Denver is poised, with a 3-1 series lead, to wrap things up tonight versus Miami.
My NBA interest peaked during the Bird/Magic days, with an older peak back in the time of the Laker 33-game win streak and Alcindor on the Bucks. While I have great respect and admiration for Steph Curry and the Warriors' consistent winning, I've never been in love with the modern NBA or the three-point shot, even at NBA distances, where all buckets are indeed earned and a testament to great skill.
Part of my distaste for the three stems from my first rec league game incorporating the three in the State College (PA) rec league. We had a good team, but our roster consisted of old men, two women, and one Division 2-quality guard in his 20's. Our first game with a three-point line, we shot 21 of 40 from behind the arc. Being old men and textbook-adhering women, we were Hoosier style purists, so despite our success, we recognized how the arc could (and would) ruin the dynamics and decision-making of basketball. Our consensus after that 21 of 40 game was, "This'll ruin the game for sure, but oh well, we're old. It's not hurting us."
So it's with a sigh of appreciation that I watch Denver versus Miami, two old-school squads that shoot plenty of threes but play the game more like 1970's squads than today's Warriors. Nikola Jokic looks much like Bill Walton in 1977, when he was surgically torturing my beloved 76ers from the high post. Jimmy Butler is great; he plays like he means it. I have always been a Butler fan. There are only a handful of NBA players that I'd recommend high school players emulate, and Butler is one of them. He belongs in that collection of all-time textbook players like Ray Allen and Joe Dumars.
Denver is the better team; Miami is overmatched. But the Heat are too solid and their decisions too savvy for them to collapse or surrender any given game. They are a classic pain-in-the-ass underdog. Denver had that brain dead five minutes in the second half of Game Two, and it cost them that game. The Heat effort is consistent and top of the line. You slip up or lie down, you go stupid for a stretch, and the Heat win. Meanwhile, Denver has been able to maintain reasonably consistent, solid defense minute to minute in an NBA where the officiating makes it almost impossible to do so. Denver's size undoubtedly helps in this regard.
I salute both squads. It's been a pleasure watching them.
Bob Dietz
June 12, 2023
