In this edition of the Three-Man Weave, the New York Knicks go fishing for a new coach, the NBA Finals get their first taste of flopping, and the league cannot seem to rid itself of Donald Sterling. Let’s get to the Q and A, shall we? 1. Derek Fisher is the new coach of the Knicks. Good hire or bad hire? [Read more…]
As the NBA Finals shift from the pizza oven of San Antonio to the curtain-like humidity of Miami, should we be surprised that the Heat and Spurs split the first two games? Not really. The teams split the first two games in Miami a year ago, and it looks like they are settling into what should be another long series to decide the NBA champion. But that doesn’t mean the series hasn’t been without surprises thus far. [Read more…]
SAN ANTONIO — Ball movement. Two words. It’s that simple. When the ball moves, good things happen. When the ball stops moving, bad things happen. “You move it or you die,” Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said. If you want to break down Game 2 into the one big thing that separated the two teams, you don’t have to bring up LeBron James’ 35 points. They were needed, of course, but the three biggest plays that James made came in the final 1:43 —
As the NBA Finals move on to Game 2, we are back with another Three-Man Weave. This time, we take a look at the cramp quotient for LeBron James and which adjustments each team needs to make. 1. Now that the air conditioning at the AT&T Center is supposedly fixed, are LeBron James’ cramping issues a thing of the past? [Read more…]
It was unbelievably hot in the AT&T Center on Thursday night. I know because I was there. And while LeBron James was cramping up, the San Antonio Spurs were heating up. In the fourth quarter of Game 1, the Spurs shot 14-of-16 from the field, including 6-of-6 from 3-point range, and turned a close game into a 110-95 runaway. So does San Antonio have the upper hand? Yes – but perhaps not for long. In the “Big Three” Era, Miami is a
It will be easy for Miami Heat fans to say that LeBron James’ absence cramped their team’s style. James sat for almost all of the last 7 1/2 minutes of Thursday’s NBA Finals opener, and the line of demarcation was too obvious. There was a 17-point swing following the moment when James first exited with leg cramps as a close game headed for a fantastic finish devolved into a 110-95 win for the host San Antonio Spurs. “With five and change (left),
How will the San Antonio Spurs guard LeBron James? Exactly one year ago, as the 2013 NBA Finals were about to tip off in Miami, the above inquiry was the question. After all, what is the most effective way to defend such a powerful, explosive, unselfish all-around threat? If you paid attention to the epic series as it unfolded last season, you are well aware of the San Antonio Spurs’ strategy: Make LeBron James into an indecisive player by sagging off of him. Force
It’s a good thing NBA media members voted for Gregg Popovich as Coach of the Year. Because if the San Antonio Spurs win the championship, we won’t want to look back at the voting 20 years from now and wonder how the man who pulled off perhaps the greatest single-season coaching job in league history didn’t win the award. I didn’t believe Popovich was the Coach of the Year. I thought the award should have gone to Jeff Hornacek of Phoenix, who