Kendrick Perkins just doesn’t ‘understand’ why Oklahoma City goes away from the lineup featuring him at center (Ball Don’t Lie)

 Golden State  No Responses »
Jun 202012
 

The last time Kendrick Perkins was in the NBA Finals, he wasn’t in the NBA Finals. We’re probably going to have to be mindful of that moving forward. Prior to last Tuesday’s Game 1 — a game that saw heaps of Twitter chatterers roundly criticizing the play of Kendrick Perkins both in game and following — the last time we saw the man in front of that massive Finals logo he was sitting on the Boston Celtics bench after tearing knee ligaments in Game 6 of the 2010 NBA Finals. This means Perkins had to sit out Game 7. This means he had to watch, as Pau Gasol’s crucial offensive rebound pushed the series’ deciding game in Los Angeles’ favor. This means he was as helpless as any one of the Boston rooters that weren’t amongst the five on the floor at the time.
This means we’ll have to take it easy on Perk, while he vents and complains, following yet another game that saw the Oklahoma City Thunder go away from him in the final minutes. The final 18 minutes of the contest, to be exact, a jaunt that saw the Miami Heat outscore the Thunder by two points while Perk watched from the sideline. Which had to be hard, considering the team was +11 with him on the court for the first nine minutes of the first quarter, even if we attempt to forget the fact that the team was -7 with Perkins on the court in that six-minute third quarter turn. Whatever we remember, or forget, Perkins is a wee bit upset. From Daily Thunder :
“I just don’t understand why we start out the first quarter the way we did, with the lineup that we had, and all of a sudden we change and adjust to what they had going on. So they won the last three quarters, and that’s what happened.”

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Serge Ibaka says LeBron James is not a good defender, presumably after taking crazy pills (Ball Don’t Lie)

 Miami  No Responses »
Jun 192012
 

After popping for 17 points and 16 points in the fourth quarters of Games 1 and 2 of the NBA Finals, Kevin Durant struggled in the final frame of Game 3. The league’s reigning scoring champion missed four of six field-goal attempts and both of his free throws in the fourth, scoring just four points in the last 12 minutes on Sunday night as his Oklahoma City Thunder fell to the Miami Heat, 91-85 , to give Miami a 2-1 lead in this best-of-seven championship series. As the two teams went back to the drawing board on Monday to prepare for Tuesday’s Game 4, an awful lot of talk centered on Durant’s quiet fourth and the degree to which the defense of LeBron James influenced it.
Thunder forward Serge Ibaka, noted shot-blocker and runner-up in this year’s Defensive Player of the Year balloting, thinks the answer is, “Not that much.” Also, he thinks down 1-2 in the Finals is a good time to talk reckless. From Tom D’Angelo of the Palm Beach Post :
“LeBron is not a good defender,” Ibaka said about the player who received the most votes for the league’s all-defensive team, which is selected by the coaches.
“He can play defense for two to three minutes but not 48 minutes.” [...]
“LeBron can’t play (Durant) one-on-one,” Ibaka said. “They’re playing good defense like a team.”
Appraised of Ibaka’s comments on Tuesday, James reportedly offered a succinct reply : “I don’t really care what he says. It’s stupid.”
Here, courtesy of Your Man , a less succinct reply:
• Way to go, Serge Ibaka! Trash talking makes everything more fun. Remember how much we liked it when Kevin Durant backed down Dwyane Wade, shot over him, then smiled and told him he was “too small?” (Of course you do. That happened literally two days ago, in Game 3.) Now we will all be like, “Oooh, intrigue!” every time Ibaka and James share the floor, and be able to laugh and smile about how great it is that two young, competitive, combative teams are willing to mix it up for our amusement. Fight, fight, fight, fight, fight!

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Kevin Garnett Drags Mickael Pietrus Back Into Celtics’ Huddle Twice (Video)

 Rumors  No Responses »
Jun 062012
 

Kevin Garnett and Mickael Pietrus are polar opposites. While one could argue that Garnett is the most intense player to ever step foot on an NBA court, Pietrus is one of the league’s most jocular players. Pietrus showed during Tuesday’s Game 5 showdown with the Heat that he was very much into the game by providing some clutch play, but Garnett really wanted to make sure his teammate was listening when Boston huddled up with 8.8 seconds remaining. ESPN’s camera crew captured an animated discussion near the Boston bench as the Celtics were clinging to a four-point lead in the…

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LeBron James Will Never Be a Legendary Player Until He Proves Himself in Clutch

 Rumors  No Responses »
May 162012
 

The critics have been harsh on Miami superstar LeBron James as it relates to his performance in clutch situations. Some of that criticism is fair, some is not, but one thing is for sure, and that’s LeBron must start coming through in pressure-filled situations.

Until he does, James won’t be viewed as a legendary player by any stretch of the imagination.

I’m not one of these guys who will sit here and tell you that LeBron chokes in the clutch, because he doesn’t. James has had more than his share of big late-game moments both in the regular season and the postseason.

But the problem is that the public perception is of a guy who shies away from the big moment and routinely doesn’t come through in the clutch.

He’s the most criticized athlete in sports, and that perception will stick with him his entire career until he starts dominating those pressure-filled situations. 

When he does, there won’t be anything left to criticize LeBron for.

Does James deserve to be heavily criticized for bricking two free throws that could have given the Heat the lead in Tuesday’s Game 2 against the Indiana Pacers? Absolutely.

He’s the MVP of the league and is making $16 million on the season. There’s just no excuse to not step to the line and make your free throws. For a superstar such as James to shoot 59.8 percent in the last minute of one possession games, that’s a problem.

But when James is criticized for other things late in games it may not be as fair. You have to look at game situation and exactly what type of player LeBron really is.

James will get criticized for not having the ball in his hand for the last shot in both of Miami’s playoff losses. Maybe point the finger at coach Erik Spoelstra instead, as neither play was designed for LeBron.

But back to the style of player James is.

He’s a point guard in a forward’s body, and like any good point guard he elects to defer and pass the ball. There’s nothing wrong with that at all.

Some guys throughout time are finishers, such as Kevin Durant, Kobe Bryant, Reggie Miller, Robert Horry, etc.  James is not a finisher. It’s not within his personality. Some guys are finishers and some are playmakers.

LeBron is a playmaker, and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. Great finishers late in games are also great shooters. I wouldn’t classify James as a great shooter, which is something that hurts him down the stretch of tight games.

Sure he’s finished teams off before, mostly when he’s been on fire, but anyone on fire can ride that and get the job done.

To get to the levels where his career should eventually get, James not only needs to win a ring or two, but he also must start dominating the last minute of close games.

There’s a reason NBA games are 48 minutes long and not 47. That’s because you are expected to play the entire game well.

One way or enough, James must develop the mentality of a killer in the clutch. It’s the only thing consistently holding him back.

I don’t know how he does that, but aggressively demanding the ball in pressure-filled situations is a start.

If Miami continues to have problems late in games, the pressure is going to build on James to perform well late in games, and until he does, he will never be the legend that his talent says he should be.

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