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PLAYA VISTA, Calif. -- Every day is media day in Los Angeles. When celebrities and athletes who live out of town want to broaden their public appeal, they descend on the city and its landscape of sound stages, hideaways, beachside compounds and gleaming office towers where producers, publicists and image-makers broker meetings. The cyber-razzi want to be close to their prey, so they also call southern California home.

Until quite recently, the Los Angeles Clippers lived on the far outskirts of this world. Their long slog through the wilderness has been well-documented, and now, too, has their emergence as a legitimate NBA organization.

Nobody who thinks seriously about basketball in Los Angeles dwells any longer on whether the Clippers have reversed their history, or whether it’s even possible the Clippers could ever be spoken of with the same affection as the Lakers. It’s not that these questions have been answered, it’s that posing them has gotten boring. As Clippers team president Andy Roeser is fond of saying in response to existential questions about the team, “We’ll see.”

In the meantime, the Clippers have developed into one of the league’s more interesting teams. They feature two charismatic superstars, Chris Paul and Blake Griffin, each with a personalized storyline or two. They established a signature style of play -- the capacity to do that usually means a team is really good. And Los Angeles is the only big market that can decisively say the resident NBA team is the city’s most popular. If the NFL’s exodus did one thing, it was to solidify Los Angeles as the country’s biggest basketball town.

No matter how big the swell of media interest, media day isn’t the place where an NBA team can advance compelling storylines. The court at the Clippers’ practice facility was literally covered by a layer of black porch turf. Not much actually happens at media day, but it’s still the day when organizations, players and coaches lay out the campaign’s talking points. The sound bites we hear just before training camp constitute the team’s stump speech heading into fall, the familiar litany of themes to be visited and revisited over the course of the season.

Clippers coach Doc Rivers manages this messaging as well as any coach in the league, which is why it’s so easy to imagine his succeeding in Los Angeles. The Clippers have made, if not a 180, then certainly a 150. Yet Rivers is the organization’s first coach who could both communicate and project credibility to his players and the fan base. Some past coaches excelled at one task but struggled with the other, but Rivers brings the whole package.

At Clippers media day, Rivers was the first guest greeted on stage by the Clippers’ bright radio broadcaster, Brian Sieman. Soon after the hire, Rivers quickly established a tendency to use “we” when speaking about past events from the Clippers’ point of view, a pattern that was noticeable again on Monday.

“The areas where we struggled were huge. One is transition. With the athleticism we have, we should be a better transition defensive team,” Rivers said on the podium. “And then guarding the 3-point line. We were 26th or 27th in the league in 3-point defense. And in a league that shoots 3s, we have to get better at that.”

Mood and tone might be Rivers’ strongest assets as team spokesman, but he’s not careless with his words in the slightest. Rivers wants to convey that he’s taking ownership not just of the future, but also of the past. When you coach the Celtics or Lakers, associating yourself with the mystique of an organization is easy, but with the Clippers, history isn’t something people who work for the team want to be constantly reminded of.

The Clippers have had a peculiar relationship with the media over the past few seasons. They’re a team that’s thrilled fans with aerial exploits, but also repelled some of the NBA League Pass cognoscente with their moodiness.

The flash point of this tension has been Griffin, who was worshiped when he first dropped from the sky, made dunking fun again and quickly cultivated a sensibility that made him the league’s best pitchman. On the court, Griffin produced as a high-usage scorer, efficient rebounder and elite passer. There’s room for improvement mechanically and defensively, but Griffin contributed an enormous amount of offense to a team that’s won nearly two-thirds of its regular-season games over the past two years.

It’s almost impossible to believe a person who looks like Griffin and has enjoyed his on and off-court success could ever want for confidence. But Griffin is far from impenetrable -- maybe farther than many. He endured a backlash, along with the empty innuendo (the requisite rap of being soft or a fake tough guy). And by accounts from Griffin’s teammates, he often served as a whipping boy last season when one was needed.

Ask Rivers about the twists and turns in Griffin’s evolving persona in the public imagination and he probably couldn’t tell you -- and if he could, he wouldn’t. What Rivers clearly understands is that his power forward has the potential to be coached up enormously. Part of that project includes steeping Griffin in the dark arts of the Thibodeau-constructed defense. Encouraging Griffin’s continued progress with shooting sensei Bob Thate is another piece. But above all of the component parts is something more vital, if less tangible: letting Blake Griffin know he’s going to be a better basketball player two years from now than he is today.

“One guy that has stood out to me is Blake,” Rivers told the audience at media day. “Just sitting in my office up there and looking down on him and watching him work. I knew he was a worker. I didn’t know he was the worker to the extent that he’s worked this summer. He’s put in a lot of time. I’ve been impressed with his scheduling. He does a lot of stuff and nothing gets in the way of his basketball, and that shows me a great sign of maturity.”

Lots of coaches say lots of nice things about lots of players on media day, but Rivers is doing something larger here -- he’s bringing back the old Blake Griffin narrative, the one about the kid who conditions by running up sand dunes, treats his body like a temple and rides himself harder than anyone else could. Rivers, fascinated by Griffin’s ability to move the ball, opened a dialogue with Griffin about how to utilize his skill set in the pinch post, where refined big men such as Pau Gasol and Kevin Garnett prospered as both scorers and facilitators.

When Rivers talks generally about the anatomy of the Clippers, the team he describes has two superstars. Paul doesn’t require much reassurance about his role, but Griffin never really discovered his precise function in the offense under Vinny Del Negro. He got plenty of touches down on the box, but they weren’t connected to any greater system of principles, or those principles were never communicated clearly.

Rivers might have been talking to the media on Monday, but the message was targeted at his 24-year-old power forward. That message? This is your team as much as it is anyone’s, and we’re going to help you claim it.

 
By most objective measures, Doc Rivers is among the best basketball coaches in the world. He's one of only four active NBA coaches who has won a championship. Just over a year ago, a survey of NBA players named Rivers the coach they'd most like to suit up for, and there’s reportedly at least one Hall of Famer in Boston who would rather retire than play for another NBA coach.

Rivers has devoted himself to basketball his entire life. He played for four NBA teams and coached two others. He’s a 51-year-old man who has raised four children, and much of that parenting has been performed from 1,000 miles away. Rivers has spoken about this challenge, not as an expression of self-pity, but as a window into his feelings about some of the tougher compromises we make in life.

After nine seasons with the Boston Celtics and two years into a five-year contract, Rivers decided that his work life needed a change. Fortunately for him, his desire to leave his current job in Boston for a new one in Los Angeles coincided with the interests of several other parties. This doesn’t happen very often, but a combination of circumstance and goodwill created a confluence of mutual benefits for just about everyone involved in the transaction.

The Celtics will save in the neighborhood of $15 million over the next three seasons by releasing Rivers from his contract and signing a younger, more affordable head coach while they rebuild their roster. The Los Angeles Clippers will not only obtain the services of an elite coach, but also likely will guarantee that Chris Paul remains with the team for a long time. Surrendering assets for a coach is dicey, but at a critical juncture of the franchise’s evolution, the Clippers acquired the gravitas and leadership they badly need. For Rivers’ part, he gets to take a crack at answering one of pro basketball’s most difficult riddles -- taking a franchise that’s been a historical laughingstock and delivering it a title.

One of the privileges that comes with being an industry leader is the freedom to define career goals along the way -- as well as the terms of employment in pursuit of those goals. That’s how it works in virtually every sector on the professional landscape, where talented people navigate their careers and make choices that feed their sense of professional fulfillment. But not in sports, where a sincere change of feeling about the job is often interpreted as treason.

For a certain kind of achiever, permanence offers the most comfort. They like to plant a stake, build something and then preside over it until it’s time to walk away. But not everyone has the same temperament or starts in the same place. We live in a dynamic economy where circumstances change, markets change and the things about the gig that get people up in the morning change.

A year or two ago, Rivers thought he’d be a Celtic for life, and he was pretty expressive about that belief. Was he full of it? It’s possible, but it’s just as likely that his view changed, that a rebuilding effort that looked like a fun puzzle to be assembled when viewed from the benefit of distance appeared entirely different when he stared it in the face.

Sensibilities evolve over time, and while it’s tempting to regard that as a character flaw, double-talk or a betrayal of principle, it’s a condition that’s both very human and very practical. These are the inconvenient byproducts of growth, and few NBA coaches have grown more in the past 15 years than Rivers.

Forget for a moment that Rivers-to-Los Angeles is a victimless crime through which every side profited. Say you had a friend who fit Rivers’ general description -- smart, successful, trusted, imperfect but someone whom just about every firm in the business would want to hire and would be willing to pay.

A very cool opportunity that excites the hell out of him has surfaced. He gets to take the reins of a company in a geographically desirable location that almost certainly has a brighter future than the place he works now. Your friend hasn't been in a funk exactly, but over the past nine months or so, there’s a sense that his best days with his current employer are probably behind him. The most productive members of his staff will soon be retiring or moving on. The most talented staffer who remains is temperamental and the moodiness has been wearing thin for a while. The move would be a bit awkward, but there’s some reassuring news: For a variety of reasons, the partners at his current company would be OK with the move, and might even profit from it themselves.

When your friend asks your advice on the right course of action, do you tell him that loyalty trumps his self-interest, or do you tell him that he owes it to himself to chase the prize, to challenge himself and to write a new chapter?

We romanticize loyalty in sports and love the cleanliness of the team column on Kobe Bryant or Larry Bird or Tim Duncan’s stats page. But the world’s most talented people have a personal imperative to create situations that make the most sense for them, that allow them to work where, for whom and with whom they want. In this respect, the idea of commitment can be messy, but it’s up to an individual -- not us -- to define what commitment means to him.

After spending the past nine seasons as head coach of the Boston Celtics, Doc Rivers will be running the Los Angeles Clippers next season. Rivers was the highest-paid coach in the NBA this season at $7 million. That was $1 million dollars more than Gregg Popovich.

Miami Heat coach Erik Spoelstra, winner of two straight NBA titles, reportedly made about $3 million. Rivers made at least twice as much as 20 of the 29 other NBA head coaches last season.

Rivers compiled 416 wins in nine seasons with the Celtics, third-most in franchise history behind the legendary Red Auerbach and Tom Heinsohn. He guided Boston to the NBA Finals twice during his tenure, winning the 2008 title over the Los Angeles Lakers, the Celtics’ first championship since 1986.

Rivers-Paul Pairing
If Chris Paul re-signs with the Clippers, what will that pairing create in Los Angeles?

Paul led the NBA this season with 1.06 points per play in the pick-and-roll offense, which included passes (among 50 players with 500 plays). Under Rivers, the pick-and-roll offense was Boston’s most-used play type with Rajon Rondo.

Paul’s points-per-play average on pick-and-rolls (including passes) hasn’t been outside the top five in the NBA since 2005-06.

In his career, Paul’s teams have had a defensive efficiency of 104.1 points per 100 possessions allowed when he’s on the court, one point worse than the NBA average.

The Celtics have had the best defensive efficiency in the NBA since Kevin Garnett joined the team in the 2007-08 season.

Rivers’ Success
Rivers' success with the Celtics can be defined by the team's "Big Three", which came together in the 2007 offseason. The acquisition of Ray Allen and Kevin Garnett led to a personal Big Three for Doc Rivers -- as in, the middle three seasons of his nine-year Celtics tenure.

If you remove the middle three seasons of his Celtics career, he was one game over .500.

Uncertainty in Boston
After experiencing a 21-season championship drought, Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett, and Ray Allen guided the Celtics to a title during their first season together in 2008. Boston would make it back to the Finals in 2010, falling to the Lakers in seven games. Kendrick Perkins would be traded the following season. Ray Allen left for Miami last offseason - and now questions surround Pierce and Garnett.

How could the Los Angeles Clippers possibly walk away from a negotiation that would’ve yielded them Kevin Garnett and Doc Rivers for a relatively unproven young center, a couple of first-round draft picks and the relatively small burden of taking on one or two mid-level contracts?

That’s the question gnawing at some Clipper fans and many Clipper skeptics on Tuesday, but however ineffectual the organization appears on the surface for folding up their tent, the Clippers made a sound decision.

Two key points:

What’s the hurry?
The Celtics’ situation is in flux and they’ve signaled to the world that they’re ready to pursue the wise course of rebuilding. If they buy out Paul Pierce’s contract on or before June 30, where does that leave Garnett and Rivers? Neither is wild about the idea of being part of the reconstruction process without their comrade, and both would prefer they join forces with a team driving for a title, a team like the Los Angeles Clippers.

In other words, if the Clippers want to acquire Kevin Garnett for DeAndre Jordan, they can do so after July 1. The only complication there is the report that Garnett isn’t interested in playing for any coach other than Rivers, a primary reason this whole drama started.

That’s why if I’m the Clippers, I hold off on hiring a coach until after the Pierce situation is resolved. Apart from the Clippers, the only remaining coaching vacancies are Memphis, Philadelphia and Denver. There’s virtually no overlap between the Clippers’ short list and that of 76ers president of basketball operations and general manager Sam Hinkie. Memphis will likely hire current assistant Dave Joerger. At worst, the Clippers lose one of their top three choices (most likely Lionel Hollins or Brian Shaw) to Denver while they wait. In exchange, they maintain the possibility that Rivers could join them after July 1. Boston will have no more impetus to pay Rivers $7 million to coach a bubble team than they do now. Ditto for Garnett’s $18 million guaranteed, assuming KG would return to a Pierce-less Celtics team.

There’s some worry that the Clippers’ inability to strike a deal with Boston might prompt Chris Paul to look elsewhere, but the concern has been overblown. If the Celtics are truly moving into rebuilding mode, time is on the Clippers’ side. If the Celtics decide to fire up the wagon for another run, then so be it.

Was the deal worth it?
Few veterans in the league bring Garnett’s gravitas, pedigree and presence and it’s easy to be charmed by the prospect of Garnett’s taking Blake Griffin under his wing and teaching him the dark arts of defending the pick-and-roll and becoming a championship power forward.

But Garnett is 37 and isn’t good for more than 26-28 minutes per game going forward. As transformative as he is as a minister of culture, Garnett’s past performance isn’t a reliable indicator of what kind of production he’d give the Clippers next season -- and the season after if the team decided to pick up his $12 million option for 2014-15.

So far as the leadership, Garnett is regarded as one of the league’s best teammates and mentors, but the Clippers went down that path last offseason when they brought back Chauncey Billups, signed Grant Hill and loaded up on good-guy vets to add to the collection they already had. Veteran leadership wasn’t the problem when the Clippers lost four straight to Memphis in the first round.

If anything, the Clippers need to get younger and establish a sustainable core around Paul and Griffin. Truth be told, Jordan probably isn’t the best frontcourt counterpart to Griffin since both are most dangerous in the basket area. And although Garnett would offer the midrange stretch that would best complement Griffin and is still a very steady defender, is 2,000 minutes of Garnett the best the Clippers can do for Jordan, whose athleticism and talent have many admirers around the league?

We don’t know the answer to this question, but a team like the Clippers that desperately needs a couple of wings who can defend and shoot from distance has an obligation to listen to offers -- and they’re out there for Jordan, both in the form of talent and picks.

Rivers is one of the five best coaches in the game and clearly has the respect of NBA players. But there’s a reason teams don’t trade assets for coaches. Doc Rivers can’t guard Russell Westbrook, Tony Parker, Ty Lawson, Mike Conley, James Harden and Stephen Curry. A few front office execs who were asked about the idea of handing over a pair of first-round picks for the privilege of paying a coach $7 million per season found the proposition absurd. While there was almost unanimous respect for Rivers’ acumen, the transaction was seen more as a salary dump than anything else.

The notion that a pair of first-round draft picks is a paltry sum to pay for Garnett and Rivers is short-sighted. With the new collective bargaining agreement in place, first-round picks have never been more valuable. They are the mother’s milk of the NBA trade market. With the exception of a few superstar max contacts, rookie-scale contracts represent the best values in the game. All across the league, there are young executives who know how to turn post-lottery picks into Chandler Parsons, Serge Ibaka and Eric Bledsoe, among others.

Teams value these picks and will offer the Clippers quality, on-court talent for them. A first-round pick is the kind of asset that could get a team to swallow the final year of Caron Butler’s contract, and could accompany Eric Bledsoe to get a top-line starter in exchange.

The Celtics also wanted the Clippers to take on additional payroll in the form of Jason Terry and/or Courtney Lee (this in addition to the $1.5 million that would’ve been added to the Clippers' salary number in a Jordan-for-Garnett swap). With only Griffin, Jordan, Butler, Jamal Crawford and Bledsoe locked in for next season, and Paul due a maximum salary, the Clippers need to preserve all their available exceptions. But adding Terry and/or Lee would’ve brought the Clippers precariously close to a place where they’d lose one or more of those slots, which are going to be vital in filling out their depleted roster.

It’s entirely possible the Clippers blew it big time by turning down an opportunity to sign a Hall of Famer in the twilight of his career and one of the most respected coaches in the game. Acquiring Garnett and Rivers would’ve made Paul ecstatic and endeared the team to the local media that have been pounding them in recent weeks.

But in forfeiting one option, the Clippers open themselves up to many others, including several that might actually address the team’s needs beyond 2014. In the meantime, Garnett and Rivers are still in Boston awaiting word on the direction of their team. If and when the Celtics decide to break up their current core, Garnett and/or Rivers will be looking for life rafts -- and the Clippers still have one.

The NBA playoffs begin this weekend with four games Saturday and four more on Sunday.

Let’s get you ready for the next two months with a list of our top stats to know heading into the postseason.

Heat trends point to a title
The Miami Heat enter the playoffs as the unquestioned favorites and will look to become back-to-back champions.

Only five NBA franchises have ever pulled off a repeat championship: the Celtics, Lakers, Bulls, Rockets and Pistons. LeBron James, the runaway MVP favorite, can also be the first player with MVP and NBA titles in back-to-back seasons since Michael Jordan’s first two titles in 1991 and 1992.

Of the 12 previous squads to win 66 or more games in the NBA regular season, nine went on to win the championship that season.

The Heat finished with the third-best winning percentage by a defending NBA champion in league history, trailing only two of Michael Jordan's Bulls' teams from the 1990s and ahead of two of Bill Russell's Celtics' teams from the 1960s.

Each of those four other teams went on to defend the title successfully, a goal the Heat hope to accomplish over the next several weeks.

Lakers-Spurs foreshadowing
In the Tim Duncan and Kobe Bryant eras for each franchise, the Lakers and Spurs have met in the playoff six times.

Each time, the winner has gone on to reach the NBA Finals. Four of the six times, the winner has gone on to an NBA championship. The Lakers are 4-2 against the Spurs in those playoff series, winning four of the past five.

This is the first time during those eras that the teams are meeting in the first round. And we could see something else new this year -- none of those series lasted seven games.

The Spurs will be making their 16th consecutive postseason appearance, the longest active streak in the NBA.

Duncan, Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili will be making their 11th straight postseason appearance as teammates.

Celtics, Knicks recent histories are opposites
This marks the sixth straight playoff appearance for the Celtics. In each of their previous five appearances, they advanced past the first round. The Knicks, meanwhile, haven’t won a playoff series since 2000. New York is 3-15 in its past four playoff appearances.

Carmelo Anthony’s teams are just 2-9 in playoff series, both of those wins coming in 2009 when the Nuggets made it to the Western Conference finals before losing to the Lakers in six games. Anthony is 1-8 in playoff games in his Knicks career.

Coaching legends abound
The coaching in this postseason features three coaches with at least 60 career playoff wins: Gregg Popovich, George Karl and Doc Rivers.

Popovich trails only Phil Jackson and Pat Riley for most career playoff coaching wins.

The field also features three coaches that have won titles: Popovich (4), Rivers (1) and Erik Spoelstra (1).

The only other active coach who has won a title is Rick Carlisle, whose Mavericks missed the playoffs this season.

The value of Round 1, Game 1
How important is Game 1 in the first round of the NBA playoffs? The Elias Sports Bureau tells us that since the first round was expanded to a best-of-seven format in 2003, the team that won Game 1 went on to win 61 of 80 series (76 percent).

Teams that won Game 1 at home won 51 of 58 first-round series (88 percent) and teams that won Game 1 on the road won 10 of 22 series (45 percent).

One example of this: The Chicago Bulls are 19-5 all-time in best-of-seven series when winning Game 1. When losing a Game 1 of a best-of-seven, they’re just 6-15. On the other hand, the Brooklyn Nets are 7-2 all-time in best-of-seven series when winning Game 1. They are just 1-5 in best-of-7s when losing Game 1.

On a Monday morning last January, Oklahoma City Thunder coach Scott Brooks fielded an easy volley of questions at Santa Monica High School ahead of a game that night against the Los Angeles Clippers.

The Thunder were mowing through their schedule, having won 11 of their previous 12 games, and Brooks’ breezy tone was fitting for a midseason shootaround. He paid homage to James Harden’s throwback qualities and told the small gathering of media that, even though the Thunder had climbed the ranks of the Western Conference, they had to go out and play each night with something to prove.

After the scrum broke, Brooks was asked whether he could imagine Kevin Durant as his power forward of the future. A pile of data and the general direction of the league both suggested that sliding Durant over to the 4 would make a lot of sense.

Brooks had seen the evidence and, in fact, was the man responsible for those minutes Durant logged as a power forward in the Thunder’s smaller lineups. Schematically, Brooks loved the idea of giving his already potent offense even more opportunities to stretch defenses.

The data were certainly compelling, and what coach wouldn’t be tempted to get another athlete on the floor if all it took was placing the dynamo with the 7-foot-5 wingspan at the 4? Brooks suspected Durant eventually would log more time in small-ball lineups, but Brooks also wouldn’t rush into the future.

In Brooks’ mind, an NBA coach’s job isn’t merely to implement strategic goals on the court but also to have a strong feel for the appropriate timetables of those objectives. He explained that a player like Durant derives confidence from familiarity, and in many respects, it’s one of the factors that makes him such a devastating offensive force. So challenging him to expand the boundaries of the familiar demanded a degree of finesse. Understanding how to lure a player into uncharted territory, asking him to expend more defensively, changing up the composition of the offense he marshals -- that was the trick.

Brooks was confident he could do it, but Durant’s long-term success with that transition would be somewhat dependent on Brooks’ management of that process.

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We accept that Oklahoma City’s ascension to the NBA Finals can largely be attributed to the maturation of its young core. By competing at the high-stakes table against the NBA’s notable elite over the past seven weeks, Durant, Russell Westbrook, James Harden, Serge Ibaka and Thabo Sefolosha have all developed a more astute intuition about the game.

We chart and revel in the progress achieved by talented young players, but whether it’s because coaches are less interesting than players or because the strides in a coach’s games are more opaque (what’s the coaching equivalent of “he developed a post game”?), we tend to see coaches as static. We might pause for a second and consider that men like Doc Rivers or Alvin Gentry aren’t the same coaches that they were a dozen years ago, but we rarely frame that growth the same way we do for players.

Each of the Thunder’s catalysts has refined his game, and we’ll read plenty about Westbrook’s improved vision and discipline, Durant’s full arrival, Harden’s embrace of the big stage, Sefolosha’s building confidence that he could contain a small army and the rounding of Ibaka’s game.

But it isn’t just the Thunder’s roster that has elevated its game. Brooks has followed the impressive trajectory of his players. A coach who, over the course of his young career, was rarely lauded for his gravitas, charisma or mastery of X’s and O’s has put together a helluva postseason, capped off by a brilliant performance in the conference finals against San Antonio.

The pivotal event in the six games against the Spurs might have been Hack-a-Splitter, which disrupted then irreversibly altered the rhythm of the series. Brooks risked a potential toll offensively by investing his wholesale trust in Sefolosha to stymie Tony Parker. Fully embracing his team’s athleticism, Brooks leveraged that asset in a scheme that both simplified and intensified the Thunder’s defense. He urged Westbrook to cleverly exploit the Spurs’ defensive discipline -- never sending strongside help -- by traversing the court’s midline, which never allowed San Antonio to establish where its help should come from. When the Spurs defenders attacked Durant coming off the Thunder’s bread-and-butter play -- the weakside pin-down -- Brooks introduced wrinkles that helped to free up Durant.

And yes, he also moved Durant to the power forward spot for significant stretches of the series, something we didn’t see him do as readily in past seasons.

Perhaps that’s selling Brooks short -- the idea that these discoveries of the craft have been recent. It’s more likely that Brooks’ abilities have been developing over time, just like his players.

Public opinion tends to shine brightly on systematic high-achiever coaches -- Phil Jackson, Gregg Popovich, Jerry Sloan, Tom Thibodeau, until recently Mike D’Antoni, to a large extent Rick Adelman and now Doc Rivers.

Coaches like Scott Brooks and Erik Spoelstra, whose most talented personnel thrives on one-on-one play, must rely on offenses far more dependent on shot creation. As a result, their stuff often appears more rudimentary, and we shape our opinions of their creativity accordingly. There are plenty of coaches around the league for whom that might be true, but Brooks doesn’t appear to be one of them.

For some, the verdict on Brooks’ tactical ingenuity may be pending -- let’s see how his team responds in the Finals. For others, the mere fact that, under his direction, Brooks helped deliver a team that was 23-59 three seasons ago to the NBA Finals is testimony enough to his strengths, whether those strengths reside on a whiteboard or in his intuitive understanding of his players.

And on that late morning in January, talking about the delicate process of easing along a superstar, Brooks conveyed the most valuable gift a head coach can have:

Knowing, understanding and caring for his talent.

Before Game 6, Boston seemed to have Miami's defense figured out. Then Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce and Ray Allen combined to shoot 13-for-39.

It wasn't a fluke. If it appeared that Boston's offense was out of rhythm, it might have been because Miami and coach Erik Spoelstra changed the tempo.

What Miami did in Game 6 was switch as much and as often as possible. The strategy has two benefits: (1) defenders are no longer laboring through the Celtics' screen-heavy offense, conserving energy by trading assignments; and (2) those same screens might yield mismatches but not wide-open players.

When the Celtics offense is humming, an unusual number of their makes are assisted. According to HoopData, 66.5 percent of Boston's regular-season makes were assisted, by far the highest percentage in the league.

Just how much do they rely on the pass to score? The difference between Boston's percentage of makes assisted and the No. 2 team, Milwaukee, was greater than the difference between Milwaukee and the No. 17 team (Dallas).

In Game 6, just 43.8 percent of the Celtics' makes were assisted.

Death by isolation

Boston's regular-season assist numbers don't just reflect an offense built on sharing the ball but a collection of players who struggle to score without help. Paul Pierce has a deserved reputation for one-on-one talents, but Garnett and Allen need others to do the creating for them. KG can post up and score in isolations, but where he has killed the Heat this series is on rolls to the rim and pops to the midrange, particularly working with passing wizard Rajon Rondo.

As a result of all the switching, the Celtics' best scoring option in Game 6 became attacking a mismatch one-on-one rather than using one another to create wide-open shots. Pierce took 18 shots over at least five different defenders, as Dwyane Wade, LeBron James, Shane Battier, Udonis Haslem and Chris Bosh all spent time on the Celtics' iso ace. Pierce was able to create space to shoot, but fadeaway 18-footers, while a makeable shot for him, aren't a reliable shot for anyone.

Meanwhile, Garnett was able to use his size and soft touch to score over smaller players, but the Heat, especially after the first 18 minutes or so, worked hard to limit him to these more difficult opportunities.

Switching allowed Miami to defend Rondo and Garnett pick-and-rolls without helping too much with a third player. Again, the idea was to force Rondo to score over a bigger player or make Garnett to get his buckets one-on-one -- a fairly reliable but exceedingly taxing method of scoring.

Rondo burned the Heat for 19 points in the first half, many of them in transition, but he also forced passes in the pick-and-roll and seemed ill at ease when the Heat backed off him in favor of taking away Garnett.

Bosh is back

It wasn't strategy alone that made the difference. There were some wide-open missed shots (as there are every game), and the Heat were not without defensive breakdowns. But Miami had a new weapon to clean up those mistakes: Chris Bosh, who swatted three shots in his 28 minutes of court time.

The Heat's interior defense looked stunningly different with Bosh, the team's tallest player, on the court. Spoelstra kept Bosh off Garnett so that he could roam and support mismatched defenders, not unlike how Boston prefers to keep Garnett free to help its overmatched wing defenders.

Can the Celtics adjust?

In Game 6, after consistently scoring for four straight games, Boston's offense looked more like it had in the first two rounds of the playoffs. That's not surprising, considering that Atlanta and Philadelphia are two teams with switch-heavy defenses. In both series, Garnett had to come up big on the offensive end for the Celtics to advance.

That's probably a good predictor of what will have to happen for the Celtics to win Game 7. Bosh's return and the Heat's aggressive switching will force Boston to rely on the Big Ticket, who always has a size advantage over his primary defender. One thing Doc Rivers is likely to do to accentuate this advantage is have his smaller players set screens for Garnett. If the Heat are going to switch and concede a mismatch, Rivers will look for the best mismatch he can get.

But how much does Garnett have left? Fatigue will play a significant role in Game 7, especially considering the phenomenal load of minutes and responsibility that James, Garnett and Rondo have carried not just in this series but throughout the playoffs.

The Heat seem willing to concede decent shots to avoid giving away great shots. The Celtics have a few players who can get it done that way, but the percentages aren't in their favor. Spoelstra and the Heat are trusting the numbers and hoping that the Celtics' old legs will succumb to the challenge of scoring on their own.

After Game 6, Rivers said he thought his players were trying to win the game with individual plays. If the Heat's defense can have a similar impact in Game 7, Boston might have to.

Name: Glenn "Doc" Rivers

Birthdate: Oct. 13, 1961

Is he an emotional leader or a tactician?
Several years ago, the answer would have been, unequivocally, “emotional leader.” But Rivers has now been a coach in the NBA longer than he was a player and has developed into one of the more celebrated X's and O's coaches in the league.

In 2000, his first year as a head coach, Rivers won Coach of the Year by inspiring an Orlando team that featured Darrell Armstrong as its leading scorer to scrap its way to an improbable 41-41 record. Rivers keeps that gritty group in a special place in his heart, but his coaching repertoire has expanded dramatically in the past 13 seasons. Now Rivers has a clever set for every situation, and his players are always well-prepared not just to give their all, but to execute.

Is he intense or a go-along-get-along type?
Rivers is intense, and though he forms strong personal relationships with his favorite players, he rarely defers to anyone else’s judgment. The dynamic between Rivers and Rajon Rondo complicates this description -- Rivers has increasingly and, perhaps reluctantly, given his point guard the reins of the offense. Still, one gets the impression that if Rivers could call timeout and draw up every play in the huddle, he would.

Though more NBA players would like to play for Rivers than any other coach (according to a Sports Illustrated poll), Doc is far from a typical players' coach. He treats his players like grown-ups and, in return, expects them to be professional and disciplined. Players who won't get in line don't last long in Boston.

Does he rely on systems, or does he coach ad hoc to his personnel?
It’s a mix. Defensively, the Celtics religiously adhere to the Tom Thibodeau strong-side pressure defense system. It’s exceedingly rare for Rivers, as he did in Round 2 against the 76ers, to alter the game plan on that side of the ball.

Because the Celtics have essentially run the same five plays for the last five years, it’s tempting to say that Rivers also prefers a system on offense. But that wouldn’t be quite correct; the Celtics' offense could more accurately be described as a series of quick-hitters out of which there are various reads, rather than a continuous system. Indeed, Rivers’ real talent is for designing plays that cater to the unique talents of specific players -- witness Rondo on the low block.

Does he share decision making with star players, or is he The Decider?
Kevin Garnett called the Celtics team "Cuba" for a reason: Rivers’ regime is a dictatorship, not a democracy. He’s willing to discuss things with his stars and veterans, but he does not share decision-making power with anyone. The one possible exception is Rondo's veto power on plays Rivers calls from the bench.

Does he prefer the explosive scorer or the lockdown defender?
It’s defense first with Rivers, though it's worth remembering that Eddie House soaked up meaningful minutes at the expense of Tony Allen's floor time. Overall, execution is what matters most. For Celtics role players, that typically means a bit role on offense and a significant opportunity to make an impact defensively. James Posey is a classic example.

Does he prefer a set rotation, or is he more likely to use his personnel situationally?
Rivers is notorious for his rigid rotations -- he trusts whom he trusts. This sometimes leads him to ride his best players for too many minutes, resulting in fourth-quarter exhaustion. However, he’s also open to insight from lineup plus-minus data and will promote players like Avery Bradley and Ryan Hollins who prove themselves in limited opportunities.

Will he trust young players in big spots, or is he more inclined to use his grizzled veterans?
Rivers tends to give young players a look early in the season. If they perform, like Greg Stiemsma did early in 2012, they keep getting minutes. But he’s not coaching to babysit, and he's quick to bury a young player on the bench if he can’t execute Rivers' defensive scheme or remember the plays on offense.

Trust is the key for Rivers, and generally speaking, it's veterans who exhibit the attention to detail Rivers demands from his players.

Are there any unique strategies that he particularly likes?
Though Thibodeau was the original mastermind behind the Celtics' stellar defense, Rivers is now more than capable of upholding the system and teaching it to incoming players. Here's roughly how it works: The Celtics send everything away from the middle of the court -- especially when facing wing isolations and side pick-and-rolls -- then arrange help defenders to overplay any drives to the baseline or passes back to the middle. The result is that opponents have trouble moving the ball from one side of the court to the other, rendering the offense predictable and thus ineffective.

On offense, Rivers is a master of misdirection and has become one of the premier tacticians on sideline out-of-bounds plays. Even when the odds are stacked against him, he’ll find a way to use screen-the-screener actions to get Ray Allen wide open for a big 3-pointer. He likes to use the same play multiple times in a season, each time adding a new wrinkle that takes advantage of his opponent’s scouting report.

What were his characteristics as a player?
Rivers was a pure point guard in both physical build and mental makeup. His hoops career began in the Chicago high school ranks, where he was a McDonald's All-American before a three-year career at Marquette. An explosive ball handler with great size, Rivers' athletic profile compares well to Jrue Holiday of the Philadelphia 76ers. At his peak in the NBA, Rivers averaged a double-double in points and assists while running a Hawks offense that featured Dominique Wilkins, Kevin Willis and Randy Wittman.

Rivers wasn't much of a jump shooter but expertly directed the offense with the ball in his hands and could instantly ignite a fast break. Like many modern point guards, Rivers was as comfortable skying in to finish the break himself as he was dishing off to his athletic teammates.

On defense, Rivers provided stellar on-ball pressure and averaged at least 2.1 steals per game in five seasons.

Which coaches did he play for?
Kevin Loughery, Mike Fratello, Larry Brown, Mike Schuler, Pat Riley, Bob Hill.

What is his coaching pedigree?
Rivers' first coaching job was as a head coach, but look at the list of greats he played for: Fratello, Brown, Riley and Gregg Popovich (as an assistant in San Antonio). These are old-school, demanding leaders, and you can see their imprint in Rivers' no-nonsense, defense-first approach.

If basketball didn’t exist, what might he be doing?
Rivers would capitalize on his charisma and motivational abilities as a top-notch consultant, teaching corporate executives his patented management techniques.

---

The spirit of the Bill James Baseball Abstracts, 1984 and 1985, was summoned for this project.

Here's a big question: How many minutes can Kevin Garnett play?

Here's another big question: Can the Celtics get anything done without him?

Through 60 regular-season games, Kevin Garnett played more than 38 minutes one measly time. In eight playoff games, he has already passed that number every time except for in a blowout first win against the Hawks and Game 2's loss to the Sixers.

On Monday night, the Celtics were outscored by 17 points in the 14 minutes that Garnett sat. Coach Doc Rivers rested his key big man in the second and third quarters, which is precisely when Philadelphia grabbed control of the game and established, then fattened, a lead that the Celtics could not overcome despite Garnett playing the entire fourth quarter.

Back in February, Rivers moved Garnett to the center position. At this point in the playoffs, no descriptor could be more accurate. With Pierce and Allen struggling to produce on injured legs and Avery Bradley’s left arm reduced to dangling uselessness, Garnett is the hub of everything the Celtics do offensively and defensively -- he is literally the center of the Celtics' hopes.

Paul Pierce is shooting just 25 percent from the field and is moving terribly when Andre Iguodala, one of the premier wing defenders in the NBA, challenges him. In Game 2, Pierce was neither able to punish Evan Turner on the occasional switch nor use his usual craftiness to work his way to the free throw line (just two attempts) -- a major part of Boston’s closing strategy.

Meanwhile, the Celtics can still rely on Ray Allen to drill spot-up attempts, but bone spurs prevent him from sustaining the offensive action for long, because of the challenges of sprinting through his customary circuit of baseline screens.

Both star wings have injuries that are expected to linger.

And with Rajon Rondo largely contained by the long and hardworking Turner (who is also big enough to deter Pierce when the Celtics force a switch with a 1-3 pick-and-roll), that leaves Garnett.

Like the rest of the NBA, the 76ers haven’t come up with an adequate answer to Garnett’s long-range shooting, and he’s been able to take advantage of the Sixers in the post, where he can create shots for himself and, when doubled, for his teammates. Philadelphia's wing defenders present a tenacious and largely interchangeable thicket. The Celtics' only reliable ways through involve Garnett. Even when he's not the focal point of a pick-and-roll, or a post-up, he's also Boston’s best screener. On his least taxing offensive plays he's still throwing his body around, colliding with 76ers, in an effort to spring his teammates free.

Whatever energy Garnett doesn’t use being Mr. Everything on offense goes into the defensive end, where he’s still a superb paint defender and pick-and-roll buster. When he sits, the Celtics are vulnerable to smart pick-and-roll ball handlers who can finish at the rim. Iguodala, for instance. With Garnett on the bench, the Sixer repeatedly found his frontcourt mates for open jumpers as the Celtics big men struggled to rotate quickly.

The Celtics actually outplayed the 76ers for pretty much the whole of Game 2, except for the stretches when Iguodala was on the court without Garnett. One could argue that Iguodala’s ability to lock up Paul Pierce, push the tempo and exploit imperfect rotations when Garnett was out was the difference in the game.

If the first two games are any blueprint, the Celtics will need Paul Pierce to sort out a plan of attack against Iguodala -- possibly by getting Iguodala in foul trouble -- or Garnett has to be able to match Iguodala’s minutes.

This indirect matchup of two defensive-minded players capable of impacting every facet of the game puts a tremendous burden on the aging Celtic.

Iguodala is an ironman and Garnett’s junior by eight years and nine NBA seasons. But Garnett has shown an iron determination, and will certainly offer every last drop of energy for a trip back to the Eastern Conference Finals.

The question is whether that will be enough.

Wyc Grousbeck, co-owner of the Boston Celtics, made a franchise-altering splash when he acquired Kevin Garnett in the summer of 2007. But unlike many trades, including the one for Ray Allen that immediately preceded it, the KG deal was the culmination of four full years of calculation.

Boston had been after Garnett for that long.

“The whole reason to buy the team was Celtic pride,” said Grousbeck at a panel on sports ownership at the MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference on Saturday. “What if a bunch of Boston guys got together and won a championship?”

After hiring Danny Ainge to run the basketball side of the operations in 2003, the Celtics’ braintrust went about determining what they would have to do to extricate the team from the mediocrity in which it had been mired since the dissolution of the original big three of Bird, McHale and Parish in the early 90s.

That began with a standard business move: analyzing high-performing organizations to determine how the Celtics might build its own.

“We looked at the last 25 NBA champions,” said Grousbeck. “Twenty-four out of twenty-five were won with a big three concept - three all-stars. [That big three included] a top-50 all-time player and two supporting all-stars.”

Ostensibly, the Celtics were in good shape on that front. The team had made a run to the Eastern Conference finals in 2002 and had two star players in Paul Pierce and Antoine Walker. However, the Celtics decided they didn’t have a true number one player, the kind necessary to push a team over the top to a championship.

Grousbeck: “Paul and Antoine were all-stars but they’re not top-50 guys.”

It’s more than a little remarkable that a new owner would commit $360 million to a team two wins away from the NBA Finals, and determine that the best course of action was to tear it apart. How many teams have done the opposite, changing and rearranging pieces around a player ultimately incapable of spearheading a title run?

Boston’s move looks like a stroke of genius in hindsight but there was an enormous amount of risk – financial and otherwise – to commit to suffering through the process necessary to find a top-50 talent. Especially because smarts alone weren’t going to get the Celtics the player they needed. Luck would play a large part.

Once the decision was made to remake the roster, Walker was jettisoned, and Pierce and new Coach Doc Rivers were left to crawl around in the wreckage. Pierce seemed increasingly miserable with the losing and on the verge of being an ex-Celtic more than once during the 2003-07 period, but according to Grousbeck, Rivers was always there for the long term.

“Doc said ‘I will coach kids and play them as long as I get to coach the championship team when it happens.’”

Ainge and Rivers’ reputations have been rehabilitated by the 2008 title and post-championship play of the Celtics, but it would be revisionist history to suggest they were universally well-regarded during the run-up to 07-08. Ainge was regularly killed in the media for fielding a team of underperforming young players with insufficient upside to make the playoffs, much less win a title. And Rivers’ now sterling coaching reputation was tarnished by an 18-game losing streak in 2007.

Although an outlier - few rebuilding processes are so successful - the Celtics’ foresight to map out a path to a title and stick with it in the face of withering criticism may be used as a model for future teams.

Jeff Green noted in his first appearance in Boston this week that while he was in Oklahoma City, the Celtics were the franchise the Thunder attempted to model.
It’s particularly interesting to observe the Thunder in the context of the Celtics three all-star model. Kevin Durant could conceivably be a top-50 player all-time. Russell Westbrook is an all-star. Given the findings of the Celtics' study, are the Thunder now only a single player away?

Justin Bieber took the court in the All-Star celebrity game, and he was not the best player on the court -- he missed eight of his eleven shots, had some frustration fouls and was a liability on defense. He wasn't the biggest, either. But thanks to fan votes determining the pick, he was both the MVP (despite his team losing), and the player who had the NBA talking:



Many thanks to Bryan Gold for editing.

• The Nets hosted the much-anticipated workouts for DeMarcus Cousins and Derrick Favors. The Nets are sitting with the No. 3 pick on Thursday night and will likely have a choice between the two big men. Cousins impressed, but the Star Ledger's Dave D'Alessandro believes that the Nets are leaning toward Favors: "DeMarcus Cousins passed every test they gave him — with honors." But, D'Alessando disclaims, "He failed to prove that he is better equipped and contoured to play the power forward position than the more athletic and equally promising Derrick Favors. And in a draft that is now predominantly about marking and developing Brook Lopez’s frontcourt sidekick, that’s a problem for Cousins."
• Every June, David Stern steps up to the podium and announces a few draft selections with international pedigrees. The immediate reaction from casual fans of the teams making those picks is generally, "Whooooo?" Jay Aych of The Painted Area offers a primer on a couple of potential first round hopefuls from across the pond.
• Dan Steinberg of D.C. Sports Bog is blown away by John Wall's skill set. One observation: "Wall runs faster while dribbling a basketball than Kevin Durant runs without a ball."
• We tend to poo-poo ballplayers who are characterized as single-dimensional. But Fran Fraschilla points out that a specialist fills an important place on an NBA roster. Fraschilla has divided his list of talented niche players into three categories: shooters, energy guys and rim protectors.
• Speaking of specialists, you could do a lot worse than plucking a monster offensive rebounder and nasty screen-setting big man like Brian Zoubek in the second round.
• Plan on heading over to Madison Square Garden for the draft? Tickets don't go on sale until the morning of the event at 11 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time.
• Matt Moore of Hardwood Paroxysm on Evan Turner's resilience at Ohio State: "I started gawking at the kid’s numbers five games into last season. I thought they’d tail off (and they did, sort of), but the fact that they were there showed what he was capable of, and when trying to determine a ceiling, that’s a pretty good sign. Then he broke his back. I figured that meant a drop to the teens for him. I mean, the kid broke multiple vertabrae. Who comes back from that? Who fights through that?"
• The pros and cons of Xavier Henry for the Warriors.
• Is Paul George the sleeper of the 2010 draft?
• Doc Rivers says that the Celtics were too eager to help off Ron Artest in Game 7. He's also getting regular texts from Paul Pierce and Ray Allen pleading with him to stay with the Celtics. (via Sports Radio Interviews)
• Do you remember when a portrait in Life Magazine represented an official induction into the highest rungs of celebrity? Free Darko does.
• Lamar Odom, Jerry West, W.H. Auden, Joseph Stalin, Mike Tyson and Kobe Bryant all in one place.
• The arrest count in Los Angeles from last Thursday's post-game violence now tallies 45. For those who love the city, who appreciate that our municipality can ill-afford frivolous expenditures and who feel for business-owners who stuck it out downtown when central Los Angeles was being written off (and found their property destroyed when they came into work Friday morning), images of what transpired in the name of celebration evoke profound sadness.
• Zach Lowe of Celtics Hub continues his catharsis. Lowe lists some of the most painful losses in Celtics history.
• Watch the draft with Raptors Republic.

• LeBron James shoots 76.9 percent from the stripe. How much better would the Cavs be if he could get his free-throw shooting up to an 85 percent clip?
• Ben Q. Rock of Orlando Pinstriped Post on Dwyane Wade's performance against the Magic last night: "And Wade? Stop it. He continued his mastery of the Magic. Let's run through those numbers again: 36 points on 59.2% True Shooting, 10 rebounds, 7 assists, 1 steal, 1 block, and just 1 turnover in 45 minutes, dominating the ball on every possession. He's unreal. Fortunately for Orlando, Van Gundy's decision to double-team him throughout the overtime period -- a look Van Gundy will try against scorching hot perimeter players with the game on the line--paid off. He scored just 2 points in the period, with Beasley and O'Neal ending 2 possessions apiece, with mixed results."
• A bright spot for a Celtics team that's starting to play a little better: Doc Rivers has been able to pace his starters, keeping their minutes in check as the postseason approaches.
• Andrew R. Tonry of Portland Roundball Society: "I miss Gilbert Arenas. I miss his awesome nicknames and yelling Hibachi! after every shot. I miss his blog, where he once even talked about driving home and passing by a bridge, and his thought that, for no real reason at all, he could just drive off and end it all. Another great one: 'Everyone is having sex until they fall in love. When you fall in love, then it’s making love.' Gilbert found commonality in the human experience -- thoughts we all have, but few of us, especially professional athletes, are gutsy enough to share."
• A lot of athletes deny scoreboard-watching -- not Stephen Jackson: "If anybody’s not paying attention they really don’t care about making the playoffs. I know I ask. As soon as we take care of business, I try to find out from somebody around the organization to see if they have any scores.” (Hat Tip: Sports Radio Interviews)
• Want an illustration of how bad the Wizards' offense has been? Check out the trend line on Mike Prada's graph.
• Mark Ginocchio of Nets are Scorching: "[Devin] Harris is a talented player, and you certainly don’t want to lose him for a song -- if he becomes trade bait this summer he has to bring back another building block for a move to be considered, not more expiring contracts. But Harris is also unreliable, and you cannot build around the unreliable."
• Arron Afflalo's favorite things to do in Denver: "I'm downtown a lot, just getting something to eat. Cheesecake Factory, P.F. Chang's, you can catch me there. Banana spring rolls -- I'm going straight for dessert, and maybe some shrimp fried rice."
• Among the many things that excite Jon Brockman? Swedish hatchbacks.
• At one point or another, we've all been where this guy was during Texas' meltdown last night. (PG-13)
• If you're a writer with an interest in the Dallas Mavericks, make some magic with Rob Mahoney.
• Collegiate player I'll be watching today: Oklahoma State's James Anderson, a big guard who knows how to find a shot. He can stroke the ball from the perimeter and draw contact off the dribble. Efficiency Machine.

Posted by Royce Young

• In case you missed it in today's Daily Dime, Mike Woodson and the Hawks plan on filing a protest to the league over last night's shot clock miscue: "I'm not going to comment on it at this time. We're just going to file a protest, without a doubt let the league review it at the two-minute mark, and then see what they think ... Well, we've got a one-point lead and with the ball going our way, and we're rushing to get a shot because the clock is not in our favor? You figure it out."

• Brett LaGree of Hoopinion on the "malfunction": "On one hand, the Hawks' behavior on this possession is fairly typical of their second half possessions as a whole. That the Hawks were initiating their halfcourt offense relatively late in the shot clock was not, in and of itself, unusual. None of which negates the fact that the officials should have noticed a ten-second discrepancy on the shot clock, that the shot clock should have reset, or that the Hawks should have noticed and said something (or called a timeout) at the time rather than one possession later."

• Interesting note from John Krolik of Cavs The Blog: Last night was the first time in four tries the Cavs won on LeBron's birthday. In fact, they've never even won the game before LeBron's birthday.

• Counting down the 10 most influential Pistons of the decade.

• Video breakdown of three crucial possessions in the Clippers-Blazers game including two big 3-pointers by Steve Blake. Kevin Arnovitz adds this note: "Baron, like a lot of point guards, spends most of his time playing the ball and is less instinctive defending off it. He’s drawn to the ball, but his man, Blake, functions as a wing on this set. I suppose you could say that, as a defensive unit, you can never have too many bodies between Roy and the basket given the personnel out there for Portland. But the better play by Baron here is to squeeze Blake and, at the very least, make it a much tougher pass."

• Hey, did you guys know the Raptors have won five straight?

• Michael Schwartz of Valley of the Suns says Phoenix may have gotten its swagger back after the big win over Boston: "A couple months down the line when we look back on the Dec. 30 game on Phoenix’s schedule, “Suns 116, Celtics 98” will look much better than it was in real life. The game notes say the Suns joined last year’s world champion Lakers as the only teams to sweep a season series from the Celtics before the Big Three joined up prior to the 2007-08 campaign. But anybody who watched this game knows that the Suns beat a woefully undermanned Boston team missing Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce that wouldn’t contend for the eighth spot in the East with the lineup they threw out there."

• If you haven't checked out Hoopdata, you should right now. Like stop reading and check it out. You can spend hours just staring at the awesome advanced box scores. Tom Haberstoh had an interesting piece yesterday about how the Lakers give up the most shots at the rim: "The Lakers allow 29.9 shot attempts per game from at the rim but opponents only convert 57.5 percent of these shots, which ranks the sixth lowest in the league. So while the Lakers give up a lot of shot attempts at the rim, they are not necessarily easy buckets. Instead ... the Lakers defend the hoop by not fouling close to the basket and forcing opponents to shoot over trees in the form of Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum. In all likelihood, the Lakers utilize their length by standing tall to alter shots in the paint as opposed to overtly swatting lofted balls into the stands, given their league-average block rate, league-leading at rim shot frequency, and second-lowest opponent free throw rate."

• David Berri tries to explain the incredible disappointment that is the Washington Wizards. Cliff notes: Play better. He makes it sound so simple.

• This is from a few days ago, so you may have already seen it (it's already got some 110,000 views), but it's a must-watch. Tony Parker joins his wife Eva Longoria for a little Grease sing-along. In full Grease garb.

• Basketbawful noticed an interesting quote from Doc Rivers about the Celtics' 1-3 road trip. Said Rivers: "'The lesson that's learned on this trip is not from tonight. The lesson that we should learn on this trip is when you give away a game with the Clippers when you're healthy, then you do it again, then when you're injured you need those games back.' I love the fact that he singled out the Clippers and not the Warriors."

• An excellent retrospective of the decade in Nets basketball.

• Last night was the 19th anniversary of Scott Skiles' record-setting 30 assists in one game. He didn't sound too excited when he was asked about it after his Bucks lost to Orlando last night: "Obviously, it will be broken at some point," Skiles said. "No offense, but I'll be glad the day it is because I get tired of talking about it sometimes. It was one of those things. It all came together in one night. But, yeah, it'll be broken at some point."

For sheer theatrics, nothing beats a decisive, buzzer-beating shot.



But often, it's the penultimate possession that sets the stage for the dramatic finish. That was the case last night at Staples Center where the Clippers nipped the Celtics, 92-90.

Here's what transpires with the Clippers down 90-87 and about 25 seconds remaining in the game. The Clippers collect the rebound off a Ray Allen miss on the defensive end. Rather than call timeout, Baron Davis marches the ball down-court. Remember, the Clips need three to tie -- a 2-point basket still leaves them down a point. Watch Ray Allen and Eddie House, Boston's wing defenders, on the play, and pay particular attention to Rasual Butler in bottom right-hand corner of your screen.



The Celtics are usually an unfailingly smart defensive unit, which is why seeing both Allen and House leave Rasual Butler and Eric Gordon alone on the arc is so strange. Butler and Gordon are the Clippers most potent 3-point threats. Leaving either one of them open behind the line to collapse on a driving Baron Davis with 12 seconds left on the game clock doesn't make a whole lot of sense.

Let's play out the counterfactual. Say Allen and House stay at home on the Clippers' snipers. Davis, who has beaten Rajon Rondo and Rasheed Wallace on the high screen from DeAndre Jordan, glides relatively untouched to the hoop. That's not something you want to see if you're Doc Rivers, but given the circumstances, you can tolerate it (In most cases, you'd play off Davis to induce a long 3-point attempt off the dribble). Your team still leads by one point with about 10 seconds left on the game clock. In that situation, the Celtics would take a timeout, and inbound the ball on their side of the floor to Allen, Wallace, House or Kevin Garnett, each of whom is an 80 percent free throw shooter. The Clippers would get the ball back, behind one (or more likely two) with about seven seconds. They'd still have an opportunity to win the game, but would have to do so under pressure.

Instead, the Celtics have the ball in a tied game with 8.5 seconds left. Rondo works in isolation against Davis. Despite Davis' best efforts to wall off the paint, Rondo gets about a step ahead of him at about 10 feet, then angles his way in from the left side of the lane. With that long, outstretched right arm, Rondo has a good look at the basket, and Davis hacks him with 1.0 left. Rondo, a 52.7 percent free throw shooter, misses both ends. The Clippers get a free look at a potential game-winner.

After Butler drains the 3-pointer, Rivers laces into House over on the sidelines, with House snapping back at him. In his post-game remarks, Rivers says, "We had a whole potpourri of mistakes we made down the stretch -- mental mistakes. It's nothing that anyone did, just us mentally. We talk about how the only opponent we have every night is ourselves and, tonight, we beat ourselves."

I'm not sure the Celtics could have done much more defensively on Davis' game-winner, but they'll definitely be looking at some film of Butler's game-tying bomb from long range.