The Weekside: LeBron again enters a war he cannot win against the Spurs

There seem to be three NBA teams that have a chance to win the title: the Golden State Warriors, San Antonio Spurs, and Cleveland Cavaliers. Two of those teams square off tonight, and ever since the Heat staved off defeat in Game 6 to come back and win the legendary 2013 NBA Finals, LeBron James vs. the Spurs has been must-watch television.

Naturally, the billing isn’t exactly accurate, but the matchup is always pitched as the best player of a generation, the one who takes any team he’s on from the lottery to the Finals, against the best franchise of the generation, a team that wins and wins and wins no matter what players surround the core.

When Miami bottomed out then whiffed with the Michael Beasley pick, it looked like the Dwyane Wade-era Heat would never rebound to the heights he had hit early in his career with Shaquille O’Neal. Then, two years after the team went 15-67, LeBron (and of course Chris Bosh) showed up to lead Miami to four straight Finals, winning two. Then he left and the Heat immediately became nobodies again, while the woeful Cleveland Cavaliers team he joined went from winning 33 games to making the Finals.

James has now played in five consecutive Finals and six of the past eight. He has been marching through the East playoffs annually for much of his prime, and even at an advanced age appears to be a near lock to do so again this year. Their doesn’t look to be a team in this almost-comically-full-of-parity Eastern Conference that will be able to even put up a fight against Cleveland in a seven-game series.

The Spurs, meanwhile, have continued to be overlooked in various preseasons only to prove the aging process nonexistent again and again. They have won 50 or more games (or the equivalent in lockout years) for 18 consecutive seasons.

Despite losing in the first round of the playoffs last season, the team has improved, reloaded, and set itself on pace to win 69 games this year. That remarkable, torrid win rate this season is being overlooked to some degree because of what the Warriors are doing. But it’s just a foolish accomplishment for, any team really, but especially a team that has only recently transitioned from the Duncan/Manu/Parker era to Kawhi Time — all while integrating key new pieces in the form of LaMarcus Aldridge and David West.

This isn’t a basketball team but an institution, a black-and-white wearing system of destruction that uses ball movement and textbook-rewriting Xs & Os to not just beat opponents but undo them.

But while we all stand it awe watching this beautiful offense, coach Gregg Popovich has rewritten the team’s codex yet again.

He came into the league as a militant defense and rebounding general before evolving into an offensive tactician whose innovations and brilliance have been matched by only a handful of coaches in league history. But now, on top of the mesmerizing passing, the Spurs are back to crushing foes on the defensive end and the glass.

San Antonio ranks first in defensive rating, effective field goal percentage allowed, and defensive rebounding. In the most important metric, it isn’t even close. Their 93.5 points allowed per 100 possessions, via NBA.com, is historically elite and nearly 5 points per 100 better than the second-ranked Indiana Pacers. They also let opponents hit just 46.3% of their shots (eFG%), tops in the NBA as well, and grab a league-high 80.5% of those misses on the defensive end.

This isn’t an identity shift really. The Spurs of the last two years were top five in all these categories — Popovich never abandoned his core hoops philosophies — but they have taken it to another level now. And this comes at the same time, not coincidentally, that Kawhi Leonard enters an MVP conversation that he will be a centerpiece of for the next half decade at least even as he wins a few more Defensive Player of the Year trophies.

With the way San Antonio is playing, they have become the lone team in the league that can realistically — not only compete with but — beat the Warriors.

Will they? I wouldn’t bet on it. The Warriors don’t seem capable of losing a series. They just don’t.

But what we will likely see tonight is just how much of a gap there is between the top two teams in the league and the third best.

LeBron can and has turned every team he is on into a contender and may yet be able to do so until his mid-30s, even if he is individually struggling to make shots. He also has a more-sensible, more-cohesive, and healthier supporting cast around him in Cleveland this year than he did last year.

The Cavs have done a great job quickly crafting a roster around him that, in most years, would give him a great shot to win another ring.

But it doesn’t matter. Because the best two teams are so far ahead of LeBron’s team.

In the regular season, any team can win one game, so tonight’s matchup is far from a certain victory for San Antonio. Don’t be fooled though. No matter which side wins, LeBron is really in the same position he was entering the 2014 Finals: Going to war with a superb team against Duncan and Popovich but knowing that the Spurs are so good that they crush even superb teams with ease.

Around the Association

Brooklyn Nets

The Nets are owned by (at least based on his public comments) a delusional owner who believes that his expensive toy franchise has a legitimate shot at contending in the foreseeable future. There is virtually no way that can occur, and Mikhail Prokhorov’s decision to fire his coach and “reassign” his general manager changes nothing.

“As general manager, Billy King made a series of franchise-crippling moves that, barring stupid and unexpected good fortune in free agency, will hold the Brooklyn Nets back from contention through this decade,” wrote Devin Kharpertian of the Brooklyn Game. “As head coach, Lionel Hollins all but admitted he’d given up on trying to improve the wasteland roster that had been handed to him, and ran an offense that relied nearly exclusively on low-percentage shots.”

Good times.

Chicago Bulls

If the Bulls lose to the Sixers …

Cleveland Cavaliers

All the other Eastern Conference teams that the Cavs lay waste to for the next few months have one many to thank: John Schuhmann. The NBA.com writer and stat expert posted a graphic on Twitter recently that showed LeBron James as the worst high-volume shooter in the league this season from outside the paint.

Lo and behold, this made it in front of LeBron and he took it as a personal challenge. “I actually saw [it] on my Instagram feed that I was the worst-shooting player in the NBA,” LeBron told Chris Haynes of Cleveland.com. “I actually saw that when I woke up from a nap. I remember exactly when that was. Denver. Right before the Denver game, so I answered the call … It puts me back in the gym.”

Dallas Mavericks

Dirk is scoring more points per game, in fewer minutes, than he did in 2012-13 and having his second-best 3-point shooting season since 2009-10. Yes, there are more ugly plays and the defense is becoming hard to watch at time, but he still might be able to play until he’s 48 on his silky, uncontestable jump shot alone. If that’s not enough, he does an awful Donald Trump impression, too.

Detroit Pistons

It’s very, very hard to actually like Isiah Thomas, but it was cool to see Magic log a Twitter defense for his contemporary and rival. The current version of Steph Curry is way better than Zeke ever was, for sure, but Isiah — who was left off the Dream Team and has tarnished his reputation repeatedly in his post-playing career — continually gets overlooked in “all-time” conversations.

Golden State Warriors

Let’s check back in on the Warriors, a team so dominating and unassailable that they only thing worth discussing is whether or not children are accurately copying their new idol in a “sometimes I dream, that he is me” way.

Los Angeles Clippers

Ben Bolch of the Los Angeles Times recently published a reminder that DeAndre Jordan hadn’t missed a game since early 2011, giving him the longest active played-games streak in the league at 360. The last time he missed a game was due to pneumonia.

Then, just as suddenly, he was forced to miss a game on Wednesday. With? Pneumonia. While his streak was snapped, the team kept cruising, and Jamal Crawford best summed up what DeAndre’s presence had been giving the Clippers, which are in the midst of 10-game winning streak despite Blake Griffin missing major time with an injury. “The only guy out of that core group that has been a constant has been D.J. … That’s the one constant. We know he’ll be back there,” Jamal told Bolch.

Los Angeles Lakers

Kobe has been tough to watch at times this year, but please oh please oh please don’t let him re-injure himself in a serious way this season. Please, just don’t. It would be too much to bear.

Miami Heat

Dwyane Wade seems to have realized what must be a disheartening fact for a three-time champion who seems more likely to finish his career in Miami without winning anymore rings than leave for a chance at another one: He likely isn’t going to win any more titles.

Milwaukee Bucks

The Milwaukee Bucks might be the most disappointing team in the NBA. They have the third worst record in the East and, even more troubling, are getting outscored by 5.7 points per game. Only the misery trio on infinite sadness — the 76ers, Nets, and Lakers — are worse. Still more awful, after the Bucks, the Nuggets are the next worst with an average margin of defeat of just 4.3.

It is great news, then, that at least Khris Middleton, the team’s breakout player from last season, is starting to come around. The team has managed to win its last two home games, over the Mavs and Bulls no less, with Middleton scoring 27 on 18 shots vs. Dallas and finishing with 9 assists against Chicago. The chances of this team pulling it together enough to make the playoffs seem nil, but there are now signs in the new year that should ease the pain fans felt for the first two months of the season.

Minnesota Timberwolves

The All-Star campaigning is underway, and Karl-Anthony Towns is out to an early commanding lead in the clubhouse.

New Orleans Pelicans

Suggestion for the Pelicans: Score more than 100 points. Or else the backlash against your boy Anthony Davis is, unfairly or not, going to continue reigning down, like this critique from Kevin Ding of Bleacher Report.

“There was no doubting the statistical dominance Davis achieved last season,” wrote Ding. “Even now, amid the disappointment, he has remained in the clear upper echelon on offense and has been one of the league’s hardest guys to score against, according to NBA.com. What is missing, though, is real and crucial when it comes to becoming a basketball Jesus: leadership. Until Davis discovers that important intangible part of himself, he’ll continue to be flat-out overrated.”

Oklahoma City Thunder

“CHALLENGE HIM! Alright? And make sure your boys is there.”

Portland Trail Blazers

Dame, Dame, Dame, Dame (as always, said in the tune of Outkast’s Spottieottiedopaliscious intro). He scored 28 in the second half to knock down the Thunder this week, including 17 in the final 3 minutes in change. 15 of those final 17 came on 3s. You’re a cold, cold, cold, man, who routinely makes the crowd go wild like Holyfield just won the fight.

Toronto Raptors

NBA stars: They’re just like us.

Washington Wizards

Don’t look now (seriously, you still probably shouldn’t watch) but the Wizards have won three straight and are on the verge of reaching .500.

If they keep this up, they may be fit to join the 10-team cluster fighting for the 2 seed and a right to the easiest path towards losing to the Cavs in the Eastern Conference finals.

Words With Friends

This week’s five must-read articles about the NBA. Excerpts here — click through to read the full piece.

1. NBA Executives Discuss Modernizing The Next CBA
by Nate Duncan, The Cauldron

Some would argue that the NBA rookie scale’s artificial limitation on first-rounders’ salaries for the first four years of their career is unfair, but no executives advocated abolishing it. While good players on rookie contracts rapidly become underpaid, the combination of younger draftees and first-round busts mean that, in the aggregate, first-rounders are not that bad off … The biggest problem arises with the transition to second contracts. Even if such players are maxed out, they generally may only receive the 25 percent max (a projected starting salary of $21 million for 2016–17) because they have 0-to-6 years of experience. (We will get to the one exception to this.) Players with 7-to-9 years of experience can get the 30 percent max, starting at $25.1 million, and 10-plus years of experience allows the 35 percent max, projected to start at $29.3 million.
This system is an artifact of the 1999 CBA, an aberrational time when many of the league’s best players, like Michael Jordan, Karl Malone, John Stockton, Scottie Pippen, Hakeem Olajuwon, and Charles Barkley, were older than usual. And those players, of course, had the most influence in the union. At most times in NBA history, the league’s best players are between 25 and 30.

2. For Some Atlanta Hawks, a Revved-Up Game of Uno Is Diversion No. 1
by Scott Cacciola, New York Times

“I’m sitting down with these guys for the first time, and I play all the time, you know what I’m saying?” Patterson, a reserve shooting guard, said before a recent game here. “But they were all like, ‘No, see, we play this way, with the Draw 2s and the Draw 4s from the extra decks. We lay the heat.’ And I was like, ‘Wow.’ ” The Hawks were laying the heat — playing Uno, the colorful card game favored by countless schoolchildren and, yes, by a group of millionaires aboard the Hawks’ private plane. “Uno,” forward Kent Bazemore said, “is always a thrill” …  Horford keeps track of the score on his mobile phone. He recites the totals after each game to avoid any appearance of impropriety. “There’s been some controversy.”

3. Freddie Gibbs on Why He’s Not in the NBA, and the Greatness of MJ
by Steve McPherson, Rolling Stone

Freddie Gibbs has come a long way from his hometown of Gary, Indiana. Specifically, the 2,032 miles from Indiana’s ninth-largest city to Los Angeles, the city he’s called home for the past decade. “I don’t really f*** with cold weather,” he deadpans … [When asked] has living in Los Angeles gotten you to follow the Lakers at all? “Nah, not really. The Lakers suck right about now.”

4. Growing Basketball in Brazil’s Favelas
by Donna Bowater, Vice Sports

Within the cascading hillside shanty city of Rocinha—home to an estimated 100,000 people—which overlooks the wealthy beach neighborhood of São Conrado, there are only three ill-equipped quads and just one multi-sports complex for a population that has increasingly become fascinated with basketball. “Most of [the courts] aren’t covered so when it rains, the court gets wet and we can’t play,” said Leandro Lima, 33, an amateur player who lives in Rocinha … Final arrangements were being agreed in Rocinha this month, where Jr. NBA is due to open a center early next year. They plan to begin coaching pupils by the start of the academic year in February. It will be the first time an NBA Jr. program will run in South America … “I hope it’s going to bring some recognition, and benefits beyond the sport,” said Lima, who also edits the website faveladarocinha.com. “Basketball is about more than just putting the ball in the hoop.”

5. Warriors’ worst nightmare: Todd Fuller instead of Kobe Bryant
by Carl Steward, Mercury News

Kobe Bryant will play at Oracle Arena on Thursday night for the last time. Todd Fuller won’t be there to see it. Nor will Dave Twardzik, the man who could have drafted Bryant for the Warriors 20 years ago but took Fuller instead …  It may stand as the greatest “what if” disaster in Warriors draft history. Twardzik, in his second year as general manager, not only passed on Bryant with the 11th pick in the 1995-96 draft, he declined to select other future standouts such as Steve Nash to take the 6-foot-11 Fuller, who flopped in the NBA after five undistinguished seasons and with the Warriors after two. Even Fuller is a bit chagrined and stupefied in retrospect that he was selected ahead of one of the league’s all-time great players in Bryant, and another certified Hall of Famer in Nash. “Interesting claim to fame, right?” Fuller said with a nervous chuckle during a phone interview. “Interesting” is probably not the word Warriors’ fans would choose.