NBA Playoffs 2013: 5 Biggest Disappointments From Round Two
Now that the conference finals are under way, it’s time to take a look at the five biggest disappointments from the second round of the 2013 NBA playoffs. Because as much as we love our heroes, sometimes we enjoy breaking down what went wrong and dwelling on what might have been even more.
5. The Chicago Bulls’ health
Everyone was ready to write the Bulls off as soon as they advanced to play the Miami Heat in the second round, but I was one of the few who believed a physical gritty Chicago team could push LeBron James and company in a way that no other team could.
Sure, they didn’t have the offensive weapons to score enough points, but when they stole Game 1 in Miami, I prepared myself for a tough and hard-fought series. I figured Luol Deng and Kirk Hinrich would be ready for action at some point in the series, but the basketball gods deemed otherwise. Instead of being able to respond and take care of business at home, the Bulls were stuck playing their second- and third-string guys, running poor Jimmy Butler into the ground and dealing with the rejuvenated defending champions who were fully awake after that Game 1 punch to the gut.
I was fully expecting Miami to throttle Chicago in Game 2, but if the Bulls could have returned one of their better shooters in Deng and a quality perimeter defender in Hinrich, this series would have lasted longer than five games. The Heat probably still would have advanced, but we were still deprived of a potentially great, hard-nosed and brutally physical playoff series between two teams that don’t like each other. Even playing his backups to his backups, coach Tom Thibodeau still got the best out of his injury-depleted team and made this one of the toughest five-game series in recent memory. People will talk about Derrick Rose, but the fact of the matter is, the 2013 Chicago Bulls had just enough determination and pride to win without him. Just not without him, Deng AND Hinrich. Pity.
4. The Golden State Warriors’ late-game collapses
We saw signs of it in Golden State’s first-round series against the Denver Nuggets, but when the upstart Warriors blew a 16-point lead with four minutes left in the game and lost in double-overtime, coach Mark Jackson‘s crew took collapses to a whole new level.
Between Jarrett Jack turnovers and Stephen Curry missing shots down the stretch, the Warriors failed to capitalize on fourth quarter leads throughout the series. They allowed the Spurs to close the fourth quarter on an 18-2 run in Game 1, which proved to be the difference in the series. Had the Warriors taken that first road game, they would have had to opportunity to sweep and finish things off at home. Instead, they squandered a perfectly good opportunity and ended up being eliminated on their own floor. Golden State was outscored 144-120 in the fourth quarter during the second round and didn’t score more than 24 points in any of those six final periods.
Although they didn’t entirely collapse throughout the series, this young team couldn’t properly close out games, which cut their promising playoff run short. The third-quarter Warriors were my favorite playoff team to watch this year, but the fourth-quarter Warriors were the hardest to observe.
3. The New York Knicks’ guards
Before we get started, I have to get this off my chest in the hopes that the throngs of Carmelo Anthony haters on Twitter see it: The New York Knicks’ elimination is not Melo’s fault.
Yes, he did go cold in the fourth quarter of an elimination game. Yes, he did turn the ball over a few times (one of which led to a pivotal Lance Stephenson three-point play), but the guy dropped 39 points and was on fire for three straight quarters. He did everything he could to keep the Knicks in the game, but by the time his teammates actually started to contribute, it was too late and Melo was gassed.
We’ve seen it a few times in the playoffs thus far. Guys like Melo, Stephen Curry and Kevin Durant, who are known for their clutch late-game performances, falling short because they’re exhausted from logging so many minutes on a team that doesn’t have anyone else good enough to give the stars a breather.
So if you’re looking for the reason New York’s championship aspirations have once again fallen by the wayside, look to Sixth Man of the Year J.R. Smith, who averaged 13.5 points on appalling 28.9 percent shooting and an even worse 9-for-39 from 3-point range. Take a glance at Raymond Felton, whose numbers dipped from 13.9 points and 5.5 assists per game during the regular season and 17.2 points and 5.3 assists per game in the first round to 11.0 points and 4.0 assists per game against the Pacers. And don’t even get me started on Jason Kidd, who failed to score a single point since Game 2 of the first round on April 23. We’ll get to part two of this disappointing Knicks team in just a second, but I can’t blame Melo for once again falling short in the postseason this year. The Knicks’ age and reliance on the 3-pointer just caught up with them as New York’s perimeter players disappeared one by one.
2. The New York Knicks’ big men
It would have been easy to just lump No. 3 in with this one and call the New York Knicks’ entire supporting cast a disappointment, but I needed some extra space to flesh out just how bad New York’s big men were in this series. After looking offensively challenged all season long, Roy Hibbert absolutely dominated Tyson Chandler on both sides of the ball throughout the series.
Chandler averaged just 6.2 points, 6.0 rebounds and 1.7 blocks per game against Indiana, compared to Hibbert’s 13.3 points, 10.3 rebounds and 3.2 blocks. Kenyon Martin posted 7.0 points, 3.7 rebounds and 1.3 blocks per game as Chandler’s backup. Looking at the stats, Hibbert nearly outplayed both of the Knicks’ bigs combined. That’s just appalling.
I know Melo takes a lot of shots away from teammates and I know the Knicks were primarily a 3-point shooting team, but that’s just ridiculous. The Knicks were murdered on the boards and were out-rebounded by 52 rebounds in six games. FIFTY-TWO REBOUNDS IN SIX GAMES. The Knicks’ inability to knock down their 3s consistently hurt them, but in the only two games where the Knicks competed on the boards, they won. For a former Defensive Player of the Year (who also stole a NBA All-Defensive First Team Spot from Marc Gasol) to get thrashed on the boards like that is a major disappointment and the biggest reason the Knicks will be watching the Eastern Conference Finals from their couches.
1. The Oklahoma City Thunder’s early playoff exit
It’d be easy for me to call this one “Kevin Durant’s Game 5 performance,” but that’d be unfair to the guy who entirely carried the Oklahoma City Thunder after Russell Westbrook went down. True, he couldn’t have picked a worse time to go 5-for-21 from the field and miss what would have been a game-tying shot, but everyone has an off-day and considering the minutes Durant was logging, it’s no wonder his legs failed him in the end. So as much as the world loves to hammer the NBA’s top stars when they aren’t clutch, I’m not ready to give up on Kid Clutch.
No, I’m more concerned about guys like Serge Ibaka and Kevin Martin, who failed to step up and give Durant the support he needed against a Memphis Grizzlies defense that had an incredibly easy time stopping coach Scott Brooks‘ incredibly mundane and mindless offensive sets.
When the Thunder gave Serge Ibaka a new deal and shipped James Harden away to Houston, they made a decision to invest in Iblaka. Looks like they chose wrong after Ibaka’s shooting percentage dropped from 50 percent in the first round just 37.7 in the semifinals. When Westbrook went down, Ibaka should have become the second option to provide scoring the Thunder desperately needed. When Westbrook went down, Kevin Martin was expected to fulfill a James Harden-esque role.
Instead, both guys just kept plugging along and barely escalated their game in response. To complicate things further, Brooks continued to play Kendrick Perkins over Nick Collison. Thabo Sefolosha was nowhere to be found. And although Derek Fisher knocked down a couple of key threes, it wasn’t even close to being enough to help the exhausted Kevin Durant ease the weight on his shoulders. I think everyone knows the Thunder’s fate would have been different with a healthy Russell Westbrook, but the way this Harden-less team responded to his absence was less than inspiring.
Unfortunately for Kevin Durant, he’s going to have to be content with being second for a little while longer.