I don't know about you guys, but the Western Conference Finals are hella exciting this year. I am gonna pick OKC for a couple reasons: when they lost in SA it wasn't terrible and my girlfriend, Hannah, is from OKC and is slowly converting me. I will say that I secretly refer to them as the Sonics in my head. Well, I guess that isn't so secret anymore. Anyway!
The game last night was quite awesome and, as per usual, due to this media cycle, the idea of clutchness was brought up. I have already defended LBJ once on this year, and I will continue to do so, but I really just want to help people understand what clutch really is and who tends to have that.
For whatever reason, the media is fixated on walk-off jumpers at the end of the game, also known as hero ball. They cannot seem to wrap their heads around the fact that you simply CANNOT confine clutch to those moments. Those moments are clutch, but there is also a little luck involved. Now, luck isn't some indeterminable force, but it rather is more of when skill and practice meet the opportunity for last second shots. Often, these shots are not wide open gimmes where you have to keep your nerves down because everyone hates the guy who misses the wide open clincher (these shots are actually more difficult in my opinion because the adrenaline fear is different and you have infinitely more time--in basketball time--to THINK about the shot).
No, these "hero" shots are usually contested and often done without the chance to really think or adjust. This is where your practice as a kid pretending to knock down last second shots comes into play. It is essentially muscle memory with a little flash. Your body knows how to shoot, it has done it a million times. Now, you are just doing the same thing, but instead with a defending practically on you and having to adjust to hit the shot. All that is, again, stuff that has essentially been practiced by the star player their whole life. You don't become a straight up star without having done so, it doesn't happen. So, when they make a majority of them, cause it is still a game of probability, it is not that big a deal. They have practiced for that moment.
Now, let's look specifically at the NBA. The NBA is filled with the best of the best. Even if they are simply roleplayers, they had to be more than scrubs to have a legit career in the league and not get dropped fairly frequently. These guys, an overwhelming majority of them (because, let's face it, scrubs can fall through the cracks), can ball. Let's just accept that now. These players also got quite a few breaks, such as: getting with the right coaches, having someone invest in their skills etc. But, the fact is, they can play. So, unless they are obviously terrible, let's avoid talking as though they are or that they are lacking the genetics to do certain things in the game.
Now, specifically about clutchness, it isn't that last second shot that matters the most. Those are the things we most remember, but the 4th quarter is more than those last seconds. If the game is in OT, the same thing applies. Clutchness, in its truest form, is better defined as how that play plays during the fourth quarter, OT, and the last couple minutes of any game. It is possible for certain players to play better at these moments when the pressure isn't as high, such as in regular season games. But, that is not my focus. There are some players who truly are not closers in the playoffs, but I want us to realize what clutch really is.
A clutch player ups their level of play in the fourth quarter, the last few minutes, or OT. They can have had a terrible game up until that point, but when some shots start dropping or they get a steal or two, the moment swings back in their favor. For the best players, this means they become pretty much unstoppable.
We've seen this over the years, MJ in most every situation (even before he learned what team was), Stockton and Malone, Magic, Bird, Reggie Miller, and many others have shown us this. I mean, who doesn't remember 8 points in 9 seconds from Mr. Miller? That was a moment that we had not seen before. He did this in the last minute and turned the game around for the Pacers. He wasn't the "Knick-Killer" for nothing, ya feel me?
However, for these players, it often does NOT come down to a last second shot. They won't let that happen. You make the plays you need to before hand, so it does not come down to that. The statistics are not in your favor if you let it come to that.
Here is an example from my own life. I was starting point guard for the McKinney North JV team (btw, we use to regularly trash our varsity on the court, but the coaches never tried to move all of us up and give us real experience) and we were playing a district opponent, Greenville, in a game that would bring us closer to the district title that year.
We were up the whole game, but let them come back in the fourth quarter. We simply were not hitting our shots, I personally missed some threes I should have hit. In the end, the were ahead by 4 with under 30 or so seconds left. We had a particularly good shooter on our team that we got the ball in the waning seconds. He puts up a three, and one of Greenville's bonehead players fouls him as he is shooting. The kid hits the shot (big ups blake) and then hits the free throw to tie it up. (fairly sure this is what happened. the three definitely did, but maybe it wasn't a foul and just a miscommunication after the 3 and we were actually just down three. I AM GETTING OLD!)
We went into overtime, and then we played real clutch basketball after being energized by that last second shot. Still, what are the odds that Blake would hit a three while being fouled and hit the clutch free throw as well? There was clearly some luck involved. However, after the luck moment had passed, we took the game over. I hit some big shots, blake hit some, and other players did to. We just played better in that OT. That was what was really clutch, in my mind.
Once the opportunity presented itself, after an unlikely turn of events, a few of our players made the shots that were needed for us to come away with a win. That team (my final season) went 23-4. We lost one regular season game, the rest were in tournament games. We had many clutch players on that team, people who could step up. We did not have a straight up star; though, in my opinion, I should have stepped up and become that player because, before I ended up in Texas and many other factors came into play, I WAS that guy. In my next post, I will talk more in depth on that.
In any case, it was the plays leading to those last minutes that mattered the most. If you're handling your business (whether it is through rebounding or whatever), you are performing clutch plays. It isn't just the scoring aspect. It is that timely pass or rebound that leads to those buckets. Those little things are really what is clutch. If you are not clutch, you cannot even do those things. It ends up being the details that matter. If you had not turned the ball over there, we might have scored. If you had grabbed that rebound, we would have had enough time to draw a foul and score 3 points the old-fashioned way.
So, since I have hopefully established clutch as being more than just a last second shot, I want to discuss what we have seen in these playoffs. You'll notice that, against the legit teams, hero ball often does not work. You need the little things--cutting, passing, rebounds, and getting open looks--to win the game.
Last night's game is a great example of this: San Antonio did not make the plays necessary to win the game, while OKC did.
OKC was up practically the whole game, but they showed resolve and clutchness by responding to every San Antonio run. That is what is truly clutch, not buckling under the pressure. Game winners are extremely difficult to hit, get open for, or even get up. Letting the game come down to that is less than ideal. A truly clutch player or team built with clutch players will do those little things to keep that from having to be the case.
Yes, in the 4th quarter the Durantula hit 16 straight points for his team. That was not all him, as great a scorer as he is. Two points were from an alley-oop, He was freed by a change in the picks he was getting from his big men (a coaching adjustment), his teammates got the ball to him at opportune moments, he was fouled on a jump shot, and--when that onslaught was over--other players added to the clutch shooting. Harden hit a few 3's that further cemented SA's down fall. Now, the series is 2-2.
In closing, I'm gonna hit on the LBJ problem. Everytime you watch First Take and Skip Bayless is on, he talks about how not clutch Lebron is while neglecting the fact that he was the ONLY dude worth his salt on those old Cleveland teams, one of which he took to the finals against an obviously superior Spurs squad. We saw how they faired when he left, and don't say his organization got him real help (Old Fat Shaq will NEVER count). He was the DUDE on that team, but had no one to back him up. Let's remember that Jordan did a similar thing, and had to, until he got the proper help (Pippen, Grant, Kerr, Kukoc). He would hit the big shots, but his teams we not good enough teams in the clutch for him to get over those humps in the form of the Bad Boy Pistons and Bird's Celtic squads.
Understandably, LBJ got fed up with this situation. He was consistently given no REAL help. But, we certainly have seen LBJ be clutch in the playoffs, even though he has DEFINITELY had 4th quarters where he disappeared (against boston one year and last year in the finals; though, in both cases, he was playing legit teams and couldn't do it himself). But, he clearly has a clutch gene, even if it has not completely matured. It was Lebron who closed out the Bulls and Celtics last year while helping a first year team get to the Finals. That alone means his overtly happy boasts had some merit to them. More recently, it was Lebron who reignited DWade and helped close out the Pacers.
Did he score the shot, or even the last 10 shots, in those games? Not necessarily. He did, however, pass, rebound, play outstanding defense, and hit most of the shots he did take. That is significantly more clutch than the second shot. Could he use more of those moments? Possibly. But, they certainly do not determine how clutch you are. The game isn't just won on offense, people.
So, that's it for this one, for now. I think I'll compile a list of current clutch players and figure out how many last second shots they have all hit (LBJ has hit far more consistently than Kobe btw, that doesn't detract from Kobe though). Peace EASY!
Zaire
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