Spurs Take Game One

First, consider this the official end of the "nightly wrap-up" format for the NBA Playoffs. It does no good to break things down by the calendar now that we've hit the point where the league is committed to getting a game a day, no matter how ungainly it makes the schedule. This used to be something I complained about, but with everything else that sucks about these playoffs, why bother?

What I really fear is that no one is watching anymore. Literally. I can't wait to see what the ratings looked like for yesterday's Jazz-Spurs matchup.

If people still care, let me know.

Until I get confirmation that people are still watching the playoffs, I'll just hit you with a quick top five observations from Game One of the Western Conference Finals:

1. Derek Fisher might be out-Fishered in this one. Even though he is actually good now and Mr. Clutch and an American hero, his real speciality has always been bodying people, flopping, acting, holding, and all the other things that gritty players do in order to make it in the NBA and then get sizable contracts for being "winners." Usually, D-Fish has the "rugby" edge against any opponent. But now he's going against two guys - Bruce Bowen and Manu Ginobili - who are redefining all his moves. Fisher might have started this horrible flopping trend in the NBA, but Manu took it to the crazy next level. Fisher might have started the whole "clutch, grab, bump, hand check, knee, hold, repeat" style of defense on talented guards, but Bruce Bowen added ninja kicks and ankle shattering stealth techniques and turned it into something altogether more potent. For Fisher, this has to feel a little bit like T3: Rise of the Machines (terrible movie, by the way), when Governor Arnold had to square off with a superior model of terminator. He could recognize the skin-covered alloy frame and hard-wired technology, but the girl terminator was just more evolved. So Fisher is Arnold in that movie, and the Jazz are John Connor, hoping that they don't have to hide in an old army bunker and rely on a mere human to avoid certain devastation.

2. Utah may have gone down 1-0, but they have to feel good about a couple of things that started working late. Deron Williams is going to be a tough guard for the Spurs. He's too fast for Bowen and is strong enough to resist all those little pokes at the ball when he's going by. And if Bowen can't effectively guard Williams, there isn't much use for the guy. Harpring can post him and Fisher and Kirilenko don't really need to be shut down, which means Bowen is just another player out there running around. I don't think he played much more than 7 or 8 minutes in the second half, which means Pop was seeing what I was seeing. The other big plus for the Jazz is that they really got Boozer going late by putting him in pick-and-rolls and allowing him to work 12-15 feet from the basket. Once he stopped forcing it to the rim (where he isn't going to get the same calls he did in the first two rounds) and looked to make jumpers, he was far more effective.

(Note: if Boozer has a few games where he struggles with the jump shot, expect the media to rip him for "settling." Nevermind that trying to force the ball against Duncan and help defense and against refs unwilling to call fouls is like trying to jam a square peg into a round hole. No one will bother understanding that in the least. This used to happen to Chris Webber all the time in Sacramento. He would try to drive time and time again, never get any calls, and then eventually say "screw it, I'm just going to drain jumpers" on his way to some big games. The minute he started missing, he got destroyed by the critics. Talk about a Catch-22.)

3. Sometimes I wonder whether Jerry Sloan is watching the game. I have no doubt that the man is tough and can teach a system, but as an X's and O's coach, I think he can be pretty shaky. Yesterday Deron Williams was going bonkers down the stretch and Utah actually had a fighting chance to finish off a remarkable comeback. Instead, they came up short as Michael Finley drained eight straight free throws in the final minutes. My question: why would they foul Finley? I'm sure Pop was designing plays to get Finley the ball, but come on, this is the NBA. Trap him hard and get the ball out of his hands. The other guys on the floor were, as follows:

Tim Duncan - a career 63% free throw shooter in the postseason
Manu Ginobili - 3-for-6 on the day, including several remarkably bad misses late
Tony Parker - 5-for-10 on the day and was clearly aiming the ball in the fourth quarter and just hoping to get rim
Someone Else Who Never Touched The Ball

So I again, I ask: why continue to foul Finley? How does that make any sense?

4. I thought it was pretty cheesy for the San Antonio fans to cheer Robert Horry like he was some kind of hero. Have a little tact, people. Plus, it made it look like Spurs fans knew that Horry saved their season with a cheap shot that somehow getting Amare suspended. Just really cheesy stuff.

5. I know that the whole "quick turnaround" thing is often debated in sports. Does the team playing 48 hours later have a disadvantage because they are tired, or an advantage because they are sharp? We hear the arguments all the time. But I'm starting to wonder why we even debate it. I have no doubt that getting more rest between series is better in the long run for a team, but it seems like the "turnaround" team - the one that just finished a series and is short on rest - almost always wins the game. At the very least, they enjoy the advantage of being "sharp" in the first half. Utah had the quick turnaround after Game Seven in Houston and then jumped all over a Golden State team that was clearly sluggish and rusty. Same thing happened yesterday, except to the Jazz this time. It seems like in the short run, being sharp and maintaining momentum is far more important than a few extra days of rest.