Monday, June 6, 2005
NBA Playoffs: Score More, Bore Less
In an era when the FCC has been given the green light to censor anything indecent, it's good to see that NBA players have been allowed to be more offensive.
Around the same time last year, hoops fans were enduring a truly excruciating test from the basketball gods: having to watch their favorite teams give up scoring for 40 days and 40 nights.
In 2004, Detroit and Indiana clashed in the Eastern Conference Finals and posted the kind of scoring totals you might expect from teams in the Arena Football League.
The Pistons averaged a mere 75 points per game during the six-game series, but this was more than enough to advance past a Pacer team who could only muster a meager 73 points a night. This series wasn't a basketball exhibition. It was a brick-laying contest.
Although the Western Conference Finals wasn't nearly as brutal, it was still television that you wouldn't want small children to be exposed to.
The Los Angeles Lakers averaged 92 points per game in the series, while the Minnesota Timberwolves tallied 90 a night.
Last year was agony. This year, basketball enthusiasts have been blessed.
In 2005, teams in the Conference Finals are averaging almost twenty more points a game. During the first four games of each series, the points per game averages of the NBA's final four are as follows: San Antonio, 110; Phoenix, 106; Detroit, 96.5; Miami, 95.5.
The Association's offensive renaissance can be easily demonstrated with the help of numerical data. But in a couple of months, nobody will remember the statistical trends.
Fans will remember the moments. This year, ABC won't have any trouble putting together their montage for the end of the playoffs. Instead of using the bulk of their time having to find good footage, network executives will be able to spend more time choosing the right overplayed sappy classic or pseudo-inspiring rock song to play while the highlights roll.
For the first time in a while, the NBA playoffs have been memorable and exciting. Even this year's first round, the round that everyone loves to hate, was quite watchable.
The early days of the postseason started formidably with two cousins knocking down difficult last-second shots.
Houston's Tracy McGrady nailed the first clutch shot of the playoffs at the end of Game 2 of the Rockets/Mavericks series. A few days later, against the Heat, Vince Carter willed in a game-tying baseline jumper that bounced around more than Jim Jackson before it went in.
T-Mac and VC's heroics proved that beyond a common dislike of our neighbors to the North, the pair also has buzzer-beaters in the blood.
If these two dramatic shots weren't enough to convince people that the 2005 Playoffs were going to be something special, there was a wacky ending in the Windy City that combined elements of Reggie Miller's eight-point, 18-second finish against the Knicks in 1996 and Michael Jordan's mid-range buzzer-beating shot against Utah in 1998.
Such a description might lead one to believe this was one of the greatest playoff games ever. This might have been the case if the two major players in the final act weren't named Jannero Pargo and Gilbert Arenas.
Nevertheless, trip threes by Pargo in the last 41 seconds of the game and a gorgeous last-second 16-footer by Arenas demonstrated the promise that the Wizards and Bulls might have in future playoff appearances. Well, that is assuming that Miami, Detroit, and Indiana will all get relocated to the Western Conference during the next five years.
It would take some extreme gerrymandering, but you can bet there are a few experienced senators in DC that would be willing to help in exchange for the promise of future Finals tickets.
Speaking of crafty old men (or crooked old men, if you're a Knicks fan), another great moment from the past 40 days came when perennial playoff hero Reggie Miller had his final moment. Larry Brown made one of more respectful gestures in recent sports history when he called a time-out to allow fans and players at Conseco Fieldhouse to extend Miller's sendoff.
Of course, Brown, "The Runaway Coach," cancelled out this moment of class when he (reportedly) accepted Cleveland's job offer while his team was still fighting the Heat in the Eastern Conference Finals.
It was sad to see Reggie walk off the game's greatest stage for the last time. But this year, he was only the opening act. Once the Miller stepped off, Steve Nash, Amare Stoudemire, Dwyane Wade, and Manu Ginobili took it upon themselves to keep the crowd rocking.
Nash kicked things off with a sensational 48-point performance (on 20-28 shooting) against his former team. For an encore, he followed his career-best scoring game with his first-ever postseason triple-double.
The sensational play of the league's MVP proved to everyone that he is America's smoothest Canadian import. Nash narrowly edged out Labatt Blue for this distinction.
The Suns' point guard wasn't the only little guy doing big things in 2005. Dwyane Wade had a jaw-dropping 20-point forth quarter against the best defensive team in the East. While watching the end of Game 2 against the Pistons, my mouth was open so wide Shaq could have fit his fist in it.
Then there was Manu Ginobili, who made perhaps the play of the postseason when he drove into the lane with the clock winding down and fed Tim Duncan for a quick lay-in that ended Seattle's season. Against the Suns, the Argentinean all-star has continued to impress with his uncanny ability to invade the paint and score on anyone. The degree of difficulty of his Game 2 behind-the-back dribble drive for a tough body-shielding double clutch finger roll is matched by the daunting task of having to describe the shot without a visual.
Most recently, in Game 4 of the same series, NBA fans witnessed something they haven't seen all year. Throughout the season, Phoenix played defense about as well as Charles Barkley plays golf. Many didn't expect to see it happen at all, but Amare Stoudemire's block on Tim Duncan marked the first time the Suns won a game because of their defense. It was such a stellar swat that, if the shorts had been a few feet shorter, longtime basketball fans might have thought they were watching Bill Russell bait Wilt Chamberlain.
That's why the 2005 NBA playoffs have been so great. Just when you think something couldn't possibly happen, it happens. When you think it can't get any better, it does.
Only 12 months ago, it seemed as if playoff basketball couldn't get any worse. But over the course of this year's postseason, the game has changed and the league's three-letter acronym has taken on a whole new meaning.
That's right. NBA: Not Boring Anymore.