By Spike Friedman at
Andrew D. Bernstein/NBAE/Getty Images
In case you were busy waiting up for the Premier League fixture list to be revealed (and who wasn't?) here's what you missed in sports on Tuesday:
In an electric back-and-forth affair that will surely be remembered as an all-time classic, the Miami Heat stormed back from a late deficit to stave off elimination in the NBA Finals, forcing a Game 7 with a 103-100 overtime win over the San Antonio Spurs. LeBron James overcame a slow start and a number of late mistakes to lead the comeback with a triple-double, and Ray Allen's 3-pointer with 5.2 seconds remaining in regulation provided an iconic image for what is becoming an era-defining Finals. But I know why you all come to About Last Night, and it's not for the sort of game recap you can get anywhere else. It's for the big-time predictions. The sort of predictions that other people just won't make because they are too afraid. So here goes, ALN Game 7 prediction time: Game 7 will take place at AmericanAirlines Arena in Miami. Yeah, I said it. Both the Spurs and Heat will play in the game, which will be sanctioned by the rules of the NBA. You can take that to the bank, despite what the lamestream media would have you believe. The game they play will therefore be, wait for it, basketball. Nobody else will dare say it, so you have to hear it from me. The game will be televised on your local ABC affiliate. What? WHAT? I know. But it's going to happen. If you watch the game, you will see ads for White House Down starring Channing Tatum, and you will think to yourself, "Huh, I liked Independence Day, but should they really say, 'From the director of 2012?'" OHHHHH NO I DIDN'T. NO I DID NOT. But I did. Also, the Heat will win 132-65 when Gregg Popovich decides to rest his starters in preparation for the 2013-14 preseason opener against the Seattle Grizzles, leaving Tracy McGrady to play 48 minutes.
The U.S. men's national team is on the verge of qualifying for the 2014 World Cup after Jozy Altidore fired them to a 1-0 qualifying win over Honduras. America currently sits two points clear at the top of the so-called Hexagonal that determines which three of the final six North American teams in contention qualify for automatic bids to the World Cup. "We just have to keep the hexagon on its current side and we will be in great shape," explained U.S. manager Jurgen Klinsmann after the match. "Once it gets momentum and starts rolling off of its point, everything can go into disarray." When asked if he was speaking metaphorically, Klinsmann responded, "No, momentum is a very real thing with shapes, and even flat-sided polygons can roll like circles if put on a steep enough hill."
By Grantland Network at
David Santiago/El Nuevo Herald/MCT via Getty Images
Jalen and Jacoby break down all the NBA Finals story lines, including Danny Green's hot shooting, Manu's inconsistency, and Flo Rida's manager being banned from Games 6 and 7.
Every now and then, we will attempt to write the worst sports column on earth. Today: Let's talk about LeBron James and the NBA Finals and history.
Rudy Tomjanovich was sweaty. His voice was hoarse, and his bones were tired. It had been a long, tough series. But the world was listening, and when Coach grabbed the microphone, his words rang through loud and clear.
"I have one thing to say to those non-believers," Rudy told the world. "Don't ever underestimate the heart of a champion."
Those eight words are etched into NBA Finals lore forever.
We will never, ever underestimate the heart of a champion.
But what about the other guys? What about the guys who just don't want it bad enough? What about the guys who would rather be famous than great?
You know, the guys who want all the credit but can't cash the checks.
The NBA Finals are upon us, and the Spurs are putting together another June masterpiece. But as I look at all these champions, I can't help but wonder.
I once rewatched the entirety of the Red Sox 2004 ALCS victory over the New York Yankees. Not exactly to understand it better, because there were plenty of stories written and even a movie made to explain it, but to see how that understanding happened in real time. In a culture where people rush to post "FIRST!!!!!!!" and nothing more on an article, where sports can be consumed by the bucketful in highlight clips, where there is no shortage of concentrated hot sports takes, there still exists the lost art of watching something (or watching the whole thing again) and learning something from it.
It's amazing how radically this reorients the sports-watching experience. Live, a game is a nearly overwhelming flood of possibilities, all competing for your attention. If you can ascribe it a genre, a game in the moment is a suspense movie, a thriller. It's full of red herrings and misdirections. A good one keeps you on the edge of your seat, and yes, there's pleasure to be had in correctly identifying the killer before the final reveal and seeing a trend or matchup that's going to be the lynchpin of the victory or the loss.
So much amazing is happening, and the Shootaround crew is here to help you keep track of it all. You'll find takes on moments you might've missed from the previous night, along with ones you will remember forever.
GINOBBBBBBBIILLIIIIII
Robert Mays: We’re likely to hear that last night’s Manu Ginobili performance was a return to form, but that’s not really true. What Manu did last night — at least 24 points and double-digit assists — is something he’d done only once in 155 playoff games. In fact, Ginobili’s had at least 10 assists only six times in his playoff career; half of those games have come this postseason. The scoring Ginobili isn’t new, but the level at which this Spurs machine runs, the array of guys capable of hammering home the Ginobili passes that few others would even try? That part is.
Of those 10 assists, I don’t think any better encapsulates the Spurs’ night than the one above — Green running from one corner to the other, Ginobili letting the pass go before he’d even gotten there. I don’t think Ginobili’s eyes ever moved that way, and as a result, neither did any of the three Heat players on that side of the floor. Ginobili was fantastic last night (and so was Tony Parker, who will still likely determine the Spurs’ fate), but what we saw last night once again was San Antonio operating at its fullest offensive capacity, a level at which no other team can operate.
The Heat have talked openly about how facing three of the league’s top five defenses over the last three rounds has taken the fast-paced style out of their offense. Great defenses, with weeks to scout a single opponent, don’t fall for the whirring decoy actions all over the floor, or scramble themselves out of position, or forget for a second which shooters demand constant attention and which do not. Miami’s high-flying motion bogs down into stasis, both because the shot clock is dying, and because the Heat simply abandon it for simpler things in the face of a defense that renders the complex ineffective. Great defenses, the Heat will tell you, just take you out of your game for long stretches.
This Finals series is reminding us that the same is true on the other end — that a great offense, a relentlessly great offense, can take a defense out of its game. It can get in a defense’s head, forcing painful adjustments, lineup changes, fatal overthinking, and mental fatigue. The Spurs’ offense has imposed its will on this series, and they have the Heat reeling in ways no team has managed since the 2011 Mavericks. “Our defense tonight,” Shane Battier said after the game, “was unacceptable.”
And he’s right, in a way. Miami made mistakes we’d associate with an out-of-sorts team battling fatigue, frustration, and total bewilderment. In the second quarter, Mario Chalmers just stopped paying attention to his man, Danny Green, as Green trotted along the baseline and popped out the other side for a wide-open 3-pointer — at least the third or fourth such triple Green has hit in this series via that simple cut. About a minute later, Chris Bosh, worried about a possible pick-and-roll that hadn’t actually happened yet, just abandoned Tim Duncan to double-team Tony Parker — leaving a shocked Mike Miller to foul Duncan under the basket:
In case you were busy giving it just one more try in Lep's World 2, seriously, just one more, GODDAMNIT, here's what you missed in sports last weekend:
Overcoming a fearsome Merion course, Justin Rose secured his first major win, finishing the U.S. Open at 1-over and relegating Phil Mickelson to yet another second-place finish at the country's most challenging golf tournament. Mickelson, visibly disappointed by his finish, found himself alone at the driving range hours after the tournament, well after the sun had set. He was hitting ball after ball, trying to find the swing he would need to finally vanquish the tournament that had haunted him throughout his otherwise storied career. Suddenly, an ethereal figure emerged from the darkness, walking toward Mickelson's tee box. Mickelson shouted down the range, "Who's that? I coulda killed you out there." The ethereal figure calmly replied, "No sir. I set myself directly in front of you. Judging by how's you was hitting them balls I figured that's how I'd be out of harm's way." Mickelson then replied, "I was hitting fades," and ripped a drive right into the ethereal man's forehead, instantly knocking him unconscious, before saying under his breath, "Coulda used you on the putting green, motherfucker."
Behind another big game from Danny Green, the San Antonio Spurs grabbed a critical NBA Finals win over the Miami Heat, 114-104, and will head back to Miami for the final two games with a 3-2 series advantage. Noted Frenchman Boris Diaw, another key cog in the Spurs' win by effectively neutralizing LeBron James in limited minutes, said after the game, "To me, defense is not a denial, so much as it is an affirmation. There are baskets that have not yet been made, and never shall be, and my artistry comes about in their non-manifestation. Right now, I make art. As no one is making a basket. Also now. And now. And now. But not now, for on the streets of Roanoke, in the moment I said the word now, a young boy made his very first basket. And my artistry was denied as I was unable to stop it. But right now. Then, that now? That was art." Diaw then smiled smugly, before pulling a lit Gauloise out of Kawhi Leonard's nostril.
Only Game 1 of these NBA Finals has unfolded the way many of us expected the series would — with two teams leveraging their very different strengths in a tight battle of possession-by-possession tradeoffs. Miami’s ultra-aggressive defense, with traps and very early rotations at the rim, would bottle up and confuse San Antonio’s pinpoint passing attack on some possessions. And on others, the Spurs would skip the ball around the court ahead of those rotations, netting themselves open corner 3-pointers or Tony Parker rim runs. With two teams that are so damn good, neither could hope to win these battles in a landslide; whoever won them 55 percent of the time would win each game, and a legacy-changing title.
But only Game 1 has really played out that way. In Game 2, the Spurs took advantage of puzzling Miami breakdowns and appeared ready to steal another road game until we all blacked out and the Heat went up 30. In Game 3, the inexcusable Miami breakdowns continued, and the brilliant Spurs offense sliced up the Heat as a bewildered LeBron James and a sad Dwyane Wade tossed up bricks against San Antonio’s pack-the-paint defense.
And then, Game 4. Holy hell, Game 4. The Heat, save for some early hiccups, played perhaps their cleanest defensive game of the postseason, considering the stakes, location, and opponent. They corralled Parker up top on pick-and-rolls without scrambling themselves out of position, and their rotations along the back line were terrifying both in their ferocity and their precise timing.
By Grantland Staff at
Jesse D. Garrabant/NBAE via Getty Images
So much amazing is happening, and the Shootaround crew is here to help you keep track of it all. You'll find takes on moments you might've missed from the previous night, along with ones you will remember forever.
Pagan Rituals
netw3rk: In the Heat’s pregame hype-huddle, Dwyane Wade, ringed by his teammates, screamed “How will we respond?!” To which I tweeted:
“HOW WE GONNA RESPOND?” - The guy whose fault it is.
For most of these playoffs, various pundits, tastemakers, and members of the roundball intelligentsia have been vigorously shoveling dirt onto Wade’s head, face, neck, and chest area and tamping it down with some hard stomps of the loafer. And for good reason. He’s averaging 15.1 points per game this playoffs, down nearly eight points from last year’s 22.8; before Game 4, his PER for these playoffs was down to 17 from last year’s 22; and he’s shooting the second-lowest eFG of his playoff career, behind his injury-hit 2006-07 playoff campaign. The fall-down-seven-times-stand-up-eight Flash of the past was reduced to nothing more than the faint throb of a raver's day-old glow stick. People who get paid to be smart about basketball, and who are much smarter than I about basketball, have wondered aloud if it was time to bring Wade off the bench, à la one-shining-bald-spot Manu Ginobili. My contribution to this discussion was to make a Dwyane Wade Oregon Trail dysentery meme.
So, where the hell did this come from? Wade erupted last night in Krakatoa-ian fashion, scoring 32 points on 14-of-25 shooting. It’s his first time ALL PLAYOFFS scoring more than 30 points and only the third time he’s scored more than 20 (he scored 20 points or more 17 times last playoffs). And it’s not just that he got hot from long range, as players will sometimes do, and just started randomly splashing jumpers like a gambler catching hot cards. He was driving HARD, like the Wade of a million YouTube mixes with his Euro-step set to “Ibiza,” taking 12 shots in the paint, converting 10. It’s even more startling considering Wade tweaked some portion of his lower extremities in the first quarter, causing him to need a trainer to stretch him in a manner usually befitting a safe word. Somewhere, Tim Grover is chanting ancient Aramaic demon spells while sacrificing a rare eagle and burning a human foot in a bonfire.
By Spike Friedman at
Nathaniel S. Butler/NBAE/Getty Images
In case you were busy camping out at Man of Steel so you could see the new Elysium trailer, here's what you missed in sports on Thursday:
Dwyane Wade turned in a vintage performance as the Miami Heat evened the NBA Finals at two games apiece with a 109-93 win over the San Antonio Spurs. The Spurs' lackluster second-half effort was highlighted by the poor play of reserve guard Manu Ginobili, who was held to five overall points while the Spurs were outscored by 22 in his 26 minutes on the court. I think the performance raises the question: Can Manu win the big one? For a player of his skill level, Manu sure had a habit of disappearing last night. I say Ginobili's me-first running and gunning has officially gone too far. When will Manu develop a consistent post game, to use his physique to dominate inside? If Manu Ginobili is the supposed best sixth man in the NBA, how come he can't match Michael Jordan's six rings? And let's face it, sixth man? When will Ginobili put Spurs coach Gregg Popovich in his place and demand to be in the starting five? I think we can all agree: It's time for Manu to Man-up.
Phil Mickelson began the U.S. Open with a 67, taking the clubhouse lead after a rain-shortened first round at Merion. "It's exciting to be back out in front at the U.S. Open," Mickelson said, grinning broadly, "and I just can't wait until I finish second." As Mickelson finished speaking his smile cracked, and his eyes started tracking back and forth quickly. His lips were moving, yet the words he was speaking were difficult to make out. Looking closely, it appeared that Mickelson was listing years and names: "1999, Payne Stewart; 2002, Tiger Woods; 2004, Retief Goosen; 2006, Geoff Ogilvy; 2009, Lucas Glover." When he finished repeating his litany five times, his eyes snapped back into the center of his face and his smile returned. "Yup, second place at the U.S. Open. Again. Can't wait."
By Kirk Goldsberry at
David Santiago/El Nuevo Herald/MCT via Getty Images
Through three games, LeBron James is definitely not the MVP of these Finals. He’s struggling from the floor, and he’s struggling to get to the free throw line. He is the focus of the Spurs' defensive scheme, which has effectively turned down the Heat in two of the first three games.
In this series, James is shooting 21-for-54 from the floor, or 39 percent. During the regular season, James shot 57 percent. It’s common for these kinds of big drops in FG percentage to be caused by decreased opportunities close to the basket and an increased reliance on jump shooting, but that’s not what’s going on with James.
Over the 82-game regular season, James took 51 percent of his shots inside the paint; he made 70 percent of them. He led the NBA in scoring close to the basket. So far in the Finals, 43 percent of LeBron’s shots are in the paint and he’s converted on 61 percent of them. Although both of these figures are slightly below his averages, this is not James’s problem, either.
During the first three games of the Finals, James has made only 7 of 30 shot attempts outside the paint. This is the problem. Of his 21 made field goals so far, 14 are in the paint. Of his missed 33 field goals so far, 23 are outside the paint.
By Bill Simmons at
Frederic J. Brown/AFP/Getty Images
Bill Simmons calls Grantland's Zach Lowe to talk about Game 4 of the NBA Finals, then dials up his buddy Joe House to break down what LeBron needs to do to win tonight.
To listen to these podcasts, download them on iTunes here, or to listen at the ESPN.com Podcenter, click here.
Game 4 of a series in any 2-1 state has always been my favorite playoff game. If the trailing team wins and ties things at 2-2, each of the following games obviously takes on its own sort of hyper-drama. But for this moment, at 2-1, a single game determines the entire feel of a series, with a giant perception gap between outcomes. If the Spurs win tonight, the series begins to feel like a blowout. The city will have a full 48 hours of downtime to drink, eat, reflect, and prepare for a potential championship celebration on Sunday. And if that win comes with another subpar LeBron James effort, the hysteria level around Miami will reach 2011 Finals volume levels again.
And if Miami wins, it’s 2-2 — dead even, guaranteed to return to DOS MINUTOS territory, with the Heat likely having “found themselves again.” This is what we get to ponder for the next 12 hours or so. What fun.
