Tiny balls quote from heat6/29/2023 ![]() Davis has a usage rate of 28.1 without Howard and McGee in the postseason. They didn’t create any of their own offense, much less shoot outside the paint. The leaders in true shooting percentage in the regular season were Mitchell Robinson (72.6), Damian Jones (71.2), and Nerlens Noel (71.1). It’s hard to overstate how absurd that number is. AD’s true shooting percentage in the playoffs goes from 55.0 in 116 minutes with JaVale to 60.3 in 139 minutes with Dwight and 73.5 in 323 minutes without either. Centers like Howard and JaVale McGee who can’t space the floor just end up getting in his way. His ability to score at will on almost any defender is why the Lakers have had so much success “going small” in the playoffs. Davis can stop short and shoot right over. The Heat built a wall to stop Giannis from getting to the rim. Davis can face up against smaller defenders and shoot over them. Those are the plays that separate Davis from Giannis Antetokounmpo, whom Bam had success against in the second round. But that attempt showed the difficulties that Bam will have in that matchup, if he can play in Game 2: Adebayo was the primary defender on AD for only three of his 21 field goal attempts. He guarded Howard instead of Davis in his 21 minutes of playing time before getting hurt. Bam didn’t guard his fellow Kentucky big man much in Game 1. He’s an elite athlete with the toughness and basketball IQ to hold up in the post against bigger centers like Brook Lopez.ĭavis a different kind of challenge. The difference is that Bam (6-foot-9 and 255 pounds with a 7-foot-1 wingspan) is closer to the traditional definition of a small-ball center than Davis. Miami changed its identity when it downsized with Bam at the 5, benching Meyers Leonard and putting four perimeter players around him. But they have no one else with a fighting chance of stopping AD.īam has been doing many of the same things as Davis on the other side of the playoff bracket. They wanted to keep their center closer to the rim on defense and prevent him from getting into early foul trouble. The Heat had good reasons to not use Bam on Davis right away in this series. He’s currently listed as doubtful after injuring his shoulder in Game 1. The Heat need to hope that Bam Adebayo, their best frontcourt defender, can play on Friday. There’s not much Crowder can do once Davis puts his head down and goes to the rim: His ability to make plays off the dribble from the 3-point line is what makes him such an impossible matchup. The problem is that AD is faster than him too. Miami can live with bigger players trying to bully Crowder. It’s not just that Davis is bigger than him. The Heat started Game 1 with the 6-foot-6 Jae Crowder on Davis, a matchup they have to change before Game 2. Tucker (6-foot-5 and 245 pounds) on him, and a massive Nuggets team built around another elite 7-footer in Nikola Jokic. He dominated a small-ball Rockets team that put P.J. The most impressive part of AD’s performance is the sheer variety of opponents that he has beaten. The only players to ever reach those marks in a postseason are Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and LeBron James. The Heat just did in Game 1.ĭavis has been on a historic tear through the playoffs, averaging 29.1 points on 56.7 percent shooting, 9.3 rebounds, 3.7 assists, 1.3 blocks, and 1.1 steals per game. The Blazers, Rockets, and Nuggets found that out over the past month. The problem for the rest of the NBA is that there aren’t many of those players out there. The best matchups for him are players who are just as big, fast, and skilled. A big man with his skill set has a natural immunity to teams downsizing against him. He went from getting scholarship offers from places like Cleveland State to Kentucky. To paraphrase SB Nation’s Ricky O’Donnell, Davis went to bed wishing he was a superhero only to wake up and become one. That’s because he was a guard before a late growth spurt in high school. He’s a 7-footer who plays like a guard on both ends of the floor. But it’s hard to refer to a lineup with Anthony Davis (6-foot-10 and 250 pounds with a 7-foot-6 wingspan) at the 5 as “small ball.”ĭavis is the end point of the small-ball revolution. ![]() After losing Game 1, Los Angeles came back against Houston by benching its two centers-JaVale McGee and Dwight Howard. Mike D’Antoni had a sassy comeback when he was asked about whether small ball could work in the playoffs following the Rockets’ second-round loss to the Lakers: “Ask the Lakers.
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