The NBA playoffs are designed to tax both the mind and the body. Much like an inexperienced swimmer venturing into dark, murky water, young players who’re knee deep in the second round for the very first time tend to meet unexpected challenges that are impossible to prepare for. Increased on-court intensity combined with an unhinged atmosphere surpassing that which they saw in the first round makes the slope to a championship even steeper, and guys all across the league are now tasting it for the first time. Right now for Indiana, it tastes like ice cream.

The Pacers are perceived to have a roster that’s all wide-eyed and bushy-tailed, but this isn’t necessarily the case. While key contributors like Roy Hibbert, Danny Granger, Paul George, and Darren Collison are all wandering in undiscovered land, Louis Amundson, David West, Leandro Barbosa, George Hill, and Dahntay Jones have at least played in the second round before. Last night, as they gutted through a hideous 48 minutes of playoff basketball, the Pacers looked like a tough-minded group, using unfamiliar lineups they didn’t dabble with throughout the regular season but finding serious success.

With Chris Bosh out for the series, a common belief is that Indiana should capitalize on their size advantage by throwing gobs of Roy Hibbert and David West at the Heat, slowing the game down and neutralizing a Miami offense that travels at two speeds: a carefully reckless 850 mph (in transition), and not moving at all (in the halfcourt). This is an offensive strategy that strangely enough worries more about Miami’s offense instead of attacking its defense. By playing through Hibbert and West and slowing things down, the Pacers would be placing the ball into the hands of two decent but not so great passers, allowing the Heat to load up on the strong side and use their swarming athleticism to fluster all action in the post.

Instead, what they should do (and they did it last night to their own benefit) is surround West with the likes of Granger, George, Collison, and Hill/Barbosa. Small ball. Here you have four ball-handlers who can initiate multiple pick and roll options, spread the floor with dangerous three-point shooting, and penetrate to create some drive and kick action. If those don’t work, the Pacers can also initiate their offense through David West in either the high or low post, creating chaos with multiple cutters on both the strong and weak sides of the court. Or they could go all meat and potatoes with West forcing the issue himself.

The ball movement with a lineup like this not only takes away Miami’s athleticism, it drains the likes of LeBron James and Dwyane Wade who’re forced to play big minutes now that Bosh is out (last night James played the entire first quarter and the entire second half). By going small, the Pacers will make life miserable for the only two players on Miami’s roster who’re able to beat them. Tempers will flare, frustrations will show.

During the regular season, Indiana used the five-man unit of West, Granger, Hill, George, and Collison for a grand total of seven minutes, with all of them except one—an early season game in Sacramento—coming in meaningless garbage time. Still, in those seven minutes this lineup attempted 20 free-throws and scored 30 points, which is pretty damn impressive. In the playoffs, Frank Vogel used this group for five minutes at the end of Game 5 against Orlando and held their own.

The obvious con of deploying this lineup is this: you’re replacing Roy Hibbert—Indiana’s biggest advantage, no pun intended—with a six-foot Darren Collison. The small ball theory sounds really nice, but if the Pacers don’t hit their shots, then the thought looks much more pleasant on a computer screen than it does in real life.

Last night the Pacers went small, with Barbosa instead of Hill, to close out the third quarter. They scored eight points in three minutes, outscoring the Heat by five points. They then went back to it for about a minute early in the fourth, and were a +2. The sample sizes here are tiny, but promising. The Pacers had major success with their normal starting lineup on the court last night (plus/minus of +21 in 23 minutes), but if no Heat players apart from Wade and James are able to step up and make them pay, going small as a change of pace can advance this group further than any of them as individuals have ever gone before.

The first round has come and gone, and thanks to a few serious injuries we’re left with an even more unpredictable mess than expected. Derrick Rose, Iman Shumpert, and Baron Davis splintered themselves in the most agonizing ways possible. Josh Smith, Al Horford, Ray Allen, Amar’e Stoudemire, Joakim Noah, and Caron Butler each missed at least one game, but all returned to action, forced to endure more pain than discomfort. Paul Pierce and Blake Griffin are playing through knee injuries. Chris Paul has a right hip flexor, and yesterday, in Game 1 of the second round, Chris Bosh strained an abdominal muscle, placing his availability in question.

Injuries are just a small part of the game, though. And here at Shaky Ankles, we’re moving away from the depressing, and onto six interesting things we learned over these past two weeks.

1) Andrew Bynum is not a franchise player. When he’s interested in playing the part, Andrew Bynum is one of the league’s most dominating forces. Unfortunately, he’d rather act like a spoiled child. Bynum spent the first round—and some of the regular season—sending a passive aggressive message to his teammates: If they won’t work hard enough to give him the ball, then he’s not attacking the glass or closing out on wide open shooters standing five feet away. That’s the deal.

There’s a zero percent chance this changes before these playoffs are over, and a miniscule chance he changes over the next five years. He’s big, he’s mean, and he’s gifted, but Andrew Bynum isn’t dependable; thus, he isn’t great. It’s now been recognized and identified as apart of who he is, and it makes nothing he does on the court from game to game come as a surprise. Bynum could score 40 points and grab 20 rebounds in Game 1 against the Thunder and it would shock nobody. In Game 2, he could fail to grab a single offensive rebound, attempt a half-court shot midway through the fourth quarter, then punch out Mike Brown, and who would be surprised? Nobody.

Bynum’s physical abilities are obviously there each and every night. His effort, however, is erratic and that trait alone is what separates superstars from good players. He isn’t the best or second best center in the league, nor is he the Lakers best player. When you combine him with Pau Gasol—who tends to drift both mentally and physically when he’s on the basketball court—and no capable backup to pickup the scoring/rebounding load, the result is a team hardly equipped to win an NBA title.

In my season review, I named Bynum as the league’s most enigmatic player, and it’s something I simply can’t stand behind any longer. For him to be an enigma, we’d have to wonder why he acted the way he did, and why he appears to enjoy being the bad guy. Well, there’s no reason to wonder anymore. He’s an immature man-child with a self-worth bordering on fallacy. To analyze him is a waste of time; to figure him out is no longer necessary. We know what he is, and it’s not a superstar.

2) Free agents JaVale McGee and Nick Young are ready to make more money. When the regular season ended, Nick Young and JaVale McGee were two outcasts from Washington heading into the playoffs on teams that weren’t expected to make any serious noise. The two friends were blessed with incredible physical ability, but were traded for having a combined basketball IQ that matches up reasonably well with their collective shoe size.

Now that the first round is over, both guys have set themselves up to make more money than we thought they would ever see. The recently eliminated Nuggets said they were 100% committed to re-signing McGee, and being that he’s a restricted free agent, they could make good on that promise. McGee grabbed 12 more rebounds (four of them offensive), blocked five more shots and contributed to his team outscoring the Lakers by 18 points in the 143 minutes he shared the court with Andrew Bynum during the course of their seven game series. That’s a definite sign of progress for a 24-year-old big man whose limitations lie in his brain and not in his body.

Nick Young BADLY outplayed O.J. Mayo—a fellow shooting guard headed into free agency—and performed with utter fearlessness from the three-point line, shooting a deadly 52.6% on just under three attempts per game. Both were pleasant surprises, and both will get a raise. Especially McGee.

3) Kevin Garnett‘s sustainability might decide the Eastern Conference. The Celtics will only go so far as Kevin Garnett takes them. His plus/minus numbers notwithstanding (he’s second in the playoffs behind LeBron James with a +78), Garnett is shooting 52.3% from the field, which is the highest among all players who’ve attempted at least 95 shots (a list that includes LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, Kobe Bryant, Carmelo Anthony, and Chris Paul). Offensively, Boston’s offense relies on converting mid-range jumpers, and here is where Garnett’s been golden. He’s shooting 44.6% on mid-range jumpers, and 52.2% from 20-24 feet.

His defense is something that doesn’t really need to be mentioned, but I will anyway. Garnett destroyed Josh Smith for much of the first round, and in Game 1 against Philadelphia he was a fierce presence defending both the rim and the glass. In four home games, the Celtics are outscoring opponents by 21.7 points per 100 possession when Garnett is on the floor, which is astounding, and a testament to his versatile impact as both a stretch-four and one of the league’s most intimidating defenders.

4) Amar’e Stoudemire and Carlos Boozer are kindred black angels of death. If someone held a knife to your throat and forced you to start a new team with either Amar’e Stoudemire or Carlos Boozer (contracts included), who would you choose? Boozer has three years and $47.1 million left on his deal, and Amar’e has three years (with a $23.4 million player option on the final year) and $65.04 million left on his, including the player option. After the Bulls were eliminated by Philadelphia, Boozer was quoted as basically saying that winning the division and finishing with the best record shows how good they are, and that a championship would just be icing on the cake, while Stoudemire smashed his left hand on some glass after the Knicks fell in Game 2 against the Heat, nearly ending his career. Neither can play defense, and neither comes close to being good enough to carry an offense for even a quarter’s time.

If you’d rather the knife, nobody would blame you.

5) James Harden has no ceiling. James Harden‘s efficiency might be the most impressive individual effort we’re witnessing in these playoffs. In the first round he averaged 18.3 points on exactly 10 shots per game, giving him a too-good-to-be-possible true shooting percentage of 68%, higher than power forward Serge Ibaka (for the record, Harden also grabbed more defensive rebounds than Ibaka). He maximizes every minute on the court and is currently leading the Thunder with a plus/minus of +48.

When Harden was off the floor, the Thunder averaged 94.5 points per 100 possessions, which was the lowest on/off figure for everyone on Oklahoma City’s roster. He knocks down three-pointers with more accuracy than Kevin Durant, gets to the line as effectively as anyone in the league (and makes just about every shot), and no knock on Westbrook, who I believe is one of the four most dangerous point guards in the league right now, but Harden is the best player on his team at visibly making teammates better. He understands how to run a pick and roll, and at 22-years-old, shows the type of patience that assures there’ll be no action until the right decision is available.

Because of his spot on the bench and the fact that he’s left-handed and unorthodox, Harden’s most popular player comparison is Manu Ginobili, a future Hall of Famer. But after watching Harden destroy the defending champions in the first round, his future may be even brighter. What I’m about to say might not be popular, but if he continues on this path, I think Harden could have a better career than Dwyane Wade. Of course, this means Harden will have to be the best player on a champion. He’ll have to be a consistent fourth quarter option, a perennial All-Star, and a top-five two-way player for at least three consecutive years. I understand all these things, and believe them to be possible.

A lot of this depends on what the Thunder choose to do after next season when he becomes a restricted free agent. There’s no doubt he gets a max offer, and if he follows the money outside of Oklahoma City into a less favorable situation, who knows what could happen. The bottom line here is this: Harden’s first round success raises his ceiling even higher than it was before. For Thunder GM Sam Presti, the situation is ironic.

6) Andre Miller is one of the 10 best point guards of all time. Probably not, but ever since Nuggets head coach George Karl declared this as a fact on national television, I’ve been dying to lay out a personal opinion. Here’s what I wrote the morning after Game 6.

As the league continues to further infest itself with more and more dynamic little men each and every year, a semi-important question stares us in the face more and more each day: How do you measure the success of a point guard? What criteria should be used? When we look at the pool today, is the best player the most excellent overall athlete who happens to be stationed at that position, or the one who best represents all the things a point guard is supposed to do (in the following order: get others involved, make an offense hum, control the pace, and catch the defense napping with the occasional easy bucket)? The two are very different things, and how you’d rank Russell Westbrook and Steve Nash depends on which one you prefer to go with.

Karl is a smart, well-respected coach—Shaq deemed him “a legend” on Inside the NBA after Game 6—so when he says something like this it can’t be dismissed. But is it true? And going back to the previous question about how we rank point guards, how do we do it? Kevin Johnson‘s best was better than Miller’s, but Miller is the better “true” point guard. Making a top 10 at this position is unlike any other. Every great center scores, grabs rebounds, and blocks shots. There’s no difficulty measuring them against one another. Shooting guards shoot and score. Point guards rack up assists, but depending on their individual situation, their role could have their team needing them to score more than distribute, (as it is with Westbrook, Tony Parker, and Derrick Rose) making it nearly impossible to rank them.

Right now Miller is 10th all-time in assists, so if that’s the primary metric you’re using then obviously it isn’t crazy to say he’s one of the 10 best to ever do it. But then you look and see that he has a lower career assist percentage than Stephon Marbury, and a lower career assists per game average than Baron Davis (RIP). Those two stats could cripple any argument claiming Miller to be an all-timer, but old school coaches like George Karl don’t seem like the type to overly obsess on the power of statistics. The debate rages on.

In the past 10 days, the Denver Nuggets morphed into one of my favorite teams in the NBA. Their role as a grossly undersized underdog certainly helped make me feel the way I do, but what really captured my attention was the way this team managed to ignore that underdog mentality while facing elimination; turning the pace of Game’s 5 and 6 in their favor and making a supremely talented Lakers squad look as though they’d rather not be playing basketball. It was admirable.

Denver may not have a superstar, but what they lack in dependability, they make up for in unpredictable excitement. When you watch the Nuggets play in the fourth quarter, you have no clue where the offense is coming from. It’s both a gift and a curse, able to turn the life of a defense into a nightmare or a simple duty, depending on whether or not anybody catches fire. I was rooting for this team to win last night, but knew it was unlikely. The Nuggets weren’t the better team in this series, and the better team always wins. They were, however, more deserving. If they manage to continue on their promising path of development, someday soon they’ll be the favorite, and the Game 7′s will fall in their favor.

Pau Gasol vs. Denver. Los Angeles lost 113-96. Gasol’s statistics: 29 minutes, 3 points (1-10 shooting from the field), 3 rebounds, 2 personal fouls, 16.9% usage percentage, plus/minus of -29 (game-low). 

Ever since the Lakers were unceremoniously swept from the playoffs by Dallas last season, Pau Gasol has been Los Angeles’ great scapegoat. Unlike Lamar Odom, when Gasol was traded this past December he came back, venturing forth in what retrospectively should go down as one of the most awkward seasons a player has ever had to endure. For the most part, Gasol made it work, deferring to Andrew Bynum in the post and Kobe Bryant everywhere else, allowing his elite mid-range jump shot to turn him into a glorified Brandon Bass, and attempting twice as many three-pointers in this shortened season than in the previous four combined. The public complaints were few and far between, and the result was a Lakers squad, devoid of anything close to a capable bench, winning its division and somehow becoming the league’s premier overachiever. Nobody, including the sportsbook review could’ve foreseen the success. 

Now the playoffs are here; games are powerful enough to brush all those that were played over the past five months under a very large rug. This is the time to increase what you did in the regular season; a time when the brains of fans, agents, coaches, scouts, general managers and owners are trained to focus and remember. Barring a never-before-seen iconic performance, nobody who’s normal can recall what a given player did on a random night in February, but spring-time heroics are hard to forget.

Last night the Lakers played their second straight close out game against a Denver Nuggets team that’s equipped with an energetic personnel capable of giving Lakers head coach Mike Brown a migraine every 20 minutes. Calling last night’s game for TNT, one of the first bits of analysis Steve Kerr gave us was this: “It’s very important for the Laker bigs to establish the toughness that they lacked in Game 5.” They didn’t. Instead of helping them survive with their alpha dog Kobe Bryant laboring with a stomach issue, Pau Gasol helped tighten the noose around his team’s neck while Andrew Bynum kicked out the stool.

For this piece, I’d like to shine a bright light on the the worser of these two giants: Mr. Gasol. His “performance” was lackadaisical and confusing. At no time throughout the game did he assert himself in consecutive trips down the floor, and 12 of his 29 minutes came without Bynum by his side—that’s one quarter of the game where Gasol could’ve asserted himself with some sort of presence. Instead he had a lesser impact than Timofey Mozgov.

1st Quarter

The story of this game, and the big question Mike Brown has on his hands heading into Saturday night’s Game 7, was Denver’s effectiveness when they doubled down on both Bynum and Gasol. Danilo Gallinari, Corey Brewer, Arron Afflalo, Andre Miller, and Ty Lawson were all great at leaving their man and helping their frontcourt teammates with some wonderfully timed double teams. Not only this, but the Nuggets front line also did a great job making each other’s lives much easier.

On the Lakers second possession of the game, Bynum catches the ball in the post and immediately draws a double team. He responds by skipping it weak-side to a wide open Devin Ebanks, forcing Kenneth Faried to rotate away from his well-established position bodying Gasol, and out to contest Ebanks’ 8-footer. As he does this Mozgov slides away from the non-threatening Bynum and throws his body into Gasol, pushing him underneath the basket and out of the play. Gasol shows absolutely no desire to do battle with Mozgov, instead taking on the physical movement of an empty plastic bag. Ebanks’ missed shot ends up going between Bynum’s legs and into Denver’s hands, eventually leading to a transition three-pointer from Gallinari.

Still early in the game, just a few play later, Gasol catches the ball with his back to the basket WAY to far out to do any damage. Regardless, the Nuggets stick to their strategy, and Gallinari drops down to double (in the process, completely ignoring Ebanks). Gasol makes the “smart” play, kicking it out to his open teammate who promptly misses a jumper. The problem with this play is simple: in order for the Lakers to advance and find any sort of meaningful success in these playoffs, they need their biggest strength to radiate. Gasol is half of this strength. A jump shot from a faltering 22-year-old currently playing in the first playoff series of his career, is nowhere near it.

Second Quarter

In order to open up the floor for their perimeter players, early in the second quarter the Lakers choose to take Gasol out of play, positioning him behind the three-point line in the weak side corner. They’ve done this several times throughout this season, and in this series he’s taken four threes and made two of them. But I found it strange that this was Mike Brown‘s big in-game adjustment. Taking one of the three most talented players in the series and telling him to go stand in the corner? Really? That’s your answer to Denver’s double teams?

It doesn’t matter that the Lakers had success in both of the specific plays I’ve highlighted in the two clips above. When you take a guy like that and make him a decoy, it has an affect on the rest of his game; when you need Gasol to be aggressive in the fourth quarter (heaven forbid the Lakers make one of those relevant), he won’t have the first three quarters worth of physical preparation already in his head. It also hurts him defensively, as you’ll see later on.

At the time both of these plays were called, Gasol had yet to attempt a single shot. Part of that was obviously his own fault, but a small portion of blame has to be placed on the Lakers coaching staff. He ends up taking his first shot with 9:25 left in the second quarter, and grabbing his first rebound less than a minute later. That’s gross.

One of the bigger dilemmas that Gasol has happens to be to my personal favorite player to watch in all of basketball: Kenneth Faried. The rookie is simply wearing him out, racing up and down the court on every possession, dominating both ends. Take for example this play midway through the second quarter. Gasol catches the ball on a pick and pop (instead of rolling to the basket, as Zach Lowe pointed out earlier today) with Steve Blake and misses the elbow jumper. He is then badly beat down the floor by Al Harrington, a guy playing with a torn meniscus. That’s pathetic effort.

3rd Quarter

On his sixth shot of the game, Gasol appeared to force the issue. He tries to lob one of his high-low alley-oops to Bynum, but Faried reads it well, leaving Gasol alone on the baseline to drop down and help Mozgov body the rolling monster. Now wide open, Gasol takes the shot and misses.

On the very next play, Gallinari beats Matt Barnes off the dribble and catches Gasol in no man’s land. Gallo drops a beautiful no-look bounce pass to a cutting Faried, which forces Gasol to turn and hack. I would have no problem with this, as Barnes’ lack of defense is the real problem here, but Gasol puts absolutely no effort into actually hitting his man. It’s a soft foul and the result is an and-one opportunity that pumps up the crowd even more than it already was.

Soon afterwards, the play that effectively ends the game happens when a missed shot from Bynum leads to a loose ball that would’ve landed right in Gasol’s hands if he weren’t hovering out by the three-point line. (A possible explanation for this could be his fear of getting beat down the court by Faried, but all of Denver’s big men were down low fighting for the rebound, which makes Gasol’s position even more baffling.) The loose ball is tracked down by Faried, and that’s when Kobe takes a swipe at his head. After the game he’d say this was unintentional, but Charles Barkley disagreed, saying it should’ve been a Flagrant-2. I agree with the latter.

Just for fun, here’s yet another clip of Gasol not even attempting to exert any sort of effort whatsoever.

4th quarter

Being that the game was pretty much over, not much happened in this quarter from Gasol, but here’s a sequence that shows just how dedicated Denver was in not allowing him to do anything. There’s 7:50 left in a 28 point game—it’s all over—and yet they still choose to double him. Awesome stuff from Denver. Garbage from Gasol.

So, what can he do to make things different in Game 7? Well, for starters, he can show up to the gym. After that the keys to his success go as follows: be more active on the offensive glass, roll to the basket after setting a pick instead of popping every single time, be aggressive with his face-up game, attempt at least 10 free-throws, and help prevent Denver from starting their transition game so easily. To sum it up, what Gasol needs to do is make sure the Nuggets know he’s on the court, playing in a very important situation. If not, expect it to be his last game in a Lakers jersey.

Placing my biased dislike for the Heat in a peripheral bubble for one brief moment, I’ll admit that assessing this team’s chances of winning a title are as difficult now as they’ve been in the past 22 months. No organization endures constant poking and prodding—millions of ineffective and useless daily autopsies—like Pat Riley’s assembled crew of “Avengers”. But as has been regurgitated since last year’s memorable Finals collapse, no matter how long they ride a hot hand or suffer through a cold winter’s losing streak, two things are for certain:

1) As long as this team deploys LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, and Chris Bosh in their prime, they’ll always lack mystique and resistance—two crucial elements for the creation of an engaging narrative. The Heat are too public and too good, to the point where it’s possible the only way they’ll lose four out of seven games is if they beat themselves (as was proven evident in Sunday’s loss to the Knicks, in which Dwyane Wade went 4-11 from the free-throw line and still came within an inch or two of hitting a game winning three), or somebody tears his ACL. Their best is better than everybody else’s best.

2) They will never be judged on regular season performance. It’s boring to the players, an ignored appetizer to the fans, and utterly meaningless when we look back 10 years from now and talk about what they had or had not accomplished.

From a big picture point of view, all conclusions created before, during, and after each Heat playoff game are insufferable and empty; nothing honest is to be gauged until they play their final game. Having said that, the way they’ve competed up to this point deserves some recognition, especially when you look at how they’re doing what they’re doing. This Heat team we’ve watched over the past week is different from the one that began its journey in December. Their focus is bitter sharp, their intensity and understanding of what’s at stake is unparalleled. This team can’t be intimidated because no opponent is scarier than the idea of facing yet another summer of overwhelming doubt and uncertainty; no five-man unit is more crippling than the fear of a lonely summer night, weeping to Al Green’s melody as South Beach dances to a different rhythm outside your window. Sure, they want to win and the ever-elusive touch of a championship trophy drives them forth, but fear can be a damn strong source of motivation.

In a series that requires four wins to advance, it only took two for the Miami Heat to psychologically destroy their opponent. With smothering defense that’s impersonating an indiscriminate group of Navy SEALS, and the world’s best player orchestrating one of the postseason’s most efficient offenses (the Heat currently rank fourth in true shooting percentage and offensive rating, according to NBA.com), the Las Vegas favorite has re-asserted itself as a team that appears to be on a mission of supremacy. What’s different now is the way they’ve gone about breaking their opponent’s will. As you’d expect, they’re capitalizing off turnovers, scoring a playoff-high 23.8 points per game. But also, out of nowhere, they’ve brought the three-point line into their main strategic attack, and the result has been devastating.

Going back to their April 10 loss to the Celtics, the Heat attempted 20 or more three-pointers in just one of their final 11 games, and throughout the season they averaged 15.6 attempts per game. (The league average was 18.3, placing Miami at 23rd) In their four playoff games, the Heat have taken 21, 21, 29, and 19 three-pointers. During their three regular season games against this same Knicks team, the Heat averaged 13.7 three-pointers a game. Right now 31.7% of all their attempted shots are from behind the three-point line (up from 24.4% in last year’s playoffs) and they’ve taken 33 shots from the corner (11 of those coming from Shane Battier). Both numbers lead all teams through the first round. The strategy is both strange and smart. Strange from the standpoint that barraging shots from 25 feet creates longer rebounds, disallowing the Heat from comfortably setting up their fierce half-court defense. Take for example this clip of LeBron launching one late in the third quarter of Sunday’s game. As it led to perhaps the most emotional and meaningful surge the Knicks have had in about 10 years, the result was like dropping a lighter in a pool of gasoline. A more direct reason this strategy might not be in their best interest is it plays away from the strengths of the team’s two best players. Wade and James are built to attack the rim and settle for nothing less than a trip to the free-throw line. The Heat averaged 0.1 less points in the paint per game than the Lakers this season, and we all know the towering offensive options those guys have.

On the other hand, Miami has built themselves up with the personality to pull a strategy like this off. From Mario Chalmers to Battier to Mike Miller to James Jones, the roster is filled with players who’ve not only made a career of knocking down wide open three-pointers, they forged an identity with it. It’d only make sense for the Heat to take advantage. But when I think about this in a rational way, maybe it’s just Erik Spoelstra‘s master plan in knowing he’ll need every guy in his rotation focused as they go deeper and deeper into the playoffs. If those players get involved now, they’ll feel the same later on even if they really aren’t apart of the offensive game plan. This is why Miami is so dangerous, so versatile and multicolored. They’re that friend who dares you to match him on shots of tequila. And as the night comes to a merciful end he’s following a strawberry blonde back to her apartment while you begin an eight hour date with the bar’s sticky floor.

At around 1:30 this morning I sat upright in bed, two knees tucked deep in my chest, far from exhaustion and completely enveloped in the most competitive/entertaining/violent series these playoffs have so far produced. It was then that an idea for a column appeared in front of my face; I’d name it, “The Call That Changed Everything”, and here’s how it would go.

With approximately four minutes left in the fourth quarter, Rudy Gay thundered down the lane with his eyes trained on the rim and his spry legs ready for lift off.  And from at least six feet from the basket, lift off he did, right into the chest of a stationary Blake Griffin. After the whole lot of them crumbled to the floor, a whistle was blown and a blocking foul was called. Blake Griffin‘s fifth of the game, sending him to the bench.

As seen from this clip, the call was probably the correct one. Still, as one of those powerful decisions that for a brief second left both teams vulnerable and hung a very important game’s momentum in the balance, it could easily have gone the other way. As Gay collided with Griffin, the Clippers held a 10 point lead. Two free-throws from Gay cut it to eight, and over the next minute, two missed jumpers by L.A. and two made ones by Memphis made it a one possession game. Vinny Del Negro called a time-out and Griffin was back on the court with three minutes to go…

This was supposed to be the call that detailed NBA historians would proclaim as the one that allowed Memphis to tie this series at two, and eventually take in seven, inside the comforts of their FedExForum. But then Chris Paul had to go and ruin everything by eviscerating just about every living, breathing creature that stood in his path. He dribbled through a full court press against perhaps the league’s most ferocious perimeter all by himself. In overtime, Paul scored eight points and registered 0 assists. There was a complete realization in his head that the entire Clippers organization was now positioned on his back, fully expecting to be carried to the finish line. Not only did Paul take them there, he made it look easy.

Here are two shooting charts. The first shows how Chris Paul fared shooting the ball throughout the second half.

Here’s what he did in the five minute overtime.

The blocking foul on Griffin that led to a 13-3 Grizzlies run appeared to teeter on the borders of fate and destiny. It gave those watching the feeling that this “just wasn’t L.A.’s game to win.” But instead of a new story being told, a chapter was added to a book that’s already in existence. The tale of a six-foot point guard from Winston-Salem, North Carolina who now holds a career playoff PER of 27.2, with averages of 22.8 points 5.2 rebounds, and 10.8 assists per game. It’s the story of Chris Paul, the game’s best point guard now, and maybe, after it’s all said and done, ever. The day this book’s final page is written will certainly be one worth mourning.

The Knicks just announced Baron Davis tore his ACL and MCL, and partially tore his patella tendon in yesterday’s victory over the Heat. Truly sad news. In honor of one of the league’s most colorful players, here’s what’s probably the last nationally televised crossover of his memorable career.

Due to an increase in playing time, which further led to an increase in opportunity, Ryan Anderson has been named the 2011-12 Most Improved Player. I won’t go into whether or not Anderson “deserved” to win the award, mostly because it’s conditions are unsystematic. But I will say this: Ryan Anderson is a quality scorer and has been his entire life (going back to his collegiate days when he led the Pac-10 in scoring as a sophomore—O.J. Mayo, Kevin Love, and Russell Westbrook all played in the Pac-10 that year). Behind Dirk Nowitzki, Anderson might be the league’s most dangerous three-point shooting stretch four—he stands at 6’10″ and led the NBA in three-pointers made and three-pointers attempted—which is wonderful news to the Magic. Ever since Howard was made the organization’s strategic focal point, Orlando’s main plan of attack was inside out, with the three-pointer creating almost as many nightmares for opposing coaches as the Howard, himself. In this way, a player like Anderson, someone who’s tall enough to comfortably get almost all of his shots off clean, is a perfect fit.

But still, Anderson winning this award feels really wrong for one major reason: He didn’t really improve. Anderson’s success is directly connected to his ability to compliment Dwight Howard, and to me, this award should generally go to someone who’s surprised viewers by adding another dimension to their game from one season to the next. For Anderson to receive this award over players like Nikola Pekovic, Jeremy Lin, Avery Bradley, Andrew Bynum, James Harden, or Ersan Ilyasova is beyond questionable. Their numbers improved, yes, but it wasn’t solely because of an increase in playing time. These players all did things this season that they didn’t do last year. Here’s a minor example: On the same number of three-point attempts per game, Ilyasova went from a 29.8% to 45.5% from behind the arc. On fewer attempts per 36 minutes than he posted last year, Anderson’s percentage stayed exactly the same, 39.3%.

It isn’t disputable that Anderson’s impact on the Magic’s offense was overwhelmingly positive. He finished the season with the league’s fourth highest offensive rating and was sixth in offensive win shares, according to basketball-reference.com. He’s a good player, but the underlying reason for why Anderson didn’t deserve to win this award basically lies in the fact that a majority of his production is due to Dwight Howard being his teammate.

Ryan Anderson logged 1964 minutes this season, with 756 of them coming when Howard was on the bench. With Howard beside him on the court, 57.2% of Anderson’s points came on three-pointers. When Howard was on the sideline, that number dropped to 41.7%. From the three-point line, Anderson shot 41.6% with Howard on the court and 35.5% when he was off it. With Howard on the bench, Anderson’s offensive rating was 104.1 as opposed to 109.5 with him on the court. In the regular season, the Magic faced the Pacers four times, all of them with Dwight Howard. In those four games, Anderson averaged 14.8 points on 55% from deep in 32 minutes per game. In one of them, he scored 24 points on five three-pointers. In this first round series, Anderson is playing the same number of minutes but only averaging 7.7 points while shooting 33.3% on threes.

Now, Dwight Howard is a superstar in part because of the very fact that he makes life easier for teammates on both ends of the court. It’s the real life equivalent of avoiding a speeding ticket by advantageously name dropping to the cop who pulled you over. It happens with all the other superstars, like LeBron, Kobe, Durant, and Rose. The players on these teams will almost always play better, with greater efficiency and purpose, when they’re alongside the best players in the world. By draping a XXXL jersey over his mountain-rugged shoulders, Howard gives Anderson multiple free passes every game. It’s a natural benefit. Anderson should be congratulated for his ability to compliment the game’s best center and make his team’s offense better, but let’s not aggrandize the man.

Some things should never happen. In the clip above, Joakim Noah looks like he’s trying to execute a simple in and out move to attack the basket, but never has complete control of the ball. The result is a non-move and some quick head-jerking. Meanwhile, his defender’s left foot happens to slip on what MUST be an unfortunately placed wet spot. The result? A truly embarrassing moment in time.

Last night’s game between the Dallas Mavericks and Oklahoma City Thunder had everything you’d want from a high profile playoff match-up: superstars, back and forth buckets, unpredictability, great defense, bad blood, and all out hustle. Despite it only being Game 2 in a first round slugfest, this game gave us several moments where we had to remind ourselves that breathing is necessary for survival. There were 16 lead changes, and it was tied on 16 separate occasions.

Dallas is the defending champion, but Oklahoma City is the heavy favorite. With no Tyson Chandler, DeShawn Stevenson, or J.J. Barea, this Mavericks team isn’t the same group that won a title, and their replacement players are doing little to make us forget the special synergy we witnessed last June. With his quickness and elite athleticism, Rodrigue Beaubois was asked to fill Barea’s role—and upgrade the perimeter defense—but has given Dallas nothing. Vince Carter and Shawn Marion are evaporating on the offensive end. The three-headed Haywood, Mahinmi, Wright monster that was supposed to anchor the Mavericks defense has devolved into a one-headed poor man’s Chandler (Haywood and Wright combined for one rebound, three points, and one personal foul in a little under 15 minutes of action last night).

Yet if you’re Dallas, you wake up this morning heading home down 0-2 in a series that’s seen both games come down to a final play. On the surface it’s a bit discouraging, but dig deeper into the numbers and Dallas’ chances of not only heading back to Oklahoma City tied 2-2, but winning in six or seven games is a realistic possibility. Last night the Thunder attempted 39 free-throws and made 37 of them. This season they averaged about 26 free-throw attempts per game, which was second highest in the league, and they made about 80% of them, which set the bar. They have three guys who’ve earned a perception among officials that they belong at the free-throw line, and that’s exactly where they lived last night. But to attempt that many, and make nearly all of them (this includes Kendrick Perkins, a 65% free-throw shooter who made five and missed zero) probably won’t happen again. For a bit of perspective on how rare this is, in February, when they defeated Denver in an overtime thriller that saw Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook combine for 51 points, the Thunder attempted 28 free-throws as a team—11 fewer than last night.

But one aspect slightly marred the outcome: officiating. I’m taking into account the referees sensitivity to Dirk and Perk involving themselves in a minor dustup, and the priority for them to prevent things from getting further out of hand. The calls that made this game’s outcome especially trivial came towards its end, when each possession is magnified and more consequential, and the need for officials to act in the name of averting a violent brouhaha takes a backseat to the simple task of calling the game by its written rule book.

Take, for example, this clip; one of the game’s more significant plays.

It’s your typical bang bang play. With less than 20 seconds remaining in a one point game, everyone in the gym expected the Mavericks to immediately foul the inbounder. Instead, Jason Kidd forces the ball from Durant to James Harden, who races up the sideline to avoid an eight second violation. After crossing half court Harden appears to stumble before losing the ball out of bounds. The whistle blows, a foul is called on Shawn Marion, and every Maverick on the court is incredulous, including head coach Rick Carlisle who waves a dismissive hand in the official’s direction.

Two other games were played last night. 39 personal fouls were called when Miami played New York. 37 personal fouls were called when Indiana beat Orlando. There were 54 personal fouls in last night’s Mavs/Thunder showdown. Two were questionable in that they came during crucial moments and appeared to be the result of a referee’s assumption instead of empirical reaction.

Plays like those aren’t out of the ordinary, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t correctable. Speaking as a fan who loves both of these teams and simply wants to see what happens when they go head to head on the game’s biggest stage without any outside interference, the referees put their imprint on last night’s game, and when you combine that fact with the irregularly impressive numbers the Thunder put up from the free-throw line, it’s safe to say that this series is far from over.