Mavs Prove there are No Shortcuts in Winning?

I gave myself 2 weeks to forget about it but it didn’t work and I still have a strong need to react to so many clichés and misconceptions in one article. I apologize for quality of this post and it shouldn’t be read by anyone.

Inspired by a tweet from Dan Gilbert Steve Loung wrote an article titled “Mavericks prove there are no shortcuts in winning” which caused my jaw to land on the floor, repeatedly, so I had to comment on it.

Here’s what he said:

Gilbert is still very bitter following James’ “Decision” last summer and, while it would be nice to see him finally drop the issue and start acting like the mature owner that’s expected of him, he’s absolutely right in his analysis when it comes to winning an NBA championship.

There are no shortcuts in winning basketball’s ultimate prize.

Are we talking about Dallas Mavericks who acquired Tyson Chandler and Peja Stojakovic for nothing?
They only played vital role in those playoffs and that wasn’t any kind of shortcut? Really?
And it’s not like Dallas had 3rd biggest payroll in the NBA which always tells us about uphill battle for franchise.
BTW, Brendan Haywood and DeShawn Stevenson were traded to Dallas year earlier for expiring contracts.

What’s more, I’m not sure why is it so hard to distinguish “necessary moves” from “shortcuts”?
And why the shortest and the most efficient way possible to achieve any goal is such a bad thing? Because it’s the easiest? Would any journalist or writer stay in obscure work-place for a sake of harder way to achieve any kind of success?! Of course not! It’s a ridiculous premise! Yes, there could be different reasons for actions than “success” but what exactly make them so much better?

Anyway, later author added:

The only way a team is going to win a championship is if it has the desire, talent and, perhaps most importantly, has experienced crushing heartbreak in the past.

It’s not like LeBron James lost in the Finals before or experienced any heart-breaking games or heart-breaking series losses. Dwyane Wade is also a stranger to such series, it’s not like he lost one even though his team led 3-2. Those didn’t hurt? They weren’t crushing enough?

I would also mention a fact that only three Mavs’ players were on Dallas’ roster during their loss to lower-seeded Warriors in 2007 and only Dirk and Terry played against the Heat in 2006…

In the middle of this article you can find:

The same can be said of the most recent incarnation of the Boston Celtics. Ray Allen, Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett were chasing that elusive ring for several years with their individual clubs and continually found disappointment until, in the final act of their careers, they joined forces to finally win one.

Boston Celtics from 2008, who acquired two stars and countless role-players for cheap, are an example of team without shortcuts for winning? Seriously? And it’s not like LeBron James was chasing that elusive ring for several years with his club and continually found disappointment…

Unfortunately it wasn’t the end of it…

During key stretches in the fourth quarter when the Heat were clearly pressing and the moment seemed too big for them, Dallas calmly went about its business because its players had heard all the criticism before.

There’s absolutely nothing that was said or written about the Mavericks that the team’s players hadn’t heard before. In contrast, the Heat appeared to have been rattled by all the criticism that was thrown their way, particularly James.

Come on! I cannot belive those words. First of all, Heat’s poor record in close games created an ocean of comments about their mental toughness, lack of proper balance, alpha-dog issues etc.
Second of all, after ‘Decision’ and fake ceremony LeBron and Bosh heard nothing other than criticism!
I’m even pretty sure it was more discussed topic than anything what Mavs have done combined…

To sum up, thank you Steve Loung for a valuable lesson:
it’s better to spend more time researching material rather than write anything without it…

 

Have Mavericks found a recipe to defend LeBron?

Heat lost in the NBA Finals which inevitably started a run of articles criticizing LeBron James for his play,
for example visit Yahoo or their blog and you will find rather typical reasons:

He will be remembered by averaging just 17.8 points, nine fewer than his regular-season scoring average, passing the ball like a hot potato and not scoring much in the fourth quarter in these Finals. It was a stunning letdown considering that James has widely been viewed as the best basketball player pound for pound in the world

Even though it’s obvious that LeBron played poorly [for his standards] IMHO in most of those comments there’s one glaring term missing: Mavs’ defense so I’ve decided to investigate this topic.

I started with a big-picture, here are LeBron’s worst numbers against the same team in the regular season:

Opponent	Number of Games	Average Game Score		Opponent	Number of Games	Turnovers per game
LAC	2	11,35		NJN	3	5,33
DAL	2	11,45		BOS	4	5
NOH	2	15,85		IND	3	5
SAS	2	18,35		PHI	3	5
SAC	2	18,45		DAL	2	5
PHI	3	18,6		POR	2	5
NYK	4	18,65		DEN	1	5
OKC	2	19,15		ATL	4	4,75
DET	4	19,45		LAC	2	4,5
MIL	4	19,65

There are three teams on both lists: Clippers, Sixers and Mavericks.
Thanks to LeBron’s gamelog we can find out that one bad performance against Clippers was in a blowout win and by a nice coincidence we have a bigger sample size [playoffs] for two other teams.

In five games in the first round against Sixers LeBron averaged only 1,4 turnovers per game and his Game Score was 22,82 so either regular season numbers were a fluke or he simply had figured out Sixers’ defense.

But in the Finals against Dallas LeBron played poorly AGAIN with Game Score = 13,68 and 4 TOs per game.
EDIT: if you prefer point of view by Wins Produced the story is the same.
So here’s my question: why LeBron’s struggles are not attributed entirely to Mavs’ defense?

What’s more, basic statistics tell us one more thing:
LeBron used unusually low number of possessions for shots – his average for FGA+0,44*FTA in the Finals was 16,47 while in the regular season he averaged 22,5 IN FEWER MINUTES PER GAME.

With all that in mind I watched 3 full games in a row [3, 4 and 5] and one thing stood out for me:
Mavs’ game plan to slow down LeBron was surprisingly simple – they did everything they could to turn him into a point guard and Wade into alpha dog by following only 3 steps…

• Defend Wade 1-on-1 with weaker defender as often as possible

That way he had more favorable matchup than LeBron so it was logical to run a lot of action through him.
In a related note Wade scored more points per game in the Finals than in the regular season even though he missed parts of Game 5 because of injuries.

• Double-team LeBron as often as possible, especially by packing the paint on drives to the basket

That way it was a logical move for him to pass to open teammates. In a related note in those six games he attempted maximum of 4 free throws in a single game… while his regular season average was over 8!

• Pressure nominal point guard so ball would go straight to LeBron

That way LeBron started possessions as a point guard… and he acted like one because it was logical for his team!

What do you think about those observations? Have I missed something?
And could this strategy work for every team or Mavs simply had right personel to execute it?