The Grip - MON 4.29.19

A tough night to be an MVP candidate

Monday, April 29th, 2019

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Written while listening to Notorious B.I.G.'s Want That Old Thing Back

 That time Al Horford sonned Giannis 

Earlier this season, we wrote the universe might collapse when Giannis learns how to shoot 3-pointers consistently.By yesterday’s standard, our logic was completely illogical. Giannis had a good stroke from deep -- he finished 3-of-5 -- but couldn't operate inside to save his life.For the season, the likely MVP with the wingspan of a pterodactyl shot 64.1 percent from 2-point range, mostly bulldozing his way to the rim and dropping the ball in the basket.On Sunday afternoon, he was just 4-of-16 on 2-pointers, thwarted by a brigade of stretch-armed defenders. He finished with 22 inefficient points and the Celtics won, 112-90. Al Horford was the best all-around player on the court, acting as the most important brick in the stop-Giannis wall of defense.The game’s best highlight, of course, was Horford's double-block, where Giannis took off in transition and was quickly met by multiple defenders.On this play, four Celtics surrounded and collapsed on Giannis as a unit. The only other Buck not wide open was Khris Middleton, who Jaylen Brown picked up on the outskirts of the frame.The Celtics seem fine taking their chances by double- and triple-teaming Giannis and living with a wide-open 3-point attempt by, say, Pat Connaughton, who shot seven times from deep and made only one of them.In Game 1, at least, the strategy worked beautifully. The other four members of Milwaukee’s starting five shot just 8-of-29 while Boston got big games from Horford, Kyrie Irving, Jaylen Brown and Gordon Hayward.It didn’t even matter that Jayson Tatum, with six points, fell of the face of the earth.Alas, it’s a long series, and both of these teams had a week off. Don’t listen to Paul Pierce. Giannis has a few 40-point games in him and Malcolm Brogdon, if he returns, could add another dimension for Milwaukee.[READ: Mercifully, the first round of the Eastern Conference playoffs is over]

James Harden ran out of tricks in Game 1

So much of James Harden’s game is predicated on fooling the referees into giving him calls.In Game 1 against the Warriors on Sunday night, after Kevin Durant’s turnover gave the Rockets the ball back with seconds left and a chance to tie the game at 103, Harden broke out one of his signature ref traps: the base-stealing slide after launching a stepback. It missed and the Rockets lost, 104-100. It looked like the right non-call in real time, and the L2M confirmed that.Harden can get away with that in the regular season. But in the playoffs, when refs zero in on a player’s arsenal of moves -- and we’d bet Harden is the most studied -- those little wrinkles, like sliding into second base after shooting a 3-pointer, are much less likely to work, though that didn’t stop Harden from complaining like Sally in the Charlie Brown Christmas Special after the game. He finished with 35 points on 9-of-28 shooting. This doesn't mean this series is over, of course. Don’t listen to Richard Jefferson. But here’s some bad news for the Rockets: Kevin Durant scored 35 points in Game 1, and is now averaging 40.2 points on 54.5 percent shooting over his last five games. 

[READ: Warriors start Hamptons Five, showing urgency in win over Rockets]

 So, what was that all about?    

Let’s just get this out there: The way Nuggets-Spurs Game 7 ended on Saturday night was amateur hour at the Comedy Studio.The Nuggets had the ball, up four, with 27 seconds left, and the Spurs, for some reason, decided to call it a season rather than foul and extend the game.So, Jamal Murray missed a 3-pointer with four seconds left. DeMar DeRozan got the rebound, didn’t call timeout, and let the clock -- and the game -- bleed out.It was as if every member of the team quickly huddled and decided they were ready to pack for the summer. It confounded smart people on Twitter. Gregg Popovich, in perhaps his final game as an NBA coach, said in the postgame that he was calling for a timeout, though nothing in the film suggests that.Even so, DeRozan and LaMarcus Aldridge have played in 130 playoff games combined. Why didn’t one of them commit a foul and at least get the ball back with some time left on the clock?If it was indeed Pop’s final game, it was a strange one, especially considering no one knows more about longshot comebacks at the end of a game than him.

Toronto-Philadelphia links

Quick Hits  

  Podcast Pick

Durant’s incredible run, and other NBA talk [The Bill Simmons Podcast]