Friday, January 6, 2012

Miami Pulls A Santorum, Upsets Atlanta

Miami, missing its top two stars, edged a mostly healthy (except for Kirk Hinrich) Atlanta squad in triple overtime last night, an extremely long game that pre-empted the entire first half of TNT's Lakers-Blazers match.

(My headline metaphor doesn't quite pass, because Rick Santorum did not quite defeat Mitt Romney in the Iowa caucuses, but please work with me.) Atlanta had seemingly all the advantages last night: a home crowd, a wounded enemy with James and Wade out, and the confidence from beating the Heat on the latter's home floor earlier this week. They also had three separate overtime periods to tire out and over-score the poorly staffed Heat, but they failed in each opportunity. The performance was embarrassing, as the TNT announce crew repeatedly noted. Still, it is just one game. A few observations on this night:

  • Atlanta's starters shot 21-for-66 in the 63 minutes of game action. Miami's best remaining defenders, Joel Anthony and Shane Battier, did a good job of deflecting or intimidating shots; Battier proved manly in man coverage against the quicker Joe Johnson.

  • Atlanta big men Josh Smith and Al Horford had no answer for Chris Bosh, who was frequently able to bull his way to the hoop for layups.

  • As sharp an ax as Bosh wielded as he sliced through the Hawk defense, he presented an equally lipidinous barrier when Atlanta challenged him on the other end. 6'8" journeyman Ivan Johnson (click the link, a good profile) repeatedly barreled to the rim with dribble-drives as Bosh and Joel Anthony could not stop him.

  • The TNT broadcast crew pointed out that Atlanta's roster is the second-oldest in the league, at an average 29.2 years of age. However, this statistic is misleading: Josh Smith is 26 years and 1 month, Marvin Williams 25 years and 7 months, Al Horford 25 years and 7, Joe Johnson 30 and 6, and Jeff Teague 23 & 7. The average age of Atlanta's starting lineup is thus a bit over 26, hardly an ancient team. (Compare to the Mavs of Kidd-Carter-Haywood-Nowitzki-Marion, or the Spurs of Parker-Ginobili-Duncan-Jefferson-Blair, the Celtics of Rondo-Allen-O'Neal-Pierce-Garnett, or the Lakers of Fisher-Bryant-Bynum-Gasol-Barnes.) Atlanta's advanced dotage owes to older bench players like Tracy McGrady, Kirk Hinrich, Jason Collins, and -- especially -- 37-year-old Jerry Stackhouse, who appeared to be retired last season as a studio pundit on NBATV after getting cut by Miami. [I did a double-take when I noticed his name on Atlanta's roster for 2011-12.] Thanks to Atlanta's trade of 2010 draftee Jordan Crawford and a 2011 first-round pick for Hinrich last February, the Hawks are short on low-grade youth. Still, weighted by average minutes played, the average age of a Hawks player is likely no worse than average, although I have not done the calculations.

  • Related to a post I wrote in 2010, Miami has almost as much roster continuity as Atlanta's core of Johnson/Horford/Smith/Williams, who are in their fifth season together (the seventh season if we don't count Horford). Dwyane Wade, James Jones, Udonis Haslem, Joel Anthony, Mario Chalmers, and coach Erik Spoelstra have all been with Miami since the start of the 2008-09 season, making this their fourth rumba together. (Other experienced units include the same old squads I mentioned above: the aforementioned Lakers core sans Barnes, together since 2007-08, the Celtics core minus O'Neal, also together since 2007-08, Dallas's Kidd-Terry-Nowitzki core, also together that long, and the Spurs' Big Three, who are in their tenth season together.)

  • Turner Sports's Charles Barkley, usually assigned to halftime studio work, was instead staffed as a courtside color commentator on this night with Reggie Miller and Kevin Harlan. Why? I doubt this was pre-planned; TNT likely reacted to the injury absence of LeBron James and Dwyane Wade by redirecting Barkley from Turner Studios in Atlanta to the Heat game, which was conveniently at the Phillips Arena 2 miles away. The ratings gambit worked, at least for actor Jeremy Piven, who confessed on Twitter that he remained tuned in just for Barkley.
  • No comments: