Erick Blasco

That was supposed to be a 1-3 high screen...but Durant whiffed on the screen. Conley and Allen didn't have to worry about how they were playing that screen---Durant turned sideways. Conley just slid over him so Westbrook couldn't turn a corner and Allen didn't have to help off KD. Awful execution.

not just one shot and done...too many zero pass, one shot and done.

Westbrook is having an awful 4th quarter. Just awful ball handling and decision making.

Man, a guy is an integral part of your team winning two rings and you want to just kick him to the curb. Lakers fans are vicious. Here's a different question. Now that Kobe's no longer unstoppable, how long will he want to play as a mortal? Especially without Phil to manage the team. By the way, here's BP's take on the game. http://basketballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=1697

Go with an eyeroll next time. Or selective caps. Then NOBODY would know if you were serious or not

Eliminate defensive 3 in the key and enforce hand checking and great defensive teams with physical guards and strong bigs wouldn't allow any points. Games would become messy defense-fests and fans would tune out. There's a reason why the last time-frame handchecking was allowed (early in the 2000's decade) saw the NBA's worst TV ratings. Not that I'm strongly against bringing handchecking back, but it's not aesthetically pleasing at all. Eliminating defensive 3 in the key could be a disaster. You try scoring on the Thunder front court if they aren't restricted to simply standing at the basket. My goodness, Ibaka would average 10 blocks a game. Every post player would be double teamed. It would be like old Spurs-Pistons games. The NBA also shouldn't be penalized for players' short attention spans. A lot of casual fans don't actually appreciate good defense and are fine with reaching and gambling all willy-nilly. They think it's good defense, especially since a lot of college guards aren't 1 taught to explode past missed gambles and look to automatically score the way they are in the NBA and are instead always forced to run sets to their natural conclusion. Casual fans are probably really bored by Miami's defense, for example, not because it's bad, but because it's fundamentally sound. There are a couple of markets where the NBA simply isn't profitable, like New Orleans, and the luxury tax hasn't been the impediment that the league thought it would be for big markets. Changing the luxury tax and the financial structure of the league will do more to increase revenue than a few alterations to increase TV viewers. National TV revenue is fixed by contracts with ABC Disney and Turner anyway, while local contracts are capped by market size. Besides, ratings are already extremely high this season.

Kevin Garnett, as usual, has been a non-factor against a good defense.

Man, Miami's defense is so well-coordinated. There are no breakdowns, and they communicate so well. All of Boston's first and second options have been taken away and they're reduced to jump shots and offensive fouls. And Anthony is everywhere in the paint.

It's nice to see that Spoelstra stayed the course and stuck with Anthony at center this season. He makes their defense special---that and Bosh's ability to also hedge on screens.

Maybe Common Economical Sense 101?

There is a huge double standard when it comes to Kobe vs. LeBron. I didn't watch the game too closely, but it did look like most of Kobe's shots were open jumpers. I don't think he played a poor game, but he was awful in the final minutes. The refs never call a foul when the opposing player "hugs" the guy without the ball in the final two minutes. Plus it looked like Kobe tripped on his own accord. Why didn't Gasol make the pass to Odom on the Kobe play? Maybe the Lakers scouts saw something they could take advantage of, but with 10 or seconds to go, the Lakers always pass to the big man on the opposite wing, have Kobe back screen the inbounder then come off a down screen at the wing. The Lakers and Gasol changed that. Gasol never made the pass to Odom so the curl by Kobe turned into a two-man game with a handoff. Curious.

I suggest taking some economics classes.

That may be the slowest show-and-recover I've seen this postseason. You can take advantage of the Mavs by putting Dirk in screens like that because he's not fluid.

Kobe went for a no-look pass there. That's why no-look passes are dangerous. If a defender sneaks into the pass you can't see it because you aren't looking.

When have the Lakers ever played the Mavs in the postseason? I almost expected the Jazz to take the court instead of the Mavs. It doesn't seem like a playoffs without the Lakers eliminating the Jazz.

The Lakers are getting open looks to start. This is a good sign for the Lakers against a good defense.

Man, some people are sad.

I like it. It'll reward activity around the basket, and it's one of the most difficult to call violations.

Everytime your mom cheats, God kills one of those ponies you care so much about...

But you can pin a half-decade of embarrassing playoff losses to Jason Terry.

Also, one thing about the Spurs, they're completely perimeter oriented and run their offense to generate threes. The Grizzlies are closing out pretty well and jumpers are fallible in the postseason. I wrote this in my Spurs breakdown earlier in the year, this years Spurs team is the kind of team the past Spurs would destroy in the playoffs. They have more in common with old Phoenix teams than with old Spurs team, except the Spurs have a better bench,

I mean yeah, you can never have enough firepower, and it would be nice to have a guy who could make Durant work on defense. Look at it this way though. The Grizzlies have a trio of guys they can use to check Durant who'll live to tell about it. Also Gay's gameplan of taking two dribbles and simply elevating over his defender won't work against Durant. Gay's really good, but he's not a special player. OKC is much tougher and more athletic inside than Memphis is anyway. That's a bad matchup for the Grizzlies, with or without Gay.

...they'd be more perimeter oriented, and have fewer minutes for defensive aces like Battier and Allen. The Grizz start Tony Allen and Sam Young and still score. Their offense is fine.

Everything comes full circle...Now the Grizzlies are finding out that Battier is a better fit for a playoff team than Rudy Gay. His fingerprints are all over this game.