The NBA Finals is thrilling but it’s bad basketball.
I am glad Dean Smith isn’t watching the best-of-seven series to win the NBA championship. It’s the kind of basketball that he would hate, two stars on each side hogging the ball while the home team won because the opponent made critical mistakes down the stretch.
The Phoenix Suns’ Devin Booker is letting his emergence as a superstar go to his head, and if he’s not careful his superior team is going to lose. So far, the home team has won each game, but the Suns are in serious jeopardy of losing game five Saturday night in the Valley.
While Booker had another 40-point game in the playoffs, he had little left at the end when Phoenix should have expanded a 9-point lead in the fourth quarter into a comfortable win. Booker took 28 of the Suns’ 78 shots, and while he made 17 of them, he went 0-for-3 on long balls and should have fouled out on an obvious no-call.
We all want Chris Paul to win his first NBA ring after 15 years in the league. But the State Farm commercial guy made two critical turnovers late and the Suns were a minus-10 during his 37 minutes on the court. At least during Booker’s 39 minutes the scoring was even.
Carolina’s Cameron Johnson played the fifth most minutes on his team, 29, and shot well and defended well with one great block. But it looked to me like the other Suns were reluctant to throw him the ball. His minus-9 points while on the court was because Booker was forcing too many shots while Cam and others were open.
The Milwaukee Bucks weren’t much better, depending on a spectacular game from underrated Khris Middleton and their super star Giannis. But they took almost half of the Bucks’ 97 shots and went 3-10 from the 3-point line where the entire team hit only 24 percent.
Booker and Middleton had great games, converting difficult shots in traffic when they could have passed off for cleaner looks. The old Celtics of Bird-McHale-Parish and the Bulls’ Jordan-Pippen and a third teammate played better team basketball than either of these would-be champions.
Too many times, you had to wonder why both teams were taking difficult shots when easier ones were available. The individual numbers were staggering, but more balance is going to win out.
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