NBA Tournament of Champions: Second Round (Part 2)
I saw a thread on Reddit last week hypothesizing how many Shaquille O’Neals it would take to win a fight against a silverback gorilla. The correct answer is four; one Shaq for each gorilla appendage.
Quadrant 3
(1) 1997 Chicago Bulls vs. (9) 1990 Detroit Pistons
Outside of Michael Jordan, buckets were hard to come by for the Bulls. Scottie Pippen averaged 19.2 points per game on a below-average 41.7 percent shooting clip; Toni Kukoc ranked third on the team with 7.9 PPG on 36.0 percent shooting, and he shrunk significantly in the playoffs; Ron Harper averaged 7.5 points on 40.0 percent shooting; Dennis Rodman was a true lime with 4.2 points per game on 37.0 shooting, which is almost impressive considering most of his shots came around the rim.
The Pistons, by contrast, had a bevy of scoring options. Detroit’s seventh-leading scorer (John Salley, 9.5 PPG) contributed more than Chicago’s third option (Kukoc, 7.9 PPG).
Despite their depth disadvantage, the Bulls can trot out Harper, Jordan, Pippen, Kukoc and Rodman — a versatile, switchable, athletic five-man unit that would have thrived in today’s small-ball world. Flank MJ, who has experience playing against the ’90 Pistons, with those kind of assets and the outcome will be in your favor.
’97 Bulls advance, 4–2.
(4) 1987 Los Angeles Lakers vs. (5) 1985 Los Angeles Lakers
Magic peaked in ’87 with a masterful season in which he won MVP and Finals MVP, led the league with 12.2 assists per game and scored a career-high 23.9 points per game. Surround that version of Magic with James Worthy and Byron Scott (both with two years to develop since ‘85), Kareem (who hummed along at age 39 with averages of 19 points and seven rebounds in the playoffs) and new weapons like AC Green and Mychal Thompson, and you’ve got yourself a team.
’87 Lakers win, 4–1.
(3) 2013 Miami Heat vs. (6) 2014 San Antonio Spurs
The Heat needed seven games and one of the ballsiest shots in NBA history to defeat the Spurs in 2013, while the Spurs needed just five games to dispatch the Heat in 2014, so advantage San Antonio, right? Here are three reasons to think otherwise.
- Miami ran out of gas in 2014 after an exhausting four-year run of playing 100 games every season under intense scrutiny from media and fans. The 2013 Heat were still fresh enough to operate at peak capacity, as evidenced by their 66 wins (tops in the NBA) and their 27-game win streak (second-longest ever). Miami’s lethargy caused a dip to 54 wins in 2014, and that is the biggest reason for the lopsided Finals. The Heat will fare better with fresher legs.
- The Spurs mounted a remarkable redemption season in 2014, driven by the coulda-woulda-shoulda 2013 Finals in which they let a championship slip away. Do they play with the same fire after reclaiming what they felt was theirs all along?
- LeBron, the second-greatest player ever, was at the absolute, no-doubt-about-it, 100 percent peak of his powers in 2013 — his final MVP season. Hardened by his 2011 failure and validated by his 2012 championship, LeBron in 2013 brilliantly wove together all facets of his game to create the apex version of himself. He is the best player in this series by a wide margin.
Just like 2013, I’m taking LeBron on his homecourt in Game 7.
’13 Heat win, 4–3.
(2) 1986 Boston Celtics vs. (10) 2002 Los Angeles Lakers
Maybe no one person in history (shy of a silverback gorilla) can stop Shaq one-on-one, but the ’86 Celtics can come close with their rotation of bigs.
Can Robert Parish stop Shaq? No. Can Bill Walton stop Shaq? No. Can Kevin McHale stop Shaq? No. Can all of them together slow Shaq? Yes, especially with Larry Bird roving around as a center fielder and Dennis Johnson — a nine-time All-Defense selection — hounding Kobe.
If Shaq or Kobe can’t get going against Boston’s stout defense, the Lakers don’t have other reliable options to fall back on. If Bird’s shot is off, the Celtics have four other players — McHale, Johnson, Parish and Danny Ainge — who averaged at least 15 points per game in the playoffs.
Boston has the best player in the series and is superior on both ends of the floor.
’86 Celtics win, 4–1.
Quadrant 4
(1) 1967 Philadelphia 76ers vs. (8) 1980 Los Angeles Lakers
By 1967, Wilt Chamberlain had improbably morphed into a pass-first big man. The player who once averaged 50 points per game over a full season suddenly took fewer shots in the playoffs than teammates Hal Greer, Chet Walker and Wali Jones. Instead of scoring, Chamberlain focused on pounding the glass and facilitating to his teammates to the tune of 29.1 rebounds per game and 9.0 assists in the postseason. He refocused his energy in a misguided attempt to prove that he actually was a team-first player and not just someone who cared about his own statistics.
Chamberlain squares off in this series against Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who had just polished off a playoffs in which he averaged 31.9 points, 12.1 rebounds, 3.1 assists and 3.9 blocks. Abdul-Jabbar always knew who he was and never lapsed into identity crises like Wilt. He was more reliable game-to-game, and that steadiness is part of the reason why his prime stretched out so long.
Instead of passing to the likes of Greer, Walker, Jones, Luke Jackson and Billy Cunningham, Chamberlain must assert himself by looking for his own shot in this series — Philadelphia’s other options lack the firepower to compete with Kareem, Magic and the Lakers. We have a mountain of evidence to suggest Wilt is stubborn enough to stick to his pass-first ways, and that ultimately does the Sixers in.
’80 Lakers win, 4–2.
(4) 1983 Philadelphia 76ers vs. (12) 2016 Cleveland Cavaliers
The 76ers feature Moses Malone (MVP and All-Defense 1st), Julius Erving (All-NBA 1st), Bobby Jones (Sixth Man of the Year and All-Defense 1st), Maurice Cheeks (All-Star and All-Defense 1st) and Andrew Toney (All-Star). They’re loaded.
Cheeks can go toe-to-toe with Kyrie Irving, and the two-man rotation of Erving and Jones can at least make LeBron work on both ends. From there, it’s overwhelmingly positive for Philadelphia. The Cavaliers have no answer for Malone or Toney, a quick-twitch scorer with a lethal first step.
’83 76ers win, 4–2.
(3) 2008 Boston Celtics vs. (11) 1993 Chicago Bulls
Jordan’s stats from the ’93 Playoffs are hilarious. 35.1 points. 6.7 rebounds. 6.0 assists. 2.1 steals. Throw in a block per game. He blitzkrieged his way to another title, flattening the Suns with an NBA-record 41.0 PPG in the Finals thanks to a 55-point explosion in Game 4. He’s not losing to Paul Pierce.
’93 Bulls win, 4–2.
(2) 2017 Golden State Warriors vs. (10) 2007 San Antonio Spurs
A good first step in determining which team was better than the other is to revert back to elementary school days; take the top five players from each side, line them up on the wall and pick teams. Here’s how the order probably shakes out for this matchup:
Kevin Durant. Tim Duncan. Steph Curry. Klay Thompson. Draymond Green. Tony Parker. Manu Ginobili. Andre Iguodala. Bruce Bowen. Michael Finley.
The Warriors’ players went first, third, fourth, fifth and eighth; the Spurs’ players went second, sixth, seventh, ninth and tenth.
’17 Warriors win, 4–1.