Breakdown, Go ahead and Give to Me!!
Tonight begins the NBA Finals. Michael Wilbon wrote in his column the other day, “And now, they're (Detroit) going to San Antonio to play another virtually perfect team, a team just like them, one that passes and cuts and shoots and defends and has anti-divas who hate to be credited. The folks who think sports should be pure entertainment and measure exclusively by the Nielsen ratings won't like Detroit vs. San Antonio because there's no glitz, no quote machine like Shaq, no 50 Most Beautiful People cultural crossover star like Wade, nobody to market like The Big Ticket or A.I.” Mr. Wilbon could not be more correct. While the casual NBA fan will not like this series because of its lack of star power, the basketball junkie (I never use the word purist) can’t wait for the two best defensive teams in the league to square off.
PG Match-up- Chauncey Billups vs. Tony Parker. Chauncey is the most clutch player in this series. He was the MVP of last year’s finals and always plays well down the stretch in the 4th quarter. He does not have the pizzazz of Tony Parker but he will not disappear for long stretches like Parker sometimes does. Tony Parker relies on his quickness to get by defenders and create for his teammates. With his lack of production outside though Billups will be able to lay off of him and his driving lanes will be cut down by the team defense of the Pistons. Overall Chauncey is a better player, and a more clutch player.
ADVANTAGE: Detroit Pistons
SG Match-up- Richard Hamilton vs. Bruce Bowen. This should be a fun one to watch. Hamilton is non stop on offense, he is the energizer bunny. He keeps applying pressure to the defense all game long. He can beat you in a variety of ways offensively; he can catch & shoot, he is great off the pull up dribble, and he can get to the tin and finish, and to top it off he is only an 85% FT shooter. However, Bruce Bowen is the stopper. I am not sure how, but this guys just shuts people down, and he frustrates them while doing it. Bowen is great at not allowing players to catch the ball in their comfort areas and I believe he will have an effect on Hamilton. Now on the other side of the court this is the moveable object versus the stoppable force. So if Bowen can get anything offensively it always helps his team.
ADVANTAGE: Push (In honor of the great Nick Bakay, I’m just livin’ the dream Nick!!)
SF Match-up- Tayshaun Prince vs. Manu Ginobili. I am going to try and be fair in this review, even though I do not want to for 2 reasons. One, Tay is my boy from when I was at Kentucky and I hate all foreigners especially greasy, smelly, pseudo-Euro trash ones from South America (there is a great picture on the ESPN.com homepage of Ginobili jumping on Tim Duncan’s back and Duncan has this look like “Hey, get off my back you smelly foreign bastard”). Anyway, Tayshaun can easily exploit Ginobili down on the block, which is where he will have to work because Manu is too good a perimeter defender. Prince needs to attack the glass to help his team out, but he mustn’t lose sight of Manu leaking out on the break. In the open court Ginobili is dangerous and he can finish at the rim as well as anyone in the game. On offense Manu needs to continue his playoff trend of driving the ball and forcing the defense to collapse, and he should be able to do that against the slower Prince. To me this the most intriguing match-up of the series, because both team’s fans probably think they have the advantage.
ADVANTAGE: San Antonio Spurs
PF Match-up- Ben Wallace vs. Tim Duncan. Big Ben versus the Big Fundamental. I hate both those nicknames. First of all Ben Wallace has never given me the time of day, ever. And secondly everyone harps on Duncan’s fundamentals and how good he is, when in reality it is his decision making that is outstanding. Honestly, Kobe Bryant is as sound fundamentally as you get, but he makes poor decisions which skew his effectiveness. Duncan on the other hand takes shots he can make, only dribble’s in situation where he wants lose the ball, box’s out (derr who’s ever heard of that), and makes the smart pass instead of the flashy pass. Ben Wallace on the other hand is the most overrated player in the history of sports. Yeah, he gets some rebounds (to quote another great power forward, Derrick Coleman), “Whoopty, Damn Doo!!” He cannot guard Duncan on any level. Tim Duncan will have a huge series so that finally he can get the recognition he deserves as one of the All Time Greats. 8 seasons in the league, 8 times First Team All-NBA, 7 times All-NBA Defensive Team, 2 time League MVP and 2 Time Finals MVP. Ben Wallace won a rebounding title once and 2 times Defensive player of the year, who would you rather have?
ADVANTAGE: San Antonio Spurs
C Match-up- Nazr Mohammed vs. Rasheed Wallace. Rasheed is supremely more talented and supremely more volatile. But he should have the advantage here. With his ability to stretch the defense because of his shooting range he can help pull Mohammed away from the basket which may free up some room for Billups and Hamilton to get to the basket. But Mohammed, like Popovich’s entire team, excels at efficiency. Mohammed knows where his bread is buttered and that is cleaning up the offensive glass and making himself available when Parker and Ginobili drive. Mohammed will be very effective in this series, and he should be able to contain Wallace and not let him have any huge games.
ADVANTAGE: Push
Bench Match-up- “Big Shot” Bob Horry, Brent Barry, Rasho Nesterovic, Beno Udrih, and maybe Devin Brown & the Big Dog vs. Antonio McDyess, Lindsey Hunter, and maybe Elden Campbell & Carlos Arroyo. Well who the hell do you think has the advantage? Bob Horry, go ahead and leave this guy open late in the game and see what happens. Lindsey Hunter, are you serious? This guy is Julio Franco old. This is the second biggest mismatch of the series (Duncan v Wallace being first).
ADVANTAGE: San Antonio Spurs
Coaching Match-up- Larry Brown vs. Gregg Popovich. Here is what both these guys do, win basketball games. I believe this is the most even match-up in the whole series, sans one thing. That is The Larry Brown Traveling All-Stars & Motor Kings. This guy is just an absolute circus, and that will help distract his team. Pop will have his team all focused and ready to go.
ADVANTAGE: San Antonio Spurs
There you have it folks, Da Spurs will take the series in 5 games. Timmy will get his championship without the Admiral and will finally begin to get the respect he so richly deserves.
Two side notes. First I will be addressing this Yankee bashing and Met loving that is happening on this site later this week. I will settle all the debate and comments will be prohibited, because on The Wisdom what I say goes!!
And secondly I was doing some research for the NBA Finals and came across Chauncey Billups career transaction wire. In his 8 NBA seasons he has played for 5 teams and has been traded for: Kenny Anderson, Zan Tabak, Popeye Jones, Zelijko Rebraca, Michael Williams, Chris Gatling, Traiq Abdul-Wahad and signed
PG Match-up- Chauncey Billups vs. Tony Parker. Chauncey is the most clutch player in this series. He was the MVP of last year’s finals and always plays well down the stretch in the 4th quarter. He does not have the pizzazz of Tony Parker but he will not disappear for long stretches like Parker sometimes does. Tony Parker relies on his quickness to get by defenders and create for his teammates. With his lack of production outside though Billups will be able to lay off of him and his driving lanes will be cut down by the team defense of the Pistons. Overall Chauncey is a better player, and a more clutch player.
ADVANTAGE: Detroit Pistons
SG Match-up- Richard Hamilton vs. Bruce Bowen. This should be a fun one to watch. Hamilton is non stop on offense, he is the energizer bunny. He keeps applying pressure to the defense all game long. He can beat you in a variety of ways offensively; he can catch & shoot, he is great off the pull up dribble, and he can get to the tin and finish, and to top it off he is only an 85% FT shooter. However, Bruce Bowen is the stopper. I am not sure how, but this guys just shuts people down, and he frustrates them while doing it. Bowen is great at not allowing players to catch the ball in their comfort areas and I believe he will have an effect on Hamilton. Now on the other side of the court this is the moveable object versus the stoppable force. So if Bowen can get anything offensively it always helps his team.
ADVANTAGE: Push (In honor of the great Nick Bakay, I’m just livin’ the dream Nick!!)
SF Match-up- Tayshaun Prince vs. Manu Ginobili. I am going to try and be fair in this review, even though I do not want to for 2 reasons. One, Tay is my boy from when I was at Kentucky and I hate all foreigners especially greasy, smelly, pseudo-Euro trash ones from South America (there is a great picture on the ESPN.com homepage of Ginobili jumping on Tim Duncan’s back and Duncan has this look like “Hey, get off my back you smelly foreign bastard”). Anyway, Tayshaun can easily exploit Ginobili down on the block, which is where he will have to work because Manu is too good a perimeter defender. Prince needs to attack the glass to help his team out, but he mustn’t lose sight of Manu leaking out on the break. In the open court Ginobili is dangerous and he can finish at the rim as well as anyone in the game. On offense Manu needs to continue his playoff trend of driving the ball and forcing the defense to collapse, and he should be able to do that against the slower Prince. To me this the most intriguing match-up of the series, because both team’s fans probably think they have the advantage.
ADVANTAGE: San Antonio Spurs
PF Match-up- Ben Wallace vs. Tim Duncan. Big Ben versus the Big Fundamental. I hate both those nicknames. First of all Ben Wallace has never given me the time of day, ever. And secondly everyone harps on Duncan’s fundamentals and how good he is, when in reality it is his decision making that is outstanding. Honestly, Kobe Bryant is as sound fundamentally as you get, but he makes poor decisions which skew his effectiveness. Duncan on the other hand takes shots he can make, only dribble’s in situation where he wants lose the ball, box’s out (derr who’s ever heard of that), and makes the smart pass instead of the flashy pass. Ben Wallace on the other hand is the most overrated player in the history of sports. Yeah, he gets some rebounds (to quote another great power forward, Derrick Coleman), “Whoopty, Damn Doo!!” He cannot guard Duncan on any level. Tim Duncan will have a huge series so that finally he can get the recognition he deserves as one of the All Time Greats. 8 seasons in the league, 8 times First Team All-NBA, 7 times All-NBA Defensive Team, 2 time League MVP and 2 Time Finals MVP. Ben Wallace won a rebounding title once and 2 times Defensive player of the year, who would you rather have?
ADVANTAGE: San Antonio Spurs
C Match-up- Nazr Mohammed vs. Rasheed Wallace. Rasheed is supremely more talented and supremely more volatile. But he should have the advantage here. With his ability to stretch the defense because of his shooting range he can help pull Mohammed away from the basket which may free up some room for Billups and Hamilton to get to the basket. But Mohammed, like Popovich’s entire team, excels at efficiency. Mohammed knows where his bread is buttered and that is cleaning up the offensive glass and making himself available when Parker and Ginobili drive. Mohammed will be very effective in this series, and he should be able to contain Wallace and not let him have any huge games.
ADVANTAGE: Push
Bench Match-up- “Big Shot” Bob Horry, Brent Barry, Rasho Nesterovic, Beno Udrih, and maybe Devin Brown & the Big Dog vs. Antonio McDyess, Lindsey Hunter, and maybe Elden Campbell & Carlos Arroyo. Well who the hell do you think has the advantage? Bob Horry, go ahead and leave this guy open late in the game and see what happens. Lindsey Hunter, are you serious? This guy is Julio Franco old. This is the second biggest mismatch of the series (Duncan v Wallace being first).
ADVANTAGE: San Antonio Spurs
Coaching Match-up- Larry Brown vs. Gregg Popovich. Here is what both these guys do, win basketball games. I believe this is the most even match-up in the whole series, sans one thing. That is The Larry Brown Traveling All-Stars & Motor Kings. This guy is just an absolute circus, and that will help distract his team. Pop will have his team all focused and ready to go.
ADVANTAGE: San Antonio Spurs
There you have it folks, Da Spurs will take the series in 5 games. Timmy will get his championship without the Admiral and will finally begin to get the respect he so richly deserves.
Two side notes. First I will be addressing this Yankee bashing and Met loving that is happening on this site later this week. I will settle all the debate and comments will be prohibited, because on The Wisdom what I say goes!!
And secondly I was doing some research for the NBA Finals and came across Chauncey Billups career transaction wire. In his 8 NBA seasons he has played for 5 teams and has been traded for: Kenny Anderson, Zan Tabak, Popeye Jones, Zelijko Rebraca, Michael Williams, Chris Gatling, Traiq Abdul-Wahad and signed
2 Comments:
Alright Josh, I am up 1 game to zero in the Sheed Nazr match-up. I also told all you clowns out there that Duncan would absolutely ridicule Ben Wallace, and he did. I also told you that Manu would be able to drive past the much slower Prince, which he did. And Dan, speaking of Duncan I have two words for you, Ankles Schmankles!!! They certainly looked healthy to me. This series is over (said in a Steven A. Smith voice) and as wildly incorrect as a Steven A. Smith analysis.
Good calls Slipps. The Spurs play classic basketball. Great fundamentals, strong defense, and tremendous team baketball. Couple that with terrific role players and a solid bench and it's easy to see why this team is going to win yet another title.
Hey go check out my latest post on the boom boom report about how I would improve baseball. I'd like to hear you shred it up!!
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