one analyst has put it, what’s wrong with the Rockies on the road is hardly Rockies-specific, it’s what haunts most of the MLB clubs. This is said because of the 30 MLB franchises, most have losing rather than winning records away from home, and rarely are there more than three or four MLB clubs that win mostly on the road with leads greater than six games. Believing this to be so, it’s been asked, “What is characteristic of all teams on the road that could explain the Rockies deficits, and explain road losses accrued by all the other MLB clubs, while pointing to cures for turning the loss sheet around?” Surely some software analysis is needed for proof of what’s not working as desired, and surely to be considered for thought is that during away from home games the majority of MLB clubs continue to employ the same line-ups, starter rotations, bull pens, and also offense and defense tactics as that sent afield at home. Away from home, and except for using data on opposing pitchers for a line-up’s OBP growth, most teams can be accused of redundancy or only light maneuvering instead of going to the wall maximally with changes based on road variables such as the current opposing team’s defenses other than mound work, and stadiums different from home and from the last stadium encountered; add: weather conditions, altitude drops or increases, jet lag, so much more. END/ml