Clippers, Jordan foil Rockets’ plan
time coach Kevin McHale and the Houston Rockets were dying the death of a thousand Hack-a-Shaq cuts Sunday night, the man who helped Shaquille O’Neal with his free throws so many years ago had his own ailment to worry about.
“I’m barfing watching this (expletive)!” Buzz Braman text-messaged during the third quarter of the Los Angeles Clippers’ 128-95 win in Game 4 of the Western Conference semifinals that put them up 3-1 on the Rockets.
The Shot Doctor, as he is legally known by way of a U.S. trademark on the nickname, wasn’t alone.
Not since threatened to drown Kevin Costner’s acting career have we seen a bigmoney production with less entertainment value than this.
DeAndre Jordan, the Clippers center who played the part of O’Neal in the 2015 version of this B movie, came five free throw attempts shy of O’Neal’s playoff record of 39. (Jordan made 14.)
The Rockets, who played valiant basketball during the regular season and willed their way to the No. 2 seed in the Western Conference despite injuries, reached the brink of elimination in about as humbling a way as James Naismith could have ever imagined.
And Braman, who once helped Chris Webber set the NBA record for largest free throw percentage increase and even received on-air recognition recently from his former client-turned-TNT analyst, was as disgusted as anyone.
For the record, he doesn’t think the league should make any changes to the rules. As Braman sees it, players should be held responsible for improving on this basic and necessary skill. He didn’t cut O’Neal, Webber, Penny Hardaway or any of the others any slack during his 24 years of personal coaching, and he’s not about to suggest that the Jordans or Dwight Howards of this world should be let off the hook, either. No excuse holds merit with Braman.
“I could get Dwight Howard to 82% in about three weeks,” Braman told USA TODAY Sports by phone from his West Palm Beach, Fla., home. “It has nothing to do with the size of people’s hands. That’s one of the great shooting myths. You can’t give me the excuse of ‘bad hands,’ because — guess what? — Gheorghe Muresan’s hands were bigger than everybody’s and he shot, I think, 77 or 78% from the line. Rik Smits was 7-foot-4 and shot 82% from the line. So the excuse of the hands is one of the great shooting myths of all time.”
For the sake of accuracy, it should be noted that Muresan actually shot 64.4% and Smits 77.3%. But the pivotal point, one that NBA Commissioner Adam Silver has shown signs of agreeing with, remains.
When Silver was asked about this issue recently in an interview with Bleacher Report, he said youth coaches often email him begging him not to change the rules.
The fear is that young players would have little incentive to work on the art of free throw shooting if the big boys in the NBA created a loophole of sorts.
It’s one thing to go the hack-awhoever route in key second-half moments, but McHale went to it early in the first quarter and didn’t stop until he and his team had slid all the way down that slippery slope. In turn, a Rockets team that made such admirable strides on the defensive end this season sent the clear message to the Clippers that there was desperation in the air.
When the league’s competition committee meets soon to decide whether changes should be made, rest assured that this game will be at the center of the discussion. That debate raged on during a first half that lasted nearly 90 minutes, with fans and media members shaking their heads.
The Rockets trailed 60-54 at halftime in Game 4, then defended with concrete sneakers in a third quarter in which it was impossible not to wonder if there was a psychological impact of all the first-half fouling. They allowed 43 points, with Jordan and J.J. Redick combining for 29.
Afterward, the players who paid the price for the hack-aDeAndre approach had a variety of views.
Said Harden, “I mean, personally I don’t like it, but I guess different coaches have their different philosophies on the game.”
Added forward Trevor Ariza, “It’s a strategy. When you’re out there, you try to do anything you can to win, so you try to make the game ugly. If it doesn’t work, then you’ve got to try something else.
“But you can’t really worry about rhythm to the game when you’re trying to get wins. You’ve got to try anything.”