I come in around the 15 minute mark if you want to just jump ahead to the good stuff.
We talked about the Celtics being “bored” with the regular season, chatted with a caller about Rondo perhaps deserving some of the blame for this Boston mess (something I disagree with wholeheartedly) and John called me Chewbacca at one point. I’ll admit that the beard could probably use a trim, but c’mon.
You can catch future episodes of Boston & That Sports Babe most every Tuesday at 9:00 pm Northeast Elitist Standard Time.
I have to laugh every time someone says the NBA isn’t as good as it used to be. Sure, expansion means that there are fewer teams who have a legitimate eight-man rotation and those that do (i.e., the Lakers and Cavs) are automatically that much better than the rest of the League, but the individual talent level throughout the Association has risen so high over the past three or four years that historically great performances and plays have been happening at least once a week since November.
Nowhere is this more apparent than at the point guard position.
Of course, we all know about the two great gifts bestowed upon us by the 2005 Draft: Chris Paul and Deron Williams. And we’re all very familiar with the resumes of Jason Kidd, Steve Nash and Chauncey Billups, who raised his legacy to even further heights by playing out his goddamn mind in the first two games of this year’s Playoffs. But as Marc Stein so aptly pointed out in his great column today, we also now have Rajon Rondo and Derrick Rose putting on the best PG vs. PG show of the postseason thus far. Throw in Devin Harris’ ascension, Andre Miller’s overlooked-yet-always-dependable floor generalship, Jameer Nelson’s evolution and Rodney Stuckey’s potential, and we’re looking at a renaissance that can make even the most jaded NBA onlooker forget all about the Starbury/Franchise-led, shoot-first era of point guards.
And then there’s Tony Parker, who has had a better season than any of em.
Since tomorrow night could very well mark last game of a truly transcendant season where he morphed from solid, trustworthy player who could make a few big plays down the stretch to a guy who no player in the League can stop from getting to the rim, I just wanted to spend a few words praising his play this year. But since you don’t really wanna read me go on and on about how some French guy has put an entire team you probably haven’t enjoyed watching for at least four years on his back and carried them for the past 50 games, just go read Kevin Arnovitz’s great breakdown of just exactly how unguardable Mr. Parker has become. And, yes, I know Jason Kidd has some serious defensive issues at this stage of his career, but Tony has been doing this to the whole League to the tune of 24 ppg, 7.5 apg and 3.5 rpg on 52% shooting since the All-Star break, largely due to a newly lethal mid-range game that allows him to pull-up whenever his defender sags three feet — something every guard in the NBA has to do if they wanna keep the fiery Francophile, the Parisian Torpedo (see video below) in front of them.
So even though the Spurs will probably get uncermoniously bounced by the Mavs tomorrow, don’t be surprised when Tony’s flirting with 25 ppg next year.
This series has easily been the best of the First Round and after that double-overtime extravaganza yesterday, you really can’t ask two teams to provide better entertainment.
Game 1 featured Derrick Rose’s national breakout, which to those of us who have been salivating over the dude all season was just great to watch. Game 2 featured Ray Allen’s game-winning trey with two seconds remaining, which to those of us who love all-time great jumpshooters and were saddened by his gross 1/12 shooting display the previous game was just great to watch. Game 3 was apparently a blowout, which to those of us who missed the game because we were off at a horrible business conference and were hoping we didn’t miss anything too fantastic was just great to hear.
Then came Game 4.
I don’t want to make too too much of this since the first great game of the Playoffs each year is always overblown because people forget how great the previous year’s Playoffs were (not to mention the fact that aside from the Orlando/Philly series, LA/Utah Game 3 and NO/Denver Game 3, this year’s First Round has been fairly whatever), but that right there was one helluva basketball game.
Given the world we live in today, most of the discussion about yesterday’s game will undoubtedly center around asking why Doc Rivers didn’t foul John Salmons when the Celtics were up by three before Ben Gordon drilled that dagger or why no one could make a clutch free-throw (though, even in a hyper-critical climate of people discussing sports on TV like it’s the Cuban Missile Crisis, I’m sure the sloppy analysts paid to break down the game will still fail to mention Big Baby’s borderline tackle of Joakim Noah on the “screen” that set Jesus Shuttlesworth free prior to that huge three at the end of regulation).
But round these parts, we would much rather just praise the game’s greatness. There are too few spectacular Playoff games to waste our fan energy on nit-picking every little flaw or second guess every decision. Theoretically, we watch basketball — and all sports — because we enjoy them. So, to me, it seems counterproductive to only sit around talking about all the stuff we didn’t enjoy after the game is over. Alas, that’s what most people want to do.
But round here we say fuck that.
Round here we talk about the Rondo vs. Rose mano-a-mano duel that kicked off the 4th Quarter. Round here we talk about Ben Gordon, who just when you don’t think he could possibly be any dumber after turning the ball over trying to go one-on-two for no real reason while freelancing outside of the offense (best Twitter line of the entire game: “@the_tigercub I suddenly want to spit into Ben Gordon’s cereal.” ) completely redeems himself with a game-tying three to send the game into a second overtime. Round here we talk about Paul Pierce overcoming some serious ballhandling issues and general poor play to stick a few patented daggers late in the fourth. Round here we talk about Ty Thomas making some of the best and worst plays you’ll ever see on back-t0-back possessions as if he’s deliberately trying to force his inclusion into the Gerald Wallace/Josh Smith section in the second edition of Free Darko Presents the Macrophenomenal Basketball Almanac. (I never write the proper review of this that I had intended, but trading these guys $15.64 for the right to own this book is one of the better moves any basketball fan can make this year.) Round here we talk about Derrick Rose and Rajon Rondo again — what an epic shootout that was. (My in-game tweet from the time “@BothTeamsPlayedCan these other eight irrelevant players just got off the court please?”)
And round here, we watch clutch shots again. (via Hoop Doctors)
It’s probably unfathomable to most people how good most NBA shooters are. We praise 40% three-point shooters, but guys that hit at that rate in games are just absolute marvels to watch shoot in an open gym.
Plenty of your favorite shooters will routinely hit 40+ out of 50 three pointers while shooting around and guys like Jason Kapono and Ray Allen probably drop like 47 or 48 out 50 at times without even really noticing. Basically, take the best shooter you’ve ever met in your life and realize that even a guy like Troy Murphy would make him or her look like Rajon Rondo.
With that in mind, how many free throws do you think Steve Nash, a guy whose name really needs to come up more often in the “best shooter of all-time discussion,” can make in a minute? (via TrueHoop)
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