Even for those of us without a dog in the race, this had all the makings of a dream weekend for fans of the National Basketball Association. This was the rare occasion where both 2018 NBA Conference Final series would be decided by Game Sevens on consecutive nights during an extended weekend. Golden State versus Houston. Cleveland versus Boston. Curry, Harden, Durant in one game, Lebron and the Celtics’ kids in the other. Obligations met, popcorn ready, phone off…other than a power outage, even without Chris Paul playing, what could possibly go wrong? As it turned out, the most dominant player turned out to be none of the aforementioned participants, but that infernal three-point shot. We ended up witnessing two NBA Game Sevens played behind the arc.
WHEN ONE LINE CHANGES THE ENTIRE THOUGHT PROCESS
The old basketball expression about living and dying by the three-pointer is not as relevant these days because, on a given night, the team that beats you is likely to toss up as many as you do, but…
The Game Seven losers, Houston and Boston, combined to shoot 14-for-83 from three-point range in their deciding games. The Celtics shot 7-for-39 on Sunday during their home loss to Cleveland. On Monday, the Houston Rockets, the regular-season league leaders in three-pointers attempted by a kilometer, said “hold my beer” and shot them at an even worse clip, shooting an uncharacteristic 7-for- 44, including one stretch where they misfired on 27 in a row, including several that looked as if they wouldn’t have bounced had they hit the hardwood.
Father Time may be undefeated, but Pressure made the playoffs.
“RUN A PLAY FOR THE BIG MAN? UHH…WE DON’T HAVE ONE”
The bigger problem for Houston was that they couldn’t make any adjustments; this is the way they played all year. And it worked for them as they finished with the league’s best regular-season win-loss record. But deciding games tend to hamper shooting percentages at times. Celtics’ coach Brad Stevens knows this from experience, having taken his mid-major Butler University squad to the NCAA Division 1 Tournament championship game twice on the strength of “Three and D” and losing both times because his guys couldn’t find the range while playing in football stadiums.
Houston’s starting center, Clint Capela, connected on nine of his ten field goal attempts — all inside the paint — while his Boston counterpart, Aron Baynes, didn’t attempt a shot in 18 minutes, but he probably has a stiff neck from watching the flight of the errant launches from his teammates, then watching the long rebounds sail over his head as well.
I get all the analytics stuff, but something’s wrong here.
CAN WE USE THE COLLEGE THREE?
To be fair, the winning teams didn’t fare much better from distance, either. The Cleveland Cavaliers shot 9-for-35 in Game Seven; the Golden State Warriors connected on a decent 16-for-39. So for the highly anticipated Game Sevens, we watched the four teams hoist up 157 three-point attempts and make only 39 of them (25 percent).
Of the 321 field goals attempted in the two games, 157 (49 percent) were from three-point range.
In other words, we tuned in to watch the crowning of the conference champions and the All-Star Saturday Night’s Three-Point Shootout broke out. And no one won a trophy.
For the sake of those paying spectators in the first 15 rows, let’s all be grateful these guys weren’t playing darts.
Unless you are a fan of one of the winning teams (or the three-point shot) or have utter contempt for one or both of the losers, this had to be difficult to watch.
“SHOOTERS GOTTA KEEP SHOOTING”
These things happen — the off shooting nights, that is. The glare of a deciding game probably makes one squeeze the ball a little tighter, the palms are sweatier, etc.. There’s a bit more desperation on the defensive end and the painted area becomes off-limits. But that’s not the issue. Both losing teams really had no alternative game plan offensively: Boston has no interior presence offensively and Houston routinely ignores theirs, so this is what we get.
Knicks’ fans remember John Starks shooting 2-for-18 in Game Seven of the 1994 NBA Finals. Seattle Sonics’ fans remember Dennis Johnson going 0-for-14 in Game Seven of the 1978 NBA Finals. We even saw Kobe Bryant shoot 6-for-24 in Game Seven of the 2010 NBA Finals, albeit in a winning effort. We can now add Terry Rozier’s 2-for-14 (0-for-10 from deep) on Sunday, and the heartache of Trevor Ariza’s 0-for-12/0-for-9 performance on Monday. It happens. They’ll both recover.
IT’S NOT GOING ANYWHERE
I am not a fan of the three-point shot, and never have been. I don’t despise it, but teams have become totally dependent. I understand its popularity. Points are cool, it looks nicer going in the basket, it can have a psychologically draining effect on your opponent, and you can jump out to a lead or erase a deficit quicker. But as we’ve been witnessing over the past several years, you can also erase the effectiveness of your low-post center, and as we saw this past weekend, you can erase your chances of advancing to the next round if your 25-footers aren’t falling in the deciding game and you have nowhere else to turn.
I heard one commentator suggest that the two Game Sevens set the sport back 30 years. While that may be a bit harsh, I gotta be honest…at least a part of me wishes it were true.
