| Basketball The Way It’s Supposed To Be Played Authored by Mike Leffman - March 26, 2005 - 8:33 pm
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It wasn’t even throwback jersey night.
The over/under was 216.
Miami clinched the Southeast Division title and if the NBA works like a Hollywood flick this will be a preview of the NBA Finals. Two underdog teams finally in the spotlight.
The biggest name–Shaq--in basketball. And the less-sexy aspect: Two teams who respect the other and their abilities. Both teams are a mix of veterans and young up-and-comers.
The Heat must respect Phoenix since they ran them all over the court in both games this year and made Shaquille O’Neil a non-factor in the first half Friday, benched with three fouls. And in turn, the Suns must respect the fact Dwayne Wade can control the game without O’Neil.
The only dull moments were during halftime. A bunch of 6-year-olds in oversized shirts can’t put up 114 points in a half. Besides that, the rest of the game was pure entertainment. Nash’s no-look passes, O’Neil almost breaking the rim on some monster dunks and Wade’s steal then 60-foot swish to end the third quarter.
If this continues into the playoffs, basketball might recuperate from another typical season of fights, suspensions, bickering and ignorant bomb threats.
That is why the San Antonio Spurs must be stopped--and to a lesser-extent the Seattle Supersonics (who are having a nice season and will have a probable second-round playoff loss). The Sonics struggled at home Friday to a horrible New York Knicks team. Those three teams will bore you into wishing hockey was back. It’s not.
A precedence will have to be set for Phoenix to make it to the NBA Finals and they have many doubters (ask San Antonio and Seattle). But a possible seven-game Heat-Suns’ “Scoremania” series is hard not to root for. There is nothing more boring than a hard-fought, 82-77, San Antonio playoff victory. A little-known fact: The NBA secretly slows down the shot clock for San Antonio enabling them to pass more and stand around holding the ball calling fake plays. Get a stopwatch.
Okay, not necessarily true, but San Antonio’s been a stalwart playoff team for what seems like eons. Phoenix has proved this year that they are going to be a contender. Miami has proved this year that they are going to be a contender. The NBA is changing.
Let them play (we can still go through the whole process of the playoffs and all...).
But do we really need to see if the Chicago Bulls are back? Possibly next year. Can the Denver Nuggets get past the first round? Possibly next year. Will a Detroit Pistons-San Antonio Spurs NBA Finals garner decent TV ratings? Not a chance.
What helps make a Heat-Suns’ series so intriguing is they don’t match up well. Teams that match up well play low-scoring defensive games. Compare it to a tennis match where each player is lobbing the ball back-and-forth waiting for an unforced error. Save that kind of game plan for the football season, or better yet–soccer matches.
The Suns cannot match up against the size and strength of the Heat. Earlier in the season Phoenix won at home easily over Miami, 122-107. Phoenix Head Coach Mike D’Antoni played only seven Suns that game. The only two players to come off the bench, Casey Jacobsen and Steven Hunter, added 8 points to the 122-point total.
In a seven-game series Phoenix would try to wear down the Heat (mostly O’Neil), and they are conditioned well-enough to accomplish this (i.e. the 122-107 stomping), although Wade is proving night-after-night there is more to controlling the Heat than O’Neil.
Another interesting stat: Miami owns the league’s best home record at 31-5 and Phoenix controls the league’s best road record at 28-8.
Then again all this is meaningless if both teams tank in the playoffs and San Antonio ends up playing Detroit in the finals. |
