Summer Quandaries: Body Blows Of Basketball 2 - Spirit Breakers

http://celticsgreen.blogspot.com/2014/09/sq14-64-body-blows-of-basketball-ii.html










About three weeks ago I wrote about the Body Blows of Basketball.  In it I highlighted the effects of the running game, pressure defense, and exhaustion; and how I saw this current Celtics team well positioned to make full use of such an approach.  Today I’d like to delve into some other body blows that sap the spirit of opponents.  Some are individual actions, others are full team applications, but all are tide-turners after which you can literally see the opposition deflate and their focus and energy ebb away.

These are what I call the Spirit Breakers--dunks, blocks, fast breaks, steals, 24-sec violations, charges, and inbounds violations.  Now for me personally dunks and to a lesser extent blocks are the most over rated plays in basketball.  These darlings of ESPN, so aptly suited to the 5-second coverage of a two-hour game, are tiny slices dissected from the context of a four act play, never yielding more than a one-basket swing, but drawing a crescendo hoots and chest-thumps.  Their added value, however, comes exactly from the derivative emotional displays and surges.  Their ability to engage teammates and the crowd often becomes a palpable contribution, a plus for the perpetrators and negative for the victims, that can raise the level of one team’s play while eroding the other’s.  Enough of these body blows and the spirit is broken such that it seems hardly worth going on.

The rest of the list can also provide similar lifts/suppressions, and are to my mind much more exciting examples of basketball acumen.  There is no debate that fast breaks, 24-second shot clock violations, and 5-second in-bounds violations are earned by the entire team; and my feeling is that these type of shared benefits are the strongest inducement to furthering team effort.  Most of the time a steal is due to the effort of more contributors than just the player gaining control of the ball.  Even a charge is often due to teammates funneling the driver into a narrow channel with the charge-taker plugging the end of the chute.  All of these actions leave the opposition feeling as if even their best efforts are for nought; and the resulting swing in emotion makes reversing the effect ever more difficult.

Basketball is a physical game, played, at its best, with the mind fully engaged.  Kevin Garnett, Michael Jordan, Larry Bird, and all the way back to Bill Russell played mind tricks on their opponents.  If the opposition wasn’t already beaten coming out of the locker room, their games were frequently thrown completely out of kilter by half-time, and the final result was just running out the string.  In a game lauded for the excesses of athleticism, it is noteworthy to consider that it is also a battle of the wills; and it is the body blows that often lead to “ling chi,” that death by a thousand cuts.  I’m sure you could come up with your own favorite examples--perhaps Bird’s step-back three, or a made basket after a hard foul (to make sure they don’t make the basket), or an ankle-breaking stop-and-go, or Rondo’s behind-the-back-oops-not-really lay-ups.  The defining characteristic is not just a change on the scoreboard, but the change in your opponents’ countenance.

There are no more days until training camp--Media Day tomorrow!




bob
MY NOTE:  How old is Lee Lauderdale?  He definitely talks old school.  All I know is that his profile says he lives in Texas.  My personal tip of the hat to Lee for helping me get through this waaaaay too long off-season.  Unlike Forsberg and the bloggers at Celticsblog he carried his own water, selecting his own topics and making his own arguments, good and bad, and didn't just hold a blogging forum and solicit opinions.  Two months worth of daily columns during a news vacuum.  Damn well done, Lee, damn well done.



.

Lee says, "Now for me personally dunks and to a lesser extent blocks are the most over rated plays in basketball." and I agree.

He also says, "I’m sure you could come up with your own favorite examples--perhaps Bird’s step-back three, or a made basket after a hard foul (to make sure they don’t make the basket), or an ankle-breaking stop-and-go, or Rondo’s behind-the-back-oops-not-really lay-ups.  The defining characteristic is not just a change on the scoreboard, but the change in your opponents’ countenance."

There is a play that many keep bringing up during discussions about Avery Bradley.  It keeps popping up as a short video clip.  It is the one where Bradley blocks Dwyane Wade.  What the short clip doesn't show is that the play ended with a corner 3 by the Heat.  Our player (Bass) leaves his guy and ends up on the wrong side of the basket and it is his player that hits the corner 3.

Here's the short GIF of the play (I can't quite get it to work here):

http://media.giphy.com/media/1IghmIJm4AlJC/giphy.gif

Here's the whole play:



So, yeah.  Cool play, bad result.

gyso

I also noticed how Lee's remarks about the ambience of the game of the 1950s and 60s seemed to be coming from someone who experienced it.  I've tried looking him up without success, although I can now cite statistics on the number of google sites that mention both Courtney Lee and Fort Lauderdale.

My question is what's next for Lee.  Can he translate his insightful perspective to reports on the games themselves?  From treatises involving single themes to analysis of the myriad events constituting an NBA game?

Whatever happens, I think I admire his choice of topics almost as much as his coverage of the topics.  I'd call him the "anti-Blakely."  (Perhaps Bob Heckler already used that one.  If so, I apologize Bob.)

Anyway, Lee basically carried us through the summer.  If I can possibly find out how to contact him, I'd like to invite him to become a member of this board, free of cost.  (Not all that much of an inducement because all members are free of cost.)  But I think he'd welcome exposure to a knowledgeable board and how that board reacts to his work.

Sam