"He makes his teammates better." Don't you think that good finishers also make the PG look better? And it's not like Steve Nash is surrounded by scrubby teammates. This cliche is used in reverse to unfairly bash other stars like KG, Kobe, or Yao, just because they can't carry their scrubby teammates. You can try to improve on crap, but in the end it might just be better crap. "I make them when they count." EVERY shot at ANY point in the game counts. Nobody thinks that the missed FT or FGA in the 1st quarter matters much, but when there's 5 seconds left in the game and you're down by 3 or 4, you'll wish you had those points. "Defense wins championships." No, the right combination of offense and defense wins championships. Only a handful of teams in the last two decades have won the championship with a below average offense. In 2001, the Lakers had the 21st ranked defense in points allowed per 100 possessions, but the ended up steamrolling their way to the championship (15-1 record) with their #2 ranked offense.
i agree with most, but i mean the lakers had perhaps 2 of the top 5 players in the nba, surrounded by a good core of role players, besides that the champions since the bulls, pistons n spurs both are superb defensive teams
The Lakers had two great players, but that didn't make them a good defensive team in 2001. And I'm not saying that defense isn't important, just that most champions have a good offense and defense.
I disagree with you on the first two. "He makes his teammates better" is overused and applied too often but it's a fact of life in the NBA. Some players actually make their teammates worse when they pad their stats (Zach Randolph). "I make them when they count" is corny but some players just do not perform well very late when games are clearly on the line. Some players (and teams) excel at those moments. The ability to convert when a specific shot or scoring opportunity will likely determine the outcome of a game is extremely important in the NBA. Sure each basket counts the same in the final score but when games end up in blowouts, one or two individual shots don't mean much. At the end of very close games, the players know for a fact the game is on the line with each posession. "Defense wins championships" is way overdone. As you say, it's the balance that makes the difference.
Oh yeah? [that other guy] gives 111% I kinda laugh everytime someone says that and arbitrarily picks a number over 100% for more emphasis on how hard they tried... what made them stop at that particular number and not try even harder? also, not particulary basketball, but: "they didn't win the game... we just lost the game"
"I don't get no respect" "We couldn't match their intensity" "We just have to execute" "We have the best fans in the world" "We just have to play our game"
"Well we know that defense wins championships, and that if we execute and play our game we have a good chance to win. We know he's a great player, who always gives 110% percent and makes his teammates better, but we have the best fans in the world and if we just play the game of baskteball we'll come out on top. We can't beat ourselves, we just have to match their intensity and we'll be ok ."
I want to know why the announcers keep saying 'he needs a blow', 'coach is sending him to the bench for a well-deserved blow'. How did they apparently avoid the prominent slang meaning for the word 'blow'?
The only difference between crunch time and other times in the game is pressure. Some players play better under pressure. Others play worse. But I agree with JimRaynor, every point counts. So the cliche "I make them when they count" is wrong, as if points scored in the 1st Q don't count. They should say, "I make them when the pressure is on."
