In Sketches, we'll be taking you on a quick trip through the NBA blogosphere to get our finger on the pulse of all of the key happenings and storylines in the L today.
YOUR SUNDAY WINNERS:
3 SHADES OF BLUE: Mike Conley. I think, ladies and gentlemen, that Conley has finally shed the "shrinking violet" thing...for good? We can hope. What he did today was nothing short of amazing. From the start of the game, he went about his offense and his defense quietly, and showed that he refused to be intimidated. The hustle that he and his backcourt mates showed in their attempt to stay with Tony Parker on the pick and roll was some of the best I've seen all season. Yes, Parker had some assists and one jillion FT's-but there were only limited stretches where he had a highway to the rim, whereas in the past, there have been many games where Parker has eaten the Grizzlies' defense for lunch. On the offensive side, he ran the team. Played over 44 minutes, and did well the whole time. 15 and 10 assists, with 4 rebounds to boot. Four turnovers, but for a PG who has the ball in his hands as much as Conley does, especially in light of the minutes played, I'll take it. It's just such a great thing to see when guys like OJ and Shane are willing to work hard to hit their spots 'cuz they know that the pass will be there more times than not. Way to go Mike.
AT THE HIVE: It was almost four years ago to the day that Chris Paul made his playoff debut. On Saturday, April 19th, 2011, CP3 announced himself on the postseason stage, going off for 35 points, 10 assists, and 4 steals (a performance he would manage to upstage just a game later). Since that date? We've seen enormous highs, enormous lows, and just about everything in between. Injuries, poor teammates, tough breaks, coaching changes, ownership changes, front office changes, roster changes. In between then and now, we've written and unwritten and written and thrown away and rewritten the book on Chris Paul a million times. The ever evolving story had, undoubtedly, taken a turn for the worse of late, the words of the cynical (me) gaining in strength through the corroboration of mounting, depressing on-court evidence.
And then that happened.
I wanted to see nothing more than solid, unrelenting effort from the team in Game 1. What we got was a performance for the ages, an absolutely magical game that, no matter the outcome of this series, will live in the memories of Hornets fans forever. What we got was Chris Paul.
CELTICSBLOG: Ray Allen led Boston with a very efficient 24 points on 9-15 shooting, but he wasn't hot early. He didn't take a single shot in the first frame, and only managed to attempt 3 in the whole first half. But in that second half, something clearly changed, and you saw guys like Delonte West (who played great tonight) sticking picks on guys like he was the left tackle for the Patriots. 3 field goal attempts in the first half turned into 12 in the second, including but not limited to his game winning shot with 11.6 seconds left.
DAILY THUNDER: Winning Game 1 honestly feels like the Thunder got a little something off their backs. Like the pressure of starting well is behind them. Scott Brooks didn’t say it, but you could definitely sense some relief in his voice, along with Durant and Westbrook’s. It’s clear that the Nuggets won’t go quietly. But this is the playoffs. Things aren’t supposed to come easy. George Karl said pregame that the thing people don’t realize is that winning Game 1 isn’t near as hard as winning Game 3 or 4. It’s gets more difficult as you go on. It’s going to be a challenge, but I get the feeling that Durant, and the rest of his group, are ready.
YOUR SUNDAY LOSERS:
48 MINUTES OF HELL: The Spurs have been a marvel of engineering and execution all season, today the Grizzlies were the wrecking ball. Against a team that creates as many turnovers as anyone in the league, 10 turnovers is an acceptable number. But when weighed against just 13 assists, for a Spurs team that moves the ball as well as any in the NBA, the sort of fight the Grizzlies had in mind takes shape. In each of the Spurs biggest runs, through the first and third quarters, the Spurs had five assists in both stints. In the second and fourth quarters, the Spurs had three combined, with no assists in the second. For the game the Grizzlies had 22 assists to the Spurs 13. “We were best when were attacking quickly and not letting them set up their defense,” Spurs Head Coach Gregg Popovich said. “There were periods in the game where we didn’t do that, we slowed up a bit too much. …We’d like to keep the pace up a little better.”
SILVER SCREEN AND ROLL: Credit the Hornets for executing on offense almost flawlessly. The Lakers made matters worse with pick-and-roll defense that couldn't have been any harder to watch if someone was putting lit cigarettes out in my eyeballs. Switching on high screens frequently left big men stranded on the perimeter to guard Chris Paul, with predictable results. Either Paul easily broke down whoever was guarding him, or the need to bring help defense opened up a clean outside look or a big man near the hoop……..Pau Gasol will receive, and deserves, a big helping of blame for this loss. He looked completely disengaged on offense, scoring eight points on 11 shots and collecting zero offensive boards. I have no idea why he was so lost today. He should've been able to exploit a height advantage over Carl Landry, who's no one's idea of a top defender, but he was too mentally checked out. In more encouraging news, Andrew Bynum put up a 13-and-9 and appeared to have no ill effects from his latest injury scare.
BUCKETS OVER BROADWAY: By halftime the Knicks had opened up a 51-39 lead, stunning the home crowd. They shot 54% from the field to Boston’s 41% and were 5-8 from downtown. Three players were in double figures for the game: Carmelo Anthony and Amar’e Stoudemire were two of them. As the third quarter got underway Boston made an inevitable push, picking up their intensity and really forcing the issue on defense, which lead to Celtic points in transition. With 7:40 left in the third, Chauncey Billups was 2-7 and taking some atrocious shots, and by the end of the period Carmelo had made a single shot (he finished 1-9). Anthony wasn’t getting to the line either and he finished with just four attempts in the entire game. The Knicks were 5-26 from the floor in the third quarter and that simply won’t do for a team that can’t consistently stop people on the other end.
DENVER STIFFS: I thought it was a huge mistake to leave only Gallo on the floor as your best pure shooter as Lawson has to either drive to the rim or be left wide open from deep to get off his shot. Chandler can routinely hit shots with a hand in his face and he attacks the glass as well. Karl needs to pick either Felton or Lawson down the stretch going forward if his team is in need of creating and hitting shots. One point guard is able to maneuver and find open players and I hate to say it, but having Lawson out there when you desperately need a three or a rebound is probably not the best choice.
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