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 SATURDAY WINNERS:
BLOG-A-BULL: "Thomas aside, a majority of the role players did not have a good day. Korver had a huge three to give the Bulls the lead, and was 4-4 from deep (much-needed considering the rest of the team was 2-16), but also had two bad turnovers where he was blatantly stripped. Bogans was a zero, Taj couldn't do much to slow Hansbrough when Boozer failed, Asik barely played, Brewer made some poor choices on the break, and CJ Watson combined the timidness of passing wide-open shots with the brashness (or worse) in jacking up a three when seeing he was coming out in the 2nd half. The 'bench mob' as a unit has slipped a bit in recent weeks and Game One was another instance where they didn't provide the positive +/- stint we've grown accustomed too. Combining that with Thibs' veteran-reliance with Thomas, and the nature of playoff rotations, maybe we'll be seeing less and less of this unit. Though it didn't help their cause that Thibs was in a situation where his Bulls were behind nearly all game."
HEAT INDEX: (Kevin Arnovitz): On Saturday night in Game 1 versus Philadelphia, Spoelstra called a simple, but effective, set out of timeout in the closing minutes of the third quarter. The Heat had one of their small "LeBron Time" lineups on the floor, a unit that didn't get a second of court time together this season: Mike Bibby, Mario Chalmers, James Jones, LeBron James and Joel Anthony. This group was defended man-to-man by Lou Williams, Jrue Holiday, Thaddeus Young, Andre Iguodala and Marreese Speights, respectively. There isn't a dizzying array of screens and cuts on the possession, and the right side of the floor is essentially stagnant. But the play provides a window into how much James' role has expanded and diversified within the Heat's offense. LeBron never actually touches the ball, but he does all the grunt work on this play to create a shot for a teammate.
PEACHTREE HOOPS: While all of the focus has been on stopping Dwight Howard, the biggest key for the Hawks is defending the pick and roll of the Magic. The Dwight single cover theory doesn't work if Orlando is getting easy shots for everyone else out of its pick and roll game. I thought Hinrich set the tone early by picking up Magic point guard Jameer Nelson full court and did a good job of chasing Nelson over screens while forcing him out of the paint. Nelson got loose in the third quarter but a great deal of that run occurred with Hinrich on the bench. Offensively Hinrich looked like a seasoned vet scoring 13 points while going 6-10 from the field.
THE TWO MAN GAME: This is a win to appreciate, but the reasons for concern were quite apparent. Dallas was as fantastic from three-point range (.526) as Portland was horrible (.125), largely because Jason Kidd (24 points, 9-14 FG, 6-10 3FG, four assists, five rebounds) caught fire and Nicolas Batum (14 points, 6-14 FG, 1-7 3FG) now only holds vague memories of what it’s like to be a three-point shooter. The shooting percentages of both players and both teams are likely to equalize, and though it’s not impossible to fathom that Kidd could be a reasonably effective scorer for the span of an entire series, relying on that idea seems like an especially dangerous proposition. Kidd’s scoring production will inevitably wane, and when it does, Dallas will need more than 10 points from Jason Terry and more than six points from Shawn Marion. The unpredictability of the Maverick offense can work in their favor on some occasions (Who would expect this kind of outburst from Kidd?), but not without a caveat of uncertainty; it’s not a matter of which supporting player will assist Dirk on a given night, but if one will at all.
YOUR SATURDAY LOSERS:
INDY CORNROWS: I was amazed and enamored by the patience and discipline the Pacers showed in their half court offense throughout the game, often using up the bulk of the shot clock instead of trying to force something that wasn't there. Darren Collison handled the ball against that stout Bulls defense most of the day and only turned it over once. In fact, combined with A.J. Price, the Pacers point guards put up 25 points, 10 assists and only 2 turnovers. Those are usually winning numbers going away.
LIBERTY BALLERS: Mo Speights looked completely lost for much of the 12:26 he was out on the court. He played for almost the whole third quarter despite not showing tremendous effort on the boards or on the court in general. Andres Nocioni had no business being on the court either. A few wide open misses are enough to take Evan Turner out, but Noce gets a few more minutes because...why? His stellar defense? He got worked by James Jones a couple times -- pretty embarrassing for a guy who is not great at creating his own shot. While Noce gives us the hustle Mo doesn't, he's not nearly athletic enough to contribute in this series. Doug should have pulled him. Aside from getting Jodie more minutes, he needs to find more time for Turner. In the 8 minutes he was in, Evan played reasonably good defense on LeBron and even hit a confident baseline jumper to boot. He isn't a guy that's going to come in for 4-5 minutes at a time, play high energy and then sit down happy for another half hour of real time. He needs to be on the court for extended periods of time for him to get comfortable and dictate the pace.
ORLANDO PINSTRIPED POST: It's tempting, I believe, for Magic fans to panic here. I'm not entirely sure that's warranted. Yes, the Hawks scored efficiently. I understand that much. But it's the Hawks' first truly great offensive performance against the Magic's typically stout defense since March 22nd, 2008, when Mike Bibby (five three-pointers) helped the Hawks score 112 points in 96 possessions... in an Orlando victory. Indeed, the Hawks went more than three years without cracking 1.1 points per possession against Orlando, and I'm skeptical their jump-shooting core of Johnson, Jamal Crawford, and Josh Smith can continue to hit mostly difficult shots with a high degree of accuracy. But the Magic still have serious issues to work out if they are to rally back and take this series. Apart from the serious scoring imbalance, turnovers continue to plague the team. Their 18 miscues tonight led to 21 Hawks points. Howard will draw criticism for his 8 turnovers, but if anything, Quentin Richardson (2 turnovers in 7 minutes despite hardly ever touching the ball) and Arenas (3 in 12 minutes) deserve a bit more scrutiny.
BLAZERSEDGE: Portland wavered at a couple of positions where it needed to be solid. Gerald Wallace did not have a good game. He got thrown around the court several times. Some of those looked like possible whistles that weren't blown but even if that happens you can't get taken out of your game. Wallace couldn't hit a jumper, only drove aggressively a couple of times, and outside of 3 steals didn't look dominating. Wesley Matthews was probably worse. A little bit of defense was all that stood out for him. That was married with 1-3 shooting, 2 points, 3 turnovers, and not much else in 19 minutes. Matthews not being in the game late was a crucial loss for the Blazers. The Miller-Roy-Fernandez guard pool was flat-out bad for Portland on defense. As mentioned above, two of those three were in the game for the vast majority of the fourth quarter. The glaring omission was Matthews. With the offensive guards not providing a ton of offense you have to believe Wesley was the right move.
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