I have to admit, I have not always been the biggest Kevin Garnett fan.
Not that there is anything bad or unlikable about the guy… in fact, what usually annoys me about him is that he seems a bit too perfect. KG has always been the ‘scrappy’ guy; the guy who dives after loose balls, crashes the glass, plays hard on D, all while maintaining a humble unassuming attitude towards the fans and, most importantly, the media.
The press loves those guys. You know: the Tyler Hansbroughs, David Ecksteins, and Derek Jeters of the world (oh and did I mention Derek Jeter? He’s great!).
As usual, I’m skeptical. Yet, after round 1 of the playoffs, I feel compelled to come to the guy’s defense. Recently, there have been a wave of criticism for Garnett’s (and the Celtics’) performance against the 37 win Hawks in the opening round, most of which has criticized KG’s ‘heart,’ his ‘killer instinct,’ and his lack of ‘winning experience.’
Scoop Jackson, for example, has written what has to be one of the most melodramatic sports articles of all time, arguing that ‘we’ (this also has to set all kinds of records for most liberal use of the collective ‘we’ in a single column) can no longer ‘love’ Kevin Garnett b/c it took him 7 games to beat Atlanta. The article also contains the following sentence, which should immediately cause you dismiss anything Scoop Jackson ever says again:
“We want that sense of joy to overcome us that we will not have for any other athlete because we’ve been so wrapped up in his journey for so long and we know that sweat coming out of him on those Gatorade commercials is blood, not electrolytes.” Thank you, Scoop.
And then there’s Gene Wojciechowski (best last name in the industry), who dares drop the A-word: A-Rod. (Woj also hilariously feels the need to mention PJ Brown’s pre games snacks: “14-year veteran P.J. Brown, who spent part of his pregame sitting in front of his locker and eating a homemade peanut butter and jelly sandwich.”) Seriously, people? Are we really at the point where we are bringing in A-Rod?
The ridiculous nature of that comparison aside, I think ‘we’ all need to take a collective breath, and calm down a bit. Kevin Garnett is fine. The Celtics are fine. After all, they outscored the Hawks, on average by 12 points. That would be impressive even if they won 4-0. What we’ve learned from this first round is that a) Boston’s bench might be a little overrated, b) Doc Rivers is not the greatest coach in the world, and most importantly c) basketball is a weird game and strange things can happen in a (relatively) short series.
As John Hollinger points out, the Hawks played one hell of a series at home, perhaps attributed to actually having fans in their arena. If I were a C’s fan, I really wouldn’t lose a lot of sleep over this series. Bottom line, KG is a beast—his adjusted plus minus indicated he has been arguably the best player in the league the past few years (check out 82games.com if you haven’t read about the next big stat, still in the works)—and the Celtics are still ridiculously good. Bold prediction: They’ll dismantle an overrated Cavs team in 5.
Of course, all of this is peanuts compared to the really exciting stuff going on out west.
Namely, Chris Paul, David West, and the Hornets have absolutely dismantled the Spurs in the past two games. Now this seems odd to me. Not because of the whole playoff experience thing, which you know I think is silly—but because this seems like a poor matchup for the Hornets. The Spurs, after all, pride themselves on beating those fast paced teams (i.e. the Suns) by slowing down the pace and then throwing Bowen at the oppositions best player.
Needless to say, this hasn’t worked against NO. The thing is, the Hornets aren’t even doing it by running: they’re beating San Antonio at their own game. They’ve hit 3 pointers (especially during their big Game 2 3rd quarter), forced turnovers, played even in points in the paint, and racked up fouls on the opposition. That’s supposed to be Popovitch-ball.
Now, I don’t know what will happen in games 3 and 4, but I do know that Bowen cannot guard Paul and Oberto cannot guard West. Timmy D better have something good up his sleeve, because the Spurs do not look explosive enough to deal with the young Hornets.
9 responses so far ↓
1 Doug Eickman (deickman09) // May 7, 2008 at 2:40 am
Also, gotta love KG flooring Zaza in game 7… have you ever seen a more classy retaliation? Catch the video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2bh6u8_VW8&NR=1
2 Sam Rudman (srudman09) // May 7, 2008 at 8:14 pm
Great column. I basically agree with you about the hawks series except for one thing. Doc Rivers is not just a not so good coach. He is a terrible, God-awful, horrid coach. Was at game 1 last night, Doc Rivers tried to throw the game. He had Cleveland with the ten points, maybe even with the money line. Rondo torched the cavs for 15 in the first half, he forced the D to collapse and then finished anyway, in the second half posey and allen would have been wide open outside for the dish. So Doc pulled him and put in Cassell who magically threw in two out of rythm threes that didnt deserve to go in. One of those little things you miss unless you were at the game: At least half the stadium was chanting “We Want Rondo” with about 8 minutes to go. Unbelievable.
3 Doug Eickman (deickman09) // May 8, 2008 at 10:39 am
Haha, I’ve heard that complaint about Rivers a few times before, and I completely sympathize… Rondo completely deserves to be in the game late in the 4th, he’s a surprisingly legit player for someone who can’t shoot. On the flip side, I can’t believe he was the one taking the final shot in Game 6 of the Hawks series ( I believe..) If you are doing offense-defense substitutions you gotta take him outta there..
How much credit do you give Rivers for the team’s D? Most people tend to credit team defense as a coach thing, but obviously its hard to give Rivers credit when he was the coach the past few seasons.. is it all Garnett, then?
4 Sam Rudman (srudman09) // May 8, 2008 at 12:50 pm
Ah, a fair question, it is a coach thing, his name is Tom Thibodault, he is Rivers’ defensive coordinator of sorts. Garnett plays a huge role as well. The point is, Doc has nothing to do with it. He does a great job with player development, a really great job on that front, and then is just terrible at in game strategy.
I think you must be thinking of the Rondo of old, with regards to his shooting, he spent this whole year developing a mid-range jumper which he has been reluctant to use in the post-season but which was very effective down the stretch, he will need to make that shot if they are going to beat the pistons. He has a psychological thing with 3 pointers where he cant even hit the rim or backboard.
5 mherman09 (mherman09) // May 10, 2008 at 2:01 pm
We all should consider ourselves lucky to be watching these Western Conference Semifinals. It’s showcasing:
1. The best young player in the league (Chris Paul);
2. WARNING: THIS WILL SPARK DEBATE! The best point guard in the league (Deron Williams). Okay, okay, Chris Paul puts up the gaudy numbers and has the highlight reel alley oop passes and layups every 3 or 4 minutes, but Deron Williams isn’t far behind statistically, is a better three point shooter and he’s huge. Admittedly, Paul does have the distinct advantage in steals and turnovers. I guess when it comes down to it, I wouldn’t really mind building a team around either. I look forward to their continuing careers;
3. The best big man in the league. Sorry KG and Dwight Howard fans, Tim Duncan is the best. You can say whatever you want about his supporting cast, but Tim Duncan has been the constant factor on the most consistently great team in our era;
4. And, of course, the NBA MVP, Kobe Bryant, who is showing that he deserves the award, even if Luke Walton and his greasy hair can’t come up with a jump ball with under 30 seconds remaining and the Lakers in striking distance…….
About the Hornets-Spurs series: I think the Spurs have a chance if they let Paul get his stats while beating him up, much like the Pistons of the late 80’s did to MJ. Put Bowen on Stojakovic. He scored 22 and 25 in games 1 and 2 while having only 8 in game 3. Paul and West will get their points, but two guys can’t beat the Spurs. We’ll see, though. I look forward to the series.
P.S. Did you all see that the Cubs finally won a game and it was against the vaunted D-Backs? Let’s hope they can string two together!
6 Sam Rudman (srudman09) // May 12, 2008 at 11:16 pm
Anyone watch the game tonight?!?!? Rondo was making that jump shot we were talking about . . . so Rivers benched him. Then he started PJ Brown and Glenn Davis in place of Garnett and Posey for the fourth quarter! I don’t get it, help, what was the spread tonight, can’t Doc start betting on the first half lines only so we can at least try and come back?!?!
7 Sam Rudman (srudman09) // May 13, 2008 at 10:48 am
Great, now Doc Rivers is talking like Joe Morgan:
“He can dunk. And if you give him a running start at the basket, he’s going to get a good dunk. Once he gets up there, there’s not a lot you can do about it,”
Thanks Doc! Glad we are paying you millions of dollars for nothing. I hate you, you are ruining the greatest Celtics team since ‘86. McHale would have clotheslined him ala Kurt Rambis in ‘84, this sucks, this really sucks.
8 Sam Rudman (srudman09) // May 14, 2008 at 12:21 pm
http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=simmons/080514
9 Sam Rudman (srudman09) // May 27, 2008 at 3:21 pm
Doug, need to get your take on this. I think Big Brown’s owner is making this injury up to chase up the odds on his horse. He was only paying 1-5 at Preakness and figured to pay less than that at Belmont. If he wins by 10 lengths don’t be surprised.
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