Jun
13
YUCK FEST!
Filed Under Loose Balls
Ugliest Game in NBA Finals’ History?
Come on Now.
Game Three Was the Ugliest Game in NBA History!
So the San Antonio Spurs are one game away from its fourth title in nine years after an ugly, pug fugly, puckin’ fugly 75-72 victory over the Cleveland Cavaliers in Game Three of the 1947 NBA Finals (make that 2007 NBA Finals). As the stupid talk of the Spurs’ dynasty starts in the next couple of days, I offer Game Three as evidence of how ugly and unconvincing this San Antonio team is as a dynasty.
Here are the lines for San Antonio’s big three, none of whom had a solid performance in Game Three.
Tim Duncan: 6-17 for 14 points. 9 rebounds. 3 assists. 2 turnovers. 1 steal. 2 blocks. 4 fouls.
Tony Longoria: 7-17 for 17 points. 5 rebounds. 3 assists. 3 turnovers.
Manu Ginobli: 0-7, 3 points at the line in the final 10 seconds. 4 rebounds, 5 assists, 3 turnovers.
That’s 34 points from your big three out of 75 points in a game that not only featured the second lowest combined scoring in NBA Finals’ history but also clinched the Spurs’ fourth title and third in five years. The lowest-scoring finals game was Fort Wayne’s 74-71 victory over Syracuse on April 7, 1955. Guess who was involved in another low scoring game in NBA history. The San Antonio Spurs, of course, during the 2003 Finals against the Nets, which won Game Four of that series by a thrilling 77-76 score.
Let’s not ever call the Spurs a dynasty. Never before has a team benefited from playing some of the worst teams to ever reach the NBA Finals (1999 Knicks, 2003 Nets, and this awful Cavs team). Tonight was picture-perfect of what the Spurs are in the echelon of great NBA teams. Nothing much. Enough said.
And then there’s the Cavs, their fraud for a head coach and their fraud superstar Lebron James.
Let’s begin with James. It only took him 42 minutes tonight to realize that he had to take the ball to the hole. Down 72-70 with under a minute to go, James dribbled himself into traffic before giving the ball to Anderson Varejao, who put up a wild shot. The play was symbolic of James’ all night, passing the ball instead of taking over the game.
I’m ashamed to say that I bought into the hype of James as taking the next step after his Game Five performance in Detroit. After holding off on James for years, I finally gave in, and James has responded with a passive Finals that shows he is a long ways away from being a dominator. Witness this Lebron. You have a lot of growing up to do.
Game Three was supposed to be James night to shine, and he played like a chump. After Cleveland fell 40-38 at halftime in what should have been a double-digit lead at the time, James did not even come out in the second half looking to score. Cleveland and its moronic coach Mike Brown ran screen and roll jumpers for Zydrunas Ilgauskas from eighteen feet. Clank right. Clank left. It didn’t matter. Cleveland shot terrible from the outside all night, going 3 of 19 from beyond the arc.
James didn’t even attempt his first shot of the second half until there was 6:30 to go in the third quarter. At that point, James had only taken nine shots in the game. He ended up with 25 points on 23 field goal attempts. Twelve of those points came in the fourth quarter but James was hardly impressive in that quarter.
The groans coming from Cleveland fans seemed to be urging James to attack all night. Instead, we once again saw a James who let San Antonio trap him rather than attacking the basket. While he had eight rebounds and seven assists, these numbers aren’t impressive considering how James played tonight.
James hasn’t looked like he belongs on this stage. Sure, he was fouled on the three-pointer at the end of the game. But it really didn’t matter. James wasn’t going to hit the shot anyways. Would he have made the three free throws? My money would have been on 2-out-of-3. What has he done in this series to inspire any confidence in his ability to take over games night in and night out.
(And to think I was worried that James and the Cavs would hold back the Chicago Bulls for years. After watching this performance tonight, Chicago General Manager John Paxson must have realized how winnable the East is. Here’s hoping he can make one move that doesn’t involve getting rid of Ben Gordon and put the Bulls over the top. The NBA would be better off to have a team like Chicago in the Finals than garbage like this Cavs’ team).
Back to Lebron. You know the guy doesn’t have the killer instinct when every time San Antonio made a basket late in the game, James could be found walking to the bench before a timeout was even called by Mike Brown, who is without doubt the worst coach to ever make the NBA Finals.
This guy is flat out atrocious and should be fired after San Antonio finishes this series (whether it’s in four, five or six games). Brown came out in Game Three with a solid first quarter, starting Daniel Gibson (who struggled tonight but deserved the shot) and inactivating the hobbled and ineffective Larry Hughes. He even got an early touch to Drew Gooden, who had been very effective in the first two games.
However, Brown showed in the second quarter what he was. As the Spurs continued to bumble its way on the court with Duncan saddled on the bench with two fouls, Brown never cracked the whip. He brought in guys like Eric Snow (I don’t care how much of a defensive presence this guy allegedly is, he needs to retire) and Zydrunas Ilgauskas at the same times. At a time when the Cavs could have been making some headway in this series, Brown sat back and let this game continue to proceed as it was going. San Antonio and Tony Parker hung around long enough and had the game right where they wanted at half when they should have been out of it on a night when the only player who was decent for them was Bruce Bowen.
Brown didn’t seem to make many adjustments at the half. Cleveland came out looking to get Zydrunas Ilgauskas going with 18-foot jumpers. While Big Z had 12 points on an inefficient 6-for-13 from the field, he continued to miss those open shots at an alarming rate in the second half.
More importantly, Brown once again showed that he has no clout with James. He’s a player’s coach out to enjoy the Lebron ride. Would a Phil Jackson, Gregg Popovich, Larry Brown and even a Flip Saunders not get into the ear of James to be more aggressive? I don’t think so. Brown like James is in the Finals and doesn’t seem to have too many concerns about winning the damn thing.
If the Cavs were smart, they’d replace this clown with a real coach. It’ll be interesting to see as the Cavs are run by a guy who owns Quicken Loans and have Usher as their director of entertainment (or some stupid title like that). If the Cavs are all about entertainment, they should get rid of Brown, as this team is far from entertaining but rather nauseating to watch.
What an atrocity Game Three was! This is bad basketball, and there’s no other way to say it. Regardless of how fundamentally sound the Spurs may be, their style of play sets the league back. Basketball is supposed to be about fluidity, grace and athleticism, not playing in quicksand or mud.
As for Cleveland, I thought they would get this game and another one at home. I shouldn’t have given them and James that much credit as crap is still crap.
So did anyone have a good performance in Game Three? I’ll give some credit to four guys in this stinker. Besides that, everyone else should take repetitive showers to get the stink off.
Bruce Bowen: I can’t stand this guy, but he played very well tonight. Was an efficient 4-of-6 from the field, all from deep, for 12 points. Hits the open shot when he gets his feet set. More importantly, his reputation has seemed to have gotten James thinking about being aggressive, but I’ll put most of this blame on Lebron being a coward this series.
Brent Barry: Guess that was his big scoring game of the series. 9 points on 3-for-4 shooting from downtown. Made a couple of threes which wouldn’t have been too impressive but were influential in this brutal game. Just slugs around out there for the most part.
Sasha Pavlovic: Sure, he put up some bad shots and couldn’t hit the side of the barn from deep for the most part (he did hit a big three late in the fourth to cut the score to 72-70). With that said, at least Pavlovic has been aggressive all series (you could learn something from him, Lebron). This kid is still young and has a very good upside once he gets more consistent.
Drew Gooden: Sure Gooden had some terrible fouls in the second half. But at least he has had the guts to take shots this series. Don’t get me wrong. This was his worst game of the series, but what do you expect. It’s Drew Gooden. With that said, he came out with a very energetic first quarter (he had five rebounds in the first six minutes). Now maybe if James had come out with similar energy and tenacity, the Cavs could have opened a lead and put the game away then because San Antonio certainly didn’t have it.
Final Analysis: Get this thing over with so we can start talking about something enjoyable: the NBA Draft. David Stern, expunge this Spurs’ championship from the record books. It’s cheapened by the fact that they played the horrible Cavs, defeated a Utah squad that caught a major break (Dallas losing to Golden State) to get to the Western Conference Finals, and relied on Robert Horry’s thuggery to knock out Steve Nash, Amare Stoudemire, Boris Diaw and the Suns. Burn all records of this game and delete this post from the blogasphere and the World Wide Web.
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