on guard

The battle lines have been drawn. The favorites have been picked. And after five and a half months of an up-and-down NBA regular season, the playoff picture for 2010-11 is in front of us. "Win or go home". That’s what they say in the NBA commercial and that’s exactly what it is. The San Antonio Spurs were sent home by Phoenix in 4 games last year. Stellar performances by Steve Nash and Amarie Stoudemire made Tim Duncan and co. look a few months older than what they actually were.

The regular season had also been a roller coaster ride. They had a few good games here and there. Injuries had plagued the team toward the end of the season; Richard Jefferson hadn’t quite fit into the scheme of things. George Hill and Dejuan Blair had shown great promise but weren’t up to the mark. Overall the team wasn’t consistent and although they put up a tough fight, they never looked like getting past Dallas.

In 2010-11 things were different.

Within a month of starting their campaign the Spurs were on a 13-1 run and one thought if these were the Spurs of the 2000s. If you saw their game you were sure that they were a different team. In the past decade they would go to Tim Duncan for his bank shot. If he was double teamed one of the perimeter guys would get a long ranger and "Timmy" would get an assist against his name. Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili were able supporters and the team enjoyed great success with that approach. Robert Horry, Mike Finley and Bruce Bowen would provide the odd but crucial big plays.

This season they decided to hustle. They ran out into the front court with purpose and fast break points were the order of the day. The plan no longer seemed to find a forward to post-up. Instead they started taking (and quite often making) the first available shot and that showed in their 3 point shooting percentage (.397). The Spurs were up and running and age no longer seemed to be a factor. But for Pop it still was. So Duncan saw fewer minutes on the court and the bench was called upon quite regularly and they did deliver. Richard Jefferson came up with big numbers. Gary Neal got close to 10 points per game, Blair got crucial rebounds and scored the odd bucket and Matt Bonner kept getting crucial 3s. After the break they slowed down a little bit but the wins kept coming and what seemed like a team that had got off to a good start all of a sudden seemed like a team that could win home court advantage throughout the playoffs.

They would have ended with a franchise high number of wins in a season but a spate of injuries and a 6-loss streak towards the end just pulled them back a little bit. What Spurs did well this season was TCB or taking care of business. They dropped very few games against teams ranked low in both the conferences. The down side to that statistic is that 12 among the 20 losses have come against teams that have moved ahead to the Western Conference Playoffs. So the going is definitely going to tough. Apart from the streak of losses, injuries, Jefferson’s form is also crucial. Neal and Splitter will be playing in their first NBA playoffs and Hill and Blair will have to show that they belong to the big leagues. There is also the small matter of a 37-year old going for a 5^th ring.

Round one against Memphis starts on Sunday and just to let you know the colors to cheer for are black and grey.

A Tale of Two Fifties

On Wednesday, March 30th 2011, every Indian on the University of Houston campus had a smile on their face. A smile that broadened when the eye met that of a fellow Indian. I even had Pakistanis coming up to me and saying "Good game and good luck for the finals". It was that kind of a game. The buildup had been huge; politicians, advertisers and movie stars had drawn all the benefits that they could from it; Dhoni had won the toss, Nehra and Raina had justified their inclusion in the 11 and yes Tendulkar had scored a scratchy 85.

My mind immediately went 8 years and 29 days back to a sunny afternoon in Centurion, when Tendulkar scored 98 against Pakistan in another World Cup game. The media frenzy for that game was similar to this one, if not more. On both occasions it was thought to be "India's batting vs Pakistan's bowling" and on both occasions Tendulkar had gone on to win the Man of the Match award. But the similarity ended there. The Pakistani attack was different, the match was being played in a different stage of the tournament and the way he batted was definitely different.

Centurion was a classic. It seemed like the story of a man with a mission. From when he cut Akram in front of point to get "the Indian flags out" to the flick off Afridi past Akhtar at mid-wicket, the man was middling everything. "I told myself, if I see it I will hit it" he said after the match and surely enough he saw most of "it". The back foot punch off Akram that evoked an "oh..." from Robin Jackman lasting about 3.7 seconds was one of the "moments" of India's campaign in that World Cup. And then of course there is the batting master class in Akhtar's over. He offered 1 chance but Razzaq had walked in a little too far at mid-off and Akram is believed to have asked him "tu jaanta hai kiska catch choda hai?”. Overall it was a masterpiece and like all other works of art you could tell the master form the sweep of his brush.

Mohali in 2011 was different. Tendulkar started well. His extra-cover drive off Razzaq was picturesque and after a couple of his trademark flicks through mid-wicket, he square drove Wahab through point and one couldn’t help thinking about the 100th 100. But then Ajmal got one to spin a little and pushed the next one a little flatter and a little straighter. Tendulkar survived both the close calls but his confidence seemed to be dented for the rest of the innings. He went from being this awesome lead guitarist in a rock band to an unsure novice looking down at his pick every once in a while to make sure he was strumming right. He gave 4 chances, 3 relatively simple ones and for the most part looked out of sorts. The strokes of the brush were not precise and the colors just weren’t bright enough. However he kept on painting. And for the Indian cause that was critical because that in the end was the difference between a score of 220-230 and 260.

Even the 50 was not really celebrated and towards the end some of the shots were almost as if he was embarrassed to be still out there. But before Afridi held on to one at cover Tendulkar had collected 85, strung 3 partnerships of 45+ runs and had played a very important hand in a crucial game.

In the end thanks to the Raina and the bowlers the game was won, India moved ahead in the tournament and I was left with 2 questions in my mind. Aren’t these 2 innings so similar and yet so different? Isn’t this a good time to write my first post?

Cheers.