NBA Finals Thoughts

The Los Angeles Lakers are the kings of the NBA for the 11th time in L.A. and the 16th time in franchise history. When it is all said and done, that’s all that matters, but my goodness, we as fans had to sit and watch this less than epic Game 7.

In retrospect, given the choice between watching the Celtics and Lakers deciding contest and giving my dog peanut butter to lick from his mouth for roughly three hours, the latter at the very least had comedic possibilities.

There was no question both teams were putting in a great deal of defensive effort, how else would you explain 98 missed shots out of 154 taken? (Let’s not forget the 12 uncontested missed free throws the team from L.A. clanged off the rim)

However, it wasn’t all great defense. It was easy enough to spot the difference.

Wide open shots were careening off the rim like the basketballs were filled with helium. Yes, many shot attempts were certainly highly contested, yet if you witnessed the footwork of the players launching these wayward heaves, even when they created space being guarded by a single player, they were typically off-balance, leaning one direction while shooting the orange.
The best way to describe it for football fans, it was the equivalent of a quarterback having happy feet in the pocket after facing a relentless pass rush.

ABC/ESPN analyst and former NBA coach Jeff Van Gundy went to the line, but did not cross it giving out his true feelings about what we was being paid to watch and describe.

Van Gundy notes about halfway thru the fourth quarter, this was some of the worst offensive basketball he could remember seeing in a game of this magnitude. He realized what he just said honestly as coach and reverted back to being an announcer, adding that indeed the defense was also very good, contributing to the poor execution.

If Van Gundy was given truth serum or an adult beverage or two, my bet would be he thought the players were in full C-word mode. Even Kobe Bryant touched on the subject in the post game news conference. “Tonight it got the best of me,” Bryant said immediately after the game after 6-24 shooting performance.

“Sometimes you want something so bad it slips away from you.”

You know how Betty White became a sensation again thanks to Facebook; already Bricklayers of America are petitioning on Facebook and Twitter both the Lakers and Celtics players be the keynote speakers at next convention based on their expertise.

In the end the Boston Celtics missed Kendrick Perkins or at least it seemed that way as they were clobbered on the boards 53-40, of which 23 were after a Lakers missed shot.

Though it felt like the C’s had the game well in hand at various points, the facts show they were outscored each of the final three quarters and the team that won the rebounding battle was 7-0 and 6-1 ATS in the series.

The game did supply NBA conspiracy theorists just what they wanted, the Lakers coming back to win the last two games at home in Game 7, once again you are correct. (At least in their own minds)

For NBA fans it’s on to the draft, while the rest of us put our noses back into studying baseball numbers to hopefully beat that sport on a daily basis.