IMAGINE having had sweet seats for Tuesday’s fabulous Cavs-Magic game, but the guy next to you all game hollered numbers in your ear: “Sixty-eight percent!” “Twelve for 29!” “Third in the league since 2005-2006 on odd days, hike!”
That’s much what TNT’s Doug Collins did. And does. He’s another game analyst who asks us to ignore the game, especially those parts that demand analysis, to pay closer attention to stats. And Collins doesn’t merely recite stats, he falls for them.
In 2000 he told NBC’s audience that heading into the playoffs, the 56-26 Pacers (pretty good, no?) must improve their offensive rebounding because they have the fewest in the league. That their offensive rebounding chances were reduced by superior field goal shooting didn’t matter to him. (Nor did he report that the team with the most ORs was the 19-63 Warriors, the NBA’s second-worst shooters.)
Given a flush opportunity to speak genuine, see-the-game analysis, Tuesday, Collins passed. With 3.2 seconds left in OT, the Cavs’ Mo Williams was inbounding after an Orlando free throw. Astonishingly, the Magic did not guard Williams, did not have a tall fellow waving his arms while jumping up and down in front of him (see: Phil Jackson, NY Knicks, 1968). The Magic gave Williams an unobstructed view of the entire court Citi Field patrons would be envious — at the one moment they couldn’t allow such a thing.
And that’s insane. Times two, times 10, times multiples of always. Two games earlier, the Cavs’ Game 2 loss became a win when Williams, left alone, inbounded from side-court to LeBron James for a three at the horn.
(Five words should always come to mind: Grant Hill to Christian Laettner. Duke beat Kentucky in the 1992 NCAA Tournament because Rick Pitino didn’t choose to guard Hill, allowing him full range and vision to throw a long inbounds pass to Laettner, who scored at the buzzer.)
As Williams prepared to inbound Tuesday, Collins said that Orlando “better not let LeBron get his hands on this ball.” But, as it became clear that the Magic again would provide the Cavs with non-resistance assistance, Collins said nothing more. His silence was impossible!
And with nothing blocking his view or his path, Williams threw a long pass to James, who just missed at the buzzer. Two games later, the Magic dared, invited, begged James to do it again!
Maybe, if he sees it happen 20 or 30 times more, Collins, always impressed by big numbers, will say something.
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All the interviews Omar Minaya does, yet no one asks any of these questions:
Why can’t the Mets run to first base? Why is the most fundamental of fundamentals lost on the Mets? Why is the least that a pro or tee-baller can do, too much to ask from the Mets?
Why didn’t Fernando Martinez, having played for three Mets farm teams, arrive here unconditionally conditioned to run out fly balls? Why weren’t all Mets, starting on the first day of spring training following a second straight season when the absence of basic hustle cost them a playoff spot, told to play harder, starting with running to first?
How can the Mets charge a fortune for tickets, often to watch the Mets play horrible teams on crummy nights (the Nats, Wednesday), then not run to first in a close game? Why, win or lose, on offense or defense, do the Mets play can’t-be-bothered baseball? And why, given that the team has missed the playoffs by just one game, the last two seasons, does it persist?
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Apparently it ain’t just patrons cursed by obstructed views at Citi Field. Wednesday on SNY, Gary Cohen gave Ramon Castro‘s fly down the left field line the “It’s outta here!” treatment, when it clearly bounced in the corner. Cohen apologized, explaining that he loses sight of that corner but thought the ump signaled homer.
Reader Jeff Weinstein correctly notes that an ad for a senior living facility heard on WFAN last week, was read to a background of an instrumental from Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven.” . . . Those “Little Bit of Luck” New York State Lottery spots seen on Mets’ and Yankees’ telecasts contain so many bogus claims they make us miss Giuseppe Franco.
There must be a room up in Bristol where a chicken pecks at keys that produce the stats ESPN presents as significant. ESPN’s “Bottom Line,” Wednesday alerted us to the fact that Orlando’s Rashard Lewis is averaging “19.7 PPG, this postseason, 6.3 in 4th quarter.” Considering he’d scored 10 in the fourth the night before and four in the fourth the game before that, such info was extra useless.
Kinda surprised ESPN didn’t refer to Darren Helm‘s OT, series-ending goal for Detroit on Wednesday, as a “skate-off.” . . . Reader Mark Morley notes that ESPN is again covering the National Spelling Bee. Further noting the diverse ethnicities of the competing American kids, he’d have them, in addition to spelling tough words, spell one another’s names. “OK, Regzafusia, spell the first name of the girl sitting next to you.”