I refered to something called athletic elevation in the teaser tag to get you to click through and read the rest (so thanks), and I just made it up. What's a better name for what happens when elite teams start slow and let a lesser team get the better of them for much of the contest, before waking up and almost visibly willing themselves to victory by pure assertion of their physical and executional advantages? Good teams--playoff teams--can consistently do it, most often manifested in hoop by the star player on the team who takes matters into his own hands and executes despite everyone in the building knowing he's going to get the ball. (More on that specific version in a bit). It's not something easy to quantify, because there's no good definition of elevation. But I can almost assure you that very strong teams have a much higher apex of deficit in games they win, and win consistently. In essence, what I'm saying is that good teams can win games in which they were behind, to the point where they can be further behind and come back. And they will have more wins at moderate levels of deficits, like 8-12 points at any time during the game. And this tendency manifests itself in these kinds of situations, where a lesser team has built a big lead and must now protect it. It seems rather like common sense, but that's a potential pitfall. Want proof? I'll see if there's work on it. Portland has two big wins where they came back significantly: the CP3 game where Paul went down and the Hornets lost their stinger and a 20 point lead; and last night, where Memphis had built it to 47-29 with 25 seconds left in the half. Which is where I had left us, with the Blazers at their most desert-wandering. And in a quick sequence I've not yet seen anyone tag as significant, the Blazers ran up quickly after the Mayo dunk to build the lead to 18, and Brandon Roy took a long three that missed. Channing Frye, of all people, went high and snared the rebound, putting it back up on the right side. The shot was strong (and Frye was hacked with no call), and it leaked out the other side of the rim... ...which is where LaMarcus was hanging, and he simply scooped it up and layed it down, with the And One (on contact less than what Channing endured). He made the FT, and when Arthur's midranger fell off Aldridge grabbed the board and threw it out quickly for Roy, who buried a three the old fashioned way. Suddenly -18 was -12, and while in a vacuum if you'd asked "How's the Blazersdoing" and got back "down 12 at half" you'd be putting in your nightgrinding mouthguard and looking for the pillows, in context it was a pretty important rebound to the locker room--coz the lead had been 18 less than a minute ago. There was still plenty of work to do however, and the starters were basically treading water, as Mayo, Gay and Conely continued to slash and pop, cut and dunk. It was disconcerting and frustrating to see the lead seesaw and eventually decline so slowly, but unlike against the Rockets, where I knew no matter how much time remained there was little chance of victory, the principle of athletic elevation still had a good chance of happening. Why does it have a good chance? Well, to the extent it's predicated on a stud player like a guard or a big forward just going off and getting the ball every trip down with a sign that says "I'm shooting again," if the other team is not a top squad that stud will naturally go to town. Rudy has had moments of brilliance, but his full-game mojo is still not quite back from his back injury. You can see him still grab it at times, especially when he gets hit or falls on it. He can be a bit of a rally killer at times, because he almost always tries to get started with the threes. He showed no signs of catching fire in this one, either. Hah! Showed what I knew, he did. With 2:47 left in the third and the Blazers down 10, Rudy canned a midranger. Mike Conley answered with a nice little drive, and then LA dropped one of his one, forced a Hammadi miss and cleaned the boards, then fed Rudy for a big three. Rudy then hauled down a reeb of his own, and Portland called time out. Apparently in the huddle Nate looked at LMA then at Rudy and said, "Find Rudy, out of the TO willya?" LMA does as he is told, and sure enough there was Rudy draining another bigtime trey after Aldridge had worked the block a little before kicking it back. That made it 65-69, but Rudy wasn't done--he made the steal off Conley and fed Sergio, who was promptly fouled. Sergio made the pair and all of a sudden the Blazers trailed by just two with 12 to play. The fourth quarter was a stone cold shootout. You gotta love Mayo (who lil Joe and I now call Grape Juice Mustard) and Gay; those guys can pop. Gay was able to body on Roy and stretch his range with good outside shooting, and of course Mayo seems to be able to hit just about anywhere, with any amount of appendage in his face. Portland countered with their big guns Aldridge and Oden, slowly working the locus of the offense from Rudy's threes to deep penetrations in a weakening Grizz D. LaMarcus in particular started dropping jumpers one after the other to bring the Blazers closer. The final couple of minutes were the epitome, distilled into three ridicuilous treys by Mayo--the last with Roy close enough to clip his nose hairs with pinched fingernails--and Roy's return salvo, a series of runs right up the middle of the lane, twisting, turning and scooping his way to layups and foul shots. Then Gay put the Grizz up with 16 seconds left, on just the kind of iso post-up move he'd been working on Roy all game. The Blazers had last shot, but OK, I was nervous as hell. And then Travis had his elevation moment. Much as it had hit him at the end of last year's game in Memphis which started the 13-game win skein, it fired up his kicks and gave him the juice he needed to add to his 4th-quarter lore. He took the inbound as Roy decoyed up high, bisected the lane on the dribble and got clipped by Rudy Gay as he swept through. Immediately, as the whistle began to sound and Outlaw was still in the air falling backwards, he tossed up a shot against the glass. It banked home, naturally, And One. Outlaw missed the FT with 11 seconds left, and the Grizz had their own chance. But having seen that moment, at this point I felt like all would finally be well. It was. Conley made his own cross-lane run, but trying to pivot right to avoid the charging Greg Oden and perhaps pull up around him and drain a short one, the lefthander lost control with his right and Brandon Roy was right there. Immediately fouled, he made his two and set the scene for GJ Mustard's final futile heave for the win. Game over. Could it have easily gone the other way? Absolutely. But for an inch or two, might Travis have missed the shot and only forced a tie with FT, forcing a draining OT at a minimum and costing the game at worst? Yeah, sure. But in this game, players like LaMarcus Aldridge, Brandon Roy and Travis Outlaw recognized that they needed to elevate, and did. So did Memphis' stars frankly, but the difference was that the rest of the Blazers supported their guys, while the Grizz rose--and fell--on theirs. So today it's the Spurs, in probably the last opportunity to make an advance on home court advantage. Lose this one and they can forget anything better than five. Win it, and they still could very realistically make third (if they perform to capacity against the L*kers and Nugs at home). The Spurs are beatable and had their own trouble with a West bottom feeder at their place last night,eventually beating OKC by 10, but only late, but are well capable of holding serve at home regardless. They know how to elevate too. The question is whether Portland can equal that elevation as a team, and put the ball back in the Spurs' court--can they then elevate from playoff ball to championship ball? That's why they play 'em, and that's why they're fun to watch--even the nailbiters against the peewees. Tonight it's the main course. |
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