The Good, Bad and Ugly of the NBA weekend

By Joe Manganiello

On Friday, the NBA had four series knotted up at 1-1. After five weekend games, three series inched closer to resolution, while arguably the Association’s most entertaining series is as wide-open as ever before.

Here’s what we should take away from the weekend.

The Good

Marc Gasol:

Do I dare say that Marc Gasol was the best player on the court in game three? I’ve said crazier things. The Grizzles outscored the Thunder by 14 points when Gasol was on the floor, and Gasol put together 20 points, nine rebounds, four assists, two blocks and went 8-9 from the line.

Roy Hibbert:

Pickinsplinters.com founder Paul Gotham said it best.

Remember reading criticism of Hibbert as a rookie that he didn't know how to play with his back to the basket. Much has changed. @joemags32

— Paul Gotham (@PickinSplinters) May 12, 2013

Those left-handed hook shoots Hibbert was working on during shoot around might have looked ugly, but he had it working in game three on his way to a 24 point, 12 rebound performance. The Knicks were counting on Tyson Chandler to limit him during this series, but as long as Hibbert is putting up highlights like these in this series, my Knicks have no shot to advance.

LeBron James:

His game three stat line: 25 points, eight rebounds, seven assists, 11-11 from the charity stripe, two steals, and one turnover in over 44 minutes.

The mix up with Nazr Mohammad was interesting and all, but James dominating yet another basketball game between the rival teams is the major take away here.

Norris Cole:

Speaking for the entire basketball universe, I raise the question, “HOW THE HELL IS A TEAM SUPPOSED TO GUARD THE MIAMI HEAT IF NORRIS COLE GOES 6-7 FROM THE FIELD, PERFECT FROM 3-POINT LAND AND DOESN’T MISS FROM THE FOUL LINE????!!!!!!!!!!”

I feel better.

No I don’t.

Carlos Boozer:

A minor victory for Chicago in game three was finding out that Boozer has a great mismatch against the smaller front court of Miami. He scored 21 points in 28 minutes on plays like these:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qc9HrZBfjeA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EHHYJE6xF00

Stephen Curry, Harrison Barnes in game four:

Steph Curry and the Warriors might have handed home court advantage back to San Antonio in game three, but don’t think for a second that the Spurs are comfortable with this series being 2-2 after game four. Curry followed up a subpar game three with a lights out performance Sunday. He went 5-10 from beyond the arc and scored 22 points to go along with six rebounds and four assists.

Harrison “I’m Far And Away The Most Underrated Rookie In My Draft Class” Barnes was the real story from game four though. He led all scorers with 26 points, was perfect from the charity stripe (7-7), collected 10 rebounds and was routinely abusing Tony Parker on what served to be an ill-advised defensive assignment.

He also did this:

Memphis foul shooting:

The Grizzles stepped to the foul line 28 times and made 23 shots on Saturday. Memphis will win EVERY GAME that they go 23-28 from the line.

San Antonio (in first quarter):

The Spurs are outscored the Warriors 58-42 in the first quarter of games three and four. The early lead in game three was as paramount to their victory as anything else. However…

The Bad

San Antonio (after first quarter):

… the Spurs were outscored 147-131 in the second, third and fourth quarter and in overtime of games three and four. How? Spotty shooting hasn’t helped. The Spurs were 13-47 (27.7 percent) from behind the arc in games three and four. Their rebounding has also been appalling. The Warriors held an 113-91 rebounding edge over the two games in Oracle Arena. While it can be argued that Tim Duncan has been the best big man in the series, the impact that Andrew Bogut (games three and four combined: 16 points and 30 rebounds) has had against both the Nuggets and Spurs is monumental.

Knicks rebounding:

New York brought down 40 rebounds in game three. Indiana had 53. Yeah…

(Hey, rebounding must be important or something.)

How reliant the Pacers are on their starting lineup:

Here is what the Pacers starting lineup did against the Knicks on Saturday:

(1) played 193:27 minutes out of 240:00

(2) recorded 25 of the team’s 28 FGM (9 of 10 3PM)

(3) recorded 15 of 16 FTM

(4) collected 47 of 53 total rebounds

(5) recorded 13 of 14 assists

(6) had all of the team’s steals and blocks

and most importantly…

(7) scored 74 of the team’s 82 points

To say that the Pacers starting lineup is pivotal to their success is a huge understatement, much like claiming a benefit of dating Kate Upton is the feasibility of fornication.

(Wait, I think I need a moment. Okay, I’m good.)

If New York’s bench revived itself in this series and jostled the remedial Pacers second unit, this series would get very interesting.

When Kevin Durant doesn’t shoot for Oklahoma City:

Kevin Durant shot 9-19 in game three; the rest of the team went 23-69 (33 percent). Yikes. Durant shot 2-6 from 3-point land; the rest of the team went 3-12 (25 percent). You starting to catch my drift? Memphis is brilliantly taking away all of Durant’s teammates, understanding that (1) Durant can’t score every Thunder bucket; (2) a game in the 80s totally favors Memphis; and (3) Oklahoma City is at its core a jump-shooting team, and if they aren’t hitting shots they are usually not that affective.

Thunder big men:

Understanding full and well that Memphis has the best frontcourt in basketball, holy crap, how pathetic are Oklahoma City’s bigs right now? Here are Ibaka, Perkins and Collison’s combined numbers from game three: 21 rebounds (not bad), four blocks (that’s pretty good), 17 points (well okay…), 11 fouls (okay…), four turnovers (oh…) and 7-25 shooting from the field (ugh).

Ray Allen:

Although Norris Cole’s magical bean-induced performance covered it up, Ray Allen played like he witnessed a crowd burning hundreds of copies of “He Got Game.” He missed all five of his 3-point attempts and scored just four points in 22:45 minutes.

Carmelo Anthony:

The NBA’s “other” first-place vote for MVP churned out another below-average game. He shot 6-16 from the field, shot 73 percent from the foul line, only caught five boards, had four turnovers, and scored 21 points, which for Melo is like scoring 10 points.

The Ugly

J.R. Smith:

His slump continues. While adding “Staying out late night with Rihanna” to the list of critiques against J.R.’s better judgment, he went 3-12 from the field and finished with nine points in under 25 minutes. That’s right, Woodson could only stomach playing his second best offensive player 25 minutes in a game where the Knicks scored 71 points. Really good defensive teams have a knack for dismantling the psyche of unsure offensive teams come playoff time (see: Memphis 4, Los Angeles 2, 2013, first round). This series appears like its heading in that direction.

Chicago’s thin roster:

After Mohammed was ejected, the Bulls were down to two (count ’em, TWO) players coming off the bench. Against the best player in twenty years, the scariest team since the Shaq/Kobe three-peat and without Derrick Rose, Luol Deng and Kirk Hinrich, it was already bad enough for Chicago. But playing seven guys in the second half of a monumentally important game three. That’s just plain ugly.

Refereeing in the Heat/Bulls series:

Jeez.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gKruZP3FB2E

That's a TERRIBLE CALL. Noah, Bulls just got screwed #nba

— Joe Manganiello (@thatjoemags) May 11, 2013

That was brutal.

— Holly MacKenzie (@stackmack) May 11, 2013

That's a terrible call. #HeatVsBulls

— Robert Flores (@RoFlo) May 11, 2013

https://twitter.com/CjayTheGreat/status/333048283234705409

Follow me @joemags32. Tweet me, comment on my article and enjoy the NBA – Peace, love, recycle and ball.