There was a lot of good basketball this weekend. Derrick Rose banked in a three for a win against the Cavs on Friday. LeBron James returned the favor on Sunday with a buzzer beater of his own in Chicago. Sandwiched between those big shots, Paul Pierce "called game" with a bank shot against the Hawks on Saturday. The Grizzlies have shown that they can hang with Golden State. All in all, it was a pretty good weekend for the NBA.
Except for one thing.
One glaring thing.
One record breaking thing.
One despicable thing.
I'm looking at you Houston. You ought to be disgusted with yourselves. James Harden was supposed to be an MVP. Dwight Howard is a former MVP. Josh Smith, they didn't bring you down there for nothing. And, Coach McHale, Coach Kevin Edward McHale, you ought to be the most ashamed. You won championships in Boston. You played a key role on the 1986 Celtics, one of the best teams in NBA history. Red Auerbach is rolling over in his grave after this weekend.
Houston Rockets, you employed a strategy that has essentially been proven not to work. It didn't work when the Spurs tried it. It didn't work for you in Game 3 as the Clippers destroyed you. Why did you think it was going to work in Game 4?
Why did you foul DeAndre Jordan, over and over and over and over and over again? Why? 28 free throws in the first half? Seriously?
I know you aren't the first to try this method. Many teams did that to Shaquille O'Neal back in the day. I guess an argument could be made that it was effective then. After all, the Big Aristotle could have had a couple thousand more points had he been more efficient from the line. However, Shaq still won four championships with two different teams. Did it really prevent his team from winning? Personally, I don't think so.
It is true that DeAndre Jordan is more likely to miss his free throws than he is to make them. 14-34 is quite embarrassing. I'm just some white dude in Utah, and I feel like I can shoot better than that. Still, that is 14 points that were just given to the Clippers. And, I understand doing it when the game is close. Heck, if the game is close and the other team starts gaining momentum, you should do anything to slow them down, and that sometimes includes fouling. But, if you see that it isn't working, why would you keep doing it? The Rockets suffered their biggest loss of this series and were still hacking Jordan deep into the fourth quarter. You would think they'd stop after being down 20, but no. They just kept hacking away.
I've heard a few interviews with the Rockets players. Most of them say that they didn't really want to hack Jordan. They say allude to it being a coach's decision. I'm going to have to call BS on that, because they all seemed eager to foul Jordan whenever he got the ball. They weren't fighting against that strategy in the slightest. Coach McHale may have approved of the strategy, but the players were undoubtedly carrying out his plan as if they thought they would actually win.
It's not that the hacking strategy is just ineffective. That isn't the only thing that bugs me about it. What really bothers me about that particular strategy is that it slows the game down. It makes it very boring. No fan wants to watch a guy shoot free throws all game. It just isn't very appealing. I'll go to a 6th grade basketball camp if I want to see someone shoot free throws.
It is just bad sportsmanship. It's one step ahead of flopping. It shows everyone how low of a team you are. You don't feel like you can win playing face up basketball. And, maybe you can't win. Maybe you aren't good enough to play with the big boys. But, don't play like that. That is childish and ineffective. When you play like that, you deserve to lose.
Rockets, I just hope you realize that before tonight. Otherwise, you'll be spending the rest of the summer in Houston following the game tonight.
I've heard a few interviews with the Rockets players. Most of them say that they didn't really want to hack Jordan. They say allude to it being a coach's decision. I'm going to have to call BS on that, because they all seemed eager to foul Jordan whenever he got the ball. They weren't fighting against that strategy in the slightest. Coach McHale may have approved of the strategy, but the players were undoubtedly carrying out his plan as if they thought they would actually win.
It's not that the hacking strategy is just ineffective. That isn't the only thing that bugs me about it. What really bothers me about that particular strategy is that it slows the game down. It makes it very boring. No fan wants to watch a guy shoot free throws all game. It just isn't very appealing. I'll go to a 6th grade basketball camp if I want to see someone shoot free throws.
It is just bad sportsmanship. It's one step ahead of flopping. It shows everyone how low of a team you are. You don't feel like you can win playing face up basketball. And, maybe you can't win. Maybe you aren't good enough to play with the big boys. But, don't play like that. That is childish and ineffective. When you play like that, you deserve to lose.
Rockets, I just hope you realize that before tonight. Otherwise, you'll be spending the rest of the summer in Houston following the game tonight.
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