NBA: The Finals; Heat, Spurs // MLB: Leaders of the Pack; Colorado Rockies, Analysis Of A Slump

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: The Finals; Heat, Spurs // MLB: Leaders Of the Pack, AL & NL; Colorado Rockies, Analysis Of A Slump. . . NBA---IT’s a game apiece today in a best of seven series for the NBA 2013/14 championship title, and if you watched the Heat defeat the Spurs, 98-96, on Sunday, you observed Game Two of an event that’s been consistent year after year since the 1946/47 NBA Finals. That’s more than 65 NBA championship duels over the years, and the Miami Heat could be a team taking the crown three years straight after obtaining the 2005/6 NBA title versus the Dallas Mavericks and losing it to the Mavericks during the 2010/11 go-round. To date, the Minneapolis Lakers, Boston Celtics, Chicago Bulls and the L.A. Lakers are the only franchises to have won three or more NBA titles in a row. You might think that the Spurs prefer taking the title home every other year---the Spurs were NBA champions for NBA post-seasons 2002/3, 2004/5 and 2006/7, after grabbing the title for the first time in its history, 1998/99. As for most NBA crowns won in a row since 1946, that’s held by the Boston Celtics, eight crowns starting from NBA 1958/59. The Celtics also hold the record for winning the most NBA finals---16, the Lakers second with 11 takes, though purists like to claim that since the L.A. Lakers were once the Minneapolis Lakers then surely the total Lakers NBA titles is the same as that of the Celtics---16. Combine the Celtics and Lakers totals and that’s 32 NBA championship wins held by two clubs, nearly half the total of crowns sought since 1946/47, suggesting dominance of the NBA by big market teams. Too, of the 30 teams within the NBA, 16 have been end-of-year champions, nearly all from big market regions. Yet the largest market supporting an NBA franchise, New York, its team, the N.Y. Knicks, has taken the NBA crown for the least number of times among the NBA’s multiple crown winners, twice, 1969/70 and 1972/73, a record hefted some by the Knicks seven appearances at NBA Finals. As for the middle and small market franchises, only one has been a multiple crown taker, and the consensus is that this team doesn’t exist anymore---the Minneapolis Lakers. Not that small and mid-market teams haven’t been NBA championship holders, e.g., the Seattle Sonics, 1978/79 (now the Oklahoma City Thunder), the Baltimore Bullets, they won the crown during the 1947/48 season and morphed into the Washington Wizards that seized the NBA crown, 1977/78. Add the Portland Trail Blazers re. post-season 1976/77. As an aside here, and by strict definition, the San Antonio Spurs are still close to the mid-market category. Last year, the Heat defeated the Spurs to become NBA crown holder, four games above three. But change is always hovering above the hardwood. Game three could have more to say to us regarding a likely winner. The Heat unveiled swifter and a more pressuring defense in a final period on Sunday, joined by a return to fast break depth and near-shooter perfection displayed by, led by, the Heat’s Lebron James Yet had the Spurs Tony Parker and Tim Duncan netted their combined four free throws in that period, the Spurs/Heat outcome may have been different. . . // . . MLB---THE 42-21 S.F. Giants are leading the NL West with nine wins up over second place team, the 34-31 L.A. Dodgers, and the AL East’s 39-26 Toronto Blue Jays are ahead of second position team, the 32-30 Baltimore Orioles, with seven wins. A safe argument is to say that these are comfortable leads. All other MLB division leading teams have four or fewer wins as their edge over runner-up franchises. In just one week, the Giants went from 37 to 42 wins, and the Blue Jays from 34 to 39. The latter advanced from the now 31-31 N.Y. Yankees dropping from second place a week ago to third today behind the Orioles. Most vulnerable among AL division leaders, that’s the AL Central’s now 33-27 Detroit Tigers having no wins above second position team, the 33-31 Cleveland Indians. The most vulnerable division leading franchise in the NL, that’s the NL East’s first position holder, the 33-29 Atlanta Braves, with just one more win to its credit than second place club, the 32-29 Washington Nationals. The Braves are tied regarding number of wins with third position club, the 33-30 Miami Marlins. Within the AL, the AL East’s Yankees have the most games behind among the division third position teams, and inside the NL it’s the NL West’s third place team, the 29-34 Colorado Rockies, 13 games back of the Giants. Using games behind as a key judgment factor, the Rockies are currently the fourth worst team in the majors. Worst is the AL East’s last place club, the 24-41 Tampa Bay Rays, and the NL West’s 28-37 Arizona Diamondbacks, both being 15 games behind their respective leading clubs, the Giants and the Blue Jays. The Giants are King Of The Hill right now, both leagues, from their 42 wins. The Blue Jays are close behind with their 39 wins, so, too, the AL West’s Oakland A’s, also with 39 wins. . . COLORADO ROCKIES---THIS MLB National League team is experiencing what may be recorded as one of the meanest downward spirals encountered by an American professional baseball club. Middle of May of the current year, the NL West’s Rockies were a second place holder at 23-19/.548, three games behind the NL West’s leading franchise, the then 26-15 S.F. Giants. Today, the Rockies are 29-34/.469, holder of third place and 13 games behind the now 42-21 Giants, five behind second place team, the 34-31 L.A. Dodgers. That’s 19 games lost by the Rockies since May 16, sadly the lion’s share being of a losing streak greater than the number of games won since May 16. What comes to mind are lyrics from Sixties songs, “Soon as you think you’re winnin’, you’re losin’ again” and “What goes up must come down,” similar to what the Rockies are probably thinking about now, along with a question, “What’s to blame?” And figuring out the answer to a long slump, be it of a team or batter, could be as difficult as proving the Big Bang’s exact moment, it’s no quiz to be handled and aced in a few hours, it could take weeks, months, maybe never even after the slump gives way and dies. But one thing is clear about team slumps, there’s a factor that threads through all of them, summed up by the word “Disconnect.” Something gets “disconnected,” the easiest image of this being a pitcher at his best but without linkage to a line-up capable of producing enough base runners and follow-on runs to win a game, or it’s the opposite, a starter rotation whose ERA seems to be seeking a higher than 6.0 rating, joined by a bull pen that for unknown reasons has lost its ability to stop opposing team rums from occurring even when taking over a winning game after, say, six innings, this preventing a line-up’s commendable number of runs to remain less than those of the opposition. Or, a team’s most reliable hitter isn’t enough to carry a line-up (Rockies SS, Troy Tolowitzki) when the second most reliable hitter (Rockies OF, Cargo Gonzales) experiences a personal slump and back-up power hitters (C Wilin Rosario, OF Charlie Blackmon) also shift from high to low gear, all of this within the framework of “disconnects,” so puzzling now when three of the Rockies batters are averaging above .315, Tulowitzki atop at .354, and Charlie Blackmon at .298. Figuring out what the fixes are could require Sherlock Holmes on steroids, yet “connections” often return of their own accord and mysteriously. Best now is for the Rockies to keep hoping against hopelessness. Even the Chicago Cubs and the Houston Astros manage to win again, in spite of their hefty volume of losses gluing them to last place slots. END/ml