Body Blows in the NBA

One of my buddies calls basketball a deceptively dangerous sport that's more brutal on our bodies than most other sports. He is somebody who played both tackle football and basketball and I have to respect his opinion. The last couple of days in the NBA playoffs are indeed proving him right. Freak injuries to various parts of the body have taken out 3 out of the top 10 talents in the league. First, Curry slipped on a sweat spot on the floor and twisted and banged his right knee on the floor. This was in game 4 when he had just came back from an ankle issue after a 2 game break. He is now out for at least 2 weeks with a grade 1 MCL sprain. For a 12 hour period on Monday after this news came out, the Clippers suddenly looked like a legitimate contender and the biggest beneficiary of the dubs' misfortune. Warrior fans spent all day debating if the dubs can beat the Clips without Curry. The Warriors probably can't handle the Spurs or the Cavs without Curry, but they definitely had a shot against the Clippers especially with home court. Part of me was excited to see them duke it out with the Clips without Curry. Clippers can win it, but I think these dubs would drag them to 7 games. The  fans wanted the Clippers-Blazers series to go 7 games because that would give Curry more time to recover. He is probably looking at a return for game 4 or 5 in the next round if the recovery goes per plan.

But late Monday night, the Clippers' world turned upside down. They lost their leader Chris Paul to a freak injury and a broken hand when it got stuck in the opponent's jersey. Blake Griffin then followed him out with a quad injury. Bye bye season for the Clippers. Now the Dubs fans are rooting for a Clippers to win another game so the Blazers get extended to 7. It's probably going to be Warriors-Blazers in the next round. That won't be easy, but it's not the same as facing a fully-loaded Clippers team. So it looks like even when they lose Curry for a couple of weeks, the Warriors get a lucky break in the form of a suddenly depleted Clippers team. Their path to San Antonio looks much better now especially given the way they dispatched the Rockets tonight by 33 points to take that series in 5. The Blazers back-court will be a load to handle, but the dubs have to be favored in that series even without Curry. In fact, it probably gives the Warriors more time to rest Curry. Vegas agrees as the Warriors dropped behind the Spurs as a favorite right after Curry's injury. But they were bumped ahead of the Spurs again when CP3 and Blake got hurt. The expectation is, Curry will be back for the Spurs series anyways and the upcoming round got a lot easier for the dubs with the unfortunate Clipper injuries.

If you include Avery Bradley, round 1 of these playoffs has taken down 4 key players in brutal and weird injuries. This round is beginning to wind down in a hurry though. The elite teams are already resting as we speak. Cavs and Spurs swept their way out of round 1 and the dubs and Thunder wrapped it up in 5 games. With today's surprising road win for Charlotte and the sadly predictable road win for Portland, those 2 series should be wrapped up in 6 as well. That leaves the Celtics-Hawks and Pacers-Raptors series as the possible 7-game thrillers. The East has 4 playoff teams with an identical 48-34 record and not surprisingly, the Eastern match-ups have been more competitive in round 1. The Hawks and Celtics continue their series tomorrow in Boston. The Celts should win this one to force game 7, but we all know the real winner tomorrow will be the NFL. The draft is here and let's get ready to welcome the next set of millionaire celebrities into our televisions. It's going to be interesting with all the late movement at the top of the draft. We will have 2 QBs go back-to-back at the top like Winston and Mariota last year. These 2 kids will join a few infamous QB pairs like Bledsoe-Mirer, Manning-Leaf, Couch-McNabb, and Luck-RG-III. Of course the jury is still out on Winston-Mariota and hope they and the kids coming in tomorrow don't stick to this one good, one bust trend with these pairs.

There are a couple of interesting reads in the NBA that I would like to recommend. If you have some time to kill, I strongly recommend Sam Hinkie's leaked 13-page resignation letter to the Philadelphia 76'ers (http://espn.go.com/pdf/2016/0406/nba_hinkie_redact.pdf). The other article of interest is about the evolving role of point guards in the NBA (http://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/sports/wp/2016/04/15/its-a-point-guards-game/). This article is especially sweet for us Suns fans as Jerry Colangelo was instrumental in some of those successful rule changes when he was the Suns owner. And coincidentally, Steve Nash and the Suns were also the first team to show the world how to play a fun, winning brand of basketball by exploiting those rules and start a trend that has changed the game forever and for the better.

Talent gap in the first round.

NBA playoffs are always fun. While a couple of 1-8 or 2-7 match-ups every year ends up being predictable, individual games typically tend to be close even in those series. Not so much this year. Through 24 games over a week of these playoffs, there have been only 7 games been decided by less than 10 points and only 4 games by 5 points or less. Ironically, both the first seeds have been involved in 1-point games, but these playoffs have been one big blowout-fest otherwise. This is pretty unusual and it seems to be because of the larger divide between the good teams and the lower seeds. The top 4 seeds in the West is way better than the lower seeds. The East is better than it has been in the past top to bottom, but even there, the top seeds seem to be much more improved than the lower seeds. The popular playoff cliche is, a playoff series has not really begun until the road team wins. Cleveland and San Antonio won game 3 on the road on Friday and are all set for the sweep. Outside of that, only the Raptors-Pacers and Mavericks-Thunder series have seen road wins so far. Even reigning champs Warriors are still looking for a road win.

Speaking of the Warriors, the biggest news in the sports world the last week has been Stephen Curry's bum ankle. He now says he is playing in game 4 on Sunday. There was added concern when he left game 1 because of his history with ankle issues. It's hard to say whether he was really unable to play or if they were being extra cautious with him and coincidentally, may be also deservedly extra disrespectful of the Rockets who didn't look good at all in the 2 games in Oakland. Athletes always say "I could have played if it were a playoff game" and here is a situation where it looks like the Warriors are resting Curry even through round 1 of the playoffs. Nobody seems to be concerned for the Warriors in this series even with the Rockets winning a close one in game 3. Some folks are still saying Curry should be rested in game 4. A resting Curry in the playoffs is a fascinating concept, but a hurting Curry is not. It did look like he tried to play game 2 and couldn't. So may be he is really hurt bad. We don't know yet, but game 4 should tell us a lot. The dubs played a mistake-prone and sub-par game Thursday and lost the game, but since they still almost won anyways, the Warriors are still heavily favored, with or without Curry in this series. But its in their best interest to wrap this series up soon. It's not smart for the dubs to give the Rockets any life, hope, or energy. Rockets' bench didn't even celebrate Harden's game winner in game 3 and the dubs probably don't want to make them feel any tighter or better.

In other news, the NFL draft is almost here. NFL will again dominate the proverbial sports pages next week. Both Rams and the Eagles traded their way up to the first and second spot with an intent to draft a QB. Curious decision by 2 teams in a year with decent, but no slam-dunk QBs at the top.  I can't think of 2 teams trading their way to the top of the draft in the recent past. Looks like QBs will indeed go 1 and 2 and that could be a big problem for the San Francisco 49'ers who might also have some interest in a QB at 7. There are rumors that the Kaepernick trade with Denver is all but done pending the Niners scoring a good QB in the draft. Let's see if thats the deal or Kap's salary negotiation with the Broncos is still the hangup. I like Jared Goff, but not too convinced about the other QBs in this draft. Good for them all anyways to be this sought after. In a shocker of a NFL move, the Carolina Panthers let go off their top corner, Josh Norman. He was franchise tagged and for some reason, they untagged him and cut him loose. We are now deep into free agency and it's not like they needed the money to pay a bunch of top notch free agents still around. They actually have cap room and they can always cut him loose next year even if they can't agree on a new contract. Strange decision indeed and will hurt the Panthers' already questionable shot at another Super Bowl run. Washington has jumped in and signed Norman for a tonne of money. Again, Niners lost out on him. Thats becoming a theme these days.

Big night in the NBA

The last night of the NBA regular season is usually a drag for most fans. There may be a 8th seed or 2 at stake that a couple of mediocre teams would be fighting for. There could be some jostling for seedings up and down the playoff standings. For the most part, the playoff teams that have nothing to play for are waiting for the playoffs to get here and are happily resting their stars. And then there are the lottery teams and their fans who are typically checked out already and are looking forward to the NFL draft! But the 2015-16 NBA season finale today was unique and special. It was a truly historic night with two landmark events happening in Oakland and LA. The Warriors were going for 73 wins to break an amazing and improbable  record for the all-time regular season wins in Oakland while Kobe Bryant was playing his last game in LA to wrap up a legendary 20-year career.

The Bulls record of 72-10 stood for 20 year, but I really thought it was one of those rare records that will stand forever. After all, it was a Michael Jordan record and probably one of his most impressive at that. It's hard to surpass MJ in anything and for the Warriors to do it this year after a championship season is an amazing story. Their coach Steve Kerr is one lucky dude. He won 72 games with the Bulls as a player and is now a 73-game winner as a coach. The Warriors put the Memphis Grizzlies away in style to end the season 73-9. They played 82 games and did not even lose double digit number of games. First team ever to not lose double digit games through an entire NBA season. I am not a big Warriors fan, but even I can list all their losses off the top of my head - @Milwaukee, @Dallas, @Denver, @Detroit, @Portland, @LA Lakers, @San Antonio, Boston, and Minnesota. Thats because they have lost so few games.

These Warriors are a very likable bunch playing a fun style of ball. Curry is the biggest star in the sport today and is must-see TV. They have had a rock-star like following all season long and when you score a 73-9 season, there are many secondary records and numbers that are equally impressive. They never lost back-to-back games all season long. They never lost to the same team twice. They went 34-7 on the road, which is not too shabby and they started the season 24-0. The only thing more impressive was the other landmark that was reached tonight. Curry ended the season with 400+ made threes. Thats almost 5 made threes a game! That almost sounds normal for Curry, but it's hard to do. Curry had nearly as many threes this season as entire teams like the Milwaukee Bucks! A historic night indeed for the dubs. Now they have to seal the deal in the playoffs to truly enter the "best team ever" discussion. One interesting conversation going around the airwaves this week is, who wins the series if the 72-win Bulls team hook up with the 73-win Warriors? Bulls will probably win since they will matchup real well with this dubs team and are superior defensively.

While the Warriors were beating world records in Oakland, Kobe was wrapping up his career in LA with a vintage Kobe performance! He dropped 60 points on 50 shots with a really dominant 4th quarter. Lakers have been dreadful this year and Kobe has not been much better. But with the whole word watching, Kobe elevated his game to the legendary level one last time. He walks away with a 60-point game. Only Kobe can do that and the oldest ever to score 60. I am not too fond of Kobe and the Phoenix Suns have had many interesting contests against him not to mention some daggers he stuck in us back in the day. But I do feel a special connection to his career because NBA is my favorite league and he was part of my sports experience for 20 long years!  It is indeed an end of an era and when Tim Duncan retires, this era is officially dead and it will be another stark reminder that I am getting old. Love him or hate him, Kobe's talent was undeniable and is a true basketball legend. His final game garnered a lot of attention, especially in LA. Nosebleeds were selling for $700, even more than the $350 in Oakland tonight. Court-side seats at staples were going for 25K. As Kobe got close to 50 points, that game started pulling even more eye balls away from the dubs record-setting game, which was a blowout by then. Folks at Staples center thoroughly enjoyed his 60 point performance and went home poor, but happy.

All in all, two great stories in the NBA tonight. The only nit I would like to pick is, Kobe and LA stole some of the spotlight from the record-setting night in Oakland and vice-versa. It was hard to keep up with both games at times. But it was truly a magical night in the NBA.

Season of Records and Streaks!

It's just Thursday and it's been a tremendous sports week already. Monday featured a buzzer-beating victory by Villanova in the NCAA championship game against the storied North Carolina Tar Heels. It was a high level game with a perfect ending, at least for Villanova. No cigar for Roy Williams this year.  Jay Wright finally wins one as a head coach after 15 solid years at Villanova. Nothing succeeds like success and when you win the championship at the highest level, you are looked and treated completely different. Wright probably got himself another 15 years of job security with that win. This week also saw the Major League Baseball kick off their season. Being an even year, all eyes are on the SF Giants and they are looking good at 3-1. Both my teams, the Arizona Diamondbacks and the Oakland Athletics, are not distinguishing themselves in any meaningful way yet. But this is a marathon and not a sprint. Hope they string some victories together soon.

Amidst all of this, the NBA regular season is winding down in style as there are quite a few streaks, records, and associated stories in play. The Warriors went from comfortably heading towards 74 or even 75 wins to now making the pursuit of the Bulls 72-game win record a nail-biting affair. They have to win out their last 3 games to get the record and this is only because they lost to the lowly Minnesota Timberwolves after leading by 15. It's one thing to lose to a well-coached, playoff-bound Boston Celtics team, but quite another to lose to the TWolves at home. That gave the dubs 2 losses out of 3 home games after starting the season 36-0 at home. Never has a late season loss with no playoff consequence made so much news, but when you are chasing one of the most difficult records in all of sports, such a loss rightfully becomes the main topic in the sports world. Talking heads blamed the Warriors' problems on tired legs and wondered if the pressure of this pursuit is taking a toll on their season.

Whatever the reason is, head scratching turnovers are this Warrior teams' Achilles' heel. They are in the midst of a real bad turnover stretch the last few weeks and their execution is not what it was when they were blowing everybody out by 30. Their offensive efficiency and 3-pointing shooting may still be good, but if they turn the ball over 12 extra times and give up 15 points off of those, you are looking at a 25+ point swing if you factor in all the shots the dubs missed taking because of them turnovers. Thats how they end up in a tight ball game in the 4th quarter these days. May be they are physically tired and mentally exhausted, but they need to stop this live-ball donation program if they want to win the championship. They won a big one today against a near full-strength Spurs team. There were a few ugly turnovers again, but they overcame those and dominated the Spurs. They have 2 more against the Grizzles, but the road game against the Spurs on Sunday is going to be the main event. Spurs themselves have a shot at a 41-0 home record, which is pretty sweet, and it's hard to predict what Pop will do with that game. If he doesn't rest his stars, Dubs will be in a fist-fight and may have to settle for a loss and a 72-win season.

Winning 72 NBA games in a season is a massive achievement, but after all this, it will feel like a failure for this Warriors team. They are so close and we will know in just 3 games if they wrap it up.