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Celtic Pride Lives On

May 1, 2013  ·  11:52PM

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NEW YORK – These aren’t the same ‘ol Celtics.

No Rajon Rondo. No Ray Allen. No Perk, Posey or P.J. Brown.

They took another step backward this season, falling to seventh in the Eastern Conference. They were pretty awful on the road, their defense didn’t have quite the same bite, and their offense was pretty anemic. You never knew what you were going to get from them, maybe a win over a great team on one night and a loss to a terrible team the next.

And when they were down 0-3 to the New York Knicks in this first round series, it appeared to be time to finally count them out.

Well … uh … never mind. Maybe these are the same ‘ol Celtics.

Fueled by a defense that continues to hold it’s own against one of the most potent offensive attacks in the league, the Celtics staved off elimination for the second time on Wednesday. This time they did it in enemy territory, holding on for a 92-86 victory at Madison Square Garden that sends the series back to Boston for Game 6 on Friday.

So now, things get really interesting. No team in NBA history has ever come back from an 0-3 series deficit, but it’s starting to look like great defense can beat great offense. The Knicks have shot just 37 percent and scored just 94 points per 100 possessions over the last two games.

Coming up empty in Boston without J.R. Smith is one thing. But with Smith back and the opportunity to win a playoff series on their home floor for the first time since 1999, the Knicks laid another egg on Wednesday.

“Offensively, we were searching,” Knicks coach Mike Woodson said. “We’ve got to find some offense somewhere. We have been struggling to find points.”

In his return from a one-game suspension, Smith missed his first 10 shots and finished 3-for-14. Carmelo Anthony wasn’t much better, shooting 8-for-24, meaning that the Knicks basically got the same production out of the pair as they did in Game 4 (when Smith didn’t play).

The one thing the Knicks still have going offensively is Raymond Felton on the pick and roll. He continued to get to the rim in Game 5, rendering Avery Bradley useless and scoring 21 points on 10-for-19 shooting.

But too often, the Knicks became stagnant offensively, resorting to more isolations and contested jumpers. They’ve lived by the three all season, but have shot a brutal 12-for-52 (23 percent) from beyond the arc in the last two games. Anthony has missed his last 15 3-point attempts.

Of course, the Celtics wouldn’t have won Games 4 and 5 if they weren’t scoring themselves. And Wednesday was easily their best offensive performance of the series. Part of it was better execution. But mostly, they just shot better.

That was the one source of optimism when they were down 0-3. They’re a bad offensive team, but they’re not a bad shooting team, and they were missing a lot of decent shots in those first three games. The Knicks have played aggressively on the ball all series, leaving shooters open. And now the Celtics are finally making them pay. Their 3-point percentage has increased in every game of the series, peaking with an 11-for-22 performance in Game 5.

“We’re not a bad 3-point shooting team,” Celtics coach Doc Rivers said. “I kept telling our guys, ‘When you get them, take them.’ I kept telling them to let it fly. Don’t hesitate.”

Really, these are both jump-shooting teams, and games will sometimes be determined by whether or not the shots go in. But it was clear on Wednesday which team was forcing more misses. That’s the team that had its season on the line, the team that never goes down without a fight.

The Knicks wore all black to this game, thinking they were attending a funeral. Instead, they got a free trip back to Boston, thanks to a prideful team that just won’t die.

“We’re out here scrappin’,” Kevin Garnett told Comcast Sportsnet in an epic on-court interview after the game. “We know what they’re running. They know what we’re running. It’s just this is all out. Who wants this? That’s what it is. That’s all we’ve been doing these last couple of games.”

Same ‘ol Celtics, apparently. Never count ‘em out.

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Melo’s Regression Helps Celts Stay Alive

April 28, 2013  ·  6:35PM

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BOSTON – In a season of improvement, this was a day of regression.

This was Carmelo Anthony‘s year. Though the numbers don’t really show it, he matured this season, learned to trust his teammates, and learned how to be a great scorer without stopping the ball so much. He made quicker, smarter decisions.

On Sunday though, with his New York Knicks trying to close out the Boston Celtics, Anthony seemingly turned back the clock and played like it was 2011 again. He tried to beat the Celtics by himself, and his regression helped Boston stave off elimination with a 97-90, overtime victory. The series now heads back to New York for Game 5 on Wednesday.

Anthony’s regression basically trumped Raymond Felton‘s podium game. The Knicks’ point guard continued to tear up Boston’s pick-and-roll defense, tying his season high with 27 points, 16 of them as the Knicks came back from a 20-point deficit in the third quarter. As great an on-ball defender as Avery Bradley is, he couldn’t stay in front of Felton, who gave the Knicks their only lead of the game with a pick-and-roll, pull-up jumper with just over a minute to go in regulation.

The Knicks even had success when Anthony ran the pick-and-roll. Their 5-0 run to tie the game in the final minutes of the fourth quarter came off two Anthony/Tyson Chandler pick-and-rolls, one that produced an open Iman Shumpert 3-pointer, and another that got Anthony an easy drive to the basket.

But too many times, Anthony preferred to play isolation basketball. And too many times, he forced bad shots. In fact, on the two Knicks possessions that sandwiched Felton’s go-ahead jumper, Anthony ran five different isolations (thanks to three offensive rebounds from his teammates). Those five isolations produced four missed shots, two missed free throws, and zero points.

This wasn’t the worst game of Anthony’s career. On an afternoon when his team was struggling to score, he was able to get to the free throw line 20 times. Eleven of those trips helped keep the Knicks within striking distance in the first half.

But Anthony finished the game 10-for-35 from the field and 0-for-7 from 3-point range, adding seven turnovers. Of his 35 shots, 19 came from mid-range, the least efficient area of the floor.

“He missed some shots,” Knicks coach Mike Woodson said, “but as a team, we couldn’t make shots.”

But Anthony missed more shots than any three of his teammates combined. He had just two assists, and the Knicks had just 10 as a team.

It was a bad game, nothing more than that. The Knicks’ 3-0 series lead afforded him such, and he’ll have plenty of opportunities to redeem himself going forward. He’ll also have J.R. Smith back from his one-game suspension, though Anthony wouldn’t admit that Smith’s absence played a roll in his own tunnel-vision.

“I missed him out there,” Anthony said of Smith. “But J.R. being out there doesn’t change the way I shoot the basketball. Those are the shots I’ve been taking the whole series. They weren’t falling tonight. My mother always said, ‘There’ll be days like this.’ We’ll take it for what it’s worth, put this one behind us, and get ready for Wednesday.”

If Smith’s absence wasn’t a fact, the Celtics’ defense was. Boston had no intention of rolling over and seeing their season end any earlier than it had to. They dug in and made the Knicks work for their baskets.

Celtics coach Doc Rivers went back to his original starting lineup, believing it would be better defensively, and Brandon Bass proved him right. Before eventually fouling out, Bass took on the Anthony assignment and defended the league’s leading scorer about as well as you can.

“He was the star of the game, as far as I’m concerned,” Rivers said of Bass. “He just defended, and did it over and over and over again.”

“The more he does it, the fresher Paul [Pierce], the fresher Jeff [Green] can be offensively for us.”

Pierce and Green were indeed fresh offensively, combining for 55 of the Celtics’ 97 points. Kevin Garnett hit two big jumpers down the stretch and Jason Terry scored Boston’s final nine points in overtime. It was the definition of a team win for the prideful Celtics.

But none of that would have mattered if Anthony didn’t try to beat them all by himself.

“I was trying to win the basketball game,” he said. “It would have been a great feeling to close it out here in Boston, so I was trying to do whatever I could to win the basketball game. I was just trying to be aggressive. I missed a lot – a ton – of shots today.”

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J.R. Smith Suspended For Game 4

April 27, 2013  ·  9:06PM

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BOSTON – The NBA announced Saturday night that J.R. Smith is suspended for Sunday’s Game 4 (1 p.m. ET, ABC) of the Knicks-Celtics series, a result of Smith’s elbow to the head of Jason Terry in the fourth quarter of Game 3.

With Terry playing Smith tightly in the corner, the Sixth Man of the Year turned and intentionally swung his elbow, knocking Terry to the floor. After getting up, Terry tried to go after Smith, but he was held back by teammates and Celtics coach Doc Rivers as Smith retreated to the Knicks bench.

“I was trying to draw the foul,” Smith said after the game. “He reached in one time. I thought he was going to reach in a second time and I was going to try to get a quick shot off, but they made a call that the refs saw and there’s not really much I can do about it.”

Smith’s absence will make it more difficult for the Knicks to complete a series sweep. At 16.3 points per game, he’s New York’s second-leading scorer in the series, a key secondary option when the Celtics are loading up on Carmelo Anthony, and a guy that can make difficult shots when an offensive possession breaks down, a scenario which has played out quite a bit in the first three games. It’s been an ugly series and any offense is good offense.

The Knicks didn’t know Smith’s fate when they met with the media Saturday afternoon, but they knew that a suspension was a possibility.

“If it happens, we got other guys in uniform that’s got to step up and play,” coach Mike Woodson said. “It’s kind of been that way all year when we’ve had injuries. Guys have stepped up and helped us win basketball games. So if J.R.’s missing, we’ve got to be ready to put guys in and play. I don’t know who’s going to play the minutes, but we’ll figure it out as we go along.”

Smith was the only Knick to play the first 80 games of the season before sitting out the final two, and he led the team in minutes played. Despite all their injuries, Smith never started. But Woodson has consistently called on him early in the first quarter.

In Smith’s absence, we should see extended minutes for Jason Kidd (who has averaged only 28 in the first three games) and a bigger role for Steve Novak, who hit his first two threes of the series in Friday’s Game 3 victory.

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John Schuhmann is a staff writer for NBA.com. Send him an e-mail or follow him on twitter.

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Knicks Taking It To The Celtics

April 27, 2013  ·  12:44AM

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BOSTON – This series might be more about the feebleness of the Boston Celtics, how they can barely run their offense against a team that ranked 16th defensively in the regular season, how they can’t hold onto the ball, and how they can’t make open shots when they get them.

When 6-foot-9 Jeff Green gets double-teamed by two point guards and can’t do anything but fall backwards and weakly flail the ball into the backcourt, you know the Celtics just can’t compete. And there were plenty of plays like that in the New York Knicks’ 90-76 victory in Game 3 on Friday.

But make no mistake about it. The Knicks have taken it to the Celtics in this series. They’ve earned their 3-0 lead and the opportunity to complete the sweep on Sunday (1 p.m. ET, ABC).

Game 3, the first one at home, is supposed to be the game the underdog wins when they’re not completely outmatched. The Celtics, even without Rajon Rondo, weren’t exactly chumps this season. They had a top-six defense, a strong record at the TD Garden, and played the Knicks even in the two regular season meetings in which Kevin Garnett played. This squad of vets always has its pride and effort, and on this night, it had a little more emotion, playing its first home game since the Boston Marathon tragedy.

But guess what? The Celtics are completely outmatched. The Knicks are just a much better team. They were always better offensively, and they’ve now proven that they’re better defensively when push comes to shove.

“I thought we were a team that matched up really well with the Knicks,” Paul Pierce said. “I though we played them pretty good throughout the season. We lost a couple of close ones, but I didn’t expect this coming in. I knew this would probably be a long series, being the way we matched up. So I am surprised we’re down 0-3 right now.”

The Celtics’ offense did have an opportunity early on Friday to break through. They got to the basket and got open looks on the perimeter in the opening minutes. But the shots just didn’t go in.

The Knicks took advantage and, on this night, didn’t wait until the second half to put their foot on the gas. With Boston still struggling to score, New York clearly saw the opportunity to (essentially) put the series away. A 21-6 run just before halftime put the Celtics in an 18-point hole that they could never come close to digging out of.

After the Celtics missed those easy shots early, the Knicks didn’t let them recover. They turned up the defensive pressure, and in this game, the turnovers (18 of them) were more about New York’s pressure than Boston’s execution.

“Our goal was to not even let them believe they have a shot,” J.R. Smith said. “And I think we did a great job at that, and the way we got to it, defense and moving the ball.”

This is what great teams do. They don’t just hold serve. They break. They go into one of the toughest buildings to play in, play hard-nosed, aggressive defense, and execute offensively in a hostile environment.

Friday morning, Knicks coach Mike Woodson said he was “anxious” to see how his team would react in its first road playoff game. He got his answer, loud and clear.

The Knicks had a handful of quality road wins in the regular season, but this was a breakthrough, a performance to really build on going forward, a game to build trust between teammates who want to know they can count on each other to come through in difficult situations.

“The beauty about our team is that somebody has always stepped up when we needed it,” Woodson said afterward. “To me, that’s the sign of a team that’s committed, that’s together, and that’s trying to do one thing, win a title.”

Nothing on the Knicks’ side of the Game 3 boxscore stands out. Carmelo Anthony (26 points on 12-for-25 shooting) and Smith (15 on 6-for-12) were the leading scorers and each played a big role in the second-quarter run. Raymond Felton (15 points and 10 assists) continued to break the Boston defense down with the pick-and-roll.

But contributions came from everywhere. And it was really Pablo Prigioni who set the tone, getting his hands on balls defensively and knocking down three 3-pointers in the first quarter to help his team start to build an offensive rhythm.

And with Steve Novak finally knocking down a couple of 3s, everyone in the Knicks’ rotation is playing well. The Celtics will surely put up a fight on Sunday, but the Knicks look ready to close this series out and move on.

We knew they had the talent in this series. And now it’s clear that they have the toughness too.

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Blogtable: First-Round Impressions

April 24, 2013  ·  9:14AM
Chris Paul has made 16 of his 28 shots and has 16 assists in two playoff games. (Rocky Widner/NBAE)

Chris Paul has made 16 of his 28 shots and has 16 assists in two playoff games. (Rocky Widner/NBAE)

Each week, we’ll ask our stable of scribes to weigh in on the three most important NBA topics of the day — and then give you a chance to step on the scale, too, in the comments below.

Week 26: Coaching vacancies | Best sideline strategists | First-round impressions

Who or what has impressed you so far this postseason?

Steve Aschburner: The Knicks. I’ve long been a skeptic of whatever comes out of Madison Square Garden, NBA-wise, because of media hype and team management’s infatuation frequently with the wrong types of players. But the Knicks apparently have the right coach and Mike Woodson has been getting those guys to play the right way. This edition of the Celtics has injury and age issues, sure, but the way New York’s defense has choked Boston off in the second halves of the first two games has to grab one’s attention.

Fran Blinebury: Chris Paul is averaging 23.5 points, 8 assists, shooting 16-for-28 from the field, hit the game-winner on Monday night and has the Clippers up 2-0 on Memphis. Mark me down as impressed.

Jeff Caplan: Since I spent the opening games of the playoffs in Los Angeles watching the Clippers, I’m going with three aspects of this team’s impressive start: Chris Paul, the bench and coach Vinny Del Negro — that’s right Del Negro. Paul’s been masterful, patiently allowing the game to come to him and playing superbly in crunch time with 13 points on 5-for-8 shooting, three assists and no turnovers in the fourth quarters of Games 1 and 2. The Clippers’ deep bench has at times out played Memphis’ starters and has received contributions from a number of players. As for Del Negro, he has his team well-prepared, motivated and he hasn’t succumbed to the notion that rotations must shrink in the playoffs. He’s getting solid contributions and keeping his starters’ minutes extremely reasonable.

Scott Howard-Cooper: Maybe because I as there to see it, but the Nuggets winning Game 1 without their preferred tempo was an impressive start to what could be a nice run. Everyone knows Denver can win when it runs. To grind out a victory while having to execute at the end of a close game is a good sign.

John Schuhmann: I’m impressed by how efficient the Clippers have been against the league’s No. 2 defense. I had the Grizzlies winning that 4-5 series in six games, because they’re the much better defensive team and because the Clips seemingly treaded water for the last couple of months. But Chris Paul has flipped the switch, taking on a bigger scoring load (47 points to go along with his 16 assists in the first two games) and still taking care of the ball (only two turnovers) against a D that has always been good at forcing miscues.

Sekou Smith: It’s early yet, but the Golden State Warriors showed me something in their Game 2 win over the Nuggets in Denver. Losing David Lee for the remainder of the playoffs is a blow. Any team that loses an All-Star and the league-leader in double doubles would struggle without him. But coach Mark Jackson pushed buttons on his deep roster and found several guys (most notably rookie Harrison Barnes) to step up and fill the void. This was the one series where I felt like the lower seed had a real chance to push the series into the seven-game realm and so far, the Warriors have made me feel really good about that prediction. When shooters like Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson and perhaps the most underrated player in the league this season, Jarrett Jack, get rolling, they can turn a game upside down. They shot 65 percent in a playoff game, folks. Crazy.

Lang Whitaker: I was a little curious about the Pacers coming in to the playoffs, because they’d lost five of six and had looked pretty bad at times over that stretch, but Paul George decided he wasn’t going to let the Pacers down. I know it’s been a small sample size, but George was phenomenal in Game 1 against the Hawks. He was Indiana’s best offensive player, repeatedly driving and either getting to the line (he shot 17-of-18 on free throws) or kicking to open teammates (he finished with 12 assists), and he pressured Josh Smith into shooting an array of long jumpers as the shot clock was ticking down.

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Game 2: Knicks-Celtics’ Changes Afoot

April 22, 2013  ·  10:12AM

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NEW YORK – They say that every game in a playoff series has its own personality. And a couple of rotation changes should give Game 2 of the Knicks-Celtics’ series (Tuesday, 8 p.m. ET, TNT) a new look.

The Knicks hope to have Pablo Prigioni back from a sprained ankle for Game 2. And if they do, he will start and join Raymond Felton in the backcourt. The Knicks went 15-1 with the two point guards starting together in the final month of the regular season.

The Knicks have been incredibly efficient offensively, scoring almost 120 points per 100 possessions in 298 minutes, with Felton and Prigioni on the floor together. And after a game in which they scored 85 points on 88 possessions, they could certainly use an offensive boost. After assisting on just 13 of their 32 buckets in Game 1, the team hopes that Prigioni will bring better ball movement.

But the lineup change could have an adverse effect on the other end of the floor. Woodson said Sunday that if Prigioni is back, Felton will guard Paul Pierce to start the game (the original plan had Prigioni been healthy in Game 1), with Iman Shumpert defending Jeff Green.

Shumpert was guarding Pierce to start Game 1, and the Celtics posted Pierce on three of the first four possessions. When the Knicks doubled the post, the Celtics got a jumper for Kevin Garnett and a layup for Avery Bradley.

Mismatches on Pierce were a big part of the Celtics’ offense all day Saturday. Later in the first quarter, they ran the same play several times to get J.R. Smith switched onto Pierce at the foul line. And they had some more success with Pierce posting Jason Kidd on a few possessions midway through the second.

With their lineup change, the Knicks will be handing the Celtics a mismatch from the start. And Boston will obviously go to Pierce in the post early and often. New York will send double-teams, and it will be up to Pierce’s teammates to make them pay.

Green was a pretty good corner 3-point shooter (45.7 percent) in the regular season, but didn’t attempt any shots from the corners on Saturday. As a team, Boston was just 1-for-5 from the corners, an obvious area for improvement in Game 2.

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Doc Rivers plans on making some rotation changes of his own. He went only eight deep in Game 1, using just three guards — Jordan Crawford, Courtney Lee and Jason Terry — off the bench. The trio combined to shoot 0-for-7.

Rivers said Sunday that we could see a big man off the bench — presumably Chris Wilcox or Shavlik Randolph — on Tuesday. If it’s Wilcox, it will be the first playoff appearance of his 11-year career.

We’ll have to see if that results in less minutes for Brandon Bass or if Rivers plans on playing with two bigs more than he did in Game 1. The Celtics were a plus-1 (and particularly strong on the defensive glass) in 21 minutes with both Bass and Garnett on the floor on Saturday, and a minus-8 in 27 minutes with one of the two on the bench.

The Celtics weren’t very good defensively, allowing 104.7 points per 100 possessions, in 396 regular season minutes with Bass and Wilcox on the floor together. And the Garnett-Wilcox pair played just 73 minutes.

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Rivers also wants to see a bigger role for Crawford. Amazingly, Crawford didn’t take a single shot in his 10:46 on Saturday. And it surely goes without saying that it was the first time in the gunner’s career that he’s played at least 10 minutes without taking a shot.

The Celtics probably don’t want to get to the point where Crawford’s shooting determines the outcome of any particular game, but he can help make the Knicks pay for double-teams on Pierce if he’s aggressive and looking to make plays for his teammates as well as himself. He can also take some of the ball-handling duties from Bradley.

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Game 1: Kidd, Martin Prove Woodson Right

April 21, 2013  ·  10:09AM

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NEW YORK – The collective age of the New York Knicks has been a running joke all season. And all season, head coach Mike Woodson has continued to preach the value of experience.

With age you often get injuries. And the Knicks have certainly paid a price for going the old-man route. A 40-year-old Kurt Thomas couldn’t hold up. A 38-year-old Rasheed Wallace has retired. A 39-year-old Marcus Camby has played just 10 games over the last three months. And 35-year-old rookie Pablo Prigioni went down with a sprained ankle in the last game of the regular season.

But there are still a couple of old heads still standing in New York. Their names are Jason Kidd and Kenyon Martin. They terrorized the Knicks in a playoff series nine years ago, and they each played a big role in New York’s Game 1 victory over the Boston Celtics on Saturday.

Kidd played 35 minutes off the bench, filling the boxscore with eight points, five rebounds, three assists, and three steals. Martin was the only reserve big man Woodson used, coming through with 10 points, nine boards, a steal and two blocks.

Those contributions were desperately needed. With Prigioni out, 29-year-old rookie Chris Copeland (yes, the Knicks are so old, their two rookies are 29 and 35 years old) got his 14th start of the season and wasn’t up to the task. And with Steve Novak unable to get a shot and getting picked on defensively, the Knicks needed Kidd to fill in at one of the wings for 30 minutes, in addition to his back-up point guard duty.

Meanwhile, Tyson Chandler tried playing his first game in the last two weeks and couldn’t make much of an impact on either end of the floor. So Martin was asked to play big minutes at center.

It’s not a coincidence that the Knicks’ defense was much better in the second half, when Kidd played 21 of his 35 minutes and Martin played 18 of his 28. Martin anchored the paint, while Kidd seemingly got his hands on the ball whenever the Knicks came near him. All three of his steals came with the game on the line in the final five minutes of the fourth quarter.

With 4:52 left, Kidd deflected a Jeff Green pass, dove on the floor and started a New York fast break. With 2:21 left and the Celtics still within five, he sniffed out a back-screen play Boston had run for a game-winner in early March, helped from the weak side, and stripped Green under the basket. And with 34 seconds left, he stripped Kevin Garnett on a mismatch in the post.

His feet may not move like they used to, but Kidd’s hands are still quick and strong, and his mind is sharper than ever.

“He beats everyone with his brain,” Celtics coach Doc Rivers said afterward. “If you think quicker than a guy can move, you’re still quicker. That’s why he’s there first, because he thought what the guy was going to do before he did it. He’s just a valuable player to have on a basketball team.”

Kidd and Martin have each had their moments over the last six months. And from Day 1, it’s been easy to see Kidd’s influence on Carmelo Anthony‘s game this season. But this is the playoffs. This is why these guys are here and why Woodson has remained adamant that the veterans are critical to his team’s success.

“To me, it’s a plus to have veteran guys,” Woodson said. “That is no knock on the young kids. To have these veteran guys step up and still make a contribution to your team is major.”

After one playoff game, Woodson is looking pretty smart.

 

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Coach Of The Year: George Karl

April 18, 2013  ·  1:42PM

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Had someone floated the idea of this 2012-13 NBA season to George Karl three years ago – the Denver Nuggets’ high-octane overachievement, the fun he would have orchestrating it, this talk of him as a leading candidate as NBA Coach of the Year – he’s not sure how he would have reacted to it.

There was so much uncertainty then. Peering three years into the future? Yeah right. Man plans, cancer wags a long, Dikembe Mutombo-like finger.

“That summer when I had to make a decision whether I was going to coach again, it was a hard summer,” said Karl, who already had deal with prostate cancer in 2005 when neck cancer grabbed him by the throat in February 2010. “I remember, at the end of July, I just wasn’t mentally ready to do it. I had to push myself to … whatever. Get over the depression. Get over feeling sorry for myself.

“I just knew, you have two families: You have your inner-core family that’s blood and people who have always been with you. And then you have your basketball family. I wasn’t ready to leave my basketball family. I wasn’t ready to leave the gym.”

So Karl, 61, returned. Through treatment, through occasional absences, through the Carmelo Anthony drama. He celebrated his 1,000th victory in 2010-11 and kept going, and he labored hard to build and heed new habits for himself, a working style that was sustainable. And survivable.

“I went back with different rules,” Karl said before Denver’s game in Milwaukee. “The rules were balance and ‘I’m not going to kill myself.’ And ‘If I’m stressed, I’m going to delegate. If I’m worried and to the point where I’m out of control, I’m going to walk away, I’m going to take a day off.’ I never would have thought of that when I was in Milwaukee.”

In Karl’s five seasons with the Bucks (1998-2003), same as in his seven seasons in Seattle (1991-1998), there was no minor problem, no niggling little annoyance too small for Karl to plunge headlong into a quest for a solution. He was wilder then both on and off the court, and he wasn’t healthy even before he got sick.

Then he had wisdom and perspective forced on him, the way so many of us do. Beyond his own illness, his son, Coby, faced and survived lymph node cancer. Change became the constant for Karl.

“I love basketball, I love the gym, I love the passion, I love the competition,” he said. “But I wasn’t going to deteriorate my health again.”

So he rants and rails and stays late less, yet enjoys it all more. Especially this year, the most successful regular-season in Denver’s NBA franchise history. The Nuggets’ previous best in victories was 54 and its top home record was 36-5, which was bested by this season’s 57-25 and 38-3 finishes, respectively.

“You’ve got to understand, he’s deal with a lot of stuff in his personal life,” guard Andre Miller said. “To be able to come back and be totally committed to this organization says a lot. … It’s only right for him to be considered for Coach of the Year. It’s a lot of hard work dealing with NBA players and he’s been doing it well for along time.”

The Nuggets play fast, they push into the paint to shoot a high percentage and dominate on the offensive boards, and they do it all without a legit all-NBA third-team prospect. The lack of a marquee star, a ready excuse for many franchises, has been embraced in the Mile High City. (more…)

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Sixth Man Of The Year: J.R. Smith

April 16, 2013  ·  9:55AM

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The oddest part about this season’s race for the Sixth Man of the Year Award is that there are probably a half-dozen candidates worthy of consideration.

A voter could close his eyes and take a stab anywhere on a quite worthy list of J.R. Smith, Jamal Crawford, Jarrett Jack, Ryan Anderson, Nate Robinson and Kevin Martin.

So does that mean if we put an entire team of second unit standouts onto the court, somebody would have to get bumped to a starter?

In that case, we’re elevating and giving our vote to Smith, who has ridden in the shadow of Carmelo Anthony’s season-long brilliance, but has been no less vital to the Knicks winning their first Atlantic Division title since 1994.

How does that sync with the image of the mercurial guard who had taken his ready-to-shoot game from New Orleans to Denver to China before landing in New York 15 months ago?

How strangely does it stumble off the tongue to say that from the start to the finish of this regular season, Smith has become the Knicks most dependable player night in and night out?

For while you obviously give great credit to Anthony for the performance that will likely win the scoring title and earn him a high place on some MVP ballots, Smith has been the Knicks’ second-leading scorer, averaging 18.1 ppg and the player that coach Mike Woodson has been able to rely on at both ends of the court.

There is no questioning Crawford’s credentials as a big-time scorer off the Clippers’ bench and an ability to take over a game offensively whenever he steps out on the floor. For much of the season, the Sixth Man Award hardware seemed to be his for the taking. He helped the Clippers beat the Knicks to 50 wins as L.A. earned its first division title in the history of the franchise that dates back to its infancy in Buffalo.

The difference is that Crawford is a one-trick pony galloping behind Chris Paul who makes virtually no contribution at all on the nights when the ball is not going into the basket. While the Crawford lobby will point to a higher field goal percentage, it’s only slightly better, 43.6 to 42.2. The same goes for 3-point shooting, where Crawford has 37.0 to 35.6 edge.

At the other end of the floor, Smith has hardly become a stopper, but he tries and is credible, which is all that Woodson has asked. Crawford, meanwhile, couldn’t guard a cadaver.

At 27, Smith has finally inched closer to becoming the complete player that George Karl tried to squeeze out of him during four seasons in Denver and when the Knicks are winning, his assists and steals, as well as his shooting, are up. What’s more, he is literally the only player to show up every night, having played in every game this season, helping hold up the tent when Anthony was injured.

Oh, it’s not like J.R. has traded in his initials, his off-court silliness or his penchant for me-first offense. You still have to live with the times when he tries to win by himself and the can-you-believe-that shots. But they are part of a bigger package now, one that gives the Knicks a real reason to believe in the East.

The top contenders:

Jamal Crawford — He’s bounced back from a horrendous one-year stint in Portland to play a key role in the best Clippers season ever. Not many teams can back up a Chris Paul with another scorer this dangerous. But when it comes down to splitting hairs in a very close race, defense has to matter. You can make the argument that Crawford is the worst defender on the floor any time that he plays.

Jarrett Jack — The veteran has three games of 25 points and 10 assists off the bench, making him the first reserve in NBA history to do that in a single season. He’s provided leadership, defense and helped get the Warriors into the playoffs for only the second time in 19 seasons.

Kevin Martin — It was not an enviable task to step into the role of last year’s runaway Sixth Man winner (James Harden) on a team whose only goal is a return to The Finals. He doesn’t have all the skills of Harden and contributes nothing on defense, but is a high-efficiency scorer with a knack for getting to the foul line.

Ryan Anderson — He’s having the highest-scoring season — by a tick — of his career and has had to carry the offensive load plenty in the frequent absence of Eric Gordon. But it has to count against you when your team has spent the entire season floundering near the bottom of the West.

Nate Robinson — What is he? Who is he? When will he ever figure it out? He’s come off the Bulls’ bench to have his best year since his days in New York and certainly played a big part in ending the Miami win streak.

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Playoffs Snapshot — April 14

April 14, 2013  ·  8:01AM

HANG TIME HEADQUARTERS – The last Sunday of the NBA regular season delivers a trio of marquee matchups that require our full attention (doesn’t everyone need a little something to take their mind off of Kobe Bryant‘s season-ending injury anyway?) during the eight-game slate.

It’s a big day for playoff locks and contenders, alike. And it’s a huge day for Bryant’s Lakers. Here’s what you need to keep an eye on:

CHICAGO BULLS at MIAMI HEAT (1 p.m. ET, ABC): This game means little to these two teams in terms of playoff standing. The Heat have already locked up home court advantage throughout the playoffs while the Bulls will end up with the fifth or sixth seed and out of the mix for home court advantage. What this game does have, however, is plenty of symbolic meaning for both sides. The Heat’s 27-game win streak came to an end in Chicago, the league’s resident streak busters (they also snapped the New York Knicks’ win streak at 13 games Thursday night). Resting LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh against a physical Bulls team in an essentially meaningless game for the Heat would be wise. Why take the risk?

But those bright lights will be on today and this is one last chance to send a message to a team that could be a legitimate threat to the Heat in the postseason. Will the Heat’s Big 3 resist the urge to make more than an appearance in the starting lineup before resting the remainder of the game?

As for the Bulls, the window for a Derrick Rose return during the regular season seems to have passed. And you better believe what happened to Bryant is weighing heavily on Rose’s psyche as he continues to contemplate his immediate future. There is simply not enough at stake for the Heat or the Bulls to take unnecessary risks, not even on the last Sunday of the regular season. Both Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau and Heat coach Erik Spoelstra, two guys notorious for wanting to maximize every moment, have the playoffs to think about now anyway.

DALLAS MAVERICKS at NEW ORLEANS HORNETS (6 p.m. ET, NBA TV): The Mavericks have already been eliminated from playoff contention, but Dirk Nowitzki can still reach a personal milestone today that only a select few players in the league have ever achieved. Nowitzki needs just 10 points to reach 25,000 for his career. He’ll become just the 17th player in NBA history to reach that plateau. Jerry West is 16th on that list with 25,192 points. Nowitzki ranks third among active players in career points behind Bryant and Kevin Garnett.

INDIANA PACERS at NEW YORK KNICKS (3:30 p.m. ET, League Pass): This is the sort of showdown worthy of the last Sunday of the regular season. The Knicks have a chance to clinch the No. 2 seed with a win on their home floor, a victory that not only secures their first round matchup against the No. 7 seed Boston Celtics but also completes their late-season walk down of the Pacers, who held a one-game lead over the Knicks for No. 2 a month ago.

Carmelo Anthony could use a little rest before the playoffs begin and if he and J.R. Smith and the rest of the Knicks who are healthy enough to suit up can get it done this afternoon, he might just get what he needs.

Roy Hibbert and David West should have a decided advantage inside if the Knicks’ wounded frontcourt forces Mike Woodson to start 6-foot-8 Chris Copeland at center again. The Pacers own a 2-1 advantage in the season series against the Knicks, but it won’t mean a thing of the Knicks lock up that No. 2 seed.

SAN ANTONIO SPURS at LOS ANGELES LAKERS (9:30 p.m. ET, NBA TV): Bryant’s injury could have a devastating effect on the Lakers’ long-term prospects because there are so many moving parts heading into the summer, with or without a playoff appearance. Those worries will have to wait, though. The now Dwight Howard-led Lakers have business to handle against the Spurs and the remainder of their regular season schedule if they are going to fight off the Utah Jazz for that eighth and final playoff spot in the Western Conference.

You can bet Gregg Popovich won’t bother resting any of his biggest stars (the ones who are actually healthy) in this one, not with a chance to help close the door on the Lakers’ playoff chances. He can guarantee the Spurs won’t have to deal with the Lakers in the first round by making sure his team pushes their advantages in this showdown, and that includes a decided edge on the wing for the first time in a while without Bryant in uniform. The Spurs need this game just as much as the Lakers if they want that No. 1 seed in the West.

Just like it has been in nearly every game they have played the past two weeks, the Lakers’ season is on the line. They’ll be fighting for their playoff lives until the final buzzer of their final regular season game. They need this one in the worst way and everyone knows it. While Bryant spends his Sunday resting after Saturday surgery to repair his ruptured Achilles, the Lakers will try to save their season (for one more day) in his honor.

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