Tag: NBA playoff

Spurs can’t help but smile at play of stoic Leonard

By Jeff McDonald

The 66th game of his NBA career had ended. The TV lights had faded and most of the microphones that had semi-circled his locker just moments earlier had disappeared in search of someone more quotable.

It was then and there, in the aftermath of the Spurs’ resounding Game 2 victory over Utah on Wednesday, that Kawhi Leonard chose to reveal his best-kept secret.

“I do smile,” Leonard said.

And then he did. Sort of. The left corner of Leonard’s mouth inched north ever so slightly, briefly transforming the Spurs’ enigmatic rookie small forward into a Mona Lisa in braids.

Just like that, it was gone. The instant passed without anyone bothering to capture photographic evidence of the Loch Ness monster of NBA facial expressions.

For Leonard’s teammates, who have come to regard the soft-spoken 20-year-old as the type of player who could make it stone-faced through a tickle fight, the moment was one that had to be seen to be believed.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen it before,” Manu Ginobili said of Leonard’s grin. “Not for more than a second. Or a fourth of a second.”

In the crucible of his first NBA playoff series, which the Spurs lead 2-0 heading into Game 3 on Saturday in Utah, Leonard’s seeming inability to feel neither pleasure nor pressure has been a blessing.

Quietly — because how else would he do it? — the 6-foot-7 rookie from San Diego State is having quite an impact on the top-seeded Spurs’ manhandling of the No. 8 seed Jazz.

During the Spurs’ 114-83 picnic in Game 2, Leonard hit 6 of 7 shots, including 3 of 4 3-pointers, on his way to 17 points. It was the highest-scoring playoff game for a Spurs rookie since Ginobili went for 21 against Dallas in Game 4 of the 2003 Western Conference finals.

Leonard did it without beating his chest. Or, save for a momentary lapse in the postgame locker room, without cracking a smile.

“He’s got a way about him,” coach Gregg Popovich said. “He’s not so anxious to show us that he’s got every move in the world. He’s level-headed and takes things as they come. Which is great, because he blends in with everybody else.”

Leonard, for his part, doesn’t quite understand why everyone keeps asking him to smile more, as if every day were team picture day.

“That’s just my character on the court,” Leonard said. “Act like I’ve been here before.”

Yet his lack of outward emotion often belies a potpourri of feelings inside. He is not made of stone, even if he sometimes appears to be doing a spot-on impression of Mount Rushmore.

“I am excited,” Leonard insisted. “I’m out there playing hard. If I was down, I wouldn’t be playing hard basketball.”

Other Spurs admit they at first didn’t quite know what to make of the draft-day trade that brought Leonard to town last June. General manager R.C. Buford had to send George Hill — a versatile and popular backup guard — to Indiana to make it happen.

The deal was a gamble, and even Leonard’s soon-to-be teammates knew it.

“I was definitely shocked, even upset,” Ginobili said. “I loved playing with George.”

It didn’t take long for the quiet kid with the braids to win fans in his new locker room.

With giraffe-neck arms and hands that could palm Jupiter, Leonard is a born rebounder — he averaged 5.1 in 24 minutes per game during the regular season — and a steals machine. His ability to run the floor and finish fast breaks has given the Spurs’ transition game an extra gear.

Those are the things that make him stand out. As impressive to his veteran teammates are the ways in which he fits in.

The never-smiling thing is part of it.

“He doesn’t get too upset, and he doesn’t get too pumped up,” Ginobili said. “He just plays. That’s basically who we are.”

And basically who Leonard has always been.

There is but one scenario Leonard could envision that might cause him unveil his full-on, ear-to-ear, 5-year-old-at-Disneyland grin.

And if the Spurs’ luck breaks just right between now and late June, they just might get to see it.

“You might see it,” Leonard said. “If we win the championship.”

jmcdonald@express-news.net
Twitter: @JMcDonald_SAEN

SPURS LEAD BEST-OF-7 SERIES 2-0

Game 1:

Game 2:

Game 3 Saturday: Spurs @Jazz, 9 p.m.
TV: FSNSW, TNT Radio: WOAI-AM 1200; KCOR-AM 1350?

Game 4 Monday: Spurs @Jazz, TBD
TV: FSNSW, TBD Radio: WOAI-AM 1200; KCOR-AM 1350?

* Game 5 Wednesday: Jazz @Spurs, TBD
TV: FSNSW, TBD Radio: WOAI-AM 1200; KCOR-AM 1350?

* Game 6 May 11: Spurs @Jazz, TBD
TV: FSNSW, TBD Radio: WOAI-AM 1200; KCOR-AM 1350?

* Game 7 May 13: Jazz @Spurs, TBD
TV: TBD Radio: WOAI-AM 1200; KCOR-AM 1350?

* — As needed in best-of-7 series

Mavs’ rally among greatest NBA playoff comebacks

AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki

On Monday, the Mavericks posted one of the greatest comebacks in NBA history, erasing a 15-point deficit in the final five minutes to force the Thunder into overtime. Dallas went on to a 112-105 victory in Game 4 of the Western Conference Finals at Oklahoma City.

Here is a look at some other great NBA playoff comebacks:

Getty Images/Nathaniel Butler

1986 Eastern Conference first round Game 1: Washington trails by 17 at Philadelphia with just three minutes left before going on an 18-0 run, capped by Dudley Bradley’s game-winning 3-pointer. Final: Bullets 95, 76ers 94.

AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill

2008 NBA Finals Game 4: The Lakers lead 35-14 after the first quarter – the largest first-quarter lead in NBA Finals history — at Los Angeles. They hold a 24-point lead early in the third, but the Celtics close the quarter with a 21-3 run and take the lead with 4:07 left in the game. Final: Celtics 97, Lakers 91

AP Photo/Charles Krupa

2002 Eastern Conference Finals Game 3: Celtics trail by 21 at the start of the fourth quarter at Boston, then score 41 points while holding the Nets to 16. Final: Celtics  94, Nets 90

1994 Western Conference semifinals Game 2: Houston leads by 20 at home with 10 minutes left, but scores only 8 points in the fourth quarter as the Suns close the quarter with a 24-4 run. Final: Suns 124, Rockets 117 (OT)

AP Photo/Kevork Djansezian

2000 Western Conference Finals Game 7: The Lakers are down by 15 points at home in the fourth quarter before going on a 25-4 run, highlighted by a Kobe to Shaq alley-oop to go up by 6 in the final minute. Final: Lakers 89, Trail Blazers 84

1992 NBA Finals Game 6: The Bulls trail by 15 points in the third quarter at Chicago, then score 33 and allow only 14 to down the Trail Blazers and claim their second straight championship. Final: Bulls 97, Trail Blazers 93

AP Photo/LM Otero

2011 Western Conference first round Game 4: The Mavs lead by 18 points entering the final quarter at Portland, then Brandon Roy scores 18 of the Trail Blazers’ 35 points to finish the comeback. Portland trailed by as much as 23 in the game. Final: Trail Blazers 84, Mavericks 82

Reuters/Lucy Nicholson

2006 NBA Finals Game 3: The Heat trail by 13 points in the fourth quarter at home when Dwyane Wade scores 12 points in the final 6-plus minutes. Miami scores 30 and holds the Mavericks to 19 in the quarter. Final: Heat 98, Mavericks 96

Compiled from NBA.com, ESPN.go.com, and various online wire service stories

Mavs’ haymakers KO Lakers’ reign

By Mike Monroe
mikemonroe@express-news.net

DALLAS — The end of an era was sudden and painful for the Los Angeles Lakers.

Crushed by a fusillade of 3-pointers by Dallas Mavericks reserves Jason Terry and Peja Stojakovic, the two-time defending NBA champion Lakers on Sunday suffered the second-worst playoff loss in their long history, a 122-86 humiliation that swept them out of the Western Conference semifinals.

As a result, the Mavericks are headed to the Western Conference finals for the fourth time in franchise history, and Lakers Hall of Fame coach Phil Jackson is headed to retirement with a bitter taste in his mouth.

Jackson’s teams have won 11 NBA titles, but never in his 20 seasons on NBA benches had one of them been swept from a playoff series.

Before Jackson confirmed his intent to retire during his postgame remarks, he called the Mavericks’ performance the best game any team had ever played against one of his teams in a playoff situation.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen a team play to that level in a series in a game like they played this afternoon,” he said. “They were terrific.”

What the Mavericks did best was shoot from long range. Terry missed only one of the 10 3-pointers he launched and scored a game-high 32 points.

Recalling his 32-point performance that led the Mavericks to a Game 1 victory in the 2006 NBA Finals, Terry hedged about calling his uncanny shooting the best of his playoff life. He clearly understood its impact.

? “For the magnitude of this game, to close those guys out, yes, it was a great game,” he said, “so it goes down as one of them. And I’m very thankful that I had the hot hand tonight.”

Stojakovic, the veteran forward the Mavericks signed as a free agent after the Toronto Raptors released him in February, was even more accurate from 3-point range, making all six of his long-distance shots. He scored 21 points.

The Mavericks made 11 3-pointers in the first half, 20 for the game — both numbers matching single-game NBA playoff records.

Amazingly, Dallas’ season scoring leader Dirk Nowitzki attempted, and made, only one 3-pointer. For the first time in one of the Mavericks’ eight playoff victories this spring, he was not his team’s top scorer. He scored only 17 points, trailing Terry, Stojakovic and another reserve, point guard J.J. Barea, who finished with 22 points.

The Lakers had no answer for the Mavericks at either end of the court. Former NBA Most Valuable Player Kobe Bryant, a two-time Finals MVP, scored 13 first-quarter points but only four thereafter. He made six of his first eight shots, then missed nine of his next 10. The game’s most feared closer had only two points in the second half.

To Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle, his team’s defensive excellence matched the 3-point shooting he called breathtaking.

“You hold this (Lakers) team under 40 percent, it means you’re moving your feet, you’re guarding, and you’re rebounding,” he said. “That fueled a lot of the good things that happened for us offensively.”

By game’s end, Jackson was embarrassed by the lack of composure of center Andrew Bynum and forward Lamar Odom. Both were thrown out of the game — Odom for committing a category-2 flagrant foul on Nowitzki; Bynum for a flagrant-2 on Barea, a foot shorter but far more impactful on a Mother’s Day afternoon.

“I wasn’t happy with the way our players exited the game, on Lamar’s and Andrew’s part,” Jackson said.

Jackson also accused some unnamed players of shrinking from the magnitude of the moment.

“Well, I felt there’s a couple of players who felt daunted by the energy of the game,” he said. “Their game was depressed. There were, personally, a couple of players who didn’t step into the performance that I’d like to see them step into.”

As a result, Jackson steps into retirement, an era ended with minimal resistance and maximum pain.