Spurs Loss Another Sign of New Era

Cherry Picking recaps the previous day's NBA playoff action.

It truly is the end of an era, as one by one the old guard is falling down. The first to fall was Shaquille O'Neal, who missed the playoffs for the first time since 1993. Next up? The Pistons, ousted over the weekend by the Cavaliers, marking the first time in seven years they've failed to play in the Eastern Conference Finals.

And then on Tuesday night the Spurs were the next to go, ungraciously dumped from the playoffs on their home floor by the Mavericks. It's the first time since 2000 that the Spurs have failed to win at least one playoff series, and it's the first postseason of Tim Duncan's career that he's actually played (he missed the 2000 playoffs with a knee injury) and lost in the first round.

Should we be surprised? Perhaps not; take a look around the league and you'll see those teams trying to get by with the same old tricks that have been up their sleeves from years have already started their summer vacations or will be soon.

San Antonio gambled that Tim Duncan and Tony Parker could carry the team. In hindsight, that Vince Carter trade might have been worth pulling the trigger on after all. The Utah Jazz and their two-trick pony of Deron Williams and Carlos Boozer? Done. Chris Paul as Mr. Everything for the Hornets? Until his supporting cast steps up, that riddle has been solved.

Instead, the teams having success this year are the ones who've found a new spark.

If it weren't for Rajon Rondo turning into a triple-double machine, the Celtics might have already conceded their title defense without an injured Kevin Garnett and with an inconsistent Ray Allen and an underwhelming Paul Pierce.

LeBron James is always going to put up monster numbers, but having Mo Williams around has allowed him to benefit from someone else's playmaking for once. Everyone knows they can score, but under Chauncey Billups, the Nuggets have finally bought into playing (gasp!) defense.

The Lakers' big guns remain the same, but adding the uber-athletic Trevor Ariza (who barely played last year) and Shannon Brown (who barely played this year until leapfrogging Jordon Farmar) into the mix has made them even more deeper.

Not everyone has changed the recipe for success, (the Mavericks, admittedly, look awful familiar) but by and large, innovation and risk-taking has (mostly) been rewarded. If you're not moving forward, you're going backward; there's no such thing as standing still anymore.

Doing Lines

Rajon Rondo has been the most exciting player in the postseason this side of LeBron James, and Tuesday was no exception: he scored 28 points, dished 11 assists and grabbed eight boards. After five games, he's averaging a triple-double: 24.2 points, 10.2 assists and 10.2 boards. [Box Score]

When Dwight Howard finished with 11 points and 10 boards in Game 2, I predicted that he'd soon have a game in which he doubled those numbers. As it turned out, he doubled them and then some, coming through with a monster 24/24 game against the Sixers. With numbers like that, you can almost look past the fact he nearly took Samuel Dalembert's head off and sent teammate Courtney Lee to the hospital. [Box Score]


Watching Film

Speaking of Vince Carter and the Spurs and the year 2000 ... the last time the Spurs missed the second round of the playoffs, Carter did this to Frederic Weis in the Olympics:



It feels like forever ago, doesn't it? VC still had a full head of hair!

On the Blockquote

Steve Buckley in the Boston Herald:

What the scoresheet does not state - this because it wasn't called - is that [Rajon] Rondo committed what the Bulls claim was a flagrant foul, with the guard decking his adversary with what [Brad] Miller later described as a "forearm shiver."

[...] Later, when asked how he felt when he went to the line, Miller replied, "Good enough, but I'm not a boxer, so I don't know what it's like to get hit in the face like that."

SportsBusiness Journal:

The Cavaliers' run to the NBA's best record brought Cleveland the highest local regular-season TV ratings for any NBA team in more than a decade. Paced by the Cavs' 116 percent increase from last year, leaguewide viewership across all regional sports networks increased by 8 percent this season. Half the 26 RSNs monitored saw their ratings rise during the regular season.

48 Minutes of Hell:

The Mavericks would have had a more difficult time shooting from outside had they been in an empty gym. In between the catch and release, their 3-point shooters had time for a quick nap. Failed rotations weren't seen as opportunities to reorganize and retaliate. Instead, we shot one another incredulous looks in the hopes of passing the buck. I've never thought of the Spurs as an elite offensive team, even during the championship runs. But our defensive struggles this series shook the spirit in a way to which I am unaccustomed.